Being Changed

Posted on 2025/06/10 by JimR, Chaplain

A fellow minister of mine, Doug Fortune brought up the subject of the transformation of caterpillars to Butterflies. I had never heard of Imaginal cells. If anyone knows me, I will do my due diligence to discover what this is all about. When a caterpillar goes into its chrysalis (cocoon) for its transformation the amazing change doesn’t just conform the caterpillar’s body to that of a butterfly. The immune system of the caterpillar begins by attacking what is termed as imaginal cells that awaken to start the change. The imaginal cells join together to resist the immune response and overcome the caterpillar’s body. The body is turned to a jell and consumed by the imaginal cells turning the caterpillar into a whole new creature. This is the simple explanation. The Bible tells us we are transformed. Not conformed.

“When we with unveiled face are beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. Thus we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence; that is, we are being transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. Being transformed indicates that we are in the process of transformation.” Attributed to Bibles for America blog

What Is Transformation in the Bible?
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Retrospect of My Marriage

Posted on 2025/01/11 by JimR, Chaplain

I have to say that people got married and felt it was for always. I also believe many people got married because of their own choosing, and it led to a life of discontent, cheating, and feeling trapped. We can’t say that every spouse who left a marriage was a bad person. It works both ways. Some leave because of an abusive spouse. Some leave because of lust.

Looking back, I got married because I was just coming from a relationship with someone that was not a match for me but my fleshly desires for her were not right. Then I met this young girl still in high school. I was in the Army. I got shipped overseas for a year and a half and we developed our relationship via distance. She was also coming off a bad relationship. She was just the opposite of the girl I left. I thought it to be “safe”. We got married almost as soon as I got home from my military stint. I thought we were good. I still had no idea who she was other than from letters. I learned over time she did not like being touched. It became difficult to develop a deeper relationship.

Not to drag this out, 37 years later I found I was somewhat trapped by my youthful mistake. It was not a loving marriage. I became the issue of every problem. She tried to leave me twice, but I managed to talk her into staying. I found our marriage consisted of years only. I had concluded I would serve my life alone in a home of two.

Then I received an email from a woman I did not know, but she had been reading my autobiography. She and my brother were tight friends in high school. I emailed her back, and it bloomed from there. We had an instant connection. I concluded I had to leave my marriage. Some hated me. Much of my family told me they didn’t know how I managed to live with this woman for so many years in my first marriage. I am a writer, so bear with me. I’ll make this as short as possible. I lost everything. I lost my two sons’ confidence. They have not talked much to me at all in fifteen years. I lost all my retirement money in the settlement, lawyers, and satisfying necessities to obtain the final divorce decree. I did this because the woman I met fifteen years ago became my wife. We are inseparable. I found out what true unconditional love is all about. Both of us went through hell for the first four years. We’ve been married for ten years in July this year.

To put everything in perspective, I married for the first time by my own choosing and lived with it for 37 years. God intervened and I’m now married to the woman He chose. That’s the difference that counts. Call me whatever you like, but I made a mistake with my first marriage. I am now married to the right woman for me by God’s choosing. If we were all to seek God for our spouse I dare say there would be fewer divorces.

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To Be Continued

Posted on 2025/01/11 by JimR, Chaplain

Some days I wish to cry. Like today. I have an overwhelming urge to leap into depression. I have no energy to do anything. Yet in all of it, I hear God speak. In the previous post, I wrote about salvation. He gave me a title to something. I don’t know if it’s another writing or a message for a group of people I am to speak to. The title is “The Mechanics of Salvation”. I told this to my wife and she said it sounded somewhat sterile. I said that I agreed, but perhaps not totally.

I tried to research the consensus of salvation, but I keep getting actions that occur during salvation, but not the “how” of what causes the actions. If you are an auto mechanic you can understand that when you actuate the starter by applying an electrical supply you will get an action that rotates the engine while the electrical system supplies spark inside the combustion chamber. The explosion sends the piston downward converting up and down motion into a rotational motion with the crankshaft. The turning of the crankshaft rotates to the wheels on the ground giving the vehicle forward motion.

What I’m after is the “spark” that makes all the actions following it happen. The spark is the only part that doesn’t have a body like the parts of the engine. It comes and goes.

It’s God. That spark, I mean. The engine can and will lay dormant until that spark is applied. I want God. I want that spark. I want to know what, where, and how that spark initiates the life of the believer. Man, being a tri-part being, has one part being dormant in his fallen state. Man can go nowhere in life without that spark. Man can only follow the leading of a fallen soul through the body. It is without purpose. The purpose lies within the spark. God.

When God is applied to the dormant spirit of man it resurrects the third part of man. This reconnects the man to God in what is termed in Christendom as fellowship. Fellowship starts the engine of man. I’ve been told that God cannot lead a person unless they are moving, so this spark starts the man. He starts moving and God leads the way.

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New Facet on Salvation

Posted on 2024/12/23 by JimR, Chaplain

I’ve been away a while. It’s not because I have not been thinking about things. I have. I do not write these thoughts down because I work a regular job that is quite an energy drain. I can’t seem to think with clarity. I have a couple of weeks to write something during the holiday break.

I actually have been seeing things come together in my Christian walk that has revealed some things that bring into focus what God’s plan is really about. It really is as He has described in scripture. Salvation is real. It is needed. I’ve listened to so many confused people of late. They present themselves with questions that are simple enough to answer, however they don’t listen to God speak to them.

When salvation comes to a person their soul is saved but not saved. The initial event of salvation is to restore communication with the Father. When we invite Jesus into our being it’s what brings the reconnection with God that was lost in the fall of man. When the spirit of man is regenerated the communication with God is restored and the result is the beginning of salvation for the soul. Salvation is the initial start with an ongoing salvation with an eventual ending salvation at the end of this life. From there eternal life begins. So to put it simple one is saved, is being saved and shall be saved.

The last sentence of the previous paragraph is something I’ve heard for forty years but did not come into focus until recently. During the ongoing salvation, we are tested or better yet put into training the soul. I would put it in another term. That being the taming of the soul. My first pastor called the soul a wild ass. Those who fight the training by the spirit are untamed, hence that term. I read a small pamphlet many years ago describing it as training a horse with a bridle.

Now that I’ve gotten much older I see in my own life the effects of that training. I’ve finally relinquished the anxiety that came with bucking against life. I didn’t like the bridle, but now I see the bridle as the Holy Spirit, which directs me in the direction God wants me to follow. I took a lot of side trips along the way, but His leading has always brought me back to the main purpose He has for me. The spirit within me being reborn when I accepted Him as my savior restarted the communication that was dormant since the first Adam. The Last Adam (Jesus) has given me life.

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My Week

Posted on 2024/12/05 by JimR, Chaplain

What a week it has been. I’ll have something over 30 hrs on the road taking kids to school and home. I sat down one day and figured I drive 425-450 miles a week. That’s not the most driven by some of our drivers. Others go to Jacksonville for hub runs. One day one school lost its water supply and we had to go in early to take the kids home. Some of us ran three schools and doubled some of one of our schools on the same run. We need drivers bad. It led me to do something that broke my cardinal rule, but I realized it and did my best to fix it. It was noted by the Trans Office and knows it won’t happen again.

Then today I went for my biopsy results. It’s officially noted. I have a very low grade of 1 on a scale of 1-5 for prostate cancer. It was found from my surgery back in July. I’m told there will be no treatment since it is so low-grade. I never figured this since no one in my family had cancer except Mike and his was from breathing coal dust at a site in VA where they buried the burnt coal from power plants. No one in my immediate family has ever lived as long as I have, so I’m in uncharted territory. Still, I’m blessed to still be active and functioning on the scale I work at.

All-in-all I praise God we got back from our trip in time to see a young lady (and some others) be baptized last Sunday evening. I met her about three weeks ago when she was looking for a church home. Then Sunday evening I met her husband and his parents. They are all good people.

Hope all of you are having a great week ending Friday. Then it will get cold again for a few days then warmer and possibly rain next week. The wonderful weather in NC never fails.

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Not Man, But God

Posted on 2024/11/08 by JimR, Chaplain

With the general view of so much offence in the world today I would suggest reading “The Bait of Satan”. It deals with the spirit of offence. As I watch the world descend into a whirlpool of offence it has created hate more openly than I have ever seen in my entire lifetime.

I would suggest everyone go to their respective corners and cool down and don’t come back out to you can say something productive. All that is going on now only destroys. Like the axiom states “If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all”.

My take is that if you see a problem don’t say anything unless you speak of a solution to the problem that can be universally acceptable. With that said we need to spend more time in the presence of God to gain wisdom to speak such truth. People have been so absent from His presence for so long they have lost their way. People been so busy taking prayer out of schools and public forums. They’ve been to busy doing anything and everything but living moral lives.

There is a broad spectrum of where people are on this scale, but we can all benefit from trying to be better people. I’m not perfect (totally mature), but I strive to improve with each new day. Seems to be quite the opposite for a certain portion of our nation now that is dragging down our expectations of a successful life for everyone in general. I still believe in the U.S.A.

The voting foundation of people have spoken. So, I don’t think I’m alone. There is so much confusion being thrown into the general media to keep us from keeping the America dream alive. Put God first again. That’s what will make America great again. Not a man. But God.

Posted in Christian, Christian Mission, Common Sense, Follow God, Mental Health, Mission Work, Ponderings, Respect for Life, Righteous alarm, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Investment, Spiritual Investments | Leave a comment

Powerful Man

Posted on 2024/10/20 by JimR, Chaplain

I don’t know exactly how to title this, so I’ll start writing and see where it leads. This happened at church today. There was a take-back to last week.

Let’s start with last week. At the end of our service last week a young man of middle school age came to the stage and gave a short thought about the need for salvation. He was very convincing in what he said. His delivery was direct. It had power in it. I was impressed. Not many middle school-age kids are of such a spirit. I know, because I drive a school bus of middle-schoolers every day of the week and I know what most of them think.

Now to this morning. His aunt brought him to church and he looked a bit down. I spoke to him, but he was not very responsive. As he walked away his aunt told me that his grandmother had died some time back and his mom and dad had divorced. He was not adjusting to the loss of two important factors in his life. I thought back to when my granddad died. I was seven years old. It was very hard on me. He was my man. Whatever I wanted he got it for me. His aunt continued with the fact that his mom and dad were not church-going people, but his grandmother had been a very faithful Christian and had taken him to church as much as possible. That explained to me his understanding of the need for salvation. Well, before he went into the sanctuary I did pray with him and left it at that.

When the service started it was only a few minutes when I saw him come back out into the foyer where I’m stationed. He sat down in a chair with his head down. I felt drawn to him so I sat down in a chair beside him. I asked him what was wrong. He said he was not having a good day. I won’t go into the conversation except to say he said he couldn’t sit in the service. I put my arm around him and told him things will get better. I also told him if he wanted to talk more about his situation, I would listen. He sat there for a while after I got up. I was caught up with another conversation and at some point I realized he had gotten up and was walking back into the service.

Libby and I had our SALT (Seasoned Adults Living Triumphantly) group luncheon and sharing time after church. I went over and sat down with a friend of this boy’s aunt and told her of my encounter. She went into more detail about his situation. Then it dawned on me what was going on.

I never give place to the evil one unless I have the understanding to say otherwise. From the speech he delivered last Sunday that I was impressed with it was evident he has a calling from God on his life. The evil one has taken his circumstances and used them to oppress him. The evil one doesn’t want him to become the man of God that has been placed upon him. Now I know how to pray for him.

If you’re a praying person, keep him in your prayers. He’s going to be a powerful man someday.

Posted in Children, Christian, church, Divorce, Failure Not An Option, Family, Follow God, God's Calling, God's direction, God's Guidance, Human Touch, Mental Health, Ponderings, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual, Spiritual Investment | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

And Darkness Covered the Earth

Posted on 2024/10/03 by JimR, Chaplain

Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. 3Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.…

This is not a doom and gloom post. It’s a post about the redeeming nature of God. The simple example of a refiner’s fire is to rid the pot’s contents of dross (impurities). That can’t be done without fire. The fire has been lit people. I’m not prophesying. I’m observing what is going on in the earth today. Evil men have overtaken the power of humanity and are using it to benefit themselves. It’s very apparent and if you don’t see it I would say you need to pray. Pray hard. Pray hard that you are protected and that your heart is towards God. Settle your foundation first. Then pray for all of those around you and let that extend outward. The gold in this earth is heating up in the pot. The dross has already started to rise. It can be seen more and more every day. Evil seems to abound, but it’s only for a day.

Evil has no boundaries. It reaches out to touch any and all it can. Don’t let yourself be infected with delusion. Let yourself shine with the light of God. You have to be the purity of what will be left once the dross has been screeded from the top of the hot coldren. Even let your own heart to screeded from impurities. We must mature in Christ.

I’ve said it before and I still contend that evil is self-destructive. It cannot survive on it’s own. It will implode. Just let the applied heat rise on it and watch it melt away. As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked in the furnace plus one. Christ. Anyone surrounding the fire died just from the heat.

I’m sad that this process has to be applied, but rejoice that God knows best. The new day will come with the rising of the sun (Son). Rejoice and be glad in it.

Posted in Biblical teaching, Common Sense, Patience, Ponderings, Respect for Life, Righteous alarm, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

That’s Growth

Posted on 2024/09/23 by JimR, Chaplain

A friend asked me to pray for her. She says she has anger issues, and the devil is after her. Here’s my advice. Eliminate the devil from the perspective. I told her to look at it for what it is. God tests His own to mature them. It could be called chastisement by some, but I consider it to be life circumstances. I turn circumstances into challenges.

From tackling those issues I’ve found over time I’m able to handle bigger circumstances without wringing my hands. Folks, my blood pressure is the nearest to normal it’s ever been over the years by following this method. It may help you by realizing God wants you to be a better more mature Christian. Maturity is another word for perfection. I don’t shy away from perfection. I do strive for maturity and being almost 74 years old I still feel I have a lot of growing to do. God knows I’ve fallen down more times than I can count, but I keep getting up. It’s worth the journey.

Just one last thing. This past week I got a bill for my auto insurance. It went up $465 a month. I felt there must be some mistake. Well, there was a mistake. They had Libby’s license number one number off and they put her in as an inexperienced driver like she was sixteen. But alas, even after the readjustment it was still $151 a month more than the last six months and before. I still questioned it, and they were adamant that was the story. I was beginning to lose it. That’s almost twice what I was paying. So I did some shopping and went on a search and the agent told me he would help. After his search, he came back he said your company is the cheapest, BUT, if he was to rewrite me a new policy with the same company it was save me $10 a month. Hey, $10 is $10. So now I have a new policy that is through the ceiling.

Why am I telling you this? It’s one of those circumstances I was relating to above. I made an inquiry to God about it. Can you figure out what He told me? It was a simple answer. “Have I not been sufficient for you?” Well, shut my mouth. The challenge became the answer. God is sufficient. Now I have nothing to say except I learned another lesson. How to lean on God more than I have done in the past. That’s growth.

Posted in Common Sense, Failure Not An Option, Follow God, God's Guidance, Growing up, Maturity, Mental Health, More of God | Leave a comment

God Doesn’t Change

Posted on 2024/08/11 by JimR, Chaplain

Just an observation. I was letting my mind do it’s usual. Throwing things around in my head about how we view God today. A thought came up that made me stop and think.

God is God. Right? He says He doesn’t change.

Malachi 3:6 – For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

I Thes 5:24 – God, by whom you have been marked out in his purpose, is unchanging and will make it complete.

One verse is Old Testament and the other is New Testament. What crossed my mind was that I’ve always been taught the God of the Old Testament was an angry God. The New Testament picture of God is a loving God.

Of course I have to take into consideration the circumstances of Adamic fall in the OT and then that of Jesus becominng the Last Adam in the NT. The laws of Moses were meant to condemn those that disobeyed, but the NT portrays the doing away with the OT law in favor of the redemptive nature where the law of grace and mercy are written not on tablets of stone, but of the heart of those that believe. We are no longer required to obey the OT law. In the NT we desire to obey by the new nature within us.

Okay, so the question that rose up was this. If God is unchanging and is angry and loving I see these attributes of God as facets that are portrayed by the writers that is justly so by the times these views were written. God did not change. He’s always been God. Perhaps I’ve lost the view I saw when I first thought of this.

It’s just that I think God never hated us. Ever. He had a role to display in the Biblical settings. God would never have sent His Son if He had been angry with all mankind in the OT. I believe He sought after righteous people in the OT. He did it with a plan to create a thread through the OT to bring forth His Son to redemn mankind.

I feel like I’ve missed my whole point, but it was interesting to me that I think the OT and the NT portrayal of God are facets of God. Not how He felt about us. Does that make sense?

Posted in Absolute(s), Biblical teaching, Christian, Common Sense, Follow God, Ponderings, Random Thoughts, Spiritual, Spiritual Growth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment