Remember Me This Way

From The Desk Of A Geek:

Remember Me This Way

After taking prom pictures with Landon, my niece Lainey, and the family, and of course posting the "obligated" historical parental prom pictures😀

I started doing a little reminiscing myself, remembering when cousins, Landon and Lainey were young, and everything was new and exciting. Now they have grown into young Christian adults. Time does fly..!!

That got me thinking about my own memories and I thought I would share a few thoughts....

Do you remember that famous Broadway musical "Cats"? And the Grammy Award winning song Memories 

"Memory, all alone in the moonlight

I can dream of the old days

Life was beautiful then

I remember the time I knew what happiness was

Let the memory live again...."

Mark Twain once said, “I have such a good memory that I recall things that never happened.” 

Mark Twain was making fun, but in fact, his ‘tongue-in-cheek’ remark about memory says more than we realise.

How good is your memory? Without a doubt, a memory is a great blessing.

Poet Wendell Berry has observed that when we are young, our lives are all time and little memory. As we grow older, we discover that our lives are almost entirely memory and very little time. That's why, in visits with older family members or acquaintances, we often talk about the past and the roads they have traveled. 

Conversations like that are not mere reminiscing about "good old days." They are crammed with evidence of God's grace and faithfulness. Our memories of the past give us courage for the road ahead. 

Israel practiced a similar faith dynamic. The psalmist offers memories of the Exodus. Why remember things that happened centuries earlier? Because such memories inspire hope for tomorrow. 

Alistair MacGrath has compared the Christian to a trapeze artist who has let go of one bar and is soaring through the air to catch the other bar swinging toward him. There's a moment when the trapeze artist is suspended in midair caught in an act of faith. That's the nature of the Christian life. 

A memory can be a wonderful blessing. It can bring smiles, laughs, or even tears of joy as we look at pictures, share stories, or just think about the good times of bygone days. One writer said, “Memory is the way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”

I think it’s important to know that every memory you have is filtered through the lens of your own personal perspective. Which is why eye-witnesses will have completely different stories when giving detailed accounts of an event. Emotions and past experiences will always influence your perspective, perception, and therefore, your memories.

Psalm 143:5–6 reminds us:

"I remember the days gone by;

I think about all that You have done,

I bring to mind all Your deeds.

I lift up my hands to You in prayer;

like dry ground, my soul is thirsty for you."

We journey by faith. Often the insecurity of the moment overwhelms us. That's why we cultivate a spiritual memory. God's grace is woven into our own personal stories. Consider your own life. Now is the time to make new memories! Make lots of happy memories. Everyone has painful memories but with intentional effort, it’s possible to make plenty of positive memories to overshadow the difficult ones.

What stories might you share with family, and friends about God's goodness?

Lonnie....

The Villains

From The Desk Of A Geek: 

The Villains

Comic book villains have always been as important as heroes. Their acts and roles do not make it an easy feat to like them or understand them. But their major purpose is to bring out the best in our favorite superheroes, and they do that job perfectly.

Without these supervillains, there would be no one for our heroes to conquer, create chaotic situations to calm, and create dangerous scenarios for them to save people. While the greatness of their conquests measures heroes, the strength and chaos of their acts measures villains.

Heroes are easy to admire in the Bible. They're the ones God wants us to be like. Sure, they have problems here and there, but they always get right with God eventually.

But the Bible has plenty of villains too—and we may feel a little awkward about them. It might even seem disrespectful to the good guys to spend time studying the bad guys. Think about this though: Eight of the Ten Commandments define God's law by listing wrong actions and thinking to avoid. Learning what to steer clear of helps us to live a better life. God's law is the bottom line for how to act, and lessons from the Bible's bad stories can help us to know how God's law applies.

Let's extract the good lessons from the bad examples.

We need to get the whole story to learn from Bible villains (and heroes for that matter). The details help us understand and avoid the mistakes.

Look at the story of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who inherited the throne over the united kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south. 

When he came to power the northern 10 tribes of Israel were on the verge of seceding.

To pay for decades of his high-cost building projects, Solomon had levied high taxes. The northern tribes, with Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim newly returned from exile as a principal leader among them, asked for an easier tax burden (still something we often hear debated in political circles today!) as Rehoboam's first royal decision. They wanted a revived economy with personal finances restored.

Rehoboam had a good shot at becoming a great leader. He started off well by seeking the advice of the elders who served Solomon. They wisely counseled that the northerners were right and that lower taxes would be healthy for all. They said that the king would be loved for being so generous. He then asked for advice from his younger peers. They gave the opposite and ultimately fatal advice to increase taxes by leaps and bounds. It was far beyond what the people were willing to bear.

Rehoboam unwisely took the advice of his peers, raised taxes, and lost over half his kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel split away, taking its own path separate from the southern kingdom of Judah. When all was said and done, the king lost far more income than all his taxes could have ever gained him. He chose poorly, and everyone suffered because of it.

The story of Rehoboam's mistake provides an essential lesson. Without the background we wouldn't realize that he should have heeded the advice of his elder advisors rather than his foolish peers who offered him nothing but a greedy ego trip.

For important decisions, we need to seek a multitude of counsel as advisedin Proverbs 11:14, and ask God for discernment to know what is wise counsel and what is just bad advice.

We also need to sift out reasons for villains' choices. What motivated their bad decisions? Why did they sin and rebel against God?

It's hard to find a more despicable biblical villain than Queen Jezebel, the foreign wife of King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel. She was the daughter of the king of the Phoenician city-state of Sidon and a priestess of the false god Baal.

Jezebel led her Israelite husband Ahab into the worship of Baal rather than the true God. This was a direct affront to God, who hated Baal worship not only because it was idolatry, but also because it often required human sacrifice. Often the sacrifices were the worshippers' own babies.

Jezebel had the true prophets of Israel murdered, and she called for the assassination of the prophet Elijah. 

She schemed to have a wealthy vineyard owner murdered so that her husband could steal his land. And she fought against the true worship of God whenever she could.

Why did she do all this? We think of her as totally immoral, and she certainly behaved that way. But to learn a deeper lesson we have to analyze a bit more. Jezebel was a priestess of her god Baal, and in that position she had power. So clearly, by trying over and over again to destroy the worship of the true God, she was trying to hold on to and increase what she saw as her source of power.

Do not trust in some other perceived source of power false gods of our own making, wealth, authority, weapons, position, etc. in place of God. If we look to anything other than God for strength, we may find it for a while, but ultimately it will fail.

What happened to Jezebel? She was thrown from a window and eaten by dogs. No power, no strength. Enough said.

What about someone who was both villain and hero? Seems complicated, but there is one such man who was the ultimate villain, only to become one of the ultimate heroes of the faith. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He is also known as the apostle Paul.

Saul was a Pharisee, a young leader within the religious and political scene of Judea during and just after the time of Jesus Christ. He was the heavy-handed type and had the authority to punish anyone he believed to be a heretic within the Jewish community. He saw the teachings of Jesus as blasphemy and all Christians as heretics. Saul tracked down and prosecuted them to the fullest extent of the local law—resulting in their imprisonment and sometimes death.

Saul is mentioned in the book of Acts shortly after the passionate speech by Stephen the martyr: "And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul", while they threw rocks at Stephen until he was bludgeoned to death.

Saul continued to harass the Church and was on his way to the Jewish community in Damascus to arrest members of the faith and send them back to Jerusalem when God intervened and struck him down. Blind and helpless, Saul was shown the futility of fighting against God's plan. After his spiritual conversion, he went on to preach the truth with the same vigor with which he had previously fought against it.

Saul followed God as best he understood, but after his conversion he was able to follow God in both Spirit and truth. He saw his previous mistakes and turned to God.

When we are completely wrong, we need to be humble and willing to turn 180 degrees and do what's right. Saul the persecutor became Paul the faithful.

To learn from the Bible's bad guys, get the details of the story clearly in mind, understand what motivated people to do wrong, as well as what some bad guys did right to change their lives. Avoid the mistakes of the wrongdoers, and follow the good examples of the righteous. Being a skilled Bible student can help us lead a better life!

Lonnie....

Stronger To Love

From The Desk Of A Geek:

Stronger To Love 

While Cathy was working on homework, and the boys were off in their room playing video games, I decided to take the free time I had and watched a few episodes of Smallville.

For those who don't know, 

Smallville is based on the popular DC Comics character, Superman. The series follows the life of a teenage Clark Kent living in the town of Smallville, Kansas that is set at the start of the 21st century. It shows Clark Kent coping with adolescence while he is developing super powers (X-ray vision, super speed, etc.), exploring his extraterrestrial origins, and struggling to find his destiny.

In the series finale, Clark gave a grand inspirational speech to close out the show, but also, I think, to mark the moment when he really became Superman.  

That was Smallville, a pre-Superman.  Not just because he didn’t know how to use all his powers yet, or because he didn’t have the spandex suit, or because he wasn’t world famous. Clark wasn’t Superman yet, not because he wasn’t a superhero, but because he wasn’t even really Clark Kent yet.  

Little baby Clark wasn’t born with kindness and goodness and morality built into him.  All those pure qualities we know Clark/Superman to have, were something he had to be taught, and something he had to work at.  It was even something he failed at, quite often, and not even just because of red kryptonite. 

All those failures are what make his speech such a turning point.

“They may not be perfect, but I believe even in the darkest soul, there’s always hope.  People want to believe in something greater, and it may be easier to hate, but it’s stronger to love.”

(Clark Kent)

“They may not be perfect, but I believe even in the darkest soul, there’s always hope.” 

I don’t think this is something Clark always believed, at least not completely.  To be fair, he had to deal with quite a few dark people who never changed.  It’s not an easy thing to believe. After seeing so much crime and corruption, how do you believe there’s hope for the dirty businessman? the corrupt politician? the serial killer? 

How did Clark come to this belief? 

He saw what a loss of hope could do to a person.

Clark and Lex Luthor start the series as best friends, their relationship the “stuff of legend”.  But as we know, Superman and Lex are archenemies.  So how did they get to that point?  In Smallville, we see Lex’s dark past and his obsession with power.  But those things aren’t enough to change these legendary best friends into mortal enemies.  

What happens (according to Smallville) is that the trust of the relationship is broken.  Lex is too obsessed with the “weird” and unexplainable side of Clark, Clark loses trust in him, false accusations fly, and Lex loses trust in Clark.  Lex is alone, and hope is lost.

Clark completely gave up on Lex and believed that a dark soul was just who Lex was.  Clark’s and the world’s hopeless evaluation of Lex weighed him down, and it became easy to live up to people’s expectations of him.  

Clark had to learn the hard way, with lasting consequences, to never lose hope, no matter hopeless a person or situation might seem.

So what about you?  After seeing so much pain in your life, how can you believe there’s hope for the person you can’t get along with at work, or the friend who betrayed you, or the family member who can’t seem to say anything kind to you?  How do you stay hopeful?

I'm reminded of what the scriptures tells us...

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (1 Peter 1:3 NIV).

We may not be able to see the good in others, but Jesus saw the good in us and gave us hope for a new life.  So if we can receive hope to change for the better from Jesus, so can those other people.

Clark learned a lot about love and hate in his young years, often the hard way, through tumultuous romantic relationships and rocky friendships.  His many adversaries throughout the years also added to his experience.  Clark saw countless times the painful effects that a loveless past could have on a person.  How many of his villains have some sort of tragic backstory?  

Hate bred hate. It could’ve been so easy to continue that cycle and hate the villains. In his relationship with Lex, he did give in to the easy thing. It takes a strong person to return love for hate, and even our beloved Superman wasn’t always that strong. 

We know from our own experience how much easier hate can be, we can just say the hurtful things we want, we can just cut those people out of our lives, we can just write people off.  But love, love is the better option.

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” 

(Luke 6:27)

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 

(1 Peter 4:8)

I know, much easier said than done.  We’ve all heard it said that “hate is a pretty strong word.”  So what makes love stronger?

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 

(1 John 4:8)

If God is the greatest thing we can believe in, and God is love, love is the strongest tool we have to fight our enemies. 

As we all know, Superman’s insignia is the Krypton symbol for hope.  As he flies through the air, he wants to stand for that value, being a symbol people can look up to.  He wants to point people to those greater things, proving their existence and power. 

How can you be a Superman – a symbol of hope and love that can point people to greater things?  

Lonnie....

From The Desk Of A Geek

From The Desk Of A Geek 

A Christian Knight 

I was finally able to sit down and watch the new Marvel comic TV show, 

Moon Knight with Cathy, Landon and Alex.

Moon Knight is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed. He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu."

Many consider Moon Knight to be Marvel's answer to The Batman. 

Like a certain vigilante based out of Gotham City, Moon Knight certainly understood the value of brand recognition. As such, his tools kept to a lunar design philosophy. These ranged from simpler tools like his crescent moon boomerangs, all the way to the more extravagant like his crescent moon helicopter. Aside from being based around the moon, all of his vast collection of toys and his uniform were white in color to match their namesake’s pale glow.

I have always been fascinated by the idea of knighthood in books and historical literature such as The Knights Templars, and King Arthur.

In medieval times, knights were the heroes that people looked up to. They represented the highest form of service, morals, and faith. Of course, I am speaking of the ideal and not necessarily the reality. Men like King Arthur, Sir Galahad, and Sir Percival likely never existed in real life. However, the legacy remains as a standard for valor and virtue that mirrors the Christian life in many ways.

There are three principle areas where the standard of knighthood, and the Christian run in parallel. They share similarities of *Service, *Conduct, and *Warfare.

 Knights of old were first and foremost servants. Their lives, possessions, and honor were pledged in service to their lord and king. The parallels between the knight’s devotion to his lord and the Christian’s duty to Christ should be obvious. As a Christian, my life is not my own, I have been bought with a price He is the King whom we serve. 

One cannot think of the knights of old without thinking of the code of chivalry. This code governed the life of the knight and their conduct with others. As a Christian I also have demands on my conscience that my King has required. We are free from the curse of the Law but we are under obligation to Christ for the salvation we have in Him. 

Our conduct does not earn our salvation but it does reflect the gratitude we have in the salvation He has provided and demonstrates that we are His.

A knight’s primary duty was in the arena of war. He was no mere foot soldier but a specialized warrior and commander. He defended his king and lord with the sword and lance. As a Christian I am not involved in physical warfare for His Kingdom but I am a soldier in my King’s army for the ongoing spiritual war. I am called to arm myself, defend the truth, and protect those in need.

I believe that the ideal knight is a good analogy of the Christian life. Many in the church today are very comfortable with treating Christ as Savior, Lord, Mediator, and Friend but we need to also remember that we are under the monarchy of the King of kings and in His service. 

Just like the real knights of old we may fail to live up to this standard from time to time. Unlike them, we have a merciful King who has paid our debts and stands ready to forgive. Our honor for serving this King should far outshine the knights of old. Our King is far greater than any earthly ruler.

In my Christian walk it has often helped me to think of my relationship to Christ as that of a knight’s service to a benevolent King. Do not misunderstand. I hold very dear the fact that Christ is my Mediator, Savior, and Friend. The relationship we have with Christ is far more intimate than the lord to the vassal and the love we are to have toward Him is far more personal than even the greatest earthly relationship.

Regardless, in our western culture we have grown very used to thinking democratically. Our leaders are typically elected by the majority and their human faults are laid bare for all to see. We have lost the sense of respect for our leaders that was held by the knights of old for their kings. All too often this is translated to our relationship with God.

I make it my goal to serve Christ with the same honor and integrity equal to the ideal knight.

To be a Christian Knight is to accept Him as Lord and devote your Service, Conduct, and Warfare to His cause. Do I fail in this from time to time? Absolutely, but praise God that my King is also my Savior and Friend. 

I call upon my Christian brothers and sisters to join me in pursuing the goals of being a Christian Knight. 

Lonnie....