Out With the Old in With the New! Or is It?

I was having my coffee this morning and watching the news and on the TV was video of the massive fireworks display in Sydney Australia for their spectacular New Years celebration.  And so it begins I thought, the annual global celebration to kick off the new year.  Another year passes and time inevitably marches onward.  With the turning of the pages of time comes new hope, new beginnings, new resolutions, new ideas and ambitions.  Most of us eagerly set aside the past year as we rededicate ourselves to all sorts of ambitious pursuits and personal achievements.  I always thought that I would like to be a Nutrisystem salesperson at the end of every year.   This way I would rake in the cash promising to remake the physical landscape of people across America in the new year into the next Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie just by eating over priced, poorly made and packaged food.  Or better yet to come up with the latest get rich quick scheme to add wealth and happiness to millions of struggling people.  Or, invent the ultimate cheesy household doitall gadget and have an over the top infomercial that will give you not double but triple the order for the same price if you call in the next ten minutes!  Why, I should just wait till the end of every year to unleash my grand schemes and ideas on the many unhappy and unsatisfied masses of the world so I can promise them stardust and moonbeams and deliver them real life and day to day struggles instead.  Wow, what a bubble buster Rick!  What's up with that you say?  Where's the eternal optimism and eagerness to conquer the future?  Relax folks, it's still there, I'm just making a point.
First of all, you all know that every new year we tend to set these lofty goals for ourselves promising to be different, or better or more beautiful or successful.  Only to find that often times by spring or even earlier we are jolted back into our daily realities or are frustrated by the uneven success of our plans.  We have too many demands or obligations to focus on the complete overhaul we had designed for our personal rejuvenation.  In doing so we consider most of our resolutions an abject failure.  I believe this creates an internal atmosphere of disappointment in us that then manifests itself in our outward disposition.  Pretty Freudian you say?  Let me get back to being me then.  What I really mean is that if we want to be better, more happy, more successful and ebullient people we should try making resolutions that we can keep and succeed at.  So I've got a sure fire way of doing this and I'm going to borrow it from a very dear friend of mine, Jesus.  I will paraphrase this for you.  Jesus was invited to dinner with a Pharisee who was a  priest of the law and temple.  When Jesus went in and sat down at the table right away without washing his hands the Pharisee was taken aback and asked the Lord a question.  Jesus sensing displeasure in His host offered a perfect explanation and stinging rebuke in the same sentence.  It goes like this in His exact words, Luke 11 vs. 39-41, Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  You foolish people!  Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?   But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.  So there it is, simple in it's method, patently successful and utterly timeless.   Not old, not new either just right.  If you and I want to make a noticeable improvement in 2012 and actually have a resolution that we accomplish in all we do and say then all we need to do is a little interior housecleaning.  What comes out will transform your lives for the better and those around you too.  And so it is with you.  God Bless You and Happy New Year!



Luke 11:37-44

[37] When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. [38] But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.
[39] Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. [40] You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? [41] But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
[42] "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
[43] "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
[44] "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."

A Star Shines Brightly!

As I told you last week I am up to my eyeballs in flour, sugar, butter and creeping fingers.  Yep, creeping fingers.  The kind that always makes their way across the kitchen to the cooling racks of cookies and shamelessly runs off with the fruits of my labor like a hungry dog stealing a warm pot roast off the dining room table.  Not that it bothers me that much.  I guess the alternative is for your family and friends to avoid your plates of treats as if it was Aunt Susie's five hundred year old fruitcake that gets passed around every year.  As I take a quick break from this annual labor of love, I want to encourage you to also slow down enough to absorb the true Gift of the season.  In our modern often insane and demanding world, it's hard enough to hear ourselves think let alone take some time for reflection.  Especially at Christmas time with all the parties, school events, shopping and shipping, endless running around and cooking.  It's no wonder that many people can't wait for the holiday season to be over with.  That in itself is a sad statement.  It shouldn't be that way.  We have transitioned over the generations to a physical serving instead of a spiritual nurturing lifestyle.  Most of our collective efforts too often seem to go towards the agendas, desires and temporal whims of either ourselves, bosses, children or other obligations.  I am not condemning the effort or even the passion behind it as we all have daily tasks and service we must complete.  Rather, I am talking about the need to slow down, sit down, pause and reflect.
  It's been over two thousand years since that bright star shone in the sky over a small child born in a lowly manger to humble parents in the small town of Bethlehem.  The King of Kings was born to us!  The one true and everlasting Gift!  Given to us by a loving Father who loved us so much He gave up his only begotten Son for us.  We didn't qualify for this precious gift nor did we rightly deserve it either.  God gave His Son for us simply because He loves us.  How often have any of us just gone out and gave of ourselves to someone so completely without being asked or coerced to do so?  Now I am not talking about placing ourselves into the same implicate circumstance as our Heavenly Father.  But rather I'm talking about a mindset.  No check that, a spirit set.  We live in a crumbling world often full of sad and  trying circumstances.  But people we do have joy!  Joy that is rich and true and unending no matter what can assail us!  We celebrate Christmas for only one reason each year.  We celebrate the divine intervention into our hopeless circumstances in this fallen world of the one true King of Hope.  At least that's what my family and I celebrate.  I can't speak for you.  But I can tell you this.  If you spend some time seeking Him you will find Him.  When you do He will transform your life forever, I promise you.  He fixed a broken man like me as I had no ability to do that myself.  I don't look for gifts under the tree so much anymore.  I just keep opening the one God gave me and it's still new every day.  So may God bless you and your family this sacred season of joy!  That star still shines brightly today!


Luke 2:11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The Making and Baking of Smiles!

Merry Christmas everybody!  Sorry I was gone so long but I had to finish up some online schooling in my ongoing metamorphosis to reinvent myself in middle age, but I muddled through.  Anyways, in doing so I have gotten behind in my annual Christmas culinary mad professor hijinks.  But I have already retreated into the lab to pour over my recipes and come up with this years list of the six cookies to satisfy the sweet tooth, warm the soul and put everybody into a winter long sugar coma!  When I finish writing this it's off to prepare, tweak, modify, bake, observe, smell and of course taste in my opinion the essence of Christmas, the love of homemade food, treats and family fellowship in this season of the Greatest Gift ever given.   I don't know, maybe it's me but getting older seems to make me more sentimental and old fashioned.  Give me a warm kitchen, a Frank Sinatra Christmas album, family and friends to visit with and I am overflowing in my happiness quota.  I don't long to see mother's brawling in the aisles at the local Walmart fighting over the newest gothic Barbie Doll or igadget as I am convinced that venturing into department stores at this time of year is a sure fire way to suck the joy out of Christmas. 
  But back to the important stuff.  I will spend the better part of next few days feverishly baking and packing up plates of cookies, helping my wife assemble baskets of jams, breads and ornaments and enjoying every minute of it.  Because this is why, giving.   That's right giving.  There is no greater motivating factor for Melissa and I then to see the joy of family, friends and even stranger's faces light up when you bring them a gift.  But not just any gift.  You can buy a watch or clothes or give a gift card and that's all good.  But nothing conveys love and care as much as homemade goods.  Whether it be my late grandmother's crocheted winter hats, a good friends cheesecake or cookie platter, or my son in laws venison sausage it's the fact that they spent so much of their time putting effort into this true gift of the heart that elevates the value past anything with a label or tag on it.   Yes, it's usually gone quickly or we tend to hide and hoard these valuable treasures for ourselves so we can bask in the lingering effects of their goodness as long as possible.  Either way,  I find myself asking my wife if we will be getting any of these each year as if to ensure myself of my happiness fix.  Shallow really, but I am all about the treats at this point!  I guess they tie me to the simple basic emotions that make this time of year so special.  Love, joy, fellowship and the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Possessions, money and and gadgets come and go but happiness and joy truly touch the soul.  As for the list of the six cookie recipes I am preparing this year, I guess you'll have to stop by to find out!  So pull up a chair, grab some hot chocolate and stay awhile.  Oh, but be sure to have a physician on standby when the levels of sugar and bliss get dangerously high!


2 Corinthians 9:6-7
6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Over the River and Through the Woods....

As you read this, we are traveling down to Chicago for the annual family gathering at my parent's home for Thanksgiving; aka the world series of food fests, the super bowl of gastronomical indulgence, the foodies pleasure palace and home of the elastic waistband.  Ahh, the sublime pleasure of it all!  There are equal parts noise and lot's of it, we're Italian after all, enough food and desserts to feed a small nation, wine, music and laughter!  Frankly, from the time we arrive to the time we leave it's a blur.  But, I wouldn't have it any other way!  When our children were younger it was easy to pack them all up into our family suburban and fill them with enough snacks, drinks and games for them to play to indulge them for the five hour trip down.  Our vehicle was full of activity and head counts every two hours when we stopped at rest areas for the bathroom breaks.  As the kids got older games were replaced by ipods, portable dvd players, headsets, magazines and cell phones. There were even stretches of silence so my wife and I could visit and actually hear each other.  But soon enough my wife who loves to nap, would dose off and leave me to my own thoughts and meanderings.  Often times I would catch myself smiling as I recalled a  memory of a past holiday that brought a special warmth to my heart.   Whether it was my older brother's irreverent wit, my younger sister's always unedited opinion, my younger brother's analytical observations on the world around us or my parent's different versions of the same stories, the treasured moments are endless.  Over the years we have added a few guests and family members in addition to the five kids, their spouses and seventeen grandchildren and here and there we lost a few too.   Front and center of the additions are my Aunt Fran and Uncle Tom along with my cousins Tommy and Cary.  But that will be a whole other column for another day. ;)  We've seen the passing of my grandparents on both sides, my Uncle Don and just this past year our beloved father.  And that is what brings me to the heart of my writing.
  This is the first Thanksgiving without dad.  The sting of his passing is still fresh in our hearts and minds.  Each day that goes by I think of my dad and my mom's struggle to cope with out him.  Each morning when I go downstairs to our ministry center sanctuary to read and pray, I say a special prayer for my mom and say hello to dad.  Not seeing him or hugging him or sitting down for our precious visits together in the midst of all the activity has left a large hole in my heart.  I remember when I walked into the funeral home and saw my dad for the first time since Thanksgiving of last year.  How gut wrenching the emotion of his loss was.  How final his passing was for me.  But I clung to the hope of what Christ has promised us all.  That the passing of our beloved saints is but a transition for those who love Him.  It is not the final toll of the bell.  All is not lost at the cemetery.  The hole can be filled and praise God for that!  You see my dad loved the Lord.  He wasn't the most learned bible scholar or great theologian.  He was a simple man with a huge heart for God and his family and friends.  He is with Him now and I know it as surely as I breath.  It is in that fact that I will stand contented in the midst of our family this year.  We will raise a glass, tell some stories, laugh and probably shed a few tears.  But dad is with us.  I see him in my brothers and sisters, my mom, my nieces and nephews and my own family.  You see the continued lineage of those who have given their lives to Jesus is assured.  The end of our lives here is just the beginning of eternity with Him.  With that assurance comes the grand reunion ahead for all who love Him too.    I miss my dad immensely but my heart will be glad for the time to come.  So when you sit down this Thanksgiving to your meal remember why we give thanks and to Whom we give it to.  It will enable you give all the many tears for your heartaches back to the Lord for those that have left us for now!  God Bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving.


Psalm 95 1-6
"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." 

Happy Holidays?

As I was flipping the through the endless number of channels on the television the other night I was struck by something I saw in almost every advertisement being shown.  It had been creeping up on us since before Halloween passed on the calendar, but now the full onslaught had been unleashed.  The Holiday Season had arrived!  Or so business in America had said so.  Every department store, car maker, food and beverage company, restaurant, hotel chain and all other businesses involved in the greatest yearly push for the summit of free market capitalism were on point.  As I watched the many sometimes amusing advertisements, I noticed a common theme, Happy Holidays.  It seems most everybody or every company in this country at this time of year has an identity crisis of sorts.  The constant monotonous drumming of the politically correct police, their allies and spokespeople and their mantra of removing everything associated with Christianity and it's value systems in this country has taken it's toll.  We are caving in as a society to a minority of people who through taxpayer funded organizations like the ACLU file lawsuit after lawsuit trying to remove crosses, nativity scenes, signs and other forms of Christian faith and celebration that have been hallmarks of our existence for generations.  By trying to water down the holy season of Thanksgiving and Christmas to a celebration of material gifts and parties with no true meaning of hope and love is a crime with high moral implications and fallout.  This attack on Christmas reflects a broader more methodical battle plan by secular groups to sanitize the American landscape of God and his Holiness along with the moral absolution that holds our laws together and inspired our founding principles.  We must not let it happen!
  I grew up saying Merry Christmas, reciting grace at the table, going to church, singing Silent Night and Joy to the World.  Each year we set up a manger in our house and it held a prominent place right next to the Christmas tree.  Yea, we loved the presents, what kid didn't, but it was bigger than that.  We celebrated as family under God's grace and gave thanks to God for our good health, families and friends.  By steadily stepping backwards from the endless assault on our rights and liberties we are now at the cliff's edge.  I believe we are a generation away from the abolition of Thanksgiving and Christmas as we know it.  Go ahead and laugh if you want.  Call me an alarmist and reckless intolerant.  But with our continued slide into moral oblivion and catatonic state of apathy we will give the secular minions a crushing victory.  I challenge you to investigate for yourselves.  See if you can't find numerous examples of either pending legal action or existing sanctions against churches, Christian groups, our laws, rights and liberties as it pertains to our daily lives let alone Thanksgiving and Christmas.  When we remove what is considered rightfully lawful, traditional and holy then we take away all restraint to act otherwise.  Can any of you tell me that the traditions of this joyous time of year have harmed you irrevocably by driving by a lighted Nativity Scene?  Have your eyes burned out of their sockets by seeing a cross on top of a church?  Are your ears melting because somebody said Merry Christmas to you or invited you to church to celebrate the birth of Jesus?  Sounds ridiculous right?  Not half as ridiculous as the arguments against them.  But then again, why worry be happy it's the Holidaze!!


1 Cor 11 1-3
1 Be you followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the traditions as I delivered them to you.

 3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

A Little Faith Goes a Long Way!

I read a story awhile back about a family that was on vacation out west somewhere.  They were camping in a national forest wilderness area.   While hiking one day with the kids they somehow had gotten separated from and lost the family dog.  As a dog owner myself I know that it's not unusual for a dog to go wandering off when out in the woods, as they are in hog heaven with all the exciting sounds, sights and smells.  I know, our Golden and Labrador were the same way.  However, this dog did not come back.  The family exhausted several days calling and searching for their beloved pet.  They were panicked and quite forlorn with apprehension and guilt over his loss.  They reported the dog to the local sheriff and humane society and even put up makeshift reward posters with their phone numbers and address if he was found.  No such luck.  They went home in a state of grieving and shock as if they had lost a precious sibling or parent.  Time went on and the family moved on from their loss until almost a year later.   Their beloved family dog showed up one day on the front stoop of their house looking ragged, dirty and somewhat emaciated but alive.  Needless to say the tears and joy were overflowing.  Now I'm not talking about leaving the dog at the county park down the road.  These folks were hundreds of miles from home in a vast wilderness area.  We would get lost let alone a dog!   I am amazed at stories like this because of the improbable odds and seemingly impervious obstacles that had to be overcome for this dog to even make it home!  Now some veterinarians call this a natural homing instinct.  That all our dogs and some cats have this innate ability deep within themselves with help from the magnetic poles and their internal compass and memory to somehow navigate their way back home.  But by far, most of the documented cases are in the tens of miles not hundreds.   I tend to look at this a little differently.
   This dog had two very powerful attributes I believe which helped it get home; unconditional love for it's owners and unwavering faith.   Two traits that we as children of our dear Lord often lack in their fullest abundance.  What other explanation could you give for this?  Did someone find the dog and keep it only to feel guilty later on and release it near it's home?  Possible not probable.  Did the dog just want to see the world and took advantage of it's freedom?  Not likely.  Whatever the story I'll stay with my version.  Why?  Because both faith and love are the two strongest drives or lack of we have in this world that enables us plain old ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Story after story of great human accomplishments that amaze and confound us and the experts are often attributed by the people that lived through them as being not of their own conscious accord.  In other words, where they in their benign limitations gave up, something or Someone did not.  In that moment of great tumult they found the strength to change, or go on or not give up.   It is then in the testimony of these people that they tell the truth of their victory.  That it wasn't them, their ability, their knowledge or physical strength.  They just knew they couldn't give up!   I believe it was their faith.  Faith in God or from God with grace and favor that supernaturally took over and escorted them through the great storm.  Notice the humility and different demeanor these people have after their ordeals.  It's almost as if they have been transformed from the inside out by their life-changing events.  They have a new found reverence for life and it's privilege.  You call it what you may, but if it's not from us naturally as most of these people attest that it isn't, then what or better Whom is it from?  I know, and if you don't believe me then just ask the dog!


Matthew 17:20
And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

To Tolerate is to Obliterate.

Nowadays, it's hard to turn on the TV or computer without overdosing on an overwhelming amount of surreal and sensational headlines or over the top advertising for the legions of reality shows inundating our lives.  From the Kardashian clan, to Snooki and her pals, the Real Housewives of every town and city and countless others which aren't worth naming, the slurry of absurdity flows into our homes and minds at frightening speed.  Worse yet, we are gobbling it up!  There are currently hundreds of reality shows on or in the concept stage or in production now for our ever decreasing standards of quality to enjoy.  If you can't catch them in their time slots you can watch them 24/7 on the web.  The ratings are going through the roof for most of these exercises in mediocrity.  Networks and advertisers are pouring money into these prime time shows and are reaping the profits.  But there is a caveat to all this grandiose entertainment.  What lurks below the surface that could be causing a storm surge of problems?  Simply this, nothing.  That's right nothing.  Nothing is sacred, innocent, out of bounds, unacceptable, demeaning, detestable or immoral, nothing.  Relationships are skewered, marriages are a sideshow, behavior is anything goes, verbal and physical abuse abound and the cameras will keep rolling!   All to the incessant appetite for garbage and shame.  Why even our news media and sports networks are abandoning their former high standards of ethics and integrity and are joining the fray. 
   I am not writing this to suppose myself to be above any of you or your families or choices at all.  On the contrary, I am a father of five children, a parent just like you and I am just concerned, really concerned.  I am not perfect, have made more mistakes, said more hurtful things and done more shameful acts in my past than most.  I've lived like my choices didn't matter to me or to those who I love.  But I am here to tell you folks, they do!  I had to come to a point in my own life where I needed to change and quite literally, thank Almighty God I did.   Most people my age have grown up with a different set of values.  God, family and country really mattered.  My parent's and their enduring marriage and values passed on to me are the linchpin to my own behavior.  Even though I wandered away, I came back to my roots.   I simply wouldn't be who I am without them, good bad or indifferent.  That's the point!   We are the single most powerful influence over our children other than God or lack of in their lives.  They will make most of their choices in life based upon our choices for ourselves and them.  If we act irresponsibly from a parental or moral aspect and don't apologize and atone for the mistakes neither will our children when they become accountable.  If we make bad choices, or watch bad programs or treat others badly then chances are so will they.  What we have given in to over the years is now tolerated as acceptable and is the standard for moral relevancy.  This is tragic, considering the powerful medium TV and the internet play in our lives today.  There are a host of parasites waiting to infect and feed off our children in the absence of loving and concerned parents.  Look around you and observe.  See the rudeness, disrespect, dishonor and shameful behavior of a lot of young people today and you can correlate that directly to the slide in our ethical, moral and religious influences.  We need to stop the bleeding now.  Whole generations of children are falling off a cliff and they are our future.  If they don't care to have the same God fearing moral absolution as others before them than woe be to us all when they are in charge.  We need to quit tolerating the garbage that is claiming our lives and families and fight back.  After all, who is more dysfunctional, the people we watch on these shows or our lives which are being shaped by them?


Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

If Life is a Gift, Why Are WeThrowing it Out With the Trash?

The other night my wife, our eldest daughter DeAnna and our youngest daughter Rebecca and I traveled over to the Twin Cities to attend a Human Life Alliance dinner.  This is the second one we've attended as our dear friends, Brent and Julie Niccum are sponsors and heavily involved in this life saving and life altering ministry.   If you haven't figured it out yet, HLA is an organization that devotes all it's time and resources to one of the most polarizing and divisive subjects in America today, abortion.  Through a lot of volunteer effort, tireless and dedicated staff, endless fundraising and training brave souls who often face scorn and persecution for standing in the gap, they have reached over 177 million people with their message of hope and life!  They have saved countless young girls and women from the heartache of abortion and the psychological and collateral damage it causes to their lives.  But most of all, they have saved thousands of innocent children who had no voice, no protector and no hope.  They do this all out of love and compassion for their fellow human beings.  These heroes don't get paid millions of dollars and nor are they adored by millions of people.  They simply stand for Christ, in the belief that life is precious and God given.  It is He who ordains it, creates it and establishes the priceless worth of His children.  Therefore, we are to steward those lives and cherish them as our own.
  I am well aware that this is not a subject people want to talk about often, but the tragedy of nearly 50 million babies aborted since the supreme court ruling on Roe Vs Wade in 1973 is beyond shocking.  That is a rate of nearly 3,000 per day or to put it into perspective, it's like living through 9/11 every day of your life!   You can check these statistics at the National Right To Life website or fact check them yourself.  By the way, I am not speaking as one who does not empathize with those who have gone through this painful ordeal.  Nor am I unsympathetic or judgmental.  Quite the contrary, I am moved to tears and have great compassion for those mothers, fathers and most of all children who have paid for their mistakes with lifetimes of anguish or lost their lives .  As the father of five beautiful children I can tell you that the thought of not having one of these gifts from God is beyond my comprehension.  My wife and I have been blessed many times over with our family and thank God every day no matter what the circumstances have been for these children of ours.  I am sure that I speak for many of you parents as well.  Children complete our lives.  They are the hope of our future and God's legacy to our time here.  How can we be doing this?  How does this happen each day and what damage have we or continue to be doing to our world.  We have systematically allowed the degradation, sanitizing and liberalizing of our values and morals in this country to the point of tragic consequence.  Look around you and our country, government, schools, churches, media, and overall society all reflect a growing apathy for our constitution it's laws and meanings and Loving Creator.  What was once reprehensible in this country is now considered progressive or socially conducive to a more tolerant lifestyle.  What amazes me is what we will tolerate nowadays as normal and acceptable behavior.   Folks, we are paying a heavy price for this tragic mistake.  Oh, I know that secular scientists and humanists will give you data all day long about running out of resources, food and the means to take care of our species.  How we are reducing our quality of life by placing unsustainable burdens on our societies for the care of all these potentially unwanted or unintended  children.  How they would be better off not being born then being born into their circumstances.  The list of rationale can go on and on.  But let me ask you this?  What if your mom and dad were of the same mindset as these people.  What if they only thought of themselves or were influenced to think in that manner?  Would you be here?  Would you have had your life, opportunities or families of your own?  Better yet if the secular geniuses are so smart they should realize in their haste to endorse this infanticide they are destroying their own mandates of self preservation.  Maybe we have already missed the cure for cancer or the next great statesman or the inventor of new fuels or great theologian or teacher.  I guess we'll never know how blessed we could have been but God knows.  He sees, He weeps, He laments.  But He takes them home and loves them when we didn't.   This is not about a person's right to choose, God already gave us that when He bestowed free will upon us.  This is about the gift of life, designed of the Highest Order for the most noble of purposes.  In our Declaration of Independence it states that we're endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.  They are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  I believe that the word life means quite literally the ability to have one first.


Psalm 139 13:14
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

Misplaced, Displaced or Replaced, Aren't They All the Same?

I have this bad habit of immediately forgetting where I set my keys, phone or wallet when I am running around trying to get ready to go somewhere.  I don't know if this is an unfortunate part of the aging process or a case of just being too hurried.  Either way, I end up searching for minutes at a time, mumbling to myself and accusing my family members of heinous acts of mischief.  My wife would be just shaking her head as if to both sympathize with my plight, as she has suffered from the same malady, and to enjoy the fact that it isn't her for once.  Usually, I would get myself quite aggravated and at whom I don't know.  But wouldn't you know it, there they would be in exactly the same place I had left them.    So why is that place always the last one you check?   One of life's cruel ironies I guess.  This exercise in futility has caused me to wonder what God must think of us as we often run around aimlessly chasing the trivial aspects of our lives expending tremendous effort, as if our very function and existence depended upon them.  Now, we do need our keys, wallets and phones, but that's not my point.
  Companies spend millions of dollars either producing products or publishing information to help keep us from misplacing, displacing or needlessly replacing our possessions.  So off we go enthusiastically and buy them.  In doing so we breathe a collective sigh of relief in falsely believing that we now have ensured ourselves of having everything placed in perfect order.   That is off course until the next time we are running around cursing our children for losing our car keys or hiding our cell phones.  Alas, at least perception is reality I guess.  But this is not the case with the more weighty matters of life.
  As human beings we often put our Creator on a shelf.  Conveniently moving Him out of the way only to make room for ourselves and our priorities.  Jesus is pushed aside for the more important aspects of our daily lives.  We don't have time for Him, His advice, His simple blessing or words of encouragement or most importantly His love.  Instead, we go from at first misplacing Him in our lives because other things or people distract us from Him.  To then displacing Him from our hearts because He takes too much effort to seek and know and we don't have time to wait for Him.  To finally replacing Him, with other temporal solutions and selfish notions of knowledge and wisdom that ultimately fail us.  It's often then and only then that we run around acting as if our world is crashing in on ourselves blaming everything and everybody else as we look for our Keys.  Unlike our possessions Jesus is always in the same place.  You can find Him every time you look.  He's never gone anywhere!  As a matter of fact He's always where you look no matter where you're at.   I know of nothing in my life that satisfies me more than knowing that my Lord Jesus who created me and loves me will never lose me.  He has you and me in perfect order.  So slow down, take some time and invest in your relationship with Him.  You'll be amazed how often your Keys are right where you set them!


Revelations 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

When Autumn Leaves Fall.

As I was walking over to our daughter's house yesterday afternoon, I couldn't help but take in the colors, sights and sounds of my favorite time of year.  Between the brilliant palette of oranges, burgundies and yellows on the many stately maples and oaks lining the street were the squirrels and chipmunks running helter skelter with cheeks full of seeds and nuts to store in their winter hideaways.  A flock of geese perfectly aligned and flying in harmony soared southward overhead.  I could hear the raking of leaves and even smell the odor of burning piles.  It seemed like the whole neighborhood was one big symphony of activity.  It was almost as if neighbors, furry friends and birds were carrying out a divine set of orders all choreographed with a Distinct Stamp of synchronicity and purpose.  I was especially struck by the many displays of mums, pumpkins, gourds and cornstalks on the front porches of charming old homes.  Each one carefully decorated as if they're awaiting the approval of a select panel of judges.  The only thing missing was the smell of pumpkin and apple pies baking.  Wow, what heaven!  But before I go get all Norman Rockwell painting on you, I was especially struck by one particular sight.  As I was walking along I noticed a particular little pumpkin all by itself.  The house was older and a bit disheveled looking with paint peeling off the porch and a yard that needed some tlc.  Nonetheless, here was this pumpkin sitting on top of a porch post by itself.  What's so unusual about that you say?  Well nothing at first glance.  But it was then my spiritual eyes took over.                
   Somebody had carved this little pumpkin awhile back.  What was once a smiling jack-o-lantern fresh, bright orange and alive was now moldy, rotting and falling in on itself.  The smile was collapsing, the eyes had sunken in and it looked like it was vainly struggling to hold on to what little life it had.  No big deal as I had seen a lot of rotting pumpkins before.  But I couldn't get the image out of my head.  And no, it's not because I have all the Halloween horror movie dvds either.  But rather that fall is not only a time of unequaled splendor and beauty but also a time of preparation and harvest.   With winters cold almost lifeless grip soon to come to our northwoods, it was a reminder to me that we all have seasons in our own lives.  Yes, my friends, we are like that pumpkin.  We too come from a seed lovingly created by our Father, perfectly designed and entrusted to our earthly parents.  We are planted inside our mother's womb to grow and are born soon after.  We are fed, nurtured, taught and loved.  The pumpkin seed is planted in good soil.  Watered, fed and given sunlight.  It too sprouts forth with new life, and grows.  Just as the years pass from our childhood through the teen years and into adulthood, so grows the pumpkin from sprout to plant to a young green gourd into a bright orange sphere that fulfills it's God ordained potential of nutrition and bounty.  In God's perfect plan for all His creation we are designed to reach our potential too.  To live out the fullness of our days and use the appointed season's of our lives to bring forth our ample bounty in goodness, grace, love, mercy and just as importantly in passing along His message of hope and salvation to others.  For we will soon be that pumpkin, old and decaying physically.  But unlike the pumpkin's candle which will burn out, we have an eternal light.  One that shines in us for all of our days and through all the seasons of life and into forever.  There remains in us a beautiful spirit of hope and vibrant life no matter what we look like on the outside!  We can help bring others into the joyous harvest that is a right relationship with Jesus Christ right up until we pass from this world.  So unlike our little pumpkin whose' purpose is defined and who's life is limited ours is not.  Mark you season's well and be sure not miss your time of harvesting.  Because it's not the pumpkin that will sit before the Lord on His porch giving an account someday!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; .

Change the Heart, You Change the Mind!

Recently,  Melissa, our youngest daughter Rebecca and myself were at a court sentencing hearing for some dear friend's son who had been in jail on some very serious charges and was now facing his judgment day.   He would know his fate and receive the punishment for the consequences of his young foolish actions.  On his own behalf he admitted his guilt and bypassed what would have been an emotional trial for the community he victimized.  Because of the nature of his crimes, burglary, vandalism and arson to a church, the community was a bit divided to say the least.  There were those who wanted vindication and the full letter of the law applied to this young man and his accomplice.  After all this church had been a pillar of this small community for over 100 years.  Whole families through their generations had worshiped there and now felt profound loss, violation and a sense of desecration.   But there were those folks who had attended the church who had forgiven him and wanted to see him restored to his full potential in God's eyes.  In other words punish him justly yes, but do not cause irreparable harm to him by a long prison sentence.  I was asked to speak on his behalf before the sentencing by his parents.  After all, Luke had stayed with our family for awhile when he was having some trouble at home.  We took him in as one of our own and although it wasn't easy at times, I could see in this troubled young man a bit of myself in bygone days.  I looked at him as my father looked at me when I was having problems in my life.  Part frustrated, part angry and disappointed but mostly a father who was very concerned and caring.  I was objective in my dealings with him but wanted to help him as my parents did for me.
   You see it's when we apply just punishment with adequate mercy, a bit of grace and a whole lot of love and support that we generally see goodness come forth in people.  I am not discounting Luke's actions.  After all, he chose his path and must face the repercussions of that choice.  Just as I had to do when I caused great distress to my parents.  But that's the perfect wisdom of our awesome God!  He put my family in this young man's life for the purpose of working out His good plan for Luke.  He knew the lessons I had learned and would use me and my family to help Luke at this precarious time.  We were ultimately not a preventive measure for his indiscretion and lawlessness.  But rather a pillar of support, love and to witness for Jesus Christ's sake at such a time as when he would need it desperately.  As so many had already judged him and fallen away.  Now I am not trying to pat myself on the back here.  God does the work, we are just vessels for His ordained purposes.  We love Luke just as my parent's loved me when but a few did.  Just as Jesus stood by the side of the adulteress women when the mob wanted to stone her.  He told the mob,  "He among you who is without sin, cast the first stone."  One by one they dropped their stones and walked away.   Jesus asked her, "Woman where are your accusers?"  They all left and He said.  "No one condemns you and neither do I.  Go and sin no more."  Jesus knew that if this woman had conviction for what she had done then that conviction itself was the judgment for her actions.  By forgiving her He did not excuse her but gave her mercy and told her not to do it again.  I do realize that this approach does not work unless a heart is willing.  Then and only then can the mind can see the destruction and realize the hurt it caused.
  Prisons are necessary.  We live in a fallen and depraved world.  People commit horrific offenses against other people and property all the time.  The law is necessary to act as a very serious deterrent to the commission of those crimes or final judgment upon those actions.  Either way it's not God who abandoned Luke.  It was Luke who abandoned God.  God is in the prisons doing great work in a mostly hopeless environment.  But He is also there to help prevent you from getting to that prison.  He worked through my mom and dad when I deserved punishment but got mercy mixed in.   The judge ultimately stayed a long prison sentence and showed just mercy.   Luke has a long hard road ahead with years of restrictions, probation and community service.   But God's now doing good work in Luke as he serves out the rest of His jail sentence and has given his heart to the Lord.  Praise Him!  The bible says that one soul saved causes all of heaven to rejoice!  We all await Luke's release and are eager to see God's plan for his life come to fruition.  Jesus proved to the woman and the world that what was relevant to a person's life back then is still relevant today.  His plan is still perfect.  For God knows that the changed heart alone is the key to a sound and righteous mind.


John 8:7-11

⁷ But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. ¹⁰ Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

See you next week

Hi all,
  We are moving this week and I don't have too much time to write.  Be back next Wednesday.  May God's richest blessings be upon you and your families!  Peace!

Rick

Why I love Israel, and so should you.

This week among the other never ending new stories and world events is an event that holds visceral significance to the country of Israel.  The UN is holding a summit and at the heart of the agenda is a vote that could very well accelerate an escalation in tension against this tiny country that is only twice the size of Rhode Island.  It is a vote for the statehood of Palestine and it's impact could be catastrophic.  Now, I do not support the Palestinians mainly because of their affiliation with Hamas and Hezbollah.  These are two of the most vicious anti-Israel/ American terrorist organizations on the planet.  I do not however have a problem with the Palestinian people seeking a homeland.  I believe that we are all God's creation and therefore they deserve the same dignity and humanity to live in peace and the chance to self govern in their own nation.  Just not at the expense of Israel giving up their land and territory.  The fact that the world demands that of this ridiculously tiny nation is nothing short of ludicrous.  But before you pass any predisposed judgment on my views, hear the words of a humble believer about this apple of God's eye.  But first a few facts about Israel you may or may not know.
   Israel is the only true democracy in the entire Middle East.  It has a population of 7.5 million people and that includes 1.4 million Arabs.  All Arabs have full citizenship rights including voting, working, education, housing and religious worship.  No Arab country gives such reciprocal privileges to Israelis.  Jewish scholars and scientists have won over 22% of the Nobel Peace Prizes, the largest margin by any demographic across the earth.  They are preeminent world leaders in chemistry, physics, engineering and technology.  The IDF (Israeli Defense Force)  has been in six major wars since 1948 and won them all.  No other nation in the history of the world has been under such constant duress.  It is the seat of the worlds 3 major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  It is surrounded by 110 million Arabs and has been under constant attack and persecution for over 4,000 years.  No other people on the face of the earth have faced a consistent and mass extermination effort such as these.  They live under constant threat and attack and yet have survived.   The history and future of this nation and it's struggles have been accurately portrayed, historically proven and prophesied about in the Holy Bible.  All of them are true.  Are all these facts mere coincidences?  Just dumb luck or happenstance?  Why you may ask?  Because they are under a divine unbreakable covenant from Almighty God through His promise to Abraham.  Which is why we need to support their sovereign right to existence and freedom.  Their survival is crucial to God's plan of intervention in our fallen world.  Jesus Christ when He comes to reign for a thousand years will be seated and govern from Jerusalem.  Not Washington D.C., not the Vatican in Rome Italy, not the U.N. but Jerusalem.  Where it all began it will end and begin again in an age of glorious rebirth under the Lordship of Christ the King!
    A Jewish officer during the struggle for the rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948 and the 1967 Six Day War was asked about why the Jewish people apparently cannot be defeated.  He said, "Other nations fight for their borders, resources or political beliefs, we fight for our very existence!"   That they have.  Jesus Christ is a Jew.  He comes from the direct line of Abraham through the seed of King David from the tribe of Judah.  His life, ministry, death and resurrection along with His royal claim to authority is unlike that of any other religious figure in history or ever will be.  He is the one true and only King of Kings.  God's first covenant was made with the Jewish people.  The second covenant was the blood covenant of Jesus Christ to offer salvation to all people outside of the Jewish nation.  We are all inevitably wrapped together under this divine series of preordained events.  It's best if we not only recognize Israel's right to exist but support them enthusiastically.   For to not do so would defy the will of our Almighty Creator and for that insolence we would pay a very dear price.


“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

Perseverance in Times of Peril.

We have a dog and his name is Gideon.  He's a 105 lb Labrador Retriever and he's an absolute joy to be around.  He's 11 years old now and starting to show his age a bit but in the midst of his physical deterioration is the boundless exuberance of his youth.  He has arthritis and some cataracts, he limps now a bit and has gray hair on his face and legs but his eyes still sparkle and his gaze is steady.  His bark is as big as ever but his physical limitations are showing.  What once was a magnificent creature who swam, chased, and jumped all day after rabbits, pheasants and geese, now gazes out over the fields and water surely reminiscing in his mind of bygone seasons when he was the hunter and master all of he saw.  But when the spirit moves him he gamely rises to foster up one more pursuit albeit rather gimpy and slower but with all the passion and playfulness of days past.  His tenacity and courage are still there but the body is forsaking him.  But off he goes, time and time again.   No matter what ails him on a particular day he rises again to live his life as fully as he can and never gives up.  I was thinking as I was watching him the other day bark and chase after some geese flying over what a noble example he is.  He unconditionally loves people and is always by your side no matter how bad the circumstances.  You know I think I know Someone else like that!  But more importantly he never gives up on who he was designed to be.  I am sure that when he leaves us he will have left nothing in the tank.  No days were wasted and he gave to our family all he had.  And we will be blessed for it!  Which brings me to my point.
  Gideon has what we have but often don't use or abandon to easily and that's perseverance.  We simply give up too often on life's challenges or trials.  Sometimes when we are faced with serious hurdles and tests instead of putting our heads down, gritting our teeth, praying for strength and moving forward we abandon ship.  Why?  After all, the mettle of a ship's captain is not brought forth in calm seas. It's when he sails safely through the storms and wind tossed waves that he is the person he was trained to be.  Or when a soldier runs back to get a fallen comrade in the pitch of battle forsaking his own life no matter what because he won't give up on a friend.  Or when we lose a job or house or finances or worse yet our spouse or child.  Our society today is full of opt out clauses that make it easy to give up and make excuses.  It's almost as if we're afraid to be accountable or even worse seek to dismiss any personal responsibility for our failures or shortcomings when they are of our own doing.  My dog doesn't know any better and I hate to say it has conducted himself much better than I have at times when I was faced with limitations or circumstances in my life.  He adapts and overcomes or at the very least exhausts himself trying.
  When Jesus was in the Garden Of Gethsemane the night before He was arrested after being betrayed by Judas, He was praying to His Father.  In the midst of the sorrow of His prayers He asked that if it be possible His Father let this impending judgment pass from His hand.  In other words God could spare Jesus the horrible suffering and crucifixion He would endure.  He was praying so fervently and emotionally that He sweat great drops of blood!  But in an attitude of absolute obedience to God He said, "Father if you are willing take this cup from me,  but your will not mine be done."  Just imagine the gravity of Jesus' burden.  He knew He would have to die for all of us.  He had to bear all our sin and depravity and unworthiness Himself!  He was without sin and blameless yet took full responsibility for us.  He was fully God and probably could have opted out right then.  Sorry folks, it's too hard for me.  I'm going back to my heavenly realm.  But He was fully obedient and knew that God did not send His Son to quit on us.  Well, you know the rest of the story.  Now, I am not trying to compare our sacrifice and service here to Christ's.  We don't have His righteousness or holiness to do so.  But we are divinely created in His Image.  That means we have the same makeup and ability placed in us to give ourselves over to our Father's desire for our lives and to be obedient and serve that desire.  It takes sacrifice and a lot of prayer to do so.  But we can gather strength from Him to not give up on our problems and trials.  We can face them, fight them and ultimately persevere over them.  Then even if the circumstances defeat us on the surface we will still have a great spiritual victory!  So try a little perseverance.  You will never know true fulfillment and victory in your life till you do.  Look what it did for you because Someone else chose not to quit.

  Romans 5:3,4   Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Bring Back 9/11!

 That's right I said it.  Bring back 9/11!  We need it desperately.  We need the entire emotional jarring and soul stirring, thought provoking, action taking experience again, and we need it now.  But before you all come to the conclusion I am certifiable, hear me out.  First of all, I am not talking about the horrific events that changed our country forever that clear fall day.  We don't need to relive the indelible images of that tragedy and the death of so many people.  Certainly not the rivers of tears in our collective grief for the families of the victims and the subsequent wars that sprang forth from that day.  Not the death of thousands of brave American service people since then in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Not the clear partisan divisions that are defining and paralyzing our country from both economic and governmental positions.  No, not any of these!  I am talking about the aftermath of that historic and tragic event.  The aftermath that took place across our great country in the days and weeks that followed.
  Never before in my lifetime had I witnessed all Americans uniting together in anger, grief, resolve, cooperation, action, spirit and most of all prayer.  We had seen our way of life brutally and irretrievably violated.  Our shining city on a hill was tarnished and teetering.  Our armor had been pierced and our collective consciousness wounded.  But we withstood the onslaught and united in an all too brief display of American patriotism.  For weeks there were American flags flying everywhere and people noticed them all.  They talked to neighbors they hadn't before.  Prayed openly in public squares and meeting places.  Offered help and charity that became rivers of blessing to others.  We were unified without prejudice to color, ethnicity, religion, political persuasion or stature.  We were all God fearing American's and we acted like it.  The sense of national pride was everywhere and for awhile it seemed that we were turning a corner for good albeit out of unspeakable violence, but it was real!  So where did it go?  All the goodwill and efforts made to unify our nation have faded into more disarray then ever.  As we get ready to mark the 10th anniversary of that day, we are soberly reminded that we American's have limits.  Or better yet we humans have limits.  You see it doesn't take a PhD to observe that goodwill and good intentions will run out of gas after a while without proper maintenance.  That without a collective mindset to honor those commitments to excellence the erosion is inevitable.  Why you may ask?  Because we live in complete separation.  We have simply walked away from the ordained destiny for our country created by yes folks, God Himself.
  It is God who created laws for a fallen man to live under, obey and prosper.  It is God who gives us life and the world we live in.  It is God who has witnessed this wholesale insurrection of His beloved people and still shows mercy and grace to us all.  It is God who sent His only begotten son Jesus Christ to die for yours and my sin, in spite of the fact we didn't deserve it.  It is God who gives us our greatest asset or liability, freewill.   Look around us today.  This is not the result God had intended.  We are more separated, angry, disillusioned and self destructive then ever.  We are at the abyss and time is running out!   God is not infinitely patient.  He is holy, righteous and will judge us all accordingly.  As we spin out of control and America and the world descends into anarchy and chaos it should be noted that a secular and anitichristian bias is on the rise.  The events unfolding before us are the result of our increasingly hostile attitude and affront to our Heavenly Father and our ability to honor and worship Him.   At the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and New York city this week there are a series of events scheduled to honor 9/11.  Not one of those scheduled events has included any Evangelical Christians to speak or pray publicly.  Are you kidding me?  Leave out the core of American religion and values?  Hindu, Muslim and Jewish faiths are represented but not Christian?  Were not Christians and their families killed and affected by this tragedy too?  Are we not part of America?  We represent the largest faith group in this country and we are continually being pushed aside and rebuked.  It is a mockery of America and it's foundations and we are letting it happen more and more.  If we are wondering why we are not seeing God's blessing hand upon us we need look no further than our own foolish political, social and governmental folly.  We will not be allowed to traverse down this path much longer as God has His limits set.  If we want to see our country rise again then we must drop to our knees first!  God still loves you and I.  He wants to restore harmony, peace and prosperity to our nation.  But it will be on His terms not ours.  I made my decision to sede my power and authority to Him.  I found out long ago that my thoughts and actions are too selfish for common good.  So I gave Him my heart.  You would be wise to do so too.  After all you can see the alternative around you.  Or as Herman Cain, Republican candidate for president said recently, "How's that working out for you?"



Ephesians 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Meatballs and Merryment!

When I was growing up there were two very distinct smells I remember wafting up the stairs to my bedroom on Sunday mornings.  They were garlic and cinnamon.  Strange bedfellows these two were but none the less each one pungent and comforting.  It was my dad's day in the laboratory that was our family kitchen and being an early riser,  my dad was a great breakfast cook.  Whether it was scrambled eggs and toast.  Or oatmeal, yuck!!  Or pancakes, sausage and eggs over easy, you were running to the table knowing that the smell meant the bell.  In other words, eat now or tough!  But the favorite entree was fresh baked cinnamon rolls with warm icing!  Soft, gooey, sweet and decadent with the perfect seductiveness as to get you to roll over to any chore list that my dad doled out after we were drugged with mass quantities of carbohydrates and sugar.  It was the most sinister plying of children committed.  But brilliant in it's simplicity.  Anyway, the other smell was garlic and lots of it.  You see Sunday was spaghetti day.  Now, you must understand that in an Italian household the only ritual more sacred than making meatballs,  pork neck-bones and gravy was church.   My family doesn't make spaghetti gravy, that's right gravy not sauce,  from a jar labeled Ragu or Progresso.  Chef Boyardi and Franco American might as well be on the FBI's most wanted list to us as they are nothing short of sacrilegious.  No, my friends, my dad created from scratch a symphony of flavors as to bring to life the most anticipated meal of the week!  The hours of browning meats and rolling meatballs, sauteing onions and garlic, adding tomatoes, basil and oregano with delicate precision culminating in hours of simmering resulted in heaven on earth.  It was pure family joy and culinary perfection on those Sunday evenings with wine, salad, garlic bread and gorging galore.  Which brings me to this past Sunday at my parent's house.
   The first annual Meatoff was on!  It's not a name I came up with.   Assembled from the far corners of Chicagoland were some of the areas best chefs, with years of experience, training,  accolades and awards.  Known far and wide for their high levels of skill and creativity with food.  Nah, not really.  The were a hodgepodge of my brother Frank, Aunt Fran, and cousins Cary and Tommy Bez.  All equally enthusiastic and ambitious looking to make their mark on the culinary universe.  The next Food Network star!  Ok, back to reality.  The rules were simple.  Each contestant would prepare their meatballs beforehand at their own houses as to ensure the secrecy of their recipes.  They then were bring them over to my mom's where the judges were waiting.  Now my mom made the marinara sauce so the recipe would be consistent as to not embellish the individual flavors of the meatballs.  Well the time had come and the judges were set down.  They had a steely determination to their faces and a an almost catatonic unemotional look as to not tip their hands to the entrants.  They were  Aunty Mary, a graduate of the prestigious " School of Hard Knocks" and Uncle "Fuggedaboutit" Frank Messina.  A combined almost 140 years of life experience! 
  Each contestant was to present their meatballs, one with gravy and one without for tasting.  They were given numbers for their allotted slots and the tasting was on.  The contestants stared on nervously as the judges smelled, bit, chewed, and swallowed.  They watched for any hint of ecstasy or agony.  They hovered as they scribbled their notes feverishly after each sample.  The crowd was mesmerized.  Or drunk, whichever you prefer!  After seemingly hours the judges had made their decision.  The winner was about to be crowned.  It was as if this was the season ending episode of Jersey Shore.  You could cut the tension with a knife!    And the winner is.....   Well you know who you are.  That is not the point.  The point is that my family is why my life is great!   They are fun, loud, proud and passionate.  They give generously and selflessly to each other and the people they know.  They enjoy good meals and the good times they bring.   The food is great, the humor can be bawdy but the love is always saturating.  I wouldn't have it any other way!  I am smiling and I know my dad is too!  By the way, a note to my cousin Tommy.  Since you like to golf, I am sure that you can find a use for your meatballs!  :)

Acts 16:31-34 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

A picture of God.

The other night I was driving home from town after running a few errands.  A squall line had just gone through and rained hard with high winds, lightning and thunder.  It was quick but pretty intense.  As it cleared out the sky to the west was a beautiful pallet of blues, pinks, peaches and oranges as the sun was just about setting.  Anyway, the sky had some magnificent cumulus clouds that the sun was partially hiding behind.  When the sun was clearing the edge of the cloud bank a sudden ray shot across the sky to the east and instantly there was a spectacular rainbow.   The rainbow was situated up against the dark and ominous storm that just went through. The intensity and beauty were, not to be dramatic here, jaw dropping.  I had never seen such an instantaneous revealing like this!  I was rushing home all the while mesmerized by the scene unfolding before me, hoping to get there and tell Melissa before it disappeared.  As I pulled in the driveway almost rolling out of the car before it stopped, I was yelling for her to come out and see.  It was as if I had found a buried treasure and wanted to share it with her!  She came out of the house and was wondering what the heck was wrong with me.  I pulled her around the driveway so we could see the skyline from the west to the east.  We stood there silent for a minute.  Both of us taking in the sheer awesomeness of this rarity.  In the same sky was the fierceness of the storm all dark and sinister with it's violent intention and the tranquility of the sun setting with it's final light and warmth of the day.   It was a clear picture of God and a sovereign God in control.
   Not a physical manifestation of course, but one of countless examples of His supreme authority over this world of ours that can have us shaking in fear at the approaching storms of life one moment then inspiring our life's revelations at the dawn of our new beginnings in the next.  So complex in it's physical nature but so simple in it's etching upon our hearts.  You see when you walk closely with your Lord, not only do you enjoy the one on one communication of an intimate Father child relationship, but you receive gifts, revelations and affirmations that enrich and uplift you each day.  God paints the sky just for you.  It's up to you to stop, look, take in and revel at these gifts!  In it He reveals Himself to you.  We live on an incredibly beautiful and diverse world.  A life sustaining divinely created blue orb standing alone in a vast universe.  On it are all of God's children, equally beautiful and diverse.  But fallen and flawed are we.  We have all at once the majesty of God's great provision and mercy in our tenuous existence on this small planet and the curse of our own depravity as we reject His will for us.  That's why the storms come.  When we exercise our will to walk away from God's guidance we are subject to the consequences of our mortal flesh.  The sky darkens, the storms approach and the fear grips us with the uncertainty of the outcome.  But when we cling to the truth of Christ, He rebukes the storms and calms the sea.  The sun comes out and warms us with His reassurance that He and He alone brings you through the storms.  He will not abandon you.  He will bring you to a safe harbor.  You can be certain that if you give your heart to Jesus Christ then He will give His all to you.  The storm clouds can roll in and all you'll see is the sun behind them!

Luke 8:24
The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 

Aging Gracefully.

As we are getting ready for our upcoming move, many boxes are being packed and labeled.  Either they are for storage, our moving sale, going to the new place or just being given away, I am finding many reminders of this full life of ours.  There are old books, mementos, trophies of past accomplishments, nicknacks galore, too many clothes and countless items that make me scratch my head as to why we would possibly keep them!  But it is a time capsule and one that reminds you each time you wrap something or place it in a box as it brings back a flood of memories.  Now, mind you this is not going to be an essay on the amount of stuff we have or a pilot episode for the show Hoarders but rather a reflection on the gift of our time here.  Here, as in earth not Cameron WI.  You see as we pack up we are essentially marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in our lives.   We are moving along life's highway and we are marking time.  This was brought to my attention rather abruptly when I found the picture boxes.  That's right, the evidence!  A testimony of events and occasions which mark the lives of Melissa and I and the kids right there in living color and some black and white for those of you who remember those days.  There are lot's of me, her, them (the kids), us, bad hair, great hair, outrageous fashion, birthdays, holidays, everydays, etc.  Every emotion and event captured so purely as to bring a smile or a chuckle instantly.  Sometimes mustering up a tear or sigh too.  All the while silently testifying to the years going by as we are getting older.  I seem to get lost in them.  Reminiscing and wondering where did the time go?  But as I pour over the stacks of photos, I come to the conclusion that there is a theme to this vast sea of memories.  There is a wonderful benevolence that presides over my life with these people called my family.  That as I age, I am finally doing so gracefully.
   Not grace as defined by our world's definition.  That would be superficial or physical grace.  Not that physical grace isn't important.  We are to keep our temples healthy so our King may indwell in us.  I'm talking about real grace.  The word is derived from the Greek word charis which means to "have favor and goodwill" or to a secondary extent "to rejoice."  It is spoken about 156 times in the New Testament.  Our Heavenly Father lavishes us with grace in the gift of His Son Jesus through His life, death and resurrection.  His forgiveness and mercies which are new every morning are fervent reminders of such grace.  We are commanded to give grace and give it generously.    That is what the Lord means by aging gracefully.  That as we get older to exhibit the traits that define His existence in our hearts.  I know of nobody who calls themselves a Christian that does not have an ample supply of this most noble of attributes.  I see it in my wife every day.  I talk about it most reverently with our children.  I try to live it myself.  As my hair grays and my wrinkles come upon my face, I can dye the hair and remove those lines.  If I gain weight, I can lose it.  I can tuck, trim, whiten, brighten, tan and workout all to the mirror's glory.  But if I lose my grace what good will I be.  Jesus said that the Pharisees were like white washed tombs.  All pure and glorious on the outside but full of nothing but dead man's bones on the inside!   Do yourself a favor, age gracefully.  Give more of yourself to others in the way of love, mercy and encouragement.  You will see that as you clean the inside of your temple the outside will shine brighter than ever!   Others will notice and when they ask you what your secret is tell them that aging gracefully is easy.  Just start on the inside first!


Hebrews 12:15   See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

Where is your treasure?

I walked out this morning to put the garbage out and check the mail.  Part of my usual morning routine of coffee, bible and prayer time, visiting with my wife and getting ready for my day.  When I opened the mailbox in the midst of the endless junk mail and bills was a rather plain looking envelope from an attorney in Wausau, WI.  I took a breath and knew that these envelopes usually harbor three things: a settlement, a lawsuit or a judgement and notice.  I opened it rather reluctantly and sighed deeply.  It was what I had been expecting but I was trying to avoid the painful emotions it would stir once it arrived.   You see it was our notice of a sheriff's sale for our house.  Our home, our refuge, our place of sanctuary and pride of accomplishment.  The place where we raised our children, shared meals, laughs, tears, prayers, joys and sorrows.  Where I worked so hard maintaining and on the lawns and gardens.  Painted, fixed, replaced, upgraded, remodeled and gave my best to take care of.  All gone.  In the sanitary unemotional world of the modern banking system we were now officially a liability and not an asset.  I read the notice and gave it to my wife.  Part of me wanted to cry again as I could feel the knotting in my stomach and clenching of my throat as I fought back the emotion.  Part of me wanted to laugh sarcastically and defy them and their notice.  To fight till the bitter end.  But I was checked in my spirit quickly and the Lord reminded me that this was His home.  That it was by His grace and favor on our family that we were able to buy it in the first place. He had supplied the job, the prosperity and the money.   He would allow the ownership and allow the loss of it both equally under His sovereign authority.   Even though I was suffering through this ordeal with the humiliation and shame it can bring I had peace.  But peace by submission and not by admission.  Let me explain.
   When you become a Christian one of the first things you learn is that even though we are the children of and heirs to the Most High God, with all the privileges and rights, we are not immune to the trials and tribulations of our short mortal lives here.  We will face hardship and sorrow just as much as any other person be them a believer or not.  Sometimes we will look at others who don't love the Lord and wonder why we have misfortune and they are seemingly prospering in their sin.  Why me Lord?   After all, I read my bible, I pray, I love you.  Jesus said that He came to give me life and to give it abundantly.   Well, where's my abundance?   I paid my taxes, worked hard, don't steal, try to be honest and worthy.   This is abundant life?  Try wrapping your mind around that!   What kind of reward is this Christianity anyway?    In my growth as a Christian I have learned, albeit not easily,  that there is divine purpose in all we do just as Romans 8:28 says- And we know that all things work together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
   That simply means that God has a reason and that reason is for our effective growth and work in His life's plan for us.  Because after our suffering there will be resolution and glory in His name if we are in submission to Him.  If we allow Him to take us through by His hand.  In layman's terms He will use it for good.  To help us and to help others too.   A wise pastor said recently that too many of us Christians want the glory of testimony.  We want the imony but don't want the test!  Powerful in it's simplicity.  In order to have others see Christ's glory in us then we must have the temperance and experience of overcoming life's trials to truly understand the meaning of His life's work on earth.  It is the changed heart and willful mind of the believer which knows that after the rain comes the sun.  After death comes life.  After sorrow comes joy.   The single greatest lesson I am learning from this experience is that my God does and will supply all my needs and my families too.  This is just a house made of wood and metal.  Heck, it's not even my real home!  As a matter of fact, it's a stepping stone for His next great phase in our lives!  We spend so much time accumulating all the treasures of this world that we often forget about the treasures of our hearts.  The ones that don't rust or rot.  Don't fall apart or are taken away.  Can't be seized by man or banks.  So, we will go forward.  Our family is strong, our hearts will be blessed and God will restore.  And I will testify about His goodness!

Matthew 6:19-21-  ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A Renaissance Man, well sort of.

Last year when I turned 50 I decided that it was time to fully embrace the Lord's restoration of me.  Being physically and emotionally healed it was time to move forward and begin a new journey of self discovery and creativity in my life.  To take on new challenges.   To embrace and dive into all the activities that I love so much.  To stretch my intellect and reach for the stars!  I love to read, cook, write although not well, garden and anything to do with the ocean!  Surely I could find my renaissance in these noble activities.  I would become in my 50's a man of culture and refined tastes.  People would see the difference.  I would become the must invite to all the parties!   Yea, right.
   Certainly I do all these  activities with more regularity and passion then I ever did.  Except the ocean thing because I live in Wisconsin.  But I have a plan for that too.  God has graciously grown me spiritually so I can be at peace more when I am engaged in my passions to just enjoy the moment and quit expecting the epiphany.  This gives me more contentment and allows Him to work through me to improve in these pursuits.  Well, after almost a year and a half of this quest it has come down to this.  I make jam!  That's right jam.  Good old fashioned, nectar of nature, made with love in small batches mind you jam.  I know, awesome isn't it?  Einstein had the Theory of Relativity.  Newton had the Law of Gravity.  Michelangelo had the Sistine Chapel.  I have jam.  The same product Smuckers and a host of others have been doing for eons.  Oh, well.  God gave it to me and I'm running with it.  In my mad laboratory that is the kitchen I can be found scurrying about cutting fruit, tossing pots and pans and mumbling to myself.  Tasting and adjusting, tweaking and adding, boiling and canning.  All in the name of God knows what.  But you know what?  I'm happy!  In a subliminally gratifying way I find great satisfaction in this endeavor.  And my family loves them!  What more could you ask?  But wait, there is more, literally more.
  In my utopian stupor created by sugar and fruit, I have quite the inventory building up.  I have 6 unique flavors and 2 cases each made.  One hundred forty four jars of bliss.  Enough preserves to sweeten the lives of family and friends for the next several years.  Lot's of happiness but bad economics.  So it's off to the farmer's markets this fall to debut my world premier, totally unnamed, untested except by unfailingly loyal family members gourmet jams company!  Tada!  Look out world!  I see myself as the new jam master, the godfather of sweetness,  the bolt of lightning from nowhere.  Not really.  But I'm sure to make a little money, meet some nice people and do a bit of the Lord's work.  In essence, add to my contentment and continue my personal renaissance while growing in peace and ministry.  Who knows, God works in mysterious ways.  This could take off and you could see me schilling my product shamelessly on QVC?  I don't know and really don't care.  The joy is in the jar and I'm having fun.  It's not as valued as a Picasso but it tastes better with cream cheese!

Job 36:11
If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.

 

Free will is not free!

Is it me?  Am I overly sensitive?  Are there just too many media outlet sources reporting the world's news 24/7,  and am I just paying attention to all the misery too much?  Or does it seem that we are losing our tenuous grip on this world of ours?  It sure seems that way to me.  Granted news reports come to us much quicker nowadays.   Bad news is bad news and we have always had it.  TV systems have literally thousands of channels.  We can tweet, YouTube, Facebook, email, text and video anything to anybody around the world in minutes!  That is astonishing to say the least.  So it's quite natural that we should suffer from sensory overload.  The bombardment of news is endless and the vast majority is tragic and sad.
  I have a theory on this and here it goes.  The vast majority of news is sad and tragic because it is.  There you go!  Brilliance in it's simplicity.  Years of research by my vastly superior intellect (lol) has revealed this to me.  Now I'll tell you what causes all this,  free will.  That's right the greatest attribute of our complex makeup we humans have been given has become our biggest curse.   The source of our worst problems.   What our Divine Creator bestowed upon us in the Garden of Eden has time and time again proven to be our greatest downfall.  It happened there with a choice and has happened hundreds of thousands of times through mans history.    It happened in heaven when Lucifer, among the most high angels, chose to try to put himself above God.  He and his legions were cast out to earth.  Why?   Because they're free will was in disobedience and dishonor and threatened the perfect desires of God for him.   Ahh now you're probably wondering how a supposed Christian like me can be building a case for flawed logic on God's part?  Not hardly.  God's logic is perfect because even in our fallen nature it is our free will that gives God his greatest pleasure.  What you say, am I losing it?  How can so much chosen heartbreak, loss of life, catastrophe and atrocity in our world be good in any way?  It's not of course.  But it is reality and will continue to be, but not for long.
  Let me explain.  The one attitude that God desires us to have more than anything else is love.  Love for Him, our fellow man be he enemy or ally, our self and most of all for Christ.  It is love that is selfless.  It is love that rebuilds the broken.  It is love that creates new out of old and useless.  It is love that conquers all.  Everything that Jesus spoke and taught about in his 33 years here was wrapped around the perfect exercise of your free will to love or not.  You see God created us to have a very dynamic and personal relationship with Him by choice not by mandate.  He doesn't want robots.  He wants children in a beloved relationship with Him by choice.  Because it's when we choose to love that our love is complete.  We experience a fullness because our hearts and minds are in perfect unison with our Heavenly Father's will for us.  It is when we honor Him with our absolute devotion then we will not cross His moral absolutes he set up for us.  Thus the benefit of free will.  It is only our free will that gives us this privilege.  Jesus spoke about love 180 times in the New Testament.  It was referred to over 130 times in the Old Testament. It is repeated over and over again in the Ten Commandments.  Absolute love by choice is the conquering force to the evil that is in the opposition to our design.  God knows that in us is this unique ability to love and hate like no other creation or species designed by Him.  Jesus hung on the cross for just that reason.  He loves us that much!  He came to earth in the flesh to experience our heartache, turmoil and pain.  But He came to plead to us to change our hearts and ways then to die for our bad choices and overcome the world with His unselfish love.  He did so unlike anybody before or since, or ever will.  You see even the simple act of the cross compels us to use our free will.   We must use it.  To choose Him or not.  Either He is who He says He is , the author and finisher of our faith or He is not.  We cannot escape the choice.  Even not choosing Him is a choice itself.  But the way the world is going is powerful evidence to the opposite exercise of  our free will.  We could make such a difference in our world by choosing to love instead of hate.  In the midst of all the sadness there are many stories of triumph and love.  Victory is ours and with it, the love of our Savior too.  You just have to choose.  This is the single most important choice of your free will you will make.  I pray that you make the right choice!    But don't wait, for as misery and heartache increases God's patience decreases.  Give your heart to Him today.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; {20} "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

The Lord's Lemonade.

We've all heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."   A timeless metaphor that has inspired many stories of triumph over seemingly insurmountable trials in peoples lives.  At one point or another we have all faced these kinds of moments and challenges.  Where all of a sudden the apple cart is upset and all that we know or do or have is gone.  It can be familial, personal, financial, job related, health problems or a myriad of other issues.  Nobody is immune to a full extent. When economic times are good the impact is palpable.  But when we are slogging through the toughest time since the Great Depression, the results can be catastrophic.  I call these moments or periods of life "It" moments.  Short for, it will make you or break you.  Yours truly just came out of a big one.
   What I'm about to tell you is not meant to garner "atta" boys or sympathy.  It is meant for your encouragement. Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean I have bulletproof armor for life's attacks. You see the past three and half years have been the toughest period for me personally in my life.  I have been challenged in numerous ways.  But if you had told me that this is where my life would be at this point, I would have laughed uproariously in your face.  Not me, no how, no sir!  Well yes me, yes how and yes sir!    When the recession hit in 2007 I had been enjoying a solid career rebound since I had to close my dream restaurant in 2001.  I had always been highly successful in real estate as both a salesman and manager.  Business was great and I had felt that the Lord was smiling on me again.  It was a personal and business renaissance well deserved.  We moved into a beautiful new home in NW Wisconsin and our lives seemed to settle down to my career ambitions,  raising our family and my wife's ministry work.  All was bliss, or so we thought.  Then the proverbial rug got pulled out from underneath us.  The obvious fallout from the real estate sector was catastrophic.  I lost 75% of my income in the first year and it has never returned.  Being commission based, you can just watch the news to understand where that money has gone.  We had always prepared for a rainy day so we weren't worried, just not a rainy lifestyle.  The recession has carved up my retirement accounts, my savings, my stocks and many possessions which had to go.  I couldn't keep up on the mortgage, my health insurance, my daughters school tuition's.  Bill piles get awful large when you can't pay them.  By God's grace and the best family ever we have survived this long.  I have cried, anguished, pounded the table and asked why me?  I'm 51 Lord, I can't add anymore wax to my candle!  Haven't we been through enough?  Well apparently not.  You see, I had always enjoyed a drink or two.  But the stress of our situation left me to walk away from my precious Lord's sovereign guidance and become an escape artist.  I knew that as a Christian it was important for me to live as Christ.  To influence others for Him meant I had to not live in hypocrisy. Long story short my drinking was out of hand.  In my haste to escape my pain, I ran headlong into another worldly trap.  I was an alcoholic too.
   God had carried me too many times at different stages of my life.  Sound familiar?  His grace and mercy rescued me more times than I deserved.  Yet He rescued anyway.  This time He shouted at me.  He was mad!  He wouldn't be mocked anymore.  On January 15th, 2010 I got sicker than I had ever been. I prayed and prayed for more mercy.   For the next 3 weeks I was in pain, with fever, joints aching and God talking to me the whole time.  He flat out delivered me from my addiction and with it a stern rebuke not to touch alcohol again.  I have not had a drink since or the desire to do so.  You may call it what you may.  I'll call it a miracle, thank you!    That behind us, we still had to deal with the hard times we were in.  But there was new found peace in my journey.  I had new faith, new hope and new strength.  Jesus has reminded me that I could do all things through Him who strengthens me.  I had new eyes to see Him.  A new heart to receive Him.  And now a new passion to tell about Him.  It did not exempt us from our economic hardship.  We still struggled financially, but my family strengthened,  and my faith got stronger.  My wife and children had their dad back.  God knew perfectly He had to get me strong again and get my voice back for Him because on May 20th this past spring He called my dad home.  That alone is traumatic.  But with everything else that has happened to us I wouldn't have gotten through it without His restoration of me. In His infinite wisdom, He dealt with me so I could be an effective witness again to my family in this time of great sorrow.  He knew this.  So He fixed me.  I can see Him now much better.  My joy is sustainable.  My peace is deep.  I can be an encourager, because I have been encouraged.    God took me into His kitchen and showed me how He makes the best lemonade.  Stop by my stand and have a taste!  You'll come back for more I'm sure. I'll even give you His recipe!


John 16:33  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”