The Fish Story

He wakes up in the morning
Does his teeth bite to eat and he's rolling
Never changes a thing
The week ends the week begins…

                         (‘Ants Marching’ by the Dave Matthews Band from the 1994 album ‘Under the Table and Dreaming)

5am morning I pulled up behind a sharp lookin 2 door convertible at the light..

I recognized the model...

                                       

               it was one of the pre-retro Fords, that had its' name embossed in the molded rear bumper in gold letters...'MUSTANG'..

    I thought, yep..

                                that was a cool concept, though I am forever a '69 guy.

                                                                               

          anyway.. my eyes drift up, and there by the right ‘blinker’ is a ..'fish'.

                                              I immediately thought.. ‘ahhh cool’!

                                                                    feeling all comfy.

       

                   The car proceeded to make a right turn...

                                                               and ohhh yeah...the light was still red..

                                                                                 right next.. to the old 'no turn on blahblah' sign.

                                                                

            I say 'blah blah' because if it actually said something, I am sure that (being a 'Christian' and all) he would have got the 'message'.

    My mind then went to a 'message' of my own..

                                                          thoughts..

                                                                  about the fish story that I just got...

    It was a title of a book..

                  a reality in gatherings of people that congregate in the name of God...   maybe like me and you

                                                                                                                      

                                                          ...with a clubhouse mentality..

                                                                      -how Christians shoot their own wounded-

  

              We see and read great illustrations.. 

                                                in the safety of your own home, be it church or where you go afterward..

                                                     

                    about how our biblical 'heroes'...

                                                        instrumental in Gods hand.. 

       

                  were murderers,

                                  adulterers,   eccentrics,

                            

                    hookers, thieves etc ...and how God used them.

                  

                 How we can all relate to the 'outward' appearance..

                                                          The way we see them…

                                                                and justify alot of our own actions there...you know?

   

              ?but what about where God ‘sees’?

                                  Beneath the actions of 'the body ‘..

                                        and all the things we like to make following Jesus the Christ about.. 

                                                               where the Truth  is the only thing between ‘ye’ and He…

          ²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
   for it is the wellspring of life....                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

       Those 'heroes' whose ‘hearts ‘ God saw.. and  loved...

                                                     ...and how man was ready to kill them at every turn.

                                                            yet...

                          a right on a red with a fish on the trunk makes me think...'tsk...tsk...tsk...

you are giving a bad witness.'

                            

                 and how that fish is to represent the higher standard...and well... I saw you do what you did...

  and ..

  

               well.. people will talk...

          

            'YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT!!!SO WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE RUNNING THAT LIGHT YOU BIG FAKER!!!!WHAT KIND OF TESTIMONY IS THAT'

    ‘

                                                                               ‘ blahblahblah...’

                       

                                                                        hey you (and me)..

                                                                                                   with the bold print...

               it is time to move on... you broken.. judgmental creation...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            to..

                                                                                      forgiveness...

⁰Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
 ¹¹"No one, sir," she said.
      "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

                                 it's what we have to do ..

                                                                                                                                          

²³"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

                                                                                              

                                     Before we can Love...

³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^{[b] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^{[c] 40}All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

                                                                                                   

                                                   Love that is    Impossible... outside of Jesus the Christ.

      ok.. back to my Mustang trunk..   mmhmm

                                                yea, you have thought about it..you know, the fish..

                and maybe for fear of judgement when you screw up..

                                                          man keeps you from slappin' a fish on your proverbial ‘bumper’.

                                   

               rather than it being a testimony that you... the driver..are in great need of 'fixing'.

                                          that 'you' are a work in progress....who has accepted the 'Work'..

                                                                                                                                                ²⁹Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

                                                                         (that I quote 6-29 alot, is because He is everything you need ...He is where your Life starts)

                                                                        

            You divorced?

                            cheat on your taxes?

                                  look lustfully at women?? men??

                                                                      bowl too much??

                ‘flip’ somebody the ‘bird’ when they cut you off..get in your way??  

                                     

                                    ah yes...the 'bird' ...I have raised that hand before.

           

  you know,  there was a message my wife heard at a visit to a church gathering ...

(by the way...any of you ever been out for a nice stroll..maybe waiting for a friend... and a bird craps on you? like, out of nowhere you find yourself with bird poo in the 1st person? I have.. right in the palm)

                                            

anyway...

           

  it could have been a story of that bird...my hand...and me waiting for the bird to return to clean his crap out of my hand.

The poo gets hard and crusty due to the birds delay...and Sunday rolls around ( time to put 'on the church')

                                                                                                                

       and I still have this crap on my hand because ...I refuse to let go of the idea that   

 'its the birds job..he offended me..'

                                                                                                                                                                               

                     rather than the bird just did what it did...and I should get over myself, and wash my hands of the poo.. 

       

         and maybe focus on the birds song or color rather than 'that malicious’...

                                                                                           ‘unthinking’......blah blah blah bird'

                   whoa ahh …

                                                        -FORGIVENESS-

              and if you don't...the bondage that 'crap' in life can put you in.. makes your witness stink.

   

                                                                 professing Jesus and can't forgive?

                                                                                                                 

here is one good answer...

   

                           if your holding onto a lot of crap, you have probably forgotten you have been forgiven from alot more.

         

                                          Forgive...so you can get on to Love.

                             I am going to get a nice fish for ‘my trunk’...and tell the car behind me, the only difference there may be in us.... 

                                                   is Jesus

knowing Better

I've been trying to get down

 to the heart of the matter,

cause the flesh will get weak

and the ashes will scatter so I'm thinking about

forgiveness, forgiveness

even if, even if you don't love me anymore....’

(The Heart of the Matter’-from the 1989 album “The End of the Innocence’ by Don Henley)

Forgiveness…is the heart of the matter.

                             It’s giving away love… no strings attached.

Riding the Electra Glide on Albany county route one,

                   ( another of Gods incredible buffets for the senses. )

     I had a very clear thought..

                   You know..one of those thoughts that actually has a voice…

                                                And it  pushed through all the noisy self serving clutter..

It is… the heart of the matter…

                ‘To forgive,is knowing ‘Better’…

                                                         

I have often asked a question of others,

       that alone before God they ask themselves ..

                                  ‘Why do I  go to ‘church’’?

       I believe I attend a ‘church’ Today…

                                      for encouragement.

                             I have been blessed to gather with others

 who know..

                not to stop at my..or the messengers ‘best’…

                                            

                                         but to know

                                                                   ‘Better’

                         

⁷“Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”

                                 ⁸ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. ⁹ But he said to me,

“Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book.

More confusing than a Harley Davidson sticker on a KIA..

       It can take effort to get beyond the ‘best’ at a gathering…

                             Especially if your ‘first blush’…

                                    Is to hear or see an ‘angel’ bearing good news..

         and you stop short on the Spiritual Way..

                                        to the kingdom within you.

      The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl

    ⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.  

        

I have talked with many people that no longer attend a particular gathering..

                                       Ride with a particular group..

              Because

                              they were disappointed in ‘who’ they met there.

       This could be the same dialog about failed marriages,

                             from divorced couples…about their ‘former’ spouse.

                                       They were..

                                                 disappointed in who they met there.

Stopping short of the heart of the matter…

          Oneness in God…

                      To know Better.

I have heard people say ‘this church is dead’,

                                             or ‘there is no spirit in this building’

                It… is a Faith matter.

                                     

                                     because they didn’t know Better…

⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” ⁵ He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith

                        lack of faith…

                                 disappointment

                                     and because of ‘your best’

                                                     you just don’t know Better.

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

I pulled over …just to look around

                                       to process everything I was riding through.

 seeing a rural cemetery full of stone markers… I thought..

                                      ‘ this is how 'the messenger' feels some times’.

Knowing Better

          Hey man..

                   As you encounter ‘life’ along the Way..

                                               Just between you and God…

                                                                                      do you?