“I came in like a wrecking ball… .” So said the chorus of Miley Cyrus’ song Wrecking Ball. And she was on to something. So many of us wreck our lives with all kinds of desires, actions, secrets, and false-fronts.

     Why? We can’t be that stupid. Yeah…, we can.

     In the end it will all come back on top of us and destroy our family relationships, professional accomplishments, and friendships. All because we hide something or fake truth to appear more something to others.

     Forgive me, but I’m going to list some things we do to wreck our relationships; especially with Jesus. We lie. We pretend. We fake trust. We play games. We downplay sin. We cheat on Truth. We fake relationships. We say we are “fine” with God when it is obvious we are not.

     There…, have I missed any?!? If you’ve found any other ways we can wreck our relationship with God, please, let me know what they are.

     The question now is, do you want to get back into a healthy relationship with the God who made you? If you do, here are some ideas—  Start with admitting that you are a screw-up. You have failed God (and probably some other people), You knew His principles that would protect you in life…, and you ignored them. Stupid, really. And life threatening.

     Then, talk with someone who you know loves you…, really loves you. They already know you’re a screw-up; they know you’re a mess. They might even be surprised when you come to them in humility, seeking help to get yourself out of this mess. But it’s a smart move to go to one who loves you for gentle correction and guidance. Do it!

     There are probably some  practices in your life you will have to stop. Extramarital Sex, for one. Abuse of alcohol is another. They are the obvious ones. There also things you will have to START doing. Seeking forgiveness from people you love, that you’ve hurt deeply. There are also those on the borders of your life with whom you also need to do some rebuilding.

     But the most important Person you need to get to know again is Jesus. How does He see you? Now. How can you prove to Him you are serious this time? Would you be willing to shut up long enough so you can hear Him read you…, to you?

     These are not simple, easy things to bring up.

     But if you want to dig out from the wreckage your life has become it’s not going to be any simple four step process.

     Get ready to dig in.

In Christ our Lord,

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— Letting God mold you

www.CluelessChristianity.org  

Monday was St. Valentine’s Day! This is the one day in the year that most men express their love to their wives and sweethearts with roses and chocolate. With all the current anger and division in our world it is a much needed celebration.

     Sadly, it often feels like a last-minute sham too much of the time. Dinner reservations need to be made way in advance for this day, but, other than that, it can be pretty much a last-minute-thought sort of thing. Some women get roses and chocolate that feel like after-thoughts. Sad.

     But the real sadness are the people who have no one who loves them. The homeless, the separated, the widowed, those whose relationships are broken, over, the divorced. For this set of individuals, this day is the saddest of all.

     Worse still, there are those of us who spend our lives alone. Totally alone. Either we’ve been burned so many times that we no longer even want to try or we’ve just never learned how to be loved. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. Self shielding isolation.

     So when someone does express genuine love, genuine affection for us, we rebuff it, ignore it, or assume they want something in exchange. NO ONE could simply love me without wanting something in return?!?

     How dare they?

     This is one of the root causes why people don’t love freely anymore. It is also, in our postChristian mindset, that people cannot believe the Gospel is offered freely to them in love. They don’t trust that. Or us.

     So how do we offer something to people who don’t think they need it, don’t trust it, and don’t know what do do with it?

     The answer lies in the reality that the Christian message must be embedded with in us. Our lives, the way we live, is the Gospel. Why are we the way we are? What makes us seem unusual, different, loving? It is the transformative work of Christ the Lord within us.

     We should be oozing the life and love of Jesus out of our pores. And for that to happen it first needs to be washing us within, cleansing us of our own crud, and setting our spirits free!

     There. Feel better yet? It’s just one of God’s little surprises that takes place once He enters us and makes us new creations. Like I said— different.

     Happy Valentines Day (late).

     Remember. You’re not alone. It just feels that way sometimes.

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— Seeking the Power to Overcome Myself

[personal note. I really do not feel like writing this EMPulse. The side effects from Radiation Treatments for my cancer have not been kind. I’m not sleeping. Serious body pain. And constant fatigue. So I write this for you. I feel like something the cat threw up,]

    Let’s face it. It’s going to take more than a cup of coffee or a dinner-for-two at a nice restaurant to recharge our batteries. These past 2 years have wreaked havoc on us. We are not who we were.

    Most of this early 2022 world is trying to find our way through yet another reiteration of the COVID19 virus (flurona); not to mention rising costs in virtually every area of life. Government has shown itself as being somewhat overwhelmed by the enormity of our world’s dilemmas. And we’ve just opened another can of worms with the commemoration of the insurrection of the attacks on our Capital Building. O joy.

    In the midst of all this mess I am going to ask you to get a better handle on 2022. Take out a notepad and write down the tipping points of YOUR life over 2021. Some of these points will be not-so-great: some will be the-best-that-could-be-expected; still others will be GREAT!

    So, how have these events prepared you for what might come upon you for 2022?

    REVIEW can be encouraging or depressing. So let’s move on to RENEW. What parts of your life need RENEWAL? Repair? Elimination? What needs to change? Renewal steps just don’t happen by themselves. Call me if you want some help.

    Finally, NOW CAN YOU REGHARGE YOUR BATTERIES IN 2022? Planning a vacation this summer is too far out to help now. What recharges you in winter? If in Florida, maybe you need to go pound some snowballs somewhere. If your spiritual life seems frozen, try a different way to spend time with God, or at least a way from all the distractions in life.

    Find a way to turn your mind OFF, and your heart ON. Dinner and prayer with a friend. Single malt scotch, a good cup pf tea, something. Something that takes you out of the warp & woof of life. A weekend in a secluded mountain cabin, or an empty beach. Something.

    Between New Years and the Super Bowl there isn’t much to live for in western culture. Except freezing your butt off and looking for cheaper flights to the Caribbean.

    David once bemoaned his state of forlornness in Psalm 42.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me?

     Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

My salvation and my God.

     Without Christ in our lives I wonder how any of us would make it. Even with Christ it’s hard sometimes. But I would still admonish you to rise up and fight! REVIEW, RENEW, and RECHARGE your life, your faith, with a little determined effort on your part. Don’t expect God to do it all for you.

Honor God, honor people…, make a difference,

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— When Life hands you a lemon…, just forget it.

“Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.”

  As we draw closer to Christmas day, the PEACE Candle, or the ANGEL’S Candle, reminds us that we are not, to say the least, in a peaceful world. Impending war with China, over Taiwan, or Russia, over the Ukraine, or Iran, over whatever, we are not a peaceful world.

  With a rising debt-ceiling, there can be few of us who are comfortable with our nation’s, or our family’s financial futures. Our grandchildren will still be contending with the consequences of our actions today for years to come.

  If you are a student of history, you understand these present conditions are ripe for the onslaught of war; or at least, undeclared conflict. O joy.

  So where does anybody find peace in this world we live in? Trust in governments certainly doesn’t seem to be a viable option. Nor does trust in money. It’s nice to have, making you and yours a little more secure. But how long will that last?

      Now Friends! There’s somewhere we can turn…,  if we’ve taken the time to form and forge the kind of depths in our relationships needed for such times as these. Friendships go a long way in bringing us peace.

      Still, the only source of peace I know that last literally forever, is bonding ourselves with the God who made us. It doesn’t get much more peaceful than that. Now, does this assure us of world peace? No. Racial peace? No. Governments which actually work together? Absolutely not. The end of hatred and prejudice? Definitely not.

      The angels’ announcement of peace to the shepherds the night God entered our tiny planet was a declaration that, if you align yourself with God, with Jesus, you can know the most unusual peace that cuts across the insanity and chaos of all that is going on around us. When I find myself in a tense or dangerous situation, I find the peace of Christ running calmly through the undercurrents of my soul.

      Chaos is still chaos. Frantic disruptions will come. But glued to the grace of Christ, this will have little effect on our present disposition.

      In my own life, I’ve known excruciating physical pain. I’ve known despair to the depths of my soul. Starr and I have known unknowable personable loss, and even ostracism within the Body of Christ. But peace reigns.

      So light up this 4^th candle in Advent! Let it shine and remind you what our Lord Jesus has given to all of us. PEACE. Not a peace this world could ever understand, but one that passes all understanding. [Philippians 4:7-9] As you trust your life, your future, to Jesus Christ, more and more, this peace will come upon you and surprise you, at the most unexpected times. Get used to different.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Loving God, loving people…, & bringing the two together

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— The fifth Sunday of Advent— the Christ Candle.

     Over the past 50+ years we have witnessed two major shifts in Western society that have yet to achieve total fruition: the death of a belief in any absolute, final truth, and, the emergence of anger as a preferred response to any challenge. Couple these two shifts with a general milieu of indifference to the Christian message as well as a diminishing understanding of what it’s all about and we have a pre-proclivity to toss aside the Christian faith as having anything meaningful to say.

     Houston, we have a problem.

     In western culture the historical context for the Christian message, the gospel, has all but vanished from the public consciousness. And in some cases, even the Church has lost sight of its message, and probably its original purpose as well.

     To put the gospel of Jesus Christ in a postChristian context is to pull Truth out of thin air. “Truth” in a postChristian mindset does not exist. There are multiple truths, held by each individual that works for them individually. To tell them they have a sin problem makes no sense. What is “right from wrong” anyway?

     If they have time to think at all, getting them back to Where did all this stuff come from? is a real trick. More people spend their energies on anger than anything else. If it’s not anger, it’s brokenness. We have a lot of lovin’ to do before most people can wonder about where did all this come from, let alone have a context for our gospel.

     The gospel wasn’t given to tell people they are sinners. That has no context in today’s world. It is given to tell them they have hope. The whole world is not doom & gloom. Nor is it a negative encouragement (?) to simply confess their sin(s). The Christian message for this shattered, scattered, twenty first century is that you can only become all you want to become in life, all that’s good and noble and right, through reconnecting with the God who made you. Once you understand the greatness of God you will know you need to repent for the life you are now living.

     God’s design was for us to enjoy Himself and the world around us. For that to be in place and activated we must re-ignite our vertical relationship with Him.

     In a sense, none of us is fully human without a vertical connection to the God who made us; a vertical relationship that gives our horizontal relationships a completed context. To go through life without a vertical connection to our Creator lessens our humanity. We are NOT all God intended us to be.

      What I’m getting at is that people in our postChristian society have no clue of any of this. They simply think that Christians think we are better than they are and that we think they have a problem.

      If Christ’s message of salvation is to be understood and acted upon we need to present it in such a way that their blinded-blank brains can receive it. With little to no conception of the effects of sin on their standing before God might I suggest that we point them to consider their own lack of fulfillment in life? Their brokenness, their sense of loss, their buried distances from other people, their loneliness in this world.

            Pascal (1623-1662) was right— “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”

-This is from page 75 of Blaise Pascal’s Pensées’ (New York; Penguin Books, 1966)

Loving God, loving people…, & bringing the two together

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— the Gospel for people who know nothing. Pt.2.

 Jean Paul Sartre a famous existentialist philosopher [1905-1980], once quipped that Hell… is other people. He was not known for his people skills.

     Winston Churchill, on the other hand, got it right— If you’re going thru Hell… Keep Going.

     Too many of us wallow in our guilt, or pity, or lamentable state until we find the right person, or persons, to drag down with us. I used to comment on someone we know quite well (name withheld) who seemed to live by the axiom Life is a bitch…, then you die. Actually, for this individual, that would have been a step uP.

     It is further said that Misery loves company. Well, no it doesn’t. Who wants to be around a chronically miserable person?!?

     In the Christian Bible we are admonished to Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. [Phillipians 4:4, ESV] There have been times when, if someone had said that to me, I think I would have clocked ‘em. The loss of a parent, a child, someone you love, loss of a job, a tragedy, financial ruin, etc. What you want/need is someone to come alongside you and weep with you, to grieve with you.

     I’ve had such friends— they were/are life to me.

     So IF you’re going through Hell, keep going. But go through it with a friend; someone you love/someone who loves you. Even our Holy Trinity is Three in One. Our God understands the importance of friendship, companionship, a soulmate.

     If you’re trying to make it on your own, you won’t. But if you turn your eyes to God and cry out “God, please help me!” He might answer you through the love and gentleness of a friend.

     Don’t be an island. Our Lord is there to help you get through the tough times. You are worth it. He thinks so. (I think so too.)

Honor God, honor people, make a difference,

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— Jerks for Jesus…, revisited.

 

When I was studying art history at the Philadelphia Museum of Art one of my favorite paintings was by mid-twentieth century abstractionist Jackson Pollack (1912-1956). It depicts the randomness of oil paint dripped onto unprimed canvas. It is a h-u-g-e painting, covering most of a wall.

     When I first saw it I asked the museum’s curator, How much did we pay for this? I was shocked at the price-tag.

     Granted, I am not a connoisseur of abstract art. But it did reflect the sentiment of the age— CHAOS.

     Having just emerged from the chaos of WWII the world was searching for new definers; we were not who we were. But what were we?

     Historically, in the times following tragedy, people are searching for a new interpretation of the world around them and for some personal understanding of themselves. This was such an era.

     So also is our time.

     Amidst the civil, racial, and political unrest of the past decade the West has been plunged into a time of finding new definers to understand ourselves. For Christians it means discovering new ways of integrating our faith with the rest of our lives, and the world around us. Here are some of my ideas…

1.       STOP! Put your life on pause for a morning. Get away. Take a note-pad. List your observations.

2.       STOP! Spend time listening to God in prayer.

3.       Talk with someone who is NOT a Christian. Ask how they are making sense of it all.

4.       Talk with someone who is a Christian. Get their take on these impending challenges.

5.       Take time to let the Bible read you. I do not suggest a genealogy.

6.       Unless you live on the west coast, take time to breathe the fresh Fall air.

7.       If you are married, have a leisurely meal with your spouse to roll things around.

8.       Pray together for some kind of united front. You’ll need one another a lot more in these days.

     I’ll not beleaguer you with more ideas in the hopes that you will discover better ideas than mine. But do keep in mind, Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. [Proverbs 16:3]

     God is full of surprises. [You know the rest.] Not all is chaos.

Honor God, honor people, make a difference,

Gary

Dr. Gary Davis, President

NEXT— Finding God— Pulling it all together pt. 5.