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.

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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

Whadda Ya Think?

Posted on 2024/08/10 by JimR, Chaplain

God is a good God. I’m still recovering from surgery. It will be three weeks this coming Monday. At my age I’m finding it difficult to get back to normal. I’ve developed a pain in the upper center of my chest externally when I exert myself. It goes away pretty quickly when I stop. Since school got out for the summer, I’ve had my implanted lenses laser polished and it made a lot of difference. After my exam earlier this week it was noted my vision had improved after the procedure. My visit to my urologist was good and bad. When they put me under for the procedure they found a stone in my bladder that they crushed so it could pass. The healing process was coming along very well, but the bad news was the biopsy of my prostate showed an adenocarcinoma. The good side of that is it was so small and insignificant that the doctor said there was no need for treatment and about 95% of people with this type cancer survive for most of ten years even without treatment. However I will be going back in November for another biopsy just to be sure.

Now back to the chest pain. I went for my usual six month checkup with my cardiologist and he couldn’t seem less worried about the chest pain. He leans the way that I do that it is likely muscular in nature and unless it become intolerable we are simply going to keep watch on it. I go back in February unless needed.

One morning this week I had a strange occurance. I couldn’t say if I was semi-awake or asleep. I had a dream I suppose that I saw a blackness, then in the center came a small blue area. As it grew it broke open with a bright white light. Then it closed and opened again. It seemed to reopen a few times in various ways and then would close. The light was very bright white. I conveyed this to my wife. She wouldn’t respond as to what she thought. For now, inless I experience that again I’m leaving it to my permanent memories.

I’ve recently been swinging between depression and sanity. All my life I’ve practiced diversions to the depression. I feel I’m pretty good at maintaining stability. I had a brother that committed suicide. I’m nowhere near that. Getting older has become a challenge. From this there is no escape. God has been very good to me in softening the landing on this fact of life. In fact I’ve learned the loss of my body does not end my life. Upon accepting Jesus having given me a way, all of us that have will bypass death and enter eternal life.

I don’t love God for selfish reasons. Perhaps it could have had such an inkling of such when I was young, but that has long gone away. I feel I can lay down my body and let Him take me without issue. This isn’t a proclamation of my demise. It’s a simple statement from me today. I love God for His love for me. I appreciate what He has done for me. I wish all that reads my words could let them come alive in themselves. It would create a peace within that does indeed pass all understanding.

Posted in Abundant life, Christian, Common Sense, Death, Failure Not An Option, Follow God, Maturity, Mental Health, Old Age, Patience, Ponderings, Priorities, Respect for Life, Salvation, Spiritual Growth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Need a Little Jesus?

Posted on 2024/08/05 by JimR, Chaplain

I carry these little figurines in my pocket everywhere I go. God will prompt me, and sometimes I can just read a face that is troubled. I will ask them if they need a “little Jesus” at the appropriate moment. Many of them say “yes” or “I do all the time”. My hand is already in my pocket with this little rubbery representation.

It’s not an icon. It is something for when you feel down you can reach in your pocket or look up from your desk and get a fresh reminder of God’s grace and mercy. I’ve only had two refuse it and one of the two thanked me for thinking of them anyway. Most give me a smile and tell me they really needed it at that moment.

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Pursuing God

Posted on 2024/08/03 by JimR, Chaplain

I woke up this morning with the knowledge that God takes care of me. Not only me, but all of you that read and haven’t read this. Believe it or not, I still have to struggle through some days. But I’m no different than you. Don’t tell me you don’t.

However, there is one something I do know. We have a sure foundation on which to stand and His name is Jesus. He is the one that gets me through. Not around or out of, but through. Doing so will only strengthen my coming through. Testings and trials are what brings maturity. They solidify knowledge of where our strength comes from. You have a mission in life. A calling if you will. In the pursuance of God through the good times and the trials, I would say not only will you see the maturity of your life, but the lengthening of your days.

Some of you know that my family didn’t have a long lifespan. My dad died only months after turning sixty. Three of my brothers died in their fifties. One remaining brother is in his fifties. My mom passed away at sixty-six. Here I am almost seven-four. You tell me the breaking of familial curses can’t be broken and I’ll tell you that you don’t know what God will do by principle.

Pursuing God has been a goal for me for most of my life. There was a time when I fell, but God picked me up, I brushed myself off and started back to following Him. Don’t let your present circumstances overwhelm you. Stop looking at them. Refocus your vision on God. Open your arms and run to Him. Surrender yourself to Him and you will be restored and make it through the storms in life.

Posted in Absolute(s), Abundant life, Biblical teaching, Christian Mission, Common Sense, Failure Not An Option, Family, Follow God, God's Calling, God's Guidance, Home, Maturity, Mental Health, More of God, Old Age, Patience, Ponderings, Salvation, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual | Leave a comment