Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! (Please, let’s stop abuse.)

by Don Kesner

Some think we shouldn’t stir it up…this thing we call the past.

They’re afraid that all those hidden things will come to light at last.

The countless stories of abuse, and turmoil that they felt.

The outer pain and inner scars with which no one has dealt.

Their dreams have turned to nightmares, their hopes into despair,

Wishing that someone would see through all the masks they wear.

The details of their shameful past hide behind a wall of fears,

And days just slip onto into months, and months on into years.

Their agony is unbearable, their truth is unrevealed,

Their pain keeps going deeper, their hurts have never healed.

But one day it will all be over — when they have breathed their last

With no one yet the wiser, because they didn’t stir up the past.

How far should technology take us?

It’s difficult on a church whenever inclement weather forces services to be cancelled.
After all, churches depend on the income from the parishioners in order to keep the bills paid and the heat on. And, unfortunately, the gas or electric company, nor the bank, gives a break on the bills just because of cancellations due to severe weather conditions.
But just how far should we take our tithe and offering collections?
I was told just the other day of a church that sent out text messages to its parishioners, informing them that services had been cancelled.
However, according to individual, the txt also included a message, and phone number, where people could pay their tithes and offerings via PayPal. Hmmm, why didn’t I think of that?
Actually, I don’t know that I’d have the nerve to send such a message, asking my parishioners to send in their tithes and offerings electronically since we weren’t having church.
In fact, I’d probably lose a number of my parishioners if I pulled a stunt like that. And I can’t say I’d blame them.
The giving of tithes and offerings is something that is between the parishioner and God. I don’t know who gives, and I don’t know how much.
Quite frankly, it’s none of my business, even as the pastor. According to the offering totals, following an off Sunday when services had to be cancelled, a majority of people must contribute for the week off, as well, on the following Sunday.
Most parishioners know and realize that the bills and expenses keep coming, even though service had to be cancelled for whatever reason.
Most people, who really believe in the work a church is doing, will be faithful in their giving, simply because they know the Biblical principals of giving.
They don’t do it because of some pastor harping on money, or someone reminding them to give.
We don’t harp on money at our church. I have found that, people who love God and have caught the vision of a moving church will give. And, if they don’t find it to be a priority and haven’t grabbed hold of the vision, then all the harping in the world will only serve to turn them off even more.
Another method, I heard of a church in one state where the church required members to fill out an application when joining.
The info included annual income.
According to a very reliable source who attended the church, the staff sent out regular debit slips. If your tithes weren’t adding up to 10 percent of your income, they sent you a bill for the balance.
Now there’s a thought. Not a good one, but it’s a thought nevertheless.

State of the what???

I wonder why they call the president’s recent speech “The State of the Union.”
The dictionary defines “union” as the act of joining together people or things to form a whole; a result of bringing or joining together people or things; agreement of unity of interests or opinions.
How long has it been since we’ve actually had a nation united? We seem to be more polarized now than we’ve ever been in my lifetime and it didn’t start when Obama took office. This division has been going on for years, and it’s continually getting worse.
The president can talk about health care reform, the economy, the war in Afghanistan and every other issue that concerns the American people all he wants.
But until someone in leadership decides to reach out and find a common cause for people to rally around, we, as a nation, are going to continue to spin our wheels and get nowhere.
I remain fascinated how any vote can be all Democrats on one hand and all Republicans on the other. Can’t anyone think for him or herself anymore?
I am a registered Republican and it’s not particularly something I brag about any more. When it comes to voting in a general election, I vote for the person I think is best, and it’s not because he or she is a Republican or Democrat or Independent. It’s based on whether I agree with the majority of the person’s stand on various issues.
On the other hand, I know people who would vote a straight-party ticket if there were a chimpanzee running for office. (And I shall refrain from saying that I’m sure we’ve had a few of them elected to government offices.)
Am I ever going to agree with gay rights or abortion? No, but I will agree that our economy is desperately broken, that our troops need to either come home or be given the tools they need to win the war, that, whether I agree with the next person or not, they still have a right to their opinion.
I will agree that Christians cannot force anyone to agree with our belief in God and that Christians should not have to give up their beliefs simply because the non-believer has atheistic opinions.
I pastor a church. Am I trying to get people to believe in Christ? Yes, because I’m personally convinced of the eternal value of a personal relationship with Christ.
But, if you don’t want to believe in my way, you have every right to drive right by my church and never stop in. It’s your prerogative. There are multitudes of other Christians who believe the same way I do, for the most part, but even they don’t attend my church. And that’s OK. We’re still friends, all working for the same God and the same cause.
The way I see it, I’ll answer for my attempts to spread this gospel that I believe in, and each individual will answer for whether or not they choose to believe in God or not. The Bible states plainly that “every one of us will give an account of him, or herself.”
Even as Christians, we’re not all going to agree on everything, but, again for the most part, we have found something we can agree on, and that has become our rallying point.
I’d love to see Democrats and Republicans reaching across the aisle for the common good of our country.
Let’s find something we can agree on and rally around it. Then, let’s sit down together and talk about health care and other issues.
Let’s work together to protect our children who are already living — to make sure they don’t go to bed hungry and that they don’t have to be subjected to abusive individuals who hurt and harm them for life.
I’m sure a number of “good ole saints” will have my hide for this statement, but wasn’t our government set up as a democracy? Whether I agree with certain issues or not, there is a process established by which the majority rules, whether I agree with the outcome or not.
If God’s willing to give people the right to choose for themselves, who am I to determine that everyone has to believe the same way as I do?
It’s going to take unity to make this nation work. No one party can pull us out of the slump we’re in while fighting consistently with the other side of the aisle.
Come on, Washington, get it together – literally!

Missing the good old days …

Memories ...

I’ve looked back at various columns over the past dozen years or more and have found that I have a tendency to reminisce a lot.
I figure there are a number of reasons for that.
First of all, I enjoyed my growing-up years. I have a lot of great memories of my childhood and teenage years.
Secondly, things back then were so different than they are now.
Maybe it was because I didn’t have all the responsibilities or because I hadn’t made all the mistakes that I’ve made since, but life was much more like the Waltons back then.
I miss the good old days, sometimes.
My brother and I were talking recently about the good old days, and he said something that made a lot of sense. (Please don’t tell him I said he actually said something that made sense.)
In his words, he said he misses the good old days, but not the good old ways.
I concur.
When kids today hear about my generation growing up, they look at us as if we’re a work of fiction, rather than fact.
To them, my childhood seems so long ago. My daughter has even used words like, “archaic,” or “back in the day,” when describing my youthful years.
Most adults will be able to identify, but today’s youth will look at a column such as this and stop reading after the first sentence.
What I miss most is the simplicity of the years gone by.
The pace was slower, family time was important, church was a part of most people’s lives and a neighbor was a neighbor.
You called them by their first name, unless you were a kid and then they were Mr. or Mrs.
Saying “thank you” and “please” were common courtesies and opening the door for a lady was not an insult to the female gender.
There are likewise things I don’t miss.
I don’t miss the long, cold walk to the little building out back in the middle of a wintry night, or walking into the old cellar, cut out of the side of the hill, and having to look for snakes before you reached out to get the jars of canned goods off the shelf.
I don’t miss chopping firewood or wiping frost off the inside of the windows of the old farmhouse.
And, although everything was much cheaper then, money seemed much more difficult to come by than it is now.
I know there are many who can top my stories, but for me, working all day for $8, if I was lucky, seemed like a lot of money back then. It doesn’t impress me now.
There are things about the good old days I miss, but like my brother, there isn’t much about the good old ways I can’t do without.

Why are we so surprised when … ???

Why are we so surprised when sinners sin? We look around at people we know and wonder how they can do some of the things they do and feel okay about it. Not being smart but it’s their nature. Actually, we’ve all had that nature, and the biggest majority of us are still dealing with it on a daily basis. One thing I have personally found to be true, it takes a conscious decision every day to serve God and try to do right. Doing wrong comes naturally.
One of the sad things I have found about many Christians is that they are not necessarily appalled by the sin of some. Instead, they seem to resent the fact that the person is sinning, and they aren’t allowed to.
I haven’t always been a pastor. I know how naturally sin comes along, and how natural it feels to give in to the things that come our way, even though we know they may have dire consequences tagging along behind them. I also know that it takes discipline to live a Christian life.
And, why is it that we are so surprised that people we talk to about Christ don’t seem to be interested? Why is it that they make light of the gospel message or think we’re off our rocker simply because we believe in a Diety? It’s not really surprising. Paul, the Apostle, wrote that, “the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them who don’t believe, but to us who do, it is the power of God unto salvation.”
I have found that, to be surprised about something means that we have been caught off guard. Being caught off guard often times disarms us at the moment. Don’t be caught off guard when sinners sin or people reject the message of Christ. Instead, “be ready always to give an answer to everyone concerning the hope that is within you.”

To the man in the pickup truck

I don’t usually write personal notes in blogs, but I have decided to make an exception.
I happened to be part of a funeral procession some time ago that was traveling from the funeral home to the cemetery
I saw something during that trip that caught my interest.
I saw a gentleman in a two-tone pickup truck pull off to the side of the road, sit patiently and wait while the funeral procession went by. And he was traveling in the opposite direction at the time.
Now that may seem to be nothing, but it just so happened that I was talking to some friends the night before about death, dying, funerals and such, and the subject came up about showing respect for the dead.
The couple I was talking to used to live in the south and commented on how people in their area would stop whatever they were doing and stand by quietly whenever a funeral procession passed.
If a person was mowing their yard or washing their vehicle he or she would stop working in a show of reverence and respect for the deceased as the lineup drove by.
As well, motorists would actually pull off to the side of the road and wait until the procession had passed.
I think we have, to a large degree, lost our respect for those who have died. Death is such a common part of living that we have almost become desensitized to it. That is, unless it affects us personally. Then we want others to recognize our loss.
Should we not do the same for others?
There appears to be very little respect for the dead anymore. We watch processions go by, and if it doesn’t involve us personally, we consider the lineup more of a nuisance than anything else.
I have been in processions traveling west on U.S. Route 50 and have seen motorists pass the lineup on a three-lane, only to have to duck into the middle of the caravan before the three-lane ended.
I know a funeral procession can take awhile. Particularly if it’s a large funeral. But isn’t there something in the moral creed of mankind to give the deceased a little respect?
Do we have to be in such a hurry that we are willing to break into a funeral lineup just to get a few cars ahead?
To the man in the pickup who pulled off to honor a funeral procession going by — thank you. You have shown me that there are some who still have a shred of decency about them.
Once we arrived at the cemetery that Sunday afternoon, I stood and watched a riderless horse lead the hearse into the cemetery. I found myself with a lump in my throat as I recognized the loss of the family.
At that moment, I felt their grief and understood their sorrow. Apparently, the same way the man in the pickup truck must have felt when he pulled off the road to give reverence and respect to a funeral procession.

To those who run the Freedom From Religion Foundation – Get a real job.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF)is reportedly going after the U.S. Postal Service for wanting to release a postage stamp with Mother Teresa’s picture on it.

WorldNetDaily stated in a recent article, “It is against … postal regulations to ‘honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs,’” the (FFRF) group said.

The article offered the following quote: “Mother Teresa … is a bad fit to appear on a stamp based on other postal criteria. The fact that Pres. Clinton made her an honorary citizen in 1996 gets around one obvious objection, but criterion No. 6 also should have been a stumbling block: ‘Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor fraternal, political, sectarian, or service/charitable organizations,’” said the (FFRF). “The organization she ran and was inextricably identified with, Missionaries of Charity, was both sectarian (Roman Catholic) and a service/charitable organization.”

The group is reportedly complaining that Mother Teresa “used almost every public occasion, including her acceptance speech for the Nobel prize, to promote Roman Catholic dogma, especially its antiabortion ideology. Even during her Nobel acceptance, the nun delivered a gratuitous tirade against abortion.”

WorldNetDaily said the FFRF organization called Mother Teresa’s address “a disturbing, befogged religious rant.”

Are these people for real? Get a grip on life and go get a real job. I can’t believe they have nothing better to do than to take on Mother Teresa. Why should they care if she’s honored on a postage stamp? All because she was a big supporter of life instead of death? Now, for the same reason, Tebow is being taken on for his ad for pro-life. So everyone doesn’t agree with the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Just because they don’t like the stance a large number of people take against abortion doesn’t mean everyone should have to stop supporting pro-life, or stop speaking up for it. I, for one, am in the corner of the pro-lifers. I’m also in Mother Teresa’s corner and would gladly purchase a postage stamp with her picture on it. Not because I consider her a saint, but because I consider her a great lady who did a lot for humanity, and for God.

I don’t agree with certain teachings about the Catholic Church either, but I’m definitely not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Four-letter words — the off-limit ones!

There are certain words that I, as a young man growing up in the church was taught never to use.
Those four-letter words are well-known to all, of course, without my mentioning them by name. After all, I’m not supposed to use them anyway so I couldn’t tell them to you even if I wanted to.
I recently had a discussion with friends about the use of those well-known, forbidden words and why it is that they are considered so taboo.
I was reminded by others that there is no place in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not say the following list of words …”
The only profanity I find dealt with in the Bible is that we are not to take the name of the Lord in vain.
But the use of certain four-letter words is not forbidden, nor is it deemed acceptable, simply because the Bible lists them, or doesn’t list them under the “thou shalt not” category.
Culture dictates much of how we think, act and even how we feel at times. Certain four-letter words are culturally unacceptable and are considered to be in bad taste.
Therefore, to use such words speaks to our character and sets a bad example for others, particularly for children and young people who should be taught how to talk, act, react and respond properly.
But, let’s face it, the majority of people, including devout Christians who would not think of using profane words have a list of alternative words that they are more than willing to spew out at times.
Words like gosh, darn, shoot and heck are commonplace among many individuals.
Truth be known, such words are nothing more than a substitute for “the other” words we would never allow ourselves to say.
So what’s the difference? And, is there a difference?
I am firmly convinced that our actions speak much louder than our words and that God judges the intentions as much as the actions.
So if that be the case, even a substitute word, spoken in anger or in haste, would have the same connotation as if the actual word were used and therefore we would be judged accordingly.
There would appear to be no real difference other than the fact that certain substituted words are socially more acceptable than the other four-letter words, which are considered off-limits.
The Bible does tell us that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. If that be so, then maybe the real issue is not so much about what’s being expressed from the mouth, but what’s being expressed from the heart?
Am I condoning the use of those off-limit words? Not at all. I’m just saying that maybe we should know what we preach, why we preach it, and be willing to practice it before we start setting rules.
And that’s not just the case for preachers only. It should be true for everyone.

Euthanasia — humane, or just plain cruel?

I really have no intention of getting off onto the subject of health care, and, this is not a blog about Obamacare — for or against.
This is really more about the emotional and moral side of euthanasia than it is the political angle.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian made national news a number of years ago for his doctor-assisted suicides, and people everywhere were discussing the pros and cons of mercy killing.
I refer back once again to my childhood days of religious indoctrination, and embedded deep within the corridors of my mind are the interpreted teachings of the Bible.
“Thou shalt not kill.” Plain and simple, cut and dried — no way around it. But, even in my religious upbringing, there were always exceptions to every rule. Or so it seemed.
Christians who believed strongly in the 10 commandments headed off to war and fulfilled their patriotic duties to defend the rights and freedoms of their country.
Likewise, most Christians who preach against killing would do whatever it would take to defend family members in the event their lives were threatened. Even to the point of killing an intruder.
But the very thought of mercy killing seems to be strictly taboo because we are to leave the decision of life and death up to our Creator.
I have found, however, that some convictions are flexible, particularly when we are touched by situations that challenge our thinking.
For instance, I have known preachers who preached vehemently against divorce, until one or more of their own children were faced with an irreconcilable marriage. Suddenly the eyes of understanding were opened and his or her opinion (convictions) change.
I have been faced with watching loved ones lay for long periods of time, the quality of life gone with no hope of recovery. I did not want them to die. I did not want them to be ill. But I also did not want them to suffer.
It was very difficult to watch my father, who was always a strong, proud man, go through his illness the years before he died. His body was basically dead, his heart just didn’t seem to know it.
I didn’t campaign for mercy killing in his case, but I must confess that I gave much thought at the time to the idea of euthanasia.
I must confess that if I had a dog that suffered in such a manner, I would have it put to sleep for its own good.
In case you’re wondering, I have not drank the Kevorkian Kool Aid, and I do not condone mercy killings of human beings. But I do understand why some people would campaign for euthanasia.
If we were living in a Utopian world, then maybe its feasibility would be possible. But we’re not.
Along with the idea of mercy killings comes the responsibility of deciding who makes the call as to whether a person should live or die.
I don’t know too many people who would want to be the one making the call, and I wouldn’t trust the majority of those who are willing to decide the fate of my loved ones.
As for my dad, death finally won the long, drawn out battle and, as much as we loved him, we were relieved to see him not have to suffer any longer.
Taking someone’s life seems cruel for the most part. But when it comes to the idea of euthanasia, it also at times seems somewhat humane.
Just don’t ask me to be the one to make the final decision.

My Captain has risen

(from the Cloud Walker series)
by Don Kesner

The seas have been rough today.
Waves continuously pound at my vessel.
The winds toss me without effort in the direction of their choosing
I seem to have lost my way.
My Captain — not found.
Somehow he sleeps,
unconcerned about the storm that threatens my life.
How can he not care that I am about to perish?
The fear that surrounds me is as dark as the clouds above.
I can not see beyond this moment.
Fate settled. Hope gone.
But then — A hand.
I have felt that touch before.
A voice. Familiar.
In the midst of the darknes, a light.
In the depths of despair, a calm.
My Captain has risen.
Awakened not by the thunder nor the sounds of the torrent rains
But by a whisper.
He heard my cry.
And with a voice more powerful than the winds — he speaks.
Peace be still.
Spoken to the storm, yet, even my soul obeys.
Fear gone. Hope restored.
My life — not taken
My journey — not ended.
I sail on.
Confident once more that my Captain sails with me,
and that I do not travel alone.

“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” — Jesus