LATE – – – MORE, LATER – – – NEVERMORE

Some Fun—Some Play on Words—Some Truth.

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Today is the first time I’m running late today.

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I wasn’t late until it got late before I got there on time.

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Figured out why my tummy hurts—it’s tired of taking the blame when I always say my tummy made me late.

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Tombstone on the subject of late—“E. T. A. – ON TIME”

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Another tombstone—“ALL CAUGHT UP”

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“We are here to pay last respects to our late friend, Larry—always challenged with late, even to late in life, but now late no more.”

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I want to learn to live without worrying about running late, before it’s too late.

I already can’t run anymore, so going faster isn’t an option.

‘Hurry Up’ is an oxymoron now.

People like it when I say I’m thankful for slow.

Do I dare say I’m thankful for late?

I must tell you a Church in the Park story on 4-4-19, late Sunday afternoon.

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I couldn’t make it to Church in the Park in the morning, because I was helping my son load a car on a trailer, to donate to God’s Garage*.

I got to the park about four in the afternoon, instead of eleven in the morning.

Minutes later Bob shows up—the old original homeless by choice, friend for decades—he had walked several miles from Scott and White Hospital, where he was just released after several days as a patient (would have missed him, on time, in the morning).

Then, when I finished singing “Because He Lives,” two people told me what happened during verse two.

In a car close by, a mother was yelling with profanity at her daughter, who must have been pregnant, apparently saying she should have an abortion.

During the song, the yelling suddenly stopped.

Here are the words of verse two:

“How sweet to hold a newborn baby

And feel the pride and joy he gives;

But greater still the calm assurance

This child can face uncertain days

Because He lives.

 

Because He lives, they can face tomorrow.

Because He lives, all fear is gone.

Because we know He holds their future.

Their life is worth the living

Just because He lives.”

 

Please say a prayer now, for that baby’s future.

 

*Look up God’s Garage in Montgomery, Texas, and read the testimony—you’ll be touched, as I was to be a small part of what is very close to God’s heart.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

ANYTHING GOES . . . ?

Anything goes, if nobody knows.

Really?

Does nobody never know?

Does nobody ever know?

Does Somebody know?

Indeed, two always know.

You know.

He knows.

 

Many people live like anything goes, if nobody knows.

It’s been tried before.

“Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

And how does that work out?

NOT.

 

If you create something reasonably complex, for people to use, you will likely write an instruction manual for its care and use.

The Creator of everything, including us, for us to use, wrote a manual for its care and use.

Follow the manual—and live.

Ignore the manual—and crash.

COINCIDENCE ?

The difference between ‘coincidence’ (just happens) and ‘providence’ (there’s more)—we recognize that Divine Providence, God, is running the show, and we ask Him to run our lives—then He does, IN AMAZING WAYS!

“In all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths [every single one of them, every single step].”

“IS” ? – – – OR – – – “WAS” !

“I was born gay, and that is why I am gay.” ? ? ?

“Once gay, always gay.” ? ? ?

No choice ? ? ?

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You have a choice !

Just as a mother chooses to help her baby live, you can also choose life, by the grace of God.

“. . . such ‘were’ some of you.”

No such thing that you are stuck with a condition that you claim you were ‘born with.’

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Parallel:

“Once a racist—always a racist.” ? ? ?

“Once a racist country—always a racist country.” ? ? ?

“America is racist, because we supported slavery.” ? ? ?

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America, Americans, we have a choice, now.

We can starve the media foment resurrecting racism, triggered by BHOB*.

We can be thankful for things that are better than ever for many minorities.

 

*BHOB—Barack Hussein OBama—Say BHHHOB aloud and it sounds like the warning for Christians in the 2008 election: “Beware of sheep’s clothing.”

DOES IT FIT ? – – – OLD TESTAMENT AND NEW TESTAMENT

Set aside for a moment, never-ending debating with “I believe . . . You believe.”

That approach usually does not persuade the other side, but strengthens each side in their belief.

Observers of the debate can sometimes benefit in deciding what to believe and/or gaining confidence.

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Independent of debate, it is intellectually reasonable to study the Old Testament and the New Testament with one simple question:

Do they fit together?

Study Honestly

Study Objectively

Study Logically

Study Literarily

Study Historically

Study Archeologically

Study Theologically

Study Prophetically

Then decide—to put your faith in the message and God of the whole Bible.

TODAY’S THE DAY !

Today is the day I’ve been looking forward to.

It’s a very special day.

I get to be carefree today.

I don’t have to worry about anything today.

I’m going to enjoy today.

I can’t wait to see what’s going to be today.

I don’t have to wait—today is here.

And why all the excitement?

Because,

“This is THE DAY that THE LORD has made—I will rejoice and be glad in it!”

Thank You, Jesus.

? CLOUDS ? – – – ? FIRE ?

Does your course seem cloudy today?

Are you facing some fire in your life tonight?

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Remember how God led His people through the day with a cloud.

Remember how God led His people through the night with a fire.

They couldn’t see through the cloud.

They couldn’t see through the fire.

They didn’t need to.

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Just follow the cloud and the fire—trust God that He is leading you by the cloud and by the fire in your life today.

 

(Inspired by American Family Radio and “Pilgrim’s Progress” movie)

“I’LL TELL THE WORLD . . .”

“Laugh like there’s a picnic* for the whole world—and then go invite them.”—–afr.net

“Oh, tell the world that you’re a Christian; Be not ashamed His name to bear.”

 

*picnic—heaven, with Jesus

ATTACKS INCREASING

Three physical attacks per day on Christian churches—largely unreported by the downstream media.

Many more spiritual attacks on Christian churches—largely unrecognized by the church.

X THE WORD ‘TRINITY’ etc.

The Bible passages about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not difficult.

The word ‘trinity’ and all the other created words surrounding it are impossible.

If we just skipped the word ‘trinity’ and ‘co-equal’ and ‘co-eternal’ and ‘is’ and ‘is not’ and ‘same’ and ‘different’ and ‘three-dimensions’ and ‘tri’ and ‘unity’ and ‘essence’ and ‘1+1+1=3’ and ‘1+1+1=1’ and ‘persons’ and ‘water, ice, and steam’ and ‘light, heat, radiation from one sun’ and ‘no illustration is perfect’ and ‘triangle’ and ‘pyramid’ and ‘height, width, depth’ and ‘look like, sound like, behave like, but not . . .’ and ‘not three gods’ and ‘one god’ and . . . and . . . and . . . , then we could focus much better on encouraging people to read what is actually in the Bible.

The above collection illustrates the point of ridiculous futility created by inventing the word ‘trinity.’

All that came from just one article titled,

“The following clearly and briefly explains the Trinity . . . three gods or one?”

I must say, “absurd.”

And, ten videos with the following titles “How I Explain the Trinity,” “How to Explain the Trinity to An Unbeliever,” “The Trinity Explained,” “Share Jesus: the Trinity Explained In Under 3 Minutes,” “Explaining the Trinity to Children,” “Christian ‘Trinity’ Explained In 3 Minutes (Father, Spirit, Son) Part One,” “3 Minute Theology 1.1: What Is the Trinity?” “What Is the Trinity?” “How Can I Best Explain the Holy Trinity to a Child?” “How to Explain the Trinity: by Jeff Durbin” were sufficient to make me quit without watching any.

 

To make my point of ridiculous—I simply typed “explain the trinity,” and over 38,000,000 results showed up—that’s thirty-eight million—besides the eleven I refer to here.

Theologians have created lots of ridiculous stuff, but I think this tops them all.

Why doesn’t anyone else see the obvious, like the kids’ book, The Emperor Has No Clothes?

The article then went on to quote a lot of Bible verses about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Not one of the verses was complicated or hard to understand or believe, just as written.

So why don’t we just use the Bible verses, and not the man-made gobbledygook?

 

If we could simply let go of the invented word ‘trinity’ and the unbelievable time and effort and umpteen millions of books and articles and illustrations unsuccessfully ‘explaining’ the word ‘trinity,’ it could so free the church for the mission of the church, that it would rival the revolution of the Reformation.

No credible case can be made for maintaining the use of the word ‘trinity’ and its monumental mystic manipulations by man, that get us not one step closer to God—EXCEPT that “we’ve always done it this way,” the ‘trinity,’ that is.

Well, actually, we haven’t always done it that way.  Some theologians had a meeting and came up with the word ‘trinity.’

Not Jesus, not Paul, not in the Bible, not helpful at all, not defensible at all.

I believe a very strong case can be made for the damage caused by creating the word ‘trinity’ and the distractions it has caused, as a great deal of time, wasted time, is spent explaining and defending the ‘trinity’ as a given assumption without question—precious time borrowed from sharing the simple Word of God.

 

Profound, theological, Biblical summary:

God does not fit in a three-sided box.

 

(Analogy—if you teach enough public school students that evolution is a fact, you end up with generations that believe it is a fact.)