Jesus' Return

I will not guess as to the exact date when Jesus will come back. I will simply say that there are no more prophecies that have to be fulfilled before He could come back for His people.

See you in heaven,

Kathi Linz

Evening Devotions

When I was young, my mother would read us simply-told Bible stories from a yellow book called A Child's Garden of Bible Stories by Arthur W. Gross. I loved the illustrations and could eventually come near to quoting the stories word-for-word.

When we got a little older, Mother graduated us to the more advanced Egermeier's Bible Story Book by Elsie E. Egermeier.

By the time I was in 8th grade, I was well-versed in Bible stories. My teacher gave us a 100 question Bible test. I got 99 questions correct. The only one I didn't get was a verse he quoted and asked which book of the Bible the verse came from. I said it was in one of the Timothy's and it was from the other Timothy. Heartbreaking! I have always called that a technical A+.

Once we were teens and older, both of my parents would have us gather for Bible reading. We read through a number of books of the Bible - sometimes with more than one version going at the same time. John liked his KJV, Daddy usually read out of the NIV, and I would try to follow along in the Living Bible. If we were reading an epistle, Daddy would always have me read the last line "Sincerely, Paul" or "Farewell, Paul". We'd take turns closing with prayer.

When we were babies, we had a couple of memorized prayers. One was the Lord's Prayer and one was a simple children's bedtime prayer.

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
And this I ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Mother decided that having us go to sleep thinking about dying was maybe not the best thought to leave in our minds. So she added two lines:

If I should live for other days,
I pray Thee, Lord, to guide my ways.

Those lines went right before "And this I ask..."

The Bible says "Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

My parents took that verse literally and they had a lot less grief from us than many other parents had with their children. I, for one, am grateful that, although I made plenty of bad choices, I was taught enough to keep me from making some of the disastrous choices I might otherwise have made.

May God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

A Non-Easter

I went to sunrise service on Easter this year. It was different.

Growing up in the Lutheran church, I was used to getting my Hallelujahs back after a lo-o-ong Lenten season. Lent was dreary without those uplifting songs and I couldn't wait for Easter.

This year (and the last two, I think), Pastor has been using the Resurrection series by City on a Hill Productions. They look at the crucifixion from various viewpoints like the centurion. This year we saw it from Mary the mother of Jesus' viewpoint. What was lacking was the joy she would have had when Jesus showed up afterwards. How can you tell Jesus' story without the Resurrection? How can you leave out the joy? How can you call it the Resurrection series without the resurrection?

I was more unhappy after the service than I was when I went into church. I went for a long walk to think about why I was so empty on Easter. It dawned on me that I had never gotten my hallelujahs back after the Lenten season.

I think next year, I might join the Lutherans for sunrise service. I've often said that no one parties like a Jew(weddings and bar mitzahs are huge blow-out affairs) and that's why we're going to have so much fun in heaven. But no one greets Easter with more gusto than a Lutheran. Next year, I think I'll join them.

Hallelujah! He is risen!

Ron DiCianni's painting says it all. Here is the victory!

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

The United States and Virtue

Here are the thoughts shared with us by some of our founding fathers. Just a little something to ponder about liberty and our country's future.

"Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government . .  can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppresive form so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people."
George Washington

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
Benjamin Franklin

"Laws without morals are in vain."
Benjamin Franklin (Motto of the University of Pennsylvania)

"It is in the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour. . . . degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats into the heart of its laws and constitution."
Thomas Jefferson

"When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community."
Montesquieu (written by Thomas Jefferson in his Common Place Book).

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
James Madison

". . . Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed . . . so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger."
Patrick Henry

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."
Patrick Henry

"The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.
John Adams

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net."
John Adams

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams

"Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul."
John Adams

"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."
John Adams

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue."
John Adams

God help us all,

 

Kathi Linz

The End of the World

In the last five months, the world has NOT ended three times.

Jesus did not come back on the Feast of Trumpets last September.  The Mayans hadn't actually predicted the collapse of civilization. And 2012 Asteroid DA-14 did not cause an extinction level event.

I found myself watching each approaching time and holding my breath in a way, wondering how it would play out.  I was pretty sure we were wrong about the Mayan calendar for a very Biblical reason. But I wasn't sure about the other two events.

Jesus said, "...The son of man will come at an hour you do not expect him." Luke 12:40

I wasn't wrong to be looking for Him to come back.  The beginning of that verse says, "You also must be ready..."  I was ready.  I was eager.

But, looking back, I managed to tie myself up in knots thinking about what I still needed to do before the end.  I made myself anxious for nothing. I admit that I'm an expert at doing that. It causes me grief - and all for nothing.

Jesus says we won't be especially aware of the time when He will come. I ought to make that part of my daily understanding and do whatever I know or believe I should do for those around me and to spread God's glory. Then I won't have to wonder if I've done what I was supposed to do when He does show up.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

Judgment of Abandonment

I recently ran across a teaching about Romans 1.  On a quick reading of the passage, one would think that God punishes homosexuality or a society that condones homosexuality.  But look again. That isn't the thing that brings about judgment.

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Rom 1:18-20  NIV

God's wrath is incited when people ignore Him as being the Creator.  At that point, God turns them over to their own desires - none of which are righteous. 

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  Romans 1: 21-25 NIV


God "gave them over".  He left them alone to fall into the ditches they themselves have dug.  God abandons the nation that abandons Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, haven't we arrived at this point?  Do you see the judgment of God in the leadership of our country?  In our slavery to debt?

Our founders set up a nation under God with freedoms built in for a people who were dedicated to faith  - or at least morality.  We used to know right from wrong.  We sent out missionaries as a national passion. 

Then evolution crept in and undermined our thinking about God.  It was swiftly followed by secular humanism.  Humanism was not properly declared to be a religion by the Supreme Court, but at least one justice added it into his notes in this case:

"In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, Justice Hugo Black wrote in a footnote that:

Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God is Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.

As a footnote, this statement qualifies as an obiter dictum — this means that it is simply a personal observation of the judge and hence is only incidental to reaching the opinion. It has no real weight when it comes to legal precedent and cannot be properly considered the "decision" of the court. "
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/SecularHumanismReligion.htm

The more our country figures out ways to eject God from our society, the more we as a nation will come under judgment.  If falling prey to our own sinful natures (children having children, children killing children, "bread and circuses" mentality, etc.) doesn't make us draw back to God, then the judgments to come will be worse.

It's worth thinking about.

Kathi Linz

King Herod and the Wise Men

Matthew chapter 2 tells us about the star that led to wise men to Jesus and about King Herod's reaction to the news.

Consider this:
1. The star had to have been a divine message.
2. The wise men asked for the newborn KING.
3. Herod asked for information about the MESSIAH.

Taking those three points together, Herod knew about the Messiah - that He would be sent from God.

Now Herod was no stranger to "messiahs" in general.  There were a couple of them in his own lifetime, messiahs who were trying to rebel against the Romans.  Take the words of Gamaliel during the trial of the apostles immediately after Jesus rose into heaven.

Acts 5:35-39 (ESV) And [Gamaliel] said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

According to Gamaliel, Herod was dealing with a 'messiah' at the exact time that the wise men showed up asking about another one.  Maybe Herod was simply fed up with all of the local heroic types and he just wanted to nip this one in the bud.  But no other claimant had been heralded by a celestial sign and seekers from far countries. 

They came looking for a king, but Herod knew enough to ask where the Messiah would be born.  Herod didn't ask the news reporters and spies with which he had certainly surrounded himself.  He asked the scholars of Scripture.  Herod understood that this particular Messiah was the real thing.

And his first plan was to kill Him!

If Herod understood enough about the Scriptures to know about the true Messiah, I wonder if he understood the mission of Jesus.  Maybe not.  It seems like most of those well-versed in God's Word missed Jesus' first coming.  They too were looking for a King.

It's a wonderful thing that God knows how to protect His own and that His plans cannot be thwarted.  Otherwise, Jesus would not have seen His third birthday, and we would all be destined for hell. 

God bless us all.

Happy New Year.

Kathi Linz