Bombay Beach Outdoor Church

Praise the Lord.  What a beautiful day, sunshine and blue sky.  Madigan my dog loved running free on the beach among the incredible art installations.  Steam punk.  Surrealist or just plain camp.  Meanwhile I’m sitting beside the Salton Sea reminiscent of the Dead Sea.  

Pastor Jack spoke today on the gospel of John.  “There were miracles and healings but the message was the ‘word’”. In the Bible we have the words of Jesus today and if we read them especially daily, the Holy Spirit comes into us and begins the  work.  He called himself  version 4.1 in computer language being rewritten by the Lord.  “Jesus said ‘believe in me’.  He said you ask for the Lord to come in.  I remember hearing the handle was on the inside of the door.  .   Pastor Jack said, “It’s like C.S. Lewis who taught we were a soul inhabiting a body on our journey, not our body.”  Jesus said ‘if you know me you will know the Father’. 

Jack spoke so fondly of his wife and his marriage of 40 years ago.  I was grieving.  The marriages , the love, the loss of family and friends. 

Pastor Jack played a Psalm sung in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.  I just read that Jesus said Fear Not some 90 times.  The NIV changed some of  KJV “fear not’s “ of the Bible  to ‘Do Not Be Afraid”. 26 times Jesus said  choose faith over fear.  The importance of faith in a living  loving present God.  

I was at peace there on the beach this morning listening to the scripture.  

It’s Super Bowl  Sunday.   Jack shared how he’d slept with his football as a boy loving the game.  I felt that way about baseball and hockey. Today though I’ll watch the football a bit. really am more interested in the half time all American alternative show put on by Turning Point in honor of Charlie Kirk who was assasinated.  NBS has Bad Bunny as their ‘woke’  half time show..   Kid Rock is headlining the Alternative All American Show celebrating family, faith and American culture.  I saw Kid Rock at Sturges when I rode my big Harley  from Vancouver Canada to the Black Hills. A bit of me sees the half time shows as spiritual war between life and death.  

Listening to Pastor Jack talking of his Christian services in the prisons and how his attitude changed I thought how I must learn to love  and fear less.   But then I’m trying to ‘let go and let God’, learning ‘serenity ‘ and accepting  that the struggle is inside me ,not ‘out there’.  .

At the end of the church service as we were breaking up for coffee a man and a woman arrived with a little baby . The smiling baby’s  head  was the size of the father’s hand.  I liked the family scene. .  Jack’s daughter had been there last I was on the beach in worship.  I liked the dogs too. The service was spiritually so meaningful. I was reminded of spiritual meetings we had on the Saipan beaches reciting the Lord’s Prayer and Serenity Prayer.

Bombay Beach is in the midst of revival in so many ways. 

Pastor Jack said, “I think that Bombay Beach with the sand and sea is like Galilee..”  Having been to Israel  I had to agree. 

Thank you Jesus for Pastor Jack and the mission of the church of Bombay Beach.  Thank you John for your Gospel. . Thank you God.