A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

For the past 14 years I have ministered in the local county jail. Ministry in the jail is a microcosm of ministry in any setting. It is a controlled environment, with fewer variables than in the world at large. Ministry failure. . . the stumbling of the saints is in some ways easier to track in jail ministry, than in a more typical church setting. When someone drops off the radar screen in a regular church, we often do not know why. But in jail all too often we see a person return to jail. . . many times all too quickly, and that is a pretty certain sign of problems in the person’s life. Rare is the person who leaves incarceration with the thought of returning. Most spend at least some of their time in jail, contemplating how they arrived there, and what they might do to avoid coming back in the future. To see this in a series of time lapse shots it becomes sadly humorous, if that makes any sense. One particular fellow I remember got into trouble after a night of drinking i...

The recent fatal shooting of a young man by a police office in Missouri, has polarized large segments of the population.  People are choosing sides, aligning themselves behind either the righteous act of a courageous police officer, or the tragic murder of an innocent young man by a police officer. Each side has the same basic facts available to them, but they see totally different scenes out of those same facts.  What they see in those facts and their reaction to them, have little to do with the facts themselves, but are rather a type of ink blot test. . . given random shapes of ink on a little card, a person is able to create a scene, not from anything inherently in the black and white shapes on the paper, but from their own past experiences. . . . Lay on your back and look at the clouds. . .see soldiers, horses. . . castles. . . No soldiers, or horses, or castles are actually there, and a friend sitting right next to you will find completely different shapes in the same...

The burning stars rotate perfectly and obediently in their proscribed orbits through the cold harsh vacuum of space. . . . totally subject to and submissive to the God ordained. . . God created laws of physics. Their severe obedience unwavering in the slightest. Any variance of motion from the path prescribed for them is inconceivable. Thus entire galaxies, great clusters of galaxies. . . indeed the entire observed universe submits, obeys without questioning the laws laid before it. Wheeling silently through the boundless sky. . .In every direction of the celestial globe, order and adherence to the rule of law. . . as a perfectly beautiful and wondrously complex mechanism. . . perfect on what ever scale it may be viewed. Interlocking facets of cause, effect, and consequence. . . death. . . rebirth. . . wheels within wheels. Turning and moving ever onward through countless eons of time, in silent harmony, and unity . . The entire universe that is, except for Man. Man alone ...