John 3:5-8
5 Jesus answered,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit
[Greek word means both wind and spirit].
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind [wind and spirit] blows where it wishes,
and you hear its sound,
but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Isaiah 6:8
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
People new to the Bible and farflung in the Word of God wonder. As they should. God had a lot of serious, and joyful, sustaining and strengthening conversations with us in our mind, heart and soul as we just wonder.
Wonder is a good thing. When the direction is always Jesus Christ and His Steadfast Love.
This Post is a wondrous, ponderous and serious Post. And like Billy Graham said, I've seen the last page and this is going to turn out well. Buckle your seatbelts, please, we might have a bumpy ride.
The National Suicide Rate has gone from 15% of deaths to .... far up there. And if you haven't looked, the Suicide Rate was pretty small and prepared to go the distance as the Pandemic was heating up to lockdown. Then when people lived, then the Suicide Rate started to climb enough to be mentioned by the White House as a significant situation in 2021. This rate has climbed and fallen like the trampoline stock market. But this trend is not our friend.
What is significant during the Pandemic, and, dare we call this Post Pandemic if this is the situation - is very significant. The significant number of increasing suicides is, exactly, what we have seen in Church numbers attrition. A spike and then a 2% loss. With the Suicide Rate doing something very, very similar and slightly larger.
This week we have looked at Overcoming. And looked into Jeremiah's trials and found comfort, hope and the Glory of God. We looked at Phillip, the Disciple, and saw what his life has meant to our Father. We discussed the first century Bible found in India. And this causes me again to wonder about the true usefulness of the Apocrypha and the coveted Asian culture in the Word of God.
And cast all these paragraphs aside and Wonder Anew ... What the Almighty and His Church Can Do.
Remember, with me, when the death rate in early 2020 in Italy was 28% death rate, before the President Locked Down the Pandemic, and New York City was 18% and bordering on 19% as the plague was striking. Who was working? In New York City, the Churches began Bread Lines. And the Pews were open and filling for those who wanted a place to sleep. Landlords were tossing people out of their can't pay the rent, the job closed down.
The Church stepped up.
Maybe you have different recollections of your Church. Ok, but did your Church deal with such Death? There you go.
I believe if the death rate had begun to increase, we would have seen what we saw in New York City and their Churches. That is the History of the Church. And the Popes who had dances in 'yellow' velvet shoes and loved to dance. They tightened their seatbelts, left the fur coats and fires, went forth and put themselves out there praying for the dead and dying. Went out of their way to Preach the Exact Word of God, show Love, give Mercy, Absolution and Stop War.
This is what the dire portions of the Pandemic saw the Church perform.
Analogy. People of long-standing Bible reading, with wonder, and the newbies wonder why Jesus spoke in Parables. Picture Language.
Consider Peter Pan. The book is the pre-antibiotic story of Child Death. The world was seeing the road of possibilities widen. The Golden Age. Steam Engines were as exciting as rockets. Airplanes the military and the skies revealed. Beautiful works. Cities were a delight to the eye in architecture. This was as Beautiful and Chaldean Babylonian Empire with the Hanging Gardens for Love. The Browning Poetry explained the love and hope the era was generating.
Debate the author all you like, the author knew of loss.
Peter Pan is a glimpse of Heaven for parents who lost their children. The spirits sailed right out the window. What would these children do? What would Heaven provide. Hope.
Isaiah 49
Listen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother He named my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
and my recompense with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says,
He who formed me from the womb to be His servant,
to bring Jacob back to Him;
and that Israel might be gathered to Him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
He says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation
may reach
to the end of the earth.”
Now, we begin to see why Mary Poppins rides the sky. The Ascension!
JRR Tolkien had Gandalf speak of the years of unknowing. Gandalf rode with the Lord, the adventure of Life. And many years, the Lord was silent.
We walk by faith. Jeremiah had to walk by faith, thrown in a dirt pit under the Great King David's Palace.
I've known more details about suicide than I care to have ever known. My father was an alcoholic and in the same vein as the movie, "Second Hand Lions." He was an accomplished man, of great intelligence and so much wit. A friend of his called him a Social Lion.
How the mighty have fallen. We shall not. We will put our house in order.
One of 3 Americans abuse substance. And the suicide rate with substance abuse is astronomically higher. Fact.
And this is a track of death, like a train knowing that it will end badly. The track will run out. Two people let me understand their world as they rode this rail. My father said he was too old to change in his early 60s. Man, he should have been more honest and said he was deciding in his 30s. A woman I knew in college and became friends because God puts people geographically, and by work, in place. Let the writing on the wall, be Life.
Each of them did something we should avoid. They focused on themselves and Happiness.
And then, when they decided they would probably be 'brave' and end their unhappiness, they began to ride the terminal train ride. It's, actually, usually decades of more collection of less than joy memories. One of the symptoms of this negativity, it craves more facts. Falsely, they tell themselves they are more unhappy than... this person or that social media. Years and memories will be rewired. And all facts begin to skew to their reinterpretation of greater unhappiness. One person told me, they had zero ability to have gratitude.
Yes, there are truly tormented people.
And this isn't what I am writing about, I am speaking of people who could see more of the Good. And change the path. People willing to try a different direction to gain strength in their souls to feed their lives. The Hobbit type change.
Rather, receive the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you and be the witnesses.
Born Again.
Marriage. Marriage is found to heal if people say I will give this five years of complete devotion to friendship and help. Put aside grievances. And more than 75% heal. We should cheerlead ourselves only in ways a Good Father who is Good would do.
Death will gather lies. When death is planned.
Father,
In the Glory of Jesus,
Your Kingdom come
Thy Will be done
on earth as in Heaven.
Help us to see more Heaven.
Be more Heaven
and give more Heaven.
Jesus, You have Given us.
Jesus is the Gate.
Jesus is the Compassionate Shepherd.
Thank You
You trust Your Son
Born Again
Each Year.
Amen.
How will we learn Gratitude?
How will we learn such Strength as to Find Joy
To Trust that God is going to help us overcome. To be curious about things and events around us. To Listen to people. Not so much to jump into their advice, but to put it in our thoughts to see if we learn from God what is said. Let God be the filter. Instead, we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, God planned for these good things to be the way we live our lives.
Journals. Oh blah blah blah. Yes, you've heard of Journals. But how about this. You write down a few words, not vanity of long explanations, but a few words of something. And then you search High and Low for the work of God to grow, to break... as in prune. And you look for the Blessings. And you can and will go back later and add on, what good came from this event. It's not a lie, denying feelings, this is the Easter Egg Hunt of: find the Blessings. It can even be, be more cautious. Or the self awareness of being too swayed.
The dangers of putting it all on your happiness and not what you can bring to improve life and make life better. How? Do something in your prayer life can help. Read the Bible for the Comfort until you find the Help and Comfort. Especially late at night.
Our hearts were warm within us while He was talking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us.
When your heart is warmed, then you have found what God is saying to you.
Do not expect people to provide the oil. The Oil in the Lamp is God. God is the One who is Good.
Both of the people I knew, and the people others suffered with after suicide, found that some people intentionally put poison in the water. We are responsible for ourselves and we hope the best for the people around us. We can shine the Light of God's Love, but what others do with this - is their choice.
Drop it.
The favorite command of the people with puppies. If the wrath of God isn't part of the message for you, then don't let yourself work over something, even a comment, that isn't for you. And then do yourself the favor, of not applying it to someone else.
Gossip. Gossip is not applied when we are seeking healing. It is applied if the drum keeps beating. Even Matthew McConaughey can appreciate drumming that stops. People expect to have the news to understand the behaviors and thoughts around them. But not if the dog continues to bark and annoy everyone.
Even memories of straight-up grief, can be examined for the Joy they bring to the Life ahead.
God Meant it for the good, to bring about many people who should be kept alive. As they are
today.
Seek and you shall find.
Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger and shall never thirst."
Remember, the Prodigal Son is about the process of letting go. Letting God. Believing in the Good of God. And then being warm-hearted. loving when the opportunity presents itself. A lot of time in the process.
If God tells us, He is the Bread of Life. Then we should want to participate in the seeking and finding of being the Bread and Living Water. Accepting the wonder of this huge faith.
Practice the Christianity of Christ, believing there is Joy, Joy, Joy in life.
John 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Thank you for your prayers. I'm not coughing much.
But on a new antibiotic for sinus problems.
We pray for Health, Father, Abba,
Within our Thanksgiving Day and travels
For all our employments, Churches, Cities,
for the Nation
and the earth is the Lord's
the fullness thereof.
In the Name of Jesus.
Amen.
Isaiah 40:26
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of His might,
and because He is strong in power
not one is missing.
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