GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING ALL
attitude
EACH DAY
Each Day
Unorthodox Christianity can cover a lot of ground. When I first started Unorthodox Christianity I followed a typical Church driven idea to tell people what you need to know to follow the scriptures and analyze them and maybe even debate now and then. The more I moved forward with it the more questions I asked myself. What I have written below is a more common writing of today vs then.
The more people I talked with, the more people fell into the category of disenfranchised. The more I heard about their first visit, or return visit, to a church environment was followed by comments similar to “I did not feel welcome”. “I did not feel that I belonged there”. “It felt that I wasn’t ‘their’ type”.
Analyzing scripture left something out for them to grasp and get familiar with. I wondered just what was missing.
The most common desire among most seemed to be a relationship. Not necessarily with the people in that church setting, but the building of a relationship with GOD, and JESUS. A relationship that they could grasp. One day a week for a couple of hours simply was not creating the environment of a relationship that some people would truly find trust in a short term setting.
Most every day I wake up with a relationship. It may be with family, or my dogs and wagging tails that welcome me every day. Not just 2 hours a week. Just about everyday I cross paths with the neighbors. I say hello to, wave at, smile with, talk about the weather. A constant feeding of relationship that builds familiarity. It also builds conversation and a measure of trust.
I feel welcome. I feel like I belong. I feel comfortable. And when life happens, I find the neighbors who help shovel some snow, or help with a problem, or asks me to sit down and they ask how things are going.
When I was very young I did Sunday School and such. I went because my family took me. We finished church and went off to lunch. I forgot all about GOD or JESUS and I remember how good the lunch was. I had the stories about GOD and JESUS in the BIBLE that came with the SUNDAY SCHOOL. I started thinking about GOD. I started to read the books at home. I stared at the night sky and thought about the huge creations before me. I was curious who GOD was. I decided to just ask GOD about why all people weren’t good. And the relationship started. I was never afraid of GOD. A friend asked me what I thought about JESUS. I mentioned that my dad, a sales manger, once said that the secret to sales success is getting right to the man (or female) in charge. I felt that I could just as easily talk to the man at the top. It started small and finally we had built a relationship. We covered a lot of ground over all these years. If you wish to build a relationship with GOD, go for it. I could keep going on and on about the years we have already built. But it started with my questions and it developed before me. How did it work? It wasn’t magic. You will discover that GOD has ways to communicate with you that you may never understand how, but you will understand by taking it to GOD. You will discover it. GOD will find many ways to talk with you. Many times you will be surprised by it. As far as I am concerned that is the purpose of the relationship with GOD. It is not a weekly event. it happens EACH DAY.
The message below is something I do every day to the people who are most important to me. Sometimes it becomes part of the blog. This idea of relationship can not be built with rules, it is built with trust that comes from familiarity. GOD will establish the relationship with you. You my get mad at GOD. You may thank GOD for something that gets pointed out to you.
This blog today is called EACH DAY. Enjoy it.
GOOD MORNING ALL
Just trying to relax and enjoy a day off. One would think that the older you get and the less “Work” you have to do, the easier life becomes. So far the easier part has yet to appear very often. When I was a young man the idea of a vacation was the goal of life. Today life is the goal of life. Fortunately each day is an achievement. Thank you all for your help, prayers, and encouragement. You have made it all worthwhile. OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.
Have a wonderful day.
ME, Mack and Jake
We hear a lot about when we get to Heaven and how our relationship with GOD is going to be something special. You are in Heaven each day right now. Heaven is not a new beginning. Birth was the new beginning. The relationship with GOD started years before your birthday. GOD appreciates you and encourages you. Not years from now but EACH DAY. As my Aunt Vera(my daughters namesake) said over and over again for years and years, “Isn’t that Wonderful”.
Enjoy EACH DAY. It starts that way, every day.
GOD BLESS.
OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.
HANDING OFF THE GRACE
GOOD SATURDAY MORNING ALL
A very bright and sunny Saturday morning in Iowa. It started at 9* and is now at 25 on the way to the mid 30’s. The snow is melting from the bright sunshine and I am doing well from the adventure of a prep procedure at the hospital on Wednesday. It is a unique feeling to try and grasp the anesthesia as it wears down and it becomes less and less and then you discover all the things they did in a short period of work. Many people believe that GOD is enough and that belief will carry the day. As I watched the teams at the hospital and the camaraderie of the staff and their attitude of helpfulness they were defining the word GRACE to me.
Nothing is as valuable as GOD’s Grace through the hands of people and our animal companions. GOD requires hands, and voices and smiles and vision. So many times a wagging tail has changed my entire attitude as life moves on.
When I look back on my life I can remember the times that GOD has handed off the Grace to others to teach me, correct me, and put a smile on my face. When I am asked by GOD to help others, it is often those previous examples of GOD’s GRACE through others that I invoke to put a smile on a face or a lesson from the background. I often get asked how I am doing and I respond the same way, every day and time. “I have made it this far”. Whether young or old, whatever race or culture, whether female or male, blue collar or white collar or no collar, they say they understand and “Yes we have” is a sign behind the smile. Each of you have a wonderful day and enjoy it.
OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.
ME,
Mack and Jake (THE GUARDIAN ANGEL DOGS share GRACE with me every minute and everyday. It is a goal of mine to be more like them, everyday.)
The Moment
It isn’t the future
It isn’t the past
It isn’t the center
That I have taken to last
It isn’t the ideas
It isn’t the thought
It is what I Have been given
That is the moment I have.
Enjoy your moment.
GOOD THANKSGIVING ALL
GOOD THANKSGIVING ALL
A cold day but sunny in Iowa. Just walked the dogs, -1*. The heavy insulated dog jackets came in handy earlier than expected. I am very appreciative of all the reasons to be Thankful this year. The exercise program that pays me at work and the opportunities to get to know such wonderful people every day. Zig Ziegler used to say “Expect a Miracle EVERY DAY”. How right he was. We expect big miracles but to categorize most, the miracles happen in simple things. A cold day, but sunny and not snowing. Dinner at my sisters and food to eat. A car to get there in, and the capability to maintain it. To be able to say “LIFE has been good to me” is enough to fill me with Thanks. Calls and Cards from friends and a warm apartment. We all could go on and on for what we all have been given but Thanksgiving awaits. Have a wonderful day and know that OUR CARES AND PRAYERS WILL BE WITH YOU.
ME, Mack and Jake
GOOD SATURDAY- 9-19-21
GOOD SATURDAY ALL
A welcome day of rest, not counting laundry, walking dogs, grocery shopping, vacuum, maybe ice cream….you get the picture. At the least I can move at my own pace and even spread the work to Sunday if I wish. Re-tired does not mean moving from bed to couch. OUR CARES and PRAYERS are with you this day. Enjoy the summer while it is still here. Have fun.
So often the every day can be overwhelming. Our expectations are high and our wants are higher. Being grateful for the everyday is a gift from GOD and enjoying life is the purpose of being. Too often the business of the world threatens our enjoyment of the day. Life is meant for living and respect is meant for GOD. They follow the same path and can take you to the same place.
Have a wonderful day.
ME, Mack and Jake
SHARE A SMILE
SHARE A SMILE
Some days just seem like dark days when it comes to people. Some days it seems that people are on a completely different life path than I am. Here is an exercise for you to try.
Sharing a hello, a smile, helping with a door opens the world of information from the people around you. The people you feel will ignore you, say thank you. The people who you help can not be kind enough. The sheer number of nice people that you will discover behind faces you may never guess will respond, become hellos every day. Enjoy what you find out in the world with a simple smile or nod of the head. Test me on this one, you will be amazed and it will put a positive smile in a column you may never think of. Have a wonderful day and enjoy it. Just like the day will bring HEAT INDEX, so to can your day bring SMILE INDEX. OUR CARES AND PRAYERS are with you.
GOD BLESS
ME, Mack and Jake
Heaven, Hereafter, or hereNOW
Heaven, Hereafter, or hereNOW
From 5-30-2006
I have heard a great many sermons in my life that are to tell me what heaven and the hereafter are like. I have heard so many that I now know one thing for certain; no one has a clue.
Hereafter
I do know that if I do not choose Jesus as my Lord and savior I am doomed to eternal damnation and life in Sheol (whatever that is). I do know that I cannot be saved if I am not Baptist, (or Mormon, or Methodist, or Presbyterian, Evangelical or Episcopalian and certainly I don’t have a prayer of heaven if I am not Catholic). This causes a substantial dilemma since I cannot be all of the above at the time of my death. Of course, I will also spend a life in eternal damnation if I am not Jewish, or Sunni or Sikh, or Moslem or Hindu or Buddhist or any of dozens of other religions that inhabit the Earth.
I guess that means that I may resign myself to the “bad” place.
Then again:
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
Jesus, as a teacher or Rabbi or preacher or philosopher or son of GOD, holds forth in his hand the ultimate carrot, “Why wait?”
I do not believe that Jesus came and sacrificed himself on a cross to merely extend promises of a fancy divine hereafter. Most religions seem to offer up Nirvana in some shape or form.
What Jesus did was to come and offer us insights as to how we can positively impact the here and now. Jesus taught us how to impact the heaven that lies within our grasp right now, daily, not the after.
Whether Heaven has mansions or refers to new bodies in different times as the Hindu believe (reincarnation) is irrelevant to me. Whether we sing in a divine chorus 24/7 (or whatever time-frame is the physics of heaven) is not as relevant to my living as the promise that I can experience heaven now, as Dennis, as me. It is equally important that you can live it as you.
Is it no wonder that Jesus’ teaching was so radical that most, not even those closest to him, could comprehend His meaning? The Heaven that Jesus prayed for is within our grasp daily. ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, what a radical and impossible dream. LOVE ONE ANOTHER, another impossible dream.
Daily? A fantasy for sure. Jesus has been the object of great debate since the beginning. Those who do not wish to change much look forward to the end of their lives firm in the knowledge (or belief) that the hereafter has the mansion they couldn’t charge here. They look toward a magic place where grace takes them and places upon them a robe of authority or position and extends divine preference based on the sign in front of the building they visited on Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon for an hour or two out their week.
And yet no one can tell me what they will do all day, every day, for eternity. More than that, they wish me to believe that they can perform this function for eternity when they get fidgity now after 60 minutes out of each week in GOD’S own house, which they built with their own money. How do they expect to be satisfied with that heavenly life when a half hour of prayer daily is a challenge. How will they adore GOD every day, all day when they can not accept the Muslim on their knees 5 times daily when they are reluctant to extend thanks at the dinner table with GOD’S blessing of food to eat before them daily.
I do not believe Jesus was about hereafter. All kinds of religion handle the hereafter. What was unique about Jesus was his preaching about the hereNOW.
Jesus did not say to the blind man, “Your sight will be restored in the hereafter”.
Jesus did not say to the lame man, “You will walk on the heavenly shore”.
Jesus did not say, “Kill your neighbor and you will be great in heaven”.
Jesus did not stand before the tomb of Lazarus and yell “Lazarus, have a great time.”
Jesus did ask of his spiritual father, “On Earth as it is in heaven”.
Jesus was about the hereNOW.
The great teachers teach us how to live the here and now. They teach us how to make the best of who we are, appreciate what we’ve been given, share the blessings of our wealth be it physical or spiritual, and enjoy the journey of our living. Jesus says to me, appreciate, share, and enjoy for the Father has tomorrow handled. Whether I play a harp for eternity, or return to this place again and again and again is GOD’S venue, what Dennis Wheeler does with His appointed days is mine. I can live an example of a Jesus or Jimmy Hoffa. I can appreciate all I’ve been given or be driven to power and it’s ultimate corruption. I can share what I’ve been given or horde it until that day when it lies in a yard sale weeks after my passing, or worse yet, is tossed into a dumpster and becomes buried with countless other lives under tons of dirt fill.
The reality of life is the hereNOW, the speculation is the hereAfter.
If GOD was less concerned for us He would not have utilized Jesus to promote a better hereNow. GOD would have left us to the Jewish law, or paganism, or mythology. We would be eternal passers by, the bad Samaritan, the righteous priest or the self focused CEO or CFO.
What if I’m in Heaven now? Do I help its dream, or hinder it? Am I promoter of it, or a thief? Am I an encourager of living or a prospector of dying? What do I feel that Jesus would have me do? If I call myself a Christian, to be true to my Jesus and myself, I should be living the best hereNOW I am capable of. I should appreciate it, share it, and enjoy it as the gift that it is.
Amen.
WHAT WORKS FOR YOU
What Works For You? 
I have been writing for many years now. The notes that have become Unorthodox Christianity. They go quite a ways back. Why did I even begin with the writing. It seems I need to remind myself to write more articles. Why?
It largely began with the conversation with a Sunday school teacher I have referenced before. In second grade Sunday School, in the midst of teaching about GOD creating the world and GOOD and EVIL, the teacher asked an open door, “Do you have any questions?”
“Yes”. I responded. “If GOD created everything, why didn’t GOD just make GOOD PEOPLE?”
That was the end of my religious question and answer period. I was embarking on a life where I asked questions and I looked for answers.
First question became IS GOD JUST A REALLY BIG GUY IN THE SKY? Then I touched on JESUS. Should I simply ask the questions to the BIG GUY AT THE TOP? Why Work around the middle man. My dad had worked with professional sales representatives. I guess I got it from him.
I looked up at the sky one evening when I was about 13-14 years old. I began asking GOD questions, with help from the middle man. I could not imagine a BIG GUY IN THE SKY. Too Big. Too many planets. Too many people, too many questions. Too fixed.
So here is God, a spirit that envelopes all created order, galaxies and universes we may never see. There are spiritual dimensions that we can’t even imagine and entities that even Hollywood can’t conjure up. Is GOD a celestial humanoid that only speaks one language and favors one race. A spirit (Whatever that is) that came before all physical creation, affects every single human on Earth to some extent. I have no problem believing in God (whatever a GOD is), but a God with limits on just what [HE] can or can not do?
Then you have the question of the power of Christianity, which is removed from the culture of the legend of Jesus a Messiah for what became a completely different culture that didn’t exist before Jesus? A Messiah that has yet to be accepted by the culture that refuses to accept Jesus as its own Messiah. The CHRIST of Christian is very much a separate entity from the culture Jesus came from and built around converts and Gentiles. In fact the Christian culture of early Christianity created power around an individual who preached LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
It is a wonder that a child in Bethlehem was chosen to carry the spirit and message of God to these people? When these people didn’t listen to Jesus, Jesus sent his insight for LOVE ONE ANOTHER through others who did believe in the life and story of Jesus into other cultures that didn’t speak Jesus’ language or have Jesus’ customs. Groups of other believers that translated Jesus story into their own and patterned their own beliefs along with Jesus. Could there be unconditional love in the midst of all religions without respect of culture, origin, skin tone? We have created racial preferences on EARTH which was created by a single entity to be made in “Our image”.
In the midst of it all GOD has already created that entity to be among us.
It comes in the framework of our pets, our animals, our disenfranchised friends that have a language of their own yet understand our emotions more than we understand our own. They understand our behavior and love us in spite of ourselves. They forgive us more quickly than we can respond. And there have been many millions and billions of followers that have moved forward into Jesus’ message of LOVE ONE ANOTHER, plain and simple.
GOD IS CAPABLE and HAS CREATED GOOD PEOPLE. The truth is that even the GOOD PEOPLE have been around since the beginning.
When we strip away the pious posturing and self beneficial exclusionary doctrines of certain elements of mankind that have made religious structures that make no sense in the in light of a loving GOD that created everyone to made in “HIS IMAGE”. A disciple of JESUS put it this way, GOD IS LOVE. GOD is a force of energy that too many people have refused to participate in. Look around you. Let us not forget an evil side of Succes AT Anothers Expense within the creation of the energy of LOVE that GOD has to compete with for individual attention.
And eventually UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY became a bit more than a question and answer period of a Second Grade United Methodist Sunday School student who asked a simple question. Why?
Because just CHRISTIANITY didn’t fit what I discovered. It didn’t fit the answers I heard of on TV. It didn’t match with JESUS.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER seemed much simpler than what I heard on Sunday mornings in church discussions. AND TOO MANY THREATS. If you do this, your off to hell. You will never go to heaven. Initially there was only HEAVEN in the first place. In the followers from different cultures who embraced the Jesus of LOVE ONE ANOTHER there was a different outlook. A LIFE IS OUTLOOK.
I discovered other things. They were shocking things. LIFE IS TEMPORARY.
Not only that, YOU CAN NOT CHANGE THAT. The opportunity you have been given ON EARTH comes with no time frame. GOOD, BAD, INDIFFERENT, a car accident, a war, a flood, a pandemic, a tornado, a world war. For many A diagnosis at birth, or in the middle of it. This life, with all of its challenges, is here and it is TEMPORARY in this format. We may follow the adherents from other cultures who believe in reincarnation, or do it over until you get it right. There are others who believe that you need to get it right and that is it. I, personally, have never imaged a day I do not get up to enjoy the journey over and over again.
UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY IS LIFE IS MEANT FOR LIVING, TAKE YOUR FAITH OFF OF THE SHELF.
LIVE IN THE DARK or LIVE IN THE LIGHT. YOU CHOOSE.
The variety of what you can choose is beyond my scope.
But I have always remembered one thing. “WHY DIDN’T GOD MAKE ALL PEOPLE GOOD ?”
BECAUSE THAT IS OUR JOB.
By the way we act, FORGIVE ME MY TRESPASSES (easy enough) AS I FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE TRESPASSED AGAINST ME (real tough).
LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU
(Way Complicated in it’s depth).
To me, the purpose of living is to participate in the adventure of life.
How you do that is what you choose. You do the best you can while you are here. I have always wanted UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY to give you a place where you can MAKE JESUS AND GOD WORK FOR YOU. If you so wish, have a conversation with an entity most of us call GOD. Or a carpenters son named JESUS. Wisdom is not exclusive to just these two. You will meet the wisest people at the most opportune times in your life. It will not happen by coincidence. It will happen for you by asking and recognizing it. It may be your lifelong adventure or at your last breath. You will be forgiven for what you know not what you do. And you may enjoy every moment of the journey. GOD has made all people good, it is just a matter of time.
GOD BLESS and I pray you can make your best life work for you.
It is your gift from GOD and a carpenters SON named JESUS.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? 
The Pandemic has changed us a great deal. There have been other pandemics prior to this one. There was one in 1957-1958. It did not happen as a political discussion. It did occur when most households had TV, some nightly news. It did not happen with Facebook, or TIK TOK, or IPHONES, or GOOGLE. It wasn’t broadcast on international television or regulated by the CDC. It closed schools. There was no social media to tell us how to behave, how free we were to make decisions for ourselves or whether Republicans were right or wrong or the Democrats were right or wrong. We were well or sick. The numbers from 1918 had been huge. We knew to respect it.
Today’s pandemic has affected millions. An enormous number of people have died from it and we have debated if it was real or not. When I got the Asian Flu in 1957, I slept for a week. I knew it was real. I was real sick. I survived that time. For the current pandemic I took the vaccination in it’s due course this year and have survived. I wore a mask everyday. I still do at work. Other things can make me sick now. It is called older age, Arthritis, High Blood Pressure, Cancer. There have been more debates about reality or fake news than ever before.
A question comes to mind.
If I write and tell you to Believe in GOD because GOD knows what is right or wrong what should I say to you? What will you say to me? Will you say I believe in GOD. Will I take GOD’s side when people ask me if I believe in GOD? Is your question “Is there such a thing as GOD? Is GOD fake news?
These are real questions.
Do you believe in GOD in much the same way as I believed in Santa Claus?
I used to get Christmas presents from Santa Claus, I did not attribute any Christmas gifts as coming from GOD. I new the story about Jesus and Mary, and I knew that I would get some gifts from Santa Claus. I didn’t get a card from GOD. Come to think about it I haven’t gotten a birthday card from GOD. Or did I. Maybe, just maybe, GOD had to send it via a friend, or neighbor or relative. Maybe the gifts I got from my Aunt Vera came via GOD. A world of books to read and study. Maybe Aunt Vera was an angel.
What is GOD to you? GOD never called me “Buddy”. My daughter calls me “Buddy”. I call my daughter “Budette”. I never told MOM that I got beat up by a Bully when I got off the school bus one day with a classmate in fifth grade who proceeded to beat me up because I was a skinny kid and consequently easier to beat up and then brag about it. Did I question where GOD was? Did I ask GOD for help? The book department at the local pharmacy was having a sale on self defense books the day I wandered into the department in 1962. Front and Center. My dad bought me a couple of books I asked for. GOD taught me how to defend myself. GOD encouraged me to be diligent and practice. I studied and I learned and I practiced over the next 40 some years. I’m the Sunday School kid who asked the teacher “Why doesn’t GOD just make good people”?
Do I believe in GOD? I have been told and have heard preachers say that GOD will remand me to hell if I don’t do what GOD tells me to do. If GOD told you to drive the speed limit would you drive the speed limit? If GOD told you to Love one Another would you Love One Another? Why should I believe in a GOD who threatens me like the BULLY threatened me?
GOD, through Jesus, tells me that “A Father had two sons…” and the youngest left home and squandered a fortune yet was welcome back home by his father. (Luke 15: 11-32 The Prodigal Son). I believe in that GOD.
Do you question politics? What is right and what is wrong? Do you question justice and fairness? Do you debate GOD about just what does Love One Another mean? Who does one another consist of? Do you question GOD? Do you believe in GOD? Do you want to believe in GOD? Have you talked to GOD about it? What has GOD done for you?
GOD utilizes people to implement your future. GOD spreads the messages of life throughout your life. The difficult part is recognizing them. And admitting that you recognize and appreciate them. That we all make mistakes is not news. It is what and how GOD talks to us that counts. Look over your life and see just how GOD has been there. See how GOD plans your future when you haven’t even told GOD you could use a bit of help. You have no idea what GOD has planned for you and your future so always give GOD a chance. Our present day society is questioning all things. We are debating the discussions of social media and what is real and what is fake. At some point the question will come to you.
Do you believe in GOD? Why is it important? Is GOD more like Santa Claus or does GOD have a purpose? Does GOD have a purpose for you? Just who sent my Christmas card for what purpose? Santa Claus? OR mom? Or Aunt Vera?
Ask GOD. You will discover a conversationalist beyond compare.