My Spiritual Journey

I officially joined Messiah Lutheran Church on September 26, 2004. This is the first time I've actually joined a church or religious organization since I, briefly, became a member of the Baha'i Faith nearly twenty years ago. It is the first time I've identified with and officially become a member of a Christian fellowship since I was a member of Evergreen Christian Center in 1973-1978!

I have wandered far over the years in my search for "Truth". Along with Pontius Pilate I said, "What is truth?" I really didn't know. Yet the Truth was standing there before Pilate, and the Truth was there in my own life. The Truth is not a system of philosophy or theology. It is not a method of mediation or prayer. It is a person, Jesus Christ. All of my life Jesus has been calling to me, standing at the door and knocking. Over and over he came to me and urged me to return to him. As an infant I was baptized, as a young boy I had what can only be called a mystical experience of the love of God, as a teen I made a solemn vow to follow Jesus as my Lord.

Then I wandered off into the wilderness and became lost.

Now I have come home at last. I don't mean that home is a church, it's not, home is Jesus himself. But at the same time I've been searching for a place of fellowship where the Truth of Jesus Christ is preached. A place where they preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Where the authentic traditions of the historic universal (catholic) church are honored and salvation by grace through faith is taught without compromise. Of course I am convinced that the Lutheran church, especially the Missouri Synod Lutheran church, is the best place to find that.

One very important thing that is found in the Lutheran church that is lacking in almost every other Protestant denomination is a belief in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. In the Lutheran church there is the real presence, and the real gospel both.

The best summary of Lutheran belief is:

Grace Alone

Faith Alone

Scripture Alone


Messiah Lutheran Church is a part of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.



Please read this page if you would like to know what is distinctive about this branch of the Family of God. (Click on the seal above for an explanation of the symbols in it.)


Below are some of my favorite prayers

Serenity Prayer
God grant me
the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference;

Living one day at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it:

Trusting that you will make all things right
if I surrender to your will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with you forever in the next.






Prayer Of St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of Thy peace:
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born
To Eternal Life. Amen.


The Jesus Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner

Now, this is not a prayer but it is a good thought I think:

The Bene Gesserit Littainy against Fear.
Frank Herbert Pg 19 of Dune

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.


As our Lord taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.


Summary of the Way:

The Apostle's Creed

I BELIEVE in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Now, this bit summarizes my journey up until recently, I still believe almost all of it:-)

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they are true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beetles and Elvis and Mr. Ed. Listen -- I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that Jade is dried Dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there is a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees every thing I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girl friends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is over rated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

American Gods by Neil Gaiman