Sunday evening musings

It's pretty quiet around here this evening, so I thought I'd sit down and write. I got up this morning and the field and sunlight were so beautiful, I had to take a picture. The air was so clear, and the cornfield so smooth. I found out today how to estimate the bushels of corn per acre. Pretty interesting. Did you know that it takes 80,000 kernels to make a bushel? That's an awful lot of kernels to count--"Hey, Will, hand me another ear!" Really you don't have to do it that way. Write me later, and I'll tell you. One can learn lots of things in dinner conversations over Sunday lunch.

It's been a busy weekend. Friday evening we went up to the home of some old friends who had an open house for their son and his new wife. We saw lots of friends from other churches we've been to. That's always a good time to catch up. These little church functions. Many of us have children the same age, so we're getting into the wedding stage in our lives! This was the second one in their family. Now I have new readers of this blog. And we can hopefully stay caught up. Whenever we see these people, we always say we MUST stay in touch. After all, we live in the same area, generally. But our lives get busy, and we procrastinate. Den had such a blast, gets a little crazy. It was fun to see him with his guy friends again.

Saturday I went to a wedding and Den ran 15 miles!! He's hoping to run in the Omaha marathon on his 55th birthday, September 23rd. He is REALLY PUMPED about it. Just ask him about it. He bought a little GPS thingy that tells him all kinds of things besides where he's running. Like what his pace is, how many calories he's burned.. um, like I said, ask him.

This afternoon I reread, Death in the City by Francis Schaeffer. I read it 30 years ago for a class in college. He compares our culture and situation to that of the period of Jeremiah where God's people knew the truth, but didn't want to believe it or act on what they knew. Because the "church" didn't continue in truth, the whole culture did not know truth. Sounds like our era. And he wrote it 40 years ago. We've changed somewhat, and are farther down the post-Christian road. He emphasized truth, as he always did, and how having absolutes really does give man significance. In conversations this summer, I found that some have difficulty communicating God's absolutes to, as Schaeffer puts it, "the man without the Bible". This is the way I think we've changed since Schaeffer's time. Now not only will people say, "I don't believe in an absolute or absolutes." but rather, "It's OK for you to have absolutes, but they're not for me." or "That's the way you believe, but my truth is just as valid as your truth." Schaeffer puts it, "If you want a significant man, with absolutes, morality, and meaning, then you must have what the Bible insists upon--that God will judge men justly." We don't like to talk about God judging much. So in talking about the gay lifestyle, even children raised in Christian homes have difficulty saying that it is morally wrong. In their minds some have a relativistic thinking that says, "It's morally wrong for me, but it's OK for them because they love each other. " But because God is holy, has absolutes, and will judge justly, the person has significance. It raises the importance of the individual, restores him/her to wholeness. Of course, Schaeffer also emphasizes speaking this truth with love and compassion, just as Jeremiah preached with tears. The other part of the book, besides the Jeremiah part, was from Romans 1:16-2:1. That's the "man without the Bible" section. And that's our culture, basically. He closes the book with a chapter on living like we really believe that he is a God who is there. Christians MUST pray, or they are sitting in the materialist's chair and are living in what he terms "unfaith". Reminded me that I need to always be praying and believing that God does reach into time and space and make a difference. I need to live like I believe it. Not very good at summarizing what I read, but this gives some thoughts.