Joys of Devolution

Q: Are We Not Men?

A: We Are Devo!

The Long Dream: Asleep in the Spirit

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, ... neither the present nor the future, ... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38, 39 (NIV)

HAL 3000 (Artificial Intelligence Entity) asked in the film 2010, as he was about to be put to sleep or deactivated: "Will I dream?" The reply was, "of course, all intelligent beings dream."

Dreaming during this life could well be a type of preparation for the Long Sleep, or the the Long Dream. During our conscious life, we need to carefully shape our dreams and our lives, as it were, to become proficient in the art of dreaming, as well as the art of living, in the event that our Long Sleep is in fact, a Long Dream, as well. Though not totally unconscious while we are sleeping or dreaming, we are less conscious, needless to say, than when we are fully awake. So perhaps it's good to link the state of sleep and death together and plan to dream a lot during that Long Sleep. Just in case dreaming is not only a natural phenomenon during this side of our lives, but during the mysterious realm we commonly call death.

For those who dream vividly, their dreams are at times a sort of portal into awe and wonder. Might death, especially if it is also an unconscious dream state, be a portal into awe and wonder, as well, in spite of the fact that we'll be unconscious and "know nothing" as the Bible states in Ecclesiates.

Though some Christians believe that when we die we are not conscious--"the dead know nothing"--the same could be said for those are are asleep for 8 hours at a time. Think also of those who are unconscious due to being in a coma, or undergoing a near-death experience. They also know nothing while they're in that limbo state. Might they not also be dreaming while in that unconscious state? Therefore, it is remotely possible that during our unconsious state during death, we might as well be dreaming while we're waiting for the Next World. Otherwise, what a waste of all those years or centuries that could well have been put to good use by dreaming through them, instead of simply sleeping through them dreamlessly.

I've often thought that if it were possible for humans to remain watching over their deceased loves ones constantly, it would be the most loving thing to do. Since, of course, it is not practical or healthy to do so, we do not do so and only visit their sepulchres from time to time.

God, on the other hand, is able to watch over, or if he wanted to, through the same Holy Spirit that filled the soul temple during the believer's lifetime, be present right there in the sleeping saint's body, patiently waiting for the time when that loved one can rise again at the resurrection.

This would give new meaning to Paul's words "neither life not death can separate us from the love of Christ."Also, if the Holy Spirit where resting with and watching over the sleeping saint, what perfect positioning that would be when the moment for resurrection finally arrived.

Christ said he'd be with us "always even till the end of the age." It would be encouraging to think that through his indwelling Spirit, this promise could literally be true even as the unsconscious believer slept in the tomb until the dawning of eternal day.

Belief in God against Hope

Even if remotely speaking, God did not exist--as so many writers are writing million sellers about these days--those of us who do believe in him would be like God, in his stead. We would be his ambassadors regardless of whether he really were out there or not. We need for him to be out there. We need for him to be here with us. Our lives have more meaning, greater beauty, and hope, if we believe and live as though there is a God.

There may well be a God, but we will never know for sure in this life. Most of us will die with that belief. But, oh, what beautiful lives we will have lived with that belief intact. That sounds like a strange kind of belief. When we read difficult texts in the bible or come across arguments against God's existence that you have to leave unanswered and "live by faith", in a way, we are doing just that, living as though God does exist. When you are kind to someone who is unkind to you, you are strengthening the reality of God. Why else behave in so selfless a manner, if it wasn't because you wanted to emulate God?

Humanity needs a perfect being with no beginning and no end. A creator, a friend, a co-traveler in life's sometimes difficult journey. Humanity needs to believe and emulate such a perfect and loving being, to offset the negative, imperfect and evil tendencies he sometimes sees inside his own heart and in those of others.

If sometimes the universe seems like an unfriendly and lonely place, with all kinds of imperfections and horrors, how much more in such an unacceptable place like our universe, is a belief in God necessary and useful. Perhaps we're here--those of us who believe in God--to carry on a hope of a belief in God whether he exists or not. Some say that God is silent and has been silent for a very long time. Be that as it may, we can carry on a belief in the ideal of God and become a much as possible like the being we call God.

Some will ask you why go through so much trouble. If you have no proof that God exits, why live as though he does? God, or the ideal of God, is the very best that humanity has ever been able to imagine about their origins and about themselves. How much better to live towards the ideal of a being like God, who loves in spite of sometimes not being loved back, instead of living without the awareness of God. Some have said that we should try to reflect God's attributes and thereby others can see God in us. In a way, we become God's ambassadors.

When you read conservative accounts of difficult verses in the Bible or when you experience or see others experiencing difficult situations, if you are a person of faith you gloss over the inconsistencies or lack of information regarding particulars, because you know you must in order to continue believing in God. You want to continue to believe in God because life without a belief in him wouldn't be the same quality of life as you've come to expect for yourself and for those you love.

When people of faith meet together in church or in groups of two, or even when a solitary believer gets down on his knees to pray and meditate on God and learn more about him, in a way they do so because there is no other way to keep alive the reality of God. When you read the Bible or other religious literature you do so to continue the habit and practice of making God more and more real by focusing your attention on him.

Spirit Inside at All Times

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. John 16:14,15 (NIV)

All that belongs to the Father belongs to Christ. All that belongs to Christ belongs to the Spirit. All that belongs to the Spirit is ours (his followers).

I looked up every text I could think of, unaided, about the Holy Spirit. I consulted no concordance to help me. Among the texts I read was this one: "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18. This text has become a favorite of mine because it is is a command. All God's commands are enablings. God would hardly command something of us unless He were willing to confer the gift in question, as well.

LeRoy Froom mentions that their are four requirements for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit in its fullness. 1) We are to be emptied of selfish reasons for wanting to be filled with the Holy Spirit, 2) We are to be emptied of all else so we can be filled more and more with the Holy Spirit, 3) We must have faith, and 4) We must have obedience. When I read these requirements I was momentarily disheartened, but then took heart when I realized that no one in their own power can produce any of these four requirements. They are all gifts of Spirit. So I ask God from time to time to grant me these four gifts that I may then be able to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Many think they have experienced that fullness. I think one would know it as much as one would know that the sun was shining and not the moon.

What would a Spirit-filled person be like? Would they be perfect? Far from it. Only glorified people are perfect. So what would be the the proof--if we can speak of proofs--of the Spirit dwelling inside? Perhaps the major proof is the desire and the obsession with wanting to be Spirit-filled. Why would anyone want such an experience unless the Spirit granted that person the desire for such an experience? Experiencing the life of the Spirit is not a one time event. It has to happen daily--hourly, if one is a new Christian. The old modes of thinking and living must fade and new Spirit-filled ways of looking at life, at others, at God and at oneself, must take their place.

After reading so much about the Holy Spirit and meditating on the Spirit dimension, I realized that in a few minutes I'd be asleep. So much of what one dreams about is not edifying. Of course, some people dream more colorfully than others. Half an hour before retiring I expressed a wish to dream about the Holy Spirit in some way. Or perhaps my request was that I would have a Spirit-filled dream. What a thrill it would be if one could "dream in the Spirit" on a regular basis. One can't very well do so at will, but perhaps by asking God for this transcendent night experience, He will at times grant us our request.

The next morning I was delighted that I remembered the Spirit-filled dream and at least some of its details. In the dream I was preparing to preach a sermon in an Adventist Forum church in a big city. It was a simple sermon, but sometimes simplicity is appreciated more than complex or unmanageable sermons. Even the usually Freudian aspects of the dream were somewhat sanitized by the Spirit's presence. It was an almost unrecognizable dream when I compared it with the typical replay of past, present and wished-for futures that are the raw materials that are reprocessed in one's dreams every night.

It is my prayer that we all live in the Holy Spirit, that we dream in the Holy Spirit and that one day we be glorified in the Holy Spirit at the Second Coming of Christ.

Reflections of God

If you really knew me, you would know my Father [and the Holy Spirit] as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:7 (NIV)

Today as I prayed before I studied a chapter from Hebrews, I heard myself talking to God in my mind. It dawned on me, as it sometimes does, that in addition to God being out there where ever "out there" is, he also must exist to some degree inside my mind. Otherwise the metaphysics gets too exotic. I'm not saying we are God as some here and there have suggested, but that He must have a localized presence closer to us than some distant sphere millions of light years from our reality. Additionally, when you read the Bible, God is in His word. I feel closer to a perception of God like the one I've described than to a loving, though cosmically removed, being that lives in a physical heaven, again, millions or billions of miles from this, our present reality.

The Bible speaks of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Christ speaks of the Father being in him and he being in the the Father. A Christian who daily asks for the Holy Spirit to live in him and to dwell in him may sometimes come up with the following line of thought. At any rate it occurred to me many months ago. If the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of you and since the Holy Spirit is God himself, the thought occurred to me that to a certain extent when you daily commune with God you are communing with the Holy Spirit that has come to you each day as you invite him in. I'm not saying you're praying to yourself or that you yourself are God, but rather that somewhere in your mind the Spirit resides. You are are in effect praying to an intelligent presence, person, and being who exists in some compartment of your mind. The thought is both pleasant and perplexing at the same time.

Why was the truth about the trinity withheld for thousands of years? Of course, there are hints in the Old Testament of the possibility of a triune God, e.g., the Angel of the Lord, the Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters, etc., but how could something as vital as the triune nature of the One God be withheld for millennia? Perhaps one reason is that until Christ was manifested in the flesh, there was no need to confuse us with talk of three-in-One, where just the One Person could suffice. This delayed revelation of God's triune nature makes me wonder if there are other important aspects of God that for good reasons are kept from us.

I remember reading Richard Rice's book the Open View of God during the 80s and being shocked by its main premise. The vague recollection of it is that God knows everything that can possibly be known. What can't possibly be known, God, of course, cannot know. Is there no end to the surprises in store theologically as the centuries become millennia since Christ left us? Of course, in his place he left us his abiding Spirit. What better companion than the Spirit could he have left us?

Suddenly, a really big matter that we're told by traditionalists we're not supposed to think about suggests itself. To say we're not supposed to think about certain spiritual mysteries seems like an intellectually lazy way of saying, "if it were important we'd know about it already." What if because it really is mind-boggling and perhaps too much for us to bear, we're being kept in the dark (sorry about the use of that word in this context) about God's beginnings or, more correctly, lack of beginnings.

It's only natural to think that all intelligent beings must have a beginning, some kind of beginning, anyway. Perhaps the simplest explanation is to think of God creating himself. In that way, even God has a creator, himself. It's somewhat comforting to think of this explanation which then suggests the possibility of God growing and becoming more complex as eternity stretched into eons and eons of time. Of course, it's a difficult thought to think of a perfect being creating himself in an already perfect state. But at least there is the possibility for growth and wonder like every intelligent living being. I've often wondered how long God existed before starting to create any part of the known universe. Science tells us the approximate age of the universe based on the delayed light of stars that reach us. But how much time before that cosmic beginning did our non-existent universe have to wait before it came into being? How long was the universe in its non-existent state? Did God create other universes before he created ours? Did he begin creating us as soon as his perfection required us?

No doubt there are things about God's nature that we cannot know or aren't supposed to know in the here and now. What we need to know most, that he loves us immensely, has already been told to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

But there's always that hidden dimension about God that keeps me awake at night. It sometimes seems to me that we're missing certain pieces of the puzzle and that there are vital bits of information about God, eternity, and creation that are unknown to us, but that are, nevertheless, important, if we could only figure out what they are or analyze what light we have presently and see what we don't see now. In other words, we need to be enlightened. Perhaps that accounts for the mysterious disappearance of holy men throughout history. They knew too much or became too enlightened and "God took them." (The story of Enoch being the best example, or Elijah.) Was God rewarding them for realizing something so astounding about him, that he had to have them join him as soon as possible?

Years ago a Christian friend mentioned that nobody has the exact same conception of God. That was news to me at the time. I had always thought that the we both shared the same God since we both read the same Bible. I never asked if it was something he read or if he himself had come up with that idea. Now, of course, it goes without saying.

I must confess that for years I chose to think of God only in the person of Jesus Christ. I found God the Father too authoritative, but found Jesus very approachable. I once read about a young Catholic man who had difficulty relating to any male figure, especially in religion. He was unable to pray to God, but thankfully, he was able to pray to the virgin Mary and to St. Joan of Arc. It has taken me years as well, to equate God the Father, in my mind, to Jesus (God the Son). Only in the last 2 1/2 years have I been able to equate God the Spirit with Jesus. Previously, I never thought or spoke much of the Spirit out of fear that I'd offend him by thinking something erroneous. Now I warm up any time I read or hear anything pertaining to the Holy Spirit. I love to hear old hymns that I sang as a young man that mention the Holy Spirit but never even really understood who the Holy Spirit was at the time, and what he was like. He was and is like Jesus Christ, my lord and savior.

Sabbath-Keeping (Stream of Consciousness)

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9,10 (NIV)

When Adventism began they were all farmers. The Hasidim in Brooklyn, New York, all are self-employed and all shut their businesses down on their Sabbath Day. When ancient Israel was founded the entire nation could decide to shut down on the Seventh day. They could decide if they wanted to let the farm rest one day a week. Now only those who own their own business have the leisure of opening their business or not on the seventh day. Of course, some think it vitally important to avoid working on the Sabbath even if it means that you work below your potential or, in drastic cases, don't work at all because all the jobs you are qualified for require you to work on the Sabbath.

I once shared the Adventist obsession with avoiding working on the Seventh day at any cost with a Reformed Jewish woman and she said that the Jewish parent is greatly concerned for providing for their family. If the need arose to work on the Seventh day they would do so. After all, how can you tell your child that there's no bread on the table because daddy refused to work on Saturday and now we have to grin and bear it?

What if Sabbath keeping were more than 24 hours of no work, no play and no--you fill in the blanks? What if it was the spirit of the Sabbath that you were in need of and not the letter of the 24-hour Sabbath day? What did Jesus mean when he said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath? Did he mean if you need to work occasionally on the Sabbath in order to provide for your family or for yourself, that you could and it would still be alright with him? Or does he insist that you trust him and go through whatever you have to go through so you don't work on the Sabbath day? In a vague way, thinking that you will fall out of grace with Jesus because you occasionally work on Saturday or Friday night in order to keep your job and your livelihood sounds like legalism to me. Insisting that you must refrain from gainful employment on the Sabbath sounds like righteousness by works to me. And you know, that's the ugliest abomination of all--to think that by doing or not doing something you are saved or not saved.

What of opera singers or musicians or politicians who have significant or important events or meetings on the Sabbath day, are they sabbath breakers or are they good professionals by doing what they studied and sacrificed for all their life, even if it's on the occasional Sabbath? I recall that Faith Esham sang in operas on the Sabbath day and that Herbert Blomstedt conducted symphonies on the Sabbath day though he never rehearsed during the Sabbath Day. Were they blessed for it or was it Adventism on the edge?

But what about gasoline station owners or attendants. Can you imagine if every gas station owner or employee took up strict Sabbath keeping? What would happen in a crisis where you had no gas but had to fill up in order to get to the hospital or to deal with some other emergency? You couldn't very well tell that person, "you should have filled up before the Sabbath when the gas stations were open."

What about ministers, don't they break the Sabbath by working at being ministers on the Sabbath day instead of staying at home with their families and preaching to them? You know there's a lot of minister's kids who leave the church or were never really in it when most thought they were just because they were in church on Sabbath morning. Occasionally a minister and his family should take a holiday from the rigors of church on Saturday and spend a day in nature getting in touch with each other and with God.

What did the writer of Hebrews mean by saying that we should enter God's Sabbath rest and cease from our own work? For some people the effort put into keeping the Sabbath entails more work than not keeping it so fanatically or literally. Did the writer mean a literal 24 hour rest or was he referring to a spiritual rest that transcends time and space? Can you rest even while driving at 70 miles an hour on a Sabbath day getting to and from church events with all the stress and risks involved in that mad dash to get to church on time for the first minutes of Sabbath School? The best place to spend the Sabbath, again, might be with your loved ones or close friends instead of in the complexities of a structured and rigid religious environment.

Can you break the Sabbath even while you're sitting in church trying not to think about the sexy Adventist in the seat in front of you? Do you move your seat and keep on moving it till you run out of sexy Adventists or out of seats at a given moment? As someone said long ago, "Adventists are the best temptation of all." Not that one invites temptation, but then again, one cannot be totally oblivious to the best that one's local church has to offer, if only visually speaking. What does one do on the Sabbath day in that case with so much eye candy on display in their Sabbath best? One grins and bears it and hopes for a better day, or for a church with plainer people and not as sexy.

Can anyone really say that s(he) has kept the Sabbath? The very thought of 24 four sacred hours spent in total connection to God sounds like an ideal that is beyond our own power to achieve. By connecting to the source of infinite power it is then not an ideal, but a reality. But how does one know that the connection has been made and that one has, in fact, truly kept the Sabbath day in all its purity and devotion? One can refrain from thinking non-Sabbath thoughts as best as one can, or doing non-Sabbath things, i.e., shopping and working out at the gym, but does that constitute true Sabbath keeping? Some may think their efforts amount to Sabbath keeping when, in fact, they are nothing more than formalistic or legalistic exercises that occur but one day a week. Would it not be more spiritually fulfilling to observe the spiritual nature of the Sabbath all week long and all day long, as often as one was able to take a moment for religious reflection?

If the Sabbath is more than just a 24-hour phenomenon, if it is an Endless Sabbath, a virtual Sabbath that has its power supply in the actual seventh day, but that, nevertheless, comes in and out of your waking consciousness as many times as you have need of the spiritual nourishment that true Sabbath-keeping provides, then it could truly be said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Someone told me once of a neighbor who was so concerned that he'd not keep the Sabbath holy that once he got home from church and had a light meal, he'd go to sleep so as not to provide opportunity for breaking the Sabbath. Of course, one smiles, because in going to bed for the purpose of the not breaking the Sabbath, he was, in fact, breaking the Sabbath. But at least the man's heart was in the right place. Or was it?

Then there are different styles or intensities of Sabbath keeping. Years ago I heard a friend say that when he moved from the Northeast to California he didn't feel comfortable with his Adventist relatives on Sabbath afternoon activities. They'd invite him to go on a yacht and enjoy the water in the San Francisco bay. He would routinely opt to stay home or look for churches with Sabbath afternoon programming instead of joining his Adventist relatives in their preferred Sabbath afternoon activities. The poor have no such problems as they don't have yachts, or oftentimes even a car to get them to church and have to rely on public transportation or their own two feet. Being poor solves a host of problems while creating others.

After I've read my bible and sung a Sabbath vesper hymn on Friday night and washed the few dishes I dirtied in preparing dinner for one, and feeding Callisto, my retriever, I then look for the least offensive DVD I can watch. I was surprised that last Friday night, I enjoyed and lived to tell the tale of watching Pedro Almodovar's Volver with Penelope Cruz. It was a family-oriented movie, but of course, not for every family. But for my family of one, and of course, Callisto never complains as to what I watch, it felt just right for my progressive Adventist Sabbath. I even got a timer to turn on the TV and the DVD player during the Sabbath so I wouldn't have to break that old Judaic injunction about not turning on the light.

Happy Sabbath, however you keep, or try to keep, the holy Seventh day.

Silent Witnessing at the Apple Store in SoHo (NYC)

During a self-directed walking tour of lower Manhattan (New York City) I stumbled upon the Apple Store in SoHo. Curious about what such a store could offer, and in need of a rest, I wandered into what quickly turned out to be a type of free Internet cafe. I wasn't sure how long one could use a computer so I set about to try different computers for no more than five or seven minutes.

Having not had access to a computer for almost a week, I accessed Adventist blogs I normally visit when at home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I briefly visited progressiveadventism.com & spectrummagazine.typepad.com. I was careful to not spend more than five or seven minutes at each of the half dozen Apple computers I visited. As is my custom when visiting these sites and similar religious sites in public Internet cafes or restaurants, I left each blog on the screen as I walked away, hoping that the content might catch a curious person's attention, and hopefully expose them to either Christianity or Adventism, as the case may be. There was no way that I could subsequently find out how long anyone stayed at each of these Adventist blogs.

I then visited each of my own web sites or blogs, starting with my oldest blog, http://www.perfectfuturo.com/, so see how it would look on an Apple laptop. I then proceeded to visit the rest, but probably from the same computer. At each laptop I visited, no more than six, I left the page on the screen in case the next user in this busy showroom was vaguely curious about the pictures or titles of the blog posts. This is the probable order in which I visited the rest of my blogs:

Design your Future - Diseñe su Futuro
Desperate Christian Housewives
Christians on the Verge of a Cosmic Meltdown - Cristianos al Borde de un Desastre Cósmico

I can't be sure if I left all four at different computers, as two of the six Apple laptops I sampled were devoted to the aforementioned Adventist blogs. I left the Apple showroom after spending no more than 30 minutes.

When I returned home to Ft. Lauderdale, I accessed the website that informs me what websites were visited, from what country and for how long. I want to make it clear that the Apple showroom was very busy and that it was hard to find an empty computer for very long. I previously noted that I spent no more than seven minutes at each of the six computers I sampled. I was pleased to learn that one of the Apple laptops I had left with the following blog,
http://realjesuscristo.blogspot.com/, was up for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds. A total of 8 pages were viewed. the Exit Page was http://perfectfuturo.com/FutureTales.html.

Of course, time has a way of slipping away while browsing, but the pressure from walking showroom clerks walking around the showroom makes it unlikely that I spent no longer than 10 or 12 mintues at any one computer. There is always the slim possibility that I may have stayed longer than the 30 minutes I thought I spent in the store, or that the computer in question was vacant for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds, which is unlikely, as I mentioned earlier that the store was very busy.

Some modern or progressive Adventists feel that old style evangelism such as giving out religious leaflets or books or "street evangelism" consisting of walking up to a stranger and asking them if they knew the real Jeus Christ and then telling them about the saving experience of knowing and loving Christ, is passe or out-of-fashion. Nevertheless, who knows who might learn of either Christianity or Adventism by visiting Internet cafes or showrooms such as the Apple Store and after viewing a web page you intended to view anyway, of a religious nature, you simply leave the page up in hope that in this vaguely voyeuristic age of blogging and Internet websites and profiles, someone will be nosy or curious enough to take note of the previous user's web site. This is similar in some ways to what some shy Christians or Adventists, no doubt, have done by leaving Christian literature in public places, after having read them themselves, in hope that someone who accidentally, or perhaps not so accidentally, picks up the literature in question, might find something that they perhaps had no idea they were looking for.

How important whether in printing evangelistic literature or publishing religious blogs, to ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance before committing words and ideas to print or cyberspace pages.

We may never know the results of our mildly passive attempts at evangelism until the Next World.

When You Don't Want to Love Your Neighbor

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5:44 (NIV)

If one feels, even out of "good motives," that one needs to do good works, whether as gratitude for the the gift of salvation, or out of fear, both are variations of salvation by works. It is Christ's Spirit of righteousness working in us supernaturally to do the impossible--doing what is good for selfless reasons--that is the genuine article. That solves the problem of the times when you consciously attempt to maintain a loving relation to God through prayer and bible study and working with Jesus, but still wind up doing things, whether accidentally, or intentionally, that are against his law. If salvation depends on your efforts, whatever the motive, love for God or out of fear, then some have a greater advantage since it's easier for some people to live a more upright life than it is for others.

If you have to repeatedly keep yourself from turning on the television to watch secular programming, out of boredom, during the Sabbath, you are living by works, and not by faith. On the other hand, if you naturally have no desire to turn on that TV or DVD player or secular radio station because it doesn't agree with you on the sabbath, then that is the genuine righteousness by faith in Christ, not in yourself and your effort to keep God's law, whatever the motive. The same goes for being faithful to your mate, or paying tithe, or loving your neighbor who hates you for no reason you can think of. If you have to grin and bear it as you make an attempt to "love your neighbor as yourself", you are not experiencing genuine righteousness by faith. And believe me, it shows. Your less-than-loving neighbor will see the phoniness of your efforts to love him in spite of his hatred for you.

If you are not genuinely able to love your neighbor, it's better to walk away and not interact with him as long as humanly possible, instead of smiling one of those phony, painful-to-watch smiles that do more harm than good.

Desperate Christian Wife Alone (in Pakistan)

Whenever I think of this nameless woman, I pray for her. All I know about her is what sitemeter.com's daily statistics informed me about her visit.

She used google.com.pk to type in the words that caught my attention: desperate christian wife alone. She visited one of my sites, Desperate Christian Housewives, on March 26 2007, 5:38:25 a.m. The length of her visit was 3 minutes 56 seconds. She viewed three pages on my blog. She lives in Pakistan in the Punjab State, or region, in the City of Lahore.

Is her husband or family Muslim? Did she find what she was looking for to help her in her desperation? I felt for her and was sad my blog didn't offer her more than it did. Or perhaps it did help her a bit, especially since she remained on my site for almost four minutes. She even clicked on one of the pictures and that was her last contact with my blog. If she, or someone like her, returns in the future, I want to offer more than what that particular blog offers at present. I said a prayer for this unknown woman in Pakistan. How important it is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you whenever you post something that is of a spiritual or semi-spiritual nature in the blogosphere. It may be someone's only chance to find the help they're seeking. Cyber encounters like this are indeed unusual and frustrating. But also rewarding, in a way.

One seldom hears about Christians in Muslim countries and the challenges they face. If one does read about them they are distant and don't impact directly on one's life. This nameless Pakistani Christian woman crossed my path in an indirect way and now she's real enough to me that I think about her and pray that God will help her in her desperate and lonely Christian life in Pakistan. I wonder how she came to believe in Christ in a country that is predominantly Muslim? Even more important is how she is able to continue struggling with Christianity to the point of desperation and loneliness. Perhaps my struggles don't compare with hers. It makes me think that one may sometimes have to struggle in one's Christian walk even to the point of desperation and loneliness.

We take freedom of religion for granted so often. We think we have problems when, in fact, we don't. Our problems pale in comparison to women like the one in question, who find themselves wanting to follow Christ in a country, and perhaps a home, that is Muslim. Even if she has an understanding husband or family, who love her in spite of her interest in Christ, there is still an empty part of her life, that makes her feel alone and desperate. Perhaps her business associates or her neighbors contribute to her desperation and her aloneness. What would I tell her if she had asked me point blank for help in overcoming her problems? The only thing I could have done is point her to the source of her faith. I know that it's easier to say to others than it is to practice oneself. But when things had pretty much reached rock bottom at one point in my life where I also felt desperate and alone, I prayed that God would lead me to a bible text that would help me. Even though I didn't fully understand the text he led me to, it helped me in ways I can't explain even today.

But he [Christ] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Cor. 12:19 (NIV)

Awaiting 2033 A.D. and October 22, 2044 A.D.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 2 Pet. 3:8-10 (NIV)

There are two dates I look forward to living long enough to experience. The first is 2033. Christ would have ascended 2000 years prior to that date. The other is October 22, 2044. The Great Disappointment as well as the reassessment as to what took place on that date, the beginning of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, will have started 200 years prior to that date.

Even if I don't live to see those dates, others will, hopefully, find this post and think of someone who wanted to be alive on those two separate dates. To you of the future who are reading this, I wish you greater faith and a newness of vision as you make sense of the next thousand years of waiting for the Lord's return.

Might there not be similar written hopes left behind from believers looking forward to 1033 as well as forwards to October 22, 1944? What, if anything, did they wish for those who lived, and died in either of those years?

No doubt most of those who would have read those documents years before those anniversaries came to pass, scoffed at the thought that Earth's history would ever experience such unlikely years as 1033, as well as, October 22, 1944.

We are a species that was born to wait. We live our lives waiting. We will die waiting. At least we have each other as we wait and hope for new beginnings.