Give by Receiving

 

Hope Lives

 

 

In late winter 2011 I was serving as a member of the support team for North Georgia Walk to Emmaus Men's #146.  It was my first experience as a servant on a Walk as I had been a pilgrim on Men's #144 in October just a few months earlier. I was a rookie finding my way in a new role.

 

In our preparations leading up to the Walk I heard one of the team leaders speak of Christian Action and in his talk he described a book he had read called "90 Minutes in Heaven".  This man, an executive with Turner Broadcasting Sports in Atlanta, talked about the impact of this book in his own life but more importantly how- as a gift- he used it as a healing tool for a friend who had just lost a loved one.  His story moved me to go out and buy the book.

 

Sometime that spring I read the book. What I remember most clearly even after almost five years was that the message of the book to me was not "This is what heaven is like!".  Instead, what we can do here and now to make this life more like heaven? The answer for me was: By learning how to forgive myself and allowing those who love me to show their acts of Love. It is by receiving that we also give.  And these acts create the heavenly environment for all those involved.

 

 



 

Two years pass and I am on the phone with my brother Hal and - as we so often do - we are talking about my niece Kate and her latest professional ventures and he tells me that she and her fiance Michael Polish are negotiating for the film rights to this book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven." My ears perked up as Hal went on to say that it would be the couple's biggest project of their film careers.

 

Kate and Michael's wedding was set for later that year over Labor Day weekend 2013 in Montana.

Leading up to the wedding I would read the book again. When the wedding rolled around the film rights deal would be completed and there was talk of filming right here in Atlanta. While in Montana and to my disappointment, I was told that it looked like the movie would be made in Utah.

The weekend and wedding was very graceful!

 

I remember flying home feeling that the wedding event would be my last connection to "90 Minutes in Heaven". I did pray for God's Will be done in regards to the film. After another year passing and on the phone with Hal again, I learned that the movie would be filmed in Atlanta in January and February of this year. Praise God! This time I went out and bought two copies of the book for my daughters Maggie and Jeanne.  During the time of the production they would get to spend a great lunch afternoon with cousin Kate which warmed my heart.

 

Usually from the time production wraps to the time the movie arrives in theaters is a longer period -maybe a year or longer. "90 Minutes in Heaven" has taken about six months. This decision was driven by a calling to release the film on 9/11!  It is a tender time for our country.  It is a time where many of us need some hope in our lives. This movie will show many that still Hope Lives!

 

 



 

On Tuesday, September 1st I was able to attend the World Premier of "90 Minutes in Heaven" at the Fox Theater in Atlanta with family and friends.  What a blessed experience it was.  I have come to expect that many times when Hollywood produces a film from a book with religious connotations - particularly a Christian message - they will stray from the essence of the original story. That is not the case with this movie.  It is true to the original book.

 

Post Script: Over the years since that Men's Walk #146 I have served on a handful of Walks and have never seen that Turner Broadcasting executive again. This May I got a call to serve on the July Men's #172 and lo and behold who was on that team? The man who introduced me to "90 Minutes in Heaven".

 

Amen Brother

 

Bradford Bosworth

September, 2015

 

 

 



Renovatus Key

Glimpses of Grace



Yesterday, Sunday, September 6, 2015, I was confronted again by one of life's little coincidental moments. These tiny miracles or glimpses of God's Grace are occuring for me with increased regularity either in my own experience or of those others who are witnessing about it to me.

First I should provide some background orientation. My  youngest daughter Jeanne and I are engaged in a project related to her fund raising efforts to support her Rome, Italy study abroad program.
(See: http://www.gofundme.com/x58b9ss )

As a result of this effort we have pledged to provide content communication to those "subscribers" with bi-weekly recaps of our Father-Daughter letters. We have named this project, "My Father's Keys". (See: 8/17/15 blog post).

So this past week I received my first letter from Jeanne. If you have donated to Jeanne's GFM page you have received the complete letter with accompanying photos as well as my original letter to her of which she read on the flight over to Italy.  For this expose I am including an excerpt of her letter to me:



Marcella was born in Chile and spent most of her life in Uruguay, yet her family originates from Sicily. Her English is impeccable and her Spanish is even better, both of which she teaches to Italian students here in Rome.

When we met Marcella, we were exploring one of the neighborhood’s supermercatos and she was loading her produce into her car preparing to visit the community pool.  She overhead me attempting to converse with the cashier in Italian and -lit up- when she heard me butchering the local language.  She immediately asked my roommates and I to come and speak to her students in English; then they’ll speak to us in Italian. It is a win-win for everyone!

Marcella offered us a ride back to our apartment and our relief was palpable.  She said she had to rearrange some of her belongings in her backseat so all of us could fit. Then she pulled out in view some of the most detailed printed art I have ever seen.  On top was a sky with a moon and a sun intertwined in an infinity sign above a scale of justice.  My description of this work would weigh poorly on one of those plates.  She talked about how she wanted to sell it but something inside her stopped her.

Marcella said, “Maybe I’m not done with it yet…..or maybe it is not done with me?”  She then began explaining that she was redoing her entire apartment; she looked at me and asked what the word was for taking an old building and changing it. I immediately responded,  “Renovation.”

For the remainder of the ride back she spoke about what the word Renovation meant. It is from the Latin word renovatus: to restore and make new again, to repair. I got Goosebumps, right?  I knew then that Marcella was meant to receive the “Kingdom Key”, the first of my Father’s Keys.

****

I had a glimpse of God's Grace on Sunday morning as I slid into the pew at our Chuch and settling in I focused on the  service program in my hand and the cover art read "God's Restoration Project."  Our associate Pastor Whit Martin's Sermon would be "This Old House."  Even now as I write this piece I am in awe.  I can say just a few short years ago I may not have even noticed and if I did notice I would not have appreciated this message, this communication from the Creator.  The more I notice the more it happens! Oh and did I mention Pastor Whit's Sermon was right on time!

 

 







 

 

The Apostle Peter is at the center of the "My Father's Keys" project with my daugter Jeanne as he is at the center of Rome, Italy.  My second letter to Jeanne has already been sent to her and it has something to do with a walk on the water. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

Amen Sister

 

Bradford Bosworth

September, 2015







Fried Chicken Agape

Agape, translated as "love: the highest form of love, especially brotherly love, charity; the love of God for man and of man for God." The noun form first occurs in the Septuagint, but the verb form goes as far back as Homer, translated literally as affection, as in "greet with affection" and "show affection for the dead."

There is a fellowship of which I belong. It is called The Walk to Emmaus. It like Church and AA is a big part of my Spiritual program. In the Walk to Emmaus movement Agape plays a big role.  It is through acts of agape that I have experienced the most recognizable manifestation of God's wondrous Grace.

I remember my late mother Jeanne trying to fry chicken for us one time. Being that she was from the north- Pittsburgh, Pa. to be exact- and of direct German decent, she did not have much of a foundation in chicken frying. I remember enjoying the chicken but not that my mother had burns from grease splatter.  I don't remember her cooking fried chicken again. She could however make a mean leg o lamb!


It was during my years in high school and college in the deep south that I learned what an art it was to be able to make good authentic southern fried chicken.  I've been at the table with families when the matriarch has fried chicken for dinner and it was a near religious experience for this younger man. It is through Walk to Emmaus that I learned these were experiences of God's "Prevenient" Grace.

There is this authentic "Southern" lady I know who, reputation has it, makes awesome fried chicken.  As her kids have grown and moved away from the stove, so to speak, she will make fried chicken on special occasions and that is when I know her Agape is flowing mightily!

Amen Sister

Bradford Bosworth
August 2015

My Father's Keys

Somewhere around 2006 I became interested in antique keys. Skeleton keys first attracted me and I am not sure how I was drawn except that now I believe it was my divine nature’s calling. If you ever hold one of these keys in your hand, it has a mystic quality and raises questions. How old, how many hands touched, how far has it come? These are the questions that flow and each key stands alone unique in its own character.

 

One day I decided to google St. Peter’s Keys because I always had this concept of him standing by the Pearly Gates with keys. I was lead to some great insights and understandings about Rome (Italy) and the how the design of St. Peter’s Basilica came to be shaped like a key. But most of all I was captured by the scripture that is the root of all connection between the apostle Peter and keys. The words are spoken by Jesus to Peter as told in the Gospel of Mathew.

 

Mathew 16:19.

 

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.”

 

It was not long until I was making ceiling & lamp fan pulls with keys I bought through auction on Ebay. I had them for sale in a local gift store in Smyrna, Ga. (The Nest), where I live and also in my Ebay store (The Jazzman’s Joint). But mostly I gave them as gifts. Each would come with a card that contained the Gospel scripture.

 

 

 

Now my youngest daughter Jeanne is about to travel to Rome in a study abroad program. She is taking eight of these Lamp/Fan pulls with her. Every two weeks while she is in Italy she will use a piece of scripture from the Holy Bible picked by her earthly father and ask for guidance from her Heavenly Father as how to and who to give it away.  Jeanne will then write a letter to “Dad” about her experiences giving the “Kingdom Key” away.

 

I will write about this experience as well as my challenge to quell fears about my daughter being so far away and out of my control and about how it is testing my faith.

No Greater Guilt or Shame

Origin of name for Peter's Promise Ministry

When reading the Gospels with a focus on the Apostle Peter we can learn a few things about ourselves. Peter whose name was really Simon was called Peter by Jesus.  Have we not had times in our lives when people - usually those close to us or ones to whom we’ve looked up to - have dubbed us by a different “nickname”?  The moniker comes from love as a term of endearment and it sticks. Perhaps this was the case with Jesus and Simon, who Jesus called Peter. (Mark 3:16)

Do we not all yearn to be chosen, or even better to be the first chosen?  Peter was of the first disciples to be invited by Jesus.  This young fisherman was so impressed by the carpenter calling that he just dropped his nets and followed Jesus right along. Into our lives some have come and we have felt that person is our “ticket”, or the key to our success and we have latched on with hope and anticipation. So Jesus was with Peter.  (Mathew 4:18-20 &10:2)

And even as we have experienced God’s prevenient Grace and witnessed small miracles with these people who may be parents, siblings or teachers, our worldly flaws cause us to miss our mark, to lose our trust and falter as friends, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters.  We see this with Peter as he begins moving toward Jesus on the water, winds of doubt take over and Peter starts sinking until he reaches out his hand. (Mathew 14:27-32).

Peter had a back stage pass, so to speak, for the greatest show ever on earth. He was hand picked by Jesus to go on a hike where he would meet God, Moses and Elijah! Peter was so excited after this trip he wanted to build shelters for them and stay on that mountain forever. (Luke 9:28-36).

Jesus knew the day would come when this disciple of whom he was so fond would falter in a way that would cause Peter a level of shame and guilt that would be hard to comprehend. And Jesus told Peter so. In spite of all Peter had experienced he could not believe Jesus (John 13:36-38).

And Peter with his best intentions to stand by Jesus and be close to help after Jesus was arrested was so paralyzed by fear that he lied about knowing Jesus and soon thereafter his Lord was beaten unmercifully and spat upon. Jesus made eye contact with Peter and the rooster crowed three times.  Peter wept bitterly. (Luke 22:54-65).

A stronger message to Peter comes from his Lord in the account of resurrection morning as told in Mark’s Gospel chapter 16.  In this account the three women are surprised when they get to the tomb and the huge boulder has already been rolled away. As they enter there is a man in a white robe sitting to the right side of where Jesus’s body had been laid. And the man in a white robe we believe is an Angel of the Lord and he says to the ladies that they are to tell the disciples and Peter (especially Peter) Its Okay! The Lord is risen. He is alive. (Mark 16:1-8).

This is for us Peter’s Promise: “It’s Okay”.  No matter the transgression we are redeemed because Jesus Lives. Or to quote a passage from another divinely inspired book. “No matter how far down the scale we’ve gone we will see how our experience can benefit others. (The Big Book: Into Action, Pg 84.)

 

St. Peter became better and went into action and look what he accomplished: