I can get stuck in the letters that Paul wrote.  If I could only keep a few parts of my Bible, I would get as many of Paul's letters in it as I could.  

And then there are others.  The book of John tells the life of Jesus.  I need that book as well.  John, "the disciple that Jesus loved," started his book with what he felt was important.  He skipped the immaculate conception, the birth of Christ, and flight to Egypt.  He made no reference to Jesus' mother other than what appeared as an aside to a story in Jesus' life.  John the Baptist is the first person to arrive on the scene in John's book.  John got right down to what was important.  The life of Jesus.

Matthew, Mark and Luke also tell about Jesus life, but in my opinion, John does a better job.  By far.

As I have been thumbing through my Bible looking at the verses I have marked in Green--memorized--I have wondered what I would give up if I had to.  You know, like in "Fahrenheit 451" where the books were burned.   And I can't choose.  It all fits together. From the beginning  to the end (almost).  That is still coming.  One last thing and then we get a new kingdom.

Good.

"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  I am still trying to rightly divide it.

And you can't divide it if you don't read it.

There is a wonderful lady that comes to my house twice a month to help me.  When I open the door to let her in, she immediately greets me with, "God is good.  All the time."  She lifts my spirits.

Positive people enrich our lives.  As I look backwards over  my life and consider all the wonderful people who have encouraged me with their positive words--many of them people that had many difficulties they were living with--I am ashamed of ever complaining of anything.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Very short.  But full of truth.  It doesn't say "For" everything give thanks.  That would make no sense at all.   It  simply says to have a thankful spirit in the midst of "everything."  I have had many "every things" in my life.  You probably have, too.

But the "Will of God" is that we give thanks.  There is so much to be thankful for.

I've been out of commission for a few days.  Better now.

The faith we have can be blind, or convinced.  Either works.  As long as our faith is in God's plan to cover our sin with the sacrificial blood of His son Jesus.  And as long as we understand that the thing that Jesus conquered with his death was the very thing we couldn't accomplish on our own.

We can't cover our own sin.  And we can't live forever.  Jesus gave us both.  Redemption and Everlasting life.  Peace with God in an everlasting kingdom.

John 5: 24  "Yes, yes (Verily, verily) I say to you, He that hears my word and believes on Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death to life."

That's it.

And of course, John 3: 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What a deal.

The scattering of the Jews, beginning in 722 BC is called the Diaspora.  It continued until 1948.  After more than 2000 years, the Jews were allowed to reclaim to their land by a vote of the United Nations.

 Why is this important to Christians?  Well, it just adds another brick to our faith in the Word of God.  There are many, many  prophecies concerning the return of the Jews to their land in the Old Testament,  I'll give you one.  The prophet Isaiah is speaking.

Isaiah 11:11a-12 "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall…recover the remnant of his people…And  He shall set up a ensign (flag) for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

It took over 2722 years for this prophecy to be fulfilled.  That was the reason my parents and grandparents were so excited in 1948 when the announcement came  on the radio that the Jews were being given their land back.  It would be somewhat like us giving Florida back to the Cherokees.              

In all that time, a Jewish person was only recognized as such if he said he was a Jew or you saw their papers.  But they remained a nation--even though they were scattered.  They trusted in God's promises for them.  God said he would give then back their land and send a king.  Messiah.

And  because of the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies in the person we call Jesus, we believe he is the promised One.  Our sacrificial lamb who has made peace between us and God and reconciled us to God through His blood.   He came for all of us.  Not just the Jews.

Romans 8: 16b-17a  "…we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs;  heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;…"   God wants all of us.  But it's up to the individual.  We have to choose Him.

Oddly enough, within a mile or two from those tons and tons of gun powder was a German concentration camp.  The fence around it wasn't much.  Not much was needed.  When you speak German in the middle of Oklahoma, in the middle of North America, even if you escaped there was no place to go.  The only way out was to hitch-hike or to hop a train.

When I was a child, we used to go out to the "Staff Houses" and play inside the concentration camp tower.  It had a dirt floor. That is what I remember about the war.  Except for one other memory that in retrospect was exceptionally important.

We had gone to my grandparent's house. Pops, my grandfather always sat on a stool and leaned close to a round top four foot tall radio, with a fabric screen on the front where the sound came out.  One day,  my parents, all my aunts and uncles and my grandmother were gathered around Pops and the radio listening to a news announcement.  All at once there was a chorus of exclamations as everyone yelled.

"The Jews just got their homeland back!  The United Nations has decided that it is theirs." My relatives were very excited.  I was too young to understand what it meant.


Isaiah 11:12 :"And he…shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."  And He did.


 Ken's father (a Baptist minister) used to say to the church, "Watch the Jews.  They are God's time piece.  Once the Jews have their homeland back, the stage is set for the return of Christ."  If you are a student of Old Testament prophecy, you know that over 70 specific prophecies concerning Christ had been fulfilled already. Which is statistically out of the park.

Yesterday's blog was a description of how I ended up in Oklahoma.  A little kid in the middle of things I didn't understand.  All I knew was that I was really lonely.  I think everyone was lonely in their own way.  All of us had been uprooted and plopped down in a strange place.  We had no friends.

My mom was from a big family and after we moved, all of them might as well have lived at the other end of the earth because travel had so many obstacles.  Many of the roads were dirt.  Two lanes.  Many of the bridges were one lane with boards laid over steel framing.  All the steel that could be removed from bridges had been melted down to make tanks and guns.

And if you had a car, you couldn't get tires or gasoline.  Tires and gasoline were needed for the war effort so everyone was restricted to a certain number of tires and a fixed amount of gasoline-- and could get them only if you had a "coupon".   Coupons were required for most food items as well. When you ran out of coupons, you did without.

When we finally had enough coupons for gas, we would drive the hundred and fifty miles to my grandmother and granddad's house.  I can still see my daddy squatting in the dirt beside the car, taking a tire off, pulling the flat inner tube out and patching it.  Not once, but sometimes three and four patches on one trip. Every thirty or forty miles we would get a flat.  Everyone carried a tire patch kit in the car.

People shared coupons.  They traded coupons.  I don't ever remember being without anything we needed.  America was a family, united in a common cause.  It was one of the most wonderful times of my life.  People went to church, prayed for "Our boys overseas," and gave thanks for what God had provided.  We were all in the same boat.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thess. 5: 18

In 1942, the war was on.  Everyone called it The War.  Those who fought in it still do.  Seeing that the troops had ammunition for that effort required gun power and a place to produce it.  Dupont built a "Powder plant" to manufacture that ammunition here in the town I now live in. Central to both coasts.

 Men flocked here from all over the nation for the jobs that were created.  It was a small town.   But overnight  this tiny place was inundated with people who were looking for homes to live in.  There weren't any.  People lived in tents,  People lived two and three families to a house--however many bedrooms there were.  People carpooled six to a car from surrounding cities.

With the families came the children.  The school system was overwhelmed.  A small school building that had been used for grades one through twelve with normal size classes was now the only building available for grades one through six.  With over sixty children in every room.  Eighteen rooms, sixty children to a room, two bathrooms--you were assigned a "time to go" and if you couldn't you didn't get another chance.

The government set up Quonset huts in the park for the high school.  I can't remember for sure where the Junior High went, but I think the churches provided classrooms.  The Baptist church went from 100 to 700 members in a couple of months.  The Methodists as well.  But all of us were strangers to each other.  Southerners, Northerners, Westerners and Foreigners.  Nobody knew anybody.

The people who lived there didn't like what we had done to their town.  You couldn't blame them.  It was chaos.  But it turned out alright in the end.  Everyone learned to tolerate each other.  Some of the people treated us decently, others didn't.  Some people were kind.  God bless them. We were refugees.

Hebrews 13: 1-2  "Let brotherly love continue.  Don't be forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."  God sends us angels.  Be careful you don't miss yours.

Finally, the last three verses:  Philippians 2: 9-11. " Wherefore God has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Jesus may have been humbled, but that's not the end of the story.  Angels, (in heaven).  People, (from the earth).  And devils and demons (from under the earth).  Everyone is going to bow.  Everyone is going to confess that Jesus is God.   It sure would be a lot better to do your bowing and confessing now.

I have the hardest time remembering to read the Bible on a daily basis unless I am going to use it to write or teach.  I want to.  I need to.  But even with the best of plans I can't seem to perfect a plan to be consistent.   I used to drink coffee so I would put my daily Bible readings on the coffee pot.  That worked.  But I stopped drinking coffee.

So I put my daily Bible readings on the kitchen counter.  Now it's covered with spills and splashes from what I've been cooking.  But I figure a messy book is better than a clean one that you don't read.

Mine is dated, so I write all the birthdays and anniversaries on the appropriate page so I don't forget anyone.  I also write events that have happened on that day from years past.  It's kind of like a really messy diary.  Sometimes you can tell what you ate a year ago on that day because of the spills.

 It's kind of like a messy cookbook with God's recipe for your daily life.

Phil.: 2: "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

It's one thing to humble yourself after you've already been humbled by some event.   Being humble when you have every right to be proud of yourself is a lot more difficult.  I think it would be terribly hard to humble yourself, to become a man and a servant, if you were God.  Why would you want to do it?

Which automatically sends you searching for an answer to that question.  And there is only one answer.  Love.   We certainly didn't deserve it.  But he chose to be made in the likeness of a man so that we could see what He was really like.

There has never been anyone like Jesus in the history of the world.  Unassuming.  Kind in the face of hardship and unfairness.  Telling us to love our enemies.  Whoever heard of such a thing?  Then, or now.  Where would such ideas come from?

The harder question is "Why?"  Why does He love us?  Why love people who reject you, curse you and hate you and everything you stand for?

I don't know.  But He does.  There just isn't any other answer that explains Him coming to earth, becoming a man, humbling himself to become a servant, and dying on a cross for the evil that exists in the world and in ourselves.  We would be hopeless without what God did for us.

Yesterday I quit before I got through with the scripture that I memorized in the class that I took. (Phillipians  2:5-11)  Since I have it in my head, I have kept it long after I threw the textbook out.
I think of  those seven verses phrase by phrase.  

Phillipians 5:3  "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"  Jesus memorized the first five books of the Old Testament and quoted them often.  I recommend memorizing if you can.  Put scripture in your mind.  Christ put scripture in his.  I wish I had memorized more when I was young.  It is so much harder now.

Back then, I would go to Bible School in the summer and they would give you a card with ten scriptures on it.  As you memorized them they would put a star sticker by each one.  And when you had finished with the card they would give you another card.  Never underestimate the value of a star sticker.  Two weeks of Bible school.  Ten days.  One hundred scriptures.  Every year I was in grade school.  Who knew it would mean something important when I grew up.  All I wanted was the stickers.

Phillipians 2:6-7  "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"

Can you fathom Jesus, equal with God, making himself into a nobody in the terms of the world.  For us.  And even more, he came in the most lowly of all ways.  A servant.

He calls us to be servants, too.

Continued….

My church offers all kinds of enrichment classes.  I'm not very good with "fill in the blanks", or those film teaching things that everyone finds inspiring.  Which makes me feel really guilty.  So I sometimes go to the fill in the blank ones and then don't.  Fill in the blanks.  I start out good, I just don't seem to finish very well.

The other day, my friend Carolyn was talking about the subject of starting well and finishing poorly.  She mentioned Saul, the king of Israel.  Chosen by God, he disobeyed, and God regretted choosing him.  And David, a wonderful young man who was the next king, committed adultery, murder and was forbidden from building the temple.  Once he had sinned he couldn't go back and start over.

Well, not wanting to be a poor finisher, one year I enrolled in one of the classes that was being offered at the church.  I approached the teacher and told him, "I know that I will get the book for this class and then I won't fill in the blanks.  I will listen, I will learn.  I just want to be honest up front."

"Why are you taking the class," he asked me.

"I want to memorize the scripture you are teaching.  I know myself and in my heart I believe that memorizing the scripture will profit me in the long run more than doing the lessons.  I promise I will memorize the scripture."  And I did.  And different from textbooks, I still have the scripture in my head.''

Philippians 2:3-13

Continued.
 

In Samuel 15: 22b there is a phrase that rings in my mind from time to time.  "...to obey is better than sacrifice…"  I can hear the music in my head and the song in my mind.  Was it Keith Green who recorded it?  I love that song.

God had told Samuel to anoint Saul as king.  Samuel had done this, but Saul disobeyed God and in Samuel 15: 11 God says, "…It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.

Obedience.  Such a simple concept.  Obey God.  Adhere to His commandments.  Follow His rules.  Why are we so headstrong in the face of a Supreme Creator?

After Samuel grew up, Eli died and Samuel judged Israel.  But the people told Samuel that they wanted a king. 

Samuel 8: 5b,"…now make us a king to to judge us like all the nations…" 6b,  "...give us a king to judge us.  And (so) Samuel prayed unto the Lord."  Samuel told God that the Israelites wanted to be like all the other nations and people they knew.  They didn't want a judge.

Samuel was dismayed.  He felt like the people had rejected him.  Did you ever feel rejected?  More than that, have you ever been rejected?  I certainly have and I am sure you have been, too.

But God consoled Samuel by telling him, "…for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."  Sam. 8:7b.   

God gave up on them and gave them what they wanted.  

It is a terrible thing to get what you want when it isn't God's will.

Maybe that is why Jesus told us in no uncertain terms in the Lord's prayer that we should pray, "...Thy will be done…"  Everything works out better that way.  Remember the line in the song that says, "Thank God for unanswered prayers"?

In the first book of Samuel (the book after Ruth) there is a woman, Hannah, who has not been able to have a child and she is heartbroken.  In Sam.1:8, her husband Elkanah says to her, "…aren't I better to you than ten sons?"  Those of you who have suffered barrenness know that you can't compare a husband with a child.  They are not a trade off.  You have a husband.  You want a child.  You want both.

Hannah accompanied her husband every year to Shiloh to petition God for a child, and made an "If-then' statement in her prayer to God.   I taught math at a small college for years and the premises of proofs is the "if--then" statement.   If something occurs, then there is a specific result.

This is interesting to me because I would never be able to bargain with God and say, "If you do this, then I will do that."  But Hannah did.  She told God that if he would send her a son, then she would dedicate him to the service of God.

Well, God gave Hannah what she asked for, and when the boy was of a certain age, she took him to the temple and turned him over to Eli to train in the service of God.  She kept her bargain.

The story throws new light on the verse in  Matthew 7: 9,  "…what man is there of you, who if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?"   However, the difference in the New Testament is that it is God who is initiating the bargain.   He assures us that if we give our lives to him, then he  will be our Father.  That he will take care of us.  Jesus said in John 14:13, "…whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that The Father may be glorified in the Son."  We just need to be sure that what we ask for will indeed glorify God.

Faith in God is the key to the relationship between you and the Father.

In Ephesians 6: 11, 15-17 Paul speaks about the armor of God, emphasizing the practical use of each piece of the equipment.  Paul is writing this passage telling the people to be ready for warfare against evil in the world, the powers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
He speaks of the: Belt, Breastplate, Shoes, Shield, Helmet, and Sword.  Then he gives the spiritual equivalent for each piece of armor.

1. Belt of truth,  2. Breastplate of righteousness,  3. Shoes as the preparation of the gospel of peace,  4. Shield of faith,  5. Helmet of salvation  6. Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Paul was trying to give the people something they already knew about--Roman soldiers--as a comparison of how we should equip ourselves to face an evil world that would destroy our faith and cripple our witness.

I have a note in my Bible that I wrote years ago, probably from a sermon I heard, that God always fights with those six holy weapons (not destructive weapons) when dealing with Satan.  In our lives, God uses truth, righteousness, preparation, faith, salvation and His word to combat sin.

It is also interesting to note that of the six pieces of equipment, the first five are defensive.  Only the sixth piece of equipment, God's Word, is offensive. We have no offense against the false teachings around us in this misdirected world except the Word of God.

"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth."  ( II Timothy 2:15)  You can't fight a war effectively if you aren't prepared ahead of time.

school

When I was six years old, my mother enrolled me in elocution classes.  Believe it or not, I was shy, I was new to town, I didn't know anyone and no one knew me. But my elocution teacher taught me to speak, to stand up straight, memorize poems, and look people in the eye when I spoke.

At Christmas that first grade year, the old-maid principle (who wore high-top leather work boots) came stomping down the wood floors of the hall, passed all the classrooms and stopped at my room.

There were sixty-three children (that's the truth) in the room, and all of us were terrified of her. We had heard she had a paddle with holes in it.  We all believed she did.  Each one of us was sure that we were the one in trouble.  "Janie, come here," she said.  I will never forget that moment.  I was so scared.

She marched me down the hall to the sixth grade rooms, picked me up and stood me on the teacher's desk.  "Sing," she said.  "Quote a poem about Christmas."  I sang.  I quoted.  "Santa Clause is coming to town."  I still remember every word,  every gesture as I went through the motions my elocution teacher had taught me.  Pointing at myself when I said, " I  just got back from a lovely trip," pointing at the class when I said, "You better watch out."  Hands on my hips, tilting my head from side to side.

She moved me from room to room--eighteen classrooms--and finally worked her way back to first grade and to my classroom.  After I sang for my class, she picked me up off of the teacher's desk, set me down on the floor and said, "That was good."  I had gone from being terrified to being very warm inside. I had done something good!!  I was never afraid of speaking again.  I had been validated by the most fearful woman in the world.  Now,  sixty-nine years later, I still feel good when I think about it.

In Mark 10:14, Christ said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me…" and  in verse 16 Christ blessed them.  We need to do likewise.  Sometimes your blessing on a child lasts an entire lifetime.

break

I'm taking a fourth of July weekend break.  Back on Monday.

Naomi and Ruth

Last week I wrote about Ruth's love for her mother-in-law Naomi.  The love was mutual.  Both of their husbands had died leaving them destitute and alone in the land of Moab.  The two women struck out to make a very long journey and to return to Naomi's home country of Israel, to the city of Bethlehem.  They arrived at the beginning of the harvest season.  But with all of the male heirs dead, there was no one to lay claim to the land that had been allotted to Naomi's husband.

They had nothing.  Just what they had on and what they could carry.  It had been ten years since Naomi, her husband and two sons had gone to Moab to escape the famine in Israel.  Her sons and husband had died.  All Naomi and Ruth had was each other.

Naomi had to find a kinsman to help them, because all wealth and property and power was in the hands of men.  According to Jewish law, the kinsman would have to redeem them by buying back all of the land and producing a heir in Naomi's husband and son's name.  There were two men who qualified.

One of the men, Boaz, sees Ruth and...Shazam!!  That is where the love story begins.  You should go read the book of Ruth.  I't's very short.  Three and a half pages.  It is one of my favorite books.


In Ruth 4:4b Boaz says to the other man, " If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside you; and I am after you.  And he (the other man) said, I will redeem it."

Then Boaz tells him in verse 5, "What day you buy the field of the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance."

"I can't," the man said.  "You buy it."   So Boaz said to all the elders and all the people standing around, "You are my witnesses…I have purchased Ruth to be my wife."

And their first born Obed was the father of Jesse who was the father of David.  The king.  Amazing how things that look so bad can turn out so good when God is involved.

My friend has 3 sons

My friend Carolyn has three sons. Steve, Mike and Paul.  Every time something breaks, one of them knows how to fix it.  All it takes  is a phone call.  Her friend Judy has rheumatoid arthritis.  She keeps a list of things that need to be done and when her sons Jeff and Chris come to see her they start right in doing the things on the list.

My son Scott occasionally calls and asks "What do you need done?"  He changes light bulbs.  He hooks up my hoses.  He goes to get me plants and puts them in the ground for me.  The other day he showed up with a spray bottle of bug killer and went to work on the squash bugs.

My daughter Becky cooks for us.  Packages it in portions for two and freezes it so that I won't have to cook.  Saturday she made us a peach pie to die for.

My oldest daughter Pat is always willing to spend as much time as it takes on the phone to relieve my frustration when I can't figure out what to do with this computer I bought.  "Go here.  Look on the right side of the page.  Press the orange button."  Sometimes it takes her hours to help me.  She didn't inherit patience from me.  The whole computer thing drives me nuts.

When I had chemo, my youngest son Jon took a week of his vacation time, came and cooked for us, carried me when I couldn't walk.  Shopped for groceries.

These are the four children that I could have wrung their necks when they were growing up.  Who knew they would turn out okay.

Service is my love language.  Psalms 127:3a, 5a, "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:….Happy is the man (woman) that has his quiver full of them."

I don't brag on my kids and don't like people who do, but talking about service prompts me to make an exception.  I doubt they know how much we appreciate them.

Love Language

Remember back when we all took those "Love Language" tests.  Supposedly, it would identify how you like to have love expressed.  My language definitely is not receiving gifts, although I like to get them if it is something that I need.  Like homegrown tomatoes.  And it isn't candy, flowers, soft music, or romance.  I do want to hear "I love you" occasionally from those who genuinely love me.  But I don't need constant attention.  Don't send me roses, I would rather that you clean the sink.  Do something for me that needs to be done.  My first love language is service.  Wash the car.

My second love language is "Appreciation."  I am a glutton for appreciation.  I love to hear "Thank you" and to know that I have done something that someone needed.  Or wanted.  I guess that does overlap praise, but I really don't need anyone to "Build me up".  I do like it when someone tells me that I have done something that has special meaning to them.

The reason I say all that is to remind us that we need to learn and  remember the way that other people receive love.   Learning how do that takes time.  We are all so different.  If I really want to give Ken a love gift, I will leave him alone for an hour or two (or two or three) and just let him "Be".  He's quiet.  I'm noisy.

Remember that when God tells you to love your neighbor as yourself, that your first neighbor is your spouse.  Then your family.  That doesn't mean that you are to love them in the way that you receive love, but in the way that they receive love.

God seems to know how to express love better than we do.  He gave us a perfect gift.  Eternal life. That ought to work in any love language.