JimmyDee's LifeLets

Some Thoughts on Spirituality

2012-01-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

“People change and needs change. So what was spirituality once is spirituality no more. What generally goes under the name of spirituality is merely the record of past methods.”

Don’t cut the person to fit the coat.

“When Christ bids you ‘Come,’ He bids you ‘Come and die.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.”

Jesus of Nazareth

"All I know is that I can’t keep pretending that I am immune to the things I spend my time doing, watching and listening to. I can’t keep thinking Proverbs was wrong and it is possible to put coals in your lap without getting burned.

At some point, I’ve got to be honest with myself. And God is making that harder and harder to ignore lately." Jon Acuff

Go to Church!

2012-01-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

“My own experience is that when I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the Churches and Gospel Halls … If there is anything in the teaching of the New Testament which is in the nature of a command, it is that you are obliged to take the Sacrament, and you can’t do it without going to Church. I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit.”

-- from “Answers to Questions on Christianity,” God in the Dock

The Sanctity of Unborn Human Life ...

2012-01-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

"Joseph son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because
what is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit."

A Challenge to the Champions of the Right

2012-01-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

"I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
Dr. Martin Luther King

The Opposite of Love ...

2011-12-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

“… the opposite of love is to use someone for your own sake.”

John Paul as quoted by Ed Noble Lead Pastor of Journey Community Church,

La Mesa, CA, December 4, 2011

My Refuge Is In God ...

2011-11-29T18:17:00.001-08:00

“I see more clearly, I think, the necessity … which God is under of allowing us to be afflicted – so few of us will really rest all on Him if He leaves us any other support.”

C. S. Lewis

How're You and Your Conscience Getting Along?

2011-11-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

How’re you getting along with your conscience?

Do you ever find you’re somewhat irritated with it?

The truth is you don’t really want to be on adversarial terms with it. Jesus told His Friends that His Spirit, when He came to be with them, would guide and convict them. Sounds a lot like what your conscience does wouldn’t you say?

When you find conviction increasing in volume, and you’ve chosen to follow Christ, don’t let it irritate you. The growing sensitivity, especially to things which haven’t been such a big deal before, is evidence that Our Lord is getting closer and more involved in your life. The conviction and direction are the very things you need to make choices like Jesus would make if He were you.

Abandoning Outcomes ...

2011-11-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

“As a Christian, you do not know what the future holds, but you do know who holds your hand. If you get ready to put your foot down in the wrong place, God will stop you and nudge you in another direction. He will shift your direction often, and as you look back on the way He has led, you will find that He has never guided you into a dead-end street or into a destructive situation...The essence of being a Christian is putting your hand in the hand of Christ and turning your back on any rights to the direction of your life. Your future becomes His, and He leads you for your “good and for His glory.’”

Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

What God Says ...

2011-11-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

What God says is truer than anything I feel.
What God says is truer than anything I experience.
What God says is truer than any circumstance I will ever face.

Ney Bailey

# 1: The Person Enjoying God's Well-being

2011-11-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Does Not …	“consort with people who ignore God … even deny He exists, and claim their ways are best”
	“laugh at, admire, approve, nor justify evil or those who practice it …”
	“spend time with people who mock others; speak in hurtfully critical tones; nor hang out with smart mouths”
Does …	“delight in whatever God says”
	“contemplate ‘every word that comes from the mouth of God’ day and night”
	Sometimes pray, “deny me those gratifying invitations; those highly interesting contacts; that participation in the brilliant movements of our age …
	“prosper”

Playin' on the "Black Keys" ...

2011-11-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

"Son! If the mountain was smooth you couldn't climb it!"

Wintley Phipps

In Concert at Carnegie Hall

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1312

When Pain is Real

2011-10-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

“When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge; a little human

sympathy more than courage; and the least trace of the love of God more than all.”

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

The Ways of Satan

2011-10-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

To adopt the ways of a Secular Society; the realm of Satan; is to give one’s consent to “a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography …”

C.S. Lewis

A Great Mentor Turns 80

2011-07-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

Today, in Niagara Falls, Canada Friends and Colleagues will join Pastor Ken Kennedy to celebrate his 80^th Birthday. I wish I could be there.

Ken was one of the Pastors in the Community of Churches among which I grew up. I also saw him as the sort of Preacher and Leader I’d like to be. He spoke well. His demeanor was unaffected. He was charismatic but not pushy. It was easy for him to laugh. And he took us kids seriously. Despite the long list of achievements he could boast of he chose to live the moments with consistent integrity, humbly. Though our paths meandered through different regions and I rarely talked with him personally Ken influenced my life significantly. He was among the Leaders who placed their hands on me and commissioned me when I was ordained. Recently, thanks to the Internet, we’ve had the opportunity to communicate more frequently. I especially enjoyed a conversation we had during a Conference in Toronto, Canada in May. Ken is still the inspiring man I remember. And I’m thrilled to see his passion hasn’t waned.

One of my memories of Ken illustrates how genuine and free he really is.

We were at Family Camp. This Summer Camp was a convergence of Christ-followers from all over Western Ontario in Canada. It was, for these Churches, the highlight of the year. People enjoyed being together and looked forward to the challenging preaching, inspiring music, and, particularly the time after each evening Meeting when people were dramatically touched by the Spirit of God. This was a Celebration! And joy filled the Meeting Place we called “the Tabernacle.”

On this particular night Ken was the MC for the “Altar Service.” People who’d been renewed by God’s spirit would tell their story, or, as we would say, “give their testimony.” This night many people had come and knelt at the “altar” – wood benches set end –to-end across the front of the Tabernacle on a lower level wood platform. A woman who’d “dropped in” that night from the neighborhood near the campground was moved by the goings on and came to turn her life over to Jesus. As people were coming to the front after they’d prayed to “give their testimony,” she came and stood in the line waiting to come to the mic and tell her “story.” Ken would guide each speaker and even, at times, interact with them as they spoke. When this woman’s opportunity came she stepped to the mic. She was quite animated; almost giddy over the emotional experience of “letting go and letting God” intervene in her troubled life. She was full of joy. She looked at Ken and asked, “May I tell a funny story?” Ken was noticeably hesitant. He held his mic by his side for a moment, not responding. She went on. “It’s on the Scotch!” It was apparent that this was not helpful to Ken who was trying to decide what to do with such an unusual turn of events. Of course the Scotch, at least in those days, were known for their exceptional frugality. Some would even say they were “tight with their money.” But they could also be the swashbuckling type; fast living bar hounds and the like. Where was this woman going? Ken took a “leap of faith,” and nodded his approval. This is what she said.

“A Scotchman and his Wife were out for a Sunday afternoon drive. An hour or so into the drive the Wife turned to her Husband and told him she had to go to the bathroom. He was a little perturbed but began looking for a Service Station that might have a “loo.” Finding one that appeared to have facilities that would be clean he pulled in. His Wife walked into the Office. Moments later she returned to the car obviously troubled. “It’s a ‘pay toilet,’” she said. “I’ll need a dime.” “Oh, my Dear!” her Husband said. “Can you wait a bit?” “Let’s drive on a piece! I hate to spend the money if we don’t have to.” “Well, don’t drive long!” She urged. They drove a while and came on another Station. Again she walked in. Once more she returned troubled; but now more so. And, again, her Husband insisted on looking for “free relief.” She did not like it but agreed. They went on and before long found another Service Station. As you might guess she found that this Station, too, required payment for use of their facilities. But now there’d be no negation. She returned to the car. “Give me a dime!” she demanded. “But Dear!” “No but Dear! Give me a dime!” He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the dime. He handed it to her. As she reached for it he pulled it back. With that he said, imploringly, “Honey! Before you put this in the slot, PLEASE! be sure you don’t just have ‘gas!’”

An awkward silence fell over the Tabernacle. All eyes were on Ken. What would he do? Would he laugh? Would he reprimand what some would consider inappropriate? Would he turn to the next person in line and invite them to take their turn? No … he dropped his hands to his side bent forward a bit and smiled broadly, chuckling simultaneously. With that the crowd burst into laughter and a newborn Child of the King went laughing to her seat knowing she was welcome!

From that day on I understood how crucial it is to not “take ourselves too seriously!”

Ken, thanks! You’ve been an invaluable “Role Model,” and I love you for it.

Jim Denison

The Crown of Adversity

2011-04-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Christ was despised on earth by men, and in His greatest need, amid insults, was abandoned by those who knew Him and by friends: and you dare to complain of anyone? Christ had His adversaries and slanderers; and you wish to have everyone as friends and benefactors?

Whence will your patience win its crown if it has encountered nothing of adversity?

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis

No Matter How Wrong Things Seem to Be All is Right With God and His World

2011-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Bill Wilson, held by many to be “the most influential person in the development of Alcoholics Anonymous,” had gone on a three-day binge and was hospitalized. Ebby Thatcher, a friend who’d had a “religious experience” and was sober visited him in the hospital. At Wilson’s request Thatcher repeated to him the formula which had led to his conversion. “Realize you’re licked, admit it, and get willing to turn your life over to the care of God.”

Wilson fell into a deep depression after his friend left. He describes the crisis point in that depression. “I still gagged badly on the notion of a Power greater than myself, but finally, just

for the moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself crying out, ‘If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything; anything!’

Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind’s eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on a bed, but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness. All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, ‘So this is the God of the preachers!’ A great peace stole over me and I thought, ‘No matter how wrong things seem to be, they are all right. Things are all right with God and His world.’”

Wilson never took another drink!

From Tim Stafford, The Hidden Gospel of the 12 Steps, Christianity Today: July 22, 1991.

Lord is It I?

2011-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

“As murder storywriters assume, and as most of us learn in experience, we have in us the capacities for fury, fear, envy, greed, conceit, callousness, and hate which, given the right provocation, could make killers out of us all – baby-batterers or Bluebeards, professional thugs or amateur hit men. G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown explained his method of detection by saying, ‘You see, it was I who killed all those people’ – in the sense that he looked within himself to find the mentality that would produce the crime he was investigating, and did in fact discover it there.

Chesterton lets him moralize: ‘No man’s really any good till he knows how bad he is, or might

be; till he’s realized exactly how much right he has to all this snobbery, and sneering and talking about criminals, as if they were apes in a forest ten thousand miles away … till he’s squeezed out of his soul the last drop of the oil of the Pharisees; till his only hope is somehow or other to have captured one criminal, and kept him safe and sane under his own hat.’

Brown, though fictitious, states fact. When the fathomless wells of rage and hatred in the normal human heart are tapped, the results are fearful. ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ Only restraining and renewing grace enables anyone to keep the sixth commandment.” – Ed. “or any of the commandments for that matter.”

J. I. Packer, I Want to be A Christian

Listening ...

2011-04-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

During these days of Lent and reflecting on the Suffering of Our Lord one of the critical disciplines that will deepen our understanding of Christ’s Journey to our cross is “listening.”

Several years ago I read the following insights into this often neglected Spiritual Discipline.

The first is from Experiencing Prayer: Three Settings, by Mark Lind. Lind writes, “During the Depression a young man saw an ad in the newspaper for a telegraph operator. He hurried to the building and room listed in the ad. When he got there the room was jammed with applicants. They young man was crestfallen. As he stood there wondering what to do he heard a steady flow of dots and dashes over the heavy drone of conversation. Suddenly, the young man’s eyes lit up. He dashed over to a door marked ‘Private,’ turned the door knob, and went inside. In a few minutes he came out smiling. He had the job. The employer told the rest of the applicants that they could leave.

As you might imagine there was an angry outcry from the group. ‘We demand an explanation,’ someone shouted. ‘This young man comes in late, bucks the line, and you hire him.’ The employer paused a moment, and then said: 'You have your explanation. All you have to do is listen to the dots and dashes.' Everyone stopped and listened. They couldn’t believe what they heard. Over and over the dots and dashes repeated the same message they’d been repeating for an hour: ‘If you hear this, come in. The job is yours. If you hear this come in. The job is yours.’”

The second insight is from As for Me and My House, by Walter Wangerin, Jr. “At the beginning of his reign, King Solomon prayed for one superior gift from God. Not wealth, not long life, but something far more valuable – he asked for ‘an understanding heart,’ which may be translated, a hearing heart. He asked, we say, for wisdom. But the genius of wisdom … is the ability to open a room in one’s heart for the talk – and so for the presence – of another. Wisdom is none other than the ability to listen.”

Joy ... The Well-being of the Lord Himself Comes to Those Who Serve as He Does

2011-04-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

“After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, ‘Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you – bring you into a well-being like He Himself enjoys – for doing them.’” (John 13: 12 – 17 New Living Translation)

Ozymandias

2011-03-31T19:39:00.000-07:00

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

The Resurrection is Only as Real as the Death is Real

2011-03-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

“This, then, is the Christ that Jesus would have us know and accept and (O Christian!) reflect:

One who came to die.

One who, in the assessment of this age, failed – an embarrassment, a folly, a stumbling block. An offense!

One crucified.

Here in the world, the Christ and His followers hang ever on a cross. The cross is foremost, because a faithless world cannot see past it to the resurrection.

And even for the faithful the cross must always be first, because the Resurrection is only as real (both in history and in our hearts) as the death is real. …

If ever we persuade the world (or ourselves) that we have a hero in our Christ, then we have lied. Or else we are deceived, having accepted the standards of this world.”

Walter Wangerin Jr. Reliving the Passion

Sin is the Abuse of God's Intentions for Us

2011-03-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Every sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us – an energy which, if not thus distorted, would have blossomed into one of those holy acts whereof “God did it” and “I did it” are both true descriptions. We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.”
C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Facing the True "I"

2011-03-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

“We imply, and often believe, that habitual vices are exceptional single acts and make the opposite mistake about our virtues – like the bad tennis player who calls his normal form his ‘bad days’ and mistakes his rare successes for his normal. I do not think it is our fault that we cannot tell the real truth about ourselves; the persistent, life-long, inner murmur of spite, jealousy, prurience, greed, and self-complacence, simply will not go into words. But the important thing is that we should not mistake our inevitably limited utterances for a full account of the worst that is inside.”

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

True Humility is Born in the Presence of Christ

2011-03-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

“The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.” Phillip Brooks

“He, Jesus, understands the relationship of faith: that if anyone continues in loving relationship with Him, it is His love that preserves it, not the love of the other, nor all the piety, nor all the goodness a Christian can muster. …” His heart cries out to His vulnerable Friend, “Peter, Peter, Christian! Soon, in pain, you will discover that it’s not your love, not your goodness or knowledge, or prayer, no, not all your strength that keeps us together. I do that. I alone, your Lord, do that.”

Walter Wangerin Jr., Reliving the Passion

Pharisees ... The Great Pretenders

2011-03-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.

Oswald Chambers

Remember

2011-03-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
Samuel "Dr." Johnson

Particular Persons

2011-03-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

“ O Lord, catch us up … in the whirl of your holy history. We seem to be but particles in the wind; but you declare each one of us to be a particular person, spokes in the great wheel of your covenant-loving of the world.

Let us be meek in your kingdom, but not abject; humble, not self-pitiful; obedient, not obsequious; servants, not servile; childlike, not childish; yours in love and willingness, and then our smallness shall be your greatness indeed.”

Walter Wangerin Jr., Preparing for Jesus

God ... You Must Do This I Cannot!

2011-03-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

"The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims upon them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure. ...

All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, ‘You must do this. I cannot.’"
C.S. Lewis

I'm not Afraid!

2011-01-13T18:53:00.000-08:00

"I'm not afraid! I was born to do this!"
Joan of Arc

You're as Wealthy as You Think You Are

2010-11-23T20:17:00.000-08:00

The richest person is not the one who has the most … but the one who needs the least.

Life is What You Make of It

2010-11-23T20:16:00.001-08:00

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything … they just make the best of everything.