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Old Ghost

Sometimes you sit in a sermon and it makes life appear so easy, just turn your face to Jesus. And it really is that easy almost.

This weekend marks 6 years of going to church and in those 6 years Leisha and I have pushed so hard for personal transformation as individuals, as a couple, as a family. We have experienced so much, I know a little bit about that life style now, metanoia. I just don’t think you get to where you need to be without facing your Old Ghost. In fact Leisha is in the throws of discovering and facing some Old Ghost who have hidden themselves so well she only has an inkling they are really there…  Sometimes it’s so painful for her and you have to know surely painful for me to watch from a near, from a far.  I am trying to be as good to her through this as she has been to me, its difficult, she set the bar high.

I am convinced it takes both facings, Jesus and Old Ghost, one lifts up, takes you to a place you should be, the other takes you down to a place you need to go.  If you don’t go there you probably won’t be able to hear or see where Jesus was and especially what he wants to talk about … about those Old Ghost.

Old Ghost
Haunt these halls and cross my lonely thoughts
Show up in the funny way I talk
Speak to me in records that I bought
Screamin at me for all the things I lost

Old Ghost
Lingerin by my old stompin grounds
They built them all and tore the old house down
I can’t go back and I can’t go around
The devils that live on that side of town

I believe in things that I can’t see
In my blood and in my bones
These old Ghost they all belong to me
They hurt me and they heal me
They hide and they reveal me
Remind me what I will be when I’m gone

Old Ghost
Sometimes in the Dark they hold me close
Whisper things I wish I didn’t know
About my self and every heart I’ve

I believe in things I can’t see
In my blood and in my bones
These old Ghost they all belong to me
They hurt me and they heal me
They hide and they reveal me
Remind me what I will be when I’m gone

Identity 01

This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters

Now if you will turn to Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”

In my family on the Darling side there are 17 Grand Children, I am the oldest and for quite some time the Grand Children have been having children.  My wife and I have one child.  I have heard it for a couple of decades, when a new child is born we look for big jowls [show mine] and when we see them we all get giddy with glee, that baby is one of us !!!!!  Don’t all of us do that ???  What would happen at the family introduction if your child had Teletubby’s like ears for the first time.  Everyone would be speaking softly, behind backs about that but what if for generations everyone had Teletubby like ears and protrusions from their heads and your new baby had them too.  There would be celebration about that, THE DARLINGS LIVE ON !!! IT WORKED YET AGAIN !!!…  EVEN PAGANS WOULD CELEBRATE THIS TO THE GODS OF FERTILITY !!! THANK THE GODS WE ARE LOOKED UPON WITH FAVOR BY THEM,

My wife nicknamed my daughter Ronda because she is in so many ways like her daddy… Ron.  Recently Ronda and I took a small trip together and after a few days sent mom a picture of us having a good time.  It was a picture of the kitchen cabinets in the place we were renting…  most of the doors left open.  We didn’t set that up, we just noticed it and all 3 of us just laughed and laughed.  That and countless other natural things drive momma NUTTS at home, sometimes Ronda and I like to emphasis things to relish in this imaging thing and of course make momma a little uncomfortable 🙂  But know for sure there is lots of Leisha in Ronda too.  Like momma’s naturally sweet nature.  I love that about my offspring.  I have become sweeter but the natural sweetness my daughter has comes from her mother.

This is Identity Language, Fathering Language, Parenting Language.  It’s all over the bible and the more you learn to see it the more you will see it.   We do have things in us that came from our “Spiritual Father”.  God is trying to communicate to man here and to you and me specifically, he is our father, we naturally get things from him just like our children getting things from us.  We are being invited into a certain perspective of a relationship with the Creator…  as a Father where we also have things already in us like our father.  Father is used all over the bible and that kind of perspective, that kind of thinking is a huge part of our rightful inheritance as a child and its hugely important to know that, work that out in our minds eye until we begin to approach the creator from the universe from that angle.  If you study religions and world views in the world God as a Father is fairly unique and it is absolutely part of the world view that comes to us from the long legacy of Christianity.

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Calling all Angles

This Christmas I am going to admit something outside of my own head. Meaning I am going to vocalize it. I already started it actually by telling my life’s partner, Leisha. I don’t really like Christmas. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the ideas behind Christ Mas, the birth stuff. I just don’t like what it represents in my/our culture. All the spending, the goofy movies, the lights are ok, everyone is so happy but yet pushy and even if they are not pushy they often are only friendly, happy, for now. What’s up with that ???? I would actually prefer more of a year of more genuine kindness under less pressure without the fake happiness under pressure that leads to pushiness. I would trade for that. Just a community that is kind under normal times all year. I know I’m not alone, but I’m not going to call anyone out, force them to join in my chorus.

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The Word Became Flesh – Part 1

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I read a lot of books about the Bible because I just don’t think on the kinds of levels a lot of book writers think at.   I have pondered this question for near 35 years and I have never read in the Bible or from any author the answer as to why in as simple but as powerful answer as this.  Left on my own this is what happens too often for too long.  I had to post it to my blog – #Floored.

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Link

This is a sermon by our Senior Pastor at my church Valley Creek in Flower Mound Texas.

There is a place

There is a place where the mind is renewed. There is a journey that allows this to happen. You might need to control some of your thoughts along the way but…. thinking that you controlling your thoughts is the way and only way is not the way….

You will have to pursue changing the way you see things, view things, that is true repentance and it is a necessary part of the recipe.

Focusing on a Good and Loving Father is another part of the recipe, as is prayer, quieting you…yourself, chewing on scriptural concepts, especially on surrendering oneself and forgiveness. Worship of several kinds is one of the main ingredients. You might even have to ask for forgiveness from some others. Becoming generous is another ingredient, throw in lots of that…

Relationships, oh my, relationships with other pilgrims or seekers…. yeah that is like salt in the ingredient or spices. Can’t have a recipe without those things.

There is some experiences involved, they are mile markers along the road and good ones too because they tell you, you are in fact on the right road. Without experiences that come from outside of you, the road you are on is probably the one where its only about you doing everything. It’s the very wrong road.

When the right kind of experiences happen you might not be able to explain exactly how or what happened but….you will be in a different place forever more and you won’t feel a need to defend the process and might even feel inspired, maybe very inspired to point others in the paths you just encountered.

There is gold in them thar hills !!!!

It does not mean, as the previous chapter has made clear, that we are imagining Judaism to be merely a ‘faith’, a system of beliefs. To call Judaism ‘a faith’ is actually, in one sense, a piece of Christian cultural imperialism, imagining that because Christianity thinks of itself as a ‘faith’ other peoples do the same. Judaism characteristically thinks of itself as a way, a halakah, a life-path, a way of being-in-the-world.

Wright, N. T. (1992-01-01). New Testament People God V1: Christian Origins And The Question Of God (p. 245). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.hill

Done with Anger…

I have hidden all of my blog post on my struggle with Anger.  I have been made whole in so many ways in regards to this I am letting this part of my old man die… sort of.  I can get to the post if need be so I am not deleting them yet but I might as I move forward.  Do I have work still left to do, yeah we all do but I am moving on past this.