As I Was Saying

Meditation: “As I Was Saying….”
Psalm 29
June 7, 2009 Dr. Dennis Ginoza

God does exist! Are there any questions?
Woody Allen says: “If God does exist, why doesn’t he
give me some sign—like depositing a million
dollars in my name in a Swiss bank?”

Once there were two men on a cruise ship. The first man
fell overboard. The second man saw all this so he
jumped in the water to save the first man’s life; which
he did. When both men were pulled out of the water
and back on the ship, the second man said, “I want to
know, who pushed me?”
God does exist! Are there any questions?

A few years ago, there was a woman who started to come
to our church. Her name was Mayne New. She was
a retired school teacher. Often, she would say, “I just
love this church.” One day she was driving on Reche
road and she was hit by another car. She had a neck
fracture and eventually we lost her. She had a daughter
in Seattle and a son in Germany. After her memorial
service, he son said to me, “In all the years, I have never
heard my mother talk about a church as she did this
church.” He went on to say, “My family and I would
like to make a substantial gift to this church.” (I thought,
probably maybe $2,000, that would be a substantial gift,
but I wasn’t sure.” He said, “It will about $20,000.”
I’d say: God does exist, wouldn’t you? …And that gift
helped us to purchase and install our video system.
The attributes of God are:
Gratitude, Generosity and Grace.

Today, this is my penultimate sermon. Penultimate means, next
to the last. I can’t believe that my time with you is
coming to an end. But remember, Yogi Berra said,
“It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.”
I have cried with you, I have laughed with you,
I have struggled with you, and I have walked side by side with you.

In Psalm 29, verse 4, the psalmist says: “The voice of the
Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of God is a quiet voice, The voice of God is a blasting voice,
It will swirl, it will shake, it will thunder, and it will whisper.
The psalmist says, 2
The voice of the Lord flashes forth
flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes
the wilderness;
the lord shakes the wilderness
of Kadesh.

In all of us, there are three ego states: a child, a parent,
and an adult. In us we also have a human nature
and a divine nature. We are here to develop all of these.
When I was working in Honolulu, I saw
a part of me that was political. I was appointed to
the governor’s task force representing Palolo Valley.
I would go the meetings at the state capitol, and I found,
There was in me, another force. As I worked in the
church, I could see that the fundamental principle of
change is not political. But, I might say—the United
States Constitution is a light upon this planet. I have
come to believe, ultimate change takes place in spiritual nature.
This is the Course Jesus has set for the twelve disciples, the
early church, and for us today. This is where many
miss the mark. If there are two people in our history
that exemplify this—they are Albert Schweitzer and
Mother Theresa. The other two I would name are St. Francis
of Assisi and Mahatma Ghandi.

All of you know by now that I use athletic metaphors, life stories,
and then I bring it down the heart. My preaching professor
used to say, “Truth comes through personality.” When I
use life stories, I call them windows. Sermons need windows
otherwise they can be boring. Alan Loy McGinnis
writes about getting the best out of people. Pat Venditte
played for Creighton University. Venditte, a right hand
pitcher struck out the batter. . When the next batter came up,
Venditte switched his glove to the other hand, he had a
Special kind of glove. Now he pitched with his left hand.
He is the only pitcher in NCAA baseball that is ambidexterous..
When Venditte was three years old, his father noticed he could
Pick up the ball with either hand. There is a lesson here:
God is an amazing God. With God, all things are possible..
As I was saying, God does exist! Any questions?

The Bible says, Enoch walked with God, and he was no more.
Genesis 5:21-24
He did his work and he was raised.
Elijah parted the waters of the Jordan, went to the 3
other side and he chariots raised him up.
He did his work and he was raised.
Jesus suffered and died. He was resurrected
and he ascended.
He did his work and he was raised up.
And Jesus said, “Learn from me.”

Saint Frances de Sales says:
You learn to speak by speaking,
To study by studying, To run by running,
To work by working; and just so,
You learn to love by loving. All those who think
To learn in any other way deceive themselves.

In a book entitled, Miracles of Healing written by Brad and
Sherry Steiger, they write about a school of thought
in Hawaii called Huna. Huna is a healing process.
Huna teaches that we have three parts to our soul:
uhane, the weak spirit; unihipili the spirit that hides;
Aumakua, the old spirit, the mature spirit. Even before
Freud and Jung, the Polynesians had identified the three
parts of the mind, the conscious mind, the sub-conscious
mind, and the superconscious mind. Our bodies and minds
are fed by mana, the vital force. Peter calls it The Holy
Spirit. The old, mature spirit in us is the divine part of God
in us. The Aumakua is that which Paul calls the Mind of
Christ. Put on the Mind of Christ, it will bring you well-being.
It will transform this World.

So let me close with these thoughts. In all the years I have lived, I never
thought the day would come when I would be a part
of a mass evacuation. Remember the fires of 2007,
but we survived. God does exist! I want to say:.
thank you for my fifteen years of ministry with you.
I say to you: strive to be best in everything—
God is watching you..
When strangers come to this church, reach out
to them with the spirit of Aloha. Jesus said,
“Love one another as I have loved you.
When your new pastor comes—Brad and PJ Resare—teach
them what Aloha means.