Reveration Blog
2/5/2003 0 Comments Trust IIIIt started when my good friends Rob and Glenn realized they had to install a handicapped accessible restroom in their San Diego church. The molehill they faced turned into a mountain. At a cost of $50,000 a ramp had to be built, doors had to be widened, and handicap accessible doors with electronic openers installed. During the construction the carpet was ruined. Beneath the tiles underneath the carpet they found asbestos requiring them to call in a removal team. Finally, after much time and expense, the renovations were complete.
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9/12/2002 0 Comments Introspection--The Day After
9/4/2002 0 Comments EmulationYou probably remember the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. This godly man invoked jealousy in the hearts of the administrators and princes in Babylon. They didn’t like it that he was a better leader, or the fact that the king was planning to put Daniel in charge of the entire empire. So, they set him up by appealing to the ego of King Darius. They convinced the king to sign a stupid law—a law that stated that people could only pray to the king for thirty days, or they would be thrown to the lions.
2/2/2002 0 Comments InstitutionsMy brother, Nate, recently wrote while at the border of Hungary and Ukraine:
We are held up here at the border because they have to change all the wheels on the train. The Russian rails are built wider than European rails. Apparently the Russians after WWI decided that it would be in their interest to have a different rail system as it made an invasion more difficult. Paranoid? Maybe not. It was one of the reasons why Hitler had such a tough time advancing into Russia. Now, it is an economic headache that adds time and money to all imports and exports. 1/19/2002 0 Comments SufferingIn an Indonesian restaurant in Sweden, Jonathan, a Swede who grew up in the Congo, shared with us Tulo’s* story. Tulo and 44 of his friends and relatives (to include a two-week old baby), fled Bukavu, Congo to escape an enemy intent on taking their lives. For one month they walked approximately 700 km (434 miles) and lived off monkey meat, fruit and anything else they could scrounge until they reached the city of Kisangani. It took a week in a hospital for Tulo to recover—others remained longer. Miraculously, none of these Jesus-followers died!
1/12/2002 0 Comments LagomSilas took me to lunch at a Swedish restaurant in Gothenburg called Lagom. Lagom has no single English word that matches its meaning. Essentially, it translates “enough, sufficient, not too much or too little—just right”.
8/18/2001 0 Comments Fruit TreesIn my backyard are several fruit trees. Each one is shielded to some degree from the traversing sun by fir, cedar and maple that are older and tower above them. What is fascinating is how the apple, cherry, plum and apricot contort their branches in the best direction possible to capture maximum sunlight.
6/5/2001 0 Comments StressShannon’s desperate eyes spoke volumes. She told me she’d walked from Albany to Salem with her backpack and handbags to get away from her husband. She’d had nothing to drink all day, was overheated and felt ill. Thirty years old, she described herself as a misfit mother whose own mother watched two of her children while despairing of her incompetent daughter.
4/9/2001 0 Comments TroubleBad doctrine is like poisoned food. It may taste good. It may leave the stomach feeling full. But in the end, it will cause indescribable agony. Have you ever turned on your radio or television and heard a preacher promise you that if you will just put your trust in Jesus your troubles will leave you? Perhaps, you’ve been reprimanded as lacking faith because you continue to struggle with issues. Has anyone suggested to you that all you need to do is claim in Jesus’ name the solution you want and trouble will not visit you? Okay, so why did Jesus say,“ I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33)? Who was James writing when he penned, “Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises” (James 5:13a)?
3/4/2000 0 Comments AgonyAgony is the struggle that precedes death. We so often think of this state as prolonged, gruesome and slow—a patient fighting to beat some dreaded disease. Yet, agony may also be camouflaged beneath a happy exterior. While appearance suggests that life is good, underneath a desperate struggle to find meaning takes place.
5/24/1999 0 Comments Prayer III: Changing MeMeditation
Psalm 28:2--Listen to the sound of my pleading when I cry to You for help, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. Have you ever studied the Psalms? A most interesting phenomenon occurs with the poet David. He often begins his psalms by telling God of some distressing circumstance he is anxious about. Sometimes he frets over his wicked enemies. Other times his heart is convicted of personal sin or he longs for the taste of God’s mercy and strong presence. Curiously, towards the end of these stress-permeated laments a shift takes place. The poet who is troubled becomes a troubadour extolling his love for his Lord. What began as an imbroglio ends as praise! 2/17/1999 0 Comments TrustMeditation
Psalm 57:4--I am surrounded by lions; I lie down with those who devour men. Their teeth are spears and arrows; their tongues are sharp swords. He was treated like an outlaw, a condemned man with an entire army pursuing him. Despite the fact that he had committed no crime, the ruler of the land was determined to kill him. With a band of ragtag followers, he skillfully ran and hid always remaining one step ahead of his countrymen tracking his every move. 7/17/1998 0 Comments DistressI was driving down Lombard when a red light illuminated my dashboard with the words “Check Engine”. Now I’d be the first to admit I’m a mechanical dummy but I know that when that light comes on it doesn’t mean to pop the hood and check to see if there is still an engine in there! That cerise glow is a nonsubtle directive to get to a mechanic who can run a diagnostic test and hopefully discover why the warning message is activated without charging me an elbow and a thigh.
6/16/1998 0 Comments NeedThe trail to heaven is littered with casualties—victims of misguided priorities or the worship of need-driven agendas. These wounded souls once burned bright in their zeal to serve God. They played clarion songs for the poor and engaged in rescuing the oppressed with fervor capable of melting granite skeptics into milky wax. They gave sacrificially with glad hearts. So what happened that they should be reduced to bitter herbs and poured out ashes?
7/16/1997 0 Comments CrisesI will never forget December 12, 1985. On that day I received the news that 256 of our soldiers had just died in a horrible plane crash. Gone was my best friend Brian Haller and 25 of my soldiers, virtually all of them married men.
Kathleen and I will always remember Valentines Day 1991. We sat in the office of a neurologist and watched as he placed an MRI under the light to reveal the inoperable brain-stem tumor growing in Bryan, our three year old son. 6/15/1997 0 Comments CreedsMeditation
Matthew 23:23,24--Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. These things should have been done without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, yet gulp down a camel! |
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Photo from Rachel Maxey Miles