Is Jesus the Real Deal?

Whenever Christmas season rolls around once again many of us are reminded to think about "the baby lying in the manger".

That brings to mind an old saying that goes something like this, “careful you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

It’s a saying that’s hard to disagree with, and yet when it comes to God’s message to us all, that’s what many people do. 

There is absolutely no doubt that there has been confusion, lies, greed, hypocrisy, selfish ambition and every other bad human behavior among church leaders and those proclaiming to be followers of Jesus. (That’s the bathwater.)

But the important thing, the thing that we mustn’t throw out with that dirty bath water is indeed “the baby” and yes, unlike the character Ricky Bobby from the silly movie Talledega Nights, I do know that “baby Jesus” grew up to become a man.

The precious part that we need to hold onto in that scenario is the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done for each and every one of us.

A Statue of Jesus in a little prairie church

If you’ve never heard it before, hear it now.

Jesus is God. He came to the earth and lived among us as a completely sinless man until He was betrayed, humiliated and crucified as the ultimate, willing sacrifice to atone for the sins of all humankind. 

After three days He was resurrected and appeared before many witnesses who have left their testimony for us so that we also can believe and have hope. 

He did this so that we all could have the chance to freely make the choice to be forgiven.

We do this (be forgiven) by choosing to recognize and admit that we are sinners in the eyes of the God that made the universe and by choosing to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour so that we too can be forgiven and have new life, eternal life.

That’s the good news also known as “The Gospel”.

The first line of a popular Christian book from a few years ago began, “It’s not about you.”

What the author was trying to get across is that we were all created for a purpose and that purpose is to be in a relationship with God, through Jesus. Many people today, for various reasons, reject God out of hand, without knowing this simple truth, “God is real and He wants to have a relationship with you.”

Every person who has somehow stumbled onto this truth has a duty, a responsibility and hopefully a desire to share this good news with the other people in their lives and of course, I’m no different.

So that means, even though this is my story, my testimony, still, it’s not about me. In fact, it’s much more about you than it is about me.

The reason for that is this: who I am and where I’ve come from, my experiences and life story is mostly in the past, yours on the other hand, at least in how it pertains to your relationship with Jesus is most likely in your future.

I can say that because in this country of Canada, the vast majority of people have only a vague, distorted and incomplete idea of who Jesus really is and most have no relationship with Him at all.

There are many, many, reasons why people reject the idea of “religion” and they may be good reasons. But what is missing from our understanding of who Jesus is and our perceived or experienced reality of religion is that Jesus and Christian religion are not the same thing and are mostly very far apart from each other.

So before I begin to tell my own story I want to get across one very important point.

The historical church and the church that exists today, even though they may try very hard to be what they were intended to be, fall far short of God’s mark, just as you and I fall far short of God’s design for our lives.

Sure we may try hard to do what is right just as the church tries, but the problem is the same, human nature and sin corrupt our lives just as they corrupt the church.

It has been said that “all religions lead to God.” But the sad truth is that “NO RELIGION necessarily leads to God!” 

Jesus Himself often spoke warnings about the hypocrisy of religious zealots who put religion ahead of people. 

He often warned against focussing on the trappings of religion and He instructed His followers to concentrate on doing good, loving others and being in a right relationship with God.

Originally believers and followers of Jesus referred to themselves as followers of “The Way” and unfortunately over the years, many people and churches have lost their way.

The Christian church today (just as it always has been) is composed of people; flawed, imperfect, damaged people who for many reasons have “joined the club” that is the church and these people may or may not have an actual relationship with Jesus.

For the first few years that I attended church with my family I didn’t have a real understanding of what it means to be a Christian and that’s on me. I was afraid to totally commit to anything in life and my Christian faith was no different. Like many people, I had one foot in my new Christian life and one foot still in my old life and that doesn’t allow you to move forward very easily, as a matter of fact it’s an extremely uncomfortable pose making it very easy to fall on your face!

But thankfully I stuck with it, mostly because I enjoyed the life; I enjoyed the people and the sense of belonging and being part of something much bigger than me. Eventually, in spite of my reluctance, I managed to soak up enough of the atmosphere and information so that God finally got through to me and I did “get it”. 

I finally understood that God is real and accepting Jesus is the way that we come into relationship with Him.

I wish that I were one of those people who are just blown away in the love at first glance sort of way and thereby avoid the slow arduous journey to faith that I experienced and if that first scenario describes you, then lucky you! Perhaps you’ve managed to avoid a lot of the heartache and wasted time and probably a few of the big, life sucking mistakes made by those of us who are slower to make that move to faith.

God calls us all to be in a relationship with Him but we are free to ignore that call and many of us do just that. We lump Christianity into the bag with all of the rest as “just another religion” and in some ways that’s not wrong. But as I explained earlier, Jesus is far bigger and more important than the jerk across the alley that calls him-self a Christian but insists on feuding with you over some petty grievance.

If you are a human being and I’m assuming you are (welcome aliens if you are also reading) you will occasionally hurt those around you, sorry but it’s the truth. You will also be hurt by many people, ranging from strangers, to authority figures and especially by those that you love. It is inevitable.

This world that we live in is a fallen world, full of sin, evil and pain and alongside all of that yucky stuff there is also kindness, generosity and beauty.

It is important to note that we do have an enemy here with us, we find we are trapped here with a being the Bible calls “a liar and the father of lies.”  There is no making peace with this enemy.

I believe that anyone who takes an honest, eyes wide open look at the world we live in will see that the evil that exists is not just a dumb, blind evil but instead it is a directed force that hates us and wants to destroy everything that is good.

Much of what we know of Satan comes to us directly from the mouth of Jesus and He is very clear that Satan is a dangerous adversary who will “devour us” if we are not careful. Our defence is our faith and the power that comes from being in an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Some of us are determined not to believe in God or Jesus and are apt to summarily dismiss the Bible but we do this at our own peril.

Years ago I purchased a book to send to my sister called “The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel and as I traveled around Edmonton for work, the book sat in a bag beside my seat, waiting to be mailed. It just so happened that day as I worked on a POS system at a service station, I was talking to the attendant, a middle aged woman that I knew from previous visits. 

After a bit she confided in me that her life was a mess and she was going through some serious issues with one of her kids. I was feeling bold that day and when she asked how I dealt with life’s big problems I mentioned that I was a Christian and my faith got me through a lot of stuff.

I went out to my van and took the book that I had bought for my sister out of the bag and brought it inside to give it to the woman. I told her that it was well written and explained a lot and how it had helped me to understand much better that faith in God is not some crazy delusion but that there is real evidence that the God of the Bible is very real.

She said that she didn’t believe in God and if she was going to change her mind then He was going to have to show up in her life and speak to her.

As I handed her the book I just looked her in the eye and said, “well, maybe He just did.”

I don’t know what happened after that, I don’t think I ever saw her again but I often wonder what she did with that book and if the encounter that we had perhaps led her to give God a chance. It was up to her at that point to choose to open and read the book and maybe to open her mind to the words and ideas that were written in it pointing the way to the Bible.

She had her own choice to make, just like we all do.

God rarely appears in person or speaks directly to us, although it has happened. He prefers to work through people, He has often operated that way, right from the very beginning.  

People can be positive examples to us; they can actively pray for us, they can speak into our lives by showing us love and kindness or reminding us that we can be better people and calling us to a higher standard. Or they may give us a Bible or a Christian book and invite us to Church where the transformation of our lives through exposure to the Word of God can truly begin.

People can also influence us to pull away from God, convincing us that God isn’t real or if He is real then He must be a terrible hating being that is a destructive or uncaring force.

They say that ”misery loves company” and that tendency sometimes comes into play here, after all if you start following Jesus some of your old friends may be afraid that you will be “less fun” because all of a sudden some of the more destructive behaviour will begin to lose its appeal for you.

Hopefully they will say to you something like, “you’ve changed” and that’s a good thing because if we are following the ways of this world, we are likely doing a lot of behaviors that are bad for us and the people around us. Some people don’t like it when anyone (especially God) says anything that might spoil their “fun”.

When we hear the Word of God we are absolutely free to reject it out of hand, to say that it contradicts science or that Christians are intolerant maniacs or we may point at the abuses of the “church” over the years and the harm that resulted. 

Many people will summarily reject God for various reasons, denying His existence or relevance and that is their prerogative of course, but if they/you will thoughtfully and carefully examine the evidence with a truly open mind, you may be surprised.

Hearing about God through others, whether it is friends, celebrities, media outlets, scientists or some other source is not the same thing at all as reading the Bible with an open mind, after prayerfully asking God to speak to you and to make His word come alive to you (even though you may not believe that God exists at all).

This is a subject that shouldn’t be decided upon without careful consideration and a thorough, personal examination of the Bible and the history behind it.

The Christian Church, flawed as it may be, is God's creation and is part of His plan for us and it is within these flawed local churches that most Christians first hear about Jesus and learn that they too are called to be in a relationship with their creator.

It has been my own personal experience that if you give God a chance, He will reveal Himself to you in ways that right now you can only imagine, taking away your doubts and confusion through His Word and your own spiritual journey to faith, and replacing them with His Truth.

(See my blog post - Room 1219 - An Appointment With Jesus)

https://thedoorinside.blogspot.com/2011/11/room-1219-true-story.html

Please don't take my word for any of this, or the word of anyone else. Instead, search the scriptures for yourself. 

At Christmas when you hear the music and see the nativity scene with baby Jesus lying in a manger, I hope you will at least consider that His birth and life are historical fact. 

We are still celebrating two thousand years later all over the world for the simple reason that "God so loved the world that He gave  His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

So please don't throw the baby out with the bath water! 

Each one of us owes it to ourselves to make a truly informed decision about the most important choice that we will ever make.

Blessings all!

Reno's with Rosie - The Kitchen Contention - Part 2

 

When we left off after completing the first part of our kitchen renovation, life was good and there were no health issues on the horizon (as far as we knew). How things change in a year.

As you may know we’ve had a lot of challenges in 2022 and in spite of all that we finally completed the kitchen renovation in January of 2023.

When we paused the renovation, we still had a few things to do to complete the kitchen. We still had to paint the cabinet doors and switch them around so that the flat shaker style profile would be on the outside, then there was building the curved hood vent and installing cove moulding along the ceiling.

I am happy to report (so that your mind will be at ease) that everything on the list has now been completed, not only to my low standards but to the much higher standards of the foreman who goes by the name of Rose.

The range hood was the first item on the list that we tackled and I actually found that it was a fun challenge. I designed it in such a way that the curve developed into what we wanted as I put it together. Not having done anything remotely like it in the past, we needed to let it speak to us of the organic shape that felt most natural to it.

Just kidding, the foreman did most of the talking and she’s the one I was trying to please, not the range hood!

The finished Range Hood

I built it around a fairly inexpensive white metal range hood that will easily drop out if it needs to be changed in the future and then I used 2” flexible wood slats that I bent into shape  and then I fastened a thin plywood skin over the top.

Working on getting the curve right

Lots of filling sanding and painting later, and it’s super smooth and looks great. Rose is still thinking she might want to do Venetian plaster over the top in the future but that’s up in the air for now.

The next step was the cabinet doors. We were fortunate to have the inside of the doors in a flat profile that is a more modern look and we were able to flip them over and install them with the old rounded profile on the inside where you don’t see it.

We used matching pulls from Ikea and I did a little tinkering with some cut up speaker wire behind the pulls to make them sit flat, trying to mount them on the rounded inside profile just didn’t work so after a little head scratching, voilà.

Attaching speaker cable behind the door pulls

Rose tackled the sanding of the cabinet doors because it was just after my heart attack and I was in no shape to do sanding and I just left her to it.

My lovely wife is more than a little gung ho sometimes and after a few days of her sanding, I took a look at the doors and found she had sanded them down to a nub, leaving the supposedly squared off edges more than a little rounded. Oh well, if the foreman did it, did it really happen?

I did a little magic with some wood filler and tape and we patched them up as much as we could and they look pretty good.

The real head scratching started when I began contemplating the cove moulding that we ordered from Wayfair after searching around Edmonton trying to find something locally.

We only had about 3” clearance above the Ikea Pax wardrobe cabinets that we had used and were unable to find anything suitable so we ordered these ones online. The name should have given it away, who knew Durofoam mouldings are made from foam? Actually they worked great, the only problem being figuring out how do you cut these things without ruining them? They are very soft and easily dented or scratched.

I tried a few things, watched a few YouTube videos and settled on a mitre box and a very long bread knife and that actually worked great. I took a little flak from Rose about using her good bread knife but I convinced her that if that thing can cope with the crust on her no-knead bread, it can handle a little foam moulding!

I took those moulding strips out and stared at them contemplating how I was going to go about it at least 4 times before I figured that I couldn’t avoid starting the job any longer and of course once I did start, it went pretty well. If you’ve ever cut crown or cove moulding before you may know what I’m talking about.

I would watch a video, make some notes, imagine it in my head, hold pieces up to the wall and think some more and then after all that I would end up cutting it wrong, AGAIN!

The only thing that worked for me on this particular inside corner was to cut some various short example pieces and hold them up to the corner and that eventually allowed me to get it right.

The famously difficult inside corner

Hopefully, I will never be called upon to do that again!

But I must say, after all of that work and expense, it looks great and I am very glad that I came up with the idea to renovate the kitchen in the first place. And with my amazing design eye, ingeniously creative carpentry skills, and decorating panache, the foreman seemed to be mightily pleased with me and said she might even keep me on, permanently!

The finished kitchen - South wall

The finished kitchen

If you are wondering how much the whole project cost, we were all in at around $3200 plus of course around $20,000 in free labour, but it was fun (I keep telling myself) and there’s nothing like the sense of accomplishment that you get from doing something yourself, along with your partner/wife/foreman of course!

So that’s it, the last renovation project that I will ever tackle is now complete (I don’t believe that for a minute) and I am just going to relax and enjoy our beautiful new kitchen and all of the delicious food that comes out of it! 

Superpowers the hard way

 

What person hasn’t dreamed of having super powers, I wonder?

My guess is probably not many.

As a father for many years I suppose that I must have appeared to possess superpowers of a sort to my 2 daughters when they were small. But in truth the only special power that I ever seemed to possess around my house was the ability to polish off the last of the cereal.

Many is the time that I reached into the cupboard and picked up box after box to find little more than dust and crumbs rattling around in the bottom. If no-one else has the ability to do something, it must be a superpower, right?

I still to this day combine several cereals in the bowl making a nostalgic mix that has very little to recommend it except that it brings me back to a time when the kids were small.

From dust to dust

Alas, as time went by, in the eyes of my now grown offspring, dad’s infallibility has been exposed for the myth that it was and I have come to terms with my utter ordinariness in that regard.

Until recently that is.

I have no recollection of having been bitten by a radioactive spider or even a glow in the dark mosquito, so my new abilities are almost certainly attributable to a much more prosaic source; a brush with disease being the catalyst to changes within my aging body.

About a year ago I developed lung cancer out of the blue and some strange abilities have appeared since. Probably as a result of the disease or the treatment or perhaps from all of the radioactive diagnostic tests that were performed on me, who knows? Obviously I didn’t suddenly become all wise or even a little bit clever so I’m guessing here.

Shortly after being discharged from hospital after surgery to have one lobe of my left lung removed, I had a heart attack. Once again I was in the hospital, this time for an angiogram which revealed a 70% blockage in my “widow maker” artery supplying blood to my heart. This blockage required 2 stents to be inserted in the artery and it was while I was recovering from that procedure that I received my super hero name.

Nurse Kelly who was always quick with a quip coined my name in the first few seconds of our short acquaintance. Since my situation of also having had recent cancer surgery was a bit unusual, at least in my mind, I always made a point of filling my nurses in on my history, just in case.

When I informed Kelly that I recently had surgery to remove a cancerous lobe from my lung, she responded with, “Oh, you’re….. Lobe Guy!”

“Lobe guy”, I thought, that sounds like a good name for a super hero!

Then came the giant swelling in my right forearm where they had inserted the catheter and that night as she was trying to treat it, she remarked that “you’ve got a real Popeye thing going on there.”

Yes indeed, all of the bulging arm and none of the strength of our spinach swilling cartoon friend. Not an auspicious start to my super career!

Come to think of it though, I did develop some weird new talents.

Although most of the changes in my body brought on by the cancer are much less fun than special new abilities, unless of course you count becoming a walking phlegm factory as a hoot and a half!

My poor wife Rose has a very highly developed gag reflex that kicks into overdrive if there is even the hint of shall we say – throat clearing, so I’ve learned to be careful, lest we have an unfortunate series of events develop.

Chatting about this new and less than endearing feature of my life, we laughingly decided that instead of being of Scandinavian extraction, perhaps my actual heritage was Phlegmish, or Flemish as is the more common spelling.

But no, my family were not from Flanders in the North of Belgium so I’m still Norwegian/Swedish etc. etc.

Phlegm aside, (where it belongs) the other new special power that I have developed since my surgery is a highly developed olfactory sense rivalling that of a truffle hunting pig.

This new ability would perhaps be useful in the forests of Provence, where truffles can be found in abundance, but here in Alberta my nose picks up mostly fumes of one sort or another.

I got a bit of a start the other day when I suddenly smelled burnt toast; I feared I must be having a stroke or something until I heard Rose in the kitchen and knew it for what it was, actual burnt toast.

I should be used to that particular smell emanating from our kitchen by now, but once you’ve had one serious health scare, you tend to pay a bit more attention to warning signs of further problems. That being said, sometimes the smell of burnt toast is just bread that has spent too long in the toaster!

Speaking of toast, many years ago when my sister Chris got married, my older brother Terry who also answered to the nickname my dad gave him of “Terrible” was called upon to give a toast at the wedding.

Never one to waste an opportunity, he produced a paper bag and reaching inside, pulled out a slice of charred bread and waved it before us, claiming it was his “Toast to the bride”.

A toast to the bride

He also claimed it was an example of the cooking skills that her new husband could expect to see in the future, what a guy!

Getting back to the present, I wish I could think of a highly paid job where the ability to discern lawnmower exhaust from Honda Civic exhaust at a distance of 100 meters was useful, but I’m afraid that my new abilities are just more of an annoyance than a sought after talent.

Nevertheless, I will keep waiting and hoping that whatever brought on these changes to my sense of smell is still working away on a new superpower that is truly useful.

I think a very useful super power would be the ability to back out of a disastrous conversation with one’s significant other, preferably leaving no memory of the conversation with either party.

We’ve probably all longed for that little flashy thing that the Men in Black used when they needed to wipe the recent memories of ordinary humans (the neuralyzer) and every once in a while I really, really need something like it. 

If you remember this, you are lying

This new power could be known as the “removal of ones foot from ones mouth power”. Many are the times over the years when it would have come in handy and I’m absolutely sure that very, very soon I will need it once again.

I’m guessing it will be when Rose reads my blog!