CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout

The reason I write: To promote Christian truth and help Jesus get His Christianity back.

Category Archives: Glory to God


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Dear Father, Dear Dad

Dear Father,

You’re not far away, as some believe.

You’re not harsh and judgmental, as some preach.

You’re not aloof and proud, as some suppose.

You’re right here, within my mind and filling my heart.

Your Holy Spirit lives not on a throne,

but within each humble heart who welcomes you.

And if we let you, as my heart desires, you will fill our minds with You.

Oh, to have my mind filled and overflowing with your Spirit, dear Jesus.

Oh, to have no room for scattered thoughts of worldly junk and distraction.

To have You so filling me that the bad stuff can no longer invade my mind.

That’s my prayer today.

 

And on this Father’s Day that some of us celebrate,

I give to you dear God my faith, hope and love, as weak and flawed as they are.

And to my earthly dad George, I am so grateful for all your love for me.

And all your wisdom, and patience, and compassion.

Look, as my dad, you are an image of our Spiritual Father.

Wow!


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God is My Laxative

Okay, I know this will sound weird and irreverent. But for me, it illustrates the tangible power of having a close relationship with God. And it tells you how messed up I can be.

Starting the day without God:

My mind is all over the day ahead, but never landing on God. The anticipated day is full of challenges and tension. And that tension rushes right down to my bowels. And then reading the newspaper closes things up real tight, especially with the political circus going on in the US right now.

Starting my day WITH God:

After getting past the morning distractions, my mind finally lands on the Spirit of Jesus, living here within me. And I remember my weak and flawed surrender to Him. Yet He honors my desire and strengthens that surrender, and fortifies my minds hold onto Him. And I feel His presence here within me. And I feel His love and peace. And I feel the hope of His promise to always remain here with me. And my emotions swell with love for Him.

And I feel totally relaxed. You can figure out what happens next.

God – the best way to start the day.


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Escaping Stress – Day 1

The world is a stress-machine, cranking out high blood pressure, stomach acid, and emotional breakdowns. And I’m tired of it. Sometimes finding myself on the edge of an emotional cliff, looking down into the dark pit of a breakdown, I’ve decided it’s time to make my way to safer ground. So, I’ve stepped off on a journey to find a way to avoid stress, even while living in the midst of it. Do you want to join me? Well, here’s something I did yesterday that got me started:

First, I spent my early-morning coffee time with the Spirit of Jesus who hangs out with me – typical morning. But in our quiet time together, He prompted me to write a blog post that set the tone for the rest of my day (see it here).

For me, my main source of stress is work. So on my drive to work yesterday, I kept telling myself that the activities at work – all the projects and deadlines and tasks and problems and crises – they’re all meaningless, and they have no power over me. And the only thing that has true meaning is my relationships with my co-workers.

So, at work I did my tasks and dealt with my problems in a sort of detached way. I felt a bit insulated from those things that normally fill me with stress.

But what I put all my effort into was each interaction with the other people at work, even those who are often a source of my stress. Yet I wasn’t doing this alone. I kept seeing the Spirit of Jesus within me, guiding me and encouraging me.

It was awesome! Each interaction was calm and warm. I wonder if my co-workers were wondering what kind of drug I was on. (Yes, I can sometimes come across as intense at work.)

Also, I think it was my focus on others that resulted in me feeling insulated from the stressful tasks. Focus on others first, and it will put everything else into a right perspective. It was like my focus on people distracted me from the stuff that normally stresses me.

Okay, now to see if I can do this again. Here I go, stepping off into Day 2 of my journey. Come with me.

 

← The Beginning                    Day 2 →


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Escaping Stress

As a person who loves Jesus and thrives on His love for me, I really want to help show His love to other people. And I think the best way for me to do that is to be a light in this sometimes dark world. As Jesus said, “You are the light of the world … Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14, 16)

Well, I can’t do that when I’m all stressed out at work. When I let the stress of work pour into me, it fills me with darkness, and buries the light of Jesus under its quivering mass of dread (feeling poetic here). Anyway, when I let the stress take over, my co-workers know it. All light disappears and my mood gets dark.

But it gets better. For Jesus is gradually changing me. He’s showing me how the problems of work and life are meaningless, and that fulfillment comes from being His light, and shinning His love on other people. And He’s showing me how to let go of the things that stress me out.

It all starts with my quiet time with Him each morning. He fills me with His Spirit, pushing out all darkness. I may wake up and crawl out of bed dreading another day at work, but Jesus soon reminds me of what’s really important. It’s not success at work. It’s not accomplishments. It’s love; His love, shinning from His Spirit within me and pouring onto the people around me.

Do you dread today? Is the stress of life darkening your mood? Well, if so, then please join me on this journey to escape stress, even while living in the midst of it.

Day 1 →


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Why Doesn’t God Give Up?

Sometimes I try to look at this world from a detached perspective. Like, how would this mashed up mixture of humanity look to an alien from another planet?

So much strife, and evil, and violence, and arrogance, and judgment, and hypocrisy, and selfishness, and hate, and on the list goes. What a mess we are!

And then I wonder… why doesn’t God give up on this failed experiment of humanity? If I were Him, I would have walked away a long time ago. But He didn’t give up. He hasn’t walked away. In fact, He sacrificed His Son in order to save this experiment.

WOW! God must love us a lot.


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Pulled Back From the Cliff, Again

The stress of work…

it grabbed a hold of my mind;

it dragged me to the edge of the cliff.

Such agony, teetering there on the edge,

looking down into the black pit,

the stale air rising up from below,

making it hard to breathe.

Every morning as I got out of bed,

my mind would run to work,

and drag me back to the edge of that pit.

My chest would tighten,

my blood pressure rising,

all day long.

And then God took my hand,

and He pulled me back

and into His arms, again.

And God reminded me of what He’d taught me before:

don’t try to control my day;

don’t be a victim of the day;

just Experience each day, with God,

and Trust God with control of my day.

Now I stand with the Spirit of Jesus,

holding His hand,

watching the day go by.

And that cliff is no longer in sight.

And I’m so grateful.


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Do you want to see God?

Friends say my oldest son looks like me. I don’t see it. Both of my sons look unique to me. And that person I see in the mirror looks unique to – he doesn’t look like me, but rather some older guy.

Anyway, this morning I was thinking about how those of us who believe in Jesus, in certain ways we look like our Father God. Of course it’s not our physical features that make us look like God, but rather how we interact with other people. It’s our love and compassion, our patience and understanding, our humility and peacefulness – these are the gifted traits we inherit from God that help us look like Him.

The part that rattles my mind is that other people can actually see God in me, when I let His gifted traits shine out. I’m still trying to get a grasp on that one.

Do you want to see God? Try looking in the mirror.


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How Would You Feel If…?

What if you knew for certain that tomorrow you were going to be tortured and killed? How would you feel today, knowing what waits for you tomorrow?

A weird and disturbing question, I know. But your answer may help you feel some of what Jesus felt, as he waited for His fate.

I don’t ask this to stir up feelings of guilt. Instead I hope you will feel overwhelming love and gratitude. What Jesus did for all of us was not easy. He suffered so we won’t have to. So how do you feel?


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Wreckage?

I’m floating in a sea,

surrounded by debris and wreckage.

The wreckage of this broken world;

the wreckage of my life.

Surrounded,

unable to clearly see the horizon

for all the wreckage.

I search the horizon for Jesus.

I look for Father God.

I know they are here;

something inside me feels their presence.

But the wreckage crowds my view.

Without God, there is only wreckage.

…

And finally, the wreckage breaks up.

And God opens a way, from Him to me.

And now He’s here;

His Spirit is within me, floating here with me.

And the wreckage pulls away from God,

unable to touch Him.

With the Spirit of God and Jesus within me,

the wreckage of my life floats off,

and I feel peace.

———————-

This is a typical morning for me, quietly sitting with coffee mug in hand, surrounded by the wreckage that fills my mind. And then God appears. Oh Lord! Dear Jesus! I love you as much as I am able. And I live because you live within me.


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Feeling Surrounded by God

Redwood trees

I went for a hike in a redwood forest yesterday. I admire redwood trees; so tall, so old, so strong. My mind drifted away from my life and wondered at the lives of the trees. Most of them are hundreds of years old, and some are over a thousand.

And then I felt it – the majesty of God. Surrounded by trees that had witnessed hundreds of years of God’s creation, I also felt surrounded by God. Oh, I feel the presence of God’s Spirit within me almost every day. But most days, God and I are surrounded by the chaos of the world, and I don’t often see God in the midst of that chaos.

But yesterday, in the midst of that majestic redwood forest, there was no chaos – only God. And it felt great.

Thank you Lord.


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Satan is Terrified

Jesus confronted Satan many times during His life on earth. This morning I was reading about one of those times in the gospel of Mark. Jesus came across a demon-possessed man causing trouble among some tombs. In referring to the man, Mark writes:

“When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!’” (Mark 5:6-7)

The demons of Satan were absolutely terrified of Jesus. Satan fell on his knees at Jesus’ feet and begged Jesus for mercy. I stopped reading and just focused on that fact. What does it mean to me, that Satan is terrified of Jesus? Think about it – what does it mean to you?


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My letter of Thanks

Dear God,

Thank you for saving my father. Yesterday my dad had open heart surgery, where with your help the doctors performed a double bypass and replaced the faulty heart valve. And my dad is 88 years old! And he survived! And the surgery was without any complications!

As you know from my prayers yesterday, and as I’m sorry to say, I had my doubts at times. I doubted my dad would survive. But I hope my doubts were not because of my sometimes weak faith, but because I trust you. I trusted you to do your will, and I accept that your will may have been to bring my dad to be home with you, in heaven. But by your love for all who love my dad, you gave him back to us, to be with us a bit longer. Thank you.

I believe we witnessed your miracle yesterday. I believe when we looked into my dad’s eyes as he began to wake up again, that we saw the miracle of your love and presence and hand in the surgery. For in addition to whatever part you had in the surgery itself, you gave my dad the will to live. And you helped him see your love and the love of his family.

This is beginning to feel like a rambling letter. But I just wanted to publically thank you for your love in our lives, and the new life you’ve given my dad.

And dear Jesus, thank you for being there with all of us, in that waiting room. Some of us felt the presence of your Spirit. Waiting with you sure made the waiting easier.


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Book Challenge Day #55 – Typing, finally

ghost writer

My hand-written first draft notes are all safely in my notebook, all except for the last chapter. But tonight is big not because of that, but because I started typing the first draft, beginning to make edits on the way. There is something special for me when I finally start typing a new book project. It feels more real, not like my barely legible hand-writing. I just finished typing chapter one and I’ll get started on chapter two as soon as I post this brief message.

This book project, driven along by my challenge to write and publish this book in three months, has really picked up momentum the past week. And I’d like to use this particular post to thank my co-writer… the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who lives within me, and probably within you too. He’s the real drive behind this project. His presence fills me with energy, excitement, and words. And I’m so grateful. Thanks

 

(September 9, 2015: day 55 down, 38 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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Done with Church

Here’s a brief and interesting post I just came across…

Pastor Luke Jones's avatarJLP Pastor

Over at Scot McKnight’s blog, the first of a planned series of excerpts from Church Refugees, a book about “dechurched” people. Not marginal attenders or cynics, they were the kind of high-involvement people every church wants to have. But along the way the church converted them, and they went from from enthusiastic church folks to “done with religion.”

We call these people the dechurched or the Dones: They’re done with church. They’re tired and fed up with church. They’re dissatisfied with the structure, social message, and politics of the institutional church, and they’ve decided they and their spiritual lives are better off lived outside of organized religion.

Here’s an example from one such “Done” called Ethan:

when we finally left the church, we’ve just done house church where we create and do things with, others rather than for them. I’m done with the top-down, institutional church. I thought…

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The Church’s Hidden Back Door

Thom Schultz's avatarHoly Soup

Beef up outreach. Emphasize evangelism. Plant more churches. Polish the marketing.

None of this is reversing the overall trend of church decline. Even when a church attracts new members it doesn’t grow. Why?

It can’t add people fast enough to make up for the legions slipping out the back door.

They are the Dones–those who are done with organized church. New research reveals the enormity of the back-door effect. Sociologist Josh Packard, as a follow-up to his book Church Refugees, conducted a new national study through the Social Research Lab to determine the size, make-up and motivations of the formerly churched population in the United States.

The survey results are stunning. Some 31 percent of the entire U.S. adult population was once churched and now has dropped out and disconnected from any organized church. That’s a population of 65 million adults.

With that kind of exodus, it’s difficult for any…

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Book Challenge – Day #1

ghost writer

Challenge to self: write and self-publish a book within three months. This isn’t a new idea for me, but while checking out many of the presentations at the on-going Self-Publishing Success Summit, I finally felt energy growing within me… let’s do it.

So this morning, right after getting out of bed, I started talking with God, asking Him for ideas. What would He like me to write about that could be contained in a short, maybe 20,000-word book? I so love writing with God, because He’s always there for me. I think He loves writing too, for it’s another way He can communicate with His children. Even before I started making coffee, an idea started coming into focus. And half-way through that first cup of coffee, I started drawing a mind-map with the ideas that were coming into my still-dreamy head. And now, the whole story is laid out before me.

I think God has a sense of humor, because the idea he gave me is a fiction story. Yet all my experience is writing non-fiction. To pull this off, I’ll have to dig deep into my past, when I was a young kid who loved to make up stories. I’m excited.

Anyway, if you’re interested in following my progress with this challenge, check back once in awhile. I’ll try to share the experience. October 17th, 2015 … wish me luck.


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Wading Through the Rubble of my Mind

cluttered mind

Each morning, with coffee in hand, I take my precious quiet time and seek God, within me. I sit in my rustic garage corner-office/storage-room, sometimes reading the daily devotional in Jesus Calling, sometimes reading my bible, but always trying to focus my mind on Jesus and God.

Yet, every morning before I can find my way to God, I need to wade my way through the trash and rubble that clogs my mind. I need to clear a path to God, through thoughts about work, home projects, personal challenges, and often-meaningless distractions. Some mornings, my minds rubble piles up high and deep, and it can be rough going, bouncing from one distraction to the next. But if I patiently keep digging, I eventually break through the rubble and … there’s God, always waiting for me.

And I’m so grateful.


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I Need More Than Coffee

coffee cup

Morning coffee,

as strong as I can make it without the grounds spilling out of the basket.

Just enough milk to smooth out the bitter, but not dilute the strong flavor.

My mind slowly wakes and comes into focus.

But it’s not enough.

Today, everyday, I need more than coffee.

The coffee clears my mind.

But my soul, my feelings, still feel fuzzy and confused.

I feel a bit dark, though not like my coffee – that’s a good dark.

I feel a bit bleak, a little depressed, slightly purposeless.

Coffee alone doesn’t help.

I need God.

It’s hard to sweep away the clouds and distractions of life.

It’s hard to sometimes see God through the clutter in my mind.

But He’s there, just beyond the clutter, always waiting for me.

It takes time, it takes emptiness, it takes some sweeping of my mind to see God.

Yet when I wade my way though my messy thoughts,

and put the stuff of life behind me,

God greets me with a warm bear hug.

He hugs my soul. And the clouds lift.

There is no better way to start the day.

And I’m so grateful.


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Welcomed Home… Every Time

prodigal son

Here I sit in my man-cave office – actually, mixture of storage room, cluttered desk, and dust. But it’s my quiet space, isolated from distractions, where I have some of my best one-on-one time with God. This morning is like every morning… coffee in hand and God on my mind, and in my heart. Today I look back over my shoulder at yesterday.

Reflection… looking back I see that yesterday was like most days. More than once, I turned my back on God and abandoned Him. It may seem like nothing, just a typical reaction to life. Like getting consumed by a project at work and venting a bit of frustration at a co-worker. But in that moment, I can’t see God, for my back is to Him.

Yet every time I turn around, there He is. And like the father of the prodigal son, God does more than patiently wait for me to come back to Him. As soon as He sees me turn around, He runs to me, wraps His arms around me, and welcomes me home. Every time. Such is His love for all of us. And I’m so grateful.