Nick’s Walk

I have  been a bit “drifty” this week. A few days ago OC used the same title for his devotional on consecutive days, “”Are You Ready to Be Offered.” My mind would not accept this, so I skipped the second day with that title. Therefore, all week I have been a day ahead of OC. I was even so arrogant as to wonder why the service which forwards the daily devotional was behind a day. Equally disturbing is no one seemed to notice. Is there anyone out there? This all comes from a lack of focus, not paying attention, not listening. I have the choice of trying to go back and make up the lost day or “fill in” one day. Tomorrow, OC will discuss the fact that we don’t listen to God. Obviously, I don’t even listen to other people. So I’ve decided to discuss that today and, hopefully, be back on track tomorrow. I observe that most of us really don’t listen. That is tragic because each of us has an incredibly deep desire to be heard and an intense, and sadly accurate, feeling that no none is listening to us. Because of that great unfulfilled need, […]

I have the honor of speaking to the Lafayette One Nation Under God group next week.  We will meet at the Public Library South on Johnston St, Lafayette, Monday,  Feb. 15, 2010 at 6:30 PM. I  will present “Re-establishing One Nation Under God – One person at a time” Another presentation will be “The Secrets of the Federal Reserve – Detriment to America” Please join us if you can.  Nick

Rosemary and I were discussing last night one of the problems of aging: loss of memory: Walking into a room and forgetting why I went there, being unable to bring to your lips the name of someone close. Conversations at breakfast which I normally have with a group of friends of which I am the youngest, are often strange. Detailed discussions take place about mutual acquaintances, whose names are never mentioned, because none of our aging minds can remember the names, but we all know to whom we refer. These little lapses of memory are normal; but forgetting our past can be spiritually deadly. In a spiritual desert? It happens,  that “feeling” that God is far away, that our prayers hit the ceiling and go no further, that Our Father, if He even exists, just doesn’t care.  We all have those moments. It becomes a great problem if we dwell in the desert and a momentary “feeling” can become a dry and hopeless way of life. These moments are also “memory” problems and the solution to these desert moments is to remember. “Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God […]

Once again OC comes up with a fascinating concept: the starvation of our imagination of God. “The people of God in Isaiah’s day had starved their imagination by looking on the face of idols, and Isaiah made them look up at the heavens, that is, he made them begin to use their imagination aright.” I wonder what OC would think of the state of imagination today. Looks like the movie “Avatar” will set records for attendance and sweep the Academy awards. It is without question the most “imaginative” movie I have ever seen. It is just the most recent and most dramatic example of the state of imagination today. We are bombarded with imaginative images and concepts. I think that very avalanche has starved our individual imaginations and particularly our imagination of God. In our media intense world the need to imagine is virtually eliminated. Movies in 3D, video games and constant exposure to television replace individual imagination. The Art of Reading is dying. To read requires the application of imagination as our minds turns the printed word into self-created visions that make up the story line. We don’t do much of that anymore. Starvation for the imagination of […]

I slept like a log last night. I was completely exhausted. Sometime during the game I got a several inch long cut on my arm. It was a tough game. It will be useless to try to accomplish much today. I’m still too high. The Saints are the Champions of the world. It’s a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience and the exhaustion and exhilaration are intense and simultaneous. It’s not a completely unknown feeling. It feels very much like the days after completing a Kairos weekend. That experience is also exhilarating and exhausting. There is a feeling of having  been spiritually used up. And that is a good and appropriate thing. It is what we are created for. It’s our purpose after our salvation: to be completely used by God.  Recently after a period of great productivity in my life; I realized that the cycle of waking in the morning excited and motivated to get things done and the evenings feeling almost too tired to move, is the right and natural way of living. But remember that it is crucial that exhaustion is part of a cycle of refreshment, pouring out, and exhaustion. A balance in our spiritual life is crucial. We […]

We understand that sanctification is a process that begins when we are saved. But why is it a process? Why doesn’t God just make us instantaneously everything we are meant to be? I am reminded of the court room exchange in the movie “A Few Good Men.” The young officer demands of the aged veteran officer: “I want the truth.” And he is told, “You can’t handle the truth.” As to sanctification, we are not instantly ready for full sanctification: the cost is too great. “It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Sanctification means intense concentration on God’s point of view.” At salvation, we don’t surrender our free will, nor or we transported from the material, non-spiritual world in which we live. Although our eyes are opened when God saves us; our vision is still immature. In the process of sanctification, our interests increasingly match the interests of our God. It is a process which must move forward if we are to increasingly become the image of Christ. How much sanctification are you prepared for? The better question may be: Are you ready for […]

This little graphic is from the Walk to Emmaus web site. The Walk is similar to Cursillo. These are the ministries on which Kairos, the prison ministry is based. After Jesus’ death and Resurrection, disciplines were walking to Emmaus, confused and dejected by the recent events and Jesus appeared along side them, walked with them initially unrecognized.   I was feeling a bit dejected last night. Kaydence’s father couldn’t fly in from offshore yesterday because of the weather; so we have her for at least one more day. That’s certainly not a bad thing; but I had plans for today. I was going to my Kairos meeting in Baton Rouge. We have painters coming on Monday and I have to do things to get ready. I’m suppose to meet someone. . . well you get the point. “Jesus, what are you doing. I have plans.”  That’s how it is with the feeling of dejection. It isn’t that Jesus isn’t there; it’s just that we don’t recognize Him. Today’s My Utmost for His Highest is so good and so deep, I just want to paste the whole thing here and send it on. In fact, that’s what I’ll do in edited […]

It seems my every work in ministry has been up front and prominent. There are many “behind the scenes” jobs in Kairos; but I’ve never had one of those. At any church there are many who pray, clean, bake cookies, and do all the things that are required to make any ministry work. I’ve never had any of those kinds of jobs. I’ve always been a teacher or preacher. So today’s My Utmost for His Highest devotional struck me hard.” I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching and saying, ‘Well done.’”I would like to think that I would  be willing to toil for God in some way that is never noticed and never appreciated. But I’m frankly not sure. I appreciate those who work behind the scenes those whose efforts in the kingdom are never known. I know that those whose efforts go “unrewarded” in this life will be greatly honored in the next. I need to seek and perform those tasks that are never noticed and never appreciated. “Are you ready to be not so much […]