Cape hatteras ferry

We have been in the Outer Banks for a few days, with our four kids, Sam and Lauren, who are now engaged, and david and Sarah and their two kids.

Here is the happy couple!


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Brennan Manning - legenda português

brennan kicks ass and takes names in this one... bottom line. period. done... this is what i love about jesus. period. that He loves me. period. done... "."

Army of babies

In explanation of my facebook. We are truly knee deep in an army of youngsters. Some still in larval stage, some several molts deep in nymph-hood.

The theme has been marriage and multiplication, these last few years. We are amazed at all God has done.











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The Leaven of the Pharisees

We've had some good conversation around the Scriptures on Sundays concerning the "Leaven of the Pharisees", lately.

Recently, someone asked me to define it...

Here it is: "Hypocrisy"

That is the leaven of the Pharisees.

You know what I like about the Pharisees of the Bible? a LOT.
They believed in the Resurrection, Angels, the Judgment, an actual Messiah...
They were fervent believers in the authority of Scripture, but not in a way that confronted their HEARTS.

In their hearts, they were devoid of love and fully devoted to the things of this world, albeit religious forms of those things...
They loved money.
They loved to look good to others...
They lied about God.
They oppressed people...
They were full of death (dead men's bones)...

But in their practise! They were great! They set up a GREAT temple, with benevolence and worship and sacrifice and deep symbology, all in accordance with what Moses commanded the Israelites in the desert... At least as long as you didn't REALLY look at what they did... their symbols, wardrobe, words... all very full of bible and piety... but they cheated the poor widows and didn't really love God or their neighbors, or even their parents, by the time you get to all Jesus said to them...

They were terrible. They were great! Why both? Because they were hypocrites! It is impossible to argue with a hypocrite. They get to believe whatever they want to, about themselves.

Jesus told us to watch out for this. Not to allow hypocrisy to get the upper hand on us. He also told us to leave the Pharisees behind. Who calls the shots in your heart, head and life? Wack religious leaders whose practise doesn't match their teaching?

Check for it! I've been in so many church board meetings where Jesus just isn't loved or honored... decisions to withold truth or help from the poor, or needy saints... decisions to spend all the money on US and not on Jesus!

Wow. gotta rest...

Dangerous God...

God IS love. Period. All that he does is done in, by, love, Himself...

Like when Jesus personified Way, Truth, and Life, God (of whom Jesus is the perfect view) is LOVE.

Many of us have trouble integrating what we feel to be polar opposites in the grace and wrath of God.

Blessing on that trouble... but understanding Father is our great joy and boast in this sojourn! Look at Jeremiah 9:23 where it says that!

We truly can understand that grace and wrath are not separate at all, but both expressions of the great personality of our Father!

We may be horrified at the extent of His wrath, and we may dare to be stunned at the depths of His love, but they are both from Him.

He is good. He is love. and he is God.

Fearing him is a doorway to wisdom. That is, knowing how dangerous He is will calm our hearts at the myriad lesser fears that surround us.

A person captivated with the grace of God in Christ is not cowed by the majesty and danger of Father, the King of the ages. They are lifted by relief, being secure in the rescue that Jesus has wrought in his own flesh on the cross...

"Fear not...I have inscribed you on my palms..."

Isaiah's scroll...49:16

Meet Avi Maher

The Mahers have moved in. Here is Avi today in the kitchen.


-- Post From My iPhone

Prayer tonight

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This is my office.

From my bedroom, you can see that the safety rail for the "eagle's nest" loft is made of old skateboards. Below is my desk.

Can you make out the little boy hiding in this picture?


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This dude lives here

Dude the gecko has rough skin and lives above the desk in my office.







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Something Dangerous

Danger.
Danger is the key word when it comes to dealing with fear and God.


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One last trip...

Judy has nicknamed me "the transporter". I couldn't get enough of the hilariously cheesy movie when it first came out. Seriously, that and iron monkey rule the roost followed closely by shaolon soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.




So this is my last of at least five trips out and back to get teens and Seth where they need to go. This is a pickup from a youth group. Solid.

To fortify the trip, I got a peppermint tea from the sidewinder.









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One more day.

Tried my hand at skatepark consultations today. For those of you who don't know, that's been my side gig lately.

From six am till eight thirty I help get kids ready and drive them to school. Three different schools now.

Maecus' school is moving him up in class difficulty. He is doing very well. Very well.

Aaron is doing well in a different way. We have found Walnut Hills HS very challenging, academically. I am seriously considering and probably will withdraw him and do the year through again with home supervised curricula.

Aaron's skateboarding is awesome, and he has a real interest in business. Needless to say, any home curricula will be heavy on the roadtrips.

Here is what the sink looks like, no matter how many times I wash em.


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Moving in the Mahers

Britt, Rachel, Avi, Ryan! Welcome to 1320. Bless this mess, Lord.

...and thanks for the manual labor, Indigo, Marcelo, Aaron and marcus. Sam and lauren too and everyone else! And especially judy.

















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Boards

Sam and I started a skateboard company.


Our friend Kevin Betsch did our first round of art.

If you wantto buy a board, email me at Lew@Fickleboards.com I'll bring it to ya for forty bucks if you're not too far away.

They come in two sizes and three graphics.


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Sam and Lauren

These two. What a great life over here!


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What's the deal with fear, again?

First and last, check out Psalm 85. This is a prophetic marriage of truth and grace.

Think about how Jesus Himself is our peace. (Eph.2:14)

Hear Jesus call His disciples "friends" in John 15:14.

...and hear the old apostle arrive at "...perfect love casts out all fear" in 1 John 4:17.

What a marvel that the holy God of all creation and beyond has called us to Himself as His own beloved children!

-- Post from my iPhone

So do I still have to fear God?

Short answer? "You sure will."

Have to? What is this a choice thing? Maybe it is. Maybe that's what's behind Jesus telling us what he does in Matthew 10... That is to disciples. You and me. Period.

But it is only a choice thing for a little while. One day everyone is going to stand before Him.
First peter five talks about the impact that knowing this has on us. That we consider this life a pilgrimage and walk it in that kind of fear that keeps on track.

And check out Hebrews three and four to see how afraid we ought to be of getting off track.

Period.


-- Post From My iPhone

New Tools

Hey. I got this great iPhone here for my skatepark consulting work. I found out that it works wonderfully fit blogging.

Here is a pic from Judy's and my trip to Seattle and Northern CA. Redwoods and Bigfoot, people.



Judy is very cute there.



-- Post From My iPhone

why not just email?

then why not have a little "email" type of conversation that people can enjoy/be freaked out by? I could entitle the blog "Hey Mike".

did i quit blogging?

not really, i just don't know how to talk to you anymore. you are... you're just...


you're just so many people.

and i don't know who you are...

Since we last talked (or since you last listened) soooo many things have gone on... babies have been born in our little church family,

sam and i started a board company

vehicles have broken down and been fixed...

trees have been removed (no more pine trees at 1320 as of this afternoon)...

people are getting married
due soon
newly preggers...

it is an amazing maelstrom of LIFE...

i spent 13 hours on the road yesterday retrieving our van from a breakdown and visiting our board supplier...

lots of skateboarding
lots of workign with suburban Rails, a company i consult for and help with operations...

lots of stuff...

and we got custody of Marcus! Remember marcus? search for him up above in this blog. enjoy...

so i still love you. i just don't know who you are...

starting up some trouble...

Sam and i started up a little skateboard company this week. "Fickle Boards ltd." We've already got folks pre-ordering and whatnot... it is very fun... we're not going to stress, and the business plan is simple and easy to escape with our shirts...

i've been out skating almost every day now for a while... thanks to my heavenly dad that i'm not sick. if you read this blog, you'll know i get sick a bunch of times every year. i've been kinda fragile...

but i've been well the last few months. I got over the whooping cough in March, remember? That was amazing. God was so kind and faithful to me, and I needed the discipline. I can't tell you all what kind of helper my wife is to me. without her i'm sunk.

Judy does more than put up with me. She really really gives me strength... She is God's number one gift to me...

Well, today i have a lot of people to meet with and stuff to talk about, both skateboards, skate parks, and Jesus' church stuff...

I'm glad for all of you who keep coming back to check out what's up. There is a lot going on.
One thing that rocks and for which i give thanks to my heavenly dad is that we got ourBOILER replaced!! it's almost replaced that is... they're still working out the kinks and installing a thermostat today... it is an amazing new machine... the best out there... Lochinvar Knight modulating hoo ha...

best of all, God is with us!!!

Psalms 116

I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
 2Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
 3The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
 4Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
"O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!"
 5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
 6The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
 7Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
 8For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
 9I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
 10I believed, therefore I spoke,
"I am greatly afflicted."
 11I said in my haste,
"All men are liars."
 12What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
 13I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
 14I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people.
 15Precious in the sight of the LORD
Is the death of His saints.
 16O LORD, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
 17I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the LORD.
 18I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
 19In the courts of the LORD's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!


v.17
thanksgiving is the only thing left...
Heb. 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.  11For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.  12Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.  13Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.  14For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.  15Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.  16But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.


You see, now that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the Patriarchs, we are in an age of Praise and Thanksgiving. That's what this Psalm was feeling when he wrote that his rendering unto the LORD would be taking the cup of salvation! See? His Service was to Recieve! His Sacrifice was to say Thank You!


This is what Isaiah is saying in Is. 30:15

15For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
" In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."
But you would not,



There are just so few who will take up the faith to believe in and trust in and rely on the Grace of Jesus Christ and bear the fruit... this is the narrow way, and the Psalmist was on it! Didn't "get it", but was on it! Wow!

And that's how the Kingdom is, so often. We're in it and don't even get it: like the Tax Collector in Luke 18. Like the Thief on the cross in Luke 23.

I mean, this is amazing! And the "arrived" crew, they were washed up, didn't know it, and HATED Jesus... makes you tremble to consider yourself a religious/devout/christian person, eh?

Hurricane Damage

it was wierd to sit outside and "enjoy" the wind, last sunday. We thought it was just a blustery day, until shingles started to ruffle up like the feathers of a bird on the church building next door... off they started coming, skittering down the street...

tree limbs and power lines started to come down, too.
and the power goes off.
on all 4 sides of the block there were power lines down, or at least on 3...

we got in our cars and headed to chipotle, according to plan, not understanding that it was a friggin hurricane...
we ate the last of the chipotle's food and came home. we were their last customers before closing. we were sooooo hungry, too.

home we came. Judy was leaving for a week the next morning at 4 something.
I spent till late on the roof next door, trying to protect it from what I thought was sure to be rainy weather. No rain yet, thanks be...

some 5 days later, there are still many people without electricity...
many of our friends have been working and going to school withouth electricity at home...

and let me tell you something i saw.
night 1: fear in the city.
people got flat out afraid.
there was a run on gas
and people were agitated
and there were fights in the street that day, too...
right across the street from my house...
...some sort of ongoing feud between neighbors...

but that night, after working on the roof i was soooooo thirsty and just wanted some gatorade and maybe a beer, adn we headed out to find a convenient store... everything was black. no lights. we finally got to an area with power and it was chaos. people with a wild look in their eyes, all agitated and buying all the gas.

made me wonder why i wasn't worried at all...
but i don't expect things to go well. and i'm always grateful when they do.

hey, let's think and pray about this stuff...
and let's think and pray about the people in Galveston and other parts of Texas whose homes are ruined and who have to start over. I mean, are they all losing their jobs and everything?

what is going to happen to their family situations?
shall we take them in?

...a pastor?

hey, you know what? i teach from the Bible, about Jesus and stuff. that's kinda weird because i'm also a bit of a shlemiel. sometimes this hits me as weird enough to point out...

poster child for the term "grace".

the pastor thing, though? What? Well, this much I know: people need the Lord... I'm down with helping out any way I can.

Lew

being a jesus person

you know what? I'm a jesus person. yeah. and i'm a kind of a pastor/bible teacher. yeah... but you know what? No, I'm not.

I'm not a skater, either. The list goes on and on...

what i really am is a kid. God's kid. Made by him, loved by him, walking (and falling) with Him...

This is all there really is. I'm God's kid. Jesus is why.

If you want to know what it's all about, get into Jesus. Forget the wack stuff that may confuse you from the American church-world, and get into Jesus. He's got the answers... Heck, he is the answer, Himself...

Jesus.

read this for more...

Manifesto Material

because people have lately been "coloring me" with the "house church" "brush", i've felt moved to provide a little "manifesto" material to help "clarify". If you want to paint, go for the Jesus-colored crayon. That is my biggest hope-- that I'd be something like Jesus, somehow. By His grace alone, I am and will be...
Here we go:

I have had a passion to equip people to live in an authentic church life, wherever they are.  Since by God's hand we have landed here in Northside, I've had the last 4 years spent in discipling folks in the city...  

Living a life that abides in Christ 
bears fruit that lasts
telling the truth
being the church, together
as a family
in obedience to our Lord's commands
every 
day 
working with our hands to have something to share
living quiet, humble lives
being godly 
husbands
wives
sons
daughters
brothers
sisters
workers
friends
at home
at work
speaking and spreading the Word of the Lord
everywhere around us
like a fragrance...  
watching our life
and our doctrine
closely 
in hopes of our own salvation
and that of our hearers

This is the root stuff of  my teaching, my writing, my living (O God that I would really LIVE with God, from God, unto God), 
and this is the root stuff of our life in Northside.  

No, we don't have a "mission" to "reach" some people group that is delineated by geography, economy, race or any other earthly measure.  We have a commission to preach everywhere to everyone and to make disciples that would bear lasting fruit...  We are blown by the spirit, as the testimony of every person who has found the Lord in our small group shows...  

Almost every single person in our group has been led to the Lord, or has been significantly discipled, or brought to growth in Christ, through another person in our church.  There is very little about our church that could hinge on any single person or personality, and almost nothing for which we could ever take any credit, though we do each take a certain pride in good work that we do from time to time.  This is a Biblical pride and not a stink to God.  

everywhere is our mission field. every person is our people group, starting with ourselves. We preach the gospel to ourselves, too.

may the Lord renew your heart!

Why I Don't Go to Church Anymore

This article is for anyone out there that considers "grubbykupp" or "Just Some Jesus People" their church.

First of all, there is almost no such thing as "grubbykupp". That's just a word that we got years back that said, "you can only be loved by me as who you actually are, with wounds and lack and sin and all the mess of who you are, so be the cup and get filled and washed and just go go go and walk with Me!" Jesus seemed to be saying...

I got that word prophetically when I preached Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant at a Methodist Church in Loveland OH in 2001 or 2000 or something. They've got the tape... Judy came up to me after and said she was getting that word and that the Lord was calling us to be vessels, as we were, with the good news of Jesus, the lover of sinners... Jesus, loving us and telling us to tell you he loves you... what? so simple, yet far too rare...

and we're a mess and he loves us...

But grubbykupp isn't a "thing", really. the Thing is JESUS! He really does love you, now, today, as you are, and he's calling you out of your guilt and to know the indescribable Father-Love of Abba... What? so simple... soooo... simple...

And "Just Some Jesus People" is a little trick i play on people who need a label in order to start a friendship. I mean, look at that... enjoy...

But the linked article is goood. For anyone there who thinks that by meeting together or living together, or whatevs, that they are "joining a church" or a "community"... you joined the only church there ever has been when you first realized that the Someone you need is Jesus! all those years of loneliness and brokenness and here's Jesus, arms open, loving you and speaking HIMSELF as the final message on how God feels about you.

You know what else?
any time you joined a church before?
No you didn't.
Some of the people at the meetings may have been the church, but they weren't behaving in a full understanding of the true definition of church--the reality of church (forget just defining it: it's there to LIVE IN)
that wasn't behaving like what Jesus calls a church, if you had to join it like that...
sorry, dude.
the church Jesus started doesn't name itself after itself and do like that. seriously... what? Does that indict something dear to you? something you may have confused for something else??? hope so.

I really do.
I'm not here to make you comfortable if you've set your hope on some wack imitation of the reality of the gifts of God. God has LOVED US and has given us such immense GRACE, and the imitation stuff kinda gets stinky! really.

God is hardly who we have imagined him to be... He is in LOVE with you.

Now go read the book of Hosea. Go. Read it. Why did God put that in there? What the heck is that? Yeah. Goood. be perplexed now. and go with that...

Winter Vine Pruning

sam and i are at the dinner table this morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and talking about the book of John, chapter 15. I pulled up this clip of pruning. I don't understand a lot of what he's talking about, but the point is that the guy knows what he's doing, just like Our Father knows what He's doing when he gets down to pruning us... and that's good news.

Seth's First Day of First Grade

Just dropped seth off at first grade... I had a great first grade year, apart from the bathroom door getting opened on me, resulting in an aversion to any bathroom but home for 15 years... it shattered my world...
...but i got over that through airline travel. I go at least once every three hours while i'm on a plane. It's a matter of principle. If i pay that much to sit, cramped up there, I'm gonna stretch out and use that toilet at least twice on the way to Europe... Across America I average once on the route to California, but NY is too close. I drive that.

Still haven't gotten into the rest areas on the highways... too much bad press. But Cracker Barrel is a good place to lose weight, if you bring sanitary wipes and stuff to clean before you use...

people who know me well get a lot of laughs out of the lengths i go to in order to "feel at home", while traveling...

But I'm sure Seth's first grade experience will be cool. really.

My New Favorite Band of all time (to whom I can barely stand to listen)

i discovered Danielson Famile in 1998. They remained a fave, with "rubbernecker". I got a ton of their stuff this year from david, along with sufjan, half-handed cloud, and now page france... (those were bands and artists)

so there. enjoy.

For friends like david (click for a real treat)

Airport Pickups

Yesterday Morning, i picked up one student (Ukranian) and this morning I busted tail to try to register our Marcelo at his high school and busted more tail to get to the airport by 10am to pick up 6 at once, with Judy. Between our two cars we got the whole crew home and out to lunch. That's a lotta luggage, folks... Now the kiddos are all crashing in local, temporary homes and I'm gonna catch a nap...

Tomorrow we start "class"--a whirlwind tour of sites, immersion in culture, and language instruction. Ten days later, we'll be done, working almost 12 hours a day together... breakfast, lunch and dinner...

This is one of the best and most difficult times of my year. Each day unfolds graciously, if not gracefully, and it always "works". The students really get oriented and onto the right foot.

Till tomorrow...

Buried

some of you know that I spent eight days driving around New York, visiting relatives with Seth, my six-year-old.
I'm back now.
thrown immediately into my amazing yearly two-week course, teaching seven students from Central Asia. I do it each year and it is intense and amazing...
so I'm buried...

Before this, I have been working on skatepark stuff with Suburban Rails, and really really wondering in a good way about the ministry life I have in the church... Not doubtful wondering, but more "wonderful" wondering...

I'm escaping the jaws of being a Pharisee, but I have lost my taste for almost everything that calls itself "Christian" in the process... That danged Pharisee thing is like this shark attack I saw the other day on tv. gnarly...

...which brings me to something that i have thought about a lot... surfing is really really dangerous and awesome and someone only gets good at it if they really love it. That's why we all respect the surfers...

Here is a shark attack to watch...

Scriptures from this sunday together

these are the scriptures that came forth in our meeting time, from the Holy Spirit's teaching of the Body during the week. Enjoy the Lord as you meditate on them...


John 12:24

2 Cor. 5:15...

Gal. 2:20...

John 20:29

Heb. 13:9...

Phil. 4:11...

John 15:4...

Colossians 3

Fasting: be good to your guts

smoothies are good, keep you able to work, and you're still "empty".

beer was invented by dudes who fasted for a long time every year. Monks. you know how monks get so chubby?
in fact, beer lore is littered with monks. Now, for all of you coming out of the party lifestyle, steer clear of the beer! have a smoothie.
Also, they didn't have cars back then, so a beer for lunch and a nap and then you're back to illuminating some text... or something...

beer isn't a good thing to drink if you're fasting because you get drunk.

but smoothies, especially homemade ones, are really good. I just wanted to show you that liquid refreshment has long been considered cool for fasting... we good? good.

I like a smoothie because it has a lot of good stuff in it, and tastes good and i make them myself, but i still feel empty and notice that i'm not eating...

But if you can go on water alone for the first 2-4 days of total "hunger sickness", you're gonna shut down and get "light". That's a kinda dangerous state. Your guts have slowed to almost a stop and you're gonna need to restart them gently.

no one does this.

I know a dear man who restarted after a long fast with a plate of beef and noodles.

hospital stay. really.
tore up.


so please, please be good to your body and if you're gonna shut down and really get a serious fast on, consider the pipes, eh? start back up slow with broth, then soup, a fruit meal, and then on to the main stuff...

If you fast for more than a week, you should spend at least 2 days restarting yourself gently. This is hard and almost never works because we are so HUNGRY after a fast. Wow. hungry...

One time i ate a ton of oreos after a fast...
that's a mistake. My guts were fine, but my system was shocked.
i attribute bad habits for the five years following to the way i mishandled the re-entry off that one fast, so please pay attention to good sound health advice when you fast...

i am not a medical professional. please don't treat me like one... if you don't know how to fast, try not eating for a while and see if that helps. For medical considerations, check with a doctor. just be good to your guts, eh?

Fasting: too secretive?

You know how Jesus says that we should keep stuff we do (like alms and prayers and fasting) short, sweet and secret? well, i wonder sometimes if we've gotten a little bit "shut down" about all that.

I mean, when i was young in the Lord, I attended a church among which people fasted and prayed often... that is, until a teaching on that passage (matthew 6) arose from the leadership and got us all bound up.

That teaching was, in a nutshell, that if we glory in anything on earth, we lose jewels from our crowns. It was based in large part on an interpretation of Matt. 6 in light of some "prophet" person's "visions" of jewels popping out of hovering spiritual crowns. Anyone know about that? Late eighties?

Sooo... everyone locked it down. Got secret... and that is gooood, except that...

FASTING IS HARD TO HIDE.

I mean, get real. Nobody who fasts for 20 days is going to be able to keep that a secret and be a real, truthful person. sheesh.
I mean, the real church eats together daily. Someone stops eating and the jig is up--they're obviously trying to get better than the rest of us...

then the pathetic insecurities of a worldly-minded past life arise in so far too many of us... self-condemnation arises out of comparison: "Should I be fasting, too?" "I'm just not as good as them" and subtly the Body gets divided...

I believe (personally) that fasting is something that God grants us to enjoy with Him, as His Spirit leads us by the spirit, into the Life, who is Jesus Himself. Think about the way I said that. It's important. it flies in the face of a lot of stuff that would hold you back from...

...not from fasting, but from JESUS, Himself...

yes, fasting is never the question, but whether or not God has loved you today, in the Beloved. Whether one fasts or eats, they do it in the Love of God in Christ Jesus, right?

Oh. not always? How so?
Oh. because a lot of people live by duty-bound slogging and self-measuring? Oh. How disappointing.

Well, let me tell you all this: the reason Jesus died on the cross, among all the other stuff, was so we could have the life that He has. So we could enjoy sonship with Father God like He did, and be led by the Spirit of God. Sheesh. this is so totally what the Bible is totally talking about

all

the

time.

yet our flesh and the devil conspire in this swill of the world to topple us from that sure place, and get our minds all bound up in all kinds of stuff...

So if someone is fasting, RELAX. Look at Jesus! is the spirit telling you, or leading you to fast, or to desire to fast? Does your heart of worship and love for Jesus lead you to want to fast? then pray about it and try it out.

get some practical advice, though... that helps, too... or don't. (but do)

and remember that the text of matthew 6 deals primarliy with the intent of the heart--in order to be seen by men.
you just can't avoid being seen by men. Fasting shows up. go ahead. go 20. go 40. it'll only kill that part of you that you need dead, anyway--as long as it's done in submission to the Spirit of God, initiated by Him.

Not familiar with that kind of thing? You may have some good news ahead of you. Get in touch wth the Spirit of God. Until He says so, don't sweat fasting. It's not commanded. Getting in touch is. Loving is. Forgiving is. Believing/Trusting is...

How many sad souls fast without trusting? without loving? in unforgiveness? and check their box and pin their badges on and go on to worse than oblivion?

fasting: Acts 13

Acts 13 has some fasting in it... Look at how they weren't in a worship service, but engaged in ministry "...to the Lord..." The Church flows in the Spirit... Peter on the roof, John on patmos... "in the Spirit..." Jude says to pray in the Spirit, building up our most holy faith...

Get into this.

Fasting: 'nother post for us all...

Matthew 15 Headsoak: Go!!

Fasting: a post to start off

Isaiah 58 Headsoak. GO!!!

busy days...

people.

that's what's going on lately.

people.

every day. and i mean it in a good way. seriously.

we are people. we have people.

at the house...

we have a family of four on the first floor... we have the church life abounding around us, daily... we have God giving revelations and dreams to people all the time and the times of focusing on scripture that those bring... focusing on the Word, who is Jesus--authoritatively and reliably attested to in the inspired scriptures...

there is so much going on. and it is sooooo gooooood... thank you God.

things are busy...

things are very very busy around the house here... from the multiform goodnesses of sunday morning meeting, wednesday night special prayer, thursday night men's and women's bible studies, to the daily give and take of living together... things are good and busy...

this week, our dear friends Eric and Aimee Byman and their two children are staying on the first floor, and brother Mark Weaver is living on the third floor, sharing a room with Sam...

I hope to get the upstairs freed up to house 6 people at a time, with a more regular daily bible study and prayer life around here...

things are good. and busy.

an ocean tide's a-comin'

thisarticle mirrors a report i heard on NPR yesterday. Now, i'm not a news-blogger, but there have been a sludge-ton of dreams in our community, along with scriptures and revelations in the spirits of our people (that intuitive place where mind and God meet in the grey matter) that indicate that there is a rising tide of what the Bible calls "The Spirit of Antichrist".

Now, I'm not talking about the worldly secular folks, but among the "Christian" Teachers and churches.

Get your pants on, folks. Learn to discern and judge the spirits, like 1 John 4 says, because you're gonna need it. You already DO need it. Get in the Word and in the Spirit, in study and prayer, and band together in the church and serve the Lord with obedience to what He has commanded us!

we were kindly linked...

here is a blog that used one of our church posts in a way that really kind of says it... the gloves have to come off! and the rose-colored glasses. We're in a Jeremiah 6 and 8 generation, chock full of religious professionals who make bank on our shopping for jesuses.

there is a jesus in the bible. he's described there. now come to him for the life. John 5, late thirties...

L.

Add this to your RSS!

Do you all know how to use RSS and other feeds? it is a great way to keep up with the new posts on all your favorite blogs. Check it out. A little bit of work and you're always up to date.

Click today's title to hear a bit from brother John Piper about being unoriginal.

Love.

Skateboarding posts Moving to Never never land... ( click here)

I know that many of you who come to Lewminator.com are wanting to hear about my family and see pics and news of our life in ministry in Northside. Yet I continue to post skateboarding stuff here!


Well, first, that is what's going on! It may be hard to relate to, but I've been involved in skateboarding to varying degrees for well over 23 years, now! I got my first board when I was 12, in May, so this is year 24 we're in now...

So... Skateboarding is what's going on here. And it's going on There, too. Look around your town! What country do you live in? There are skateboards around, unless you're reading me from the bush in Africa! Oh, they're getting into it, too!

But for the sake of continuity, I'm going to start moving my skateboarding posts to http://tiredoldskater.blogspot.com/. I'll put that in the sidebar here and you can check out that journey in my life as I go...

More and more of my life falls in that sphere, every week, this year... how's my punctuation? I'm working on it...

So if you want to, check it out... I'll try to keep you up on anything I can learn and put up. Tricks are worth more when you're over 35. Not quitting? Priceless. Being led by the Holy Spirit? fageddaboutit!!!

A Good, Clear teaching on Hell...

you know, with all the "Fear of God"/"Fear of the LORD" stuff we've been trafficking in lately, i thought it may be helpful to post this teaching from brother John Piper. Check it out.

just click the title of this post...

ice cream is good.

a couple of years back i had an elective surgery go "awry". I recovered and got back to some semblance of life as usual. it wasn't until a year later that i began to get in and out of a car without pain. I remember a day in march, two years ago (the surgery was longer than 2 years back, obviously) that I remarked, "Hey, I can get out of the car without wincing! (wince--to grimace with pain) ...wincing!"

It was around that time that i realized that weighing 190 pounds wasn't my normal state... but the pastoring and the studying and the teaching and reading and writing and blogging and the trying to figure out what in the blazes I'm doing down here had me pretty sedentary, even though i was trying to skate as often as i could...

Then Effort took me on as a rep and i upped my skating. and i lost, in four months or so, about 20 pounds!

Now i'm like 2 years later and still running at the 170 mark, skating every day and i just want to say,

"Ice Cream is Good"

and then like Nacho in the scene where the kids are wrestling, "Reeeeeallly guuud!" fanTAStic!

i have ice cream more now than i did back then. and it's been really good. But now my food becomes fuel for a Fathering Machine!
I'm out there everyday with my sons and Sam (who lives upstairs) and Marcelo (a loaner son from Brazil), shredding and living life and learning to look both ways...

wow. what a luxury! amazing!

plus... ice cream!

I know hard times always loom on the horizon. yeah yeah. and i am sure i'm going to be there with Jesus, ready or not (and i think you'll find me looking pretty ready if you read my back posts--they may even help you get ready, too), but man, i'm so grateful for all the amazing physical blessings that are abounding in our life here.

L.

In Louisville

I'm in Louisville Ky today with Judy for a thing with her work. Got to "tag along" and enjoy a night away.
I was going to skate the big skatepark here (world class!) but it's raining. Honestly, I'm really pleased. Not relieved. I'm up to skate at a hat's drop, but I'm glad for a chance to catch up with you, dear readers.

We've hit the summer rhythm over here. Take Seth and Kadin to camp, Get Aaron and Marcelo involved in something, work on skatepark stuff, meet with people around the church and the gospel and Jesus and whatnot...

Recently, I've been batting around some interesting possibilities for myself as a man of God, husband, father, pastor, and worker (in that order).

One of the developments that is rich in opportunity is the loss of my status as "ordained". Our organization (The Body of Christ, Intl.) has shifted hands and we have opted to use this as a fresh beginning.
Presently, I am unable to sign marriage papers, issue tax receipts (some of you have a phone call coming, and I am holding a few checks), and... i think that's all. just can't do those things.

Do i need to? I talk to Jesus everyday! and He leads me into richer and richer ministry stuff everyday! every day! He was an uneducated Rabbi, without papers! They were freaked at how much he did in the power of the Spirit that they, with all their credentialing, couldn't touch...

hmmm...

why start a church when we're already being a church? Isn't there a denial of some sort embedded in that behavior?
isn't there a disowning of God's kingdom, there? hmm...

Hepi Brdej! Happy Birthday Prari!!!!

Our own Prari Parran has a birthday today!!! I left the following Bulgarian Birthday Song on her voicemail! Everyone join us in celebrating the gift of God who is Prari!!!

Solla Solla enna perumai

i have had trouble finding words lately so i want to share this song with you. from my heart.

This week's messin around...skateboarding-wise

something to show for my funeral. cut down and condensed with music by Beck from the movie, Nacho Libre... all of which are fair game for my funeral. you know, i'm really cognizant of my mortality... when my kids talk about death--those are precious conversations. we're dead for so long--that is, we enter such and eternal eternity when we die. Preparation of heart and life is... pretty basic... and far too rare... So here's an offering for my funeral. I'll keep these coming. it's good for me...

something funny

epicac/ipecac syrup

Here's a post I doctored up that i think says some things Jesus wants us to hear

Marcelo drops in

Marcelo, our Brazilian Exchange Son, has a real passion for skateboarding. He practises all the time, and things don't come super-easy for him. He has a lot of tenacity and heart. I admire that in him. We are so glad he has come to live with us, and I love to skate with him.
if you feel tempted to write me something about safety or headgear, I'm not there with you. Talk to the football coach, whose students have a much higher rate of head injury with helmets ON. Skateboarding is surprisingly safe, appearances notwithstanding.

So this is THAT DAY in Marcelo's skateboarding career! The day he dropped in!

One Sunday Morning at GrubbyKupp

just wanted to share a moment with you from this sunday's meeting... we cook and eat first, with everyone filtering in during that time. Then, around 11:15, we sit down together to sing and share in the word of God (who is Jesus, whom the Scriptures describe) and prayer.

why do i post so many of this trick on the web? because it's just so danged fun to do! i love to come here and look at it...
...and by the way, this footage was a series of first takes, after drinking almost 2 liters of liquid... and wicked fun.

our backyard bowl...

this represents mine and Sam's work so far. We started the bowl on my birthday, and have put somewhere around 20 man hour in on it so far. not more than that... the deepest point is, well, up to seth's neck... about 3.5 feet? maybe actually deeper since he was standing on a point not as deep as the deepest level... but it's deeper than a shovel handle...

the fear of the LORD

this is a recurring topic that seems difficult for us to get our heads wrapped around. Not different from so many of the facets of the Truth, who is Jesus.

One thing I'd like to note about all that is that the FEAR of the LORD is something delightful to the soul that is inclined to OBEDIENCE. This is central in Jesus' command that we make disciples, teaching them to OBEY. Not just teaching them about Jesus, but to OBEY all He commanded.

soooo... you get this thing, that 1 John deals with (read the whole book) by saying that if we obey him we don't fear condemnation, but if our hearts condemn us in any way, He is greater than our hearts.

The thing I think Paul W was nailing is that we christian folk are on the danger side of 2 Cor. 13:5 and Matt. 7:21. Way on the danger side of it. There's a warning to the whole body, along the lines of the book of James, right now! And the book of James will put the proper fear into you--the very fear that Philippians 2 is talking about.

Go read this stuff:
Phil. 2
James (whole book)
2 cor. 13:5
...and go find in another NT book where it says that each individual should look into whether or not they're ok with the LORD. I think Gal. 5 will help with that...
1 John, with a focus on the relationship of obedience to fear to forgiveness to freedom from sin...
Matt. 28:17-20
Heb. 3, with a good look at v.12
think on these things and don't flop around. Get solid in the fear of the LORD.

now, paul washer speaks to a certain audience, and some of it doesn't translate, but the Apostle Peter preached, "Save YOURSELVES from this perverse generation..." that was acts 2, and a clear call to get out of the trouble of God's wrath...

whether or not you like the "total depravity" rhetoric that is so commonly used to bind people under men's control, we see clearly that there is a serious wrath issue in regard to unbelief, pride, and not yeilding to the truth, who is Jesus.

So there's some food for thought.

Ultimately, it's not about the preacher, but the truth...who is Jesus Christ, Himself, among us, and soon to return.

the fear of the LORD

this is a recurring topic that seems difficult for us to get our heads wrapped around. Not different from so many of the facets of the Truth, who is Jesus.

One thing I'd like to note about all that is that the FEAR of the LORD is something delightful to the soul that is inclined to OBEDIENCE. This is central in Jesus' command that we make disciples, teaching them to OBEY. Not just teaching them about Jesus, but to OBEY all He commanded.

soooo... you get this thing, that 1 John deals with (read the whole book) by saying that if we obey him we don't fear condemnation, but if our hearts condemn us in any way, He is greater than our hearts.

I think that we christian folk are on the danger side of 2 Cor. 13:5 and Matt. 7:21. Way on the danger side of it. There's a warning to the whole body, along the lines of the book of James, right now! And the book of James will put the proper fear into you--the very fear that Philippians 2 is talking about.

Go read this stuff:
Phil. 2
James (whole book)
2 cor. 13:5
...and go find in another NT book where it says that each individual should look into whether or not they're ok with the LORD. I think Gal. 5 will help with that...
1 John, with a focus on the relationship of obedience to fear to forgiveness to freedom from sin...
Matt. 28:17-20
Heb. 3, with a good look at v.12
think on these things and don't flop around. Get solid in the fear of the LORD.

now, paul washer speaks to a certain audience, and some of it doesn't translate, but the Apostle Peter preached, "Save YOURSELVES from this perverse generation..." that was acts 2, and a clear call to get out of the trouble of God's wrath...

whether or not you like the "total depravity" rhetoric that is so commonly used to bind people under men's control, we see clearly that there is a serious wrath issue in regard to unbelief, pride, and not yeilding to the truth, who is Jesus.

So there's some food for thought.

Ultimately, it's not about the preacher, but the truth...who is Jesus Christ, Himself, among us, and soon to return.

Seth's Monster Movie

nobody should miss seth's movie...

...about that paul w. thing

the thing is, there's all this stuff in the Bible that Jesus says that totally ruins american-style christianity.
just ruins it.
ruins it.

so, when we live in a country, among a church that is so largely and deeply false... how do we live out our MEMBERSHIP with the church in our land?

Look at how nehemiah prayed,
and daniel...

checking ourselves...

there's this idea that i find operative in a lot of my conversation with church folks: the idea that self-doubt is BAD.

but there's a capacity to which it is necessary and good.

2 Cor.13:5
Jeremiah 17:5-14

In Philippians, we are given the "fear" line, too.
...and in Matt. 10

thoughts?

Many Jesuses vs. One Jesus

compare this with the crossroads video i posted last week.



wanna put these two dudes in a room together? i do.
(this part in parentheses is added later. i really regret writing that little line there, some time later. it seems like i'm pitting 2 christians against each other. that is wrong. i DO want to be in a room with them, and all of you, as well, though. There are 2 different messages at work in the body, right now, in the church, that is. there's the jesus whom the Scriptures DON'T describe, and the one they DO. Better stated there are actually many many jesuses that the Scriptures aren't describing, but only one that they DO. all of us supposedly Christian folks are supposed to be Testing it all out (1John4) and getting it straight, ourselves, together. My intention is to stimulate your MINDS to consider these things. I am glad that people at xroads are doing good. good is good and help helps. I'm sure that the temple in the days of Jesus was a center for alms and benevolence for the poor. that was good, but JESUS was the POINT! When he came, he testified that it was all about HIM! And they drove him out. Now, we have tons of multi-million dollar churches that preach nothing that will scatter their following. I've seen them turn down the truth about hell again and again. And Peter, in acts 2, called men to be saved. Paul talked Wrath of God all over the place, and in Matt 23, Jesus' words about Hell are fearsome! What the heck? We need to awaken and pour ourselves a cup of the Scriptures that tell us about Jesus! I'm serious! This is important enough for exclamation points.)

Paul Washer did good.

compare this with the crossroads video i posted last week.

wanna put these two dudes in a room together? i do.

inspired by baby isaac.

bill williams III

i actually have the pleasure and the privilege of being served coffee and good conversation by a gentleman named "Bill Williams III". He is one of the few people in the world whose name is William Williams. and he's the third installment, generationally speaking. So, good on ya' Bill. and if you read this blog and comment, I'll buy YOU a coffee.

as for me, i'm going skating for a minute, before i pick up the nin-yos from school.

some new posts...

bible study

and on today's psalms

and on a sunday church day

posted on todays psalms

posted on thursday bible study in 1 Kings

Beard Check...

someone told me that i haven't posted any progress on the beard in the last year or so. turns out that's true, so here's a bone for all of you who wonder about just how long that thing's getting.
I was especialy motivated to update it because yesterday I started putting multiple rubber bands at the bottom of it... I like the extra support.
The beard is now long enough for me to place one fist under my chin, one fist under that, holding the beard, and still have more than an inch of beard sticking out from the bottom fist...
So that's how the beard's going.
My thanks ascend to God, who has granted me a generous, kind-hearted, loving, patient wife. She really really loves me. This is proof...

And to make it official...

A Moment from a Sunday...Baby Isaac

a cold may night

I'm sitting here and it's 1129 pm and the rain's just coming down. Seth and Marcelo are the two newest recipients of the latest sickness: a cough of some sort with a snotty nose and whatnot... I just gave seth some medicine around 10...

anyway, this May has turned out cold. and i love that. but it's been cold, of all things. I remember last year as a very very hot year. I skated all the time and it was really really hot! really hot!
my bluejeans were dripping into my shoes! not really.

so far, it's cold and wet in cincinnati. good stuff. This morning was in the like 40s and the day got up into the 70's and then the temps dropped and the rain fell. rain bothers me because you can't skate, but today that's ok because i'm so far behind on study and writing and emails and skatepark hookups... so i did my work and now i'm off to bed...

just posted on the ongoing jeremiah study. get in there and comment around, back to the beginning... work your way through. all the posts get to me by email. automatically.

comments: Wide Open

Sorry, all. didn't realize my comments weren't enabled for non-googlers. So now you don't have to have a google acct. to comment.

Sunday

church was intense on sunday.
we looked at how much of the bible talks about false teachers.
how many of the NT books...
how much of the prophets (jeremiah 23)

and how appropriate it is for us to discuss the reality that there are many false doctrines out there to "tame" the Jesus whom Scripture describes into something they can use to build movement and preserve attendance and giving.

Tonight, I was asked what I do "during a day". I told the dude (you are a very cool dude, btw) that today i dug footers for a deck, but on a normal day I am the pastor of a "Jesus People Church" (which is how I say that).

He looked intrigued. I don't know what he was thinking, exactly, but this tends to be one of those "moments of truth", so I laid it out:

We are a bunch of folks who've gotten tangled up in the Jesus that the Bible describes, who tends to be a whole lot more incredible and untame than the "Jesus that american churches dictate"... or something like that.
I don't know, but lights seemed to go on.
The definitely did for me, because upon returning home I realized, "That was the gospel". The good news.

The good news for today is that the Jesus whom the Scriptures describe is the way out Way Out. He is the best! He is Wonderful! Counselor! Everlasting Father! Prince of Peace... of His Kingdom there's no end... and we're actually waiting for Him to return... Life begins to feel like the snowdays we used to have in NY, where I was all dressed up and ready for (hell on earth) school and the radio said I could stay home. I had TIME. And freedom.

And with the Jesus that the Bible describes, you can get with him and STOP. You can turn from your ways and turn to HIM right Here and Now! No need for a uniform. No need for a pedigree! Anyone who wants OUT can have it. Just turn to Jesus and follow, leaving the old life behind...

That isn't confusing when you're in the market for salvation. In the market for comfy cozy, selfish religion? you don't know what to do with the Bible Jesus. Shopping for a self-realization? forget it, Dude'll never make sense to ya! He's answering your questions with questions...

but when you're on your face, gripping the edge of his robe, about to get killed with rocks for being an adulterous idiot--the Bible Jesus is the dude. He's not all, "it's okay, we all struggle..." He's like, MERCY: "...neither do i condemn you." and TRUTH: "Go and sin no more." Forgiveness and Holiness...

that's the Jesus!

There are just too many jesuses around! Don't settle for just any jesus, please (many will. they'll read this and go on ahead and pick a jesus--or create a new one--that suits their shopper-holics)...but please, don't settle for just any jesus. Pick out the One in Scripture... Join with others who have searched Him out.

Accept no substitutes! even if that means you have to have coffee in a living room over scripture, rather than enjoy vid-screens and pop-presentations.
Try not to die with regrets.

Working with Gregory!

Well, I gotta say first, "Thanks Dad, for teaching me how to shovel." My dad is a master shoveler. He can shovel ALL DAY. He shovels for fun! And working on putting a skateboarding bowl, in concrete, in my backyard over the last couple of days has proven Dad's technique! I can shovel all day, too.

And today I employed the elder Ross's wisdom in the creation of footers for a deck in high-end Anderson Township with Brother Greg. Greg is a contractor and he eats deck construction for breakfast. He's a joy to work with: has the right tools, extra gloves, rented a machine for the heavy hole-work... a guy who gets things done right and done well. Hats off to greg, and the Jesus who built him.

So today I spent the time i usually spend on the freelance Jesus Pastor skater skatepark salesman... the school-day... on building with Greg, who is easy to work for.

thanks Boss.

Trying to Watch "Fruit of the Vine"

today sam and i were trying to watch this really really cool super 8 skate video documentary about the history and life of pool-skating. I gotta tell you i got a heart for pool skating. I skated a pool in NC last christmastime and it was kingly. cleaned it out myself and had 2 days of sessions in it. fell, hit my head, broke my glasses adn cut my own butterfly bandages out of waterproof athletic tape... fun. serious fun.
In that short bit of skating a real pool i realized that growing up in NY, there were no pools! everything we had around was above ground sheetmetal dealios... but there was Pulaski Pool in Poughkeepsie. I skated there one time but it was so HUGE to me, and there were like 4 feet of water/sludge in the deep end, and it was coooollllld. I just shot for walrides in the shallow. People were sick back there. Con Man doing huge ollie airs on the vert wall. that pool had like 7 feet of vert! Dudes were grinding on that...

Well, we were trying to watch it, and we just kinda said, "you wanna go dig one?" and we just turned it off and got up and dug for four hours and we got a shape and a bit of depth and a dream is born... We pretty much figure it could take as long as it needs to. Between all of us here who skate, we'll see it through. There's gonna be a sweet little ditch/bowl in my backyard...

being a radical

the other day my good friend whom i love dearly in Christ said i was a radical and he wasn't. He's a denominational minister who sees me like someone more "radical" than he is.

I responded, "What's not radical about someone who believes in the stuff of the Apostle's Creed?"

indeed, it must be said. I may have a beard and wear jeans and skate a lot. I may seem "radical". But if you are joined with Christ you are radical. Jesus is coming back! Jesus is coming soon! Jesus is King and Lord! Jesus is Judge of the living and the Dead! Jesus will reign!

These are BASICS to us! Root-level. That's what "radical" means. Like a Radish--just a root.

from root to fruit, we're just christians.

that is, unless you 've let someone cut in on you with gobbledygook that messes up the power of connection to the Crucified One. If you've lost the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus (2cor11:3), you need to repent and tear down your idols and sell all and follow Him.
even if it means loss of position and influence and all the "good" you could do, it is far better to serve Him in the clear, passionate preaching of the word, without compromise or fear whose toes you step on...

boy i love you... all of you readers. I hope in the depth of my heart that you continue to dive deep into the simple love that Jesus holds for you. That you become wise and sophisticated in applying the simple wisdom of that love to your daily steps in this world. that you not be blown about by the winds of men's trickery and false teaching, but that you grow into maturity in the real Jesus of Scripture--the one the Scriptures describe...

that you not just read about him, but that you would LIVE with him, NOW and forever... and me too.

rain rain rain

i'm glad it's been rainy and kinda cold. i fell down, skating a small bowl in Middletown, OH, and really really hurt my palms. Happens a couple of times per year, that. very very painful. Sometimes for weeks and weeks, since i need my hands for falling all the time...

God has been kind to me to keep healing me and giving me the grace not to hit my head too often when my paws are tender...

So a few mornings in a row with temps in the 50's and rain do me well, lately. Maybe that's the 35 talkin' there.
But today, if i can find a dry spot, I'll skate for a while...

this is Zamar!!!!

sheena and chris's baby. he's so cute! and look at me. I'm magic with kids! Must be the beard!

Stunning.

this was a stunning example of the church putting the things of men before the things of God. Check for the name "Jesus" and any clues toward the components of the Gospel..

and hey, read this that i wrote 2 years ago almost to the date...

how we got to Northside

I got up really really early today because i have a cough that only works sideways.

and i posted on www.lewminator.com about Dad Weiss' sickness and Mom Weiss' passing.

and i reflect again on the fact that we don't live here because of a specific calling to "urban ministry", or inner-city hoo-ha. We moved here because a dear friend, sister, mother...was dying and we needed a house with a ramp and enough room to do the stuff.

This funeral home was the open door, perhaps the "bait", to get us into this neighborhood. We looked at many homes, but this was the only one in over 2 years of searching that had the right combination.
-Handicap access
-first floor bathroom just off a bedroom
-proximity to hospitals

all that and we ended up CLOSER to the majority of our church people, with room to meet and practise hospitality. to be honest, city living is the life for me, so far. Being a longtime skateboarder, living on concrete suits me well, with a coffee shop and internet just down the road.

our neighbors! Oh the blessing of living among noisy, chaotic, needy, ignorant, foolish, godless, drug-addicted neighbors. (sorry for not mentioning the smart, motivated, artistic, intelligent, rich and poor, idealistic, debauched, drunken, amazing, depressing people, too) you can just step outside and relate to Jesus, who had compassion on the multitudes, even though he was exhausted, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

(if you mind that last paragraph, i kind of do, too. I don't want anyone to not have their shepherd. if I had created the universe, we wouldn't need shepherding, but it wasn't me. it was God. Oh yeah, and if i created the universe you'd all be my slaves, too, so count your blessings.)

yes, over the years I hear a drum beating louder and louder, ominously threatening judgment on unfaithful religion in the land... lukewarm christianity and money-worship will fall.
...but here, i see the hand of Jesus reaching out in compassion and patience to the violent, lost sinners who don't know Him. ...here, loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek really show up in your behavior. every day is a day to love, in actual ways--you know, reality of action, NOW.

I can skate down the street and end up talking gospel with serious hardcore criminals, punkers, atheists, Mayan Calendar people... I mean it's astounding. This is even the "gay" neighborhood! Where better? (I don't believe in gay people)

And it is here in Northside...no, it is here in the pierced palm of Jesus' hand...that I have come to find my final denomination--i am one of the Jesus people. like when the pharisees adn sadduccees and the teachers of the law and the scribes were like, "These guys were with Jesus."

That's all I want to be. That is all we're supposed to be. The whole John the Baptist thing with the "I must decrease and he must increase" thing... the whole 2 corinthians 4-5 clay pots (grubbykupps) and "...put off this earthly tent..." thing...

So on my other blog I storied out on how our family got here...
and here I'm touching on how being here has been...growing us...

blessings. richest blessings on you, dear readers.

reminiscence on the past

it took over 70 years for my father in law to get sick. i mean life-changingly sick. sure, he'd had a stone here and a mini-stroke there (miraculously healed in car on way to hosp.). he broke his kneecap into 4 pieces one time. he had malaria as a youth, while he was in Indonesia in the Dutch army.

but around the summer of 2001--June--he got a staff infection in Mexico. THAT was sick. Weeks stretched into months and he was a goner. in a rare lucid moment he said he wanted to go. I told him we would take care of Mom and that everything was ok... it was like that, you know.

enter Johan, the eldest son. Comes into that hospital--i mean, Dad's dying here! Tubes, breathing machine. hadn't spoken for months. Missed--totally missed--September 11th. No kidney function. Dialysis... Doctors were going to cheese-knife his kidneys to see if anything was left! and in comes Johan, prays HARD, out loud, anoints with oil... and from that day Dad had an inexplicable turnaround...

i remain the dutiful son in law, who says, "it's okay. you go ahead and die." to his father in law. what a parable... in this one, i look real bad... (i'm way worse than that, so i don't mind playing that part.)

anyway, when dad got out of the hospital, he was broken. 86 pounds lighter, with this look of fear in his eyes, like a child, or a wild bird with a broken wing.
One fall would have killed him. no kidding. And the fear of going back to those tubes and machines and cold steel and cold hands and needles and all that was nipping at, no--it was like a horrible satan-dog from hell just snapping and baying at him like on "I Am Legend" in that one scene... you know?

That was in the early 2000's. Judy was pregnant with Seth. She traveled back and forth every week, sometimes twice a week--routinely twice a week--to Wilmore from here. I was at a UMC (methodist joint) getting my liver served up to me for making the wrong kind of disciples. Mom was... Mom.

Mom Weiss always cooked for us. Stuff from the Old Country, like potatoes with Kale mixed through, or soups with lots of sausage in them... She always pushed me to eat. Heck, in the first 3 months of marriage, I gained 20 pounds! That was mostly muscle, back then, because I was very very skinny when I married Judy, but Mom's cooking made me healthy. (i just ate taco bell before that--for like a year)

Mom Weiss always cleaned up after us. The whole family. She was so servant-minded. I think she knew her reward awaited her on the other side. She was often burdened, but served with grace. Always.

Mom embodied sainthood. And Mom loved Jesus. That's what she knew--Jesus. Her education in school ended around the sixth grade, but she loved Jesus and she knew the Word and she was wise. And she served...



And shortly after Dad's release she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and 3 to six months to live (maybe a year, i don't know now). Renal. Kidney-Lungs-brain: that's the progression. Her kidney had a softball on it. Lungs were FULL of cancer--doctor wondered how she could even walk around. Three tumors on her brain.

So we gathered and prayed, with the oil and the faith, and God took all but four small spots of cancer out of her lungs. The brain we got radiation (didn't like that a bit). and they tried to cut off blood to the kidney one...

2 and a half years later, we were moved into this great mission-house here in Northside together to weather the season of Mom's passing. Dad had regained a lot of strength since his severe illness, but seeing Mom fade as she did took a lot out of him.

Shortly after moving into this house together, Mom passed away in early June. Her Body was laid to rest in Spring Grove Cemetery, just around the corner...

There are many beautiful things and moments in those days of sickness, weakness and death. Not just the things we got out of it, either. In fact I am appreciating what those days got out of me.

Like a strong soap, they've removed from me the expectation of strength and health, prosperity and ease, that I had before... To be true about it, the Scriptures had already scoured my mind of a lot of that. I never found health adn wealth in this world to be the promise of Scripture, although I enjoy and abundance of both. But going through what we went through in those days exercised my faith in a way that confirmed the reality of my hope in Christ--our hope in Christ...

So why this meditation? I don't know. My uncle got cancer once. He's better now. Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma... I have a cold and coughed all night, like when I had whooping cough (but much less violent).

There's something about infirmity in the body that is really really good for the soul. Saint Peter said it in the Book: "The body that suffers is done with sin." Experience bears that out.
Mom's passing. Wow. It's been like 4 years. that's not a long time. We're basically still IN that experience, to some degree.

Dad came back from six months of living in the Philippines, last week. Miserable with physical ailments typical of that part of the world, now 80 years old, with memory weakening... he's been getting more fragile. And if you've known Johannes Weiss, you know that fragility wasn't in his expectation of life. he was sure that he and Mom would be raptured!

It was amazing to hear his utter disappointment after Mom's passing. Astounding. He had never prepared for any death at all. He was sure they were going to be raptured by Jesus. you know, 1 thess 4? Caught up while still in the body? I'm talking about their expectation that Jesus would return and take them away! He was very very disappointed.

Well, he's not too cool with the arrangement that worked out. If Johan hadn't raised him up,he would have gone and Mom would have followed in a minute. As it is, he's left here to wander around for a little longer.

So when I wake up with a cough, like I did for a month during the winter, and it's spring and the birds are starting to chirp at 4am. I get dressed, make tea, have some hummus and pita, and think out loud with you, friend reader.

thanks for spending this morning with me.