Dunkin' Donuts Daze

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    A personal rebirthing experience began almost fifteen years ago when I confessed, "I'm a hypocrite and know it."

    Rebirthing accelerated in October 2011 during a week with Eugene and three covenant brothers; causing me to commence the painful process of abandoning my hypocritical religion about Jesus for an authentic relationship with Him fed by Holy Scripture alone as enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

    Simply, up to that moment, I had spent more of my life and ministry reading books about the book than reading the book itself.

    Apocalyptically, I realized I had spent almost half a century separating myself from God by degrees; using Holy Scripture to prepare for papers, homiletics, books, and other academic/professional/royalty pursuits rather than immersing myself into the Word more than other words as the prerequisite for faithful life and ministry.

    That's the, uh, Cliff Notes version.

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    Nothing about Him has changed; but I am changing every day; recalling, according to Matthew and Mark, that the first word out of His mouth at the commencement of His public ministry was repent.

    How odd that His call is to change what separates us from Him by conforming to Him as personified by Jesus and prescribed in Holy Scripture while so much of what we hear in today's churches is the desire to embrace time-honored religious inventions that emerge from human pride and prejudice and lusts for control in the forms of pricey architecture, attire, atmosphere, and accoutrements with occasional coincidences to the Suffering Servant Himself as attested in Holy Scripture.

    Ah, yes, "So man created God in his image.  In the image of man, man created God."

    I am praying/trying so hard to shed the shackles of such religion for a relationship with Him.

    I am praying/trying so hard to move from what I/we/they think to what He has revealed as the real/liberating/eternal way, truth, and life.

    I am just scratching the surface.

    But I am scratching; and have even more energy and enthusiasm and endurance for life and ministry than I did on May 8, 1977.

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    Anyway, every day has become an adventure of newness and freshness and opportunity and confession/repentance/forgiveness.

    I have no clue how it will all...

    But I know I have more peace and calm and anticipation than I even did back in 1968 at conversion/call.

    I'm still a hypocrite.

    I need Jesus as my Lord to direct and Savior to, uh, save more than ever before.

    Yet,...I am learning and discovering and praising and...

    My recent mornings at Dunkin' Donuts in Wexford, Pennsylvania (12/27-30/12) are illustrative.

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    A rather large-boned and tall woman/employee with a ruddy-pock-marked complexion and at least one tatt on her neck was cleaning tables.

    One more thing.

    She had the most gorgeous red and curly hair running down to her bum that I had seen since a biker babe with the same kinda hair blew by me on her FLSTC on the way to Deadwood in 2010.

    I couldn't help but exclaiming, "Your hair is beautiful, sister!"

    She blushed.

    Her boss blurted, "I think it's ridiculous for a 40 something cleaning lady to have such long hair.  If I had my way, I'd make her cut it off."

    Pause.

    Ponder.

    "Is it I, Lord?"

    Weep.

    Confess, repent, and receive His...

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    An old woman and old man came in pushing their walkers.

    They were followed by at least ten more old women and old men pushing their walkers.

    I guessed it to be a field trip from the local...

    They smiled at me.

    I smiled at them.

    We laughed.

    I recalled PackMan saying to me in Sturgis - that same year as the red-haired beauty blew by me - as I mocked some guy on a trike, "Hey, that's your future!"

    Pause.

    Ponder.

    "Is it I, Lord?'

    Weep.

    Confess, repent, and receive His...

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    Obviously, the dad was on Christmas vaca.

    The slippers and pajama bottoms betrayed him.

    So did the two children at his side - sister and brother.

    Note.

    The Wexford area ain't Gary, Indiana.

    Suddenly, while ordering a dozen, the two little ones got into a big fight.

    "She got to pick more than me...He always gets more than me...I hate..."

    The dad said, "Stop this fighting!  O.K., O.K., O.K., we'll get more until you're both satisfied..."

    They left with scowls and no one seeming satisfied.

    Pause.

    Ponder.

    "Is it I, Lord?'

    Weep.

    Confess, repent, and receive His...

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    Another father and son on vaca.

    Sitting across from each other.

    The son wearing a letterman's jacket and staring at his dad.

    The dad looking at his dumb phone, reading, texting, and...paying no attention to his son.

    The son interrupts.

    The dad explodes, "Stop!  Can't you see I'm doing something?"

    The son: "I thought we came here to talk!"

    Silence.

    Not a word was said.

    Then they left.

    Pause.

    Ponder.

    "Is it I, Lord?"

    Weep.

    Confess, repent, and receive His...

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    Dunkin' Donuts is selling a t-shirt: "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Starbucks!"

    I was going to buy it.

    I'm changing.

    It caused me to pause, ponder, question, cry, and...

    Maybe I have been wrong about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

    I've always been content with the simple, superficial, and safe definition; you know...the one that lets everybody especially me off the Fisherman's hook.

    Maybe people who don't love Jesus by loving like Jesus are...

    Maybe people who don't show mercy, offer forgiveness, sacrifice, and...are the ones who are really rejecting...

    Maybe it's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit to hate people in a Christian kinda way, storm off and separate and segregate and divorce and distance when...

    Groote/Kempis so long ago yet so timely because so many have paid no attention to 'em which is why...: "Surely profound words do not make a man holy and just; but a virtuous life maketh him dear to God.  I had rather feel contrition, than know the definition thereof.  If thou didst know the whole Bible by heart, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what would all that profit thee without the love of God, and without His grace?"

    Pause.

    Ponder.

    "Is it I, Lord?"

    Weep.

    Confess, repent, and receive His...

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Blessings and Love!

Scratching the Surface

of

Identity

(A Brief and Incomplete Guide to Loving Jesus)

How do we know if we really love Jesus?

He said, “Love each other just as much as I love you!”

We love Jesus by loving like Jesus!

While this is a brief, incomplete, and indicative not exhaustive guide to loving Jesus, people who really love Jesus show inclinations and incarnations of loving Jesus.

Inclinations

Loving Jesus by loving like Jesus shows we love Jesus!

People who really love Jesus can’t get enough of Him!

People who really love Jesus are always hungry and thirsty to get closer to Him!

People who really love Jesus rarely miss opportunities to worship Him, experience Him at the table of Holy Communion, learn more about Him, hang around His family, and serve Him in a Matthew 25 kinda way.

People who really love Jesus show it/Him!

Incarnations

People who really love Jesus can be distinguished from people who don’t really love Jesus by incarnations/enfleshments of really loving Jesus:

+ “Strong calm sanity”

+ Increasing evidence/proof/fruit of really loving Jesus like love, joy, peace, patience,

   kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, humility, and self-control!

+ Increasing obedience to Him by desire more than duty!

One of the clearest and most convincing inclinations/incarnations of loving Jesus by loving like Jesus is forgiving others like He has forgiven us; which comes with a warning: “If you forgive others, you will be forgiven.  If you do not forgive others, you will not be forgiven.”

Summarily, we know we really love Jesus if - more than less, authentically not artificially, relationally not religiously - we can say with the apostle, “It is no longer I who live but it is Jesus who lives in and through me!”