This evening my son was baptized, professing and confessing his faith in Jesus as the Lord. It was my privilege to be invited by him to stand at his side as he went under the waters of baptism.

For those wondering about the "Spirit of American Youth" photograph from Memorial Day, May 29, 2006, several notes. The original photograph is an unretouched image. The wispy angel-like clouds just happened to be close-at-hand that day, and they were incorporated into the picture. I was using a 35mm negative film camera and scanned the resulting print into my PC.

For those who did not notice the clouds in the May 29 posting, here is the image in its original state, and a second retouched copy with the clouds outlined in white. In the second photo I also highlighted the word "sacrifices," found on the colonnade, in black.

Original unretouched photograph.

Same image with clouds outlined in white line drawing to illustrate how clouds can be imagined to be angels, and, the words "sacrifices" has been highlighted in black to make it more visible.

Prison Fellowship Ministries has been ordered by a U.S. District Court judge to cease ministering in Iowa, and to repay the state the money it received while under contract to Iowa for its services to inmates. Iowa signed a legal contract with Prison Fellowship Ministries having hired them to provide morals training to the inmates in an effort to improve inmate behavior and reduce the rate by which repeat criminals return to the prison system. This organization was originally started by Charles Colson.

At the core of the lawsuit are several patently flawed theories:

Yesterday, the Youth Pastor, myself, and several other adults took the 5^th and 6^th graders fishing. I said, "I'll bring the fishing poles for any child who does not have their own." Though they doubted that any one man could have a sufficient number of fishing poles on hand (which they could surrender to abuse, uh, use, by a child), in fact, I do. I call them, Frankenrods.

Having become an avid fisherman 26 years ago, the day my father-in-law took me fishing for the first time, my packrat behavior required me to save every piece of ruined fishing equipment I ever acquired. Over time, I cobbled the pieces and parts together into working fishing equipment so they might live again--I call them Frankenrods--and they look every bit the part. But live they do!! (No one is more surprised than my wife that the poles are useful, though she still believes the garage space could have been better used by, say, parking the car.)

What a great time catching and releasing!!! Every child caught and released fish with such enthusiasm that the adults worked non-stop putting worm fragments onto hooks for an hour and a half, which was when the worms fragments ran out. We then retired for a rest break in the shade and a teaching time.

Even before the break, some of the children learned some important life lessons. Some children learned that Mr. Booth is not serious when he says, "the best way to get fish to bite your worm and not let go is to put the worms in your own mouth for a minute before you use them."

One girl learned about life and death. Her bluegill had swallowed the tiny hook, and it had penetrated the gills, causing the fish to bleed profusely. She asked if I could save it. I told her the fish would die, her face fell. Then I unceremoniously pulled the hook free. She cringed. Seeking to make her feel better, I told her that the fish would not go to waste and tossed the fish back into the pond. I told her a big bass living under the dock would soon find it and consume it. She screeched, "Another fish is going to eat it? That's awful!!" Maybe next time, I'll just say, "you never know."

An interesting thing happened during the hour and a half. At the beginning of the time, all the children had been teamed with leaders and spaced all around the pond. At the end, all the kids and leaders had clumped together in one spot, fellowshipping, talking, competing, laughing, and helping each other. Christians were made for fellowship.

During the teaching time, I had the privilege of explaining how the worms with hooks in them were deceptive temptations to the fish. They looked like good things to eat, but were only meant to entice the fish to become impaled on the hook, which would trap them, and possibly even kill them, I think that same little girl cringed again. The worm and hook appeal to a fish's lust. Then I read, James 1:14-15.

Fish are not bright. Even though they had tasted near death by eating a worm with a hook in it, within a week they will forget what happened, and will give into temptation again. I once caught a 16 inch bass with four hook holes in its mouth.

After leaving the children with 1 John 1:7-10 (about how to become cleansed through confession of our sins to Christ), we gave the children bottle rods to take home. What's a bottle rod? That's a posting for a later time, but, let's just say it is the little brother to a Frankenrod.

I am a reality TV junky. Of course, reality TV is not reality at all. Reality TV is actually game show TV. Play the game by the producers' rules and be the last remaining contestant on the island and win a prize. Play the racing around the world game and be the first one to cross the finish line to win a prize.

A new game show called Treasure Hunters just started, and yes, I am going to watch. This game show is all about solving riddles and secrets, something akin to a drawn out mystery movie; and when the contestant solves the final clue, he finds the "treasure."

Some people will not watch, either because they hate game shows, or because they hate mysteries. Personally, I have a hard time not knowing something. Hidden things drive me crazy. I have to find the answer. I tape record magicians and watch their tricks frame-by-frame in order to solve the mystery of the trick. While I dislike not knowing, I revel in digging out the truth.

Houdini, the master of professional illusionism and secrets, also had a hatred. He hated spiritualism. Spiritualism is the scripturally prohibited practice of talking to the dead. Conmen claim to contact the dead so as to be paid by the bereaved. Near the end of his life, Houdini would dedicate entire segments of his performances to educating the public as to how con artists faked these apparent dialogues with the departed.

Some Christians hate mysteries as much as Houdini hated spiritualists. These mystery hating believers have convinced themselves that there are no mysteries regarding God that they cannot know. So they decide that through Bible study and mysticism every detail regarding God, His nature, His plans, His motives, and His thoughts may become known. Such men are but a short stones throw away from the heresy of Gnosticism.

God is in many ways a mystery to us. We do not know everything about His motives or why He does what He does.

God actually goes out of His way (or perhaps it is more proper to say, out of man's way) to do things (good things and devastating things) which will ensure we humans cannot predict the outcome of events or understand the next step in His plans for mankind.

Job thought he had the answer to the mysteries of why God had allowed him to be struck with numerous adversities. Yet, in the end Job confesses to God:

And being a genuine prophet of the Most High God is no assurance that you will even understand your own prophecies, much less the secret motives or the secret timing of the Lord. God even kept a mystery the timing of the coming of the Christ and the identity of the Christ from the Old Covenant prophets who wrote the very prophecies predicting His coming--and this God did even though the prophets begged Him to reveal the mystery to them.

Mysticism is simply not a means of knowing more about God than God has revealed in His Word. Understandably, Christians want emotional experiences by which to validate their faith. They want to say, "Oh, I had this wonderful experience or emotion, and it must be the touch of God. Therefore, my faith is stronger and now I have these new insights, insights which no one else has, and I know some new secret things about God."

And from these emotional experiences, they begin to cobble together a philosophy or a theology which is beyond that revealed in Scripture--that is to say, philosophies and theologies that are not actually found in the Bible. Emotions do have their place in the Christian's life, since emotions give us the energy to convert the Word of God into actions-of-love in service to God and others. Mysticism serves only to inflate one's own ego and endangers the heart into being misled and misdirected away from full dependence on the Word as the source of genuine spiritual knowledge.

Faith is validated not in experiences nor in emotion. Faith is validated in the hearing and believing of God's Word. The only people who will believe in Christ, whose faith will be "validated," are those who will believe simply because Christ is preached by Moses and the other prophets. Faith is not validated by emotional experiences.

Even though I hate not knowing the answers to mysteries, I will gladly concede that I will never know, nor can ever know, the secret things which God has decreed that He will not give to us. Therefore, I will view with discernment and skepticism such preaching of men as: "This is the one thing that most glorifies God," or, "God is only motivated by pleasure for He is a hedonist in His heart of hearts," or, "This is the formula for knowing God's secret will and exact plan for your life."