S.O.S.?

Need A Chuckle?

A friend of mine sent these to me the other day and I thought everyone might enjoy them. So here they are...Headlines straight from various publications.

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers 

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over 

Miners Refuse to Work after Death 

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

War Dims Hope for Peace 
 
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile 
  
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures 
     
Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges 
     
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge 
    
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks 

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half 

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors 

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

It is absolutely amazing what intelligent people will say, do and write without giving it a second thought. Be careful, not just what you say but how you say it!

No good reason for this picture. If anyone recognizes this child, then you must know her too.

Babu Lonnie  

Got The Funk...Still

This is my fourth week of this incredible case of "the funk". Everyone else seems to contract it for a couple weeks at the most. But not me, headed toward five weeks of this crap.

The first part of the year when I arrived in Kenya I had this same thing but it lasted only a couple of weeks. I thought it was weather change and the trip, ect. But now I am beginning to think of it in terms of a reoccurring nightmare.

Poor Andrew Brooks listened to me cough, hack and spit up large hunks of lung or something for the duration of my "Kenyan Funk". Now poor Patti has listened to me for four weeks. I have coughed myself sore. I have torn an existing hernia in my stomach from all the straining. This "U.S. Funk" seems to me to be much worse than the Kenyan one.

But the funk was a little better today because I rediscovered some of the most amazing people I have ever met. I found them by accident on Facebook. I was becoming friends with my already real friend Anna, who calls me Santa, and I call her....well forget that. She is the daughter of Denny & Susan who are former missionaries to Kenya.

Back to my story, she is friends with these amazing folks I met in Kenya. These three young ladies I'm talking about made a greater impression on me than any other missionary intern I have ever encountered. They were willing to go places others wouldn't go, touch people others wouldn't touch and they have burned a place in Babu's heart forever.

Kirsten, Charissa and Reba, you have given hope to an old man for a future and a hope for those who seemingly have no future or hope. You girls are bigger than rock stars. Love Ya,

Babu Lonnie

When Friends Go

Where do people go when they seem to desert you? Is there a large group gathered somewhere who have lied to, cheated, sole from there so called friends and even family members so long they now have no place to go or other to call friends? What a sad group this must be.

I got an idea, let's invite them to be part of the Body of Christ. I know you say that could never happen. I don't know maybe we should ask Peter and James and John, to name a few, about that when we see them in eternity. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not talking about inviting them to a meeting or a building, an altar or any other physical place I can lead. I'm talking about letting them be drawn into a place of unconditional love that will set them free and not doom them to a life of repetitive failure.

In the past, sure we have took those offenders back almost into the fold but they were not let all the way in. Wonder why? Maybe we were just letting them into our little club we were trying to protect from folks like them. But there real Kingdom of God just says come on in. Here is where the sticky part starts with my thinking. Mainly because I have the gift of suspicion!!!

Acceptance in my circles has always meant to help by supplying for those people we let back in. But can I suggest a new twist on this acceptance thing. Let's let em' back in to full measure but let them "make it" on there own till they have proven to God that they aren't following Him for just the sandwiches and the parades. Problem is we allow our feelings to come into play and they play with our feeling till they inevitability begin to lie, cheat and steal all over again.

I am suggesting we remove our feelings from the God equation! HE IS God whether we feel it or not. I know what you think, well maybe, God gave us feelings. Did He? We were spirits before we were humans and I'm not so sure that spirits have feelings. Perhaps we developed this feeling process after the great transformation in the Garden. Remember before that everything was "Good", nothing to have a feeling or make a determination about.

It is possible to lay aside our feeling but only "IN HIM" can it be done. This may be a good barometer as to whether we are in Him. This is not a question of Him in us but us in Him. Bottom line is this...the "In Him" is being in the body of Christ. If feelings are the measuring stick of "In' or "out" it isn't His body making the determination. His body is should live by faith not by feelings. Too long again, sorry Kate.

Babu Lonnie   

Being Me

Being me is one of the hardest things I've ever attempted. Some may think me foolish for such a statement but let me briefly, well maybe not too briefly, explain.

On December 17th, 1952 I arrived into this life about 7:00pm in the middle of a cotton field in Gosnell Arkansas to uneducated migrant worker parents. I came against all odds to a medically proclaimed barren mother and an impoverished field hand father. I arrived about forty five minutes before the doctor did with the aid of an aunt.

Since the moment of breaking the womb of being I began transforming into what everyone else wanted me to do and left the real me that God planned behind. I don't think this is just my case either but all humanity. I say that because human hands are responsible for teaching the things of God (our creator) to their children and most humans I know are too busy building careers, making money or planning for the future and miss this very moment they live in. In other words doing becomes the mantra for life and being is just another word for nothing left to do. (thanks Joplin for the partial line)

But I submit to you that being is the hardest thing on the planet. Because it goes against our culture our education and our parental influence. We are placed in slots like pieces of mail as we are categorized and categorize others.

I just want to be the best me that God has created in a barren mothers womb by a migrate working father. As I get older I am hearing things from my creator I have never been taught and it is leading me down a path to being. Just simply being what whoever I come in contact with on any given day needs in order to be fed the Bread of Life and drink Living Water. Perhaps it's through a laugh, a smile, an offense. I don't know what today holds other than me so I'm just gonna suck it up and go out and be the best me I can be.

Hope someone hungry comes around to feed on this fruit God has left in my care. If you don't know, Gal. 5:22 & 23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Look at that there are no rules against this fruit.

Think I'll give a shot at just being me with this fruit distribution...hummmm, no rules against em' eh? Thanks to the few who truly allow me to be me, (you know who you are), and to those of you who are looking for a doer version well he don't live here anymore! If I can just be the doing will take care of its self.

WOW, that wasn't brief. But it is nearly 2:00 AM. Thursday morning. NO PICTURES TO FOLLOW!

Babu Lonnie

Was I Wrong?

Sincere Apologies To Everyone,

My early offering for Halloween, Got Pumpkin?,  was very well received as I thought it would be. I am somewhat warped and I thought those who read my blog may share the same sense of humor. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and I seem to have upset a few people who have accused me of being shallow and unchristian like. If you were one of these people, please accept my most humble apology.

I went to a gathering last night and the hosts wife told me, just when I think I got a handle on you then you come off with something like that got pumpkin post. I am working rally hard at being me and sometimes I think there may be more than just one of me....just kidding and so as he. 

From now on I will do my best to blog with a cultural, educational or theological content as not to be offensive. Except of course to that segment who will be offended no matter what you say or do. To them I pass along the advice my younger son gave me when I was once terribly offended...Josh said, "Dad build a bridge and get over it". With that in mind let's start our non offensive approach to blogging with a bridge we can try and get over together.

Bellow, you'll find a picture of the Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris. For those of you who are interested, Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge in Paris and took 26 years to build. Construction began in 1578 and ended in 1604. "Le Pont Neuf" is actually made of 2 independent bridges, one with seven arches and the other with five arches. Fascinating don't you think?

Being cultured and educational, ya gotta love it!

Babu Lonnie

GLOBAL WARNING!!!

I don't want to sound overly dramatic but there is a serious problem that may be spreading globally. This is not an official but an concerned TICK WARNING!

I hate it when people send out bogus or unsubstantiated warnings, and I have even done it myself a couple times out of trust or ignorance... But this one is real, and it's important so please get this warning out to everyone you know:

If someone approaches you saying they are checking for ticks due to the climate changes, and they ask you to take your clothes off and turn around with your arms up, DO NOT DO IT! IT'S A SCAM! They only want to see you naked... I wish I'd gotten this yesterday... I feel so stupid.

Babu Lonnie

Dreamin’

I have always been a dreamer. I am now getting to the age that my dreams have become one of two realities. The reality of seeing them come to pass or the reality of realizing they have passed me by. Either way it’s been the life I have chosen. Don’t get me wrong I still have dreams but now they mostly take place while I’m sleeping and fortunately I don’t remember much of them.

I never dreamed I’d live to be fifty six years old. I never dreamed I’d have a wife for the past thirty five years, two awesome sons and five grandchildren that can’t be described. I never dreamed I’d be able to travel to various nations of the world. I never dreamed I’d be involved with orphans, widows, the sick and dying with a marvelous young couple named Johnny & Kate Brooks in Nakuru Kenya. I never dreamed I’d be anything other than what I had example of growing up….a legalistic, unhappy, judgmental, well in other words just a good old fashion Pentecostal Christian.

I’ve been telling you what I never dreamt could be but what about the things I did dream and they came to pass. I honestly can’t think of one! I take that back, one just came to me. I did dream of not being what I was told and what was shown me it took to be a Christian..

For a boy or young man Pentecostal Christianity was a white sidewall haircut, no TV, no movies, no jewelry, no girls, no friends outside your “church” circle, church meetings four times a week, no opinion of your own and many more rules and regulations that seem even harder to bear. There was no freedom or liberty to live the life God had given, life was to only be used as the vehicle to get you to the funeral home so your eternal life could kick in. Then it was streets of gold, a crystal sea and eternal bliss. But life here and now appeared so miserable you were truly ready to die.

I dreamed of getting out of the mentality that says this life means nothing and is just a bother while we strive for another realm. And I did. But now my greatest dream of all has been fulfilled. I have discovered the real Christ, not only in me but me in Him. It has produced freedom, security and liberty in Christ Jesus that surpasses anything I could have ever dreamt or hoped for. If you dream of freedom from the bondage of religion do what our founding fathers did, start a community (country) of your own. Build it...others will come.

Unfortunately instead of coming to pass, dreams can just pass us by. Don't let your dreams pass you by. The older you get, chasing them gets harder.

Babu Lonnie   

Blog Action Day 2009—Climate Change/Global Warming

I am looking at the subject of climate change/global warming as a fact. However I am not in agreement with most who are of the opinion that the warming is a result of something taking place in the atmosphere.

It has been well documented that the planet is getting warmer but the rub is it’s cause. As a follower of Jesus Christ I put considerable stock in the validity of scripture. I do not place it on the pedestal of equality with God but scripture has proven it’s self to hold the answers to many of life's mysteries.

I base my belief on scripture. First of all from most Christians perspective Heaven is up and hell is down. And I submit the scripture agrees with those conclusions. With that in mind, I am to the opinion that the warming is taking place from the earths core rather than some ozone failure or whatever the other atmosphere augments may be.

The first mention of “hell” in scripture is very clear as to its affect on the planet. I present:   Deuteronomy 32:22 “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.”

As more and more evil prevails on earth the place of eternal punishment has to be getting bigger to accommodate those who choose it as their eternal destination. On that note I give you:  Isaiah 5:14 “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure:”

Therefore I have come to this conclusion: as hell, a place of fire, enlarges it’s self it must produce more heat and thus climate change/global warming.

The solution is end evil and allow good to reign on the earth. To do that one must, Love God and his fellow man. If that could happen, perhaps, an angry God would be satisfied and hell would have to shut it’s mouth.

By the way this will happen on the New Earth. What is sad is it will be viewed from two opposite perspectives, from the New Earth sent down from heaven by God Himself or this earth which will be a ball of fire tumbling and falling through space for all eternity. This will be the ultimate climate change/global warming.

One is life with God the other is described as the second death, life without God. Choices, choices, choices. Receive the gift of God…eternal life, reject the gift of God…eternal death. There is more at stake than our planet. We are being given an object lesson from which to learn and choose.

Babu Lonnie

Got Pumpkin?

 I really thought I could wait till closer to Halloween to share this post but, (no pun intended), I can’t wait any longer. I want as many folks as possible to enjoy this holiday treat.

Not much else to be said, no it’s not me before you ask! Wish I’d thought of it though!

This may be why I never liked Halloween, it’s scary!!! Pumpkin pie anyone?

Babu Lonnie

I’ve fallen in Love!

I am in a very complex place in my life right now. I am seeing love from so many different perspectives it’s overwhelming. Love is so big and varied that all of it will never be seen or understood, at least while in these mortal bodies.

Let me give some examples of love and their variety that I am encountering. How I handle these encounters will determine the level of joy I experience in my relationship with each of them. And strong relationships are built on Joy. The Joy of the Lord is my strength. I think maybe it’s our joy of who or what we are in relationship with that gives it strength. Maybe?

GOD…SPOUSE…CHILDREN & GRAND CHILDREN…EXTENDED FAMILY…FRIENDS & THINGS.

These few different situations of love whether it is only love given, only love received or if it is reciprocal love are all so varied it is difficult at times to know for sure how to love or be loved.

I know beyond  shadow of a doubt I love all the above noted examples but I am perplexed at how to effectively allow love to run it’s course in each. The one that gives me the least concern is God. His love for me is unconditional and I have decided to love and follow Him unconditionally. The others aren’t so cut and dried. The more people or things involved, the greater the likelihood of human failure somewhere along the line.

I love my wife but at times I’m not sure how to walk out our lives and love together. I love my children and grand children without doing damage to them or myself (personal & you may not understand). I love my parents and other family members but I’m not in agreement or fellowship with them in some very important facets of life and our relationship is strained. I am not even sure what friends are anymore and if I have any but those I consider to be friends are becoming closer than I ever dreamed. I really have nothing to say about things except like most human beings I do love them.

Love seems to me to be a very delicate balancing act that has some heavy and awkward elements to juggle in order for love to be perfected in all areas of my life. I seem to be stumbling under the load of love and yes I have fallen in love and don’t want up.

This post is not intended to be hurtful but a cry for help. I have received TRUE LOVE in the fact that God lives in me but at times I have trouble dispensing it. Others may try to love me and I am experiencing difficulty allowing external love to be applied. It’s the external love that hurts, the internal love is perfect. Nothing hurts like misplaced, misguided or misunderstood love.

I am dong my best to love and be loved but my flesh gets in the way. Any suggestions will be appreciated, still stumbling under the load of love.

Babu Lonnie