I went to visit an old friend the other day.  He and I have known each other since we were 16, working together after school during the week, on the weekends, and through the summers all through high school. 

I’ve visited him a few times in past few months and it’s really quite a sad state.  I’m always amazed at how just a few simple wrong choices from years gone by can lead a person to where they’re at today… where my friend is today… sitting in jail… 

I could tell when I went that he was beginning to get restless after being in there for so long.  The same walls, same room, same patio area, a revolving door of people, day in and day out.

As you walk in the visiting area to talk to an inmate, you’re separated by a thick soundproof, shatterproof glass.  Each of you sit down and pick up the telephone receiver and talk.  Your conversations are recorded, and your time is limited.

We talked about various and sundry things and before we knew it our time was up.  At the end of our conversation, I hung up the phone, waved my goodbye, and looking through the glass with my friend on the other side… I felt a kind of sadness for him. 

Leaving the visiting area at this particular county jail always gives you time to ponder. 
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At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain before God’s Throne. Some shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But many other groups talked heatedly, not cringing with shame, but with belligerence.
“Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?”, snapped a pert brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror … beating … torture … death!”

In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. “Lynched, for no crime but being black.”
In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: “Why should I suffer?” she murmured. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Far out across the plain were thousands of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for all the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world.
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Tags: black friday, cross, crucifixion, death, good friday, jesus, tetelestai

I overheard a friend recently say, “My young son asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth - that most of us go to Hell and burn eternally - but I didn’t want to upset him,” (…a quote he borrowed, I believe).
He was responded by a couple other people saying: “Sounds like you did the right thing… To tell you the truth, the first is probably more the truth than the later… at least that’s what I’m betting on…”

I got to thinking about these statements, (go figure), and about destiny.

Destiny…

What happens when we die?  Where do we go?  Do we in fact simply go back to the dust from whence we came?  Is that the end?  Is there something for us after we die?

Author Deepak Chopra said in one of his books,

“On the material level, both you and a tree are made up of the same recycled elements.  Mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements in minute amounts.  You could buy these elements in a hardware store for a couple of dollars.  The real difference between the two of you is between the energy and the information.  Your body is not separated from the body of the universe.  Because of the quantum mechanical levels, there are no well defined edges.  You are like a wiggle, a wave, a fluxuation, a convolution, a whirlpool, a localized disturbance in the larger quantum field.”
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Tags: afterlife, belief, Bertrand Russell, Blaise Pascal, christianity, death, Deepak Chopra, Destiny, eternity, Isaac Asimov, jesus, life, Peter Steele, truth

ABC Nightline aired a debate on the 26th between author and philosopher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson facing-off against Pastor Mark Driscoll (Pastor of the Mars Hill Church) and Annie Lobert (founder of a Christian ministry “Hookers for Jesus”) on the topic “Does Satan Exist?”
I’ve watched all of it now on the ABC website, and would suggest either watching it when you have a chance.

So, does Satan exist?  What do you think?
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I don’t normally use my blog for causes, but I think this is a good one…

North East India Project has recently partnered with Smile Train; a non profit helping children with cleft palates. NEIP has recently sent two children in India, Alum and Tsuti, to a Smile Train doctor who has performed the first part of their cleft palate surgery; closing up the palate. Their second and final surgery, fixing their upper lip, will most likely be in 4-6 weeks, and will provide them with a new smile. The Smile Train doctor is located in Shillong, Meghalaya, which is over 300 miles from the children’s village. Word is beginning to spread around the state of Nagaland, and NEIP is already receiving more requests to help other children…

THEY NEED YOUR HELP

We want
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“People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.”^[1]

Just as the stork is associated with bringing a baby into this world, the crow is associated with carrying the soul out of this world.^[2]  Movie ideas, old legends and other belief systems have a mass of stories about birds bringing death (or life).  Many of these are so very fantastical and one has to wonder how they ever came to be.  One of my guesses is that perhaps it was simply an attempt to make sense of the unknown.  While you and I may not believe in babies coming from storks or crows carrying the soul, there is one thing that is real… life is real… and death. 

Last April, I had the honor of officiating my grandmother’s funeral
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What’s the point?
What is the meaning, the purpose, the point in this crazy, crazy world of ours? 

Ah, such a big question. 

Before we get there, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Let’s back up for a moment…

What’s wrong with this world… this crazy, crazy, messed up world? 
Tell me… What would make this world a better place?  What would make our lives better? 
Would this world be a better place if we had more control over things?  Less control?  I don’t mean a domineering control such as the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and so on…  I mean control over our daily life… control over what happens to us.
Would this world be a better place if we had more freedom in life?  Less freedom?  I’m not talking about anarchy, or totalitarianism.  I’m talking about freedom in our choices, our life, our morals, and so on.
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