The Loft Featuring The Creative Talents of Some of My Neighbors Always hoping to encourage creativity, I am on the lookout for "hidden talent".  Maybe you've always wanted to write a poem, a song, an article, a devotional reading, a short story, or a novel.  Maybe you're an artist looking to display your work.  Maybe you'd like to add some original humor but don't know where to find an audience.  The loft is just what you are looking for.  I am looking for creative people to share some of their best stuff.  Interested, send me an email. This Month's Featured Writer:  Ron Cuilla FAITH ON A WIRE Some years ago, I took my two pre-teenage sons to an amusement park at the beach. Of course they wanted to go on the usual types of rides which involve some type of spinning much like that of a washing machine spin cycle, and they seem to have the same effect… that of wringing bodily fluids to my outer extremities and rendering me quite ill. But I digress. My point here is to tell you about a ride we went on called the “Skylift”. It is not a spinning ride, but one where you get on a bucket type of apparatus attached to a one-inch cable. You wait at “the red line” where it swings around and slaps you from behind - jolting you down into the seat… and away you go! It is a seemingly peaceful ride that takes you sailing far above the beach… a little too far for my liking. It would be just as effective so that if I stretched, I could drag my toes in the sand! As we sailed peacefully along, I glanced at the cable (which looked more like dental floss now), and the thought suddenly struck me… “People say that it takes too much faith to believe in God, yet they have no second thoughts about jumping on this contraption carrying you way too high in the air connected to what now looks like a string of dental floss.” After all, it’s not such a difficult thing to believe in God, right? We are told that we only need the faith of a “mustard seed”… Teeny… Tiny… Miniscule. What’s so difficult about that, eh? What’s that, you say? “…Faith in the physical and tangible versus that of the unseen and unknown?” Ah, but that is the irony, my friend. Man’s tangible creations (including amusement park rides) have malfunctioned and lives have been lost. But think about it… Through the saving work of his son Jesus, God has not lost one of his children’s souls nor will he ever lose any who have kept that tiny mustard seed of faith in him. What a wonderful promise! The love of God is there for us. It is real and it is unshakable. Once we have it, no one or nothing can take it away from us. The Apostle Paul said it best when he wrote: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from (Christ’s) love … Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow or where we are… high above the sky (in a Skylift?), or in the deepest ocean… nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.” (Romans 8:38-39) All we need to do is step up to the “red line” in faith and God’s big bucket of love comes around and …well let’s just say it will take you for the ride of an eternity. About Ron: My name is Ron Cuilla (pronounced Soo-ell-a.) (I don't know why). I am 52 years young and I live in San Jose California.  I attend Apostles Lutheran Church (Wisconsin Synod) and have been a member there since 1979.  I have been quite active in my church with duties including:  Elder, Sunday School teacher, Puppet show writer/producer, Youth leader, and most recently, Contemporary Worship Coordinator and Drama script writer.  God has blessed me with some writing skills and I just love to write things that help people connect with their Savior in a different or thought-provoking way.  Did you enjoy this article? Send a word of encouragement to Ron Other Writers Have something creative to share? Know of a creative person who should be featured?  Let me know!

A LIMIT TO TOLERANCE

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record an interesting story of when Jesus encountered a man who was out of his mind…crazy! (Not unlike a musician you may have seen on VH1).  For as long as the townsfolk could remember, this guy lived naked in a cave and in a crazed rage, would attack anyone who came near.  No one could talk to him or control him in any way, as he was possessed by demons they called “Legion”.  (No … this sounds more like something on MTV).

So Jesus had compassion on this poor guy and decided to exorcize these demons.  We might imagine that the incident went something like this; Jesus walked up to the fellow and commanded those demons to come right out of him!  Well, they didn’t want to give up a good host without some other accommodations, so they asked Jesus if they could be cast into some nearby pigs.  Jesus, (knowing their ultimate fate anyway) allowed this.  Well, when they went over to the herd of pigs, they found out the little squealers couldn’t tolerate the demon’s presence and collectively (all 2000 of ‘em) ran off a cliff and drowned in the sea below… effectively choosing death over evil.

Imagine that!  The pigs preferred death to demons!  Again we can only imagine, but at some point in his life, this poor guy let those demons to set up housekeeping in his mind… Oh sure, maybe he just started with one or two, but he allowed it to happen.  Then a few more showed up and before he knew it, they had a party going on.  After a while he had no control over his life whatsoever and yes, enough demons to fill two thousand pigs.  Think of it… two thousand pigs!

I bring this story up to make an important point… Like this poor soul that Jesus encountered, we also can let too much evil influence trickle into our hearts and minds!  Eventually it can wear away our Godly morals and compromise Biblical truths we have learned… inch-by-inch and line-by-line.

If you look in your Bible, you will know what it says about tolerating … sin .  Yes I said it … the “S” word that makes “New Age Christians” recoil in their tofu because it is such a negative and condemning term.  But think about it, the word “sin” is used to explain those actions that are contrary to God’s will and don’t honor him.  To ignore sin is to ignore God telling us when we’ve crossed the line of what He wants for our eternal welfare. 

So when an issue of tolerating sin comes up in your life, don’t rely on the changing winds of human sociology or popular trends found on cable TV to make the correct choice for you.  Seek advice from your God who loves you.  Use his unchanging Holy Word to determine what is right and what is wrong. 

Remember … Tolerance is like pork.  Too much of it’ll kill ya’.

Anticipation

(Looking Forward To Christ’s Return)

Once a year, right before Advent and Christmas, the "Church Year” calendar dictates that the we deal with the topics of: “The Second Coming Of Christ,” “Saints Triumphant” and “The Last Judgment.”  These themes are to be incorporated into the last three worship services in November.  I’ve often thought, how boring and non-relational this was.  It is a study of our “pie in the sky” wishes which don’t really deal with current Christian issues.  Come on (I’d say) let’s deal with the here and now… something I can take to work with me on Monday!

A young lady by the name of Nicki gently slapped arrogant feeling of mine down one day at our Contemporary Worship planning meeting. When I expressed my opinion that I felt this was not a very relational theme to have to deal with, this twenty five-year old girl (just half my age, by the way) gently said, “You know, Christ’s return for us is something I eagerly wait for!  It is the greatest thing in my life that I as a Christian, look forward to!”

With bruised ego intact, I resolved to look at these topics with “new eyes.”  I wanted to make this theme of Christ’s return and the end times more real and understandable to me.  To do this I had to condense it into one “relational” word.  I think I found that word and it is - Anticipation.

Anticipation (n)  1. A prior action that takes into account a

                               later action.  The act of looking forward.

          A pleasurable expectation.

That feeling of anticipation can be compared to when we were children and we saw a wrapped present under the Christmas tree with our name on it.  Christmas was still a while away but we knew the present was there.  It had our name on it so we believed that it was for us and because we knew mom and dad loved us, we trusted that it would be a good thing.  Yet we couldn’t open it.  The time was not right!  It was not Christmas! 

Yet the anticipation may have caused us to look at the gift even more carefully.  We may have picked up the box; shaken it to see if it made interesting noises that told us it was a toy and not clothes.  We may have even told our mom and dad that we wished Christmas was that day!  But alas, we knew we must wait for the right time.  We must wait for Christmas morning when our anticipation is then satisfied and we are allowed to tear into the present.  What joy!  What happiness we can look forward to when that day comes! 

The same principle applies to our waiting for Christ’s return.  He is the one who saved us from sin with his perfect life and sacrifice on the cross (the prior action), and he has promised us that he will come back for us one day, to live with him forever in heaven (the later action!)  As Christians we know that day is coming… our name is written in “The Book of Life!”  Because of what God’s Word tells us we believe that Jesus is coming for us and because we know that God loves us, we trust that it will be a good thing. Yet the time is not right to meet him face to face.  It is not Judgment Day!

Yet as we eagerly await Jesus’ return, we carefully look at the promise that Jesus has given.  We study God’s Word.  We may even pray and wish for the day to quickly come!  But alas… we must wait for the right time.  We must wait for Judgment Day to come when our eager anticipation will be satisfied and we stand before our Savior Jesus!  What joy!  What happiness we can look forward to when that day comes.

Is it relational?  Oh yes.  Our great hope, whether this body of ours is alive or not, is one day to be changed “in the twinkling of an eye.”  We will be gloriously transformed… Saints Triumphant!  We will stand before our Savior where he will finally give us the eternal gift that we have looked forward to for so long.  He will say to us:

          Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. (Matt25:34)

I think I can muster up plenty of anticipation for that… what do you think?

STOP AND THINK… ABOUT ISAIAH

(“Reading between the lines” of a prophet of God)

Imagine if you will, that you have been hired as a public relations person for a major corporation.  Because of corporate corruption, the company is broke and your investor’s stock is now worthless.  Your job is to inform the employees that they will all be laid off and the investors have lost all their money.  How terrible a job would that be? 

            Yet that is similar to the job that the prophet Isaiah had … in much greater proportions.  His prophecies from God affected the very lives of the children of Israel.  His charge was to foretell the doom and destruction of their nation due to their continual sin.  Again I ask, how terrible a job would that be?

            I can only imagine how mentally exhausting that might have been for Isaiah as he penned the final verse written in chapter eight of his book… “Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.”  How sad he must have been to have to write down that prophecy from his Almighty God. 

            I wonder if a weary Isaiah put down his writing instrument at that point and pondered the impact of what he had just written.  He is distraught at the fate of his people…  But God is not done with the message, yet.  He has not left his prophet or his people without hope. 

In chapter nine, Isaiah’s writing suddenly takes on a whole different tone.  He begins writing a message of promise and deliverance by the hand of God.  Can you imagine what it was like for him?  His spirits lift a bit …maybe his hope for the future of his people strengthened? 

A gracious and merciful God tells his prophet there is salvation coming.  There is a solution for the sin of a nation … and the sins of the world.  God tells his messenger that there is hope for the future in the form of a child … a holy child … a royal child who will be born of the lineage of David.

How the prophet’s heart must have leapt with joy as he wrote down the inspired words in

Isaiah 9:6.

For to us a child is born,

to us a child is given

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

With sin and doom all around him, Isaiah could still rejoice in the promised Savior.  He had the assurance that “the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”(vs.7).  It was a “done deal,” signed by Almighty God himself.

Today, we too have hope because God made good on his promise and made that same way of salvation for us.  It was a “done deal” through the birth, perfect life, suffering and death of our Savior – Jesus Christ.  May we continue to carry that hope of Isaiah with us, this Christmas season  … and always.