On the Old Landmarks Disappearing

Today, I walked to the corner of the street where I have lived a good deal of my life.
Today, it was so very different.  The house on the corner of my street was sitting mostly in
a dumpster: knocked down to make progress. I honestly did not recognize what I was looking
at. The old landmark was gone. This is the fourth time that this has happened this year
and its strangely symbolic.  The local developer decided to buy up as much land  as he
could going down my street.. This last house was 30 year hold out. They just wouldn't sell
even though the house was abandoned, derelict, and had not been inhabited for decades.
In some ways it should have been demolished long ago, in others, it should have been
restored. Nevertheless, it was still a landmark with its own warning message.

The house next to it was demolished just before this one.  My friends lived there when
I was a child and when I told them, we were upset together. Before it was demolished
I went up to the empty window, stuck my head inside, and what hit me was a wave
of happy childhood memories.  Scores of people had lived there since the days that
I had  played there but just for a moment, it was 1967. Time is wobbly like that..

The house next to that one had been demolished last fall.  The last occupants were
a black lady and her son and her dog, Precious. That's how I got Precious.--the
people  had to move to make way for "progress" and progress didn't care one whit
that Precious would not be permitted to stay in the only other housing available
to the family.  So, while I leave out a lot of the story, I inherited the dog I vote most
like Jesus. My other dogs have not been the greatest Christians, this one outdoes me,
paws down.

Then the house two doors down from me, also fell to the wrecking ball. It shook
our house for two days and I couldn't bear to look.  It was Miss White's old house
and it was built the same year that ours was. Now instead of telling people that are
trying to find my house that I am the sixth house on the right, I will have to tell them
something entirely different. Somehow, that is just plain eerie.

Do you know why I've told you all this? Because in a similar way our spiritual
landmarks are disappearing and the wrecking ball is right next door shaking our
houses and I wanted you to ponder that with me.

 The dictionary describes landmark as "a prominent or conspicuous object on land 
that serves as a guide, especially to ships at sea or to travelers on a road, a 
distinguishing landscape feature marking a site or location."

Today when I walked down to the corner, I felt the exact same feeling of dis-ease
 that I've been feeling for several years spiritually.  I will miss the sense of coming
toward home and seeing that which marks my home area, that which is familiar
and comforting in its gift of stability. It's all changed and until I get used to it,
its going to bother me. Some change is required, some contains a deeper message.

Those landmarks had been there since I was a child. I had watched similar
ones fall along the way, but now it was right next to me, Likewise spiritually.
Proverbs tells us:"Remove not the ancient landmark," (Proverbs 22:28) 

There is good spiritual reason for that:  remove what is meant to guard
and soon a generation and all that come after will not be able to find their way.

If the foundations be shaken, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)
Our spiritual landscape is changing and nothing much looks or feels familiar.
Landmarks give us a sense of stability and order. They guide us.  They help us know
our boundaries and  respect our space. If they disappear how will we
know that we are still on the right path?

Most of the people I respected as leaders as I grew up spiritually are now
with the Lord. I heartily lament this. I often sit and wonder what they would be
preaching or saying now, here, this very minute. Others have lost their way or changed
their path, or I'm not sure.what. They don't feel the same. They don't sound the
same.  They don't preach the same--if they still preach and not just chat.from
the pulpit, if there even still is a pulpit.

When did everything change? When did the One Way sign change to Multiplex Rotary
Ahead?  When did the Stop sign change to Pause and then Sneak Through?
When did the Red Light have a Rainbow painted over it? When did  the Wrong Way
sign get replaced with Any Way You Want Will Get You There? Our landmarks
have disappeared, shifted, or are being replaced.  Some may have needed to be, most
did not

Much earlier in our North American history explorers would set a landmark  to mark
a land claim as their own. Later, unscrupulous others would come and remove the landmarks
thus taking things that were not theirs to take. A very different America emerges
if that had not happened. Compare that to the current spiritual landscape.


The Book of Job says, "Some remove the landmarks, they seize and devour the flocks"
(Job 24:2). Landmarks are removed to confuse and erase boundaries. They undo order and
leave the flocks open to danger.  So what are we to do?

God says, "One more time will I shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the
dry land and I will shake all nations and the Desire of  Nations shall come" (Haggai
2: 6 &7, )

Now we must set our eyes on Jesus alone. All is being stripped away in the purposes
and plan of God. We must seek the Truth that is revealed in and by Christ Jesus. He
alone must now be our Landmark and our High Tower. Lesser things, even all things
that are not built on the Firm Foundation of Christ, will be swept away in the coming
storm.  On Christ the Solid Rock I now must stand, for surely all other ground is sinking
sand.

Peter wrote to early Christians, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, But
rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ suffering, that , when His glory
shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy "(I Peter 4:12, 13) .

Beloved, this is not gong to be an easy time.  We find ourselves in a sea of confusion
and we must navigate by the Son alone.  All shall be well if we are focused on Him,
but do take care.

Discerning the Signs of the Times

When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be
foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring: O hyprocrites, you can discern the face of
the sky, but can you not discern the signs of the times?

Matthew 16: 2-4


I was running after an incredible sunset but could not get beyond the row of trees to capture it straight-on.
I looked back and caught these incredible clouds reflecting the sunset. Beautiful and eerie.  Notice in the left cloud, if you look closely,  a little man is resting lazily on his elbow, reclining, not discerning the "signs of the times." :)

photo taken in Feeding Hills, MA

Our Lives Matter

The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others.



--Henry Ward Beecher



photo taken in Mount Pleasant, PA

Pray for Young People

There is a rising generation in this country who do not know God because of a general decay of true religion.



--Arthur Middleton, signer of the Declaration of Independence

I wonder where that leaves us more than 200 years later?


photo taken in Mt. Pleasant, PA

Ignoring the Caution Tape

The last hurricane brought a tree limb down to rest on our power and utility lines. Thankfully, they did not
break under the weight, but they did slowly, inch by inch, take out our neighbor's cable and phone lines.
Despite a predicted long wait, the electric crew came quite rapidly : all seven of them and 4
trucks! They taped off the whole area, including over an adjacent  public sidewalk, with yellow
caution tape. They put yellow tape on the downed cable and phone lines. They cut off the offending
limb and drove off leaving my front yard looking like a war zone of  tree carnage.

Over the next few days we had a lot of lookers, and people passing by  made a wide path around
"whatever happened in that yard."  I learned a lot about people in my neighborhood.
Well, its hard to tell exactly what is now fixed as there is still one line down, kind
of hanging limply across the sidewalk. I suspect its an old fashioned telephone landline and
since these days that is kind of antiquated technology,  maybe its just not necessary for our
neighbors to get it fixed. I don't know.

What I want to write about is the caution tape. At first, people really obeyed it, and
walked onto the street to avoid the area. But between this and that,
part of the tape kind of lost it's way, and with it, lost it's authority, and I noticed that
people started to just walk under the downed line, the first time a little gingerly,
and then, with a "whatever" attitude as they walked down the street with their
DD coffee or cell phone or dog or what have you. I now do it myself.

The scary lesson is this: Is this how moral conscience gets hardened?
Is this how we become deaf to the leading of the Spirit? Is this how we
enter into dangerous or temptation laden situations when we know that God
has roped them off  for good reason?

At first we steer clear, then it becomes too much work to walk around
them, then we lose our fear, then we think we are safe and can handle
it when maybe the wire is still live and we are not safe at all. And maybe
we haven't radically cut off the offending limb that started the whole
situation, as Jesus told us to do, in  order to make it into the Kingdom,
even if we limp in?. (Mark 9::43)

Who are we to judge whether we can ignore what has been
already deemed as someplace to tread carefully? A phone line can
still give a small jolt but an overhead suburban power line can fry me
a thousand times over. I can't really tell the difference because
I'm not trained in that area. So are you willing to take a
chance based on your level of spiritual knowledge? That
would be about like playing Russian Roulette with your soul.
 "If I have spoken to you of earthly things and you didn't get it, then how
can I speak of heavenly ones?" Jesus said to Nicodemus,
(of whom He thought should have known better.) (John 3:12).

God has given us the Holy Spirit to warn us, to guide is
in the safe way, to show us when to "go home by another
way." (Matthew 2:16-18).  But are we listening, and more
importantly, do we CONTINUE to listen? We can start out well,
but our enemy would be just as happy to kill us on
round 18 as he would on round 1.

I've started to look around for caution tape in my life.
Hoping that I'm not knee deep in spiritually broken
electrical wire. You might want to take a look
around yourself. There have been a lot of storms,
of every sort, of late. Don't be foolish. Take care.

I would cautiously hasten to say that, past how
this applies to all of us,  this is a  specific
message to someone out there. If you've
gotten a caution from the Lord, but are still
thinking of proceeding with your course
of action: DON'T.  If you wanted a sign
Here it is:

When your horse is on the brink of a precipice, it is too late to pull back on the reins.
--Chinese Proverb

photo taken in Bloomfield, Connecticut

The Voice of Strangers

....the sheep hear his voice and he calls His own sheep by name
and leads them out....yet they will by no means follow a
stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the
voice of a stranger." (John 10: 3, 5)


What a great promise and a sobering warning this is to us!
God knows His own by name and calls them out. He leads
them safely and gives His life for them. But many strangers
try and raise their voice to lure the sheep toward them.
The land, the world, is full of such voices. They are
everywhere and they are in places you would not
expect them to be. So we must listen to who is calling us.

So many are trying to gather people unto themselves
for their own purposes. Some of those people are
naive. Some are misguided. Some are malevolent.
Some are ravening wolves. Some are in league with
the devil. None have a  shepherd's heart toward you.
Beware!

Our sole job is to listen and know the Shepherd's voice.
We are in the midst of a war. Strange voices
are vying for our souls. Many want to eat us.
Only Jesus, our good Shepherd, can protect and keep us. 
It is not really a scary matter, but a simple matter of faith and
of hearing.

There is not much we can do to defend ourselves:
sheep don't have much in the way of offensive
resources. But we can trust our Shepherd and
listen to Him. That we can do. He will protect
us. The others do not care for our souls.

How will we hear? First, we must listen. Then
we must discern. Is this the One who loves
me and has given His life for me? Is this
the One who leads me beside still waters?
Is this the One who restores my soul?

When we spend much time with our Beloved
we know what He is like. We can feel His
protection and love for us. We know His
demeanor and His ways. We know His
protective Hand. But the voice of another
we do not recognize.

Dear Ones, when you do not recognize the voice, do not
follow it no matter how sweetly it calls to you. If it promises
that which fulfills the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, or the pride of life, beware! The hook is
hidden by the bait!

Listen! Listen! Listen!


photo taken in the Yorkshire Dales, UK