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God & Reality

God & Reality: The Human Need for Significance:

It is God’s divine nature to love us, to reach out to us, and to embrace us. We realize this when we reach back and acknowledge who He is and believe in His life-giving reality.

When God floods a soul, a person’s heart and being, they are put on a new path. They are no longer in charge of their life, not that they ever were but that’s beside the point. God is now in a living relationship with them. This is positive because He is a good God. Those who know Him well, know this is true. That is why people who believe in God are willing to die as Christian martyrs if need be. Outlook and vision changes as a result of their sense of being and identity as Christ-followers.

I often wonder, how many people have a living relationship with God significant enough to make a difference in their inner person? I see young people turn away from following God as they become more like the amoral morass of a world with no sense of God. This grieves me. It shouts at me because I know that somewhere deep in the mix is a disconnect with the living God. God no longer seems real to them, maybe He never did, or He seems not all that important, not important enough to make them desire more of Him. What God offers is like a sweet presence that enters and flows in a gentle stream. Trust in God and in His goodness is part of a process of finding Him as real and authentic, as a spiritual Entity, not a religious formula.

I have also become more aware than ever of a growing distrust of Christian people by society. Christian personas who rant and rail with a rallying cry against the ungodly ways of this society, I believe, have not helped but have hindered this cause for Christ. They mean well, like modern day prophets, but the message comes across as harsh and condemning, not as loving and caring for people’s souls. Christians can be salt and light in the world without intentionally offending. We must speak the truth in love. We have the authority to speak, but we don’t have a license to attack. Religion and belief can be misused. When it is misused, people get wounded. Some find it very difficult to heal and forgive the denunciations and manipulations. The truth is, it is not about the church. It is about Christ and His relationship with us.

I see it differently than many people of faith. Somehow I think Christ would have walked into a bar in the worst part of town to let His light shine in the darkness where thirsty people are without hope and in need of His cup of cool water. Christ, in today’s times, might say to the abortionist, “I’m coming to your house today,” like He did with Zacchaeus, the dishonest tax collector in the day. Would Christ visit the university classroom? Would He assert an opinion in a humble, direct fashion, not meant to embarrass but in order to acknowledge and draw attention to the facts regarding human life and its primary spiritual purpose, and to expose the wrong-thinking of the day? Would Christ enter the church, as He did the synagogue, and depose our fallacious underpinnings, expose and remove the add-ons, the shallow, surface, and meaningless forms and practices, from our places of worship and thereby restore our service of worship back to its original intent, to worship God in the beauty of His holiness and peaceful presence? I think few churches would be exempt–for we are a far cry from “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8 KJV)

Yet, I can’t speak for other people. Maybe God uses the more vocal to keep us aware of our sinful ways. It is not for me to judge or guess at the ways of God or who He is using to impart His message. I do believe, though, we earn a right to be heard through honest and caring ways. I also believe, Christ-followers have the greatest message on earth. To keep that message to ourselves would be a great injustice to our sisters and brothers of the earth akin to hiding our light under a bushel. It is a just cause, one of beautiful and high-ranking importance; to share the light of Jesus to the world of human life as way of opening the door to a living, profound, intimate relationship we all can have with the eternal God.

My little bit is small. I want all people to know about God and His love for them. My life is full because it is fueled by His being and love. The more I seek Him, the more I find Him. No one can take this away from me. I want everyone who reads what I write to take a moment to pause and consider the possibility that there could be (is) a God in heaven who is interested in them. He is tender and precious. He makes my life sweet and meaningful. He is as real to me as people are, and I can’t imagine life without Him. People have missed this somehow. Father, Son, and Spirit are the essence of full living. It is a unique process of coming to know God in the intimacy of relationship and to let go of the baggage we carry in our psychological and spiritual being. Healing is part of this dynamic embedded within a growing, living and vital relationship with the God-Head

My heart bleeds for those who have turned away or who tear down religious faith through their scoffing, blogs, and public forums. They are on a mission to discredit the person of faith who believes in Christ’s teaching and life. I get this. These people believe they are doing good, are right, and have debunked religious foolery. But what if they are the fools, the ones being played, fooled by the greatest con going, inspired by the enemy of God who specializes in deceiving by way of cunning, doubt and deception in an effort to keep people in spiritual blindness and far from the reality of God and His love? Is it a game of Inception, where you don’t know at what level you’re operating on? It is unfortunate that the love of God has escaped their knowledge and understanding. They know not what they do.  That is why my heart feels compassion for them. The offer of love is there for all, we have only to partake of its freshness and life-giving Source.

It a quiet belief that I have, not flashy or showy nor even remarkable. I hope through my writings that the skeptical person will see, at least in some small way, the beauty of the type of God I am writing about, the Creator who lovingly cares for His created, the Shepherd who protects and nurtures His sheep, the Light who shines on the path to direct our way.
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God & Reality: God is Enough Series by N. L. Brumbaugh.

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The Dog My Son Loved

DUKE

Duke was the puppy’s name. He was a lively black lab. My son brought him over for us to see, and we fell in love with the puppy just like that! “What a cutie!” I wrote in my journal, “My son sure loves his puppy, Duke. It’s really great to see. Duke has also warmed up to Oscar (a stray we were loving on). The puppies seem to be companionable—and I like that. It is fun to have puppies around.”

Duke went everywhere with my son. They were like a team, inseparable. My son was always teaching him tricks. Over the years it had always seemed like my oldest son got the short end of the stick. He had such a tender heart. It was good to see him jazzed.

Duke gave him unconditional love. My son’s girlfriend was crazy about Duke as well. She loved dogs and would give him advice on raising Duke. We learned bunches about dogs by osmosis that summer. On occasion, Duke stayed with us on the farm while my son was at work.

But the happiness wasn’t to last.

My son holding his friend’s rambunctious dog. Duke is on the left.

August 14, 2005, Journal entry.

“Tonight Duke died. He was hit by a SUV. The driver came to the house and told me. Seeing Duke’s lifeless form on the berm across the road broke my heart. Telling my son on the phone was difficult. He was surprisingly calm and matter-of-fact. I expected him to be angry or loud. He came right over, didn’t stop to talk, went out to the road to find his friend, Duke.

I went out after he had arrived. I saw him in the distance. He was kneeling by the road lightly touching Duke’s fur. Then he stood up, gathered Duke in his arms and carried him across the road into the orchard a few rows in. I said his name in a muffled sob. We stood apart grieving and sobbing, neither one of us speaking.

I felt angry. It felt like that ugly curse that always seems to happen to us. Nothing ever seems to turn out right for us. Not fair. I hurt for my son, as mother’s do, more than for the dog. He was the happiest I’ve ever seen him when he was with Duke. Just this morning he was showing me his newest trick with Duke. Holding still with a cracker on his nose until my son said, ‘Okay.’ I cried off and on all evening. Sometimes I get so tired of the pain of this old world.

Later his girlfriend came over. Before my son left with her, he came in my room. I had just got off the phone to his sister. I related our conversation. ‘Never thought I’d cry over a dog. Duke seemed like a person’ and so forth. Then we cried again. My son came closer and touched my knee—that touch reached my heart. His younger brother, when he got home, wished he had had a chance to say goodbye to Duke. He went out looking for where Duke was buried so he could say goodbye.

It struck me how significant this is. Another unwanted loss. I’ve been dreading the possibility ever since the ‘boys’ (the dogs) started wandering. My son was always bragging on Duke. I’m going to miss that. Some things in life we just don’t understand. Duke’s death is one of them.”

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Pet loss is hard. Bonding with a pet is akin to the unconditional love of a trusted and true friend. Many of us have stories. After Ronald Reagan lost a beloved horse, his daughter Patty, a young girl at the time, said her father was standing by a fence looking out into the distance with a faraway gaze. She was tearful as she stood by him. He said to her, “I’m remembering all the special times we had together.” And that is how it should be.