This series is titled (obviously), what you might miss by taking the freeway through life. The freeway is the easier way, but there is a richness in God’s country just like what you miss by jetting through God’s life in the fast lane.

A Multi-Generational Dream

In the context of a Church where the retention rate of our youth is nearing 10%, let me tell you a story (this story has the added benefit of being true!). Recently, an elderly gentleman died, had a funeral, and was buried. Nothing was special about his death or burial. At his funeral, however, there was an extraordinary sight. This man was fairly prolific, between his children, grand kids, and great grand decedents. But that wasn’t what was special. Every man, woman, child, great grand kid or son was a bible believing Christian. In the section marked ‘reserved’, maybe 50 human beings sat who all knew where they were going when they got to dad/grampa/great-grampa’s current position. Somehow, I don’t think that was a coincidence. Others wondered too, some of those who were actually at the funeral.

The man’s elderly widow explained: every morning since the day they were married, her husband had prayed for all those kids. They weren’t even born yet, and he prayed for them! Every day, without fail, her husband would rise early in the morning, and pray for his kids, grand kids, and great grand kids, usually for an hour. I don’t know how old this man was, but say he was 85, and he got married at 20. For 65 years, he spent 1 hour each day praying for his family, and for their salvation. That’s 1 hour per day X 360.25 days in a year (including leap year) X 65, which works out to 23416 hours, 1950 days @ 12 hours a day, or 3 years of praying 24/7. Per capita, that’s only 468 hours, 39 days @ 12 hours a day, or just a little over a month. Which I consider a pretty good return: 475 hours to bring a soul to eternity with God. Just 23500 easy payments of 59:95!

However, heaven isn’t for sale. I mock the shopping channel gimmick purely to put our selfishness and shortsightedness in prospective. Salvation is by faith alone, not by works that any man should boast. See, by God’s grace are you saved, through faith. Faith that God sent his one and only Son, the Word that was with God in the beginning, into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Many people today are destined to destruction–their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame, just like it was 2000 years ago when Paul wrote Philippians, 3000 years ago when Solomon wrote ‘there is nothing new under the sun’, and 4000 years ago when the earth was so filled with filth that God power washed the whole thing down with a global flood. Someday in the future, He’ll have to get out his flame thrower. I certainly want to be as refined as possible before that happens! In the mean time, God uses things like funerals to remind us of the real meaning of life.

My point is this: the Church is falling apart, and the remnant wants to fix it. Seeker Sensitive churches cater to the crowds, and draw 6-figure attendance, but spiritually it’s like chaff in the wind. Not what would hold up in that flame thrower. Fundamentalists keep doing what they’ve done for the past 50 years and expect a different result, with fewer and fewer people attending every year. I’ve come to believe that multigenerationalism could be the solution to our problem.

See, multigenerational thinking considers effects not only you in the present, in considers you in the future, your family, and future generations. Multigenerationalism takes the golden rule to the extreme, applying it to neighbors who don’t even exist yet. Multigenerationalism is what inspired the founding fathers to create a society of freedom, even though it cost them terribly. The ultimate example is Christ, who paid the ultimate price for succeeding generations. Too many individuals live for the moment, plan for pleasure, and ignore the needs of the rest of the world and the example set by their forefathers. High on the list of engraved commandments, God promises to show love to a thousand generations of those who keep His word!

Faith without action is dead, according to the apostle James. If you want good things for your future generations, but still put your own interests ahead of theirs, it does no good. For example, You can be thinking all the right multigenerational things, but if you send your kids away from your influence 8-10 hours (school + work), 8 hours of sleep and 6 hours of TV, your kids are going to inherit the (almost completely) negative legacy of TV, their peers and their school curriculum. ‘But wait’, you might say. ‘My kids have Christian teachers!’ Right. In a system which bans public prayer, Bible reading and Christian ideas while promoting materialism, evolution and disregard for God, teachers are hogtied by curriculum, regulations, and federal money. Let’s face it folks, the cards are stacked against Christian kids in the public schools.

From a philosophical standpoint, these school systems were designed to mass educate for the sole purpose of manning mass-production facilities. We have robots that can perform repetitive tasks now, we really don’t need humans who are capable only of doing that. What happens to individuality when you program 30 things the exact same way, and 100,000,000 things using the same method? (Sorry to keep referencing programing, but it’s what I do: PotterVilla Applied Technology!) How can a personal faith with a living God flourish when it’s processed by a spiritual meat grinder? God (as usual) knew what He was talking about when he told parents to educate their children, and to impress the scriptures on their minds–education by proxy just isn’t cutting it.

If you’re responsible for someone being in that system, consider this a challenge. If you’re a kid in the system, know that I, and others, are praying for you. Know that God won’t give you more than you can bear. Keep the Faith, look beyond the world and today’s challenges, and God will help you. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8)

I’m not here to offer discouragement over the state of our world though; 10,000 news outlets exist to do that. There’s a Hope–not just hope for the afterlife, but Hope for living out. I’m speaking primarily to my generation, but old dogs can still learn new tricks. We’ve been given a torch that’s burning out. By the grace of God, we can fan it back into full flame! We can rebuild our hills and throw off our bowls! We can setup a legacy of blessing that will last for 1000 generations!

Temptation says we are alone. That’s what Elijah thought. “Yet I [God] reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” Here are a few bloggers of the 7,000 in America (I’m linking to good posts, so if this struck a nerve with you, read them! If this didn’t, read them!): Promised Land, and a longer post I need to read again from Promised Land, resources at Down On The Farm, an agrarian experience from TN Farmgirl, God’s provision at ND Homekeeper, and celebrating independence day at her son’s blog Adventures of a Turtle Mtn. Hillbilly. As far as I’m concerned, these are the finest posts and blogs on the net.

This is my dream. I have a dream that one day my children will rise up and live as men and women of God. I have a dream that one day in these amber waves of grain, sons, fathers and grandfathers will sit together at the Christian table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the purple mountain tops will be transformed into an oasis of Godliness. I have a dream that four generations after me will live together in a nation where the character remains intact through multiple generations. I have a dream today! ‘I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be maid plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”‘ This is our hope, and this is the faith that I live for.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, to the only God our Savior; to Him who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine; to Him who was raised from the dead so that we might bear fruit to God; to Him who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see; to Him who all things are from and whose power is at work within us; To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father; to Him be glory in the Church, majesty, power, authority, honor and might for ever and ever! Amen.

“Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the King.” “Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 2:17, 1:13)

“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Ever in His Peace,

Jonathan

P.S. Thanks for reading.

This series is titled (obviously), what you might miss by taking the freeway through life. The freeway is the easier way, but there is a richness in God’s country just like what you miss by jetting through God’s life in the fast lane.

Ruminations on a fallen world

Everywhere you look while traveling those back roads, evidence of the curse abounds. An apparently pristine forest is overflowing with mosquitoes. And anyone who doesn’t think that mosquitoes are results of the curse (or were horribly disfigured and terribly re-purposed after the curse) must live on the moon. Yet, they are still marvelously designed! A recent article in Answers magazine discussed poisonous snakes, and the amazing design behind them (I’d link to the article, but it’s not unlocked yet). Satan doesn’t have that kind of creativity. So, God must have designed animals, at some point, to kill other animals and people. Which begets the bigger question, did God create man with the intent that he could kill other men? I’ve thought long and hard about that question, but can only answer that God knows what he’s doing. He knows best. After all, He knew enough to create everything! :-)

A corn field is withering from drought. Why does God hold back rain when He knows it will hurt a farmer (or rather a farmer’s bottom line)? Come to think of it, why does God reserve control of the weather to himself? Just imagine how thrilled Al Gore would be to have the universe’s thermostat (or at least earth’s) handed to him! Or how enthusiastic old folks would be if they could have their yard at 85 and let the neighbor kids play in the snow at 30 degrees? But, what would happen if everyone decided they wanted 77 degree weather for a couple of months? chances are, much life on earth would die. See, the air flow depends on temperature differences (By the laws of thermodynamics, heat travels from hot to cold, and thus moves air, which then creates low and high pressure systems, which is how meteorologists predict the weather), and Humans depend on fresh air. If air stopped moving, it would grow stagnant and polluted. It would be like living inside a sealed box–our own carbon-dioxide would kill us.

Ok, you say, scientists know about that, and they wouldn’t let temperatures be the same worldwide. But, wouldn’t it be great to stop global warming with the turn of a dial? Um, no. If you live in the lower Michigan area, you are currently experiencing one of the coldest Julys we’ve had in ages. If scientists turned down the temperature another 5-10 degrees, I would be looking for my coat and snow shovel. Global warming proponents say that the poles are melting. But if that were true, why are we still getting hit with some very strong hurricanes (Katrina) in the past few years? Hurricanes and strong winds are caused by temperature differences between the equator and the poles. If the poles are getting warmer (and the equator is not getting proportionately warmer, which would mean basically unbearable temperatures at sea level), the heat transfer should be slowing down, not speeding up.

After Noah’s flood, if you agree with most scientists (those who believe in Noah’s flood, of course), the earth is coming out of an ice age that happened some few (~4500) thousand years ago. And there’s a good chance that we’re still recovering from that. Have you seen a picture of Greenland recently? Apparently, when the name was given the land was actually green. Now, it’s basically a big sheet of ice. I do feel really bad for the people who live in cities built below sea level (New Orleans?), but think of all the land that’s uninhabitable because of cold and ice! There would more new land gained than old land lost. Antarctica could become the new New World! Pilgrims could sail/fly there and start a new country! We could be free of American oppression! Oops, someone already tried that, which is why we have America. :-) At any rate, I think it’s very fundamentalist and extremist (let’s see, what other names do they call us?) to say that the lay of the land can’t change. After all, isn’t that the new rallying cry of the century, change? Besides, God knows what He’s doing. It’s very presumptuous to claim that humans have changed the climate when we can’t even predict tomorrow’s precipitation correctly.

I’m a big fan of lower emissions–like many environmentalist worried about climate control–but not because of their effect on the earth, because of their effect on humanity. People have died from living too close to a poultry factory farm (another reason to buy PotterVilla Pastured Poultry: they cause no waste problems! Environmentally friendly! Fresh! Local! Tasty!) God has called us to be good stewards of His creation, which is another good reason not to pollute. Creation includes other humans, though. We can’t completely neglect them while being over cautious about trees or endangered hamsters or something.

Another result of the curse: as we traveled along the back road, two young men (quite young, and apparently brothers) were quarreling. Not a fight, yet (at least that I could tell). One of the first examples of the curse the Bible gives us is a story about two young men by the names of Cain and Abel. They had a small argument that turned into a big argument, which turned into an outright war, which ended with one brother dead and the other a murderer. One of the saddest things things in the world today is how families split apart and their members declare war on each other. You only have one family, you should take care of it! I see so many sons estranged from their fathers, who live to regret the trivial arguments that began the separation. The relationship between a father and son can be the most rewarding that a man can ever have (I haven’t spoken of female relationships simply because I’m not a woman. [A Jew would thank God for the fact right now because of the supposed inferiority of that gender, but I’ll just thank Him because that’s how he made me and He knows what He’s doing!]). Particularly the relationship with our Father in heaven, which is the real relationship that Cain was ignoring.

Another highly disregarded relationship is the one between a man and his wife. Not enough value is placed on the other party, and the single party that they both have become. Once divorced, both the man and the woman go through the rest of their lives missing parts of their selves. How different could our society be if we took care of our relationships? With both God and other people? I’m not talking about the whole citizenry of the world (though that would be amazing!!!!), just the citizens of heaven, who should know better! How can the Church be a lamp on a stand, a city on a hill, if we tune our light to the same frequencies the world uses? When we’re supposed to be bright white visible light, why are we on invisible, radio active X ray channels?

The Church needs to wake up, look up and stand tall, instead of groveling in the world’s filth. But back to the disputing brothers. No one taught these guys how to fight. Or at least, how to get on each other’s nerves. It’s been in every boy’s system since the first parents sinned–it’s an inheritance. Of a bad sort. And girls aren’t exempt (I do know that much about them!). It’s an inheritance from the first man, Adam. But there’s another inheritance, from the Last Adam, that we can give to our children, and grand children and great-grand children: Salvation.

Which brings me to my next major subject, multigenerationalism. [For those who are wondering, I transliterated that before I inscripturated it. :-)]

Part 4: A Multi-Generational Dream, coming Wednesday @ 6:30 p.m.!

This series is titled (obviously), what you might miss by taking the freeway through life. The freeway is the easier way, but there is a richness in God’s country just like what you miss by jetting through God’s life in the fast lane.

Ruminations from examining housing architecture

You can also see God’s hand in the work of his creatures; after all, man was created in the image of God. There is one particular house off road a ways that always catches my attention. It’s built on a hill. Coming from the north, it appears to be three stories tall, but I think it’s really only two stories tall with a walk-out basement. If you look at the roof of this building, there must be three or four sections, with valleys and ridges all over the place–it’s quite pleasing to the eye. Unless you’re planning on replacing the shingles on it, that is. Another feature of this house is a lovely wrap-around porch. Over all, I find it very charming.

It’s empty. There’s a for-sale sign by the drive. This gorgeous house (on the outside) is barren, lonely, and lifeless on the inside, waiting for people to fill it. Which is just like many of the structures built by God, the image that the house builders are based on. Humans, no matter how gorgeous, lively or fulfilled their lives appear from the outside, all have a dark chasm on the inside that howls for God whenever the wind blows, and aches for him when things are still. A chasm, that is, until God comes into the building and gives life–and life to the fullest.

Many people try to fill that chasm with things and activities and friends, which does about as much good as filling a house with dust, spiders and mice–maybe a family or two of squirrels. Nothing will really fill the chasm except a personal, faith and grace based relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The home of the family that hosted us for the evening was around 5 years old. An A-frame log cabin type home, it utilized a ton of engineering tricks to get a real log feel with the convenience of a modern home. For example, the log exterior was logs cut in half, but the ends were left whole. Inside, 1/4 logs lined the walls–you couldn’t tell there was wood and concrete inside them. A plastic chicken wire net keeps the barn swallows out from under the eaves. A valley runs up to one side of the house for a nearly hidden walk out basement, letting the unfinished level can be used for equipment storage. It has a first floor laundry with a shoot from the upstairs bedroom, and a roller clothes line 10 feet from the washer. And that’s just a sample of the clever conveniences. Inside, the walls are tastefully lined with trophy turkeys, deer, pheasant, and fox. A real woodsman’s palace.

Their home is a simple example of architectural ingenuity and creativity, which in turn is an example of the creativity and ingenuity of their Creator. God created man (people) in His image. He created them to create, like their Creator. And to create creatively! But even creativity can’t contain the chasm that creaks and groans for it’s Creator.

Our world is fallen, in need of a Savior.

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged.

Part 3: Ruminations on a fallen world, coming Tuesday @ 4:30 p.m.!