Author: Tim

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Oh, it’s the End of the World…Again

Growing up, my parents both worked at a Christian conference center. Churches that were mostly from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania would hold retreats at this place, getting away from the routine and having a chance to study whatever the teacher/speaker/pastor decided to focus on. Getting away from familiar surroundings is often a good way to break away from the ordinary distractions of life and be able to dive deeper into the Bible.

In many cases, it would be the same church groups that came to the conference center at roughly the same time each year. Over time, the group leaders would develop a relationship with some of the people working at the conference center. One of the tricky parts would be when, every now and then, you have a group leader whose theology and teachings start to wander away from what the Bible says. It usually doesn’t happen all at once, more often it’s a bit slower, so it gets difficult for a conference center to say “you know what? That’s not what we’re about. I’m sorry, but we’re not going to approve your request for a reservation this year.”

When I was, oh, probably 13 or 14, a situation like this was brewing. One of these groups had been coming to the place for years, but this year was different. The group leader, a pretty smart guy in many respects, decided that by using “clues” sprinkled throughout the Bible, it was possible to determine a mathematical formula to calculate the date when Jesus would return, and it turns out that date was very near. He had even released a book about it and had a sizable following that eagerly ate up what he was saying.

I’m a little fuzzy on the details…the group had reserved the conference center for, if not the predicted date, very shortly before it, so all those people were pretty pumped as they started showing up. Like, there was a lot of buzz in the air. Between my parents and most of the rest of the adults on staff, though, the thing that the conversation kept coming back to was the Bible verse that says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” – Matthew 24:36

As you might imagine, a lot of people wanted to hear more about the impending second coming, and many of them flooded into this little conference center. I don’t know what it was like for the grown-ups, but I remember that for me as a kid, there was this, like, sort of excitement that was easy to get swept up in. The thing that probably comes closest now is if you buy a lottery ticket when there’s a record-breaking Powerball. “Yeah, yeah, I know it won’t happen…buuuuuuut…imagine if it did!” I remember there were some pretty distinctive-looking clouds that day, too, adding to the general goose-bump factor.

There were a lot more people showing up than the place normally held, so it was an “all hands on deck” situation. There were more cars than the place had room for in the regular parking lot, so I got recruited to help direct parking in the grass field. I remember while I was doing this, one of the guys that parked his car and was on his way to the auditorium stopped to speak with me. “So what do you think? Do you think he’s right in his prediction?”

Despite the excitement in the air, being the tactless young man that I was, I spoke my mind. “Nah, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the Bible verse that says ‘no one knows the day or the hour.’”

The dude had some kind of answer for that. I think he pointed to the presence of what he called “clues” in scripture, but he seemed to feel like this collection of hidden items somehow enabled students of the Bible to gloss over that very straightforward verse.

At any rate, the predicted date came and went, and the second coming has yet to occur. I should’ve bet the dude whatever money I could’ve scraped together that it wouldn’t happen. (If he won, I wouldn’t have had the chance to pay up.)

Today, I certainly do NOT consider myself a Bible scholar. Back then, I knew even less. Yet it was still enough to recognize false teaching.

If you’re the type of person that considers yourself a Christian, but spends little time reading and trying to understand the Bible, you’re setting yourself up to be led astray by false teaching. Spoiler alert: You don’t get wings and become an angel after you die. Read the Bible. If you’ve tried reading a Bible that has nothing but straight scripture, and it’s tough to make any sense out of it, try using a study bible. Study bibles have lots of notations, maps, and diagrams that help explain the context of what’s happening, or information about what the original Hebrew or Greek text said that gets lost in the translation into English. It will help things make more sense to you in a way that can help you apply it to your life without having to guess about what it actually means.

Watch. Be ready. Jesus is coming back someday, but none of us knows when it will happen. In the meantime, as you go about the business of life, ask yourself “is this somewhere I’d be okay being when Christ returns and He asks me what I was doing there?”

Lord, please help us all to be ready for the day You either return or call us home. There are a lot of false things out there. Between the Bible and the Holy Spirit, please help us to know what’s true and what’s false, so we can not only avoid being led astray, but also help keep others from being led astray. I ask in Your name, Amen.

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Some People Burn Rubber; This Family Flung it

When I was in my early teens I had a buddy named Cameron. If Cameron had a super power, it was anything that had to do with rubber bands. That dude had rubber bands stashed all over the house, and he was a crack shot with them.

The house where he lived had a skylight in the kitchen, and every once in awhile a fly would buzz around in there, looking for a way out. It seemed like he could always take those guys out on the first try. He also used rubber bands to make slingshots out of branches he found that were the right size/shape. If we had Instagram back then, we’d have been on it doing rubber band madness.

I’m not sure how it started, but at one point Cameron and I ignited some kind of playful feud with his dad. I was at their house like, all the time, so he was probably looking for a way to encourage me to spend less time there. I wasn’t quite “Steve Urkel” bad, but Cameron’s dad often referred to me as “the infestation.” He wasn’t too shabby with rubber bands, either, and on more than one occasion I had to dive for cover to try to escape the onslaught of flying rubber.

Again, the details are fuzzy, but one evening we anticipated that his dad was on the prowl and looking to light us up somehow. I’m pretty sure the “Home Alone” movies were fresh in our minds, and our heads were filled with ideas whose effectiveness was portrayed maybe a little too generously in the movies.

The way his house was set up, Cameron and his sister had the only rooms on the second floor, and the only other thing up there was a bathroom. He had sort of a cool setup in his room; the ceilings slanted down to the walls, so the room got shorter as you went away from the middle, but on the other side of the walls there was some storage space where the ceiling got uncomfortably short. It was a pain to get in there if you were the size of an adult, but it was great for us as kids. Our plan was to set up a bunch of alarms and traps out in Cameron’s room, and then let them stand guard while we set up a fort in one of the storage spaces so we could defend ourselves.

I don’t remember everything we set up, but I remember I brought some stuff from my house to help us out. I brought a tape player with a cassette tape cued up to a loud spot in a Michael W. Smith song, and I made a trigger out of a motorized Construx creation. I also know I brought a small chain and a bunch of metal jax. Cameron probably set up some kind of auto-rubber band crossbows aimed at the door. We strung a bunch of rubber bands together (I don’t think I can properly explain just how many rubber bands were in this house; it’s like Cameron asked for bags of rubber bands for his birthday and Christmas, and he got them) but we’d take these strings of rubber bands and pull them tight all across the room, fastening them to different things and making a sort of web. From one of them I hung the little chain, and I put the pile of metal jacks right under it, so if something disturbed the rubber band string that held the chain, it would fall onto the jacks and make a distinctive noise. The chain was barely hanging on to the string, so a false alarm wasn’t out of the question.

That wasn’t the big alarm, though. The big one was the tape player I mentioned. It was connected to a tripline that an intruder would set off, and everyone in the house would the loud guitar from the start of “Goin’ Through the Motions” if tripped. I don’t know what else we set up, but I’m sure there were other traps. Once we finished that, we shut off the lights and went to work in the storage space, rearranging boxes, garbage bags full of stuff, and strategically storing rubber band ammunition in various locations. If Cameron’s dad was coming for us, he’d either have to turn on the lights (giving himself away) or risk running through our field of booby traps.

Well, we were focused on the best way to set up a defense, and busied ourselves with strategy, plans, and fall-back areas. We had it all planned out. “The decoy dives over here while the other guy pops up and nails him from over here! When he pivots to focus on that guy, the decoy army crawls through this makeshift tunnel and hits him from the other side of the pillar! He won’t see it coming! ”

While we were making our grand strategy, we both thought we heard something out in Cameron’s room that sounded a lot like a little chain falling onto metal jacks. We both froze, wondering: 1. if we had actually heard something, 2. if it was a false alarm, and 3. now what?

Before we could do anything, Cameron’s dad burst into the storage space, filling the air with a hail of rubber projectiles. Surprised shrieks filled the room as we dove for cover but still got hit multiple times. There were so many rubber bands in the air at the same time, it’s like the guy had four arms with eight fingers and three thumbs on each hand, and they were all working on delivering stinging hits to the two of us. Well, we couldn’t mount any kind of coherent defense, and it was a massacre. Cameron’s dad shellacked us pretty good, and there was no denying who won that particular engagement.

You may have had a similar experience (in the metaphorical sense, at least). You recognize that you’re exposed to temptation from certain sins, and you’ve taken the precautions that you believe will be effective in keeping you safe. As it turns out, though, either your precautions didn’t work or something else went wrong, and you ended up not being as safe as you thought. Maybe you put your trust somewhere you shouldn’t have. Maybe you blocked a specific website but you found a different one you shouldn’t be visiting, or you stopped talking about people behind their backs, but now you disguise the gossip as a prayer request.

These things happen. You have to constantly check your defenses, taking frequent looks at your life to evaluate where you’re vulnerable. Things change rapidly; don’t rely on old measures that no longer reflect the modern vulnerabilities in your life. Know yourself and know what you have a hard time overcoming, and place countermeasures in your life that enable you to stand up to them. (In some cases, that requires a literal fleeing from the situation.)

Rubber bands can sting, but there are things that sting much worse. Set up the protections you know will help you be more effective in standing up to temptation.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. –Ephesians 6:12-13

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This is Just One Story, but Maybe it Will Help You in Your Story

You might be trying to figure out what God’s calling for your life looks like. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what it is, but I’d encourage you to be persistent in asking Him during your prayer time. In the meantime, I can tell you how I arrived at what I believe my calling to be, and maybe that will help you in some way.

I don’t really know how else to say this…my brain’s wired a little differently than most people I meet. I’m an odd duck. When I was in…I think it was first grade…my teacher had us do some kind of activity where we followed her instructions in folding paper. My version ended up looking very different than everyone else’s. Wondering why, my teacher went back and took a hard look at what I did. Upon closer inspection, she found that I had followed her instructions, but not the way she intended. Without trying to be a troublemaker, when she said “fold the piece of paper in half,” most kids folded it from top to bottom, while I folded it side to side.

Fast forward to high school, and the nontraditional route continued. I did athletic things without being an athlete. I never tried out for the baseball, basketball, football, or soccer teams. Instead, I played in the woods. I got certified as a lifeguard at 15 years old. A little older and I was dangling from ropes out of trees or off buildings. In college I went cross-country skiing, kayaking, and kneeboarding; after college I got certified in skydiving and scuba diving. Not only are they activities that aren’t all that common, they’re things that people just don’t normally choose to pursue. (I may have missed the boat on bungee jumping; I was willing to do it when I was younger, but now I’m afraid it may be too physically jarring. I’m willing to give cave diving (exploring underwater caves) a try, though.) It sounds like I’m an adrenaline junkie, but sometimes people need to double check to see if I’m still awake. A strange contradiction.

At the same time, I have a mind that’s oriented around technical things and the way things are organized, yet I can still be creative and think way outside the box. I’m not amazing at any one thing, but I’m pretty good at a lot of different things. I have low empathy, can come across as cold, and tend to gravitate more toward logic than feelings. This is pretty bizarre, because there isn’t a whole lot that’s logical about jumping out of an airplane or off a cliff for entertainment. Another contradiction. If Spock, Bear Grylls, and Elon Musk ran really hard toward each other and smashed together, you get me.

For some reason, about 20 years into my career, I started getting interested in the different classifications of personalities. The first characterization method I took a close look at is called the Enneagram. It classifies people into one of nine personality types, and my type is what’s called Type One…the Reformer. In short, Type Ones are driven to improve things that they perceive will enhance the greater good. It was pretty interesting, and a lot of things made sense. “Wow, this author gets me!”

Then I checked out a more well-known categorization type, Myers-Briggs. The Myers-Briggs construct has 16 distinct types of personalities. No single personality type shows up in huge percentages in the general population, but it turns out that mine is one of the rarer types, with only about 2% of the population falling into this category. The “Architect” type, or INTJs, are highly logical, creative, and analytical. Those three characteristics are not a common combination.

A little stunned that descriptions of INTJs fit me very well, I started poking around a little bit. It’s not often that someone’s accurately described how my personality is geared, so I felt like I had to take this newfound knowledge and use it to help make some kind of a decision. I had a sense that I was supposed to do more to follow God’s lead, but I didn’t know where, what that looked like, or how that would unfold. I wanted to know what other people like me were gifted at doing. Introverted, very focused, and often highly intelligent. What do other people who are INTJs do?

I scrolled through search results. There were lots of famous INTJs whose field I had no interest or entry into. Dwight Eisenhower, Hillary Clinton, Bobby Fischer, Bill Belichick, Nikola Tesla, Sherlock Holmes, Lex Luthor…all of them INTJs.

As I pondered how to break into a life of criminal mastermind-ery or famous consulting detective-ness, I somewhere came across something that just kind of jumped out at me. It turns out that C.S. Lewis, the Christian author, was thought to be an INTJ.

Of course I know who C.S. Lewis is, but I’m not super familiar with his works. I haven’t read anything of his other than the Chronicles of Narnia, and that was forever ago. Rather shamelessly, and at the risk of sounding like a copycat, it didn’t take me long to decide “I have to write fiction books with built-in Christian themes. I’ll shoot for seven of them and they all need to be about the length of the Narnia books.”

I don’t know why I decided that, but the idea just kind of took root. I can whine about how culture is taking bad turns, or I can do something to try to influence it. As I considered it more and more, the idea just seemed like it was something that I was tailor made to do, despite not having taken any creative writing classes. I have nothing published. My biggest writing project aside from that group of books is this blog, and that’s very different from what this challenge will entail. Still, it was honestly a relief, as though God were saying “okay, you’ve been persistent in asking, and now I’m going to give you a goal you can throw your energy into.” For me, there’s peace in finally knowing.

It’s funny how God treats people differently, depending on what they can handle. For many, if you tell them what they’ll have to go through before they get to the other side of something big, they’ll be overwhelmed. One of the hallmarks of an INTJ is a certain level of confidence that allows them to take risks. My initial goal of seven books of 40,000 to 50,000 words has now grown to 10 books of the same length. I have to plan as though I’m composing half a million words’ worth of stories. I’m the guy that used to label every line of a 500-word essay with the running total. I’m not looking at this goal and saying “piece of cake,” but I’m also not shying away from it. My confidence isn’t so much in me…it’s in the One that assigned me the job. I feel like this is the task He’s given me, and I know He’ll give me what I need to make it happen. I’m grateful to have found this challenge.

As far as progress on the project, I’ve bounced around between the different books, focusing on one, then taking a break from that one for awhile to work on a different one. Some I don’t even know much of the plot line, some I’ve made notes for, and others have tens of thousands of words drafted. To date, across all 10 books, I’ve got 80,000+ words in draft. I’ve still got a long way to go, but if I hadn’t started yet, I’d be 80,000+ words behind where I am right now.

Again, I don’t know what your calling is, but I tell you this story in the hopes that it will somehow encourage you. Be persistent in asking God to reveal what He’d have you do. The world is growing darker and darker, and Christ’s light is needed more and more. It’s not your job to have all the answers. All you need to focus on is doing what God wants you to do, not on what comes after that. Obedience is your responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. Do what you’re supposed to do, and He’ll handle the rest.

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Reduced by $10,000, or Paid in Full?

It’s not the best example, and I’m not fond of the idea, but since it’s a current event, I’m using it.

Think about the number 10,000. If you had to count from 1 to 10,000 you could do it, but it would take long enough to be super annoying, so it’s definitely a substantial number.

Yesterday President Biden announced an initiative to forgive holders of federal student loans up to $10,000 worth of their debt if they met certain criteria. These days education can be ridiculously expensive, so it’s very easy to incur that much debt (many times over, in fact).

Still, though, imagine waking up one day to the reality of having that much of your agreed-to obligation wiped out. Then, when you inquire about it, you hear “Don’t worry about it, it’s gone from your ledger.” All you can do is express thanks.

While 10,000 dollars’ worth of debt is certainly nice to not worry about, it’s still a quantity that we can mentally grasp, and most students can eventually repay. What if the total amount of all your different types of debt numbered in the millions, or even in the billions? Having $10,000 forgiven would still be nice, but it would hardly make a dent in the bottom line figure of what you owe.

Now imagine a debt so large that you can’t even comprehend it because it’s so abstract. What if you personally owed debts totaling one hundred trillion dollars? That’s a one followed by 14 zeroes. Nobody on the planet right now could pay back a debt that large. Not even the U.S. Government could do that. You’d have no hope of putting that debt completely to bed in your lifetime. The constant phone calls and mail from debt collectors would be all-consuming; the debt would be the only thing on your mind. You wouldn’t be able to enjoy food, sleeping well is no longer a thing, and you wouldn’t even be able to take pleasure in the little things in life.

But if you had your debt totally wiped out and the balance restored to zero, how thankful do you think you’d be?

It would be the largest weight ever…lifted right off your shoulders. That’s what Christ offers to you, me, and everyone else. There are two ways to get to Heaven: 1. live a perfect and sinless life, and 2. ride the coattails of someone that’s done exactly that. If you slip up even once, route number one is no longer an option. No amount of money can buy back a single mistake. Since nobody reading this can claim eligibility for the first route, you’re left with the second route, and only Jesus Christ has lived a life without sin. God hates sin, and He will not tolerate it in Heaven. When Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross, He essentially gave Himself as an offering that satisfied God’s wrath. That was Him saying “my coattails are right here, waiting for you to grab them.” By claiming Christ as Lord of your life, you gain the status of being covered by what He’s given. It’s Christ saying “don’t worry about it, it’s gone from your ledger.” You’re standing at the pearly gates, trying to get in, and Christ says “yeah, open the gates, they’re with me.”

Placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your savior is the only way for you to go to Heaven. When you trust in Him, your spiritual debt has been wiped clean. It’s gone. Even if you had been living under its crushing weight, it no longer exists the instant you welcome Jesus into your heart.

You want to talk about having a major debt forgiven? There’s no greater example than that one.

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What I’ve Learned so far…

I’ve been blessed to have a good number and variety of experiences in my life. I’ve accomplished difficult feats, I’ve worked with excellent colleagues, and I’ve worked with terrible colleagues. I’ve taken part in audacious things, I’ve failed at some of them, and I’ve learned a lot about dealing with people in general. Here, in no particular order, are 15 life lessons I’ve picked up so far:

Your physical and mental limits are often self-imposed. If you believe you can’t do something, you’ll probably try to prove yourself right. Give it an honest try before deciding it can’t be done.

Humility is a valuable attribute. If you’re the cat’s pajamas at something, that doesn’t mean you 1. can’t get better at it, 2. can’t become the cat’s pajamas at something else, and/or 3. can’t empower somebody else with the knowledge/experience you’ve gained.

You don’t need to formally hold a position of leadership to demonstrate it.

When you meet someone new, you probably have no idea what kinds of things, good or bad, they’ve lived through. Enter the relationship without assumptions, and allow your opinion of them to form based on the interactions you have with them. People are defined by more than what happened to them on their worst or their best day.

Married life – Without having unrealistic standards, be very choosy about who you’re willing to marry. If you take the time to choose well, it will pay off in spades.

You see things differently than I do. I don’t look at that as a reason to cancel you. Please reciprocate.

Life as a kid – When you’re young you see everything in terms of black and white, of right and wrong. When you grow up, almost everything is some varied shade of gray. Try to live your life as high contrast as you can, in the process making it easier for others to do the same.

There’s a time to laugh and a time to be serious, but the former should outweigh the latter.

When you look back at your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did.

Adventure sports where there’s risk to life/limb (skydiving, rappelling, whitewater sports) – there are three things most important when risking your life or someone else’s: the quality of your team, the quality of your gear, and the quality of your preparation (including the caliber of your instruction). Skimp on one or more of these at your peril.

Air Force – You’re facing big challenges, you’re pressed for time, and there are more challenges knocking on the door. You can go the fast/easy route, but if you get brutally honest, the best way is probably going to end up being the most painful one. Save effort where you can, but if you wouldn’t be willing to do it all over again a second or third time, don’t cut corners.

Parenting – Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems. Whatever stage of parenting you’re in, enjoy the here and now, because it goes by quickly, and they (and their problems) are getting bigger right in front of you.

Aging and losing the ability to do things you formerly could – Know the difference between griping about it and moping about it. Your toolset changes over time; maintain enough mental agility to always leverage your current strengths.

Professional analysis – If you genuinely want to be objective about something, gather lots of information while waiting as long as you can before forming an opinion about it. Once you’ve formed an opinion, it takes a surprising amount of slap-you-in-the-face evidence to sway you from it, even if it’s wrong.

Just because I’m right doesn’t mean you’re wrong (and vice versa).

Any of these stand out to you? Which one strikes a chord?

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The Memorable Events in Your Life May Just be Preparation

Sometime in the spring/summer of 2008, my first-time-pregnant wife came to my place of work to attend a ceremony celebrating the promotion of several people, including me.

Since being pregnant was a new thing for her, there was still a lot she didn’t know about how pregnancy would affect her body. The ceremony was to be held in a conference room that was already in use by someone else, so a crowd of us began gathering outside the door as the start time drew near. There was no place to sit while we were waiting, and my wife started feeling very hot and a little woozy. She told me something felt very wrong, and I was able to be right there to catch her as she fainted.

I was ready to ditch the ceremony and take her to the hospital, not knowing what was wrong. A gentle, but decisive old Master Sergeant made his way to us and helped revive my wife. Finding out she was pregnant, he disappeared somewhere else in the building for a few minutes, then returned with a piece of cake on a paper plate. He knew from experience that a mother-to-be’s body has an important relationship with blood sugar, and that skipping meals has a different set of consequences than when not pregnant.

Skip ahead about 14 years. A couple weeks ago our family took a trip to a beach town I’ve been visiting on and off since I was a kid. Part of the draw for that little town is a bakery that produces some great “I’ll eat better when I’m back home” food. My wife, our three kids, and I were milling around inside, each of us choosing something for that morning. The place had a number of customers waiting their turn, and our turn finally came. While my wife was in the middle of placing our family’s order, a man’s voice called out “can somebody dial 911?!” I looked over to see a man holding an unconscious woman, seated in a chair at a table near the window, preventing her from falling over. Her head was bent at an awkward angle, her hair completely covering her face.

I reached for my phone, only to discover that I didn’t have it on me. (I’m on vacation, at the bakery. If you call me here, I’m not answering it.) Both my wife and one of the bakery staff placed the call. I went over and tried to see how I could help. In talking to him, I learned that she was a couple of months pregnant, and I passed the info along to those on the phone with the dispatchers. Though he was obviously well-intentioned, it became pretty apparent that the guy didn’t have a clue what to do. I told him that we needed to get her lowered to the floor. Protective of his girl, and not really willing to comply until he determined that I wasn’t some sort of con man, he asked “are you a doctor or something?”

Now, I’m no doctor. I haven’t been certified in CPR or first aid in over 20 years. A few thoughts flashed through my head, memories of things I could tell him about, and I almost flipped out on the guy about whether or not he was seriously asking me this question while this woman, for all I knew, was choking to death on a bear claw while he tried to establish my credentials. Instead I answered something like “I know a thing or two about this. We need to make sure her airway is clear, and I can’t do it when she’s like this.”

That seemed enough to satisfy him, and the two of us lowered her to the ground so she was seated with her legs out in front of her. Before we could lay her down all the way, she started coming around. The fella held her steady as she groggily started piecing together what happened. During the course of talking with her, it came out that she had skipped having any food so far that morning. At only two months pregnant with a first-time pregnancy, it was still early enough that you’re still kind of finding out the hard way what you can and can’t do. This all started feeling a lot more familiar to me. The bakery worker that had called 911, who I suspect had been through at least one pregnancy of her own, came over and offered an unopened bottle of orange juice. My wife now off the phone with 911, she, too, made the connection, and began telling about her experience 14 years prior.

We spent some time trying to help her not feel so embarrassed, sitting on the bakery floor with everyone staring at her. Right about then I saw a police vehicle arrive and the officer grab a pair of medical bags out of the trunk. Holding the door open for him and seeing that the professional was now on the scene, I turned my attention back to what we’d been doing. My kiddos, on their own, had moved to a part of the store where they’d be out of everyone’s way, and stood quietly waiting for things to play out. It was one of those “Jesus looked at them and loved them” kind of moments.

When our family left the bakery, those two were still being attended to by the police officer. Later that day though, we saw them walking around the town, so things must’ve turned out alright for them.

You’ve almost certainly heard before that God prepares you for the things He places in your path. Sometimes it’s funny how He does it. I certainly didn’t consider my wife’s fainting as a preparatory action, at least at the time. Who knows? Maybe in another 14 years, those two (by that time) well-experienced parents will be helping out another set of parents-to-be.

It’s also important not to get caught up in a “I’m not qualified” mindset (at least for the important things). Sure, we were qualified to call 911. We weren’t really “qualified” for any sort of medical care, but we were the ones to step forward and be there with someone that was going through something scary. It doesn’t take any special training. Often we focus more on the reasons why we shouldn’t step forward than on the reasons we should. If you’ll allow me to push the metaphor a little, I’d say that if you wait until you consider yourself “ready” to jump in and follow God’s call, you’re probably not ever going to do it. God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness, and He wants us to have willing hearts more than properly trained and educated minds. He’s given you different experiences, giftings, and abilities that are intended to be used. Please…use them.

Lord, thank you that this event didn’t seem to be anything serious. Thank you also that You put someone there to help those two get through it. Thank you still that You invited us to be a few of those “someones.” And finally, thank you for all the opportunities You’ll give everyone reading this to be a part of the story You’ve written for their lives; please give us all the courage and preparation we’ll need for those times. In Your name I ask, Amen.

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I Never Expected To See “the Snap” With My Own Eyes!

(Another entry not meant for my regular readers, but for those left behind after witnessing something extraordinary and terrifying…the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of a sizable percentage of Earth’s population.)

So it actually happened. Millions of people across the world just disappeared without a trace. What happened? What does it mean?

It means the Bible is true.

It means that over the next…probably 7 years or so, humanity will witness a level of destruction not seen since the days of Noah and the ark. I can’t put an exact timeframe on it because I don’t know for sure where the Rapture (the sudden disappearance of Christians) falls in relation to the seven years known as the Great Tribulation.

(One of the many confusing things about this era is going to be the fact that there are still people who thought they were Christians who are still left behind. The inconvenient truth they’ll have to face up to is the fact that even if they attend church regularly and do lots of “religious things,” they have not trusted Jesus Christ as their savior.)

I’ve written about this before, but it’s a pretty heavy duty topic, and I’d love to be able to help provide some direction for the people that are still here. If the Rapture actually happened, I’m not here anymore, so I can only help you through stuff I’ve already written or stuff I can point you to. Here’s the part that sounds crazy, but since you’re probably pretty desperate for answers, I’ll just come out and say it. When I say that you’ve been “left behind,” here’s what I mean. God created the world. Humanity sinned and sort of broke the deal that God had with us. For awhile we got by with presenting sacrifices to Him (the days of the Old Testament), but it wasn’t until Jesus Christ came to become a permanent sacrifice on our behalf that it changed our relationship with God. After He rose from the dead and ascended back to Heaven, He left the Church here to do His work until He comes back to take the rest of His followers away so they don’t have to endure the Great Tribulation, which is where God cleans house and lets loose on whoever’s left for thousands of years’ worth of stubborn disobedience.

Don’t worry, there’s still hope for you! The Great Tribulation will see unprecedented levels of both Christian revival and persecution of Christians. Keep an eye out for the Evangelists. There are going to be street preachers, people that hold meetings in big tents, in warehouses, in schools, in sports arenas, people that spread the news about Jesus. They’ll use whatever are the most popular tools of the day to spread the news. Go to them. As long as what they’re saying agrees with the Bible (and no other religious books), they’re steering you toward the truth. (But be careful, 2 Timothy 4 says that many people will be deceived by false teaching during this time.) In the meantime, track down a Bible and start reading it. Start with the New Testament…read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are four books that cover the same material, so don’t be confused when Jesus dies four times. Those four books are collectively called “the Gospels.”

To read a little more about what you’re living in (the End Times, the Great Tribulation, the Apocalypse, Armageddon), check out the last book in the Bible; it’s called Revelation. You’ll probably need to read it a few times, and you’ll learn a lot more if you have some kind of study Bible with notes or some kind of Bible commentary. A few other books in the Bible cover the End Times and provide more info…check out the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and First and Second Thessalonians (again, study Bibles, Bible commentaries, and online resources will be tremendously helpful). Here are a few of the things that are coming, but not necessarily in this order:

  • Mass death. Not only are the four horsemen of the apocalypse real, but one of them is given the power to kill a quarter of humanity (Revelation 6:7-8). Later, four imprisoned fallen angels (demons) are released to kill a third of humanity (Revelation 9:13-15). If we have 8 billion people on the planet right now and this happened, the horseman takes out 2 billion people, and then the fallen angels take out a third of the remaining six, cutting the population in half from 8 to 4 billion.
  • You think the idea of climate change is scary? Earth’s ecology gets absolutely demolished in Revelation chapter 8. The wind even stops in chapter 7.
  • God pours out so much wrath on the planet and its occupants that people abandon large portions of it and move somewhere else (picture Detroit as its population fell, but on a much larger scale). Of all places, Babylon, code for the famous city of Rome, becomes very important; I’m not sure if it actually becomes the global capital or if it sort of becomes symbolic of global debauchery and sin, sort of like how Vegas is for the U.S., and people consolidate there (Revelation chapters 16ish to 18).
  • At least one off-the-scale earthquake takes place (Revelation 16:18).
  • Slavery makes a comeback (Revelation 18:11-13).
  • There will be two missionaries that are invincible for a time, who speak truth to power so effectively that people can’t stand hearing their testimony and try unsuccessfully to kill them. They defend themselves like something you’d see in an X-Men movie, but watch out for the guy that eventually does kill them…he’s super bad news and will seem like he’s awesome, but believe me, he’s not somebody you should follow. Those two witnesses/missionaries also won’t let death keep them down. There will be some worldwide celebration for a few days after they’re killed, but the world will get a shock when the two of them get up again three and a half days after their death (Revelation 11:1-12).

Look, I don’t envy you. I’m writing this in August of 2022, and the past couple years have been pretty nuts from my perspective, but they pale in comparison to what you’re living through. Dig into the Bible, spread the word, and find other believers to encourage and be encouraged by. Dark days are ahead, and you’ll be hunted. If you turn to God, repent, and give your life to Him, He’ll give you what you need to make it to the end.

Don’t give up. It’s going to be worth it.

Want to learn more about specific Biblical references on the End Times? See http://peoplegetready.org/end-times/150-chapters-bible-times/

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It’s A Good Idea To Have Some Backup

In my younger days I thought it’d be cool to get SCUBA certified, so while I was stationed in coastal Virginia with the Air Force, I found a dive shop and got signed up for the course.

I had been on a few “escorted” dives prior to that, and I enjoyed them, so I figured this would be a fun hobby to get into. The course was split up into sections; we had classwork, pool time, and time in a lake.

The academic work made sense to me, and the pool time was a good warm up as far as familiarization with adjusting equipment and figuring out how to operate underwater. The lake was the part I was looking forward to, though.

When the day finally came, we showed up and went over a few things from class. Then we went over the dive plan and a map of the area where we’d be diving. Finally we paired off into teams of “dive buddies” and suited up.

It was much different from the pool. I didn’t wear a wetsuit; I wore a semi-dry suit, which made me very buoyant. It took just about all the extra weight I owned just to maintain neutral buoyancy. The instructors helped me with a few tricks and some extra weight, and got me ready to go. After we got our equipment situated to our liking, we began the dive.

It started off fine. We followed the plan, moving from one underwater landmark to the next without a problem. Over time though, something started feeling wrong. The buckle holding my air tank in place somehow came loose. The tank began sliding out of place, moving down my back.

Because of where the buckle was located and how the tank was seated, I couldn’t get the leverage or the reach to fix things on my own. My dive buddy was in front of me, and I tapped him on the leg to get his attention. He turned to look, and I pointed over my shoulder at my tank, but I guess what I was trying to communicate wasn’t very obvious. He turned back around and kept swimming according to our dive plan. I grabbed him and pointed again to my tank, making more exaggerated gestures. (It was frustrating being so close to someone without being able to talk to them!)

He finally figured out what I was getting at. I turned my back to him, he slid the tank into the right position and locked the buckle in place. After that I was good to go and we were able to resume the dive according to the original plan.

Sometimes, you just need a buddy. My prayer is that something I write on this blog helps encourage you to step out in faith and use the gifts God’s given you to bring glory to Him. My hope is that the fruit of your efforts goes way beyond anything you thought it would be, but make no mistake: if you attempt to give God glory, you’ll run into opposition. You’re going to get discouraged. You’re going to get knocked down. Having a buddy to help you get back on your feet is a great asset to have.

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. –Ecclesiastes 4:12

As you embark on your efforts to employ your God-given gifts and talents, keep your buddy/buddies close, and be quick to lend a hand when they get knocked down, too.

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It’s Time to Cowboy Up

The apostle Paul, in his closing salutation to the Colossians, made a unique remark to the readers of his letter.

In the second to last verse in the whole book, he told them something to pass along to somebody he knew, somebody named Archippus. I don’t know exactly who he was, some think he was probably the son of Philemon (as in…the book of Philemon, verse 2). In Colossians 4, verse 17, Paul says And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

It’s so simple that you may have read right over it without even thinking about it. Why would this text even be included in the letter?

My guess is that Archippus was like a lot of us. I’m openly speculating here, but I’d guess Archippus was waffling about proceeding with the charge God had given him.

We read the well-known Bible stories and think “well, yeah, if God talked to me from a burning bush, I’d know what He wanted me to do, too!” Gideon got two chances to make sure he really got the message and that God wasn’t just messing with him.

For the rest of us though, God’s calling can be a lot more subtle. Sometimes it takes a lot of prayer, seeking, and waiting. Other times it’s dropped in your lap. Once you know it, though, you’re on the hook. It’s not just a dreamy “someday goal,” it’s something you’ve been charged by God to do, and it’s up to you to take steps toward making it happen.

It’s a sobering thing. Receiving a calling, great or small, means you have the opportunity to rise to the occasion. It’s God saying “okay, now let’s see how you do with this one.” It means you have the chance to step out in faith and act in obedience in a way that will enable you to look back later in life and be proud that you chose to honor the Lord when He gave you the invitation. You might take it, you might not; nobody’s going to make you. I don’t know what level of sadness is possible in Heaven, but I imagine that remembering lost opportunities on Earth to worship the King of Kings is probably one of the saddest things you could dwell on.

So with that perspective, I’d love to encourage anyone like Archippus…do it. Follow through. Take heart, because God you this charge…this ministry…for a reason. You might not learn it this side of Heaven, but it will all become clear someday. Fulfill that calling, and think of it as performing an act of worship.

Need a little motivation and a reminder about who you are? Check out this video. Take note of the thoughts you have while watching it, and don’t be afraid to take action.

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Your Tax Dollars (Not) at Work

Hiding on Grandma’s couch is one of the only things this camo pattern’s good for

Right after Basic Training I got shuttled off to another section of Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, TX. It was here I began the long road to become an instructor for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, & Escape, or SERE.

Of course, right after Basic, you’re not much good for anything aside from doing what you’re told. It’s nothing personal…you just don’t know anything yet. You have to hang around for awhile and learn how things are done (sadly, the thing that makes the most sense isn’t commonly done). Our first week or so after arriving at SERE was spent doing what we call “in-processing,” which in our case consisted of some paperwork and sitting around listening to lots of briefings. We didn’t interact with the SERE instructors during that week other than to say “hi, we’re here;” we did our in-processing en masse with administrative troops that did it full time.

One day, probably the week after we finished all our in-processing, I think our instructors had some stuff they had to take care of at the school building, so they sent us back to our dorms to do our details…where we cleaned up and were supposed to make the place shine. One thing that’s important to understand…this was in early 2004; we were in the midst of two wars and the military infrastructure to support them was crying uncle in some places. Rumor had it that the dorms we were staying in had been condemned, but had been pressed back into service for the war effort. We could do our details for weeks, but it was only going to make the place look so nice, you know? Sending students to do details in the dorms was just a way of keeping them out of our instructors’ closely cropped hair for awhile.

Now I was still pretty new to this, but apparently we didn’t get sent back to the dorms to do details very often, and when we did, it was seen as a great opportunity to goof off. The training was pretty intense, so having some free time was a nice thing to have, because we were all wound up pretty tight.

I guess I happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the more senior students pointed at me and said “You, you’re on Sergeant watch.” He sat me by a window where I could see the main entrance to our building. If I saw anybody that wasn’t a student approaching the entrance, especially any of the SERE instructors, I was supposed to raise the alarm.

I have no idea what everyone else was doing, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t what we were supposed to be doing. If one of our instructors had snuck in the back door and caught us, we would have paid pretty dearly for it. I was still young enough in my Air Force career not to know it, but punishment through physical exercise was something you come to embrace in SERE Indoctrination. Uniform look like garbage? Get down and start doing flutter kicks. Is your hair too long? That’s a set of pushups for each hair that’s touching one of your ears. Suffer an egregious lapse in judgment during the weekend? Heaven help you.

After staring hard out the window for awhile, one of our SERE instructors rounded the corner of the building, heading toward our door. I was still so new that I didn’t even know the guy’s name. “It’s Sergeant…one of the sergeants is walking up the path!”

One of the more senior students rushed to the window to get a better look, and sure enough, he saw Joe walking toward the front door. With a muttered curse, he ran out of the room and down the hallway, letting everyone know they needed to look busy…now. About 10 seconds later, guys were mopping the halls, vacuuming the Day Room, washing windows, dusting stuff that didn’t have a speck of dust on it, and scrubbing stuff you never even thought about scrubbing.

Joe wasn’t a sadistic dude, but if he had caught us goofing off, he would have dropped the hammer on us! It would have been one of those “everybody do pushups until I get tired” moments. Then after hearing us struggle for awhile he would have said “are you getting tired?” When we said yes, he would have said “okay, roll over on your backs and start doing flutter kicks.”

I wouldn’t say we performed our duty in an honorable way that day, but it provides a different bit of context to a famous Bible verse about being watchful. First Peter 5:8 says Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

I don’t think Joe came there to try to catch us doing something we weren’t supposed to be doing. He was probably just coming to the dorms to say “okay, we’re ready for you to come back now,” but if he had seen what we were actually doing, you can bet he would have devoured every last one of us. Whether he was intentionally trying to catch us or if he caught us as targets of opportunity, the result would have been the same: we’d be toast.

The devil is the same way. Constantly on the prowl, he’s looking for believers to devour. I don’t think he bothers too much with nonbelievers…he already owns them, so why would he waste effort on them? He’s looking for enemies to pick off. Sometimes he’s targeting a firmly planted Christian through an ongoing campaign against them, and other times he comes across a Christian that’s teetering on the edge of something they’re not supposed to be doing. If he sees that, he’ll put his campaign on pause and pounce on the target of opportunity. Enticing that believer to sin enables a whole host of tools that can be used against them to cripple their effectiveness as the hands and feet of God (guilt, shame, desensitizing of sin, fear, doubt, follow-on consequences, etc.).

Therefore, as Peter says, be on your guard and on high alert, because your enemy’s looking for an opening where he can nail you. Don’t give him the opportunity.