Test your knowledge of the Bible. Can you identify WHO made the following biblical statements?

1. If I perish, I perish."
2. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
3. "He must increase and I must decrease."
4. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
5. "You meant it for evil. but God meant it for good."
6. "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."
7. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God."
8. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,."
9. "This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh."
10. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

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ANSWERS:
1.  Esther (Esther 4:16)
​2. Joshua (Joshua 24:15)
3. John the Baptist (John 3:30)
4. Job (Job 1:21)
5. Joseph (Genesis 50:20)
6. Father of a son with a mute spirit (Mark 9:24)
7. Apostle Paul (Romans 12:1)
8. Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:13)
9. Adam (Genesis 2:23)
10. David (Psalm 23:6)

How did you do?

In the movie City Slickers, Mitch (Billy Crystal) is having a serious midlife crisis.  In a classic scene, Mitch shares with a group of kids some lessons about the passage of time and the power of choices.


     "Value this time kids because it's the time you still have choices. It goes by so fast. When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. The 20's are a blur. In your 30's, you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, 'What happened to my 20's?'

     "In your 40's, you grow a pot belly, you grow another chin, the music starts to get too loud, and one of your girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. In your 50's, you have a minor surgery. You call it a procedure, but it's a surgery. In your 60's, you'll have a major surgery. The music is still too loud but that doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway. 
     
      "In your 70's, you and your wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10, breakfast the night before. You spend most of the time wandering around the mall looking for the ultimate soft yogurt, muttering, "How come the kids don't call?"

      "In your 80's, you'll have a major stroke and you'll end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse, who your wife can't stand and you call 'Mama.'

      "Any questions?'


Mitch's outlook sounds a lot like the words of the Teacher in the book of Ecclesiastes: "Perfectly pointless...perfectly pointless. Everything is pointless" Ecclesiastes 1:2, CEB). 

I much prefer the words of the apostle Paul to the Ephesians: "So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolish;y. Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times. Because of this, don't be ignorant, but understand the Lord's will" (Ephesians 5:15-17, (CEB)

       If you're the type of person (like me) who wants truth to be clear, neatly organized, logical and systematic, then you may want to skip over this blog. 

UNFORTUNATELY, LIFE DOESN'T HAPPEN THAT WAY. Life doesn't come neatly packaged and organized into a systematic "syllabus for living." Life is random, messy, disorganized and illogical. 

Truth comes to us in broken fragments! Truth comes to us like a box of puzzle pieces...where half the pieces don't fit!

Watchman Nee, after writing his book The Spiritual Man, insisted that his book would never be reprinted. Not because it was wrong, but because it was right...too right. It lent itself to mere intellectual apprehension. It left no questions unanswered, no mysteries unsolved.

Watchman Nee said it this way:
"God, I have discovered, does not do things that way...If God gives us books, they will ever be broken fragments, not always clear or consistent or logical, lacking conclusions and yet coming to us in life and ministering life to us. We cannot dissect divine facts and outline and systematize them. It is only the immature Christian who demands always to have intellectually satisfying answers" (Watchman Nee, What Shall This Man Do?).

Truth flows like lava just beneath the crust of everyday life. And you never know when truth will break through the crust of daily life. 

Perhaps that is why I like blogs: they are perfect for broken fragments, random reflections and surprising serendipities (and annoying alliterations).

The message of Easter is a message of hope. God is a God of renewal, a God of new beginnings, and a God of second chances.

That is why the apostle Paul could pray, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope" (Romans 15:13).

One of the greatest expressions of biblical hope is found in Romans 8:28: "We know that God causes all things to work together for good..." In others words, God is such a great God that He can weave even the dark threads of our experience into the tapestry of our life, and create something beautiful.

God doesn't cause bad things, but He can cause all things, even bad things, to work toward His purpose in our life.

God is a God who specializes in redeeming what is lost and restoring what is broken. We serve a God who can bring life out of death, hope out of despair, victory out of defeat, and triumph out of tragedy.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel is a message of hope. We are "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). The message of the gospel doesn't end with the cross, it ends with an empty tomb. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's validation that Jesus is who He claimed to be -- the Perfect, Sinless, Son of God -- and therefore He will do what He claimed to do: forgive our sins and give us new life.

I want to invite you this Easter season, not just to commemorate an event that happened a long time ago, but to experience the power and reality of the resurrection life which He makes available to us today.

​I can think of no better time to renew your commitment to a living faith in a Risen Christ.

     The tallest growing plant in the world is the bamboo tree (which is not a tree at all; it's technically a grass). The average height of the bamboo tree is 15-40 feet; but some varieties can grow as high as 1,300 feet (that's 50 feet higher than the height of the Empire State Building!)

​     The bamboo tree is also the fastest growing plant in the world. It can grow up to three feet in 24 hours. The bamboo can also live for up to 120 years old in the wild. 

     One curious feature of the bamboo tree is its growth pattern. For instance, one variety of bamboo--the Chinese Bamboo Tree--only grows a few inches in the first five years. Then, sometime during the fifth year, it shoots up 90 feet in one week!

     Why is that?

     Because the bamboo is so tall and slender, it needs to have a very strong root system to get water and nutrients that high. Its extensive root system also keeps the bamboo from being uprooted in a storm.
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      I recently read the Book of Leviticus in my devotional reading. Not the most exciting book to read. A lot of meticulous details about how to assemble the tabernacle, how to dress the High Priest and how to offer animal sacrifices for every occasion.

       I didn't get a lot of jaw-dropping revelations, but I was impressed with how often the Bible speaks of "the morning and evening sacrifice." The morning "sacrifice" (and for most of us it really is a sacrifice) seems a natural time to draw near to God and offer up to Him our praises. But how often do we consider the evening sacrifice?

       I was reminded of these words from Psalm 92:
"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness at night." (Psalm 93:1-2).

     Church liturgy has recognized the morning and evening sacrifices in the matinee and vesper services. The psalmist has his own version. His morning sacrifice of praise begins with meditating on God's steadfast love. God's steadfast and everlasting love is the appropriate theme as we anticipate the blessings of a new day. We're reminded that God's mercies are new every morning. Our prayer is, "Surprise me with your goodness today, O Lord." There is a peculiar freshness and renewed hope in the early morning hours that makes it suitable to mediate on, and praise God for, His steadfast everlasting, unconditional love.

       On the other hand, the early evening is the time to look back in retrospect, recounting the blessings of the day. If the stress of the day's labors haven't robbed us of our peace (or, even if they have), we'll find our hearts welling up with gratitude to God, and a song of praise on our lips, as we meditate on the faithfulness of God.
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       Maybe there is something to the ancient practice of the morning and evening sacrifice that we can learn. 

Did you realize that: "January" rhymes with "Brand New Worry?"

How fitting! The new year brings new worries. That's why it's so important to leave behind last year's worries...so you can make room for January's brand new worries!

Let me share with you an important spiritual truth: Spiritual maturity doesn't mean that you'll have less problems as you mature, just different ones. As long as you have a pulse, you'll have problems. The question is: Are they the same problems you had last year? Five years ago? If you still have the same problems you had 5 years ago, you're not growing. Likewise, if you still have the same worries you had five years ago, you're not growing.

The converse is also true: If you're still living on the same blessings you had five years ago, you're not growing. So, be sure to make room for January's brand new blessings, brand new revelations, brand new challenges and brand new opportunities as well!

I promise you that this will be the last blog dealing with the topic of January, at least until...JUNEUARY.

January is named after the Roman god Janus. Janus was the guardian of doors and doorways, entrances and exits, and beginnings and endings.
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JANUS HAD TWO FACES: one face always looked ahead, to the future; the other face always looked back, mindful of the past.

Janus illustrates an important truth: in order to properly relate to the present, we need to remember the past. But, at the same time, we need to look ahead to the future. We need to learn from the past without becoming imprisoned in the past. We need to prepare for the future without presuming on the future.

A RUSSIAN PROVERB SAYS:
"To forget the past is to lose an eye, but to live in the past is to lose both eyes."

"My Beautiful Theory was Mugged by a Gang of Ugly Facts."

Welcome to my new blog...well, it's sort of new. It keeps popping up unexpectedly under different aliases. But no more wacky and whimsical acronyms, such as Pew-U   (Pastor Ed's Weekly Update) and SPIT (Strategic Planning   & Implementation Training).

In these mostly never-before-published blogs, I will be sharing my thoughts and reflections about faith and life  (and whatever else percolates up from the murky depths of my subconscious).
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I want to invite you to join me on a zigzag journey in the upside-down world of grace--a journey of lessons learned and opportunities lost, of undeserved blessings and inexplicable suffering, of failures redeemed and hopes restored. But first, an important caveat:

WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that this blogsite may be hazardous to your cherished ideas about life, faith and God. Theological certainties can burst like fragile soap bubbles at the touch of reality.​