Jesus - more than you think He is

*Originally Published on February 11th, 2015*

Never mind what people say, the Bible is consistent and full of rich detail. You can't just understand it by casually reading it, it has to be studied. The Bible tells us all about Jesus.

Jesus, as God and Man, is tremendously different from the way He is portrayed. He is dynamic, multifaceted, limitless. He is wise. He never makes a mistake. He is a Spirit that has always been and always will be. He is Goodness, Love, Life.

There is no way to sum God up in a Facebook post.

Jesus is not who He is portrayed to be in the tv shows, the movies, the storybooks...

He isn't a little, feminine figure with a scrawny little frame who makes everyone smile. Nor is He a macho, attention-seeking thespian dramatically calling everyone to cease in judgment.

I don't know who that is, but it isn't my Jesus.

The Jesus in the Bible was a strong, masculine carpenter, who was not physically attractive. What made Him beautiful was His Spirit. He didn't make everyone smile, especially not the religious establishment who were expecting a different sort of Messiah.

The Jesus in the Bible was gentle, meek and did not seek attention.

He suffered dreadfully and was marred out of recognition.

My Jesus came to earth as a physical manifestation of the invisible God that He always was. He suffered all the temptations that we humans suffer and lived out His Word, His own instructions for humanity, never once breaking His commandments - though He walked among us as a weak human. He gave us an example of how to live in the Spirit of God.

After living sinless and perfect, He died sinless and perfect, never once snapping under the brutal beatings and execution He suffered. He prayed forgiveness for His tormentors and executioners.

That's powerful stuff.

After He fulfilled all His commandments, was executed and buried, He rose from the dead, fulfilling His promise - conquering death and hell.

I love reading the Bible and understanding more and more about my Lord and Savior. I hope everyone reading this will be inspired to get into their Bibles and read and study for yourself. If you don't have a Bible, send me a message and I'll help you get one. 

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God Bless.

Ebony the One-Eyed Dog

*Originally Published January 25th 2015*

Ebony, one of our dogs, only has one eye. She lost her other eye as a puppy, some years ago.

I remember that day pretty well. Dad had just got home from working a mid shift and Mom was taking us kids into town to visit the park. The boys were in the car, Mom and I were saying good-bye to Dad...

That's when it happened. I heard the most awful scream I had ever heard. We all froze in our tracks. What was that? Mom, Dad and I made our way outside and I looked out front of the house. Mom was hollering for us to check on the puppies.

At this time, we had four or five adult dogs tied out in the yard and two puppies who would run around between the older dogs. The puppies, 'Black Cloud' and 'Griz,' were out in front of the house when I got there. "The puppies are here!" I called.

Then I noticed Black Cloud's face. Her eye was busted right out of its socket. My memory is a little fuzzy here, for the obvious reasons. I remember yelling that Black Cloud was hurt.

We all got in the car and I held Black Cloud. We drove into Cadiz and waited impatiently for the vet's office to open, unfortunately they were unable to help us when they did open, as they only took appointments.

My memory is a little clouded at this point as well, but we managed to ask around and were told that there was a veterinarian office down in St. Clairsville, that should be able to take us. When we got there, they rushed the poor little puppy into surgery and finished removing her eye.

Not much work left to be done, according to the vet.

I don't have many good pictures of Ebony though! She rarely sits still when I'm around!

During all this, Dad had to fill out paperwork. When asked for the dog's name, Dad looked at us and said: "Considering the circumstances, 'Black Cloud' would probably sound bad. Let's call her Ebony."

The name caught on so well that I'd almost completely forgotten about her old name until I sat down to write this story. We had to take special care of her after that and she spent quite some time indoors.

She grew up to be one of the gentlest dogs I have ever met, so gentle, in fact, that despite being a German Shepherd/Wolf she is extremely friendly with our chickens and other poultry.

We don't know what happened to Ebony's eye exactly, but I suspect that one of the older dogs accidentally knocked her into a large boulder that was lying in the middle of the yard. That's my best theory anyway.

Alligators

When I was just a little fella, my family went to a zoo. This zoo was unusual, in that its barriers were... Lacking. In some cases, non existent. Such was the case with the alligator enclosure. There was an arch and a walkway across the pond inside it. I ran out on the rickety walkway and crossed almost all the way over the pond.

I recall turning around and calling to my parents, who had stopped at the arch and apparently were discussing the safety of the area. They were pushing my little brother in a stroller and decided there was no way they were going to cross the pond.

I hadn't even begun to consider danger, even looking beyond the pond and seeing the alligators sunning themselves on a nearby hill. When Dad called me back however, something about his voice made me really take a look around...

I noticed the murky, green water not far below me I noticed that I couldn't see a thing through it. There could be an alligator waiting under the surface for me to fall. I ran quickly off the bridge and back to Mom and Dad. I always wondered whether there had been an alligator under that murky green water.

I got the chance to hold a young alligator some years later, it was a really cool experience; but there still have been times when I've had nightmares about murky water.

The Ostrich of New Jersey

*Originally Published in 2014*

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my Dad searched eBay for building supplies to do some work on our house. He hit the jackpot one day, a real bonanza... a whole tractor trailer load of brand new windows and doors, name-brand material, Andersens and such. Well, Dad bid on that eBay auction and won it all for a great price.

This was back before we had all kinds of animals to take care of here at the house, the whole family got in the van, hooked up the trailer and went on this little adventure together. This tractor trailer load of windows was located somewhere in New Jersey, so we had a bit of a drive.

Once we got there, it was getting dark and Dad got to meet and talk to the seller for a little bit. The seller showed us to the items, still in the tractor trailer. Dad was going to have to unload them himself, because the seller was unable to stay and us kids were too small at the time. Dad didn't mind though, because he'd got a great deal.

There was one little thing though that the seller told Dad before he left for the night... There was an ostrich living on the grounds. A mean ostrich, that had almost killed someone and completely totaled a car not long before, and, it was huge. This guy thought it was so cool, he'd go and show it to Dad before he left too. So the seller takes Dad in his pickup truck to go and check it out.

Dad later told me that the ostrich was sitting down and sleeping when they drove past it in the guy's pickup - and that even sitting down, this beast of a bird was towering over the truck as they drove past!

Of course, all of this was downright thrilling to me. I guess spending the night near an ostrich was pretty cool, being the next best thing to a dinosaur. I slept under one of the bench seats in the van. You know, so that I wouldn't be eaten in my sleep, but could still be close to the action.

Dad worked through the night, hauling the windows and doors out of the semi truck trailer and onto our smaller trailer. I had to get out of the van once, to use the "little boys room," it was rather spooky, dozens of old trailers sitting around, eerily lit by over head lights. It was something to remember, that's for sure.

Not everything would fit on the trailer for one trip, so we had to make two. But, by the second time, I was pretty sure that the ostrich wasn't going to attack. It is sort of amusing now to think how excited I got over the ostrich. Must have watched too many dinosaur movies back then or something...

The Cow(s)

I've promised my friends for years that I would commit some of my unusual stories to paper (or a blog); here is something peculiar that happened several years ago, at my home in rural eastern Ohio:

Naturally, living in the country, there are several farms within a couple miles of us, but for the most part the large livestock are out of our sight. So, one day while Dad and my brothers were out, Mom and I were quite surprised to see a cow wandering down the busy state route we live next to.

Motorists were blowing their horns and waving wildly at the beast, but it continued casually on, taking its surroundings in as it looked strangely at us shouting for it to get off the road. For the record, this thing was enormous, and not having any experience with large livestock, I wasn't going anywhere remotely near it.

Meanwhile, Mom had grabbed the telephone and was making a call to the sheriff's office. They were in disbelief that a cow was down here in our little valley, considering that we don't directly border any cattle farms.

A while later, the cow turned around and headed back up the road in the direction it had come from.

Not the same cow.

But that's not all, I have another cow story that's worth writing down.

My Dad is an avid motorcyclist. One day, some years back, Dad convinced me to take a ride with him on his bike. I was nervous, but thought it would be neat. So Dad took me on a ride through the countryside of Harrison County, eventually ending up on a back road that eventually turned into gravel. Now, anyone that knows anything about motorcycling knows that gravel is treacherous, and so Dad prepared to turn around as we rode into the gravel.

We went over a small hill and found ourselves surrounded by loose cows. No joke.

One was standing right in the road and was so close I probably could have touched it, had I tried. Despite that cow and a few others, Dad managed to turn the motorcycle around and head back over the hill and away from the cows.

Definitely not something I'm going to forget any time soon!

Practice Makes Perfect

*Originally Posted under title "Songs and Verses: where is your time and heart?" on May 31st, 2015*

I love to sing. I used to sing in a church choir. People even told me I had a great voice. Since I quit the choir, I've struggled with my singing voice and I don't always hit the right notes.

I pondered for a time... What had happened to my voice?

It dawned on me, I had put a lot of time and effort into practicing singing whilst I was in the choir...
... and I had since slacked off.

When I was in the choir, I thought about the songs constantly. I sang the songs continually. I listened to the recordings of the songs to practice hitting the right notes; singing in harmony with the other choir members.

One day as I was pondering this and contemplating how to integrate singing regularly back into my life, I realized something.

To be a good singer, one has to devote a considerable amount of time and effort into singing and learning one's material. Same goes for any other art, activity, language, even...

I attended beginner and intermediate American Sign Language classes at a nearby college when I was 8 years old. I learned tons of signs, but after a few years of barely using sign language, most of it faded away.

Same thing goes for a limb that's been broken and put in a cast. My Dad's wrist was broken in a motorcycle accident several years ago and he was unable to use it for some time. The muscles in his wrist withered away in that time, indeed his whole arm was affected. He went to physical therapy to build back the muscles in his arm, and slowly, but surely Dad regained some of the muscle in his arm and wrist.

These three analogies are all a parable of one meaning. If you claim to be a Christian, but don't give all your time and efforts to Christ, you cannot succeed.

The message of Christ in the Holy Scriptures makes up the song that our lives should be singing.

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.  2 Timothy 3:16

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:2

We need to be in the Word, all the time, studying up so that we know what Jesus would do in any given situation. That is how we'll succeed!

The Cross

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23

Jesus was saying that when we choose to follow Him and become Christians, that there is work for us to do for the kingdom of God. We have to go against what we want, give up our desires and do whatever this work is.

Jesus gave us a perfect example, by giving up any earthly desires that he might have had and following the will of God. If Jesus had not followed the perfect plan and not allowed Himself to be sacrificed for humanity, hope would not exist.

He said "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" before we would even understand the significance of the cross in His life.

Jesus is saying that if we carry the cross (do the work) we are meant to for the kingdom of God it will eventually kill our old selves; our selfish desires; the person we were before we came to Christ.

May we all find where we're meant to be in the will of God. Amen.

Jenny the Cat

*Originally Published May 9th 2015*

Have you ever thought about how sometimes change is required for growth to take place in one's life?

Sometimes we have to give up something good for something even better.

Sometimes one can realize these important lessons in life while watching animals. Such was the case when I adopted my cat, Jenny.

I'd set my heart on getting a cat. Two of my brothers had cats and I was hoping to get one too. So, Mom and I went to the cat shelter where the boys had adopted their cats.

The building was crawling with cats... At first, I thought I was going to have a hard time choosing... They were all so adorable. But there was one cat I had seen on their website that I was planning on asking about. Jenny.

She was a really pretty kitty, somewhat shy and older than a lot of the other cats at the shelter. Turned out that she'd been there the better part of two years; her entire life!

After a couple minutes of deliberation, I knew that Jenny was the cat I wanted. A matter of fact, I knew that I would forever feel guilt if I didn't adopt Jenny because she was the perfect cat for me.

But when I tried to pick her up and place her in the pet carrier, she panicked and ran away. Things escalated quickly, and soon she was in a full-blown panic attack, running to and fro in an attempt to escape the fate of the pet carrier.

I had to step back, and allow the shelter's volunteers to capture her for me. I was struck with a profound feeling of sadness for the fact that she was so scared and didn't know that I was just there to help her...

She'd been there all her life, and though it was better than living on the street, she had never known the love of a family and the security of a permanent home.

This is when I began thinking of all the times that God tries to lead one of us humans to better things in life, and we're all too willing to settle for something mediocre.

It inspired me to write a little verse, almost on the spot:

Moving on, to the place where you belong,
Moving on, like a bittersweet song,
Moving on, oh you put up a fight,
But in the end, moving on was just right.

It took some time, but Jenny eventually settled in at our place and now is a very happy kitty enjoying everything that she didn't have before.

Don't be afraid to listen for God's voice and leave behind what you know, for something better.

zem2point0

I thought it would be neat to tell the story of how my internet username came to be "zem2point0."

So, when I created my first username on the web in 2008, it was my Dad's idea to use my initials, Zachary Evan Medley as my username. I thought it was a great idea, and it was. A matter of fact, I lost count of how many people complimented me on the cool username, some even before they knew what it meant.

I became a born again Christian in 2010. I continued my internet projects which I'd begun in 2008, which included working on wikis and forums, under the ZEM username. During 2012, I began to question the direction I was taking in life and whether my efforts were being concentrated where they should be, which led to me dropping several of my projects in 2013.

I began thinking of a new username to use on the internet, wanting a new username to symbolize the new beginning I was experiencing with letting go of my past projects and moving on with new ones. I came up with a couple different ones, including "ANewName," which I actually used for a while.

Eventually, I realized "zem2point0" would be the perfect username because my name is still the same, but I'm different on the inside. A second chance, like my becoming a Christian. So, that's how the new username came about.