I do try to avoid politics in this blog. Political concerns are temporary. Politics change. And there are those who lock onto a particular political party for their entire life time, even if the party in question changes completely. These are people you have to feel sorry for because they have no vision in them. Personally, I feel that matters of the Spirit are far more important. What I look for first in a candidate is their personal belief and how they live their lives. Politics just are not important to me if they are actively following Christ; although, if they are actively following Christ their politics will fall into line.

          But there are times when politics and Spiritual things cross paths. The recent wave of state’s laws that forbid an abortion if the infant’s heart beat is detectable is one of those things.

          The Bible tells us in Exodus 13 that what opens the womb belongs to God. It is sacred. Killing the infant and then extracting it from the womb kind of spits in God’s face. This comes on the heals of some states allowing for partial birth, or even complete birth, abortion. People on both sides are getting more and more angry. We will soon be seeing abortion as a major political issue.

          It has always been a Biblical issue. My own personal stand on it is that life begins at conception. Not even at the fetal heartbeat, but conception. I am against abortion at any time and for any reason. Some will say that my attitude is that of a typical man. My life is not turned upside down, my body is not affected, I am not the one being stuck with a child. While it is true that my body was not affected by pregnancy (although I wish I had something to blame this mess on), my life was turned upside down and I never thought about being ‘stuck’ with a baby. I was the one who got up during the night, I cleaned up my share of spit up, I changed diapers. But I also walked into the house to squeals of delight and little hands reaching for me to pick him up, I got to look into little eyes staring up at me and growing heavy as he had his final bottle and then the pleasure of a child falling asleep in your arms, I felt the joy of those first steps. All through the growing up years I dealt with the negatives, but I also took joy in all of it, negatives and positives. How could someone even think of abortion?

          However, this blog is not about abortion. It is about something else, something that gets to the heart of feelings that give rise to abortion.

          Alyssa Milano is an actress. I vaguely remember her as the cute little girl in the show “Who’s the Boss.” Actually, I have never seen her in anything else, but I understand she has made a career for herself. She is also one of those Hollywood types who believes that her opinion actually carries weight in the real world. She believes people listen to her. She vehemently opposed the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, saying that the American people did not want someone like him on the bench. When he cleared confirmation, she went ballistic, saying there would be dire consequences. The citizenship did not rise up with pitchforks and torches, however. In fact, most people were quite content with the new judge. In spite of this, Ms Milano still feels her opinions are listened too.

          With the new anti-abortion heartbeat laws, Ms Milano has come up with a novel way to bring the Republican lawmakers who are responsible for such laws to toe the line. She is calling on women around the country to go on a sex strike to force the rescinding of these new laws. This, she believes, will liberate woman nationwide from the cruel oversight of men.

          There are problems with this idea. First, there are many women nationwide who feel abortion is murder. There are many people who simply disagree with abortion. Secondly, Ms Milano feels that these laws all come from men. Many women also serve on the legislatures of those states. Third, Ms Milano apparently feels that men in this country are so motivated by sex that a sex strike will work. And fourth, Ms Milano believes that there are enough women in the country who do not think she is a nut who will follow her advice. And, she is overlooking the obvious; if the strike goes on indefinitely, there will be fewer abortions anyway. The medical profession has determined that sex and conception and birth are somehow all related, something Ms Milano has apparently not been informed on.

          As could be expected, a great many people, liberals and conservatives alike, are reacting to this strike call with disbelief, as though they are waiting for the punch line to the joke. A few days ago, Ms Milano reacted to criticism. She told an interviewer that she was pro-life. She said no one wants an abortion, but sometimes there is no choice. This also raised a few eyebrows. In my experience, I have known quite a few women who desperately wanted an abortion. They didn’t want to have a baby, they were going to go to college, they didn’t like the guy involved in the pregnancy, they didn’t want to quit smoking of quit their particular drug of choice. In fact, I, personally, have never known a woman or girl who was pregnant and needed an abortion because it would affect her health or who was raped or a victim of incest. I know those women exist, but I have never met one. I know women in that position who have wrestled with the possibility of having an abortion, but none went through with it. And I say that knowing that my experience is greater than most. Where there have been abortions, they were very much wanted.

          There is a psychological thing called ‘projection.’ It is the notion that if I feel a certain way, then everyone must feel that way. It seems to affect women more than men, but men fall to it, as well. The person literally pushes their own desires and wants onto someone else, as though they share those thoughts. Marsha and I sat in a church congregation one Sunday morning when the pastor of that church said that pornography was the hardest struggle for all men. Marsha and I looked at each other and said at the same time, “WHAT?”  (loud enough to get people to turn and glare at us) I thought about it and realized that it was his problem and he assumed it was every man’s. This is apparently what Ms Milano is suffering from. She believes that if women will just withhold sex, they can control the male population and she believes it is a universal understanding.

          To me, thinking that everyone thinks like you think, is pure arrogance. We see it a lot, though, both in conservative and liberal thought. This causes people to get angry at others, as though they have neglected to follow the only real school of thought. When you get angry with someone you turn them away and you can never get them back.

          We are all different. We all think differently. It is easy, even natural, for me to see the Bible as completely true, completely God’s word. I wasn’t brought up that way, but I have had a personal encounter with Christ that changed me. For other people, it is easy, even natural, to not believe the Bible in its entirety. They have never had my experience. But if I get angry at them, I will never see them come to Christ.

          So, being one who believes the Word of God completely, let me give you a challenge. Instead of getting angry at these people for their beliefs, let’s pray for them. It might be politics, it might be off the wall opinions, it might be unGodly beliefs. Doesn’t matter. Prayer is more powerful than all.

         Blessings.

          A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a young man whom I have known for a long time. Our conversation was pleasant until I asked the question that I ask occasionally when we talk. “So, you going to church anywhere?” Most of my former Youth go to church somewhere, but this young man hasn’t gone anywhere in years. So, I prod him occasionally. Usually there is this excuse or that excuse, but this time he surprised me.

          “Church makes me angry.” I immediately became defensive. After all, I had been his pastor for a long time. “What is it about church that makes you angry?” A moment of silence, then, “I don’t want to talk about it right now.” My immediate impulse would have been to raise my voice and demand that we talk about it right now. But my mind, I believe under God’s influence, stopped me. Not every battle needs to be won right at this very moment.  

          He probably hasn’t thought about it since, but it has never been far from my mind. What is it about church that makes him angry?

          It could be lots of things. People who claim to love the Lord but are often critical about things while doing nothing to make things better. Those who seem to thrive on gossip. People who always walked the walk and then walked away and joined the walk of Satan. Those who rip and tear. Those who complain constantly. And then there are the stories the news media loves to put out there. Priests and pastors (it is not just Catholics) who molest children. Church leaders who steal from their churches. Religious leaders who will say anything to bring in money. People who, in the name of Jesus, support one political stance or the other. Oh, there are a lot of things in the church that makes people angry. It is not enough to say, ‘Well, everyone is just human.’ It is true, we are human. Most people have no trouble understanding a momentary lapse, like a flare of anger. But people have a real hard time understanding ongoing moral failures. None of the things listed above have the excuse of ‘the heat of the moment.’ These are Spiritual failures that the people involved in just shrug off and say, ‘I am just human.’

          So, this young man is made angry by church. What is church? It is a gathering of people. The word in the New Testament that we translate as ‘church’ is the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ and it means a gathering or an assembly of people. Anywhere you have people, you will have short comings. Some of us understand that and we don’t look for perfection in our gathering. But the great majority of people out there see the imperfections and feel they do not want to belong to such as that. Part of our problem is that we seem to insist on living like the world rather than living as His children, and people clearly see that hypocrisy. So, what do we do about it?

          To say we need to start living as Christians need to live is kind of pointless. Most people assume they are living as Christians need to live. Maybe we need to look at that first and foremost.

          1 John 1:5-10 says this---5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

          If you take a candle and light it in a dark room and place it near a wall and then shine a bright flashlight on it, you will see the shadow of the candle holder and the candle, but you will not see the shadow of the fire. You might see the shadow of the smoke, but not the flame. There is no darkness in the flame. Now do this tonight after dark. Go to an outside door and open it. Has it ever been so dark that the dark comes into a lit room? No. The light goes out into the darkness. And, as the light goes out into the darkness, it does not lessen in the light in the room. JESUS IS THE LIGHT! At the very best, we can be the candle holder or the candle. At the very worst, we can be the darkness outside.

          If we are believers in Christ, we need to put aside the things that obscure the Light from people like that young man who is angry at church. We need to step up.         It could be lots of things. People who claim to love the Lord but are often critical about things while doing nothing to make things better. Don’t be so critical about the church or about the people. You are not perfect, either, and you need to work on yourself. Don’t involve yourself in walking with Satan. We talk about ‘falling into sin.’ I believe people walk into sin with their eyes wide open. King David was where he should not have been, he looked over and saw Bathsheba bathing and kept looking and he sent and took her and sinned. And, he was so arrogant that he didn’t see he was walking with Satan until he was told. Quit gossiping. Quit being immersed in things that are not of God. And, for heaven sakes, quit excusing your behavior by saying, ‘Well, I am just human.’ Of course you are human, but we are told to walk with the Lord.

          Why is this young man angry at church? I look at myself first of all. Did I let him down? I don’t know. I don’t see how, but still. But I do know what I am going to do about it. I am going to make it a matter of prayer and I am going to be the best example of the Light I can be. I cannot be the Light, but I can reflect it.

          Blessings.

Stephanie is a woman in her 40s who now lives in Pennsylvania. As a youngster, because of bad issues at home, she lived with us for a period of time. All that is another story. While she was with us, she discovered that I have this irrational fear of heights. About fifteen years ago she was excitedly telling me about Bridge Day at the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. For those who do not know, the New River Gorge Bridge stretches 3,030 feet from end to end and the roadway is 876 feet above the New River. You may have heard of it recently because part of it collapsed. Good to know. It is being repaired. Bridge Day is a yearly festival that happens on the bridge. Stephanie told me that she was going to go to Bridge Day and bungee jump off the bridge. Actually, they ceased the bungee jumping in 1993, but I didn’t know that. They do allow that whole thing where people put on gliding suits and fly off the bridge. But she told me she was going to bungee just to see my reaction. It must have been pretty good, because she dissolved into laughter. But she also told me that whether it was bungee jumping or jumping out of an airplane with a parachute, she only ever really feels alive as she falls through the air.

See, I do not understand that thinking. As a kid we used to jump from the barn rafters into the hay below. But it never was exhilarating. It was terrifying. Period. I didn’t want to be the sissy, though. My sisters jumped, my best friend’s sister jumped, my best friend’s brother jumped, my best friend jumped. So, I jumped. They were having great fun. Not so much me.

Ferris Wheels. Sheer terror. Roller Coasters. Not me. There is a ride now called the Slingshot. Kind of self explanatory. I am not riding that baby. It is all perfectly safe. I don’t care. Once we were at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. Down river from the Falls there are the cable cars that go over the Niagara River Gorge. From the Canadian side to the US side and back. The wind down the Gorge is extreme because of the pressure from the Falls, so the cable cars will sway. Our son was maybe 10 years old and he wanted to go across the Gorge, but he would only go if I went. Not wanting to be the coward, I agreed. Halfway over he got up with Marsha and they were walking around, looking over the side. I was still seated trying to crush the steel hand rail with my bare hands. On the other hand, I love to ride the Maid of the Mist, which is a boat that fights the current and goes right to the base of the Falls. That is probably more dangerous than the cable cars, but you are not in the air. Makes all the difference.

It is odd, but I have flown in small planes and jet planes and even a helicopter. Never seemed to bother me. But the thrill rides…..irrational.

Or is it?

The Associated Press ran this article on May 2, 2019.

The GaleForce coaster was undergoing a routine safety check when the dummies plummeted into a hotel next door.

The operators of a New Jersey shore amusement park say a roller coaster there is safe after a pair of water-filled test dummies fell off during a recent test ride.

The GaleForce coaster at Playland's Castaway Cove in Ocean City was undergoing a routine safety check April 20 when the dummies plummeted into a hotel next door, damaging the building's shingles and plywood.

Park officials say the dummies had undetected leaks that made them lose their mass and shape, causing them to fall. They say that wouldn't happen to humans and that nothing on the ride failed during the test, including the lap bar that secures riders.

Officials say the coaster has run problem-free since the mishap and is tested daily for about two hours.

          OK. Two things jump out at me. First the dummies were ejected and slammed into the roof of the nearby hotel hard to damage the roof. I looked this place up on Google Earth, which can give you views from space to treetop level. There is a hotel quite close to the ride, but it is three stories tall. Those dummies were hurtled a long way to land on the roof and they had some speed. The second thing I see is that the park claimed that the dummies had undetected leaks and humans wouldn’t leak. Well, I would, but never mind that. If a sack of water in the shape of a human is leaking, wouldn’t you see that when you strapped it in? And how do they know the dummies were leaking? I would assume that impacting the roof at high speed would cause a sack of water to pop some leaks. Are they saying the leaks were detected after impact? Of course they leaked after impact! Imagine being a guest in that hotel and you hear a huge bang on the roof, you rush to the window and see a human shaped form sliding off the roof past your window, trailing fluid. I bet they checked out without the park experience. However, for those of you who are interested, they test the ride for two hours a day. Maybe you could hire out as a tester. Humans are, in reality, mostly water that is incased in a sack of skin.

          Could it be, just maybe, that my fear is not totally irrational?

          We all have a fear or two. But as Christians, we should have no Spiritual fear. We put our faith in Christ and trust Him to take care of it. The Fanny Crosby song really does cover it.

1.     Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast;
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels
Borne in a song to me,
Over the fields of glory,
Over the jasper sea.

2.     Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations;
Sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears!

3.     Jesus, my heart’s dear Refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o’er;
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.

Be Safe!

          I would like to say I am sorry for being off these pages for the last couple of weeks. I am a pastor first and foremost, and the last few weeks have been really busy. The blog is back today, though!

         It was the first time I had ever heard of the question, although it is going to be a regular inquiry from now on. At first, I was a little taken aback, but as I thought about it, I understand the need for the question, especially in today’s social climate. A patient is to have surgery. One of the nurses, who comes around before the patient goes in for the procedure and asks question after question, walks in to the room and pulls out a clipboard and starts in.

          “Please excuse the question, but were you born male or female.”

          Just wat you don’t want to discuss immediately before surgery. But, when you think about it, it does make sense. You don’t have to stay with the sex you were born with. If you don’t like being a female, you can become a male, and visa versa. Not everyone retains their gender from birth. It is called gender reassignment. It requires surgeries and medications and counseling, but you can be given a new gender. For that matter, you can simply start living as a member of the opposite sex and begin to declare that you are something different and, in many places, you become different with a courts ruling. Back before same sex marriages were made legal, I knew of two young women who wanted to get married. One of them filled out the paperwork and was declared a man. They are even parents of two children, although “Ryan” had no part in the conception.

          But back to question; the reason it has to be asked is pretty simple. Even though a person might have all the surgeries and all the medications and all the counseling, there are still differences between the male and the female body. A surgeon, of course, can do surgery on either. But, if they go in on a male body and find something pertaining to a woman, they could make a mistake or they might have to change the whole procedure on the spot since the patient is already opened up. Asking if you were born male or female would be considered the least offensive way to gain the information. Medically speaking, it is a question that needs to be asked.

          Many would say that this is the society we live in. It is confusing and misdirected and, most of all, corrupt. All true. But another thought comes to my mind. Regardless what you think you are, what your sexual orientation is, what you feel like on any given day, you are what you are born to be. Someone will say, “Not so! Many babies are born as hermaphrodites! What do you say about them?” Just so you know, a hermaphrodite is someone with the sexual organs of both male and female. First, it is a birth defect. Second, only 0.033% of babies born in the USA are hermaphrodites. That is not 0.033 of every 100 births. It is 0.033 percent of all births, which is a really small number. Since it is a birth defect, many of these have other problems and may never reach adulthood. So, we are left with the fact that we are what we were at birth, regardless of how we feel about it or what we do about it.

          The question, after mulling it over in my mind, led to another thought. In the Bible, the human body is often used as a metaphor to explain our Spiritual essence. The whole passage dealing with the Spiritual armor is using physical things to explain Spiritual truth. Do we reflect what we are, or do we project something we are not? For instance, do you project the image of a Christian but have never trusted in Christ as Savior? Or, have you accepted Christ as Savior, but you are not now living or acting as a Christian? We tend to be negatively affected to some degree by someone who is homosexual or transgender, yet we make excuses when we try and change who we are Spiritually. We say nonsensical things like “Everyone in church is a hypocrite” or “I just sometimes cannot control myself” or whatever we have to say in order to make ourselves feel better. It can be a struggle, for sure.

          One day we will stand before the Lord. Maybe you believe that, maybe you do not. Whether or not you agree with something does not alter whether or not it is the truth. Some people have taken portions of Scripture out of context and announced that the Word of God is wrong. But taken in context and as a whole, the Scripture has never been seen to be in error. So, one day we will stand before the Lord. “Were you, or were you not, born again?” Not, “did you live a good life,” but are you a believer in the saving power of Jesus? The answer, which you will not be able to lie about, will determine your eternity. If you are a believer, will you receive a “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Or will you just be allowed in?

          I am a long way from perfection. I know that and I work at improving. But what you see in me is what I am. Deep down in the deepest part of your soul, what are you?

          Noelvys was a fifteen year old teenager when she came into our lives when Marsha and I lived in the Miami, Florida area. Hialeah, Florida, to be exact. Just north of Miami. Known throughout the country for the Hialeah Horse Racing Track. And, although very few people outside of Hialeah ever heard of it, Hialeah was home to Sunset Heights Baptist Church. Marsha was the secretary, I was the associate pastor and Noelvys, the fifteen year old mentioned above, was our piano player.

          Her parents had escaped from Cuba to get away from Castro’s socialist utopia before Noelvys was born and they settled in Hialeah, which had a growing Cuban population. Noelvys was something of a musical prodigy and when our piano player fell and broke her shoulder, Noelvys came to the rescue. Our pianist was 78 when she broke her shoulder and she never really healed well, so Noelvys stayed on. She became part of our Youth group and went with Marsha and I on various ministry endeavors. She and Marsha were quite close, but mostly she tolerated me.

          In time she married and had two daughters. While the girls were little, Noelvys’ husband, Ricky, left his wife and daughters behind and went off on a new life. Noelvys had a difficult job ahead, but she was up to the task. Both daughters, Melissa and Brianna, are grown and are making their way in the world. Noelvys has been quite successful, although she wouldn’t think so. Her experiences have shaped her life and although there is a lot of the 15 year old still there, there is also a woman who has a strong edge to her.

          We had been kind of loosely in touch until two years ago when I had my heart surgery. Noelvys is a nurse by training. Her career is based on medical, but what she actually does is beyond that and, to be truthful, even though she has explained it to me, I am not really sure what it is she does. But as a nurse, she was quite concerned about my upcoming surgery. That began a more regular correspondence. Then, she asked me if she could be on our prayer list here at the Yoke. She reads the blogs and prays for the people on the prayer list and she will call and ask questions about some of them and whether the doctor prescribed this or that or whatever. She is really concerned. When Jerry Warnock had his back surgery, you would have thought Noelvys was a family member. She has taken the congregation to heart. She is not the only one. I will talk about that more later. First, though, I want to tell my most recent Noelvys story.

          When Marsha left, Noelvys was shocked and disappointed. This was not the behavior she would have expected out of Marsha. But also, she really doesn’t think I can survive on my own. We communicate often now and she is always asking about my health, if I am eating right, how am I dealing with the stress, am I finding ways to relax…..that sort of thing. A lot of women feel that way about men. Poor lost souls, need a woman to point them in the right direction. So, on the evening of April Fool’s day, I sent Noelvys a text. A question maybe you can answer. I ran out of black pepper about a month ago. Since I am Mr. Cheap, I didn’t get any more. But then last week I ran out of salt, too. So, I went out and bought both pepper and salt and brought them home. My problem is how do I put the salt and pepper into their respective shakers? My mother’s shakers had a hole in the bottom that sealed with a cork, but these do not. I have been trying to pour the salt and pepper in through the little holes at the top, but I am making a mess. Isn’t there an easier way? It was evening, so I knew she was home. She usually responds within a minute. Five minutes went by, and then this; The tops don’t unscrew? What do you mean? Ten minutes go by. The salt and pepper shakers, the tops don’t unscrew? There are no screws in them, so how could they unscrew? Five minutes go by. When you take hold of the top and turn to the left, does the whole top unscrew? Gee, I don’t know. Wait a sec….Hey! They screw right off! Thanks! Fifteen minutes go by. Finally, I text, The preceding was an April Fool’s joke. The response was immediate. OK, good. I was trying to figure out how to contact the blog lady (Mary) to get her to run over there and check to see if you had a stroke.

          That was really very satisfying.

          But it got me to thinking later. She was going to try and contact Mary, a woman she has never met but someone she felt she could trust because she has read her blog heard about her. Noelvys is on my prayer chain because she asked to be on the prayer chain. She reads the blogs (the blog lady’s and the blog guy’s)  because I send out the links. The edition of the prayer chain I put out has all the names on it that Judy and Janene have on theirs, but mine also has a few more because I have added some here and there by request. People who have been prayer partners with me from before and who want to continue to be prayer partners. People praying for people they will never know personally and will never meet in this life, yet praying earnestly anyway.

          And real concern, too. As a person progresses after the prayer need, I tend to forget to send out updates. Everyone hears how they are doing in church. Last week I received a note wondering about the Hann family. I had posted about the adoption that got derailed and then about Chris’ heart cath, but had never updated. This person wanted to know how the family was doing. Like some of the others, they had posted the needs on the prayer chains at their own churches. I may post a request here, but people in Ohio and Florida and Oklahoma and who knows where else are also praying. And that is awesome!

          I sometimes think we do not put enough stock in prayer. I know I send out requests without really thinking about the ones who receive that request outside of the church. But people all over whom it has been my privilege to share prayer time and prayer needs are stopping what they are doing for a bit and lifting people of the Yoke up. I would dearly love to, one day, bring all of those extra prayer chain folks together with those from the Yoke so that our people can say thanks and those people can put faces to the names. It won’t happen here, but some day……Well, there is a song by Eliza Hewitt written in 1898 called, When We All Get to Heaven:

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus
Sing His mercy and His grace
In the mansion's bright and blessed
He'll prepare for us a place!

While we walk the pilgrim pathway
Clouds will over spread the sky
But when travelin' days are over
Not a shadow, not a sign!

Onward to the prize before us
Soon His beauty we'll behold
Soon the Pearly Gates will open
We shall tread the streets of gold!

When we all get to Heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be
When we all see Jesus
We'll sing and shout the victory

          When that day happens, look me up and I’ll introduce all of you.