The Chandelier Surprise

Just had one of the most unique, surprising God blessed days ever.

I sold my lawn tractor this morning, so Sandy decided it was time to replace the light fixture in the dining room. In desperation I checked Craigslist and found three matching stained glass fixtures. If you know me, a good deal is way better than a new deal... Opposites attract. Sandy 'suggested' we visit the light store first.

We arrive at the light store on the pike. Sandy goes to the gold plated ones (guessing by the price). I begin a desperate search for the sale section. Off in a corner is ONE single sale tagged fixture. We both like it! Turn the tag over, and the sale price is $430. Marked down from $3720. After I get off the floor, we ask why the mark down. Apparently the tilt isn't from being stuffed in the corner, that is the way it hangs.

Now, I have barter genes. I negotiate a “if you give me the right price, I'll be idiot enough to risk a hack saw dismantle/fix of a $3720 chandelier.” Sandy reluctantly agrees with that look on her face.

DEAL!!!

Two sales ladies begin the dismantle, when shortly we hear a gasp. We look up to see the fixture hanging perfectly level. The hand blown glass globes each weighed drastically different. In fact, the sales girl whined when she lifted the first one off at how heavy it was.

We selectively replace the globes, and there hangs a perfectly balanced $3720 chandelier sold at a silly stupid price. Clearly evidenced by the exclamation of the store manager from across the showroom floor...

Sandy's happy. I'm happy. REALLY happy.

In the scheme of eternity, none of this is more than a hill of beans. But today, it was God cleverly blessing the socks off two of His kids.

Real marriage has always been and will always be a committed relationship between one man and one woman. Demanding it ain't so doesn't make it so.

It is the only relationship that reproduces naturally, a father and mother raising their children.

It is the only relationship that is the birthing place of every single other type of relationship.

It is the only relationship that reunites two completely unique parts. A complimentary union, instead of a duplicated half.

It is the only relationship that sexually fit together by design. There is no abusive violation of design.

It is the only relationship that restores a male and female to the very original roots of our creation, pre-gender.

It is the only union that blends two different genders bringing perfect balance. A same gender union lacks diversity and is off balance.

All this says nothing about the cultural, historic and religious distinctions that marriage wholly embraces.

It clearly has, needs and deserves a special and unique definition. It is absurd and sacrilegious to equate ss couples.

For ss couples to be equated to marriage,
the demand is that children be removed from consideration
to equate ss couples to marriage.

And that mother and father be removed
to equate ss couples to family.

I remember when the Church rose up against divorce. Most couples worked through the ups and downs of marriage because of God, and maybe more so, because of the children. But then psychologists claimed divorce had no affect on children.

And the government intervened with no fault divorce. And the Church decided it was more important to welcome divorced people than to protect the life-long devastation it imparts on children.

I remember when the Church rallied against legalizing abortion. The shame of immorality reined in promiscuity. But doctors said the cost of back alley abortions was too great.

And the government intervened once again. And the Church decided not being harsh was more important than 40 million children being murdered.

Now the Church is being challenged to call ss couples the same as marriage. The courts say mutually sterile, duplicated gendered halves are equal to marriage.

And the government is once again poised to intervene. And the Pope is recommending that once again the Church step back.

Can't help but wonder what on earth that means for children.

All that is left is, "...and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death." Matthew 10:21

Isn't that the logical response when we have brutalized the bonds of marriage and family at the expense of children?

The Distinctions of Marriage

Marriage is a miraculous union of two genders,
a union so profound,
it is described as the union of Mars and Venus.
It reunites humanity to the roots of life,
while at the very same time
hosting the best and natural
birth place of future human life.
It is the blend of masculinity and femininity.
The wisdom of logic and intuition united.
Strength and delicacy perfectly balanced.
Protection and nurture combined as one.
A complimentary merging that multiplies the unbiased blend of humanity's genders.

A ss couple cannot equate to a single one of these distinctions.

I want to thank and give credit to Kimare'a
for the incredible insight and timeless wisdom of these poetic thoughts.
No matter where or what our culture stoops to,
these things will never change.

And there is not one thing anyone can do to change these facts.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will on Earth

Psalm 72 is a Psalm for our time.

The prayer of a father for his son's reign.
And at the same time, the heart of God for the Messianic King of Kings.

A justice where the greatest looks out for the least.

A justice so perfect, so encompassing
that even the earth responds with unrestrained fruitfulness.

A justice so contagious, so powerful,
it overpowers all enemies without weapons of war.

A justice so amazing it unites all mankind in perfect peace.

His Kingdom comes.
His will on earth as it is in heaven.

Let our voices pray so,
And our hearts long for.

Breath of Life

On Palm Sunday we read this passage in Church;

Luke 23:44-46 (NASB)
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,
45 because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." Having said this, He breathed His last.

I was stirred to research 'breath'. Out of a treasure of insight, these thoughts stand out.

Genesis 2:7 (MSG)
GOD formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!
The 'breath of life'. What a interesting distinction from the rest of creation. When God breathed into us, we became not just alive, but also a living soul. When man is shaped and formed he has the breath of life breathed into him and it animates humans in a way that no other creature shares.
But this mention of breath is not the first appearance.
Genesis 1:1-2 (NASB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit (ruach) of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Did you know what the Hebrew word (ruach) for 'Spirit' means? breath, wind, spirit: (New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible). The breath of God moved over the surface. Like oxygen is to fire, so the breath of life was to creation.
“Breath is used in the Bible as a powerful symbol of the life-giving presence of God. Like God Himself, the air we breathe is invisible, odourless and tasteless—it cannot be perceived at all unless it moves. It is usually peaceful and still, but it is a reservoir of enormous power. The air is a massive ocean—invisible, yet completely necessary for our life, for we are quickly dead without it. It seems reasonable to suggest that one reason God created the air—and respiration—was to show us graphically how great and immediate is our need for Him.”
That very picture is described by Jesus to Nicodemus;
John 3:5, 8 (MSG)
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom.
...You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
While Scripture says life is in the blood, it is because blood depends on the injection of oxygen from our lungs. Someone has said, “Water (H2O), the liquid of life contains oxygen. Carbon dioxide (CO2), the metabolism of life contains oxygen. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, the food of life contains oxygen.” Oxygen permeates every element of our being. We were also created to have the breath of life permeate every part of our being. A outside, invisible source that sustains us. Just as our physical life depends on breathing oxygen, so our soul depends on the breath of God. You might say man cannot live on oxygen alone.
Just as a runner pants for air, the exertion of life also causes us to pant for God. Eastern mystics teach meditation upon one’s breath as a way of controlling body functions and gaining inner peace. As Christians we can also benefit from meditating upon the breath of life, a powerful biblical metaphor used to speak of His very presence. Psalm 150:6 (NASB)
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!
Just as the air we breath serves a dual purpose enabling us to speak, the breath of life speaks out the living Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 (MSG)
Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way.
We don't have time to go into it, but what a picture of God speaking creation into existence, and the power of our words.
The significance of this Easter day and the breath of life was prophesied to us;
Ezekiel 37:1-5 (MSG)
GOD grabbed me. GOD's Spirit took me up and sat me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun. He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Master GOD, only you know that."
He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of GOD!' " GOD, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life.
What died in the fall was the breath of life God breathed into man. Which is why this event after the Resurrection has such great importance;
John 20:22 (MSG)
Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said.
The restoration of the breath of life.
I receive.