One of the most fantastic things about the internet for me is I can be part of a live event associated with my church even when it’s a zillion miles away.

In the case of yesterday morning, I was able to hear the voices and laughter of friends and acquaintances attending a weekend Bible conference in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., posted for free on the audio site Paltalk (under the 24/7 Christian room “Helpers of Your Joy”).

I was cooking a big soup-and-sandwich lunch for 12 people at the elderly house, in between making a double batch of dough for Valentine’s Day cut-out cookies as our “afternoon activity,” so I placed my laptop in the corner of the kitchen and hoped nobody would accidentally spill something on it, knock it off the counter, etc.

Because I was so busy at the stovetop grilling 20-plus cheese-on-rye sandwiches, all the while dealing with people coming and going and asking questions, I only caught bits and pieces of the services but was able to turn my tape recorder on and hear the rest later.

I remembered my ears really perk up just as I was about to ladle out my chicken and wild rice soup (another standard Cheesehead-Norwegian fare, by the way) and heard Jordan say, “And the thing you can be convinced about as you look out at the political and economic—the business world—is that nobody out there has any idea what’s going on. It’s frightening. It’s true socially, too. You look out and say, ‘What’s going on?!’ ”

*****

Jordan, who was giving a study out of the Book of Ephesians and applying Paul’s ancient words to our near future, continued:

“We live in a very interesting time. The next 25 years are going to be the greatest time to have lived in your lifetime in a lot of ways. Decisions that are going to be made in the next two decades by our nation—influenced by people just like you and me—are going to determine the course of our nation for the next 80-100 years.

“Now, you have the ability to get the Big Picture because what we’re going to go through in the next 20 years our nation has been through at least three, if not four times before. If a wheel is rolling down the street there’s one part you don’t want to be in and that’s the part making contact with the ground because it’s going to squash you. That’s about where we are right now.

“But that cycle has happened before. My point is if you get that Big Picture, instead of being afraid and destroyed by it, you’ll know how to properly handle it . . . everybody lives through one of these cycles if you live long enough. This is it for you. If you’re young, you’re going to see the fruit of it. If you’re old, you’ll get to live through this thing and help make some of the decisions.

“People say, ‘Well, in the Depression the real estate market went to pot. The stock market went to pot.’ Not everything in the stock market went to pot. There were certain places that boomed. If you have something of the Big Picture you would know where to be and where to go.

“But if you back off, and you don’t understand something about Genesis 8, 9, and 10 and how God, when He established a nation—nationalism in the earth—He established the world to be run and lived, not just in family units, but in national units. He tells you how He has arranged and designed for national life to live.

“Do you understand most Christian people aren’t there? Most Christian people don’t understand total forgiveness. One, they don’t understand that they are forgiven, completely and totally in Christ. And two, if they find out that they are, they go out and abuse it. They don’t know how to apply what it means for their life. You’ve heard the old saying, ‘It’s easier to get permission than forgiveness.’

“People reason, ‘Well, if I want to be forgiven . . . ’ That’s the first thing people who don’t really understand it say: ‘Well, you just mean I can just go and do anything I want to do!’

“Well, heavens to murgatory, you were doing that already. What’s the big deal about that? Before you got saved you were doing what you wanted to do to really well--perfectly, completely to the wall before you got saved. He didn’t need to save you for that.

“How many people think that the way of the Christian life is rules and regulations? ‘Give me rules; give me regulations. Give me a law and I’ll stop sin. Give me a rule and I’ll do what God wants.’

“And Romans 6 says it can’t be that. Romans 6 says you had to die, you’re dead to sin; you’re buried. The old man’s gone and there’s new life in Christ and you’ve got this new identity.

“You ought to take your King James Bible and look the word prudence up and see how it’s used. It’s a wonderful concept. We’re not the big shots of the world and yet God has entrusted to you and me information that the angels desired to look into and couldn’t figure out.

“And He gives you prudence. He gives you the ability to use your life—not just to give you a nice, sweet, safe life that doesn’t have a lot of problems, but a life that has a participation in what God Himself is doing and you can back off and you’ve got the Big Picture. And the little storms—you know where they fit. They don’t bother you so much.

“To be ‘abounding in wisdom and prudence’ (Eph.1:8) is the natural state God expects a member of the Body of Christ to be in. God’s purpose is not for you to be the dumb thump on the block like most Christians are, snared in confusion.”

(Editor’s Note: Stay tuned—the conclusion to this piece will be posted tomorrow)