The VIP & His Last Minute Trip

   Once upon a time, in the Midwestern USA, there was a VIP, and this VIP had an important trip to make. He was taking on a new job, and it was very important that he serve. He strolled his home town, he caught up with his friends, and packed his bags, it was soon time to leave, but not yet. He decided, that he just had to see his step mom yet. She was a widow and lived in a little cabin south of him. He visited her, and they shared their memories, he wrapped his arm around her and her rocker all at once. For, the VIP was tall, and his arm was long, and strong. They spent a good deal of time together, and it was good for them both. However, eventually, the time came for the VIP to leave, tears were shed, and his step mom was especially sorrowful, for, she said, "This is the last time I will ever see you alive." To which, he responded, "Oh no, surely it can't be so." However, the VIP was wrong, he was leaving for an important work, in Washington DC, and he would die there. The VIP was Abraham Lincoln. 

  

  So, how important is your work, your ministry? No matter how serious it is and no matter how much pressure is weighing you down, the relationships you have with other people made in the image of God is more important, so, when the Lord touches you, and reminds you of someone, maybe it would do you well to listen? 

P.S. In history, there is a spine, which is provable, and has historical facts and event times nailed down, IE d-day, battle of Gettysburg etc. However, attached to this spine are the ribs of history, which are just as true, much more personable and profound, and yet the details of the ribs are hazy, and in those hazy details, I take liberties to write what I believe to have happened, based on my understanding of the source material I have. I have good reason to believe that this last visit to President Lincoln's step mom did happen, and here is my source material: The Lincoln Conspiracy 

-Loren

Passionate Love

 In a vast expanse of nothingness, with no matter, and no time, there was a lonely God, this God, the only true God, the only God worthy of the capital G, decided to create a world, and so He did. In this world he placed a man and a woman, both represented His image in physical form to this new, glorious, beautiful world. The Lord sought a relationship, a free will love He bestowed on them both, and this love was returned by free will by these humans. For you see, the Lord gave them a garden, and in this garden, they were told to partake of all the plants and trees, save one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Lord did not instill fear into them by telling them of the horrors of eating from that tree. He wanted their love, and He gave them love, unspeakable, and unimaginable love.

 Unfortunately, the bad tree was eaten from, and the lovely new world was a wreck. The humans experienced a brand new emotion, fear, fear of being caught, fear of pain, fear of the wrath of God by sin. They had chosen knowledge, and now the price was already being paid. The world descended into chaos, kingdoms arose, all built on hierarchy, religions came, also built on hierarchy, wars came, plagues, death, pain, sorrow, unspeakable evils blemished the world, mankind failed to follow the law that they now knew, they could not do it.

 God, all knowing and all wise, had a plan, to redeem everyone. So, in an unfathomable way, this God, came to earth as a little baby, born into poverty, and he worked hard. He started to preach, he spoke of a new kingdom, that was not of this world, referred to as the kingdom of Heaven, or the kingdom of God. In this kingdom, there was no boundaries, it was not to be a violent kingdom establishing hierarchies, fighting over borders, and religion. It was to be an all encompassing kingdom of redeemed souls, loved by God, and this Lord would put His spirit within each redeemed soul. In this manner, the redeemed soul would be free, not to sin, which is it's own punishment, but free from sin, and not redeemed to fear law, but redeemed to God, dead to the world and very much alive in God.

 This man, who was somehow 100% a man, and yet 100% the Lord, (What Kind of Man was this?) went by Jesus Christ, and He was the son of God. God, it turns out is a 3 and yet still a one. There is His spirit, His son, and Him. Yet He is one God. After only a few short years, the religious system of this day was so fed up with this Christ that they talked the Roman Empire into dealing out His execution, and in typical Roman style it was brutal, a bloody lashing, designed to physically break a man, and inwardly crush his will, then they nailed him to a cross, but before this they did something unspeakably cruel and illegal, after Jesus body was already smashed up from the beatings and lashings, they wove together a crown of thorns and smashed it into his skull, only then was He allowed to go to the cross and get the suffering and torment over with. He went to the cross, died and was buried.

 On the 3rd day, things went wild, somehow, the tombstone rolled away and Jesus was back, and this time He didn't use doors, He just showed up whenever and wherever He wanted. Clearly now, this man was God, and the redemption was paid, and available free of charge to the entire world, before the cross, during, and after. So, if you are a christian, you have a God, who is so crazy over you, that he would create an entire world, and die the worst death, just to love you and to be loved by you. This God, will destroy your religion, and rob you of your fear in order to love you, and to be loved by you. That is if you'll let Him, He loves you enough to give you free will, freedom to reject Him, to fear Him instead, to worship something or someone else instead. So what is a man or a woman to do with a God who loves him/her this much? It's up to you to answer this question....

It's fun, you should try it. (Or not) Part 1

  So, there is a thing to do called fishing. It involves a long bendy stick whose price can range from well, that's a bit much for a stick, to YOU PAID WHAT FOR THAT!!?? On the bendy stick there is a cranking device with string in it. The price range of this cranky thing is anywhere from that's a bit much for a cranky thing, to YOU PAID WHAT FOR THAT!!?? On the end of the string there is a hook, contrary to all my testing, it is not designed to be stuck into any part of a human. There can be pain involved, don't tell me I didn't warn you, 'k? In fact, if it's stuck into another human without forewarning them, hearing loss can occur. You should keep this in mind. Thankfully, these conditions have proven to be temporary. If these hazards can be avoided, it is recommended that you string a morsel of sorts on the hook. This morsel could be something gross, like a artificial worm, crawfish, etc, or something detestable, like a live worm, crawfish etc, or something downright putrid, like raw meat or a fish head. Once all this is arranged, there are casting techniques that can range from, whoa, what are you swatting at? to, wait, where did you put your hook? to oh, nice cast. If the third option is found, and the right bait ends up in front of the right fish which is in the right mood; there might be a bit of a fight, which could remind you of the last time you walked a small dog and the neighbor's cat came up close and swore at him in that language dogs and cats use to trade insults. If and when you win the fight, you'd find yourself in possession of a strange creature that feels slimy and tries to prick you, all while gasping for water much like you would gasp for air if you were in water. This then, is the fish, and it is up to you if you put it back in the water, or murder it and rip the meat off and eat it, like a man of the world that used to be before the invention of the man bun and the smartphone. So, if you avoid the pitfalls of getting speared by your own hook, or the fish you had war with, and you keep your hands clean enough to touch your face without feeling like you may have ingested something truly concerning, then your fishing day at least did not go badly. If however you find yourself doing battle with many fishes, and dealing with lot's of fish slime, and possibly cutting a lot of fish, then your fishing has pretty much gone according to the best case scenario. Anyway, fishing is fun, you should try it.

A fictional(ish) man named Ichibod

It was a long day, and a hot one, when Ichibod gazed up at his work and saw that it was massive. For days, he and his many men had been laying bricks. Never before had he seen such a structure, and yet it still was not good enough. Would it ever be good enough? He didn't know, but, he thought himself and his men as the best brick layers in the world, and he believed he had the very best brick makers and morter making crews on his team. Yet, with all that, nothing like this had ever been attempted, so again he wondered, was this good enough? Were his efforts measuring up? How could he know? He wanted to reach God, how could he do so other than doing everything in his power to get there? It was getting dark, so he went home, little did he know that the very next day, an almighty God would see this as folly and intervene in a way Ichibod would never have dreamed. This shining city he had planned would be remembered, but not the way he expected, the blueprints he planned, and the name he chose would be lost to history, it would be remembered as an unfinished, confusing episode, to be chuckled at. It would be called the Tower of Babel.



Ichibod's failures were a result of making that mistake that humans make, at times we believe our efforts will bring us closer to God, this is just not true. Our works are as filthy rags. We are to abide in the vine which is Jesus Christ. So, we can do nothing without God, the solution is to allow Him, by the Holy Spirit to live His life through us. If at anytime we chose to not abide in him, he respects that decision, and at that point we are removed from the vine. However, this does not come as a matter of our works not being good enough. This comes as a matter of us abiding in something else not of God, it is our choice, not His will. So, I suggest you start asking God to live His life through you, even if that means destroying your babels.


Verses: Genesis 11:1-9 Isaiah 64:6 John 15:1-8 John 6:39-40