So, in the very short letter (of 1John), John introduces his purpose for writing the letter to the Christ followers out there who were being tracked down and eliminated--much like Christ followers are being tracked down and killed in the middle east today.

He says to them in 1 John 1:4, "These things we write to you that your joy may be full."  That's it.  That's what John is writing to people about.  Joy.  We can live in a state of joy because of what is ahead of us.  Death is conquered.  Because of Jesus, we can live with God forever.

We, in this part of the world, in this age, have heard John's message so often that we are no longer amazed by it.  We need a fresh dose of Joy.  It is an amazing story.

True belief in what John had to tell us will inspire us to spread the word.  We have a story to tell that is wonderful.  Amazing.  A cause to celebrate and spread "Joy to the world--the Lord is come."

Think back to the moment that you heard the story for the first time, and believed in a risen Christ.  In a God who loves you and died for your sins.   Your heart was full of emotion.  You were forgiven.  You were accepted by God into his family.  Someone died in your place.  You were guilty, but Jesus took your blame.  Everything you ever did wrong was erased.  Now that is joy.

But as we live the life, sometimes the day to day hassles of living can overtake us and cause us to forget what our real purpose is.  We are to spread joy with the story of Jesus.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come,
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart, prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing...

Christmas in August.

Have you ever tried to tell someone something unusual that you saw or heard, only to have them scoff at you?  Or have them say something like, "That could never happen. You're kidding  me."

John--Jesus' disciple--was in that position.  He had news so spectacular, so unbelievable, that he could hardly wait to share it.  And rather than just give his own account, he testified that he was not the only one who had seen it.  Heard it.  Touched it.  That the event was "Manifested" to others besides him.

"For the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us"  1 John 1:2  John continues giving his bona fides.  He states that he--and all of the other disciples (we),  have seen Jesus--who was in heaven with God, and who came to earth in physical form.   He tells us that Jesus is life.  Eternal life itself.

Spectacular news.  John can hardly contain himself.  He wants the whole world to know what has happened.  What he has witnessed.  What he has heard, seen, and touched.  He wants everyone--and that includes you and me--to be aware of this historic event.  So he continues:

"That which we have seen and heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

John wants you and me, and the entire world to be one fellowship of believers who can have personal fellowship with God.  With the risen Jesus.  The one who will give those who believe in him eternal life.  I am reminded of a verse written by John in his Gospel:  "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4  Knowing Jesus is like walking into a dark room and turning on the light.

We get life.  Life eternal.  That is hope.  He is our hope.  It happened, and those who were there, and saw it, gave their lives to spread the word to the world.  Nothing has ever been the same.

I have finished the Bible verse booklet I have been working on for my granddaughter.  As I went through the Bible book by book, it was amazing how many verses had had special meaning to me at some point in my life.  There were over 200 of them.  All Bible verses are important, but, let's face it, some verses are more important to us than others.  At least that's the way it is for me.

When I finished with that, I decided to go through the letter of 1 John again.  It is only four pages long, but packed with first hand accounts--that John shares from his three years as a disciple of Jesus.  My friend Sally, who lives in Hattisburg, Mississippi is doing it along with me.  We're studying it over the phone.  I'm a great believer in concentrating on one book at a time, rather than reading something and rushing on to the next letter or book.  (And forgetting what you have read.)

John uses the word "write," "written," "declare," or "proclaim" over 13 times in four pages.  He was very concerned that the story of the Christ was going to be lost if he didn't "write" it down.  Every one of the disciples that had first hand knowledge of what Jesus said and did was dying.  There is such urgency in John's words.   He  has realized that he, too, may soon be gone.  He wants people to know that he is writing down the truth.  A permanent written record.  And it is directed to all of us.

The first verse of his letter sums up his feelings. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, of the Word of Life (for the life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life...") 1John 1-2a.

Heard, seen, looked on, touched--this is real.  An account of Jesus so personal that people would be insane not to read it, and know that John knew Jesus.  Really knew him.  They were friends.  But much more, Jesus was God incarnate and John knew without a doubt that he had touched the face of God Himself in Jesus.  John had seen him die and witnessed him later--alive.

When you read scripture, everything points to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  John was there.  He saw it.  He heard it.  He touched Jesus.  What a message.  Read it.  It won't take ten minutes and it could change your life.

It has been so hot that you could hardly breath during the month of July.  Nothing is growing.  The newscaster said it was the hottest July on record.  I believe him.  My electric bill doubled--air conditioning.

But my okra loved it. The puny little stalks of May and June grew like Jack's beanstalk in July--to the sky.  I gave okra away, fried it, and still can't keep up with it.

It was so hot that my parsley, onions, green peppers, kale and lettuce never grew.  They burned up.  Even my tomatoes were pitiful.  Next year I am going to plant a different kind of tomato.  You may like Jet Stars, but to me they taste like mush.   I'm going back to Beefsteak, or Big Boy or Better Boy. Or some old Heritage cultivar.  I know--they have a tough core, but they taste like heaven.  I can cut the core out.  They won't be pretty, but they will be delicious.

I never thought I would say this, but I am ready for cold weather.  And I know that once it is here, I will be longing for spring--even summer.  I've lived in Florida.  I've lived in California four different times.  The weather is so boring.  I missed the seasons of Oklahoma.  In Oklahoma, the weather is always exciting.  Thunder, lightening, hail, wind, tornados, sleet, snow, poring rain, sunshine so hot you stay inside in the summer, and winters so cold you think you will freeze.  But something is always happening.  Oklahoma is definitely not boring.  I love Oklahoma.

Ken was overseas almost every other year.  When he got back from his last over-seas tour he said that God willing, he would never leave again.  And he didn't.  Near the end, he would say, "Let's go drag main street."  So I would get him in the car and drive him to town.  And he would say, "I love this town.  I love Oklahoma."  And he did.  He had seen enough of the horrible side of the world.

How God has blessed us to live in a land where we are free to move to some other place if we don't like the place we are in.  But as for me, I am content.  Like the apostle Paul said, "...I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."  Philippians 4:11

Christians are supposed to be doing something other than just sitting around and soaking up God's blessings.  We are called to spread the story of Jesus to a world that is wandering around in a fog of ignorance concerning God.  Many have convinced themselves that there is no God--until they are in a crisis, and then, they want a God they don't believe in to bail them out.  They don't know Him.  They don't know how to contact Him.  They are lost.  And we have the knowledge they need.

The good news is that we were created by a God who loves us and created us for fellowship with Him.  And even though we don't deserve it, he keeps trying to get through the fog and reach us before it is too late.  People need to hear that.  They need to know that God wants them for His own.  They need to realize that they have to make a choice to seek God.

And here is the thing we Christians should be doing:  Finding new ways to meet new people, get to know them and eventually (if not sooner) tell them that God loves them.  Tell them about how you came to know Him.  What He has done in your life.  And telling a person that the weight of past mistakes has been wiped out by Jesus.  Tell them what He did for them, and why.

We Christians need to set our priorities in order.  Get out of the rut of running with Christians all the time and make new acquaintances.  Branch out.  People are out there who need what you know.

My next door neighbor did something yesterday that is an example of what I am talking about.  She and her husband invited a group of people to dinner--people who had recently lost their mates.  It was really nice.  Come to find out, one of the women had a son who had been in a math class I taught at NEO A&M College more than thirty-five years ago.  It was a fluke that I remembered him--I had close to 500 students every year for almost 20 years.  She didn't know me. I didn't know her.  We would never have met if my neighbor hadn't gone to the trouble to put a group of strangers together for dinner.  There were six people there that I would never have met.

And I said to myself, "Janie, you can do that.  Throw a pot luck dinner for the neighborhood.  Have a brunch for some of the people on the block. "  Yep.  I could do that.  And even though you won't connect with everyone, you may connect with one.  You may be God's plan for telling that one.

The first African-American US Marine Corps aviator was Frank E. Peterson Jr. from Topeka, Kansas.  Everyone called him "Pete."  As I recall, he and Ken went through flight school together.  Friends.

Back then, in the late forties and early fifties, if you washed out of flight school, they sent you to helicopters.  So for a jet-jockey, that was as bad as it could get.  That policy created a lot of aviation conflict, so after a few years, the commandant issued an edict that all pilots would "voluntarily" cross train in helicopters.  Ken and Pete refused to go and got called in to the general's office so that the general could explain the "Way of the Lord" to the two of them more perfectly.

After listening to the General's explanation of why they had to learn to fly helicopters, Ken said that Pete told the General, "Sir, ain't it bad enough being a "........."?  (I can't bring myself to repeat the word Pete used.)  Whether that was politically correct or incorrect, that's what Pete said.  As a result,  Ken and Pete got out of having to go to helicopters--for which Ken was eternally grateful.

Years later, the Navy and Marines changed the policy for aviators concerning helicopters.  They decided that you had to make a choice before you went into flight school.  Choose:  Jets, or Helicopters.  Which eliminated the concept that the 'coptor pilots had failed jet aviation.  But the guys who flew jets still thought they were superior--until Viet Nam.

Viet Nam changed everything because of the heroic flying the helicopter pilots did every day.  They flew into ground fire to insert troops, and they risked their lives every day flying in to extract combat troops that were under fire.  They were sitting ducks on the ground while the dead and wounded were loaded and extracted.  They were under constant fire.  And many of them didn't make it home.

After Ken retired, he had to make a trip to D.C., so he looked Pete up.  Old times, funny stories, renewed friendship.  When Ken got back home, he kept me laughing telling the story about how he and Pete escaped helicopters.  By then, Pete had made general.  The first African-American general in the USMC.  He was something.  They both were.












Frank E. Petersen Jr. (USMC) (born March 2, 1932 in Topeka, Kansas) is a retired United States Marine Corps Lieutenant General. He was the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general.

"...I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11

When things aren't going the way you want them to, don't give up.  God is still God.  He is still in the business of guiding our lives.  He has a plan for you.  He has a plan for all of us.

We may not know what those plans are, but He does.  That's where that thing called "trust" comes in.  Even when things aren't going well, we can trust Him because he says so.  He always keeps his promises.  

I keep telling God what I want.  And what I don't want.  Personally, I don't want to suffer.  I'm strong, and I can take it, but I've had enough of that.  But, what if He wants to use my response to suffering to give him glory?  Personally, I don't want that either.  But I do want God's plans to be fulfilled.  So, if that is what He has in mind, I will try my best to grin and bear it.  Because I trust Him.  But......I still don't want to suffer.  I'm human.  And suffering isn't on my list of favorite things that have happened to me.   

Since what I want and what I don't want doesn't seem to change, when things don't go my way, I will just have to trust that He will change my attitude.  I do take comfort in the scripture in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says:  "There has no temptation (problem) taken you but such is common to man.  But God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted (tested) above that which you are able (to bear), but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."

That's pretty comforting.  God knows our limit.  Mine may not be yours--but what ever our limits are, God won't allow anything to push us past them.  That verse says God is faithful.

I put a high priority on faithfulness.  I'm counting on it.  He has never let me down.