Last night we watched the Passion. I about popped during some of the torture scenes but I made it through without “spillin’ my cookies”.
I was taken back during the cross scene and I felt the best line in the whole movie was “my God…….my God why have you forsaken me?” Gibson caught this perfectly and convincingly. It truly conveyed the statement that God never left Jesus but this was Jesus first and only time when he couldn’t see Father because he became sin. It was a scream like that of a little child who lost his parents in a very strange and dangerous place and for me that made it very hard to watch. Today I celebrate His life. Today, while I must look back at the pure and perfect pain that He endured, I am free. Free from bondage to death. Free to walk with my Father and never have to be separated from Him screaming out “Daddy…. Daddy, I can’t find you!!”
I’m not sure if I can explain this very well but I am more at peace than ever before. I feel Father’s presence stronger than before. I think I’m in love with Him to the point that everything is starting to make sense. Weird. I’m not sure what this rambling means but it is here nonetheless. Damn near makes me want to break out in song.
I think the doubts in my mind have been lifted. The fogy lenses of this world’s lies about my Father have been removed. Perhaps it is the Joy in seeing my great friend Jeremy prevail through a terrible bipolar disease and seeing his family rise up stronger than before all the while blessing our community in the way that only he can do. It could be that the guy that brought me to our community has arrived in an icy country, set up camp and is going about Father’s business. What is really strange is that I am more excited for them than I miss them. I am watching Tommy and his wife become the leaders that I always knew that they were. The excitement that Joe is a genuine actor – paid that is. And there is my dear friend Greg who has been the backbone of Apex through it all. His compassion and guidance could only come from our Father, not to mention that he has taught me a few lessons while I was fighting it all the way.
Yes, Fathers fingerprint is here. Praise Him.
You're hopeless, you religion scholar! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds.
I’ve had it with the wusy church politics. I’m done with the way you treat people all in order to keep your paying followers in the pew! You hypocrites! You stand up and point your ugly finger towards someone who openly has a problem and all the while you refuse to look into your own life! How many of your pastors and elders use the internet for something other than information?
You are phony to the core! Jesus came for people broken people – more specifically, people that know that they are broken! Not until you can see how low you are will you ever see Jesus for who He truly is! I don’t give a rat’s rear as to why you guys didn’t see eye to eye; the point is you are BOTH working for the Master. No one should be treated like this.
You guys are a joke! What is your next sermon going to be? “Give your life to the Father AS LONG AS you have no exposed issues”? In order to see the power of the Father you MUST be broken or did you not learn that in your overpriced school? There are many ways to handle this situation – all of them better than this.
You fools! Don’t you realize that you will loose more people by being dishonorable to those that work for you? Those that see through this smoke, and there are many, will leave and seek a church that accepts people for who they are and all of their baggage that comes with them INCLUDING the pastors.
Read Matthew 23 (Message Bible) and get a glimpse of what Jesus was talking about. He wasn’t referring to just the Pharisees of his time but to all religious leaders that are more interested in their leadership and keeping it than seeking the Father’s lead and following it.
“Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God?”
Moving Sale!!!!
This Friday, Saturday and Sunday Only 6:30 am till I feel like it or noon (whichever comes first)!!!
Save Thousands!!!
No Interest No Payments Until 2006!!!
Trade-ins Welcome!!!
Push, Pull, Tug or Tow!!!
Well you get the idea. 52” TV, recliner, dishes, yard mower, trimmer, shed, damn near everything in the house except the wife and kids (don’t even try to make an offer).
Lately I have been observing the
Messy Christian Blog. I stumbled upon it while I was searching for a book on Google. It is very refreshing to see someone from a different country seek out the Father in her own way. She struggles with things from a different culture that the normal American will never see. I volunteered to be a part of an interview of bloggers from around the world. Here are my answers.
1. What topic is a 'hot button' for you, and would make you go on and on about it with great passion?
I think in general it would be pessimism found in people that walk in the Kingdom. I see it most prominent in organized religion. There are a heap of miserable people that go to church every Sunday. They are doing their best to try to get God to do something for them and that is their only focus. They can’t seem to see that it is not about them and their wants. It is only when they take their eyes off themselves and stare into the eyes of the Father that they will find pure joy.
2. Share some of your thoughts about the church ...
How much time do you have? If you are referring to the organized church, I have seen it all in the American forms. Over here we try as best as we can to run the church much like a business. For us it is and always will be about statistics. How much did we raise this month, how many people walked down the aisle to “just as I am”, “did you see how many cars were in the parking lot?” the list goes on. This is where the organized church will always fail. It will continue to change in order to get the most amount of people to attend. It is inevitable when you think of it logically. A well run business will change according to the customer’s wants. They want more jazzy worship – the worship pastor gets canned and they search for a new one. They want a different message for the pastor to preach – they get it. However, on the same breath, the house church has its faults as well. Beating down the organized church and feeling that they are somehow better is just plain wrong. I could get into all of this even deeper but the fundamental element that makes a church a living church is that they no longer care about anything else but passionately loving our Father and seeking His work. There is only one head of the church. Everyone else surrenders to His reign.
3. What do you love to do on your day off?
Play. Play very hard with my kids. The weekend is reserved for my beautiful wife and my three kids. I learn more about life by interacting with them at their (kids) level than if I read a whole library of philosophy on life. I see the Father more clearly through their eyes and my wife demonstrates His love to me and my kids beautifully. She is my rock. She has a passion for life that brings out the best in me, my kids, my friends and even strangers.
4. What do you love most about Jesus?
Good grief!!! What a question! To be honest, I haven’t really put much thought in determining one or two things about Him that I love most. I think the qualities that I have noticed over the years have changed along with me. As I experience new things in this life I am drawn to Him that much more. His love for Kids, His passion for his people, His anger for religion, His caring touch of the blind man’s eyes – all of these things play out within me at different times. As of late I think the complexity of His relationship with the Father and how that affects me that I have noticed and loved more. I’ve been a Christian for a very long time and I still don’t fully grasp the Trinity. Oddly though, I have come to realize that they (the God head) want us to be a part of them but only if we choose them. The love that is intertwined in God spills out in us and in turn it spills out of us into others. Life is a series of interconnecting relationships. It is our nature to be this way because we were created out of the closest community there ever will be. Jesus did what ever he saw the Father do. Now that is love to me.
5. Your favorite book in the bible is ... and why?
I’d have to say that it is the story of King David and that would cover many books. I see an openness about him that intrigues me. Perhaps it is that I studied his life when I was a boy. Or maybe it is some of the Psalms that he wrote where he is blatantly angry at the Father. Maybe it is just me but you have to be pretty close to Him in order to be that pissed off and write about it. He is a very complex character in the bible that I think gets taken for granted.
The other book that I am enjoying is Galatians and the other books that Paul wrote to the churches. I have taken the religious blinders off and now these books have come alive. If you get a chance check out the Message bible by Eugene Peterson because, for me, it put the text in a clean language that I can relate to.
As the Ruin Falls by C S Lewis
"All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.
For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains."
It is painfully obvious that this guy got it. The parrot got me good.
Social Sescrewity
As of late, I have been getting into conversations with customers about the current state of retirement system. Oddly most are still pissed of that W won and that there isn’t a damn thing that he will be able to do right in their minds. Sadly I do believe that that is the current mindset of the left. Hell-bent and pissed off, the elected left are starting to sway so far liberal that they will not be recognizable for reelection.
Social security seems to be a hot button with the left. Again, I believe it is the fact that W started the discussion of private accounts for retirement as to why the left are so bent out of shape. They forget that the president before him was noted for saying that we need to fix the social security system as it is doomed for failure. Today all of the talking heads for the left are saying that the system is not in a crisis. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you add up all the money that you have paid into the system and then try to find out where that money is, you’ll start to cry. I know that I will never see any of it as well as the majority of my generation. The disturbing thing is that most of my generation doesn’t care enough about it. No, they are concerned with this new and exciting life and its struggles. Making a fuss about something in the government is very low on the list. The only generation that has put voting at the top of the list is the generation that sees the most benefits from the government. The senior citizens will fear any change that will affect them and rightfully so. The left knows this and that is why they will attempt to scare them in any way to get them to vote for their views.
I think it is time that my generation puts away the silly notion of who is wearing who’s dress at the Oscar’s and who won American Idol and start taking issue with our government. It is up to us to fix the failures of our government. It is up to us to stop the stupid spending and even more ludicrous taxing that our government has pressed upon us. I love my country. I love the way it works and I love the fact that it can be changed. So quit your bitching on MTV and get off your butt and do something about it.
SOLD!!!!
Yup, you guessed it - the house is in escrow and will close on March 31.
No more open house signs blowing over in the wind. No more wind for that matter. Now it is time to start packing and partying till the cows come home. I’m sure the Harshman house will be open once more for one last bash. I don’t see it as goodbye but just a longer breath in between two hellos.
Truth be told, I’m more nervous than ever before. I’m moving my family to a small town where we know no one and starting to build houses on my own that I have never done before (by myself). This could be the greatest disaster or the greatest triumph that I have ever experienced. I’m a very optimistic person so it will be a triumph in some way. However, I am more excited than ever to watch the Father work and to have Him let me observe is the greatest gift of all.
I guess underneath it all, I hope to have you pray for my family. It would mean more to me than any blog written or words said. To have my Apex family holding me up and cheering my family on will be the greatest treasure.
