Know what scares me? I see some of the best meaning, bible adhering, truth seeking Christians that are so right on with their methods and concerns but inevitably most seem to get to a ‘place’…a place that seems to cross an invisible border beyond complete truth to acceptable truth and onward to other things. Then you look at their life and see subtle changes from before when you used to think that they were right on, wonder when exactly did they cross the line, and… will I too have to cross it or is there any way to avoid it?

These were strong folks in God. Godly folks with a head on their shoulders and a heart underneath and they seemed to have the ‘right’ answers. Sadly, for some reason people are still applauding them even though they have slowly started to delve into extra/ultra biblical dimensions.

Some is being done in the name of creative writing, artistic flair or other special ‘licensing’ but it has still stepped away ever so slightly from the rock-solid truths that they began in.

Do I also have to follow that road? If you see me veering off the well-trodden paths of truth will you gently correct me? Will I listen? At that point, will I be able to hear correction?

I pray I will always have ears to hear! When my ears stop hearing and my eyes stop seeing spiritually, I have begun to slowly die and become extinct.

Happy Easter to all the C&E Christians out there!! (Christmas & Easter)
Glorious Resurrection to all the true followers of the risen Christ!

Wow. I took that plane ride the other day as a favor to help someone out. This person hated flying and something needed to be delivered that day so I said I would do it for them.

Now I am sick from breathing in 15 hours of re-circulated airplane air. I could wonder:
• Why God didn’t protect me from getting sick when I was doing such a charitable act?
• Was I supposed to claim a scripture first or after?
• What happened to all the perfect health these faith-teachers preach?

All the positive thinking in the world would not have prevented the re-circulated germs from entering my system. I did have to breathe, right? Should I have quoted scripture all day or rebuked the devil? Was this a spiritual attack?

Or…maybe it is just that God allows sickness in our bodies as a gauge to tell our bodies to slow down and regroup. He gives us common sense to use for our benefit. Not everything in life has a spiritual connotation behind it. If the toilet paper runs out, it isn’t an attack from the devil but possibly our own laziness, forgetfulness or stupidity.

I am sick because I am sick. I have no hidden sin. I am not doing spiritual warfare. I didn’t step out of God’s anointing. The devil or his cohorts are not attacking me. Moreover, I probably didn’t have some high Wiccan on the planes trying to sabotage me cause they ‘knew’ I was a Christian.

Sometimes we are just too spiritual for our own good. I wonder if God is as ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ as his so-called followers seem to be.

I read other peoples blogs, web pages and personal information. It is like walking into someone’s house and looking at his or her bookshelf. It can tell you a lot about a person. I notice on many of the Christian profiles they put that they enjoy drama, horror, sci-fi and odd movies or programming on T.V.

I wonder why. The old saying used to be ‘junk in- junk out’. There is no spiritual nutrition in a horror flick. There isn’t very much sustenance in most of the movies or television. They are made for sheer entertainment… and the producer’s pocketbook.

‘I am reminded of a young couple that fell in love and he adored her. She adored him very much… or so he thought. One day he caught a glimpse of the pictures in her wallet. She had multiple pictures of everyone and anyone. Then there was one solitary picture of him. It seemed the smallest of them all and it laid at the back after all the rest.

This made him wonder why if she professed such a great endearing love for him why she wouldn’t want to have a bigger picture or more to show other folks. He had given her many pictures at her request. He began to wonder how special he really was in her life. Was she ashamed of him? Had he embarrassed her? Was he thinking she professed more of a love than she really felt? Was he just imagining that he was first in her life?

He pondered all these questions. He felt unneeded and alone’.

I wonder if this is how Jesus feels when we put him last in our lives. We profess with our mouths that he is our entire lives but we live for the world and its pleasures. Instead of doing what Philippians 4:8 says we do everything and anything that seems to oppose it.

'Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things'.

How can we think on these things while we are watching a movie at $15 a pop that scares the daylights out of us? How do we think on any of these things while having gore effects, shock scenes, and a host of other unpleasant things flash by our eyes? Some would say this is just a true portrayal of life but really, it is just a clever way to desensitize people to pain, blood and brutality. Actually, it lessens the work done on the cross by Christ. Instead of being broken by the thought that he was beaten for our sins, we then can categorize the brutality as just another ‘show’. Desensitization is a bad, bad thing.

We notice that when we think on the things in the above passage they tend to cause us to reflect on our Lord. The one that we are supposedly professing to be number one in our lives.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day traveling from Denver to Cincinnati to Cleveland, over to Utah and then back to Denver. It took fourteen hours and four planes.

I was able to take 362 pictures from the air at some breathtaking clouds, groundcover and just fascinating things. It made me do a lot of wondering about the finger of God as he parted spaces to make way for water or all the funny artistic squiggles in the architect.

The clouds amazed me as usual. They come in so many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Kind of like people, I guess. Some of the clouds seemed just suspended as if there was a tiny little string that could have been holding them in place.

Three hundred and sixty-two pictures. I hope that I can use some for art in the future.

As we were flying, there was much turbulence. I thought that from the ground when one looks into the sky and sees a plane soaring in the midst that it seems all so smooth and effortless. It is easier to imagine the folks up in the sky riding along on soft, fluffy clouds instead of them being all jumpy and about to barf.

I think we tend to view other Christians and especially one’s with any sort of title whatsoever as them being strong, solid, great, loving, spiritually mature Christians. When in fact if we had the opportunity to get on their ‘plane’ we would see that they are just as scared as us, struggling to know who God really is in their life and forcing themselves to do all that has been told to them to do in order to be ‘all that’ and more.

The grass is never greener on the other side. Everyone has to mow his or her yard. Just because someone ‘looks’ spiritual or sounds religious does not mean a thing. It may just mean that they are in the same struggle as you but has managed to disguise in a cloak of ‘religianity’ or behind a few pretty sounding titles.