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.