Terrific Tuesday with Dr. Bruce from Faith and Facts

Today's Terrific Tuesday guest is Dr. Bruce who writes at Faith and Facts. Dr. Bruce has been a pastor of Baptist churches for more than 30 years and he has a wife Penny whom he feels " is more than I ever deserve". He describes himself as:

"committed to my family, church, community and country. My politics will typically run toward the conservative in fiscal areas and toward the liberal in social issues, despite my strong pro-life stance."

Here's a favorite from Faith and Facts:

Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses

There are tens of thousands of crosses planted on a hillside in Lithuania. The Hill of Crosses (Kryžiu Kalnas) is located in northern Lithuania near Šiauliai – the fourth largest city in the country. No one knows for sure why the custom started, but the crosses began appearing in the 14th century. Over the years, pilgrims journeyed there to place their own cross on the hill.

The city of Siauliai was founded in 1236 and controlled by Teutonic Knights during the 14th century. The tradition of placing crosses seems to date from this period and may have risen as a symbol of Lithuanian defiance toward foreign invaders. Since the medieval period, the Hill of Crosses has represented the peaceful resistance of Lithuanian Catholicism to oppression. In 1795, Siauliai was incorporated into Russia but was returned to Lithuania in 1918. Many crosses were erected upon the hill after the peasant uprising of 1831-63. By 1895, there were at least 150 large crosses, in 1914, 200, and by 1940 there were 400 large crosses surrounded by thousands of smaller ones.

After being captured by Germany in World War II, the city suffered even more damage when Soviet Russia retook it at the war’s end. From 1944 until Lithuania’s independence in 1991, Siauliai was a part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. During the Soviet era, the pilgrimage to the Hill of Crosses became expression of Lithuanian nationalism. The Soviets repeatedly removed the crosses placed on the hill by Lithuanians.

The hill was leveled three times: during 1961, 1973 and 1975. The crosses were burned or turned into scrap metal, and the area was covered with waste and sewage. Following each of these agonizing experiences local inhabitants and pilgrims from all over Lithuania rapidly replaced crosses upon the sacred hill. In 1985, the Hill of Crosses finally found peace. The reputation of the hill has since spread all over the world and every year it is visited by many thousands of visitors.

The size and variety of crosses is as amazing as their number. Beautifully carved out of wood or sculpted from metal, the crosses range from three meters tall to the countless tiny examples hanging profusely upon the larger crosses.

It is a wonder that the instrument of torture on which Jesus died has become the greatest symbol of Christian hope.

He is Risen.

Why would someone think God doesn't talk to us today?

Now I understand why someone who is not a Believer would think that God does not talk to people. But I'm totally puzzled why Christians would say God doesn't speak to individual Believers.

Today I read a blog that was criticizing a well known woman who writes Bible Study curriculum for women. I don't want to even say who the well known woman was, because the bigger issue for me as I read the post was the reason the writer was criticizing this woman. The author criticized the woman because she has periodically, as she is talking, said something to the effect of "God told me ______". The author basically went on to say how if you believe her, then what God told her is new revelation, and therefor devalues the validity of the Holy Scriptures, so it can not be of God. As I checked out this particular blog, and other sites it was linked to, I was stunned that it appears that this type of thinking has a huge following in what would be considered conservative circles.

I've never heard the specific woman Bible Study instructor to whom they were referring ever say anything that God revealed to her, that was in contradiction to what is already written in the Bible. It may be that she's said something and I missed it, but I really do not think that was the issue. The issue was that these people thought it was wrong for her to act as if God spoke directly to her; the author even went so far as to say that perhaps this woman did indeed hear a voice, but implied that it must have been the voice of the enemy - I was shocked at this thinking.

When I open up my Bible I see Jesus telling us in John 10:26-28:

²⁶"But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.

²⁷"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

²⁸and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

When I read these verses, it sounds to me like God speaks to His followers and they will recognize His voice.

Then there's also the passage in John 16:5-25 when Jesus is speaking about the fact that He was soon to be leaving the earth. He promised that after He left He would not leave His followers alone but would send the Holy Spirit to them. He went on to say in John 16:13-15:

¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. ¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Again it sounds like the Holy Spirit speaks God's truth into the heart of the individual Believer.

I think there are lots of ways God speaks to His followers. I've experienced Him speaking to me through the Bible, through circumstances, through godly counsel,through people He brings into my life, through a still small voice in my spirit. Whenever I think God is telling me something, I always go to the scripture to ensure that what I think I'm hearing is in the line with scripture.

I'm grateful that scripture indicates repeatedly that the creator of the universe, is interested in having a relationship with people, a relationship with me.

What about you, what are some experiences you've had with God speaking to you?

Shooting at Pentagon highlights what I've been saying

The recent incident where John Patrick Bedell, walked up to a guard station at the entrance to the Pentagon, and opened fire with a 9 mm handgun on the guards, underscores what I've been talking about on this blog concerning the mentally ill.

For more particulars concerning the actual event, you can read the news reports at this Wall Street Journal article or this Associated Press story at Yahoo news.

Because, as I've shared on this blog previously, I have a sister who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and because I ran secured psychiatric facilities for 9 years, issues concerning mentally ill individuals capture my heart. I love that in America we are each entitled to live how we choose, even if we are bizarre - but this same wonderful truth causes heap loads of problems when it comes to mentally ill individuals. The problem in California, in a nutshell, is this:

We each have a right to the freedom to live as we choose. So if a mentally ill individual chooses to not receive treatment, not take medication, not participate in a healthy lifestyle including dental/medical/dietary/hygienic living conditions - the individual is entitled to make these choices and no one can do anything about it. The only time an individual can be detained against his freewill to receive psychiatric treatment is if he is 5150'd to the acute hospital for mandatory 72 hour observation. The guidelines for 5150'ing an individual are very strict, and a person can only have this happen if she shows herself to be an imminent danger to herself or others. It is very difficult for an individual to qualify to be an imminent danger. At the end of a 72 hour observation, many if not most, mentally ill individuals choose not to continue receiving psychiatric treatment. To be detained past 72 hours against one's will, the person has to be declared mentally incompetent and be put onto conservatorship. Then the conservator will be the one to make specifically outlined types of decisions for the individual (such as mandatory placement into a psychiatric setting to receive treatment).

I honestly do not know how to fix this problem. I rejoice in the fact that as Americans we can live as we choose. When I've shared about problems with my paranoid schizophrenic sister, I always have good, kind, thoughtful people suggest that I make her receive psychiatric assistance. But this is not possible. I've attended several conservatorship hearings and watched many very sick people not be put onto conservatorship.

This recent situation with John Patrick Bedell is a classic example.

Bedell was diagnosed as bipolar, or manic depressive, and had been in and out of treatment programs for years. It is reported that Bedell tried to self-medicate with marijuana, inadvertently making his symptoms more pronounced. It is very typical for mentally ill individuals to self medicate with drugs and alcohol.

Bedell's parents had reported him missing on January 4, 2010. On January 3, Bedell had been stopped by a Texas Highway Patrol officer for speeding in Amarillo. It is reported that during that conversation with the Highway Patrol officer, Bedell told the officer that he was heading for the East Coast and the officer used Bedell's phone to call his mother, Kaye Bedell, because he seemed disheveled and out of sorts. Kaye Bedelle asked the officer to take him to a mental health facility, but John Bedell refused. The patrolman let Bedell go with a warning. My guess is that the patrolman would have liked to have taken John Patrick to a mental health facility, but could not legally force Bedell into treatment.

The only known link between Bedell and the Pentagon was that in 2004 Bedell had vied for funding for his research. The Associated Press story at Yahoo news said that:

"Bedell also proposed in 2004 that the Pentagon fund his own research on smart weapons. The 28-page proposal outlined his idea for DNA nanotechnology research that might "provide significant new capabilities for the Department of Defense and the individual warfighter."

The Wall Street Journal article explains that:

"In postings on Wikipedia and other Web sites, Mr. Bedell came across as an educated and technologically proficient man with strong libertarian leanings, an anger toward the U.S. government, and a belief that far-reaching conspiracies were behind events as big as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and as small as the disputed 1991 death of a Marine colonel."

My take on this entire situation is that we have a mentally ill man who, due to his illness, misperceived the world around him. Based on his world view, this same man took actions, that most likely seemed reasonable to him. Those same actions ultimately led to the man's death and the injury of two guards at the Pentagon.

Pursuing Trust

OK, I'll admit it - I've never been a huge fan of straight out "exercise".

I enjoy hiking, skating, bike riding, or dancing. But if someone suggests going out and "exercising", I find myself thinking of a lot of other things I want to go do instead.

In my life right now I have the opportunity to exercise faith. I don't find this type "exercise" always particularly fun either. But right now there are several important situations that do not appear to be going my way, and I'm determined to continue to trust in God's grace and goodness regardless of what I see before me.

Lest by some chance you get the erroneous idea that I'm some faith filled marvel that is going to preach to you, let me make it perfectly clear that I am not.

It's just that I've done the depressoid-feel-sorry-for-myself thing in the past and find that I like that way less than any form of exercise be it in the physical or faith arena. I find that living my life choosing to trust in God's goodness and faithfulness results in a peace that is beyond anything my mind can understand.

One of the things I've found really helpful in my pursuit of choosing to trust God, is what I think about (I know, I know, to you it is probably obvious - but for me, it took years to figure that out). Philippians 4:8 tells me to choose to think on what is good and true, so lately I've chosen to start each day filling my mind with scriptures about God's goodness, faithfulness and the good plans He has for my life. I'm surprised to find that the more of these scriptures I put into my mind, the more I find my life permeated by peace and words of praise and faith in God's provision coming out of my mouth even when others are trying to be kind and commiserate with me.

What have you found helpful to living a life of faith?

Take a deep breath...

Some people write deep analysis of ways to parent effectively. But me, one of the best parenting skills I've got, is to just take a deep breath.

It's great.

I've utilized this technique since my 3 sons were young. When they were in early elementary school and would get rambunctious and break a window or something in the house - I'd take a deep breath. Or when they'd get to punching one another and making a lot of loud noise - I'd take a deep breath. Those deep breaths helped me maintain control in the face of my own intense responses to their childish misbehavior.

Tonight I had an experience with my 17 year old son that shows me that this technique still works.

As we were all getting to the dinner table to sit down and share the meal, my 17 year old announces that he needs to make spending money (about a week ago he and I had a thoughtful money discussion which resulted in me increasing the amount of his allowance but letting him know that I would not give him any additional monies unless he completed special projects around the house to earn the money). He said he's come up with a plan that will bring in a phenomenal rate of return on investment, but that he will need some assistance from me. He asked if I would take $30 he'd give me and obtain Oxycodone so he could take them to school and easily sell them for more than four times the amount for which they were purchased. I retorted that this was called "pushing drugs" and that of course I would not do that; that Oxycodone is an opiate like morphine or heroine. He said that what with getting good grades and working toward a football scholarship, he doesn't have time for a part time job. Did I want him to just get a job and forget about good grades and sports?

I almost started to argue the point, but I realized that he was working to reel me in once again. This son has always been the biggest button pusher on the planet, and adores nothing more than getting me upset. So what did I do? I took a deep breath and continued to do so to refrain from speaking.

When he gave a repeat performance for my husband John as he was sitting down at the table, John just laughed at the absurdity. After dinner I had my 17 year old come over to the computer with me so we could google Oxycodone. He was amazed at what he learned. He'd thought I had been exaggerating when I'd told him it was an opiate, but when he saw the same information on Wikipedia, he believed. When we repeatedly read from several sources that respiratory problems as severe as death could be caused by an overdose of Oxycodone, he said that he didn't realize it had such serious side effects. The fact that Oxycodone produces "emotional blunting" gave rise to a great discussion about why a person would want to prevent themselves from experiencing emotions.

So what could have resulted in me once again rising to the bait of my teenager trying to get me agitated for his amusement, was prevented by the simple act of taking a deep breath.

What's a super simple parenting technique that you've found useful?

Terrific Tuesday with John from Rabid Fun

Today's Terrific Tuesday guest is John who writes at Rabid Fun. I was so pleased when I stumbled across this blog because John has an unpretentious, honest, and amusing take on life that consistently delights me.

John describes himself this way:
"I'm a common, ordinary, garden-variety Christian, a bit more befuddled than most. I'm 70 years old. I live in Jacksonville, Florida. Been married for 42 years. Am the father of three daughters and three sons. I've been a free-lance writer for 30+ years. Wrote a bunch of business and local history articles and a few little paperback books which never amounted to much. My proudest accomplishment in life? I once built a model sailing ship inside a beer bottle."

Here's a favorite post of John's:

Scruffy
Friday, January 13, 2006
I've Been Thinking About Scruffy

This week I’ve been formatting and editing my current book manuscript, A Dirty Old Man Goes Bad, I’ve managed to reduce it from a cumbersome 465 pages down to 393 pages so far. – and still working on it.

I haven’t done much else this week, but for some reason recently I’ve been thinking about Scruffy:

Scruffy lived in the crawlspace under someone’s house.

The homeowner didn’t know he lived under there because Scruffy stayed quite and sneaked in and out during the dark hours making sure he was never seen.

Scruffy’s real name was Lewis but everyone called him Scruffy -- for good reason. He never bathed or changed clothes or combed his hair or shaved.

When I first met Scruffy, I worked as the night janitor at a huge church, a church which sponsored, supported and contributed to many programs to help the homeless… the homeless who didn’t happen to show up in the parking lot like Scruffy did, panhandling churchgoers and scaring the hell out of blue-haired old ladies as they got out of their cars at every service.

This behavior got Scruffy barred from the church.

Orders came down from the administration that I was not to feed Scruffy anything from the church pantry or ever give him money for drink and drugs. But he kept coming by late at night when no one else was in the buildings, so I disobeyed.

Ok. I was wrong. I am an enabler; I can live with that.

Several times I offered to drive him to a homeless shelter. He refused saying he felt more comfortable living under buildings than in them. Maybe that was his legacy from Viet Nam?

I attempted to witness to him about Christ, how Jesus came to save sinners, was crucified dead and buried, rose again from the grave, and promised to return. But Scruffy dismissed my words with, “That’s a crock of shit, John, and you know it”.

Then for a period of weeks there was no sign of Scruffy until…

Late one night there was a knock on the church door. I opened it and there stood Lewis, clean shaven, hair combed, decently dressed. He glowed.

“I got saved, John,” he said as I opened the door.

We sat in the church kitchen drinking coffee as he told me that he’d been crossing the street drunk when a car hit him breaking his leg. Fortunately a nurse and her husband in a car following saw the accident and stopped immediately to render aid.

Laying on the pavement, Lewis looked up and saw this beautiful woman leaning over him, examining his injury.

“Be still,” she said, “You’re hurt. You were nearly killed. Do you know Jesus”?

Scruffy spent a few weeks in the hospital, then joined that nurse’s church. He quit drinking and druging. He got a job with a tire company. He moved into an apartment. He talked about Jesus. He was a new creation… for a while.

A month or two passed.

Again in the wee small hours of the night when I was alone in the huge building, there was a knock on the side church door.

There stood Scruffy. Drunk. Wild eyed. Filthy. Profane. Hungry.

Again against orders, I led him back to the kitchen and gave him coffee.

“Didn’t last,” he said. “Nothing to that shit. Not really. Not for guys like me”.

He stumbled out into the night looking for another fix.

Another month or two more went by when I got word that he’d been found dead under somebody’s house. He’d been hit by another car, refused medical attention, but managed to stagger away and crawl up under a house.

The homeowner never knew he was under there till he began to rot and the smell got too bad.

The church I where I janitored paid for his burial.

So, do I think Scruffy went to Heaven?

Well, it’s by grace that any of us are saved through faith . It’s not of ourselves. It is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast.

Scruffy was in bad shape to start with. Then, at rock bottom, he called on Jesus to save him. He believed in his heart that Jesus is the Risen Lord and he confessed that with his own lips.

For whatever my opinion is worth, I think Jesus saved him

And Jesus has the reputation of being mighty good at what He does.

But a spiritual commitment and a physical addiction are two different things. So, in so far as I can perceive such things, Scruffy made the deepest commitment he was capable of making, but was physically defeated by his addiction.

I may be entirely wrong about such a thing, but when you get to Heaven, take a look in the crawlspace under the Throne and see if there isn’t somebody hiding under there.

His name is Lewis.

Stranger than Fiction

Life often brings us those moments that are way more interesting than anything we could ever make up.

Such was the situation when my husband and I were working on our taxes this year. My husband, in his desire to ensure we keep all the money we can legally, combs through all the tax publications and forms with a fine tooth comb. You can imagine my amazement and laughter when he pointed out the following paragraph from Publication 525, page 36:

"Stolen Property. If you steal property, you
must report it's fair market value in your income
in the year you steal it unless in the same year,
you return it to it's rightful owner."

So my husband says, "Hey, if I steal a car, and use it all year long, but return it to the rightful owner at the end of the year - I don't have to report it as income!"