Chuck is the awesome guy that makes the blog possible!
SAM AND THE SPACE ALIENS
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The space aliens were tired and grumpy and needing a place to land. They had traveled millions of light years and needed to stretch their legs. Wally desperately needed to use a bathroom. They were also lost and needed to get directions.
As luck would have it they stumbled on the planet Htrae and settled down on a nation called Acirema – to the relief of all, especially Wally. The creatures on the planet were hospitable by and large. The people had a difficult language that required nearly an hour before they could speak it fluently. The customs were more challenging. They learned, for example, that it was social courtesy to buy something in a mini-mart if you used the bathroom.
This put them in a bit of a spot. They naturally did not wish to offend but the clerk did not recognize their Universe Plus or Comic credit buttons. They were hungry and had planned on being home for dinner so they had not packed anything and the smell of the foods was exotic and attractive to them, especially the burritos under the infrared heaters.
Now here was the peculiar answer to their quandary. Outside Chip and Ben were shoveling out the slag from the reactor and were about to put it in the dumpster when an Acireman pulled up in a vehicle that ran on wheels and hurried over to them. He seemed focused on the slag and told them excitedly that it had value to them. In fact, he gave them some of their currency in exchange for it. So that’s how the guys were able to have dinner.
As they studied the currency they found something very interesting, the words, “In Sam we trust.” Naturally they were curious. They asked the clerk who Sam was and how it was that Aciremans trusted in him. The clerk avoided the subject which only made them more curious.
Ben speculated that the picture of the man on the foil was Sam. But Wally said that couldn’t be because on other foils they had different pictures. Chip postulated that Sam was the currency itself because they noticed the Aciremans put much confidence in it. I guess they suddenly snapped into cultural awareness mode. They determined to find out who Sam was before they headed home. They had already gotten directions, by the way.
They attempted to inquire of the local creatures about Sam but received odd answers that only peeked their interest; “My faith is a very personal thing. I don’t talk about it.” “I used to believe in Sam until my child died.” “Sam is a myth our people are about to retire.” They overheard some say things like “Sam damn it” or “Sam bless you.” “Whoever Sam is, the creatures here must seek his power to bring trouble or happiness”, said Ben.
They decided to go to a center of education and came upon a school for young Aciremans. The timing could not have been more perfect . They walked into a pod of Juveniles with hands on their cardia and reciting a pledge to their banner . All three of the guys elbowed one another when they heard the children say, “One nation under Sam.” You can imagine how eager the guys were. They knew they would get their answers here!
Unfortunately they were in for disappointment. When they asked who Sam was and how the Aciremans went about trusting him the principle seemed totally stymied. He said, “We don’t talk about Sam her. This is a public school.”
I won’t belabor the discussion. It actually wasn’t very long. The instructor said it was illegal to talk about Sam and he was afraid of litigation if he did. Of course the guys were amazed. The children’s pledge would indicate that Sam was someone to be trusted but the educators were not allowed to share with the students who Sam was, how he might be known and how to go about trusting in him. Naturally it seemed crazy.
The space aliens were appalled. It was like all their enzymes fell out of their accelerators. They saw that the the Aciremans had intelligence for building mini-marts but somehow lost it all in dealing with Sam. Actually their quest for learning about Sam lost all momentum because of their amazement with the inconsistency.
Ben sarcastically said, “These people must be schizophrenic.” Wally corrected, “You mean bi-polar.” “At any rate”, said Chip,” it makes no sense to refer to Sam in currency, pledges and historical recording devises but not be allowed to talk about him.” Ben said, “It’s kind of like jerking your tractor beam. You say on the one hand that you should trust in Sam, and be under Sam, but you say to young inquiring minds, ‘We can’t tell you about Sam.””
In one last attempt they approached a professor of history who told them that in the nation’s heyday many had believed and followed Sam. But her words seemed old and dusty. They did get an answer however. Sam, according to history, was the Creator! He was reputed to be good but He had set standards that today were avoided. In fact Sam had fallen on hard times. Although most of the creatures there liked the idea of being blessed by a passive, benevolent power, they did not like the idea of being ultimately accountable to Sam as an evaluator.
It was late and Ben needed to get home because he worked early next morning. Chip, Ben and Wally left the planet rather disappointed in the Aciremans, but stimulated about Sam. They reasoned that they too were creatures so must have a Creator. Was His name Sam? Was He knowable? And was he to be trusted?
As it turned out they had an animated conversation all the way home.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Many of you have read “Sam” before. I am putting it out again because I am looking for an illustrator. I am also looking for people that might be willing to publish it. Suggestions are welcome!
Steven C Johnson
LandingStripEnterprises.Com
GUTS IN THE BATHROOM
I had been thinking about it for some time. I detested that bathroom. Even after I’d toothbrush cleaned it, it felt dirty! So after dealing with an outdated, mold infested, countertop peeling, mirror corroding bathroom it was time.
We had been talking about remodeling since the day we moved in, some 4 years prior. The tiny walk space made it feel cramped. The configuration was just bad. It was not welcoming, the bathtub surround was so old and cracked it did not come clean. It needed help! Even if we took it down to the bones it was a small space but surely we could do SOMETHING. Finally the day came!
We began by gutting the room, back to the 2 x 4’s and plumbing. Then we moved under the house and removed the plumbing. That was a bold move. But I had complete confidence in my hubby’s skills. Did I say this remodel was supposed to take one week. Actually it was two weeks just under the house alone. My aching back, literally!
I actually dreamed I received the most wonderful back massage. But awoke from the dream to discover I was still in ownership of that same aching, pinched back I had been crawling around on hands, elbows and knees with!
I have this ability to figure things out, or as Steve calls it, “You can see things I can’t.” As Steve puzzled over geometry questions about plumbing I’m just trying not to explode with a helpful comment. I notice things. So I just quietly project into the joists, “If the angle needs to be (such and such) it makes sense to me that we would (thus and so). And eureka, it works! This skill is not perfect, and I cannot pull it out of a hat, it’s an inner observation, a gut feeling, a hope against hope, then again its faith at its best. I know He helps me! This skill does not work well while angry, frustrated, judging or pissed off.
Why I would love to tell you of MY skill, but it’s not at all mine, its a gift! And I have over the years (and they are many) discovered I can be the best help to myself and others by not going to that icky place but staying in a place of peace and tranquility.
Yes the bathroom remodel is behind us and I enjoy just walking into that room and just looking at it. The new crisp lines, the placement of the fixtures, the wide open space, its lovely and just what I had envisioned. People walk in and comment over its spacious feeling, its bright and cheerful, welcoming light!
Ultimately I thank God and that still small voice Who helps me out so many of life’s challenges, even the plumbing ones.
Awe, now that’s much better!
Pam Johnson
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CREATIVITY
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The child with his finger paints and the artist with her pastels must have it. It’s essential to poet, musician and architect. It comes in handy to the home accountant and car mechanic. It’s called creativity!
Our Creator made us in his image. Like our Creator, we are equipped and disposed to create! Creativity dreams up cures for disease, and ways to twist that couch through the narrow doorway. Creativity gets a ship in a bottle and a man on the moon.
What is it that God has given you by way of creativity? What inventive quality lies dormant or only partially exercised in you? Do you have in you a novel, a song or a new way to tell you family you love them? Perhaps you have the fix for socks that lose their elastic cling or a new glue to fix broken relationships.
John Maxwell tells this story about one of my creative heroes:
“A school teacher gave students an art assignment. She waited as each child took out crayons and colored pencils and went to work. After a while, she started down the aisle, looking over the children’s crude drawings. She came to one boy’s desk, picked up his paper, looked and said, ‘Walter, flowers don’t have faces.’ Little Walt Disney looked up at her and said with authority, ‘Mine do!’
Walt Disney had a dream. He saw things others did not see – and put them on paper. Over the years that dream materialized into a mouse who talked, an elephant who flew, a cricket who danced, and flowers – thousands of flower – all with faces.”
Often when I hear an inspiring secular song or watch a stirring secular movie I wonder why creativity is often short in the Church. I know the Creator would release so much more to His Children, if we would inquire of Him. You’re loaded with gifts of creativity for art, gardening, wood working, baking, decorating and what not! Pump from the well of your God-given creativity today!
Steven C Johnson
https://landingstripenterprises.com/
INTERPRETING HISTORY FOR OUR CHILDREN
Imagine a child who has been told by a playmate that years ago white people owned black people like a family owns a lawn mower. She is appalled and approaches Grandpa to discover if it was really true, why it happened and how it ended. Grandpa does his best to explain how adults did things that children by instinct know are dreadfully wrong.
A couple decades from now-say the year 2032-a very similar conversation might go like this:
“Grandpa, is it true mommies used to kill their babies in their tummies?”
“Yes, Hannah. That was a sad time in our history. We are still dealing with some of that pain today.”
“Why, Grandpa, why? How could mommies do that?”
“You ask hard questions, Hannah. Many people back then thought that babies in mommies’ tummies were not real people. Our Supreme Court said that a mommy could kill the baby in her because it was not really a person but just bodily tissue, like a wart or a mole.”
“But Grandpa, how could they think like that?”
“Well, back then Mommies and Daddies got confused in their thinking. They said things to themselves like:
My boyfriend won’t stay with me if I have a baby
A baby would get in the way of next year’s vacation
I just can’t handle a baby right now
We have family problems. My child would be happier dead.
Part of the sadness is that the people who could have helped us solve our problems and made our lives happier never lived. Perhaps a Dr. Sara Winter would have discovered the cure for cancer. Secretary of State Randal Crest would have used his diplomatic arts to prevent the last war. The heartwarming novelist Linda Post would have soothed our broken hearts. But all of them, the friendly baker and funny car mechanic, were never born because their parents killed them before they could be born.”
“What stopped mommies from doing what they did?”
“Many of us thought if we could just change the laws we could stop it. We were partly right. What helped most was when people learned to help mommies who felt overwhelmed care for their babies. Others adopted children whose mommies felt they could not take good care of a baby. But what finally stopped it was our money collapse and the war.
Hannah, 50 million children were lost because of what confused mommies and daddies did. That’s a big number. They never grew up to help our government care for the weak and elderly. Our Social Security system collapsed. We were missing the people who could have defended us when the war came to America. Many of us died before the war was stopped. Only God could find a way to recover all that was lost. We are still missing those who could have been born to help us.”
“Grandpa, I don’t understand everything you said, but it makes me feel like crying.”
“Hannah, America has learned from our history and we are overcoming the pains. Every one of your playmates, and all of us, can be grateful that it’s over.”
Steven C Johnson
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A TRAIN
The lights flashed, the big polls would fold down and the bells would ding. A train was coming! We would jump up and down on the back seat shouting, “A train, a train, a train!” Count the cars. Look at the shapes and letters on the side. What’s inside those cars? Where is it going? We were full of awe and wonder!
Adulthood sucks out of us the capacity for astonishment. The downgrade attitudes of “Been there, done that, seen that,” demonically pillage us of the capacity for amazement. The evil spirits whisper, “The train is boring.” Demons may even shout, “This train is an offense to the god of hurry!”
“The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy” the entrancement we find in steam coming off the soup, water ripples in the bathtub and curtains wrinkling in the breeze.
Wonder is the springboard into worship. We live in stark poverty without it. Who will save us and restore the wonder? The answer comes from Isaiah 11:6; “… a little child will lead them.”
Only a child can rescue us! Jesus, of course, was never plundered of His wonderment. Even as an adult He was able to be fascinated by the birds and flowering grass. He warned adults we would be hopelessly lost without child-likeness.
The prescription is to find a child to teach us the amazing world of flashlights in dark bedrooms, the enchanting fragrances of spices in the cupboard and the way a spider weaves a web. These are things every adult should learn! With remedial help we can recover wonderment.
Look! A train, a train, a train!
Steven C Johnson
https://landingstripenterprises.com/
THE RE-CREATOR
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The Curse was spoken; “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” But that is not the end of the story. It is only the first few pages. The end has the music of billions of angels!
Sin’s consequence is death but the grace of our Father generates life! “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:17 NIV)
Our CREATOR exercised plan and will, intelligence and power to fashion us. Some day he will be worshiped as the RE-CREATOR.
It goes this way:
1 God’s Bright Idea – Turn dust into mankind! The morning stars sang with wonder!
2 Man’s Iniquity – Mankind returns to dust. Dreadfully sad!
3 God’s Redemption – Reconstituting dust to life again! Rapturous Resurrection!
Picture a house destroyed by fire and turned to ash. The Architect however made blueprints so exacting that every measurement, every grain of grout, every precise placement of shingle and nail and door hinge were defined to the finest detail. The exact house could be reconstructed again. Scientists are mapping the human genome. God got a head start on them.
The unrelenting dominion of death will be broken as the CREATOR puts dust, reconstituted dust, together again. This time the dust will never unravel but stay together for eternity!
The heavens will ring again with song and we will worship the RE-CREATOR!
Steven C Johnson
https://landingstripenterprises.com/
MAKING OUR APPEARANCE
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Here is a show-stopping quote from Joseph Addison (1672-1719). He was an English politician and writer. You might read this in granny gear. You’ll see why.
“When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me;
when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out;
when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion;
when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow;
when I see kings lying by those who deposed them,
when I consider rival wits placed side by side,
or the men that divided the world with their contests and disputes,
I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.
When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together”
You need strong mandibles to chew on Addison’s words! How profound the notion that you and I, and everyone that has ever lived, will at a future date, be contemporaries and “make our appearance together!”
An angelic messenger gave Daniel the word on the resurrection 500 years before Christ’s advent. “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2 NIV).
Daniel himself he was given these comforting words in his old age: “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance” (Dan 12:13).
If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you on the Great Day as we make our appearance together.
Steven C Johnson
https://landingstripenterprises.com/
DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?
We came to the intersection of two country highways. The car just before us came to the stop sign at the T. They pulled out, without looking, just as Harley was coming up the road. The bike hit the side of the car and so did the riders. I jumped out of the car and ran to the man. He was spasming. I think he broke his neck. Very shocking! Pam and our daughter Anna went to the woman. She was terribly broken up and barely conscious, having trouble breathing with broken ribs. She would recover. He was off to eternity.
As a pastor I have conducted a number of funerals. This may seem strange to you but I have found them to be one of the most satisfying aspects of ministry. There is something reflexive that happens in me when I am in an event where death is pushing his dirty nose, it is almost knee jerk. I feel a confidence and boldness as I remember that death doesn’t get the last word. My Lord Jesus does! I love sharing that confidence with others.
As Paul spoke about the general resurrection he said death is the “last enemy.” He quotes the prophet Hosea. How fine is it to taunt at death! “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Cor 15:55-57). In Revelation we see Death personified being thrown into the lake of fire. Burn baby burn! Good riddance.
My friend, thanks to the remarkable expenditure of our Lord Jesus you can go toe to toe and nose to nose with death, confidently! Death may bring its momentary sorrow but it’s missing its stinger for those who have embraced Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life!
Steven C Johnson
WAKING THE DEAD
The Jewish sages of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) day taught that there was coming a great day of culmination when God would radically establish His kingdom on the earth giving everyone the unique reward they had merited. In fact all who had died would be part of the great day of resurrection. Each would stand, give account and receive their recompense – good or bad.
Yeshua said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26 NIV)
Our Lord was claiming that He was the One who would pull off The Great Event. He was saying, “I am The Guy who does the raising!”
On another occasion Yeshua said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his (Messiah’s) voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28-29 NIV)
If you were to meet someone on the street who claimed to be the superintendent and orchestrator of the resurrection of the dead what would you think of them? When Jesus says it we are inclined to listen. Perhaps it’s His presence, His words of wisdom or the fact that He happens to do extra-ordinary miracles like raising Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter or the widow’s son at Nain.
As a brand new believer in College I devoured the scriptures meditating deeply on the resurrection of our Lord. I studied evidences of the resurrection that reinforced me. I read with wonder of miracles, including resurrections that were happening though the faith of believers. When I was in Israel I would take many hours over many days to visit The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem and soak in the reality of Christ’s victory over death!
In June of 1987 I heard the Lord tell me, “The next miracle you will see will be a resurrection from the dead. Three weeks later God supernaturally raised our daughter from the dead. I believe one of the reasons I saw this miracle was that I had been probing and digesting the truths of the resurrection for years. The Lord had set a stage.
You may read of our miracle at http://www.amiraclestory.com/
Steven C Johnson
Landingstripenterprises