Jack LaFountain's Blog, page 13

Lost Crusader #211 Herald Angels

“For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

Romans 3:3

The story of Christmas is difficult for the modern mind to fathom. The odds of all the prophecies mentioned in the gospels occurring in a single person’s birth are beyond the average person’s comprehension. Just imagine how mindboggling it must have been as it was happening.

While faith is born of hearing, for most of us, seeing is believing. Therefore God, chose a series of witnessed supernatural events to prepare the participants for the greatest supernatural event of all time, the Incarnation. Those charged with setting the scene were the herald angels of whom we sing.

The first arrived about fifteen months before the birth of Christ. Zacharias was about his priestly duties in the temple when the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared with a message for him. He and Elisabeth were about to become parents in their old age. Their son would come in the spirit and power of Elijah to point out the Messiah.

Six months later, this same Gabriel appeared to Mary with a startling announcement—she was going to have a son. The problem for Mary was that she was a virgin and a betrothed virgin at that. It would be difficult enough to say for herself, “let it be”, but she had a husband to consider. Joseph would bear the shame as well.

God, though Sovereign of all, asks only that which is given freely. So, he sent an angelic messenger into Joseph’s dreams. Joseph, a just man, agreed to God’s plan. He went ahead with the marriage and named Mary’s firstborn son, Jesus.

When the baby arrived, the angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds inviting them to come and see the fulfillment of His promise to save His people. As if one angel were not enough the night sky exploded with angels announcing peace on earth, good will toward men. The shepherds were convinced and found everything just as they were told it would be.

There is yet one more angelic appearance associated with the Incarnation. Magi in a faraway land saw “a Star out of Jacob”. The ancient prophesy of a Scepter rising out of Israel unfolded in the night sky. This was no comet or natural alignment of planets as some suppose. It was an angel sent to guide the way.

Belief does not compel God’s action, neither does disbelief annul it. God speaks and acts of His own volition to do as He wills. God does not need us, but God wants us. Why the Creator of all seeks out my fellowship is, to me, a great mystery. Nevertheless, I know it to be true. I know it by experience. The supernatural has broken through into my life too.

Know Jack #417 Back From the Crusades

I’ve heard that my blog posts are slowly sliding into the territory of the Lost Crusader. Looking back, I have to agree. That’s one of the dangers of having multiple voices with different viewpoints housed in the same head. It’s understandable given the Crusader’s evangelistic leanings.

So, I find myself sitting at the keyboard wondering how to get the callous, curmudgeon the world knows as Jack to speak up. He’s somewhat reserved to start with and it’s best to use caution in drawing him out. Like his hero, Don Quixote, he’s reasonable and lucid about most subjects. However, there are those topics, books, and writing, come immediately to mind, that will send him into flights of fantasy.

Just yesterday a quiet morning was interrupted with the mention of Ed and Jazz. The next thing you know he’s off to New Orleans without so much as a by your leave. It was hours before he came back. Of course, you can never be sure how far back he really is. He is not a proactive conversation starter.

I lured him into this bit only by playing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” a few times for him. Jack would be the first to tell you that a heart growing three times larger means you have cardiomyopathy and probably a case of Congestive Heart Failure to go along with it. Neither of which endears the Whos in Whoville to the victim.

Never fear though, a few December trips to the stores around town should have him back to his old self in no time at all.

Lost Crusader # 210 An Uncertain Sound

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?”

1 Corinthians 14:8

 

A little more than forty-five years ago I walked into a church for the third time in my life. I was nineteen years old. My only frame of reference about Christian churches was that they existed to take the money of the foolish. I was not a drunk, not homeless, and not a broken man. In fact, as far as I was concerned, I had just found myself and my life’s work. I walked out of that place without becoming a Christian and more than a little uncomfortable.

It was all old hymns, people shouting, and a seemingly out of control preacher jumping and yelling. It was unsettling, to say the least. All that strangeness aside, I took away one thing, an unswerving knowledge that the people I found in that church possessed something I did not—and they liked it.

 

There was no question that they were odd. There was no question that they were out of step with the times.  There was also no question that whatever they had, I did not. Whatever it was they had seemed to be the reason for their happy, albeit odd behavior. While among them I was not assaulted verbally for my lifestyle, not shamed or scorned, no money changed hands, and no coercion took place. Yes, my life choices and morals were called into question by their philosophy but without a word being said to me. I felt no condemnation. Then, I was kindly invited to join the oddness. It was offered for free, at least as much as anything is free. There was just one catch.

 

There was only one way to get what I wanted. I had to strike a deal with God and establish a relationship with Him. The barb in the bait was that the deal was to be wholly of His making. This relationship was on His terms or there was no deal, and there were no negotiations. His way or the highway. My personal comfort with the deal was of no consequence. In fact, in God’s view, my comfort was a hindrance to the entire process. God’s intention in all of this was the total transformation of my life and thinking…nothing else would do.

 

The church and the people I met there were as unimpressed with my credentials and comfort as the God they served. They refused to change their rules or their practices for me. I could have Christianity unaltered as it existed there, or I could biblically demonstrate where they missed the mark. There was no uncertainty about what I was getting into, who set the standards, or what transformation might cost.

 

It has been over thirty years since I have been to a church like that. Places of Christian worship are not like that anymore. Christian education and practice are like grass swaying in the wind of popular opinion. Personal transformation has gone by the wayside, tidings of comfort and joy are the whole of modern Christian experience.

 

Transformation is the antithesis of comfort and a prerequisite to Christian joy. The result of the modern church’s pursuit of being seeker-friendly is the absence of transformation resulting in the scarcity of that something that the world does not possess. I have traveled over a good deal of America in the last thirty years and have found a handful of churches that seem to offer anything that cannot be found on the street.

 

The solution to this problem does not build mega-churches nor does it make ministers and church organizations rich. The world does well to look askance on the modern products of social, feel-good gospels and those that spew such nonsense. The solution to the problem is the great bugbear of modern thinking and intimidated Christians—religion, more specifically, the old-time religion.

 

I am well aware that the very words “old-time religion” scare people. There’s nothing new about that. That’s because, contrary to their ill-formed and ignorant opinions, moderns have no concept of a spiritual life lived to such a degree. The kind of experience that is The trumpet call to that kind of experience is radical, passion-driven, and challenging beyond most people’s threshold of imagination. The sound is not only foreign to their ears but beyond the range of their hearing.

 

Jesus told his disciples that he had the power to lay down his life and take it up again. He offers the same new life to all. If you are ready to lay down your life for a new one—ask, knock, seek.

Maranatha

Know Jack #416 One Life

“And the world will be better for this—that one man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage…”

Mitch Leigh and Joseph Darion

The Impossible Dream

 

When, at its end, a life is weighed in the balances it is measured as a single entity. Successes and failures are lost in the finished product. Intention outweighs action, the heart is the strongest muscle of all, and daring to try is heavier than safety.

Every trial faced, every trouble endured, and every decision made whether good or bad is but a battle. None of them are the war. Pyrrhus won every battle and lost the war. U.S. Grant lost every battle from the Wilderness until the fall of Richmond and won the war.

The difference between victory and defeat is not talent. It’s not even really the persistence people cheer about so much. Neither is it found in being your own person, living as you choose without regard to others. On the contrary, it’s more about never having a choice—at least not a choice you can live with.

It’s about acting on the thing that drives you and paying the price for taking the ride. Life is handed to you. After that, it is what you make it. Life can be filled with struggle, pain, and heartbreaking disappointment and still be a resounding success. You fight the giants, assail the castles, and chase your dream like a crazy person, that’s the fare one must pay for a life of substance.

St. Paul once told those he knew, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”. He knew life was not about what you get from it but what you give to it.

To be impoverished and mocked, only to pour out your life in a fight to live every day is a war worth waging. It is the only way to the final page and closes the book with the author satisfied.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #209 Identify Yourself

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God…”

Romans 1:1

Establishing one’s personal identity is all the rage these days. But as I am wont to quote, “There’s nothing new under the sun”. The purpose in doing so has always been to dictate how you are treated. What has caused a great deal of confusion for my generation is that modern identities need not be based on reality. The “modern” tendency toward adopting impossible identities stems from the idea that people are co-creators with an impersonal, yet thinking, universe in forging a personal reality, built on a personal truth and a vibratory frequency.

It is nothing so grand as that. The truth is that despite claims of evolutionary progress we are still extremely vulnerable to the temptation to “be as gods”. Our government is moving to codify this thinking as law. The Department of Health and Human Servies has declared preferred pronouns must be adhered to without a basis in reality and its employees may be terminated for non-compliance. The Equal Opportunity and Employment Commission has jumped on board ruling intentional, continued use of improper pronouns or names creates an unlawful, hostile work environment. Terminology we are all familiar with by now.

The New Testament epistles are letters. If you’re old enough you may remember handwritten letters. The Epistle to the Romans is considered by many to be Paul’s great theological and practical treatise on Christianity. Interestingly enough, Paul begins the letter by identifying himself.

He identifies himself as a servant. Peter and James adopt the same identity in their letters. So, the greatest names in the history of Christianity all claim to be servants. Perhaps they understood Jesus’ teaching that the greatest of all Christians is also the servant of all.

Nobody wants to be a servant, do they? Servants have no rights, but to serve the whims of their master. Their entire living is dependent on a master. When that master is Christ, everything changes. Satan once asked,       “Does Job fear God for naught?” (Job 1:9). The inference is that Job’s service had brought him family, riches, and admiration. Not bad for a servant.

Paul identified as being called. This makes sense because servants are called to certain duties—they have purpose, direction, and a place in the world. To this end, God has given them the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a means to fulfill their calling.

Paul said he was called to be an apostle, that is, he was sent as a representative. That is not some high church position, every Christian is called to be an apostle. Paul claimed to share a common identity with all other Christians. He asked the Corinthians once if all were apostles, if all were prophets or all teachers. The generally accepted answer is no. That answer is also generally wrong. Are all apostles, prophets, and teachers as occasion demands. Walling off a portion of your life from God’s use is the act of an unprofitable servant.

Finally, Paul identified as being separated unto the gospel of God. This was not a holier-than-thou boast. It meant the gospel had changed him. When darkness covered the land of Egypt, Israel had light in their dwellings. Jesus called on His disciples to be the light of the world. Christians are in the world as common people, but they are different in the eyes of God by reason of a single act.

They have made Christ, the Light of the world, their Lord and Master. He dwells in them and gives them the opportunity to shine with His Light.

Socrates urged people to know themselves. How do you identify?

Maranatha

Know Jack #415 Belling the Cat

The term comes from a fable of the same name (among others). It’s about a group of mice who propose to put a bell around the cat’s neck to warn of its approach. The plan is heartily cheered until it comes time for a volunteer to step forward. The fable has given rise to the idiom “to bell the cat” which refers to attempting or agreeing to perform a difficult task.

I’ve had some experience belling cats. At times I tell myself this has stemmed from a latent inability to refrain from volunteering for jobs nobody wants. This is not an admirable trait. Guilt on one occasion is somewhat understandable. To repeat the mistake multiple times borders on either insanity or utter stupidity. The jury is still out on which suits my particular case.

I place the blame for my escapades on a Don Quixote Complex, part of which is the inability to resist the challenge of reaching for the unreachable. Perhaps it’s due to an inflated ego. Then again, stupidity cannot be ruled out.

I have answered a few such challenges with varying degrees of success at the behest of multiple mouse councils. One inescapable consequence of each challenge is my being scorned by the very council of mice who proposed the adventure in the first place. They like the idea as a proposal, but when it happens—it’s too much trouble, it’s not what they expected and it’s all my fault their dreams are shattered. Wishing for the thing always seems to be sweeter than obtaining it. If I had just left things alone, the sweet dream would still be intact.

I have learned to recognize that “we’re behind you all the way” is a blatant lie spoken to bait the mouse crazy enough to act. Stand up or stand out, and you stand alone. That’s the reality no matter how fervent the promise of others to jump on the bandwagon.

Walk on through the wind, Walk on through the rain, Though your dreams be tossed and blown, Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, And you'll never walk alone…

I like Rogers and Hammerstein, but boy did they ever get that one wrong.

Maranatha

Know Jack #414 To Thine Own Self Be True

The Department of Health and Human Services has a new gender pronoun policy. Employees must use preferred pronouns forcing them to deny biological realities or face firing. Human Services has a partner in the move to foist the State’s ideology upon the masses. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said, “continued intentional use of an incorrect name or pronoun (or both) could, in certain circumstances, contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.”

Now, I freely admit to crafting imaginary worlds, and talking to the make-believe characters who inhabit them. I’m a fiction writer, it’s what I do. Nevertheless, I still know the difference between flesh and blood people and the characters I make up. While I may disappear for hours into Louisiana, Texas, or Wyoming, I don’t confuse those trips with the ones that physically placed me in those spots.

No matter how positively I think about it, there is no Lockett, Louisiana and Ed Landry is not the sheriff there. Why? Because my thinking it does not make it so. This may come as a shock to all the co-creators out there, but you haven’t got the power to make one white hair black without a box of dye.

Classical philosophers thought about how people fit into the universe. Modern philosophers think they create the universe. For all their thinking neither has significantly altered the raw human material and our little speck in the universe has suffered for their efforts.

I support people’s freedom to choose to call themselves whatever they like, be it man, woman, cat, or unicorn. I do not support their right to impose that choice on the rest of the world. Free speech allows you to say pretty much anything you want. It does not impose on me the duty to rent you a lecture hall to say it in.

Identify however you wish, just don’t expect me to go along with it. It’s better to be an imprisoned rebel than a free slave.

Maranatha

Know Jack # 413 Keep the Change

If you know Jack, you know I don’t embrace change, I don’t even shake hands with it. Like the man from La Mancha, I tend to throw on my armor, mount my trusty steed, and ride off to fight the giants. Often times I return from the battle in the same condition he did. Which is not to say I don’t change.

I don’t hate change, but neither do I worship it as some do. I do not blindly accept that the latest is, of necessity, the greatest. More often than not, it seems the latest is a more convoluted means to the same end. The latest update to my computer usually requires me to take three steps to accomplish what took one step the “old school” way. That makes some sense when you think of modern grade school math.

My children used to complain that all the cars I drove were “dirt” colors. There was a reason for that. Have you seen my present car? A hyper-green Jeep. There’s a reason for that change. I no longer care as much about having to wash the car as I do finding where I parked it. I call that a positive change.

Positive change serves a need, but more than that, it maintains freedom while doing so. I don’t have to drive a bright green car, I choose to. If whatever Gen-letter we’re on now wants to walk a block to cross the street, fine. Why forbid me to jaywalk if I want to?

I’ve seen huge changes in my life some are blessings, some curses, and others are no real change at all. When I was a boy, a man from the dairy would come to our house and leave milk, cheese, and butter. We got away from that—or did we? Now it’s a person from a chain store delivering goods made God knows where delivers them to the door. Which brings to mind an old saying. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The truth expressed in that old saw is fundamental. While individual human beings are capable of change, the species is not. We have new devices and new technologies. Only the naïve, and the willingly ignorant, truly believe we have new ways of thinking or behaving. When it comes to people, there is nothing new under the sun.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #208 Peace

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

John 14:27

Peace is available in our world, even in the most turbulent times. True peace is not the absolute absence of war or conflict. A person’s heart and mind may be in moral conflict and the person experience sublime peace in the midst of it. Such peace emanates from the Spirit of God that dwells within.

The peace of God surpasses the understanding of the wise. It cannot be qualified or quantified as it encompasses all that God is. People know that God is love, but perfect love begets perfect peace. In vain people search for the peace of God as though it existed as a fruit to be plucked.

The peace of God cannot be experienced until there is first peace with God. Every human being is born in a state of rebellion against God. Given time the most innocent-looking babe will grow to defy the will of God in our inherent drive to be as gods.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Yet even those who love Him most, fail at this simple instruction. Why? We are not perfect. Our love fails. Peace would fail with it, but we know that the perfect love of God does not abandon us. It lifts us up again and restores what is broken.

Peace with God comes in surrender—unconditional surrender to God evidenced by bowing to Christ the King and confessing Him as Lord. Without that, there is no peace with God. With that confession, there opens a door to peace that cannot be taken from us.

Jesus said He did not come to give peace on earth. (Matthew 10:34) How can that be? Peace on earth comes only when peace dwells perfectly in every heart. That day will come but only after the earth passes through the fire and its inhabitants return filled with God’s peace.

Maranatha

Know Jack 412 How to Cook a Book

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with…”

Anonymous.

The last two author conferences I attended provided me with a truckload of advice about writing, getting published, and marketing. Some of it is just plain wrong, some of it impractical, and the remaining conflicting advice is almost impossible to sift through and find a coherent recipe for success.

I know nothing about writing and therefore rely on the bit of wisdom that began this post. I picked it up during my years serving Uncle Sam. I’m just a jack of many trades. I am a master of none, brilliance is not one of my qualities. I rate it just below patience on my scale of endearing traits.

I am a successful author. I have never been anywhere near the New York Times bestseller list. I am successful because I have exceeded my expectations in number of books written/published and total sales. I still can’t believe that I actually have fans—it’s crazy.

I have not developed any advice for writers. I just repeat ad infinitum two simple personal reminders. The first is, writers write. I heard experts pooh-pooh this in favor of creative writing courses, critique groups, and attending conferences. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but I learn from doing—even doing it wrong. Sometimes doing it wrong provides the best learning opportunities. Some of the best writers break all the rules and they do it on purpose.

The other thing is a variation of baffling everybody: write your own story, your way. I say that, but I don’t always do it. There are these characters who live in my head that often dictate the story and I’m a people pleaser—sometimes.

I’m also a successful writer because, using just those two maxims, I’m better at it now than I used to be. Peter Benchley once said that by the time he realized he couldn’t write, he was too famous to quit. Well, I have the first part down.

Maranatha