Apostle David Johndrow - Fire And Grace

Ding dong, bin Laden is Dead! - anonymous Facebook post. This is not a patriotic post. It is not meant to catch the eye of up-to-the-minute news hounds. It is a blog about death, about hope and about Jesus. Of course Mr. bin Laden is a high-value news target, one which stole the spotlight from the royal wedding on cable news. Many of my Christian friends had opinions about the raid in Pakistan. Here are some nameless Facebook stati: Ah yes. Killing to show people that killing is wrong... I confess to taking pleasure in knowing the last thing that went through Bin Laden's head was an American made bullet. It is good to see young people in the streets celebrating a major victory for America. Cheers to the SEAL team, military, and intelligence agencies that brought down that terrible man! Knock, Knock who's there? The Navy SEALS! Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of everyone before...

Thank God for Heaven! I have recently lost four people that were part of my life at various times. I wrote about my friend  Curtis in February. I  wrote about the man that was like a Father to me me at one time - he's gone too. Wednesday I went to lookup a pastor from Romania that was close to me during my divorce over 10 years ago. We had thousands of emails over the years - I found his obituary.  And a fellow high school teammate also passed away. (I haven't even finished this post, and today another high school classmate lost the battle with cancer today, Thursday.) For some odd reason, my Yahoo account which I have had since they day they came online in 1998 or 1999 has started sending random emails from January of 2000; probably because I have 25,000 emails in my inbox. They made me think that I had not heard from a couple of folks in a long time. Through the wonder of the Internet we've kept up for years. ...

Today at lunch I was thinking about the headlines I heard on WBZ radio as I shuffled my feet from gas, to clutch, to brake, and back again for nearly an hour in rush hour traffic. Our governor decided to stand behind some laid off union workers at the Hyatt in Boston - says he's going to boycott Hyatt - funny he didn't speak up when I lost my job to someone in India. Union - oh yeah, that's right, unable to make concessions in a tough economy-- let's punish the business that is employing 190 Americans. Another was the clatter over Obama going to Copenhagen - who cares really? Send Polanski to jail for life - please! Then there was the Tsunami in the Samoas. Amazing, and without warning four 50 foot waves smashed into the beaches of the South Pacific Islands. Hundreds died - their last moments on earth. I wonder what they were thinking 30 minutes before it happened? Matthew 25:5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6"...

A lot of people spend a lot of time talking about religious themes-- and a host of others avoid them like the plague. Like politics, whether or not we participate in religion, it will eventually affect our lives. The truth is that the folks that are elected vote for laws that affect us, whether we ever give them a thought. In the same way the principals of the Kingdom of God are at work as are the laws of physics. And Kingdom principals will continue to operate for eternity. So why is it that folks get all wound up about religion? Because they try to understand God with their mind. Even the most mature Christians step off into intellectual assents trying to make a case for a Biblical worldview. The living God, however; is not going to be understood by the human mind. Putting on the mind of Christ, memorizing Bible passages, and spouting scripture does not, in itself, make us a Christian. There is an amazing story in John chapter 4 , and it is worth reading even if you are not a bel...

In the Spring of 1997 I received a call from my step-mother, dad was sick with lung cancer. I decided to take my family and go visit him the following Saturday. A few nights before my trip I was on the phone with one of my close friends, Scott and we were praying. He felt the Lord say that my youngest daughter (at the time) would be the one to minister to my dad. As we prepared to go see grandpa, Erin, 5-years-old, busied herself rummaging through boxes, in the unfinished second floor of our new home, looking for a suitable gift. We didn't have any wrapping paper, so she used newspaper to carefully wrap her treasure for "Grandpa nice guy". I am certain that she also used an entire roll of scotch-tape and lots of love to finish the job. She made a card and on it scrawled the only words she knew how to spell without help; "love your angel Erin xoxoxo". It was just like the ones she gave me from time to time and seeing it made me smile. On Saturday we left on the 4...

When you look back over the last decade(s), did you ever imagine that you'd be right where you are now? Our lives now; this very minute, are the culmination of our hopes and fears along with a touch of fate. I know it is starting to sound like a High school graduation speech, but it's true. We headed out toward the horizon of hope with the winds of family and friends at our back. We were free to decide every aspect of our lives, and we focused on the future. Because of our decisions there were those of us that ran into rough waters on the voyage. And for some of us, we may have experienced situations beyond our control calling out "May Day." And there are some of us who left our stern lines tightly knotted around the cleats of past disappointment, regret and anger which tore at the fabric of our soul. James said, "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 4:14" I have been on...

Not a day goes by when we hear some saying that pertains to so-called wisdom. "Seat Belts Save Lives", "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right", "Low Fat", "Low Carb", "Easy Does It", "Jesus Saves"... the list goes on an on; while the more popular ones are bumper stickers. If you have ever been in a church, you've heard a lot more of them. Here is one, "It Take Two to Tango"; meaning that both partners are responsible for negative outcome in a relationship. Another version is "relationships are 50/50%" when they are really 100%/100%. And my favorite, "good intentions paved the road to Hell." Oh yes, and let's not forget the "money is the root of all evil." I think in an effort to make things more understandable, some actual scriptures get changed while the original meaning stays intact. Other times well meaning folks try to make these sayings more palatable while they entire truth is ...

Today while I was waiting to hear news about my father-in-law's kidney surgery(which at the time of this writing seems to have gone well), I received news of another co-laborer in the Kingdom who died in an auto accident. He was known to me as Theodore, but those who were really close to him, called him Grandpa Theodore. He was well into his 80's, a missionary in Mexico... well for the last few years anyway. His legacy was missions in Asia including Vietnam, China and the Philippines. He was the mentor of a friend of mine who I know, and finally met, from a prayer chain on the Internet. We had many e-mails over the last decade... Time flies no matter what you are doing. I am sad today. As I sit here and think about Theodore's impact on my life, I remember when we first met. He was part of a team in doing a mission in Vietnam. He was located in California arranging things for Bobby and the gang over there. In 2000 the team finally got kicked out of Hanoi for their work. (Whi...