“Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. 

It happens to nearly everyone. 

You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. 

It is a feeling in the stomach,

a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. 

The skin tastes the air, 

and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. 

Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes.

 A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, 

and the land and trees of him dark and somber. 

The events, even the important ones, 

may have trooped by faceless and pale. 

And then-the glory-

so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, 

the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, 

and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. 

Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, 

and yet he is not diminished. 

And I guess a man's importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories. 

It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. 

It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other men.”

I think Steinbeck is suggesting that the measure of a life is not simply what a person accomplishes, accumulates, or experiences outwardly, 

but how deeply he has awakened to life itself.

 Jesus said - “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” 

I think the most abundant experiences like those described by Steinbeck 

are found in the realm of faith.

 No doubt there are experiences like this in romantic infatuation, in moments of creative inspiration, but none so profound as moments of spiritual clarity. 

“A person can possess great wealth, education, position, and achievement and still live in the gray.  Another person may possess very little materially but experience life with extraordinary richness.

“There is also an interesting spiritual parallel here. 

What Steinbeck describes resembles those moments when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to something we had previously understood only intellectually. 

A familiar Scripture suddenly becomes alive. 

A person we might otherwise overlook becomes precious. An ordinary moment becomes sacred. 

We find ourselves filled with something that makes us want to pour love into others.

Perhaps the most beautiful thought in the entire passage is this:

There are moments when life becomes so full within us that we cannot help but pour it outward. 

And in giving ourselves away, 

we discover that we have become richer, not poorer.

That, I think, is one of the great paradoxes of both human love and Christian discipleship.”

This quote is from Steinbeck’s book, “East of Eden” and serves as a warning to us all –

The glory of love can transform our experience of life,

even when it rests upon an illusion.

Adam's love awakened something beautiful within him, though the woman he loved did not possess the goodness he imagined.

“Adam Trask grew up in grayness,

and the curtains of his life were like dusty cobwebs,

and his days a slow file of half-sorrows and sick dissatisfactions,and then, through Cathy, the glory came to him.

It doesn't matter that Cathy was what I have called a monster.”

Perhaps the deeper warning is this:

We must learn to recognize the capacity for both good and evil in ourselves, while being careful not to confuse the goodness we see in someone with the goodness that actually resides in them.

I’ve included the balance of the quote here if you want to read it.

“Perhaps we can't understand Cathy, but on the other hand we are capable of many things in all directions,

of great virtues and great sins.

And who in his mind has not probed the black water?

Maybe we all have in us a secret pond where evil and ugly things germinate and grow strong.

But this culture is fenced, and the swimming brood climbs up only to fall back.

Might it not be that in the dark pools of some men the evil grows strong enough to wriggle over the fence and swim free?

Would not such a man be our monster, and are we not related to him in our hidden water?

It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.

Whatever Cathy may have been, she set off the glory in Adam.

His spirit rose flying and released him from fear and bitterness and rancid memories.

The glory lights up the world and changes it the way a star shell changes a battleground.

Perhaps Adam did not see Cathy at all, so lighted was she by his eyes.

Burned in his mind was an image of beauty and tenderness, a sweet and holy girl,

precious beyond thinking, clean and loving,

and that image was Cathy to her husband, and nothing Cathy did or said could warp Adam's Cathy.”

-East of Eden by John Steinbeck (chapter 13)

 There's an old country song that says - 

"All the girls get prettier at closin' time

They all begin to look like movie stars." 

When I saw this meme I didn't exactly know where I was going with it, but even if you’ve never had so much as a sip of alcohol or a single puff of anything, the devil's crafty wiles can cast a spell that even the most devout will find hard to resist. It may be as simple as twilight, “The hour when ordinary things turn quietly enchanted.”  “Betrayal rarely arrives with a knock. It slips in through the door we left unlatched while we were busy surviving. A kindness offered at the right hour can feel like grace, and still be a door that shouldn’t be opened.”

“The fall is rarely a leap. It is a series of small permissions. Guard the gate when you are strong, because you will not be able to when you are weak. The stranger is rarely the cause. The stranger is the occasion. The cause was the unattended need. Faithfulness is not only refusing the last step. It is refusing the first, quiet one.”

1 Corinthians 10:12: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

 

 “Now as I look back a little,

I see that some of my worst experiences have not hurt or injured me at all.

I do not claim more than my share of troubles,

but "I have had trouble enough for one," as Browning says, —bereavements, disappointments,

the illness of those I have loved, illness of my own,

quarrels, misunderstandings,

enmities, angers, disapprovals, losses;

I have made bad mistakes, I have failed in my duty,

I have done many things that I regret,

I have been unreasonable, unkind, selfish.

Many of these things have hurt and wounded me,

have brought me into sorrow, and even into despair.

But I do not feel that any of them have really injured me, and some of them have already benefited me.

I have learned to be a little more patient and diligent,

and I have discovered that there are certain things

that I must, at all costs, avoid.

But there is one thing which seems to me to have always and invariably hampered and maimed me,

whenever I have yielded to it,

and I have often yielded to it;

and that is Fear.” Arthur C. Benson.

‘Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,

Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Is. 41:10

Have you divorced your child?

One of the least-talked-about sins is

the fear of, or failure to,

earnestly work at restoring a shattered relationship with your child.

Pride whispers that the first move belongs to them, and fear warns that reaching out will only invite more rejection.

So, parents wait, convincing themselves that silence is safer than vulnerability.

But a parent is called to love first and love longest.

Restoration rarely arrives through a single grand gesture;

it is built through humble, persistent steps:

a sincere apology without excuses,

a letter or call that asks nothing in return,

and a willingness to listen without defending yourself.

The door may not open right away,

and the outcome is not entirely yours to control.

But the sin lies in never knocking at all.

Better to risk the pain of rejection than to carry the unceasing regret of having never tried.

For a child to believe they are unloved and forgotten is the most destructive thing we can bequeath them.

Every child needs to know they matter to their parents.

Even if the relationship is weak and never reaches the depth of affection or connection one hopes for, to abandon a child with no effort at reconciliation is among the greatest of sins.

The wound is not the child’s alone; it hurts the parent as much as the child.

In essence, we hand them a lifelong weight of self-doubt and sorrow, one that can haunt them for decades and affect every relationship they will ever have.

But it does not have to end that way.

A child who knows their parent kept trying, even imperfectly, even without success, carries something priceless:

the knowledge that they were worth the effort.

So reach out. Apologize without excuses. Write the letter, make the call, and keep the door open.

You may not be able to repair everything, but you can make sure your child never has to wonder whether they mattered. 

“You stiff-necked Christians! Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?" Acts 7:51 abridged for the church.

"One of the most telling blows which the enemy ever struck at the life of the Church was to create in her a fear of the Holy Spirit.

No one who mingles with Christians in these times

will deny that such a fear exists.

Few there are who without restraint will open their whole heart to the blessed Comforter.

He has been and is so widely misunderstood that the very mention of His name in some circles is enough to frighten many people into resistance. The source of this unreasoning fear may easily by traced, but it would be fruitless labor to do it here. Sufficient to say that the fear is groundless.”-A. W. Tozer,

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said it this way:

“Got it all? Well, if you have ‘got it all’ I simply ask in the name of God, why are you as you are?

If you have got it all, why are you so unlike the New Testament Christians?

Got it all! Got it at your conversion! Well, where is it, I ask?”

If the teachings of Calvin, or of more recent teachers such as John MacArthur, John Piper, J. Vernon McGee, or other influential voices within Reformed theology, have caused you to “resist the Holy Spirit” for whatever reason, I urge you to reconsider.

We must be careful not to let our theological convictions become barriers to the very work of God we long to see accomplished in our lives.

We may disagree about the nature, purpose, or continuation of certain spiritual gifts, yet still remain humble and receptive to the Spirit's transforming presence.

Paul's exhortation remains worthy of our attention: “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Whatever your theological convictions, do not let fear of excess, suspicion of others, or loyalty to a particular system of doctrine cause you to withdraw from the Spirit's sanctifying work.

Let your heart remain open to all that He desires to accomplish in you, always testing what you hear against Scripture and seeking to glorify Jesus Christ.

The question is not simply what we believe about the Holy Spirit, but whether we are willing to yield ourselves to His work within us.

The following satire would be humorous if it weren't so true. The masses of struggling  destructive lost and downcast are common on the streets of Portland Oregon . This quote describes so many I minister to in the jail and missions.  

"PACIFIC NORTHWEST APPARENTLY HOME TO NEW GENERATION: "GEN WHY"

Every little town in the Pacific Northwest apparently has at least one member of a previously unidentified generation known as "Gen Why."

She's 40, dresses like she's 21, parties like it's 2006, and has been "getting her shit together" since George W. Bush was president.

You know the one.

Leopard-print leggings tighter than a banjo string, a crop top fighting for its life, eyelashes like two dead tarantulas, and enough makeup to seal a double-wide. She applies it with a nine-inch paint roller from Bi-Mart and uses a putty knife for touch-ups.

Her eyebrows are drawn on so high they qualify as overhead utilities.

She's got five kids, four baby daddies, and a boyfriend-of-the-month club with more turnover than Dollar General. The current winner is 24, has "LOYALTY" tattooed on his neck, and hasn't worked since somebody stole his tools in 2019.

Naturally, she doesn't have a meth problem. She just smokes a little, sells enough to support the habit she doesn't have, and has been cleaning the same bathroom since the Fourth of July.

"I can quit whenever I want."

Nobody asked, Tiffany.

Despite being unemployed, she's busier than a one-armed roofer. Between Facebook fights, court dates, and driving her boyfriend to probation, she barely has time to post about fake friends, jealous bitches, and how blessed she is.

Her profile says "INDEPENDENT QUEEN - DON'T NEED NO MAN," although her mother pays the phone bill, her ex pays the electricity, and she's borrowing $40 from a guy she met behind Chevron.

Every Friday she's cutting toxic people out of her life. By Sunday, they're all back in her living room smoking cigarettes, fighting over a missing vape, and planning an eyelash business.

She's accepting deposits.

You can usually hear "Gen Why" coming three blocks away, blasting Eminem and screaming at somebody on speakerphone about loyalty.

At press time, she'd posted "NEW CHAPTER. NO MORE DRAMA."

Nine minutes later, police responded to a disturbance involving two ex-boyfriends, a missing catalytic converter, and somebody screaming, "YOU DON'T KNOW MY FUCKING STORY!"

Unfortunately, everybody in town does.

DISCLAIMER: Satire. Gen Why is fictional, but every small town has at least one. Some have enough to start a bowling league."  The Coostucky Chronicle

 Pearl of great price Mt. 13:45-46

Who Is the Merchant, and What Is the Pearl?

“There are scholars who disagree, I’ll share the interpretation I think is most applicable.

I believe the merchant represents the sincere seeker—the person who hungers and thirsts for truth, righteousness, and a deeper understanding of God.

The pearls represent the spiritual truths he discovers along the way, each contains elements of truth, while the “pearl of great price” represents Christ Himself, the incomparable worth of God's kingdom, which surpasses everything else he might possess.

I believe God has graced every culture and generation with individuals who possess uncommon spiritual insight, enabling them to perceive truths others may overlook.

These men and women may arise from any nation, tradition, or walk of life.

Their insight is not a trophy of human achievement,

but a gift of grace intended for the common good.

Perhaps these are among the pearls God places along humanity’s path—glimpses of divine truth intended to awaken our hunger for something greater than ourselves.

We should not assume that every pearl of wisdom contains the fullness of divine truth, Christ alone possesses all truth.

For the merchant in Jesus’ parable, the discovery of one pearl of extraordinary value changed everything. Having found it, he was willing to sell all he possessed to obtain it.

Not every messenger possesses equal understanding.

When we encounter truth, we should examine its worth, embrace what is good, and allow it to transform our hearts and lives.

For the true seeker, spiritual discovery is not merely an intellectual exercise;it calls for a response.

Like the merchant who gives everything to obtain the pearl of great price, we must be willing to surrender whatever stands in the way of God's kingdom.

The light God gives us is not a license to demonize or condemn those who see differently, rather, we should approach others with humility and discernment, recognizing that we, too, see and understand only in part, and remain dependent upon His grace.

And we have a responsibility to

love more deeply,

discern more wisely,

and serve more faithfully.

We can hold firmly to our convictions while remaining open to the possibility that God has allowed others, in different cultures and traditions, to perceive aspects of truth that we ourselves have overlooked.

If the light we have received is truly from God,

it should lead us toward the character of Christ,

who was full of grace and truth.

The more clearly we see His light,

the more faithfully we should reflect it to the world—

not as a weapon with which to wound others,

but as a light by which they, too, may find their way toward God.”

 

 "I have nothing to say to you, but what I have already said: simply obey the Holy Spirit, without listening to your own reason or fancy. 

No doubt you recognize you have a terrible bias to dissipation, the wasteful spending and squandering of resources, a lifestyle of unrestrained pleasure-seeking and a state of self-satisfaction and pride that is completely unjustified, unearned, and based on an illusion of achievement; you love to be praised, and you praise yourself; you find in your reason and natural courage, a strength which nourishes pride. 

Nothing but honest, quiet reflection can destroy this vain life, and moderate your insupportable lively, high-spirited, energetic, restlessness. 

“Let your thirst for understanding seek less, and let your heart give itself up more. Everything that seems to satisfy your intellect only puffs it up: you imagine you are nourishing your zeal, when in fact you are nourishing your pride. 

The point is not to know a great deal, but to know how to become more lowly, a child in the hands of God, of whom  I beg, not only to make you lowly, but to make you as nothing.” Fenelon.