Poimen Ponderings

I might be bias because I am Irish (some percentage anyway), but Saint Patrick is a hero of the Church to me.  After being kidnapped and taken as a slave to escape years later; he returned to his captor as a missionary to win the king’s heart and mind (and soul).  He return to save the man who once owned him.  In my book, every day is St. Pat’s Day.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven,
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today,
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
~ Saint Patrick

Being raised an Evangelical, I knew what the Gospel was and wondered why some denominations didn’t teach it.  I hear some of my brothers and sisters say they have never heard the Gospel in “such in such” church.  I am inclined to think there is an overall miscomprehension over what this Gospel is in the first place.

I grew up understanding the Gospel to be that Jesus died for our sins.  He took upon himself our penalty. The gospel is the cross. It ends God’s wrath, our sins can be forgiven and we can go to heaven when we die.  Thus, the reason for the phrase, “I’m Saved.”  But, over the last 10 years my understanding of Gospel isn’t so narrowly focused.  I would welcome any suggestions towards the meaning of  the “Gospel”. continue reading » »

How many times have you attended church services, meetings, and events and wondered to yourself why you even there?   This questioning actually has less to do with the Church and more to how we view community.  As we become more isolationist we value the church community less and less.  Back in the day people worked all day in their trade/farm and came together as a community on Sundays, the church was a significant component to society’s structure.  But today, technology has transformed our worldview, our needs, and our values.  For example, some people stay at home and watch “church” on TV … when the word “church” in the Greek literally means “to assemble together”.  But enough talk …  Let’s discuss the bottom line.   Does the church still have meaning for us today?

continue reading » »

0 Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
Hear Me!
I am small and weak
I need Your strength and wisdom!
Let me walk in beauty
And may my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things You have made,
Make my ears sharp to hear Your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things You have
taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons You have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be greater than my brothers and sisters,
but to fight my greatest enemy . . . myself.
Make me always ready to come to You with clean hands
and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset my spirit may come to
You without shame. Amen.

There is a movement to combine science and religion in an attempt to quantify empirically results of people’s faith.  There has been research on prayer and recovery of patients.  But, these are not truly scientific because they only give interpretations of observed reductional results without any control to the myriad of variables.  It only makes common sense that a person will think healthier if they know another person is thinking about them (and praying).  I find these researches very interesting, but not evidence but they are too shaky.  Can faith or spirituality be proven? continue reading » »

LTC Gadson and Chaplain Parson

Recently, my wife and I attended an Army Ball for the celebration of the Centenial of Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s 100 years of serving and carring for our wounded and sick service members. Anyway, after enjoying the dinner, we ran into my previous battalion commander, LTC Greg Gadson.

May the Lord God continue to make ways for our Wounded Warriors, our heroes, to follow their dreams and ambitions according to His calling.

Each day, creation reveals another level of humanity’s dependence on the other elements of nature.   We are dependent on water.   We are dependent on the sun for light, heat, and energy.  We are dependent on trees for fresh air, on plants and vegetation for food and nourishment.  We were not created simply out of the dust of the earth and set aside.  We were created as part of a complex system in which we are reliant upon for living. continue reading » »

Christianity is full of paradoxes.  We cannot put our minds around the idea that God can be human.  Its blasphemous!  It is the great scandal.  Through that paradox, we gain life through death.  Solitude as loneliness and solitude as grace offers us another such conundrum.  One person speaks of sorrow while another experiences it as a gift.  Our modern culture shuns solitary places and those that seek it out.  Solitude can be a desperate alienating and isolated place in which hearts withers and hope is abandoned.  Loneliness, I have seen it in the eyes of a Soldier in Iraq who has no one to write to or to call.  I have heard it in a patients voice when there is no one to visit them in the hospital.   Sadly, I have read the anguish in a letter written by a young man in his suicide note.  People experience unimaginable depth of loneliness at times, and these are indeed lonely, un-chosen solitary places of the human heart.

continue reading » »

End of Days.  The Last Days.  Apocalypse.  Armageddon.  Revelation. Tribulation.  There are many words associated apocalyptic literature.  We have been to the seminars, we’ve heard countless sermons and teachings, there is a whole genre of movies, music, art, and books created on this idea that the world is coming to an end.  Has the Church missed the point of God’s rhetoric that graphically displays God’s wrath upon the earth?  What was the purpose of “The Late Great Planet Earth” book, “The Left Behind” books, and the “Thief in the Night” movie?   They were created to propagate a sense of fear among non-believers to scare them into Church.  Was this God’s intention when he inspired the author to pen the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (the Book of Revelation)? 
continue reading » »

We seek after God because we want to experience Him; we want to know Him.  Yet, we often create barriers instead of bridging.  No matter who you are, we all tend to perform good works in order to please God, to gain His favor and blessing on our lives.  Some perform acts of penitence to clear their feelings of guilt.  Some do acts of service, such as feeding the homeless, fasting, and giving funds to orphans.  All these things can be profitable to a man, but they can also create an illusion of safety in their own efforts.  Our good acts don’t greatly matter to God, but only what your love and devotion and intention are in the works are.

Meister Eckhart said, “For the man is far too greedy who is not satisfied with God.”

We are to hunger and thirst after His righteousness. We are to pant like a deer as we run to His living waters. He is the Source of true pure life. Yet, if a man desires more than the abundant life that he gives to us, is he not being selfish and no longer thirsting after Living Waters?  If our heart wholly desires to please God (and not our own defense or gain), then God is freed to work through us wholly.