GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING ALL
Love One Another
WHERE DOES HEAVEN ON EARTH HANG OUT
GOOD MORNING ALL
An interesting day so far. Running a bit late for today but slept in late with the dogs and it changed my pace for my day off. I kept watching “OLD” TV and with laundry in the background I became enhanced with the “OLD” TV that I watched while growing up vs the “NOW” TV and what it has become.
Life has really changed over the years and TV is no different than what politics has become. Technology as well as culture has changed considerably. From no TV to the INTERNET and SOCIAL MEDIA, life has changed considerably in a very short period of time.
I am becoming more comfortable with my old favorite, instrumental music only, that the dogs get to listen to when I am off to work. I am kind of like back from outer space and resuming my day off. I feel young watching “OLD TV” and old while watching how it has all changed.
One question that entered my mind is how GOD and JESUS and HEAVEN ON EARTH have changed. Between HEAVEN and HELL and SIN and REVELATIONS on the doorstep, the Christian religion has out paced HEAVEN ON EARTH. Just what kind of EARTH is HEAVEN supposed to be like by now? What changes would GOD present EARTH to be like since the FLOOD. Then JESUS was supposed to reset our mindset about HEAVEN ON EARTH.
The books of BIBLE, or REVELATIONS, as an example, is a huge business for the religion of JESUS the CHRISTIAN. It is hard to determine just what they are trying to accomplish with book after book after book about the end. The book people are happy, and there seems to be a Christian religious book for everyone irregardless of the different opinions of over 30,000 denominations of “Christians” ON EARTH. JUST AS IT IS IN HEAVEN? How does one decide just which book to read and what do I want to take away from the book I am reading. Where does HEAVEN on EARTH hang out? How are we to grasp which image is the future image or the past image.
I want to offer a very simple NEW IMAGE from an OLD, OLD LEGEND:
LOVE ONE ANOTHER. PERIOD.
NO SPECIAL BOOKS. NO special chapters. NO BIBLES and NO ANYTHING ELSE. Easy to remember. Covers all the grounds. DEALS WITH ALL CULTURES AND ALL COUNTRIES. One just makes it work themselves. Maybe even HEAVEN can’t be this difficult to make it work.
The weather is nice today and it is due to rain tomorrow. Have a wonderful day and enjoy all the opportunities that the day presents. OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALL.
ME, Mack and Jake
GOD’S IMAGE
GOOD SATURDAY AFTERNOON ALL
I have had an interesting day. So different from the weatherman over the last many days. Cold and wind chill and wind chill and cold creates its own image of how the day proceeds. When I woke up at 6 AM to take the dogs out there was no wind and the sun was waking up right along with us. Make no mistake, I did not dream it.
We all smiled and the day changed to the TV after a long morning walk to the park. The computer expanded the TV to catch up on some reading and writing. The lunch treat became a couple chocolates, coffee and cinnamon rolls and a monster cookie. More habit than good idea. (You have to remember that GOD goes shopping with me once in a while). The computer led me to more reading and it is now 1:40 PM as I have tuned in to the WORD. IMAGINATION.
Most of you know I write this blog and a music blog and have for years. I would love to be able to sit back and take the credit for my imagination. The guardian angels (Mack and Jake) take me for walks. Go left, go right. Let’s go this way or that way. The clock tells me what time to go out, before the rain or after the snow stops falling. GOD helps me write the music via the people that GOD has entered into my life. Some to say hi and have a nice day. “Nice to touch spring”. Years of others to share parts of their lives with a part of mine. The blog and the music is merely the result of my interest in what GOD has shared with me over many, many years of choices and decisions and opportunities. Where credit is due, credit should be recognized for those who GOD has shared with me and my journeys.
Today there is a smile on my face that overlooked laundry, groceries, cleaning and assigned the day for what it is. A day off and moving forward. Have a wonderful day and know that OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.
ME, and Mack and Jake
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.)
MEMORIES — 1-19-22
GOOD MORNING ALL
Today I keep my joy, joy, joy joy deep in my heart, deep in my heart today.
The world is surrounded by joyful music.
Whether it is freezing cold or summer heat, a smile comes to mind when the thought process comes to remind me of special days, events, people, friends and the dogs. When it is 9 degrees I remember knocking on doors and shouting Happy Halloween in Minnesota. When it is 90 degrees I remember jumping in a swimming pool in Billings Montana. Joy can not hide inside and life can not frown when memories are remembered. Remembering life isn’t buried in sadness, it is people I laughed with, people who made me smile. It is music that brings them back to life.
Life is a journey of challenges, and of gifts and do you remember when. I have had more smiles than frowns. I have had more opportunities than not. Enjoy the memories. When I sit down to write these little tidbits I think Thank You. Have a wonderful time despite the weather, grief, loss, or tears. Life is an adventure. Life is filled with memories. It is a time of throwing stones across a pond, and a time of gathering them up. (Eccesiasties- 3 vs 5). OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALWAYS.
ME, Mack and Jake
AUTHETICATING JESUS
Authenticating Jesus
From: 1-20-2005
Why is there such a need to authenticate Jesus for us to love?
I watch the TV shows on the religious channels. I listen to the pastoral speeches and sermons, especially at Christmas. We open our Bibles and stress all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, the Old Testament this and that, ‘And in the book of….. it says….’
And it is nice to be able to find reference to Jesus in scripture, but is it necessary to authenticate Jesus for us to love?
Sometimes I believe we expend more energy in trying to authenticate the messenger than we expend in living the message.
Would the message loose its value if it was given by an itinerant Rabbi, or a Buddha or a Shaman? Is it less important if given by a steeplejack or a cab driver?
Is ‘Love One Another’ a more powerful charge coming from GOD’S son, or GOD’S servant, or simply one of GOD’S children? Is ‘Love One Another’ an empty request coming from a Muslim or a Jew, or an agnostic or an atheist? Is it a message to be idly dismissed as an empty dream not worthy of attention when issued by ‘just’ one of GOD’S children?
To the other extent, now that we have authenticated Jesus as the messenger, when will we implement the message? When the time is right for us? When Jesus calls us on the phone? The week before He ‘returns’? Now that we have accepted the mantle of Christian will we demand an end to aggression, whether in defense of, or in spite of?
Authenticating the messenger is of no value until we choose to implement the message. Our lives will not change until we live the message. Our only chance for heaven on earth will pass us by if we wait to meet Jesus in heaven. Jesus is in the humblest of messengers, the one we just walked by because he wore a turban, or hadn’t shaved this week, or smelled, or wore a ‘biker’ shirt. The one who doesn’t attend church each week because no church would accept his or her lifestyle. We walk by Jesus daily. Until we stop and get to know Him, we will never find, nor have a hope of seeing, heaven on earth.
It is not necessary to ignore the messenger, it is humbling to realize how committed Jesus was to the cause. It is necessary to implement the message, not to whom we would wish, but to whom Jesus would wish. Everyone.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
The news this SUNDAY MORNING reminded me of the day, May15,1968 a tornado rampaged my birth town of Oelwein Iowa. My cousin and my Grandmother were about their day and the sirens went off and my Grandmother grabbed my cousin Tim and pulled him down into the basement of the family home and they found a safe shelter in the basement. The porch on the southside of the home was gone. Blown away and not found again. My Oelwein friends lived next door and a tree limb had blown right through their living room wall. The elm trees along their street had blown over. A corner of the high school had been damaged. Damage was everywhere. I sat in my home a couple of hundred miles away in Kansas City and made arrangements to get on the bus and head for Oelwein. Four had died, and the damage was extreme. I was 16 years old then. A friend of mine from Minneapolis met me there.
So many came to help. I fixed fences, the chimney on Grandma’s home. Cleaning and sweeping and very fortunate that the damage was minimal to Grandma and my friends there and my cousins from across the back-street were all OK. Today I think of years of writing Unorthodox Christianity and think of the so many who have died, so much loss of homes, workplaces, shelters, and so much more that happened in Kentucky and nearby. How fortunate I am for living in Des Moines Iowa and not being a victim of one of the 20+ tornadoes. I watched my morning Church show like I always do and thought “What DO You Say?” “What do you say, religiously?”
GOD is all over Sunday television. Prayer and the sermons about Jesus and the stories of His birth for us to share that has become Christmas, and gifts and get togethers and families together now changed forever for those affected by 20+ tornadoes. Thousands affected both there and relatives and friends who heard from the relatives of friends that they grew up with and hearing of the devastation of their home towns and all the people who lost their lives. The TV sermons are talking about the birth of Jesus and the gifts of GOD. “What DO you say?” How do I, sharing Unorthodox Christianity, answer the questions of WHY? There will be lots of “Why’s” in the lives of so many.
GOD BEGINS IMMEDIATELY. So many who survived. So many first responders. So many who started immediately checking on their neighbors, their neighbor hoods, and their relatives. So much power of prayer to fill the voids as the phone calls are made, the homes and lives to be rebuilt. The stories of miracles after miracles that saved so many from a tragedy brought on by the physics of nature. GOD IS AT WORK IMMEDIATELY. The world is a world of constant change. GOD NEVER STAYS AWAY. GOD DOES NOT STOP HELPING. GOD knows the physics of the world. GOD knows the natural risks of LIFE. The instant power of the prayers of millions go to work to console, to help, to care.
“WHAT DO YOU SAY?” “OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.” “OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALWAYS.” We can not be everywhere, we can not offer as much help as we would like, but OUR CARES AND OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALWAYS because GOD HAS BEEN AT WORK IMMEDIATELY. The power of your prayers feeds miracle after miracle because GOD NEVER STOPS CARING FOR ALL GOD’S CHILDREN, YOUNG OR OLD.
GOD BLESS YOU EVERYDAY.
AMEN
SHARE THE MOMENT
A beautiful sunny day in Iowa. Cool enough to be fall and bright enough to be warm.
The opportunities of any day happen when you least expect them. Take advantage of all the gifts that come your way, not just for today, but every day.
When you can not see people as the gifts and treasures that they are, you are missing most of life’s blessings. Too often, I believe, that GOD borrows one of us to touch bases with someone we least expect. It may be that child that smiles and waves at us. It may be someone who can use our help without asking for it. It may be a thank you. My dogs may say hello ask for a small treat. There is no reason to believe that GOD never stops by to see how things are going. Too many think that GOD prefers to be untouchable. This is not the picture of Jesus on the Cross. We have a tendency to believe that Heaven is one place and Earth is another. The desire for GOD is ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
There are a lot of places on EARTH to visit. There are a lot of nice and caring people to meet. GOD can borrow anyone GOD wishes for as long as GOD requires. If you can feel the wind, you can feel GOD on the visit. Do not think GOD could care less. GOD cares for all of us. GOOD, Bad, or indifferent. I have often said that GOD watches out for the ignorant and uninformed. Why? Because I am often the ignorant and the uninformed. GOD is an active and caring energy. GOD could hide in Heaven, except for it being HEAVEN ON EARTH.
Share the moment. You may never recognize that the moment you share is designed to make HEAVEN on EARTH what it is that GOD has created. A work in progress that you are a part of.
OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU ALL.
ME, Mack and Jake
What You Have Done For ME
GOOD SATURDAY MORNING ALL
FINTER is upon us. Those magic days between fall and winter where one coat is ok but two is too bulky. The high is grasping at the upper 40ties with a bit lighter wind. For those east of us it may seem like the beginning of Winter for a while, global cooling is upon us.
Peace is such a relevant word for us as we watch the news each day and wonder what has happened to us as a people. I remember back in the 80’s when the debate was more good news or more bad news for TV. Rather than the bad news getting the most time, I would prefer the good news most of the time. There are more good and caring people in the world than gets touched upon. There are so many events happening for people to share food, time, clothing, resources and much more that the ordinary people have put together.
Jesus put it this way: “These things that you have done for the least of these my children, you have done for me”. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We do much of that without thinking about the many things Jesus brought to the table. I have learned so much in my life. Not for what I have perhaps learned, but for what have I been taught by those who have reached out to help me. The things we often take for granted, have been the greatest of all gifts.
When you are sharing the good news this weekend, know that OUR CARES AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU.
ME, Mack and Jake