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"Helping Others Communicate"

GET A LIFE!

9/17/2023

 
I love the old story about three friends from a local congregation who were asked:  “When you’re in your casket, and friends and congregation members are mourning over you, what would you like them to say?”

The first, Artie, said, “I would like them to say I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man.” The next, Eugene, commented, “I would like them to say I was a wonderful teacher and servant of God who make a huge difference in people’s lives.”  It was then the last one's, Al’s, turn; and he said simply, “I’d like them to say, ‘Look, he’s moving!’”

Those of us who follow Jesus Christ know that the Bible affirms that the dead shall indeed live again.  And by this, I mean, not simply that they will stir in their casket, but that, as the Bible repeatedly affirms, they shall inherit a full and wonderful life in a world beyond this one.

Of course, non-believers have always been skeptical of such beliefs.  From the world’s perspective, this world is the only world there is.  Therefore, living for this world is encouraged.  All else is considered foolish.

And yet, from time to time, even the world stumbles upon evidence that the Bible (and those of us who believe its teachings) may just be right.  Consider an article in the news this week that underscores what many of us who are believers have been affirming all along.

In a piece titled “Consciousness May Occur After Heart, Brain Flatline” and sub-titled “Brain Signals Support Idea of Near-Death Experiences Amid Cardiac Arrest: Study”, Arden Dier over at Newser.com reports on Sep 15, 2023 that consciousness may indeed occur after both the human heart and the human brain flatline.

According to Dier:

Their hearts and brains had flatlined. Yet as doctors tried to revive their "technically dead" patients, some of those patients were aware of what was going on. One patient recalled people placing electrodes on their chest and feeling the subsequent shock, per the National Post. Others "were able to report what doctors were doing to them in a 360-degree way," Dr. Sam Parnia, an intensive care physician, tells CNN. Their accounts are included in a new study on near-death experiences, which Parnia and his team tout as the "first report of biomarkers of consciousness during CPR." Trained personnel in 25 hospitals in the US, UK, and Bulgaria attached devices used to measure oxygen and electrical activity in the brain to a dying person's head while doctors administered CPR for up to an hour.

"Nobody's ever done this before, but our independent research teams were successful in carrying out the procedures without interfering in the medical care of patients," says Parnia, senior author of the study published Thursday in the journal Resuscitation. "Interestingly, even up to an hour into the resuscitation, we saw spikes" in gamma, delta, theta, alpha, and beta waves—in other words, "the emergence of brain electrical activity, the same as I have when talking or deeply concentrating," says Parnia. He concludes these are markers of "lucid, recalled experiences of death," widely reported to include a separation from the body, a recognition of death, a sense of continued consciousness, a review of one's life, and a sense of "going home" only to be returned to their body, per Scientific American. Critics aren't so sure.

Only 53 of 567 patients survived to be discharged from the hospital and just 28 were fit enough to be interviewed, per the Post. Of those, 11 reported being aware during CPR and six reported having a near-death experience. None of those six registered brain activity during resuscitation, which critics see as a failure to link brain activity with conscious activity. But "absence of record doesn't mean there's an absence of consciousness," says Parnia. "Of those that did live and had readable electroencephalograms, 40% of them showed that their brain waves went from flatline to showing normal signs of lucidity" indicating "electrical signals are not being produced as a trick of a dying brain." He also polled 126 cardiac arrest survivors, finding 40% had awareness of the event and 20% had a recalled experience of death.


Did you catch it?  A “recognition of death,” a “sense of continued consciousness”, and also of “going home”!  Oh, my friend, if the dead could but speak?!  What all would they tell us?!

At the very least, those who were believers would surely affirm our Lord’s teachings in the Bible on life after death.  And what were those teachings?

In John 3:16, He said:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In John 5:24, He said:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

In John 11:25, He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…”

And in John 14:1-31, He said:  “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also…”

Years ago, I heard an old evangelist say “Born Once, Die Twice; Born Twice, Die Once”.  By that he meant that if a person is only born physically in this world, then he or she will one day die both physically and spiritually.  But if that person is born both physically and spiritually in this world, then he or she will only die physically and not spiritually.

I would posit a slight twist on that by saying:  “Live Once, Die Twice. Die Once, Live Twice!”  By this I mean that those who live only for themselves in this world will die twice, once in this world and again in the next.  But those who die to themselves in this world (and live for Christ), will not only live in this world, but will one day live in the world to come!

Do you plan on living beyond the grave?  I know I do!  And I hope you do as well.  After all, the same Bible that tells us about the life to come also tells us that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved - and given eternal life as a result.  In light of this, my friend, I encourage you to “get a life”! 

Life after death is within your grasp!

SOURCES:

JOKE:

https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66830.pdf, p. 73.

NEWS ARTICLE:

https://www.newser.com/story/340164/consciousness-may-occur-after-heart-brain-flatline.html.

SCRIPTURES:

https://www.openbible.info/topics/life_after_death;

https://biblehub.com/romans/10-13.htm.

​A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

9/13/2023

 
In one of the most iconic lines ever to come out of Hollywood, “The Captain”, a warden in a rural Florida prison camp (played by Strother Martin), taunts an inmate named “Cool Hand Luke” (played by Paul Newman) with the phrase: “What we have here is failure to communicate!”   The quotation has since been listed at number 11 on the American Film Institute's list of “The 100 Most Memorable Movie Lines”.

I thought about this recently when I came across the following witty story online…

An Englishman, taking a road trip through the US, notices he’s low on fuel, pulls into the first gas station he sees. The attendant walks out and approaches the car.  “How can I help you, sir?”  And in a posh voice, the man says, “I’m low on petrol; please top off the tank.”  With an odd look, the guy begins to fill ’er up.

The Englishman then says, “Also, while I’m here could you open the bonnet and check the oil?”  Now looking slightly peeved but still saying nothing, the serviceman does as requested. “Oh, yes,” says the Brit, “It appears my windscreen needs a good cleaning. Would you mind terribly…”

Unable to hold his tongue any more the attendant angrily snaps, “Alright, that’s enough! It’s not Petrol, it’s gasoline! It’s not a bonnet, it’s a hood! And it’s not a windscreen, it’s a windshield! We invented cars, so you call them by their American names!”

And with that wonderful, charming, stiff-upper-lip UK wit, the Englishman calmly replies, “Well yes, my friend, you may have invented the automobile, but we invented the language!”


As I read this piece, I could not help but chuckle.  Being an American, I speak English as my native tongue.  Being a southerner, I like to think that I speak it the manner we will speak it one day in Heaven – with a certain drawl and lots of contractions! 

All jokes aside, I recognize that I speak American English, not British English.  I also recognize that there are various ways in which English is spoken all over the planet, from England to Scotland to Ireland to Canada to Belize to Australia to New Zealand to South Africa to India.  Each manifestation has its own distinct dialect, vocabulary, enunciation, style, etc... 

Still, I find that I am able to communicate with most any person from most any of these places.  I may need to clarify what they mean on occasion, and vice versa; but communication can easily occur if both parties are intent on making it happen.

I say this because being able to communicate and being willing to do so are not the same thing. There have certainly been times in my life when I desired to communicate, but was unable.  In many an overseas trip, I was grateful for the assistance of a translator, without whom I would have essentially been left unable to converse.

But sadly, if I am to be honest, there have also been times in my life when I have been able to communicate, but was unwilling to do so.  My earthly father is in Heaven now.  He’s been there for over nearly a quarter of a century.  And to this day, I still miss him dearly.

One particular memory I have of my father comes from when I was a young Pastor.  My calling had taken me to a community some one hundred miles from my hometown.  So, my wife and I only saw our family back home about once a month or so.  Yet, my father would faithfully call me every single Sunday evening around 9pm or so just to talk.

Far too often, having just preached two sermons, attended one or more committee meetings, and/or invariably spent the better part of what was supposed to be a day of rest at the church, I was quite tired.  As a result, I shudder to think just how many times I failed to engage in meaningful personal conversations because my heart was simply not in it.  Of course, these days, I wish I could go back and talk with him once again!  I had so many chances; but sadly, there were too many times in which I failed to take advantage of them.

Of course, I can’t undo any of this now.  But I can learn from it.  As a husband with a wonderful wife, as a father with grown children of my own, as a friend and neighbor to many, many others, I can find ways to be intentional in my communication with others.  And I can make this a priority in life while I have time and opportunity to do so.

Oh, and there is one more thing I can do.  I can make sure that I take every opportunity to communicate with my Heavenly Father as well!  For He, even more than my earthly father, begs regular conversation with me.  Not just once a week, but every day.  Not just every day, but every hour.  And not just every hour, but every moment! 

Given this, I am committed to do my best to follow the admonition of the Apostle Paul who told us in the New testament to “pray without ceasing” and also to “pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion”. 

Let there be no failure to communicate here - not with my Heavenly Father!  Let me converse with Him at all times, in all places, and with all passion!


JOKE SOURCE: 

https://www.quora.com/. 

(Specifically: https://jokesfunnystories.quora.com/.)

SCRIPTURE SOURCES:

https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-17.htm;

SEE ALSO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Hand_Luke.

NOTE ALSO:  In the movie, "Saving Private Ryan", there is a very poignant scene where the squad is catching some sleep inside a church building, and Irwin Wade, the Medic, recounts how his mom used to come home from working a late shift and stick her head in the door just to say a brief word to him.  But he would feign sleep because, as an adolescent, he just didn't want to talk to his mother.

"I
'd pretend to be asleep...  She'd stand in the doorway looking at me... and I'd just keep my eyes shut. And I knew she just wanted to find out about my day - that she came home early... just to talk to me. And I still wouldn't move... I'd still pretend to just be asleep. I don't know why I did that."

Later, as he lays mortally wounded on the battlefield, he cries out for his mother.

Cf.:   
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/characters/nm0000610.

"YUK!"

9/9/2023

 
It’s been a bit of a yukky week!  And I do not use that term lightly.  It all began when two of our grandsons spent the night over Labor Day weekend.  At the time, each showed signs of an upset stomach.  But it all seemed to pass quickly; so we thought little of it at the time.

We thought more of it the next day, however, when their mother (and our daughter) came down with a stomach bug.  We thought still more of it the day after that when my wife caught it as well.  I myself then thought the most of it when, on the following day, I too, finally caught it!

The old adage says, “This too shall pass.”  Fortunately, for each of us in turn, forty eight hours or so later, the upset stomach, nausea, and assorted ill-effects associated with these things finally did.  In all of this, as one who does not often get waylaid by such difficulties, I have been reminded of the meaning of the word “Yuk”!  After all, there is no better way to describe the feeling you experience whenever a virus has to work its way through your system. Yuk, Yuk, and more Yuk!

It was with a strange sense of synchronicity, then, that I came across the following headline in the news:  “Doctor Developed Mr. Yuk.”  The article, appearing on www.Newser.com yesterday, was sub-titled: “Richard Moriarty Said the Warning Symbol Was Designed 'By Kids For Kids'”.

According to the article…

Dr. Richard W. Moriarty, a retired pediatrician who helped create the bright green Mr. Yuk sticker that warns kids away from poisonous substances, has died. He was 83. Moriarty died on Thursday in Pittsburgh, according to a funeral home, the AP reports. Moriarty was involved in establishing and developing the Pittsburgh Poison Center, where he served as director. When the poison awareness campaign began in 1971, Moriarty said, the response by children in focus groups to the Mr. Yuk sticker's sickly green color and upset face was instrumental. "The Mr. Yuk symbol was designed by kids for kids," he said.

The mascot has become used nationwide to identify substances that, if ingested, are harmful, per CBS News. Moriarty graduated from medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a longtime faculty member. Charged with modernizing the Poison Center in the late 1960s, he pioneered data collection, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Physicians like Dr. Moriarty really led the way in putting some logic to poison treatment," said Dr. Alvin Bronstein, one of the creators of the national poison database. Moriarty served on the boards of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Pittsburgh Public Theater.


Although I never knew this man personally, I have certainly seen the sticker he designed.  Perhaps you have as well.  I’m especially thankful that untold numbers of children since the 1970s have no doubt seen this sticker as well.  It has likely saved countless lives.

Kudos to anyone who makes it their goal in life to warn others of anything that is dangerous, and especially poisonous, if ingested.  Where would we all be without such life-saving admonitions?  How many needless sicknesses, how many needless deaths, how many needless tragedies, would have been suffered otherwise?

In my own case, having been forewarned, I like to think that I would not intentionally ingest poison into my system.  While I cannot help ingesting the occasional virus, common cold, or flu, I can refuse to intentionally ingest poisons, especially when others have faithfully and forcefully warned me of the terrible consequences of doing so.

In all of this, I cannot help but see a spiritual parallel.  The truth is that I, like all persons, was born into a fallen world with a sinful nature.  I was infected with sin from the get go.  But I praise God that Christ came to forgive me of my sinful ways and to restore my broken relationship with my Heavenly Father.

But being forgiven does not make me perfect.  As long as I live in this world, I remain susceptible to sin.  I continuously battle the old nature within me.  This is precisely why the Bible continuously admonishes me to beware the power of sin.  We see this clearly in both the Old and New Testaments.

The Psalmist bemoaned his involvement with sin in chapter 38, verses 3-8:  

“My health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me - it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart.”


The writer of Proverbs echoes this (in chapter 5, verse 22 when he says:

“Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.”


Little wonder that the New Testament writer of the Book of Hebrews admonishes us In chapter 12, verse 1-2) to... 

“throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”


I myself have seen the power of sin to corrupt and to destroy.  I know what it does, even in the lives of believers, whenever they ingest it.  For these reasons, I am thankful for the big blazing “YuK” symbol that God’s Word clearly slaps on its face! 

While sin may no longer have the power of death over my eternal soul, it still has the power to make my life “yukky”.  And therefore, I will do my best to avoid embracing it in my life.

ARTICLE SOURCE:

https://www.newser.com/story/339920/richard-moriartys-mr-yuk-still-warns-of-poison-danger.html.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE:

https://biblehub.com/nlt/psalms/38.htm;

https://biblehub.com/proverbs/5-22.htm;

https://biblehub.com/niv/hebrews/12.htm.

PERSONAL PROBLEMS?!

9/3/2023

 
Long before Beyoncé ever sang “Me, Myself, and I”, or Jim Carrey and Hollywood ever cashed in with a movie titled “Me, Myself, and Irene”, the phrase upon which both are clearly based was a long-standing one in everyday vernacular.  After all, who among us has not, at some point, used the phrase “Me, Myself, and I”?
 
If I would be honest, I know I have.  And not only in this phrase; for personal pronouns tend to comprise much of my (and our) vocabulary.  So much so that if we are not careful, they can quickly dominate.  Don’t think this is so?  Then I challenge you to look no further than your own prayer life. 

Perhaps you, like me, were taught at an early age to pray.  And perhaps in that process, several little ditties were impressed upon you.  Maybe they included such classics as…

“God is great, God is good; Let us thank him for our food; By his hand we are fed; Give us Lord, our daily bread. Amen.”

Or…

“Thank you, God, for the world so sweet; Thank you, God, for the food we eat; Thank you, God, for the birds that sing; Thank you, God, for everything! Amen!”

As well as…

“Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If i should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Such prayers are doubtless good for us to learn as children.  They help us to embrace a life of dependence upon God.  However, as we age, it is arguable that such simplistic prayers no longer suffice.  Allow me to explain…

Prayer, by definition, is communion with God.  As such, it involves an authentic and ongoing conversation with our Heavenly Father.  And yet, for so many, prayer is not so much talking with God as it is talking to God.  Even worse, it is talking over God!  What is more, any prayer that includes the excessive use of personal pronouns is arguably guilty of this.

To make my point, count the personal pronouns in the third and final classic child’s prayer cited above.  If you do, you will see no less than seven of them.

All of this brings me to the point of this blog post.  Until today, I always thought that the most self-centered prayer recorded in Scripture is that of the Pharisee in Jesus' famous parable of the Pharisee and the Publican as found in the New Testament Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, verses 9-14.  Here, we read...

“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”


Many a commentator has pointed out the similarity of the words of the Pharisee here with those of the words of Lucifer in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, verses 12-15…

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.’ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

You will notice that each testimony contains the personal pronoun “I” five different times.  It seems, therefore, that the prayer of the self-righteous Pharisee more aptly reflects the intentions of the devil than those of the Lord!
 
Any yet, as I realized earlier today, while listening to our Pastor’s sermon, even this is not the most self-serving prayer in Scripture. Instead, we find that recorded in the Old Testament Book of Jonah, chapter 4, verses 2-3, where we read:
 
So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Here, the English translation employs six personal pronouns.  But when we check the original Hebrew, we discover that it contains no less than eight personal pronouns!  “I” occurs four times, “me” occurs two times, and “my” occurs two times!
 
For those of us who are believers, we find it easy to condemn the self-centered prayer of a Pharisee.  We find it even easier to condemn the words of Lucifer.  But what do we do with the words of an Old Testament Prophet?!

I’ll tell you what we do.  We accept the fact that even a servant called of God is frail and human!  And therein, we acknowledge that even we ourselves, as followers of Jesus Christ, are capable of praying prayers that are far too self-centered.
 
I left church earlier today under conviction.  Irrespective of all my previous prayers, my sincere hope is that neither my future prayers nor my future attitude will be merely for “Me, Myself, and I” alone, but rather for “God, His will, and Whomever else He desires me to care about” as well!
 
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
​
https://biblehub.com/kjv/luke/18.htm;

https://biblehub.com/kjv/isaiah/14.htm;

https://biblehub.com/jonah/4.htm.

SEE ALSO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me,_Myself_%26_Irene;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me%2C_Myself_and_I_(Beyonc%C3%A9_song).

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

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