What a difference a day makes.

Each year, I pause and reflect; it's easy to forget what life was like 54 years ago, what life could have been like, had God not intervened that evening in 1968. 

1968: Hair!

It was the last Saturday night of the year; I had a plan, and it certainly did not include an up-close conversation with God.  He had a different plan and, as it turns out, it changed my life...forever.

But the path to that evening in 1968 started ten years before, when my Grandmother, who lived with us at the time, would gather me up and carry me off to Church and Sunday School; what amazing grace!  I still have my first Bible, the one mom gave me to take to church with Grandma. I didn't know, until I was a young adult, that my grandmother faithfully prayed for me each day--that "BJ would experience the power of Jesus in his life and embrace Him as his Lord and Savior." She eventually moved back to her roots in Fort Scott, Kansas. But I continued to get myself to church until 8th grade.

I don't recall why I decided to "drop out," but I'm sure it just didn't feel very cool to attend church and Sunday School any longer--and since I went by myself, it was my decision to make. Fast forward to the fall of my Junior year in High School. One evening I landed at a Campus Life meeting (thank you, Pauline Adams!) at the home of a classmate; it was the kickoff "Burger Bash" for the school year, and as advertised, it was all-you-could-eat and attracted a huge crowd of students. 

I got more that evening than a big meal. The Campus Life leader, Mark Zier (now 76 and still in regular contact), gave a short talk to close the event, and he asked the crowd..."If you died tonight, do you know where you're going?" I didn't. It bothered me for a few minutes, but then I moved on.

On December 28, 1968, I was set to attend an "After Christmas" party with some buddies (Jerry McClain was driving). Our "wires got crossed" (coincidence?), and they never showed up; stuck, I recalled something was happening at the Rec-center with Campus Life that night--they called it a Campus Life Rally. There was a girl I had some interest in, and I knew she would probably be there (I was right); I managed to catch Mark (Zier) before he left his house. He was delighted when I called, and he swung by and picked me up. After an evening of activities, and music, a guy, Roger Cross, got up and challenged me again about my life and death. This time I was ready and wanted to get this question resolved; Mark talked with me and then invited me to pray a short, simple prayer to embrace Jesus as Messiah, and the rest...is history. 

Our 2nd date 1969

Three weeks later, I went to the Ventura Campus Life Rally. Mark asked me to share about my recent conversion experience with that half of the county I grew up in. Mark mentioned a girl he thought I'd really like, a cute Sophomore at Buena High School named Laura. He wanted to introduce us. He was right. 

In that span of three weeks I'd had two introductions that literally changed the direction and the outcome of my life: I'd trusted Jesus Messiah and met my future wife--we married 3 years, 48 weeks, and 6 days later.  We celebrate 50 years married on January 5, 2023.
 
My home was a rather complicated place (aren't most?). Lots of love, AND pain. I was carrying some emotional baggage by that time and was making some bad choices. Jesus changed all that in an instant. The baggage was there--in fact, it didn't get fully "unpacked" for years. But His presence in my life set me in a "best direction" that just never wavered. Laura's family embraced me as a "son" as our relationship grew; they, especially her dad (my dad died suddenly in 1970, just months after my 17th birthday), filled a great need in my life.

In the '80s, there was a popular gospel song written by Bill Gaither that describes my story.  I get choked up every time I sing it; the chorus declares..."Something beautiful, something good; All my confusion He understood, all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but He made something, beautiful, out of my life."

December 28, 1968. 

What a difference a day makes.  

Thanks be to God for our Blessed Hope!

One life.

Liveitwell!

God with us.

"Grampa, I'm not afraid to die.  I'm ready to level up.  I know Jesus is waiting for me."

Braden, our first-born grand, spoke those words to me many times throughout a sixteen-month battle with cancer.  Finally, on June 28, 2016, at 3.22pm, our family sat by his bedside and grieved as we watched our beloved's life slip into eternity. Braden was 14 years old.  Our hearts were bruised by this crushing loss, but we weren't broken.

Braden's death is not the event that defined his life; that defining event took place in a hamlet called Bethlehem.  It was there that God became a man.  He came on a mission of redemption.

Christmas lowers our expectations and raises our HOPE.  Christmas declares that redemption does not depend on us.

On that terrible day in the hospital, we waited as we leaned into the Savior's promise from John 6.47, "Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."

His promise Lifts us.

His promise Keeps us.

His promise Carries us.

His promise Secures us.

His promise Empowers us.

He came to be with us so that when we take our last breath, we can go to be with Him.

Emmanuel: God with us...

HOPE is the anthem of my soul!

Blessed HOPE!

 Several years ago, I received a note from a good friend..."my dad's cancer is progressing.  His time here is probably down to days."  

When I read those words, I was transported back to the last time I was with his dad.  I was saddened by this news, concerned for the grief this final act of life would introduce to my friend and his family...and not.

My friend's father did lose his life, but not once was he in danger of losing his hope: the sure promise that he, as a believer in Jesus Christ, would finally be transported into the presence of His Lord and Savior, there to enjoy life as HE designed it to be.

2022.

Another challenging year, a planet torn by COVID, the contentious spirit of the age, mayhem in our cities; an economy ruined by a microbe, ravaged by circumstance, and failed leadership.  People paralyzed by fear, turning on each other in the ongoing pandemic debate, culture war, and increasing political divide, in some cases misled by bad actors who refuse to "let any crisis go to waste."

Life is hard, then we die.

Death is a very present reality for all of us--the daily COVID statistics trumpeted each evening through a thousand different news portals slap us in the face with our inevitable end.  COVID has made us all acutely aware of our mortality.  

Now what?

We will all lose our lives, but we need not lose our hope.

Praise God for our hope in Christ and the healing death brings for those who have embraced Christ through effective saving faith. 

For these, death need not be feared; it is a gracious provision that carries us back into a "face-to-face" real-time relationship with God.  Without death, we would be eternal beings, like Lucifer and the legion of angels, which were cast out of heaven because of their rebellion...eternally separated from God, without hope of redemption.

Death became the modality God uses to foil Satan's attempt to co-opt God's crowning creative act, humankind.  So then, death is the definitive "check-mate" and demonstrates God's mastery; always steps ahead of evil and the chaos of sin.  Genesis 3 describes the event that initiated Adam and Eve's rebellion to sin and its necessary result, death; it's also here that we learn that death is part of God's bigger plan for hope and the redemption of humankind.

The rest is history, 1 John 4.9,10...

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.  10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 

Love moved God to lavish upon humankind, generous grace.  We know that death simply marks the first day of the rest of our lives, 2 Corinthians 4.16-18...

"Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly, we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are renewed day by day.  17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen...."

Each Sunday, it's our privilege to gather with others in our community of faith and there, to go Vertical in our worship of God Almighty, the Creator, Sustainer of the universe, the Lover of humankind. 

His glory fills that place we gather in, and He inhabits the praise of His people.  In those moments, I am frequently reminded of friends and family who have preceded me in death...and are in His literal presence even as we are gathered in that crowded room; no more heart failure, COPD, cancer, diabetes, stroke, dementia, arthritis, infirmity, organ failure--no disease, no broken hearts, no flaw, no pain, no suffering, no regret.

Joy unspeakable. 

Blessed h0pe.

We will rise; thanks be to God. 

Stand firm; no plan, no purpose will be left undone.

It's a GRACE day.
Liveitwell!

Keep your eye on the ball.

We are owned by the most delightful young Black Labrador Retriever on the Planet. Really.

Jett is obsessed, wait for it, with playing ball with us--big surprise! He would do it 24/7 if we could sustain our energy and focus. But his version of retrieving is unique in our experience. Jett is Lab #3 for us, dating back 26 years. So we have some background. He prefers two games--catch and soccer penalty kick. He dares us to get the ball past him in the second game. He's quite good at it. I confess to having to deploy my opposable thumb to outmaneuver him because I CAN NOT kick the ball past him--he's that good. His secret? He has figured out THE KEY is to ignore anything, I mean anything, but the ball. He is a textbook illustration of an age-old coaching axiom; the cardinal rule of good hitting--baseball, golf, billiards, or retrieving games--is, of course, "keep your eye on the ball." 

That said, my mission as a follower of Christ--to proclaim the truth about God, His love for humankind, His provision for our redemption--does not require me to fear a culture filled with souls who "are like sheep without a shepherd."  It does NOT require me to win the so-called "culture war."  

Jesus saw the crowds of distressed people and was "moved with compassion" to the Cross, where He crushed the power of sin once and for all.  

God's Word makes it clear who the enemy is..."For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"  Ephesians 6.12

God's Word tells me what it is I must do to engage these evil adversaries and prevail; I must keep my eye on the ball...

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."  Ephesians 6.10-24

Note that this passage does not instruct Christ-followers to revile the sinner, legislate a solution that protects my family, leave the Union, or disengage from "life in the world--not of the world."  This is not a political war, not a culture war--it is a Spiritual battle that calls for weapons fashioned by God for taking down, taking back, strongholds. Our weapons? See...truth, righteousness, the Gospel of Peace, faith, salvation, God's Word, intercessory prayer, wisdom from God to speak the truth in love with boldness, behaving as an Ambassador/Doulos (bond-servant) for the King.

When we allow ourselves to be drawn into a "culture-war" mentality, we lose; people yet to trust Christ and experience spiritual rebirth lose. We allow "the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness" to pick the time and place of the struggle; we lay the Armor of God aside--and we are impotent in the face of such evil. 

It's high time believers figure out "who and where" the enemy is and the rules of engagement, then take the fight to the enemy as per Paul's instruction in Ephesians 6.10-24. Only then will we see the tide of evil begin to recede. 

We will not prevail in the short-term by building higher walls around the spiritual reservations we have fashioned our churches into. We will not prevail by asking Focus of the Family to lobby our politicians. We will not prevail by finding conservative-too often shrill--politicians to write laws and pack the courts.

Cursing the darkness won't win hearts and change minds.

Choose God.  

Love people.  

Know who the enemy is and...

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."  Ephesians 6.10   

Our battle is NOT against flesh and blood. The stakes are infinitely higher than a culture war; eternity hangs in the balance for those yet to embrace Christ with effective faith.  

For the sake of the Kingdom, and especially for those who have not yet secured a place in the Kingdom through effective faith in Christ, keep your eye on the ball.

One life.

Burn bright...

LIVEITWELL!

Dust...to Diamonds.

Given the presence of carbon and vast amounts of time, temperature (ranging between 1800 and 2400*F), and extreme pressure (650,000-850,000psi), the Earth will produce diamonds. This unique process makes diamonds a relatively rare and always valuable commodity.

It should surprise no one that God uses a similar process in bringing people with effective faith into a beautiful reflection of the image of our Saviour, The Lord Jesus Messiah.

Dust to Diamonds.

Paul describes this process for us in his second letter to the church at Corinth...

7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, so I spoke." 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

--2 Corinthians 4.7-18 NLT

Pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted, knocked-down, NOT crushed, NOT despairing, NOT abandoned, NOT destroyed. BUT suffering, sharing in the death of Jesus--for one glorious purpose: that the life of The Savior might be clearly seen in our bodies, IN us.

Dust to Diamonds.

God uses hard places to fashion us into a new version of ourselves, still us, but transformed in ways that manifest His presence, His grace, His mercy. This is not what we will be, but we are sufficiently different in ways that produce confident expectation--hope. Look at how Paul describes it to the church in Rome, where he compares our struggle with the cataclysmic impact sin has had on the Earth; thus, all creation waits...

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don't need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

--Romans 8.18-25 NLT

Dust to diamonds.

What is responsible for this transformation and the hope it delivers? Paul clarifies this at the beginning of the eighth chapter of his letter to the Roman church...

There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

--Romans 8.1-4

Don't miss it...for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (humankind) and for sin (He absorbed the penalty for sin on His own body in our place), He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Sin bent the planet and broke humankind.

God is in the process of restoring what He created. The tipping point of the restoration is the passion, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus Messiah. We have been redeemed and restored positionally; now we are waiting--suffering still, but knowing that "it is finished." 

In that suffering, as we lean into our weakness, our fragility, there, at that moment, the Manifest Presence of God shines brightly through us and our suffering; for us, for a watching world to behold in wonder. His strength made manifest through our weakness. Indeed, "the wound is where the light shines through."

Dust to Diamonds.

Suffering is NOT payback. 
Suffering is NOT God's plan spinning out of control. 
Suffering IS the last dying gasp of sin--Check, NOT Check-Mate.
Suffering IS the process God has sovereignly allowed to transform our lives on this side of the veil, from...dust to diamonds.

We don't get to be here long.

One life...
Liveitwell!

Refuse the Sheep!

Lots of opining about THE existential threat to the Republic, THE threat to Democracy as we press into 2022 and head into the backstretch toward the Mid-Term's and first turn of the Race for POTUS 47. 

My neighbors, my friends, my community--OUR Nation feels profoundly divided; surly, rude, bombastic, mean-spirited because, indeed, we are; TOO much finger pointing.

Here is the thing, we come by this naturally.  This isn't the first time we've had to face down our darker impulses.

This is the existential threat: we give in to complacency and fail to do the hard work of determining what we believe, filtering out the "smoke" by applying our values and intellect to the process of making up our minds. We must commit ourselves to personal growth, which requires effort, discipline, homework, and HEARTwork.

Refuse the sheep.

   

One critical component for growth is listening to people who don't see life through the same set of lenses we use to process the world around us; we NEED people who don't think like us, regardless of which direction we lean from the center.  It's remarkable how much insight can be gleaned and common ground established when we listen.

Just imagine people with whom we disagree strongly expanding our understanding, intellect, compassion, and perhaps most importantly, allowing us to exercise, and grow, the godly discipline of grace.  

America--a remarkable idea.

Liveitwell! 

Keep looking UP.

 

Keep looking UP.

On December 28, 1968 (age 15) I said yes to Jesus; in that moment my life was transformed. Fifty-four years since then is...a few.

My life has a not always been a clear reflection of His presence, but by His grace it has been, for the most part, a slow and steady "long obedience in the same direction."

The dynamics of our culture, over my lifetime, could be described as a devolution of conscience and evolution of relevance as our moral-compass. It's ironic that the most extreme expression of the conservative mind, libertarianism, is in many ways the penultimate form of liberalism.

My point is that systems of thought, even theological systems of thought, cannot change the trajectory of the human spirit. God does that one person, one decision, at a time. People just don't have the temperament to pull that off. History is filled with movements which morphed into extremism that marginalized human beings, in the name of a greater-good, which produced tyranny and crimes against humankind.

It's not my job to save my culture from itself. 

The part I have been given, as a Christ-follower, is to point the people in my sphere of influence to God, who can; this is "the main thing" for me. I'm not called to point them to systems or movements that will save the day, but to the God of eternity who loves human beings with an everlasting and long suffering love, a transformative love. He does the formative work in people, which will in turn change culture.

That said, how can I keep the main thing, the main thing? I offer 10 simple disciplines...

• Be humble.
• Love my spouse.
• Act as an agent of peace.
• Trust in the power of God.
• See people the way God sees them.
• Focus on walking close to God on a daily basis.
• Declare the precepts of God in a loving, inclusive way.
• Empower my kids, my grandkids with a legacy of godliness.
• Love unconditionally my enemies and those who might seek to hurt me.
• Pray for those raised up as leaders in my church, community and our nation. 

Systems and movements--even good ones, by their very nature, devolve. 

God, is the same yesterday, today and forever!

I choose God. He produces change which gives me, gives us all, HOPE. 

We don't get to be here long; keep looking up.

One life.

Burn bright...

Liveitwell!

I hear a symphony.

Many of my friends express concern about the fact that "God is being forced out of the public square." It's become a favorite pastime for People of Faith (yes I'm guilty)--lamenting the "sorry state" of the Nation.

What concerns ME?  

It's this: People of Faith have come to embrace the notion that the symbolic presence of God is the same thing as the authentic presence of God.   

Here is a short list of hot buttons, not intended to be exhaustive, but illustrative.

• Do we want God in our schools--disciple your children to know and love Jesus. 
• Do we want our Nation to understand that marriage is a beautiful metaphor, designed by God, of a much bigger relationship--and for this reason, it is a sacred estate. Love your wife selflessly and trust your husband implicitly.
• Do we want values to govern our economy, greed to be disdained--choose simplicity and invest our resources on behalf of the poor, widows, and orphans; be seekers of justice for all the disenfranchised.  
• Are we befuddled by the national obsession with abortion rights, perplexed by the disdain modern cultures have for human life, and the high regard they show for endangered species?  Find your voice and speak passionately-forcefully for the Little Ones, consider...adoption, Foster parenting, and Mentoring programs.

For too long, too many of us who profess to be followers of Jesus have routinely "phoned it in."

• We've been content to build private school sanctuaries, teaching Bible courses, that will disciple our children for us.
• We've turned a blind eye to the failure rate of marriages in our churches.
• We've justified selfish ambition and the boastful pride of life as "what's ours is ours" and left justice to government inefficiency and the dehumanizing impact of its one-size-fits-all insanity.
• We've ceded the heavy lifting for protecting the lives of unborn children, and the quality of life for born children to others "called" to a missional lifestyle.

Consider this: God's plan has always been to "show up" via the beautiful music being played through lives well-lived by those who are His devoted followers--the Scripture makes clear that no law can stand against such purposeful, selfless living, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5.22,23 NASB

Lives lived this way will produce a breathtaking symphony that will bring relevance back to our Mission as His Church--no longer engaged in managing a kingdom but compelled to build HIS Kingdom. 

WHEN we take seriously our empowerment, from God, to add value to the lives of people, to make hard lives easier, to speak the truth of the Gospel into the brokenness of life without Christ, to model the transformational reality of the Gospel through the choices and investments we make--with our lives and resources, THEN they won't be able to lock God out of the public square. There is no law that can stand against this kind of authenticity.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3.20,21 NASB

I hear a symphony.  

Through Christ, let it be.

One life.

Burn bright...

Liveitwell!

I'm leveling-up!

Six years ago, on June 28, we lost our beloved grandson to a dragon named cancer.   Braden is a constant companion in my heart. He battled the disease and in the end, he lost his life, but he never lost his hope; the certain confidence that he, as a believer in Jesus Messiah, would be transported into the presence of His Lord and Savior, there to enjoy life as HE designed it to be. 

Life is hard, then we die. We will all lose our lives in one final breath, but we need not die without hope.

I am profoundly grateful for the certitude we have in Christ and the healing death brings for those who have embraced Him through effective, saving faith; we are given direction about what this is in Romans 8.10-13...

“'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' [Deuteronomy 30.12] (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, 'Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.' [Isaiah 28.16; 49.23] 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” 

For these, death is not something to be feared; it is a gracious provision that carries us back into a face-to-face real-time relationship with God. 

Without death, we become eternal beings, like Lucifer and the legion of angels which were cast out of heaven because of their rebellion, separated forever from God.  Without death we would be chained to a relationship of enmity with God; no reverse, no repair--no redemption.  NO hope.

So then, death became the modality that God uses to foil Satan's attempt to co-opt God's crowning creative act, humankind. It is the definitive check-mate, demonstrating God's mastery; always steps ahead of evil, and the chaos of sin. Genesis 3 describes the event that initiated the rebellion of Adam and Eve to sin and its necessary consequence, physical death; it's also here that we learn that death is part of God's bigger plan for hope and the redemption of humankind.

The rest is history.  The Apostle pens this remarkable statement in 1 John 4.9,10...

"God showed how much he loved us

by sending his one and only Son 

into the world so that we might 

have eternal life through him. 

10 This is real love—not that we loved God, 

but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice 

to take away our sins."

Love is a four-letter word, spelled H-O-P-E; more importantly, death simply marks the first day of the rest of our lives, Paul reminds Christ-followers in 2 Corinthians 4.16-18...

"Therefore we do not lose heart. 

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet 

inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 

17 For our light and momentary 

troubles are achieving for us an eternal 

glory that far outweighs them all. 

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, 

but on what is unseen, 

since what is seen is temporary, 

but what is unseen is eternal."

We will rise. 

I'll never forget Braden's exclamation to us as we gathered in his room at the hospital the afternoon before he died. We'd just been told by his Doctor, very tenderly, that Braden would soon leave his body behind.  Braden's father, Matthew, sat down on the bed, looked into Braden's eyes, and asked him how he was doing, to which Braden smiled and said "Is that the worst-case scenario?  I'm leveling UP.  I am going to be fine dad.  I'm ready."  

He was.  

Are you?  

We don't get to be here long. 

What will you do with Jesus? 

Life is fast.

Liveitwell!

Questions?  Contact me at goodneighbaier@yahoo.com

Whisper their names...

Taps begin.
Time stands still; this I remember. 

Their laughter, their scent.
  First smile, first step, first word, first love.
  A Friday night; life was simple.
  The future, a certain dream.

Bulletproof, not.
Whisper their names.

Taps begin.

Time flashes back, tears flow freely.
Pride in lives well lived.
Grieving for lives given, invested, gone.
The loss, the pain; broken plans, broken hearts--shattered.
Whisper their names.

Taps begin.
Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast-Guardsmen, Airmen.
Duty, honor, country.
Last full measure, their devotion.
No greater love, their sacrifice.
In peace, now rest.
Whisper their names...and remember.

Liveitwell!

Keep your eye...on the Ball.

We are owned by the most delightful young Black Labrador Retriever on the Planet. Really.

Jett is obsessed, wait for it, with playing ball--big surprise! He would do it 24/7 if we could sustain our energy and focus. His version of retrieving is unique in our experience. Jett is Lab #3 for us, dating back 26 years. So we have some background. He prefers two games--catch and soccer penalty kick. He dares us to get the ball past him in the second game. He's pretty good at it. I confess to deploying my opposable thumb to outmaneuver him because I cannot kick the ball past him--he's that good. 

His secret? He has figured out that the KEY is to ignore anything but the ball. He is a textbook illustration of an age-old coaching axiom; the cardinal rule of good hitting--baseball, golf, billiards, or retrieving games--is "keep your eye on the ball." 

My mission as a follower of Christ--proclaim the truth about God, His love for humankind, His provision for our redemption--does not require me to fear a culture filled with souls who "are like sheep without a shepherd."  It does NOT need me to win the so-called "culture war."  

Jesus saw the crowds of distressed people and was "moved with compassion" to the Cross, where He crushed the power of sin.  

God's Word makes it clear who the enemy is..."For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"  Ephesians 6.12

God's Word tells me what I must do to engage these evil adversaries and prevail; I must keep my eye on the ball...

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." 

--Ephesians 6.10-24

Note that this passage does not instruct Christ-followers to revile the sinner, legislate a solution that protects my family, leave the Union, or disengage from "life in the world--not of the world."  This is not a political war, not a culture war--it is a Spiritual battle that calls for weapons fashioned by God for taking down, taking back, strongholds. Our weapons? See...truth, righteousness, the Gospel of Peace, faith, salvation, God's Word, intercessory prayer, wisdom from God to speak the truth in love with boldness behaving as an Ambassador/Doulos (bond-servant) for the King.

When we take our eye off the ball and allow ourselves to be drawn into a "culture-war" mentality, we lose; people yet to trust Christ and experience spiritual re-birth lose. We let the "the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness" pick the time and place of the struggle; we lay the Armor of God aside--and we are impotent in the face of such evil. 

It's imperative that believers figure out "who and where" the enemy is and the rules of engagement; then take the fight to the enemy as per Paul's instruction in Ephesians 6.10-24. Only then will we see the tide of evil begin to recede. 

We will not prevail in the long-term...

By building higher walls around the spiritual reservations we have too often fashioned our churches after. 

We will not prevail...

By asking Focus of the Family to lobby our politicians. 

We will not succeed...

By finding conservative, too often shrill, politicians to write laws and pack the courts. 

Cursing the darkness won't win hearts and change minds.

Choose God.  

Love people.  

Know who the enemy is and...

"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil."  Ephesians 6.10   

Our battle is NOT against flesh and blood. The stakes are infinity higher than a culture war; eternity hangs in the balance for those yet to embrace Christ with effective faith.  

For The Kingdom's sake, and especially those who have not yet secured a place, through effective faith, in The Kingdom, keep your eye on the ball.

One life.

We don't get to be here long.

Burn bright.

LIVEITWELL!