I need to share some news with you, at the time I am writing this some work is bering done on the porch. I am in the office in a recliner laptop on my lap writing this. Now the rest of the story…I have tore a tendon on my right knee. I will have surgery next Wednesday. My right knee is in a compressor brace and it can’t be bent…so I have had to adapt. It is difficult to work this way and the pain is hard to deal with but the hardest thing is I am totally  dependent on others to help me with the usual routines of the day. Having said that, I have just got a system in place to do a little work on the “Porch” and a few lines on the “Pew”. Hate to miss my publishing dates but with this brace on my right knee and having to keep the right leg straight and knee un-bent it is a painful demand for a wide bodied old man. (wide bodied old man is the woke term for fat.) Can’t stay at the computer too long. 

Consider this please. “The Back Porch” is  my ponder place and that puts me in a conflict because I’m having to adapt to this new situation I find my self in. Adapting requires thinking and thinking is the enemy of pondering. Here is my answer to this disgusting place I find myself in.

Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

I hope to be able to continue in a normal fashion…so keep me in your prayers.

 jk   

This week “The Pew” will be about the path ahead. 

What do I do now? I feel sure that all of the disciples were asking that question, following Jesus was everything.They had given up much, had seen and heard the things that Jesus did during his ministry and now Jesus would be speaking to them for one last time… He would soon ascend to Heaven and be with the Father. They were gathered in a 2nd floor room, hiding there because of the anger of many in the Jewish community along with the Jewish Council’s hostility toward Jesus and his disciples continued to incite the Romans to take a harder line to this new movement.  

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Scripture tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead he presented Himself alive to the women who had come to the tomb. 

Matthew 28:9-10… And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

There are also other writings…Acts 1:3…During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. 

1 Corinthians 15:6…Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  

From further scripture I present this for your consideration… This is from a great web site, Got Questions…“Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus and His disciples went to Mount Olivet, near Jerusalem. There, Jesus promised His followers that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit, and He instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Spirit had come.” Then Jesus blessed them, and as He gave the blessing, He began to ascend into heaven. The sequence here is important and I find sometimes timelines confuse me but this one is short and to the point. After Jesus had rose the next events were compelling, profound and a lot more adjectives could be added but few would truly due justice to “The Great Commission”.  What is Next? Many of us over the years have sought the answer to that question. The answer to that question was given to us by Jesus… Matthew 28:19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (NLT)… 

These are not instructions, wishes or requests from our Savior but a command. Jesus said I will send the Holy Spirit to enable you to do this thing. This command is to include all People, in every city and every country, to the ends of the earth. We are to make disciples…“go,” “baptize,” and “teach” this being the main command of the great commission. The “Going,” “baptizing,” and “teaching” are the means by which we do this, the basic of which means to teach or train people to follow and obey Christ. It is God’s desire that all people be saved… 

… “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.) 1 Timothy 2:4

Nothing difficult to understand. Repentance, Forgiveness, Obedience and Salvation. We know what to do and God’s people have been doing it at great costs throughout the world…Remember the Call…The Great Commission… Obey, Go and Tell.

Life is Good

Jk

I am having some minor work done on the “Porch” and it is not going well. This simple project has evolved into a chess match of excuses versus the need to get this done. I made two critical mistakes and I share them with you because these are two things you just don’t do in this day and time. First the estimated cost was reasonable and I knew the quality of this man’s work. The fist one was I failed to get a contract as to start and finish date. The only thing I had was a hardy handshake and his word. There was a time that was all you needed. Now the second mistake and this is the critical one. I gave the man half of the cost of the job up front, a substantial amount. I did this based on his previous work for me. I am in what is sometimes called “a rock and a hard place” and I don’t even have a rock to throw at anyone… as I sit here on the porch it is a bit windy but quite and peaceful. That is not good, I would prefer some noise, Hamer, saw, materials arranged for work at the needed time…nothing, even the cats are watching my impatience, I believe they are laughing at me. This calls for a first class ponder! Well, that didn’t take long. After some real time thinking, one step above a ponder, I discovered the fault is mine due to my upbringing and the company I worked for for 38 years. All those years I was putting into practice what I had been taught about life and the values that would help me navigate through it, those very things were changing. Remember I told you awhile back that a proper ponder does not have to have an answer and for this one I don’t have an answer. I do have a solution, at least from my perspective… Philippians 4:6-7…6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

 

Take care… see you on the porch next week.

jk

From biblical accounts in the Gospels the number is not that important but who was there is. There were many there witnessing the brutality of such a thing whose names we will never know. We know from the Gospel of John 19:25…  Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene.(NLT) Luke 23:27…  A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women.(NLT)  We sometimes tend to forget the concern Jesus had caused among the Jewish leadership but also the hope his ministry was bringing the people…all people. There are writings that put it this way. This man from Nazareth never traveled alone, besides his 12 loyal disciples there were a caravan of faithful adherents to His message of salvation. I like to see it as their leaving a dust trail of faith clearly visible and easily seen in the lay of the land. So on this day of the crucifixion we know many who knew of Jesus. There were among them these four women standing as close to the cross as they could. Of course we know the Roman Soldiers, the two criminals who would die that day with him and the Roman Centurion of whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke drew special attention to. All three of these gospel writers refer to his remark as the end came. I will use Matthew as an example…Matthew 27:54…The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”(NLT) The disciples were there and John stands out because he is standing close to Jesus’ mother. John 19:26-27…When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.(NLT)  If this were a movie script a notation would be made to start the villain music now. We now encounter the Chief Priests and Jewish Leaders. Now we have scribes, elders, or rulers, comprising the Sanhedrin. Then follows a series of disparaging remarks towards Jesus as he hangs on the cross. What a sad picture of that day…if we had been there we would have seen “the women, the soldiers, the malefactors, the centurion, the chief priests, the members of the Sanhedrin, the group of His own disciples, and in addition to these, the vast multitudes of people from the whole surrounding country.” In my research for this blog this is the clearest picture that I can visualize. I must give credit to its author Campbell Morgan from his book “Crises of the Christ.”

I am publishing this today and as I tie the bow on this my mind cannot give up this thought. According to timelines established by theological writers over the years, on this day at 9am they nailed Jesus to the Cross…He gave His last breath and spoke His last words at 3pm that afternoon. Today here at my computer looking out the window…the sun is bright and it is a beautiful. His Glory can never be put away.

Thank You Jesus

jk

Rain most of Tuesday but I did manage to get in some porch time. Don’t know if I have shared with any of you this “great knee adventure” I am now on but it is taking a toll on my ability to get around. I did at one time share with you that there will come a time we old dogs need to sit on the porch and let the young dogs run. Here is an update on that ponder… seems I have somehow reached the point that I now need help getting on the porch. While on the back porch yesterday I spent time pondering how old do you have to be to be a member of this old age group or category? We Americans like to, well really it is an obsession with most folks, to put everything in a group, category or under a label of some kind. A good example of this is we used to refer to a citizen of this country as an American… not anymore. Now that blank has several sub-categories. African American, Asian American, Native American… just to name a few. We have even gone as far as to add categories to what used to a reasonable thought thing, you know you could identify by looking and if that was not good enough, DNA was available. Not anymore… what was decided by our creator at our very inception was no longer binding. We have now had to expand our record forms to several categories. A few examples…we added to the usual boxes to be checked off…Male, Female, Trans-sexual,  lesbian, gay, bi, ace and straight and of all things non-binary. Not sure what that means but could be they aren’t fully committed yet. Just something to ponder about…which brings us back to an earlier question. How old do you have to be to be a member of this old age group or category? The answer to that after some research on my part is much like a lyric from a song from back in the day… “the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind.” Most official accounts say 65 years old but there are those, mostly from Kansas, having spoke to the Wizard would advise it is an in your Heart thing. I think I will go with nature on that. We start growing old at our first breath, just as our creator intended. From a medical point I give you this to consider…

“People 65 years old and older take prescribed medications more frequently than any other age group in the United States. Most older adults take several …” 

The above nails it down for me. If you don’t start your day with at least a brisk walk and good cup of coffee, instead it is an energetic shuffle and a cup of Ovaltine… and a regimen of  prescribed medications, welcome to the old age group. I got to get off the porch now and get ready for my bed time rituals… I will have to apply that topical medication jell to both knees after I remove my knee braces, take my evening meds and hopefully complete my nightly ablutions, allowing me to sleep through the night. Good Grief …it is almost nine o’clock!

jk

Consider this…a purely secular view of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We as Christians believe, accept and give thanks that as was the will of our Father God, his only son would die on the Cross that our sins might be forgiven and we should have life everlasting in Heaven… with all the Saints and our Father and his son and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. So…for your consideration the other side, “the rest of the story”. 

The rest of the story occurs well before the crucifixion of Jesus but is really the reason for my view. In today’s “speak” there is in this time before the entrance of “Politics Of The Cross” a developing story we just skim over. Of course there was before, during and after an uncertainty about this man from Nazareth. But make no mistake he was beloved by the people, Jews and Gentiles alike and even some Romans.There was the Roman Government which was not tolerant of anything that might lessen the “the power of Rome”. Here also we must include the Pharisees and the Sadducees.They were a big part of those who planted this seed of organized opposition to Jesus. It was planed, planted and nourished buy these three very powerful factions who had as their only goal to squash this “Jesus” who threatened their power and influence. I believe that the Sadducees and the Pharisees were in many ways the driving force in this triumvirate of power that Jesus was facing. The Sadducees were a religious group that held a great deal of power among the Jews in Israel and worked with Rome to keep the peace. Sadducees confronted Jesus on many occasions which are documented in the New Testament. They were members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jewish people. The Pharisees were influential within Judaism in the time of Christ and the early church. They were a minority in the Sanhedrin but seemed to to somewhat control the decision-making of the Sanhedrin because they were popular among the people. I share this with you by using an excerpt from Got Questions because of its clarity. “The Pharisees were an influential religious sect within Judaism in the time of Christ and the early church. They were known for their emphasis on personal piety (the word Pharisee comes from a Hebrew word meaning “separated”), their acceptance of oral tradition in addition to the written Law, and their teaching that all Jews should observe all 600-plus laws in the Torah, including the rituals concerning ceremonial purification.”

So there you have it Rome, Sadducees, Pharisees, a triumvirate of power upon which I rest the reason for my view “Politics Of The Cross.” The road to Golgotha was laid out by the actions, lack of actions and the pursuit of power and influence coupled with Romes determination to maintain its power over their  territories. These three things are there in the background of the greatest story ever told. I have never been particularly fond of that “story thing” which might put me a little in the Pharisees group. The story here is that there is no story here…It is a record of oral and written history…real places and real people. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, in the secular view you might say this is the day that “Jesus was on Parade”.

Life is Good

jk   

It’s Porch “Sitting Time In Tennessee”. You may have picked up on something different this time…I have never added a tag line to the “Back Porch” but this week’s time on the porch to ponder is kinda personal. I am eighty, soon to be eighty-one and after my doctor’s visit yesterday I have discovered a new part of our daily lives that is often overlooked. Some years back Alabama had a song out “Angels Among Us”, me, I have no song…just a thought to ponder. How about Heroes And Heroines Among Us. As we age as a country this becomes more visible. They are truly among us everywhere. We don’t always see them but they are there and they also have a purpose, let me explain. The song writers of that Alabama song were Don Goodman and Becky Hobbs. (lyrics © Sony/atv Tree Publishing) I did not know which way I was going to go with this but after a couple of days I decided to turn to the lyrics of this song to make a point. These angles do come to us in our darkest hours, show us how to live and guide us with the light of love. They can show up in the strangest places and just because they are there as we walk a dark and uncertain road they light that road with a ray of hope. I have had a few days to ponder over this…we see them every day, everywhere and they are different in one way. Age is no respecter of these Angles. You will recognize them because they are of all ages and are easily recognized. I have come to refer to them as “The Cane, Crutches, Walkers, Wheel Chairs, Scooters, Brigade”.  I have been in a great deal of pain not able to get around well, in short…I am losing my mobility. This ponder is not a “pity me” time. In every trial in life or situation there is a purpose and a lesson, or from my view…a revelation. Now that I am having to deal with this demon of old age I am more aware of these Heroes And Heroines Among Us. I thank God for them and say a little prayer for them. They encourage me to keep going and I admire their grit. Things will change for me in the weeks ahead…don’t move around as well or fast as I once did and one change is I don’t do Taco Bell anymore. Take a moment and give them a nod, a smile and a kind word…open a door for them. They are everywhere… a mass of hope and determination and with God’s help they will persevere.

Kurt 

I am spending Lent exploring how vast the story of the time and events leading us up to the story of the cross and the Resurrection of our Lord is more than a one day thing. Last week we included in “The Rest Of The Story’ a quick look at Resurrection Day, also known as Easter. We acknowledged some of the church rituals or holidays along the way. Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and here we are now in the season of Lent. Another event I would like to add to “The Rest Of The Story” is about that Donkey. One thing I have learned from the Bible is that God has a plan and He is always in charge. Some of the time, well actually all of the time… like His disciples we miss the significance of Jesus’ instructions or the parables he often used to teach the Fathers’ will. 

Like all good stories this one continues to grow. As the scripture  shares with us Bethany is mentioned frequently in the New Testament. It was the home of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. We know from previous scriptures that Jesus often visited there. It is from this place that Jesus sent his disciples to find a colt upon which he would ride into Jerusalem. The Synoptic Gospels mention it as being close to Bethany, it was here also that the miracle of Lazarus’s resurrection took place, right under his enemies noses. Something that is not mentioned to often is the fact that at this very time Jesus is a wanted man. (John 11:57) I will share this as written in a commentary by William Barclay…  and I quote him:

“It is a breathtaking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding into a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him. It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus.” 

What About That Donkey?

There is a lot of symbolism and allegory in the Bible, sometimes it can be confusing and sometimes there is a practical reason for it. The best example of this is the frequency and richness of such in  the Book Of Revelation but that is another direction to go and at another time. There is a time and a place for everything a great teacher once said. The Jews had been expecting a warhorse, ridden by a warrior ready to do war. It was a prevailing thought of that time, it was the mount of a King…and the Jews were expecting a Messiah, a king that would make things right again.  

To me this is just another example of a parable which has gone visual. Here is a visual of the description of a king who would be “righteous and having salvation, gentle.” Rather than riding to conquer, this king would enter in peace and in that day and time those who saw and heard this story unfold would understand what was being put before them. There is one other thing…The mention of a donkey in Zechariah 9:9-10  Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey — riding on a donkey’s colt. Bethphage and Bethany were located on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem.

God has a plan for his people…all people. Consider this…a Donkey, a two mile ride and a Cross…simple but it changed the world and is still reconciling God with his people to this day.

Life Is Good

jk

 

What a perfect evening to be on the back porch. There is a lot to Ponder about this time we are living in and that is just one of the reason to find a way to clear your mind. Have you ever tried to just sit and think about nothing…I mean absolute nothing. Try it…you can’t do it. On the Porch tonight I challenged my self to think about nothing. I cleared my mind of the news, any plans for the rest of the week and joyfully put aside my to do list. Like an inbox on a desk, there is nothing better than an empty one. But the human mind being what it is I soon found myself finding something to Ponder. Sound… I will repeat that and I pause a bit to allow you a moment to think about it. S..O..U..N..D . It is a typical early spring night, everything tuning up for natures burst of renewal. My opinion is that the air here on the plateau is some what thiner than in the valley. That is a perfect example of a real ponder… I have no scientific proof that this is a fact and in the world of pondering that is good enough. They say that sound travels farther in thin air. I could give you a sound reason for that but that would be another post but it does make for a good pun. Back to that sound thing. The birds are active this evening and if you listen carefully you can hear the movement of their wings as they search for a place to build a net or just seeking a place to rest for the night. Highway 231 is to the east of me and is one of the secondary roads that emergency vehicles travel to Vanderbilt Hospital here in Lebanon TN. It is interesting to me that I can tell by the siren sound the difference between a firetruck, ambulance or police car. At my previous home there were rail tracks just a short distance from my back porch there. At the crossing just below the house were lights, bells and cross bars to keep folks safe. On either side of that crossing left or right at least a mile apart from mine one had only a sign, the other a sign and lights. It took me a while to discover but there was a different series of horn blasts for each one. If I listen carefully I can tell the difference between an 18 wheeler, or just a plain ole dump truck. I know the sound of a motorcycle as opposed to the screaming of a dirt bike or crouch rocket… Trucks… Pick-Up trucks, I call them Red Neck Cadillacs. Here in Wilson County they all have duel exhausts that roar like a car at the Daytona 500. So what am I rambling about and why? To me it is a miracle what God has created and there is scripture that addresses what I am saying. I use the NLT bible and it speaks to the point I am making. You can’t always see everything or hear everything. In the quite of the early evening, about dusk, as you get older you don’t see as well. The scripture I am recalling is from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Consider this… these gifts of sight, hearing, smell, touch all work together to allow the body to serve the whole. When my sight is obstructed or naturally impaired those other parts become stronger to compensate for the weaker. When I can’t see my hearing is sharper, if when we don’t hear as well our eyesight becomes sharper.

I am so grateful to have been created so wonderfully. I have trouble now days losing my mobility bit by bit, that is not unusual for my age. As my lower body loses it ability to stand up for long periods of time or needs help to stand, my upper body has grown stronger. I don’t know if any of this makes sense but here again a good Ponder doesn’t  have to.

Kurt

I thought it might be helpful to tell “the rest of the story.” I believe one of the motivating factors that contributed to the crucifixion of Jesus was the disturbance caused by the leaders of the Jews who despised and feared the message of this man called Jesus…the one who many were referring to as the Messiah, the King of The Jews. Their position of power was being threatened and for the Romans civil order and subjection to Caesar and Rome was expected from everyone. So in my view the main problem was that disturbance of the public civil order created by the Jewish power structure could no longer be ignored. The story has been told many times but it can never be told enough. Easter, also called Resurrection Day and is a Christian holiday celebrating Jesus Christ returning from the dead. Christians believe that it is the holiest day in the year. Some people who are not Christians celebrate it as a cultural holiday. A host of people we refer to as prophets, disciples, followers and saints have traveled the world sharing the good news for over 2000 or more years. I look at Easter as that day that became more than just one day, over time it has become not only an event of the highest significance, the reason for the “good news”… the promise of the forgiveness of sin, resurrection of the body and life everlasting, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is more than Easter bonnets, hats, egg hunts or cute bunnies. In some ways it suffers the same treatment given Christmas, by the  secular world…secular things first. In the mist of all those things   we lose sight of the cross. I see it as an inclusion of convenience, less we offend anyone. Harsh but that is the way I see it.

The depth and meaning of Easter is of course found in the resurrection of Jesus. This is not one of those “reason for the season” things. With the cross came the long awaited fulfillment of God’s promise to the Jews and often overlooked the “way” to God’s reconciliation with mankind. A promise kept that would require something from us… that something would be repentance. Without the  resurrection the promise is only words. The significance of that day, the power of the cross as a reminder of it is made even stronger with the symbol of the empty grave. One Day is not enough to tell the story…it is true, it is…“The Greatest Story Ever Told.” What about the rest of the story? Well, I will start off by listing two days that occur before Lent, more about that later. The first day is Shrove Tuesday and occurs before Ash Wednesday. It was originally observed as a day of confession and penitence in preparation for Ash Wednesday and Lent. Consider this… the Bible does not even mention Ash Wednesday or the 40 days of Lent, Shrove Tuesday is not a biblical observance, either. Now another consideration to be made. There is certainly nothing wrong with Christians eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. I will go ahead and write that Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent are amazingly not observances God requires of Christians. Observance of these days is entirely a matter of personal conviction. So why have these three days become such a large part of the Church calendar? I will answer that in a moment. Now let’s move on to 

Ash Wednesday. 

Remember Ash Wednesday is not in the Bible but it does record accounts of people in the Old Testament using dust and ashes as symbols of repentance and mourning.  2 Samuel 13:19 (NLT)… ^“ But now Tamar tore her robe and put ashes on her head. And then, with her face in her hands, she went away crying.” Two things about Ash Wednesday … It is a time of repentance which is a good thing for Christians and really we should be doing it every day, repenting from sinful activities. It is also a good thing to work at identifying every day as being a Christian. We should also remember that no ritual can make one’s heart right with God. Therefore in the Christian vocabulary repent is a verb spelled with a capital R.

We are not to Easter yet…first there is Lent.

“Lent is a period of fasting, moderation, and self-denial traditionally observed by Catholics and some Protestant denominations. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday.” The length of the Lenten fast was established in the 4th century as 46 days (40 days, not counting Sundays). (gotquestions.org)  While the Bible tells us God’s grace cannot be earned as it is a gift from God, doing so is and act of Atonement and yes there is a day for that.  There is so much more than just that one day…The Resurrection was such a huge event, it changed the world, the birth of Jesus changed the world, it cannot be contained in one day. There are still some days we need to go to for the rest of the story and next week we continue this journey. I struggled with how to close this week and have decided to use a prayer from the UMC Book of Common Prayer.

“O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Life is Good

jk