Falling Away?

 

I often hear people claim that autumn is really a good season. However, though I often think it is the best season, we who have lived in the earth’s far northern hemisphere know what follows. Autumn is a warning. Winter comes… and it’s not just cool… it’s cold.

 Yes, we can say autumn is nice when thermometer dips bring colored leaves, tasty pumpkins and strong coffee, but having us call autumn really, really good is another matter. Good is a relative term for us.

For example, "good" was not a description tossed about easily in the days when Jesus walked through ancient Israel. Jesus was abruptly halted by that title given him by a rich young man. You see, the word good back then in Israel meant more like the word “perfect” does today. It wasn’t a relative term… it was a confirmation of extreme worth.

Jesus said, “Why do you call me good?”

 That young man had acquired richness that was seen necessary to prove his own status, but he lacked a security in truly knowing that he pleased God. He seemed to be looking for "good" authentication from the well-known traveling rabbi.

 For sure, according to rabbinical measures, that young man had several qualifications. He was rich.., which was seen then as the first proof of God’s approval. But what’s more, he knew the second tablet of the Law of Moses. He was highly educated. He had learned well and had memorized his temple catechism.

 Jesus approved of his abilities.

 To prove his worth in Jesus’ scale, however, he had but one more thing to do… to show his goodness… give away all that he had and follow. 

 Ouch… that hurts many of us… including me.

 I remember many years ago, I sat at lunch with a marketing representative of an automotive engine rebuilding company. The company was located just outside of Philadelphia. At the time I was in my final year of seminary attendance in Philly, but I still worked as an editor for a nationally circulated automotive magazine.

 A delicious meal had been planned by a magazine advertising agent, who enjoyed lunch with us. During the meal, the agent had suggested to the representative that we’d write an editorial that would highlight his company’s innovations. The article could be positioned to match a proposed ad in our magazine. This editing method is called an advertorial.

 In giving the sales pitch, the ad man presented my automotive qualifications and went on to say that I was attending a local Lutheran seminary. He was busily waving my flag… that I was indeed “good” for the writing task.

 However, the conversation got away from him. As soon as my seminary attendance was spoken of, the man sat straight up and smiled. He said, “My boss is a good Christian man who prays for his staff every day and holds a bible study.”

 I commented that was nice… and then asked…“How about you? Are you a Christian?

 He said, “A little bit.”

 “A little bit?” I echoed and asked.., “When you croak someday and get to the pearly gates, do you think you’ll get in?”

Taken back by the question, he looked up from his triple-decker sandwich. He thought, and then he softly said that he was raised in the Church but hadn’t attended for some time. The ad man tried to change the subject. But the company man said… “I guess that when all my deeds are weighed, the good will amount to more than the bad.”

 Now, I’ve thought a lot about that long ago conversation, and how I’d cornered that man. I’ve thought about what I should have, or could have said better… but did not say. You see, I failed to ask further questions about his faith and offer to him what I knew of the promised salvation made in Christ Jesus. I didn’t say the words I knew about the error of laying down the heavy yoke of good deeds versus bad deeds. I was cut off by an ad man’s rich sales pitch. I let the old, “want more and want to be more mentality" steal the conversation away.

 I don’t know what ever happened to that company representative. I do know that after having visited the company’s performance engine building facility, I met the owner. His marketing executive was right. He was a good man who walked in Christ and prayed for his employees. I was blessed to meet him. It’s my dearest hope that he was in time able to sway his advertising agent toward knowing the true path of salvation.

 In today’s corporate employment environment, his volunteer Bible study sessions offered each morning required sacrifice. The tactic is challenging in today's workplace. I hope they made a difference.

That would be good. Please be invited to watch this video.

 

Vehicular GOF!

 

DURING THE late 50s to early 60s years, American car makers spawned new models among earlier formed production lines. They did this primarily in trying to capture a larger share of sales to the customers. Ford Motor Co. did so dramatically with the advent of the Edsel. Those vehicles were based on existing full-sized Ford chassis and drive lines fit with completely new bodies. However, the market research they'd done did not unfold as predicted in the years ahead. The market instead chose to stick with proven marquees of high-end Ford or like-featured Mercury vehicles. Today, that fact leaves few Edsel models seen in car show drives.

In subsequent years, capitalism would inform car manufacturers about the taste for power that reigned in American society post-Korean War. The early 60s began the true Gain Of Function (GOF) vehicle which changed automobile design.

 The first GOF car is exemplified by the mid-sized car. Initially produced to meet the need for small, cheaper running medium-sized vehicles, cars such as the Pontiac LeMans rolled from the General Motors assembly lines. Again, market research fell short.

 Quickly, the Pontiac GTO (Gran Turismo Omalagato) was the car being eyed in showrooms by young drivers with performance in mind, and not their wallets. This, however, was only the first step in the automotive petri-dish. The GTO was the result of a big V-8 being dropped into a BOF (Body Over Frame) design. That engineering was GREAT, but there was more. Soon, the factories of the car maker that gave us the Edsel, gained market traction with a completely new car model. Sporting what is known as an integral "unibody" design, where the frame and body are made as one component, the '64 Mustang galloped into showrooms. Though originally produced having an anemic "secretary six-pack", the car would quickly, and optionally find a 260 cubic inch displacement (C.I.D.) V-8 engine beneath its hood.

Consequently, as GOF often works... we saw early V-8s grow into forms that caused car engineers to froth at the mouth. The displacements grew from that first 260 to 289, 302, 351, 390, 428, and 429 CID varieties. However, later runaway mid '70s hybrid 429 CID Mustangs with multiple camshafts and carburetion was the last straw. A multiple generation beast, that vehicle stamped upon fuel shortages and air pollution mavens. The U.S. government thus stepped into the market with horsepower to vehicle weight regulations.

 We recall this fated progression now, to make you aware of GOF progression as a natural part of human manufacture. However, we see how the progress made can be beneficial, or harmful depending on the entity created and its potential use. For example, done to a biological DNA gene, the life form resulting can quickly become dangerous. Therefore, we would recommend a thorough roadway examination because of that which was paved already in design laboratories was far removed from American scenes. The effects of said past research grew into a terrorist "flu bug". That bug, dear reader... was not like a Volkswagen Rabbit with a Porsche flat six beneath its body. The bug, known commonly as the Wuhan virus, could have been a bug sitting at the starter flag for the "end of days".

 To find out more, we suggest that you learn about religious GOF let loose.  Read about it at:

On Hold?

 

 

 

 

Inspiring & Conspiring!

 WHICH METHOD of communication works for the Church? Working in the Spirit, what language do you use? Hear this message before offering an answer... 

 

Which Route? 

 

 

Eternal Winter and Auto Air Conditioners

THIS MORNING, I realized warm weather is just a few weeks away. In a drive to the grocery store, after a short stop for my favorite coffee blend... I noticed the ambient outside temperature was not driving my cell phone thermometer into the red. I thought, "Soon I’ll be hearing the faint clicking sound of my car’s air conditioner system clutch. It’ll be quietly turning off and on, regulating the cool coming from the dash air vents."

Automotive air conditioners are wondrous units. They first appeared in cars during the late 1940s. Using principles first applied by an inventor named Carl Von Linde, who worked in the late 1800s, these systems operate on the thermodynamic principles of condensation, evaporation, and pressure changes.

 First we find it is true that God himself created that a fluid absorbs heat as it vaporizes. If you put a small quantity of alcohol on the back of your hand, as the alcohol evaporates away it reduces the temperature of your skin to the vaporization temperature of the fluid. You’ll feel the cooling effect.

 Now keeping that knowledge in mind, second we find the principle of vapor condensation. If you remove enough heat from a vapor it condenses. It becomes a liquid. For example, water vapor in the air condenses on the surface of a beer mug as the atmosphere surrounding it gives up heat. As a Lutheran minister, knowing that Brother Martin Luther and his wife made beer in Germany, clear back in the 1500s… I think even he may have known this little fact.

 In air conditioning, we put these natural principles to work. You see, working like Satan… a belt-driven compressor aggravates the vapor and puts your air conditioner into operation. The compressor is basically a hellish, hot heat pump. Don’t touch the outlet hose of a compressor with your bare hand! Even a sinful mechanic worth a beer keg knows, the engine drives the compressor's pistons and they make the vapor hot. Like Satan, the compressor is a demon which drives us… pushing us when we think we are hot.

 Driven by a car engine’s accessory belt and an electrically operated clutch in answer to a dashboard switch, the compressor pumps the heated refrigerant vapor. The compressor pumps like a demon squeezing your carnal appetites, so pressures rise to approximately 200-250 psi. Being put under that high pressure, the heat in the vapor concentrates into a very tight space. Like ourselves when we are pushed hard, the temperature of the gas rises. Also, the heat from the mechanical energy of the compressor whips things even higher.

 Pumped through a high-pressure rated hose and muffler that quiets the compressor pistons’ pulses, the  hot vapor then enters the automobile’s condenser. The finned condenser rides behind the grille of the vehicle, just in front of the engine's radiator. That condenser functions a bit like that Bible you should read at home or at Church. Within it, evil heat gets cooled.

 You see, the refrigerant flows through finned cooling tubes of the condenser. The air flow around the outside of the fins when the car is moving or your temperature-controlled fan spins. The vapor therefore becomes a high-pressure liquid as it loses heat.

Now, we ask Linde's students… “What can be done with this cooled, highly pressurized liquid?” Well, it’s a bit like when we are called to stand when baptized in a cold, flowing river. The liquid routes through a receiver-drier containing desiccant material. This removes the water. Like the sweat on your brow that can get in your eyes, here the valves of the system can get nasty. The metal can react with the chemistry of the refrigerant to produce acids. Acids will deteriorate all air conditioning circuit components.

The now highly-pressurized liquid in the system flows from the condenser toward the evaporator through the high pressure hose, to a regulator that meters the refrigerant into the cooling tubes of the evaporator. There an orifice or valve action acts like the Holy Spirit. It convicts and lowers that  high pressure so it can dissipate through the tubes of the evaporator unit. At the evaporator, air from the car’s interior blows across the outer surface of its finned tubes. This causes that high-pressure fluid inside the aluminum tubes to boil and vaporize because of the pressure loss.

 The refrigerant thus absorbs the heat of the air passing around the evaporator tubes. Cooled air now flows to the passenger compartment through ducts in the instrument panel. But note! The pressure drop across the evaporator must be carefully controlled to ensure proper cooling, so ambient air moisture won’t freeze in the evaporator fins. This is the purpose of that inlet valve.

 

 The warmed liquid in the evaporator heated by the air in the vehicle, turns once again to vapor and gets compressed again… to recycle through the system. It does so again, and again… as the devilish compressor cycles on and off... until we turn off the engine ignition and shut the whole thing down.

 See, brothers and sisters... we can tell Satan when and where to go!

P.S. It just started to snow. Watch this...

 

 Now, may he peace of God that surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Driving Dry...

READ ABOUT at what it was like to drive through devilish sun and sand even in the middle of winter. This article brings out something about looking for flathead Fords... or maybe it's flatbed Fords? Pull over. Access the article at:

 

Driving Dry Places? 

 

 

 

Hauling Ash...

 FOR THE Upcoming season, we offer you a look at the road ahead...

 May the Lord look upon you with favor and keep you safe.

 

 

Needing New Shocks?

 

As automotive technicians know how to test shock absorbers by bouncing a vehicle and checking for leaks, we should learn what it means to shock a Christian congregation. Such an occasion occurred recently, when political activists broke U.S. Constitutional law and invaded worship being held in Minneapolis, MN.

  There is a difference between being invited to speak, and intruding into sacred space. As the Christian Church gathers this weekend, whether in person seated in a sanctuary or watching online through video ministry… we need to wrap our minds around what it is that this gospel message reveals to us.

 "And he went down to Caperna-um, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the sabbath; and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice, “Ah! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this Word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And reports of him went out into every place in the surrounding region."  (Luke 4:31–37)

 We read here that Jesus went into an established synagogue, which was the organized Jewish "church" during his earthly ministry. While doing so, he behaved in a way that the gathering place, known as a "synagogue", found surprising. Being an invited guest, he was given the opportunity to read of the Law and the Prophets. He read from the scriptures about the coming of the Messiah, the Christ of God... the Deliverer. Causing a big turmoil... Jesus said that those scriptures had come true as he had now arrived in that place.

 Then he sat down… and the congregation sat stunned.

 

Some tried to overlook what was said and done, and commented on how well he had read. Others scratched their beards and wondered. Then one person stood, and became belligerent. You see, the Truth had been revealed.

 

 

 

 The man demonically challenged Jesus… “We know who you are…. why have you come to us… to destroy us?”

  Now, I think that a person, a people, in a gathering of believers... may often be represented by a crazed person when they hear the true words of God. This occurs as they realize the importance of the Word. Those who are maniacs, who are people who think they have everything under the gathering's roof  controlled… are suddenly confronted by the Truth. The occasion often goes far beyond all understanding for them.

 I think that maybe they don't want to understand, like those who invaded that congregation in Minnesota. With the fright of losing whatever control they think they have, they tried to push our Lord aside. But, we and they who hear the Word spoken, know who he is.

 You see, the Word of God challenges everyone of us to follow him, even during this time of great unrest. During this time of chaos, this time of political upheaval here and around the world...

 at a time when grocery shelves are sometimes found empty,

  at a time when some medical prices increase,

 at a time when some people protest and cause chaos,

at a time when some in leadership edge us toward war.

At these times, God disturbs each of us. We who think that if we can just hold onto this congregation, this Christian population… this mindset... thinking we can weather the din of the world that seems to have gone insane... Jesus says to us, just as he said in that synagogue… 

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

    Yes... the Messiah of God, the Christ of God... has indeed come into our midst through Word and Sacrament.

 Should we be astounded? Yes!

 Should we be excited about this? Yes!

Should we receive words of release from our sinful unbelief through Confession and forgiveness? Indeed. All of these, and more should be our response.

 We are called to even tell others about him. As we shelter from the tumults of a sinful world, we gather together and are healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks to us for he is the Word of God. He heals us just as he healed a demonic man.

  I adjure you so to do. Proclaim the Law of God, followed by the Gospel. Some will hear, even those deceived persons who invade the Holy.

 Now... for those who labor in Christ to soften the shocks of the modern world, I echo... “May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord… Amen”