Our Story

Alex decided to say at Morehead State this weekend, and Landon was with his girlfriend, so after dinner Cathy wanted to watch a movie, so being the good husband that I am I let her pick. She chose the movie, “Love At First Sight.” It’s basically a story of two strangers from different countries who meet together by fate, fall in love, and get separated at the airport… and …I won’t spoil it for you. I only told what was mentioned in the trailer, so yeah, watch the movie and you will know what happens next. It has some good “love” quotes in it, some that I wished I wrote down to use for Valentine’s Day or apologies 😀. But one quote stuck with me….. “You only really know what kind of story yours is when you know the ending.” (Love At First-2024) It got me thinking about God’s plan for us “our story” and our own ending. We are reminded in scripture, more specifically 1 Peter “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” When Peter talks about a crown, he is talking about a symbol of honor. Way back in the Old Testament, God said, “Those who honor me I will honor”. In other words, the one who serves Christ well in this life will be highly honored in the presence of God for all eternity. Peter takes up this theme again in when he speaks of “the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” God calls all His followers, the whole flock of Christ, to share the brightness and splendor of His immediate presence for all eternity. Of course, it took the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ to open the way, but this is where the Christian life ultimately leads. This is our destiny. When God’s work in you is complete, you will be in glory, and God’s glory will be in you. It’s not just that you will be surrounded by the brightness and splendor of God’s immediate presence. Rather, the brightness and splendor of God will be reflected in us, as well. That’s why the Bible says, “When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. God will bring you though everything you face from here to there. The greatest trials of your life are passages on this journey to this eternal destiny. There is peace, because whatever the difficulties of your life, you know that this is the outcome. Think about your destiny and the destiny for all those who are in Christ Jesus. Lonnie

The Dark Side Of The Moon

From The Desk Of A Geek Dark Side Of The Moon “And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.… And God saw that it was good” The sun and the moon are the two great lights that determine our days and mark the passage of time. Remember in the creation story that God created two lights. Genesis chapter one tells us that the greater light was to govern the day (the sun), and the lesser to govern the night (the moon). The sun provides light and from that light comes life and strength. The moon does not produce light, it only reflects the light of the sun. Therefore, in the moonlight, there is not as much brightness. You can still stumble around in the moonlight. The comparison is this; those that are walking in the light (the Son) have that light coming through them. It illuminates all that is around them and draws others to that light of Jesus inside them. Those that are merely talking about the things of the Kingdom and yet giving their first thoughts and best attention to the things of the world are merely reflectors of that light. There is no power within that reflected light to lead others away from darkness. There is no life in that light. In the same way, moonlight offers no life to the world. Notice that farmers do not require moonlight for their seeds to produce a crop. There are times in each of our lives that we talk a good game about the things of the Lord, but it is mostly nothing more than that, just talk. We are not living in the Word and the power of the light and life that comes from the Word. Ask yourself this: “Which light are others seeing from you? Is it the greater or the lesser?” Today determine not to be a reflected light that is of no value to yourself or others. Rather be a source for the greater light that will draw others to the Lord. Choose for yourself which light will govern the rest of your days. Lonnie…

It's Not Personal It's Just Business

From The Desk Of A Geek

It's Not Personal It's Just Business 

The term masterpiece is often seen as subjective, as some films will be considered masterpieces, but individual viewers may find them displeasing and dull. Often, those are reactions from people who want films to jump out at them such as certain action or horror films. However, most critics and scholars of film see The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II as masterpieces along with many film fans.

I find watching these films entertaining as well as educational. There are lessons about history (how immigration changed the landscape of large cities), culture (how values differ from one culture to another), and human nature (how people “take care” of each other).  But there are also moral lessons to be learned from The Godfather.

For example, sometimes “bad guys” are charming.  Don’t think of ‘Evil’ as always parading around with a pitchfork!  And, you can’t keep your private life ‘private’ – thinking that it will not affect your family – no matter how hard you may try.  And, ruthless Machiavellian schemes may make you rich, but there is a price to pay – guilt, loss, regret, betrayal – and damnation. 

One particular line from Michael Corleone in The Godfather II reminded me a great deal of how many Christians wrongly react to people who wrong them.  Tom Hagen, who is the family consigliere (legal advisor), asks Michael why he has become so filled with hate and why he wants to kill everyone.  Michael stares back at Tom, unfazed by the question and responds with coldness, “I don’t want to kill everyone, Tom.  Just my enemies.”  In other words, “Don’t make me out to be a bad person.  I don’t hate everyone.  I just hate my enemies.”  Of course one of the problems with this policy is that eventually the lines become blurred between ‘friends and enemies’, leaving no one around us safe. 

This unfortunately has become our justification for hatred.  We don’t hate everyone – we just hate the people who hate us, or annoy us, or defraud us, or wrong us, or take advantage of us.  And somehow, like Michael Corleone, we find this sort of response acceptable. Soon the lines become blurred between friends and enemies, and we justify behavior we would have never condoned.  

What happened to the words of Jesus?

"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

(Matthew 5:44-47)

I am not arguing that we should be naïve. Jesus certainly wasn’t and he called us to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  I think the call of Jesus needs to be recovered in our treatment of those inside and outside of the Christian community. This does not mean we need to vacation together, or go out to eat as couples, or send our friends to patronize their businesses (especially if we don’t trust them).  

But, we can at least “greet” them, to use the words of Jesus. We can say ‘hi,’, ask how the family is doing, treat them with respect as image bearers of God, and pray for them as we go on your way.

Devastated by this loss, Michael retired to Sicily and and lived in Don Tommasino's old villa, where he once lived with his first wife Apollonia. He died there in 1997, distraught and alone, of a stroke while sitting in a chair in front of the villa.

I’m a sinner like everyone else, I do not want my life to end like Michael Corleone, bitter, lonely, and with regrets that cannot be undone.

My prayer for us is that we allow God help us to follow Christ, by loving those who despise us, and doing so wisely, while we trust Him to bring justice into our lives at the right time.

Lonnie...

Who Are You

From The Desk Of A Geek:

Who Are You

Here's a shocker, not only do I collect comic books, coins, stamps, and love superheros, I'm also a fan of TV crime shows.

Sometimes I learn things in strange ways. And I annoy the people around me because I get so excited about the things I learn, and the weird ways I learn them that I just have to tell all about it.

For example, I had a couple of thoughts the other day while watching a rerun episode of one of my favorite crime shows...C.S.I, I'm talking about the orginal C.S.I with Gill Grissom.

My first thought was, “Never eat while watching an episode of CSI.” My second thought was, “What if you could do a forensic investigation on a soul?” That question reminded me of King Saul.

The story of King Saul holds a strange and gnawing fascination for me. It covers miles of emotional ground. Some average guy finds out one day that he is king. I love that. Who among us hasn’t stapled a paper crown together and walked regally around our first grade classroom? Most of us secretly want to be king one day, and if it comes suddenly and as a surprise, 

all the better! 

That’s exactly what happened to Saul, son of Kish. He wasn’t in line for kingship for several reasons. He was from the wrong tribe. And more significantly, up until that point, Israel wasn’t ruled by a king. Saul was raised up out of total obscurity and given a unique opportunity to be a mighty man of God and a blessing to his people. He could’ve been great.

Most men that we think of as great aren't. Mostly they’re just high achievers. But the Bible never commands anyone to be a high achiever. It never tells men to amass great fortunes, build tall buildings, or wield great power. The Bible records one ultimate purpose for us: to love God (Matthew 22:37-38). 

This love will naturally work its way out into a number of behaviors, like Bible study and obedience. However, the first priority, our most important goal, is to deeply and wholly love God. In addition to that, fathers are to pass this deep love along to their children (Deuteronomy 6:5-7). 

That’s the true measure of greatness.

King David had all of these gifts, and he was for the most part a wonderful, shining example of a godly king. On the contrary, every one of these gifts were first given to Saul, son of Kish, but his knees buckled under the weight. He was crushed by the blessing

It is only fair to give Saul his due. He wasn’t the worst king Israel ever had. I would even argue that to the average man on the street, he would have to be considered in the top five of Israel’s better kings. He didn’t amass numerous wives. He didn’t marry foreign wives. 

He didn’t build and then worship idols. To his credit he achieved quite a bit. He fought against the Philistines, and he actually built a working kingdom where none had existed before. King Saul was a high achiever. But even with all of these achievements, Saul was a spectacular failure in God’s eyes

Let’s be the CSI team assigned to the disaster that is the life of Saul. Let’s do the forensic investigation. If we were to zoom in to the soul of King Saul, we would find it underdeveloped, emaciated, and diseased. Now a first-year forensic investigator of the soul might conclude that this resulted from all of the rebellious sins Saul had committed. The older, wiser, and more seasoned investigator would know from experience that though sin can cause this kind of damage, in the case of King Saul, total spiritual negligence warped his soul into this pathetic condition. One day while studying this story, I realized that King Saul is the absolute embodiment of the lukewarm believer.

He was neither the vilest nor the most wicked king of Israel. He was uniquely... lukewarm. That’s what scares me the most about the story of Saul. I would like to think that I am a little bit like King David. But truth be told, I am more like Saul. I am tempted to be lukewarm.

One of the most insidious symptoms of being lukewarm is a lack of pain. Leprosy is like that. It damages your nerves so you can’t feel any pain. You’re slowly being destroyed by the disease, but you just don’t feel it. The lukewarm soul is slowly being destroyed as well, and yet there is no discomfort. To even become aware that you are lukewarm, you need a jolt. You need to be shocked out of your complacency. 

Some years back I was jolted out of my complacency by a good wife, I was inspired by godly men, and I saw that love for Christ is my calling. I determined to be a godly man and pass my love for Him along to my kids and to a couple of younger men. I’m working at it. If the CSI team was looking into my soul today, they would see one perhaps on the smallish side, but one that clearly shows signs of recent growth

What about you? If you’ve been ignoring God’s prompting, snap out of it! Call out to God for help, However, let’s not be naïve, this is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard work. It’s routinely frustrating, and at times you want to give up. However, it’s more important than pursuing great power. It’s more important than amassing great wealth, and it’s even more important than becoming a king.

Lonnie...

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....