Comments from the Corner

Another Year Has Passed

2011-12-20T22:45:00.004-05:00

Bring your Grandparents to School Day

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” I Thess. 5:18

Dear Friends:

The year 2011 has definitely been a time in which we have been learning to give thanks “in every thing”. It has definitely been a busy year.

Lynn continues to enjoy his job at WalMart, though he would much rather not have to work any Saturdays and/or Sundays. The opportunities missed because of having had his days-off split up (usually he has Sunday and another day besides Saturday or Monday) are both a reason to be disappointed and a reason to give thanks. We usually take advantage of every Sunday afternoon to have some family time, but long weekends are non-existent. However, it is a blessing to know that he has a job, and at his age it is no longer his choice to be picky about jobs. He recently (October) dislocated his shoulder but only missed two days of work, though he has had to work with his left hand a lot more than he would like. He is hoping to be released to do most of his regular work by the end of the year. Sometime before his injury, Lynn took some days of his vacation and went to Denver, CO to see his brother Aldo and family. It was good to be able to spend some days with them, and get to know his nephew and nieces as adults and meet their spouses. It was a joy to see that they have all formed very nice families, and that they are staying close as a family. Lynn was also impressed with the opportunities for ministry that are available, and he believes that Aldo would be much better able to take advantage of them if he did not have to work a full time job and could dedicate full time to the ministry. Recently, a neighbor of theirs, whose family was disintegrating, came to know the Lord, and they are praying and working toward a reuniting of that family on the solid foundation of Christ, their newly found Savior. Pray for that family.

Mary enjoys her responsibilities as a homemaker for Lynn and Michael. Since she has no outside job, she has become an expert couponer, and tries to do her shopping on Wednesdays, when she also gets 5% senior citizen’s discount at some of the stores. Friday is usually a special day for her, because she gets to spend the evening with granddaughter Rachel, and she thoroughly enjoys her one-on-one time with her. She has also had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas to spend time with daughters Kathy and Lizzie, and from there they have had other trips to Ensenada, Mexico (Lynn went along on that trip) and to Hawaii with them. She also went out to help Kathy with a church banquet she was planning.

Michael has also had several opportunities to travel, most of them for study and certification purposes, through his job, but also a cruise on the Mediterranean, departing from Barcelona, Spain and a short but packed ten day trip to Argentina to introduce a friend to the land where he grew up. He has been very involved in the project he is working on at LCE (Life Cycle Engineering) and is now a Project Manager. He enjoys his job, and has a good relationship with his fellow workers. He is more than happy to let Mary keep house for him and Lynn repair a few things here and there which need a handyman.

Philip and Rosalyn and daughter Rachel are doing well. Philip turned 40 this year. He continues to work at LCE as a Project Analyst (though I believe he is now considered a Project Manager). His supervisor has become a dear friend of the family, and she tells us that he is highly respected and appreciated on the job scene. Rosalyn is serving as taxi driver for Rachel’s school activities, Homeroom Mother, and housewife. She has been dedicating time to collecting memories in the form of scrapbooks and picture albums. Rachel is busy with her activities at school (which include cheerleading and several invitations to birthday parties) besides a more demanding academic schedule as she is now attending a school which tries to keep a college prep level starting from grade school.

Though they live far away, Kathy and Lizzie keep in (almost daily) touch with us. Kathy keeps very busy at work, and has also become very much involved in their church, a small church plant close to their home. Lizzie has had opportunities to babysit, housesit (on two occasions this year) and dogsit. She also enjoys filling her time with relationships with the ladies at church and some of the children from church. Interspersed between these activities and housekeeping for Paul and Kathy, she has been able to make a trip to London and Paris with Kathy at Thanksgiving time (Paul did not go because he went to Argentina to visit his parents, Harold and Priscilla Goossen, who are missionaries there) and to Ensenada and Hawaii. We are constantly thankful for the example she has given us of what a godly widow should be.

Though we enjoyed the preaching and teaching we were getting at the Northside Baptist Church, Lynn especially felt the need to get into a smaller church where we could be useful. We had heard when we first moved to the area of an IFCA church plant pastored by a friend from Seminary days, so we decided to visit there, and we realized immediately that this would be a much better fit for our family, as we are used to being involved in church planting situations. We are now tied in with the Community Bible Church of Summerville, and enjoying it very much. Lynn has had the opportunity to substitute teach in Sunday School, Mary has filled in at the piano on one occasion, Rosalyn is in charge of the nursery, and Philip has had the opportunity to help with the audio recording.

We recently (I believe it was September) had the privilege of a visit from Lynn’s brother and sister-in-law Ivan and Kim. We realize that this was an exceptional stretch for them, as they were only in the States for a six month time of home ministries, and they had to make many visits. Nevertheless, it was a blessed time, and we are thankful for it.

We have also been blessed to be closer to Mary’s sister Judy, and have been privileged to have her in our home on several occasions. Since both she and Lynn work at WalMart stores, they both have only one guaranteed day off in the year, and that is Christmas. We are planning to spend the day with her at Myrtle Beach, (where she lives) and hoping to be able to spend the same time with Blaine, Jr. (Skip) since he, too, has the day off and lives in Myrtle Beach.

I’m sure that we could remember many other things to thank the Lord for, and every situation we are in is a reason for thanksgiving.

We thank God for His Unspeakable Gift, Jesus Christ, God’s answer to Job’s lament “He is not a man like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us , to lay his hand upon us both,… l would speak up without fear if him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.” (Job 9:32-35) As Hebrews points out, we now have such a man, who did not need to atone for his own sins, because he is sinless. He is also God (the creditor) and he became man (taking the form of a debtor) and was thus able to “lay his hand upon us both”, but even better yet, he did not cover up our sin, as the sacrifices of the Old Testament times did. He did much better, he became our defense attorney, pleading guilty on our behalf, and then, standing between us and God’s wrath, offered to be the full satisfaction of our debt, thus wiping our slate clean.
IT IS OUR PRAYER THAT ALL OUR FRIENDS WILL BE ABLE TO SAY, WITHOUT ANY DOUBTS, THAT THIS IS THE BASIS OF THEIR FAITH, AND THAT THEY, TOO, ARE THANKFUL FOR CHRIST, BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALLOWED HIM TO BE THEIR SAVIOR.

May you have a Blessed Christmas and a Very Happy New Year

Lynn and Mary Hoyt

A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

2011-12-06T23:09:00.003-05:00

Several years ago, when I was dealing daily with Direct Store Delivery vendors on my job at Wal-mart, I did an informal survey of my vendors and my fellow workers. On December 7th of that year, I asked as many people as I could what that date stood for. I was about 59 at the time, and only a few of those my age or over could come up with an answer. Most of the persons younger than myself drew a blank.
This was a sad commentary on the lack of information that exists among a large segment of our population. In our day of specialization, history is given a very small place in our education, while there is a great emphasis on what can bring about a large paycheck. Having been trained in a more general education, I find that I know a little about a much larger spectrum of subjects. By today’s standard, that type of education is practically useless, trivial, and even inconsequential.
But let us look at the results of such neglect of factual education.
· The Depression, while hard for everyone who experienced it, was made bearable, and even educational by the fact that the majority of the population at that time was, if not dedicated to worshipping God, at least steeped in a knowledge of JudaeoChristian principles. Such principles have not only been neglected, but actually opposed, sometimes vehemently, by those who have rejected them, a group which has been growing exponentially since public educational theory has adopted a religion of denial of God and His Word.
· The Attack on Pearl Harbor became a rallying point that united the people of grass roots America in their conviction that the Axis must be defeated. But the power to stay united was rooted in the moral fiber of a people who knew the danger of rejecting God, and had been taught the gospel, even though some did not accept it or live by it.
· The Holocaust was allowed to occur by people who would not believe that a “Christian” nation such as Germany could ever do anything so dastardly. Many of the most influential people in the US were notified that it was occurring, but, because they believed that they were involved in bringing in the Kingdom of God and because they were profiting economically from their business dealings in Europe, they refused to believe it was happening, and even condoned what they did know.
· The decision to allow politicians to make the decision to wage wars of containment led us into a series of wars which have all ended up in either a draw, an empty victory, or a loss.
· All of these facts have been omitted or not given a place in our school curricula, with terrible results.
o The generation that did not live through the Depression became the Consumer Society, leading to the transformation of people’s expectations from ‘wants’ into ‘needs’, never realizing that someday the vicious circle had to end. Having forgotten the lessons of the Depression and rejected the teachings of Scripture, we have now come to a dangerous place—the conjunction of forgetfulness and lack of moral anchorage, leading to an uncurbed hunger for acquisition, which has overridden our moral fiber as a nation. As a result, we have had a number of scandals, all related to the desire to become rich at any cost, and our nation is in the process of realizing that it is bankrupt.
o The lack of teaching concerning the dangers of anti-semitism, and the emphasis on political correctness to the point of ignoring the dangers of national and religious ideologies that are at enmity with our very existence as a haven for liberty, has left us at the mercy of political systems which are destroying other nations.
o Because the lesson of WWII was forgotten so soon (by the early 1950’s), we have had Korea, Vietnam, etc. in which we have fought wars of attrition, and finally become a paper tiger, and then ‘nation builders’, which have been a huge waste of money, manpower, machinery, and morale.
o Our forgetfulness of JudaeoChristian morals and ethics has opened us wide to the questioning of all the principles our nation was founded on. This has now led to a repetition of the attack upon American soil (9/11/2001), the insidious takeover of government to the point where we now have a large number of public office holders who were neither elected by the people nor do they hold to the standards that our nation was built on—in fact, they openly oppose them.
What, then, can we do about this? May I suggest that as Christians we have an obligation to try to understand and remember the principles and thinking that lie at the base of the present predicament in which we are mired.
This would help us to better know how Christian principles apply to our modern day situations. The main action we must take is to have a reverential respect for God and His Word, because ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.
The next action is to seek to reach individuals with the gospel and thus see God transform society. All other ideologies and systems are based on the idea that society must be transformed by means of change of environment, education, dependence, suppression, hatred or plain physical attack. But this is only a description of how to deal with symptoms. Only a change of heart in a large number of individuals can change society. And a change of heart can only come through a change of relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
How can we avoid another “date which will live in infamy”? Only by remembering the lessons of history, and dedicating our lives to reaching our “enemies” for Christ.

It's a Prepositional Proposition

2011-11-20T16:29:00.005-05:00

The Bible has many verses where the prepositions, if translated and understood correctly, unfold the whole meaning of the passage. One such case is I Thessalonians 5:17-19 "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.". As a human being with a sinful human nature, it is impossible for me to give thanks "for" everything, because I am not able to see every detail of all the circumstances which surround me. But it is possible for me to know several things about all circumstances. The first is that, no event in my life can touch me unless it has first gone through the inspection process of God's plan for my life. There are two reasons for this: a) I am to cast all my cares upon him, because He cares for me and b) my circumstances are mitigated by a preposition--I am hidden "in" Christ. Thus, I can let the circumstances roll off of me and onto Christ like "water off a duck's back". Every event in my life is already known, and all the possible alternatives are covered by God's plan. Secondly, although there are some circumstances in my life in which my foolish decisions cause adverse results, God is still on the throne, and the final outcome is guaranteed--I can learn from them and not repeat them, and I can know that I am still hidden in the hollow of his hand. Thirdly, those 'happenings' in my life in which I consider very bad, yet in which I have no governing influence, are an important part of God's architectural design of my life. They may be meant to be a strengthening exercise for my faith and trust in Him, or they may prove to be an example or a lesson for someone else. One such truth is brought out in the book of Job, where Satan cynically declares that Job is "being a good boy" in order to gain position with a generous Creator. Nothing could have been further from the truth. God was actually testing Job, and Job came out with flying colors, but one thing he learned was that God has a plan, and it is not ours to question why God did it; it is only meant for us to obey and trust Him.
Thus, thanksgiving is not optional. Everything in life is a motive for thanksgiving, because all events in our life are part of God's Sovereign plan. We can and MUST thank God IN everything. Thank Him in the good times, thank Him in the bad times caused by our disobedience and/or foolish decisions, and thank Him in those times when we don't understand the why's and wherefore's. But above all, THANK HIM BECAUSE IT IS HIS WILL TO USE ALL OF LIFE'S EVENTS FOR HIS GLORY AND FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE OF US WHO ARE 'IN' CHRIST JESUS

The Truth Will Win Out in the End

2011-11-09T10:05:00.007-05:00

When the people of Israel began the conquest of the Promised Land, God gave them orders that they were to destroy everything and everybody in Jericho. Achan found this order too stringent, and when he saw a treasure trove of gold, silver and fancy clothing, he could not resist--he took some of the loot. His greed had won out. When the matter came to the attention of Joshua, but he did not yet know who was the guilty party, he called the people together. Per God's instructions, and in order to find the person/s involved, he had each tribe's representative come forth, and God chose the tribe of Judah. All the clans in the tribe sent a representative, and the clan of Zerah was taken. Each family in this clan sent a representative, and Zimri was chosen. The sons of Zimri were brought forth, and Carmi was fingered. Among his children, Achan was pointed out.
I can just imagine the situation. Achan was probably a respected member of the community. Nobody would have been aware of the dark side of Achan. Nonetheless he knew different. He could have come forward before the battle at Ai, but he did not. He could have come forward before the selection process, but he did not. He chose to take his chances on not getting caught.
He had not taken into consideration the following facts:
1) God is omniscient, so He already knew what Achan had done.
2) Joshua was appointed by God, and he was a man of prayer, thus and invincible foe.
3) His actions did not affect only him, they had an effect on both his nation and his family.
4) He would never be able to enjoy the loot which was fruit of his disobedience.
There is reason to believe that God would have treated Achan with mercy if he had 'fessed up' to his transgression, maybe even after the defeat at Ai, but he did not, and thus paid personally and also caused the death of his family.

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper,
but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy". (Prov. 28:13)

Let us remember that, though we do not know who did what, there is a biblical principle that applies. And we and our politicians need to apply it.

The People Want to Know What it's all About

2011-05-25T09:49:00.002-04:00

These were the words that were communicated to the Spanish rulers of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata on that day 201 years ago. Meetings had been going on behind closed doors in the City Hall of Buenos Aires (Cabildo), and the citizens were getting tired of the secrecy involved. So on that rainy autumn day they sent a message to their governance, appointed through no choice of their own, but by royal fiat, to make them aware that they were vitally interested in having a part in their own rule. Thus began the Revolución de Mayo, which eventually brought self rule to Argentina. It is the mark of the beginning of Argentine independence, culminating in the Declaration of Independence on July 9th, 1816. Though there were military campaigns to consolidate the independence movement as late as 1819, Argentina had, for all intents and purposes shaken off the shackles of its subservience to Spain, the mother country.
As it is in the case of child rearing, so it was with Argentine history. There was the "childhood" period of dependence upon the parents. Then came the "adolescent" period in which the offspring is testing his wings, and finally adulthood, in which the child becomes his own person, and establishes himself as a peer with his parent.
I've observed this same journey in believers, also. The infant, toddler and elementary school stage is one in which parents are "perfect" and can do no wrong in the eyes of their offspring. Following that, there is a period of questioning everything the parents do. Some children go through a severe case of "adolescence" in which they will not listen to anything their parents say, and this brings heartache and pain to both child and parent. Children learn much in this period by making mistakes. Once they grow up, they begin to realize that the hurts they have experienced are the result of the very things their parents tried to warn them about. It is through this trial and error method that many of us have finally become established as adults, and peers of our parents.
King Solomon wrote many of these precepts down in the book we call Proverbs, so that we might learn from the errors of others and not get hurt by our own "wise" counsel.
May we, as a nation, follow the words of Solomon "Be not wise in your own eyes....." (Prov. 3:7) "...he that hearkens to counsel is wise..."(12:15)

A Family Event

2011-04-21T12:00:00.023-04:00

Embraer plane

It is now almost a month since I returned from my visit to Indiana. Since Dad was to turn 90 on April 2, 2011, I made a trip for the occasion.

The trip involved two flights each on the round trip journey. I was surprised at the comfort provided by the very small jets used by the airline. The planes were the smallest I had flown in since the early 80's. They were of Brazilian manufacture (Embraer) and the seats were wider than the ones on larger commercial airlines.

Nephew Jon Hoyt met me at the airport

And took me to Mother's home

Mother enjoys her iPad, which she uses to read our blogs and to play Words, a form of Scrabble

Rita was able to come to the birthday party.

As were Sharon and Alan

Retired Argentine pastorVictor Wagner, who works at Grace Village, was also a welcome guest.

Margaret Marshall (Aunt Margaret to us Hoyt MK's) came over from her apartment.

I got to meet the newlyweds. It was nice to meet Tina's husband, Kyle.

During the week, there are activities, one of which is the Bible study, led by Glenn Byers.

When she is not spending time with Dad, Mother reads her mail.

Twice a day, Mother goes to Grace Village to feed Dad and spend time with him.
She has been a true example of motherhood and of the love of a spouse.

Saying goodbye to him to go home and follow her daily routine.

Though he may not have understood everything that was going on, Dad seemed to enjoy the party and was his usual pleasant self.

New signs of spring.

2011-03-22T20:03:00.009-04:00

Ever since we moved to Moncks Corner, Michael has wanted a fig tree in his back yard. Last year he bought one, and it died immediately. This year we studied the time when they should be transplanted, and bought one at the right time. Now that spring has come in, it is really beginning too look very good.

The fig tree.

The early sprouting of the fig tree reminded me of the Lord Jesus' remark about fig trees: " Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Mark 12:28-31).

As the movements of history unfold, it becomes more and more clear that we are in the end times, and though we cannot set a date, we are certainly approaching the time of Christ's appearance very quickly.

The first year we were here, we got several rose bushes, and though they looked good, they were mostly leaves. That winter, I studied up on pruning, and with that knowledge, and the observations I had made as I had seen a gardener prune his vines in Argentina, I undertook the task of cutting them down to size. After I was done, I feared lest I had been too merciless with them. But the second season they came out in full glory, and were loaded with blooms all season. This year I was a little more moderate, and although the bushes are better shaped, and have more leaves, they may not give as many flowers. We shall see.

That reminded me of the passage in Hebrews 12. The act of pruning is a sort of discipline, and the writer of Hebrews says "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and he punishes everyone He accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline: God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons." (Heb. 12:5b-8) When I trim the rose bushes next winter, I will try to be as ruthless as necessary, knowing that this will produce a good, healthy yield of beautiful roses. And may that be a lesson to me that the Lord uses the circumstances of life to discipline me and make me fruitful.

One of the rose bushes.

Spring has arrived!

2011-03-22T17:58:00.016-04:00

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

Since I had two days off in a row, which only happens about four times a year, we decided to travel over to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit Mary's sister Judy. She lives in an oceanfront condo, so we were able to see the ocean on a beautiful day with a fresh breeze and a shining sun.

Mary's sister, Judy

Michael enjoyed walking up and down the beach.

We walked on the beach watching the waves and the sea gulls.

Myrtle Beach is a summer vacation spot which is almost empty during the winter. This was the beginning of the season, so it was not exremely crowded with tourists. A few Buckeyes, some hardy Pennsylvanians, and a lot of Canadians.

While walking on the beach we saw a sight we don't often see here in the south.

A bocci game.

A fisherman's life. (my idea of a title, it had none)

We ate our noon meal at a seafood restaurant which had many decorations from or about the sea. One of these was a painting done on the boards from the bottom of a flatbottomed fishing boat in which a local artist had painted scenes from a fisherman's life.

Rachel was on spring break, so we took her along.

Electronic game similar to SIMON

We took Rachel to a park while Michael and Judy went target shooting. The park had an electronic game which Rachel liked very much.

The pavillion was an ideal place for the seagulls to sit and watch these 'tourists'.

After eating lunch at "Red Robin", we said goodbye to Judy and came on back home. Only about forty hours, but it was an enjoyable family time, a nice break from work and school and an opportunity to see God's creation a little more closely.

The Cause and Effect principle

2011-03-07T13:03:00.004-05:00

Although none of us may believe him/herself so important as to be ranked with the superstars of Hollywood, TV or radio or even the politicians, we all must keep in mind that there are those who watch us, imitate us and sadly, sometimes even adore us.

Mary and I have been reading a chapter a day in the Bible, and we are coming close to the end of II Chronicles. As we read about the kings of Israel and Judah, I noticed a common thread which I will call the Cause and Effect principle. We all know that every individual must give account before God for his actions in life, and there will be no valid excuse at the moment of accountability. But my attention was brought to bear upon the repeated appearance of this principle as I looked at the lives of the best and the worst of the kings or Israel and Judah. One of the best kings of Judah was Joash. When Ahaziah, king of Judah, died at the hand of Jehu, his mother, Athaliah, had all of Ahaziah's heirs killed, and established herself on the throne. There was one heir, a baby son of Ahaziah, who was rescued by his aunt Jehoshabeth and hidden in a bedroom together with his nurse. Jehoshabeth's husband was Jehoiada, a priest. From what we can see, both Jehoshabeth and Jehoiada were godfearing people, and Joash, their protegé, must have adapted quite well to their pious lifestyle. The political climate in the country was not favorable to holiness, yet they maintained themselves faithful to God and avoided the intrigue, impiety and malice that were the norm in those days. When Joash turned seven, Jehoiada gathered up the courage to act. He set up a guard at the temple, another at the royal palace and another at the gate of the Foundation. He had the people gather and he annointed Joash king over Judah. Though Joash was only seven years old, he was an heir to Ahaziah, and therefore entitled to the throne. When Athaliah heard the commotion and found out what had happened, she raised the cry of 'treason'. This brought about her execution. From that time on, Joash reigned for forty years, which we can divide into three periods. During the first period, Joash was being mentored and under the guidance of the priest Jehoiada. He did many good things, did great works and led his people toward the good and obedience to God. But in the second period, which I will call the post-priestly period, which began with the death of Jehoiada, Joash listened to the counsel of the princes of Judah (which I assume to mean the young leaders) who came to him with flattery and gifts, and brought high places and Asherah poles back into the worship of the people, thus creating a mixed religion which was described as an abandonment of God. God sent him prophets to warn him, but Joash did not listen to them. As a last chance, God gave him a message through his cousin, Zechariah, but instead of heeding his words, Joash had him stoned. As a sad epilogue, the Scripture says that Joash did not bring back to mind the kindness that Jehoiada had shown to him in saving his life. The final stage of his reign was short, and it was a time of defeat in which Judah fell to the king of Syria and finally, his own servants turned on him and assassinated him. He was not even buried in the tomb of the kings, though he was buried in Jerusalem. His son Amaziah succeeded him on the throne, and Scriptures tell us that the new king did what was good in the eyes of God, but he did it halfheartedly. As I observe the reign of Joash I can infer that:
1) The influence of a good counsellor is extremely important.
2) If a leader follows good counsel, but that counsel does not become his personal conviction, he will change course after the counsellor is gone.
3) Those counsellors who come to a leader with flattery and gifts are very often wrong, and do not always have the right motivation, either.
4) It is important that we be willing to listen to those whom we know to be good counsellors.

The saddest part of this story is that while Joash gladly followed Jehoiada's counsel, his son seems to have detected that this was not necessarily his conviction, so he figured it was enough to do the right thing, even though it was done halfheartedly. And so the process goes, Godly counsellor is followed by unconvicted good leader, followed by fake good leader. He probably distilled his belief down to "Yeah, the old man was a fuddy-duddy, I need to be more up to date, but of course I AM a Christian!!...

I've often reminded people that GOD HAS NO GRANDCHILDREN!!!

An Enjoyable Guest

2011-02-25T16:58:00.004-05:00

A week ago it was our privilege to have a special guest in our home. Since Philip had made arrangements to take Rosalyn on a cruise to the Bahamas, we had our granddaughter in our home for almost a week. It was a good time and I believe she enjoyed it very much also. On my day off we took her to Chuck E Cheese, one of her favorite places. While there, Rachel wanted to get a picture taken in the special booth where the result is a computerized simulation of a pencil shaded drawing. The attached pictures show the results.

This week I decided to make another change. Since I have many friends who do not read English, I decided to add another blog to my repertoire. So I have now launched www.comentariosdesdelaesquina.blogspot.com I'm looking forward to communicating with many of my friends in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Spain in a language they can understand. I have found that some of them have picked up a lot of English, and have responded positively to my English blog, so I thought I would try to get in touch with more of my friends by means of a Spanish edition. Anyway, check my first blog out. If nothing else you will enjoy the picture.

Our Only Recourse in a Time of Storm

2011-02-13T16:07:00.006-05:00

I don't know whether it is an echo in my heart or just old age, but poetry has meant much more to me lately than it ever had before. I used to think of it as maudlin, tear jerking, emotion, but I've found that much of what could truly be called poetry is the heartbeat of one person trying to communicate with the world. For some, it may be the only way they are able to, or can emotionally afford to express their deepest feelings. One such poem/spiritual song was one we sang in church this morning. I first remember hearing it as the "leit motif" (reccurring theme) of a documentary put out by TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission). The movie was a recounting of the flight of many Christians from North Korea into South Korea in the late 40's or early 50's during the communist take over. The story left an indellible impression on me, and even though I saw it over forty years ago, I can still remember the horror I felt at seeing the plight of the refugees flooding into South Korea. The song was titled "I must tell Jesus", and it expressed the feeling of total dependence on the only one who could protect and comfort them. As we sang the song this morning, I was especially made to remember the need of our fellow Christians in Egypt today. They are already a persecuted minority, and it remains to be seen what will happen after the events of the last two weeks. The words are the following:

I must tell Jesus all of my trials;
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me;
He ever loves and cares for His own.

Refrain:
I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
I cannot bear my burdens alone;
I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.

I must tell Jesus all of my troubles;
He is a kind, compassionate Friend;
If I but ask Him, He will deliver,
And in my griefs with me He will blend.

Tempted and tried I need a great Savior,
One who can help my burdens to bear;
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus;
He all my cares and sorrows will share,

O how the world to evil allures me!
O how my heart is tempted to sin!
I must tell Jesus; He will enable
Over the world the vic'try to win.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/787#ixzz1DsQRiqmg

God's Forgiveness

2011-02-11T04:13:00.000-05:00

This poem, written by an unknown elementary school teacher is not only beautifully written, but illustrates a HUGE Biblical truth--GOD'S FORGIVENESS

He came to my desk with a quivering lip,

The lesson was done.

"Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher?

I've spoiled this one."

I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted

And gave him a new one all unspotted.

And into his tired heart I cried,

"Do better now, my child."

I went to the throne with a trembling heart,

The day was done.

"Have you a new day for me, dear Master?

I've spoiled this one."

He took my day, all soiled and blotted

And gave me a new one all unspotted.

And into my tired heart he cried,

"Do better now, my child."

-Anonymous

It'll Never Happen

2011-02-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

The last year of our time in Don Bosco was just beginning. We were due to leave there in Nov. or Dec. of 1963, and we knew that Dad and Mother would be reassigned when they returned to Argentina.
For Rita and myself, it would be our last year in Argentina unless we chose to return on our own. Rita would go to college, and I would finish High School here in the States and go on to college.
We had ministries in which we were involved, and the idea of leaving Argentina was a conflicting thought, in that we would leave behind two Good News Clubs which were just beginning to take on the characteristics of a prospective church.

Group beside the chapel, mid 1963

We would also be leaving behind all the dear friends we had made over the period of over ten years, and for Rita and myself there were friends who were more than just friends. Rita was very good friends with a young fellow about her age, and it seemed like the end of the world to leave him behind. I personally had a crush on a girl in our Sunday School, and had just found out that she had a crush on me. Also, we would be leaving just before camp time, and that was always an exciting time of the year, as we looked forward to going to Córdoba by bus (about 8 to 10 hours) and riding in the back of a truck for the bumpy ride the rest of the way to the camp.
The wonderful thing about it was that during the two to four hours in the truck, we got to see people whom we had not seen in a whole year, or who were new to us altogether. Coming to the U.S. had its appeal, though, in that we would see our cousins and uncles and aunts, whom we basically did not know. We would also get to see snow, the land where our parents were born, and the wonders of American living with all its advances.

We had what could have been thought of as a “lame duck” year ahead, because the end was in sight. But true to their work ethic and their dedication to the ministry, Dad and Mother never let up, and since we considered ourselves a part of the team, it never occurred to us to let up, either.

Sometime around the end of 1962, Mother was looking at the newspaper, and her attention was drawn to a small item on a page hidden in the inner part of the paper. The title intimated that the city of Buenos Aires was looking to get rid of all the streetcars they had recently decommissioned, and that they would give them away to charitable groups which could use them. The only catch was that they would have to move them out of the storage lot within a short time (six weeks runs in my mind) of their being awarded.
Mother showed the item to Dad, and suggested that he send a letter requesting one of the units to be used for a meeting place at the location of one of our Good News Clubs. Dad thought it would be a waste of time, as anything that had any value at all was usually snapped up immediately by the Catholic diocese. Mother was not to be dissuaded, and as a concession to her insistence, Dad made up the letter and sent it in. His reasoning would normally have been correct, but for some reason, the Lord intervened, and sometime in either January or February of 1963 a letter arrived stating that we had been awarded not one, but four streetcars. Since we had two Good News Clubs, we would have two streetcars for each place. Now we needed a place to put them. While neither of the lots where we had been meeting with permission from the owner in each of the places was for sale, the one in Quilmes Oeste would certainly be available for a temporary placement as its owner was a part of our group there, so Dad went to the owner of the lot in Villa Domínico and offered to buy it. I am not sure how much it cost him, nor whether it was a hard sell, but the result was that we had two lots, four streetcars and about six weeks to bring everything together. The process of transporting the streetcars was an amazing one. Since all the electric supply wires at the time were above ground, the cables that went across the street had to be lifted as the transporting vehicle came by. The truck would move up to the cables, and someone had to walk on top of the street car and lift the cable far enough for the unit to clear the space until he could drop it at the other end. This had to be done on all the streets which had streetlights hanging in the middle of the block. On some blocks it had to be repeated two or three times in a block.

Once the streetcars were set in their place, the serious labor began. We took one of the sides off of each car, and then moved them together, thus forming a meeting place about 16’X35’ with seating already built in for about 72 persons.

Joining the streetcars

Although that would have made our life full enough, daily life went on, also. The young people and some of the adults in the church pitched in and enclosed the lots with chain link fence, a necessity on any lot where anything of value was to be stored. Meanwhile, someone had to stand guard day and night so that the streetcars would not be vandalized. One of the young people stayed at one place, and I stayed at the other.
While this fencing was going on, life went on at home. Mother was pregnant with her fifth child, due any time. On March 7, 1963 her birth pains began. She brought me my lunch at about noon, and then she and Dad traveled the ten or twelve miles over bumpy roads to the British Hospital in Buenos Aires.
As soon as they arrived, she was examined, and taken immediately to the labor room while Dad sat down to sign the admission papers. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep signing his name. When he woke up, he asked to be taken to the labor room to be with Mother. He was told he was too late, that our youngest sibling had just been born. His name is Norman Alan, and his first name was Norman, the name of our grandfather Hirschy, a man of faith who had an extremely tender heart for a lost world. We have always called him Alan, though, as all the rest of us have four letter names.
I have often wished that we could have stayed and continued the work started in those two places. It was not to be so. The last I checked, the streetcars-turned-chapels were both functioning as church buildings, though we do not have contact with those congregations any longer.
These reminders bring to my mind at least two very important facts:

1. Never say it will never happen. If God chooses to make something happen, IT WILL!!!

2. If you think your plate is too full for another challenge, God will probably put another morsel of challenge on it.

To Compliment or to Complement

2011-02-03T03:34:00.000-05:00

Words are powerful things. They can be a weapon or a bandage, a means of edifying or a means of destruction. I like to play with words, though there are times when that gets me in trouble. One of my pet peeves is the inability of many to distinguish the meaning of words and thus their mispronunciation, misuse and misspelling of certain words.
Two such words are the words compliment and complement.
One of my abysmal failures is my inability to give verbal compliments. For this reason, I am often thought of as unfeeling and ungracious by those who don't know me well (I hope that is not the case with those who know somewhat about my thought processes and my emotions). I was blessed with a wife who is able to see that and often overlooks my lack of ability to compliment her. As an example, I gave her a nonverbal compliment a few days ago by bringing home a dozen red roses. However, I annulled the compliment with my verbal response when she asked why I had bought them. My response, based on an oft heard expression in Argentina, that it was not "para quedar bien con mi esposa" (to get in good graces with my wife), was not only counterproductive but might have been considered rude if you didn't understand the meaning of that phrase. You see, the meaning I always took away from that saying was that the husband, by giving his wife a dozen roses, was attempting to assuage his guilty conscience. I like to give Mary flowers now and again, but I try to avoid doing it at times when I feel that she is less than pleased with me because of something I did or said. At those times, I prefer to take whatever I have coming to me in silence and hope that she soon forgives me rather than patch it up with a dozen flowers. The right answer to her question could have been "just because". That would have been enough. Instead, I muddied the waters with an interpretation of a cultural nature
I say am blessed with a wife who in most cases gives me the benefit of the doubt, because at such times she is intuitive and at least tries to understand what I mean. You see, she believes in being my helpmeet. That word is best understood if we understand the geometrical meaning of the word complement. She is my helpmeet in that she helps to keep me straight. In geometry, a straight line divides a plane into two. A man who understands this also knows that any straight line is made up of two angles which add up to 180 degrees. The concept of complementing each other in marriage means that together, a couple adds up to a straight line. Generally speaking a man is much better able to grasp concrete ideas and a woman is much better able to come to the same conclusions in an intuitive manner. Thus, if a man responds to something, he will generally have to think it over and have specific concrete reasons for what he says. A woman, on the other hand quite often has an intuitive suspicion about something without knowing how she arrived at that conclusion. Please note that I am speaking generally, and not saying it is always the case. But in a good marriage, the right blend of both will cause the husband and wife to complement each other. I often find that Mary has a much clearer view of what is right and wrong, and once I have had a chance to mull it over in my mind, I realize that she is miles ahead of me on the final answer. Thus, I find that it is often better if I err on the side of caution until I discover the Biblical answer to any question. And in most cases, I find that Mary complements me by having the right answer intuitively. Thus, she is an helper, meet for me, that is, a partner who helps me by being just what God wanted, not by seeking to be greater than, nor considering herself less than me.
My compliment for my wife today: "Thank you for being my complement !!"
And my prayer for myself today: "Lord help me to compliment my wife honestly, sincerely and without any ulterior motives"

A Biblical Worldview--Part 2 The Importance of Holiness

2011-01-28T07:33:00.000-05:00

As I have been trying to get some messages (or Sunday School lessons) ready to have available, I have been impressed with the way in which Peter tackles the issue of our worldview. In a former post, I talked about our worldview and HOPE. The next passage (I Peter 1:13-21 shows how our worldview changes our attitude toward HOLINESS.
Without a doubt, none of us is holy in the sense that is often thought of. But every child of God, whether one day old in the Lord or 50 years old can and should be Holy in the Biblical sense of that word. The main principle involved in Biblical Holiness is being set apart, separated. Because of that it is possible for every Christian to be holy.
Peter points out that holiness requires preparation. The first example he uses has to do with having a strong backbone. In the spiritual sense, to prepare for action, we must put on our back brace. The life of holiness is not easy, and verse thirteen shows that we must have our mind braced against the world's "spin" which is designed to upend our thinking process so that bad is considered good and good, bad. It also shows that our spirit should be sober,that is, it should not be led by our emotions, but rather that our emotions should flow from our spirit. And our hope should be placed squarely upon the Grace which we can count on being completed when Jesus Christ is manifested.
Holiness implies obedience. I can't think of any better reason for insisting on obedience from our children than the thought that this will bring about nonconformity to the world's ways. A child who is not taught to obey will become a difficult employee, an unworthy citizen, a narcissistic personality. Peter emphasizes the importance of obedience by using this very picture. He seems to look back at the proverb which says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child when he says that conformity to the world is a part of the ignorance we were born with, and that obedience (which often can only brought about by discipline) is the change from being ignorant to being holy or set apart.
Holiness requires imitation. Watching my granddaughter has been an interesting experience. I never noticed it so much in our children, possibly because I was too close to the action. But as I watch my granddaughter I see how much of what she does is imitation. Her imitation of the way her mother or dad talk, her imitation of her mother in the area of arts and crafts, and of her grandmother in her love for cooking, her sharp thinking in imitation of her dad, are all pictures of what God expects of us as His children. So Peter points out that if we claim God as our Father, and Jesus Christ as our savior, since their judgment is impartial, there is something wrong with the picture if we are imitating the idols of this world (American idol, Hollywood actors, Political operators, Business leaders, Wheelers and dealers, etc), since we are only foreigners here on earth and do not have a permanent resident status. He says this because the means of our holiness is imitation of Him who is holy.
Holiness is the only way to live because we do not belong to ourselves. We know one thing for sure: Our natural, inherited instinct is to pull away from God and go our own way, as one famous singer put it "I did it MY way". But we have been redeemed from that type of life (which is described as empty) and set apart for a different lifestyle with a different worldview. We were on the auction block, slaves to the old worldview, but He purchased us off that market, not by paying pieces of silver or gold, but rather by shedding his blood, pictured in the Old Testament as a perfect and spotless lamb. Thus, He freed us to be able to be set apart for Him.
Holiness is not a new concept nor can we produce it on our own. Our Holiness, in the person of Jesus Christ, was planned and prepared from before Creation but now this provision is clearly seen because it has been manifested to those of us who believe. God showed us this so that we would place our faith and our expectations will be placed on the right person--Jesus Christ.
I am Holy-but not perfect. I am set apart, but cannot maintain that stance without the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Holiness is not only possible, but an imperative. On the other hand, Holiness is impossible in our own strength. It requires dependence upon the only one who can produce it, because He is its Source.

Hope you can REALLY believe in!

2011-01-18T06:14:00.000-05:00

In recent months we have heard the promise repeated over and over again. "Hope you can believe in". For the most part, it has been just as empty a promise as many of the promises of the past. We've heard of "the war to end all wars", "a chicken in every pot", "nothing to fear but fear itself", "Peace in our time", "No new taxes", "end of welfare as we know it" "pay as you go" and many other 'mantras' all of which have been unattainable or went unfulfilled.
In studying to teach Sunday School this last Sunday, I was thrilled to see that Peter gives us a whole different worldview, which makes it possible to live in this world as expatriates who do not have a permanent residency here on earth.
The first aspect he mentions is a HOPE you can REALLY believe in.
This hope is a living hope. It is a sure thing. It is not the wishful thinking of a politician, nor the baseless promise of a demagogue, nor the lie of a propagandist. It is a title deed to something that already exists, which we already share in and which will be ours completely when we stand in the presence of our Lord.
It is a guaranteed hope because it is grounded in a new birth .
It is a guaranteed hope because it is proven by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
It is also a guaranteed hope because it involves a true inheritance. This inheritance is one that will not spoil, cannot be stolen or taxed away from us cannot be stolen, and cannot fade or wilt.
This kind of hope has good results here on earth, among which are joy in all circumstances, including even when we are suffering. Because it helps us to realize the reasons why God allows suffering in our lives, this hope is a source of joy, appreciation of our salvation and proving of our faith.
Since we have a HOPE THAT WE CAN REALLY BELIEVE IN,we can have peace, joy, and faith in the midst of the storms of life, even though the human reaction would be to have tumult, unhappiness and distrust. That is the edge that we can have because of GOD'S provision for us.

Remember your Creator

2011-01-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to Ravi Zacarias' messages on my iPod, and have gained a heightened awareness of how important it is to follow the counsel of the Preacher "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say 'I find no pleasure in them'" Though I do not pretend to understand all of the metaphors in Eccl. 12, I was brought face to face with one of them (or should I say cheek to cheek) this week. It has been at least two months that I have had mild pain in my lower left molars, and I knew I would have to have them dealt with soon, but I kept putting that off. After an enjoyable visit with Kathy, Paul and Elizabeth in Las Vegas, in which the one bad drawback was the increased pain in my jaw and teeth, I finally broke down and made an appointment to have that taken care of. So it was that on Wed. Jan. 5th, three of my "grinders cease(d)" when the oral surgeon removed them. The result has been a swollen face and a large bruise in my lower jaw and cheek. So it was that I learned a bit more of the importance of not counting on the strength of my physical being, but looking to the Lord for daily strength. Yes, the doctor prescribed pain killers, but he said they were narcotics, and I wanted nothing to do with them, so I've survived on Excedrin extra strength, and above all, have thanked the Lord silently for the strength provided by the daily renewal that comes from a walk with Him.

Certainty in a World Full of Uncertainty.

2010-12-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

Another year has gone by, and it is once again time to welcome a new one. As far as the world is concerned, the year 2010 could easily be termed the "Year of Uncertainties". With foreclosures and unemployment at a record high, the prospect of inflation being held back only by the lack of demand for consumer goods, the gulf oil spill, and the many scandals that have come to light in the last year, we can certainly say "what is next?". All of this has brought the mistrust and cynicism in the world to a feverish high point. I have often thought of this and compared it to the attitude which those of us who are trusting Christ for our salvation and for our daily strength and guidance can and should have. We can rest confidently in the knowledge that the final outcome is positive, even when the prospects the present circumstances indicate are not only bleak, but sometimes are downright evil.
The exciting truth is that God has promised to guard us. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
How wonderful to know that we need not let our insides get all upset. Anxiety is a common condition in our human life, but this passage tells us there is no need for that. We have a resource much more powerful than worry. In every circumstance of life, prayer characterized by calm petition and laced with thanksgiving, sent up to our Father, will be heard. Unlike the courts of law of this world, every petition is heard, and a resolution is determined for each and every request. Thus protected, we can rest assured that the result will involve God posting a guard upon the two most vulnerable parts of our being--our mind and our emotions. The anxiety which we often demonstrate is merely the symptom which shows a deeper problem--misplaced trust.
As I enter my 63rd year of life, and the year 2011, my fervent desire is to learn more and more how to apply the truth of these words. And I'm certain that, even in these uncertain times, God will do his part because "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Better Late Than Never

2010-11-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

I have gotten 'way behind on reading the blogs I follow, so had not gotten around to reading Kathy's blog, and thus did not see the seven questions that she put out for us to answer. I will try to do that now, even though we are already halfway into another month.

1. What is your favorite holiday and why? This question is probably the easiest for me to answer, because having lived in another country for almost half of my life, and having had very few opportunities to celebrate it with extended family, it has the most significance to me. Thanksgiving is all about being thankful. Thankful for family, for employment, for heritage, for God's provision, and lately I have become convinced that I need to be thankful for the sizeable remnant of true believers who still exist in the United States. No other country that I know anything about has a holiday which is specific to that country and its history, a history of belief in and relative obedience to God and His Word.

2. Where did you go on your last vacation? For our latest vacation, Mary and I went to visit our daughter Kathy in Las Vegas, and in the middle of that time Kathy, Paul, Lizzie, Mary and I took a three day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. Of all the cruises (five), that was the best port of call I have seen, and I would recommend it as a good place to maybe spend a few days, also.

3. What do you enjoy doing on your free time? Though I have no hobby as such, my favorite activities in my free time are reading, learning about other languages, and crossword puzzles.

4. What is your favorite Bible verse? It is impossible to pick just one, but if I was hard pressed to do so, I would say that the one that has recently become a favorite is Philippians 3:7 "...what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ." This verse has made me rethink my national, family, cultural, ethnic, theological, and denominational preset notions, and I believe I've been enriched by it. I now want to be able to 'minimize' all of these and to know and reflect Christ and Him alone. That is, however, a tall order, and will probably be so the rest of my life.

5. Have you ever been to Las Vegas if so what did you think? The answer to that is yes, I have. The first visit was the only one we spent any length of time at the 'strip', and my impression was very positive as to the arrangement and beauty of things, and very negative as to much of the contents of the entertainment and the casinos. There are some very nice things which are worth seeing, though. Among them the collection of vintage and famous cars. Once you get away from the gaming center, Las Vegas is actually much like many other cities, with the added attraction that they have quite a few good restaurants, and the area is generally quite well kept up.

6. What is your favorite easiest recipe that people really enjoy when you make? Sorry, that one went way over my head, because I am totally hopeless and helpless in the kitchen. While Mary was away I did fry myself some pretty good tasting eggs.

7. What do you like most of your occupation? Believe it or not, it is the exercise I get. On any given workday, I move at least two tons of merchandise, mostly in the form of milk bottles weighing 8 lbs. each, and then cases of cheese, yogurt, eggs, fruit juices, etc amounting to at least another half ton. This has gotten me into shape although sometimes I arrive home totally worn out. Physical exercise profits a little, the apostle Paul said, and I would add that mental exercise brings out a much more exhausting and debilitating type of "tired".

Now I am supposed to come up with seven different questions and tag seven people, and quite frankly I do not know enough bloggers whom I would feel free to tag. You are not obligated to participate, and I will not tag you, but you can grab the questions and play along (let me know if you did, so I can enjoy your responses or answer the questions in the comments!

Questions: (I'll give you my answers beforehand)

1. What did your pastor speak on this morning, 11/14/10, and what was his text? Our pastor spoke on prayer, and he based his message on Luke 11:1-13 and 18:1-8. He pointed out that a friend will not refuse his friend in a time of need, a parent will give good things to his children if they ask, and even the most hardened of men will, if badgered persistently, do what he is asked to do. God wants to answer our prayer so He will definitely give us what is best for us, if we will just ask.

2. Of all the places you have lived, where would you gladly return and set down roots for the rest of your life? Though I have not lived there, I've been there often enough to know that, if I did not have to be concerned with making a living, I would live in Santa Rosa de Calamuchita, Córdoba, Argentina.

3. What is the title and the main gist of the last book you read? I just finished reading a 541 page book entitled "Bonnhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas. It is a biography of a German pastor who was killed by the Hitler regime just days before he would have been liberated by the Allied forces. He was a greatly misunderstood theologian because of his close friendship with many of the leaders of the Ecumenical Movement, yet he stood for the Bible as the Inspired Word of God, and the importance of following Christ according to it, and not according to a set of traditional practices.

4. Where were you born and where did you grow up? I was born and grew up in Argentina until I was fifteen. After that, I lived one year in Pennsylvania and eleven in Indiana.

5. How did the answer to #4 influence your later life? Having been born in Argentina, I was just naturally brought into a cultural clash. Many of my conflicts come from a clash of the argentine and the american cultures. I have had to learn much about work ethic, peer pressure, the emotional weight of words, and even facial gestures and body language that have made adapting to United States culture difficult. I may never be culturally totaly american or totally argentine, but I can say that seeing Old Glory fly in the breeze still fills my heart with love for my passport country, the good ole USA.

6. Do computers still hold a grip of fear on you--fear of messing something up, fear of viruses, fear of crashing, or fear of not being able to get the best results? I no longer have a fear of messing things up, because I figure I can go back and redo them. I fear viruses because I can never explain how they got there, and get the feeling that my sons, who graciously clean them up for me (and keep updating different anti-virus programs) think that I have done something to bring them on. If I have it has been unknowingly. I no longer fear a crash, because we now have a backup system, and I cannot afford to fear not being able to get the most out of my computer, because I'll never attain that.

7. Do you speak other languages besides English? Which are they, and which do you prefer? I speak Spanish fluently, Portuguese semi-fluently, and play around with French and Italian. If I knew it better, I believe I would prefer Portuguese, but I can express myself better in Spanish, possibly even better than in English.

I'll be looking forward to seeing your answers.

So long for now.

The Urgency of our Task

2010-10-22T08:37:00.000-04:00

My work at Walmart is a cool job! Yes, I mean it!!!. More than half of the time is spent in the Dairy cooler, organizing, cleaning, stocking and, yes, getting rid of some perfectly good food, because it was not sold before the "expiration date". You and I know that eggs and cheese will probably keep way longer than the date printed on the packaging, but once it is two days away from expiring, we can no longer sell it, so part of my job is to catch them within that two day period, and never have anything go beyond that date.

As I was doing this job of cleaning up the 'out of dates' the other day I was thinking about the "expiration date" of salvation. The Bible tells us there is such a thing, but it also tells us that there is no way to know what that date is, and therefore we need to accept the free gift of salvation now. Once it is our possession, it is no longer perishable, and can be kept eternally.

"As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. ²For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.(II Cor. 6:1,2 NIV).

From what the context says, accepting Jesus as one's personal Savior is a turning point. However, the knowledge of His redeeming work is only a beginning. It is the point in the process where we are brought into the relationship that makes it possible for us to grow. And grow we must. To enter into life and then never grow is a horribly sad thing. So Paul admonishes us to get the most out of the great salvation which Jesus purchased for us on the cross. This means nothing less than to submit every decision, every action, every thought, every event to the scrutiny of His loving care, because He owns us. This is what possessing our salvation is all about. He provided us with the 'position', and now He wants to supervise our 'possession'. This is a process which will last the rest of our lives, and how far along we get in this process depends on our willingness to cooperate with Him in working it out.

Channels Only

2010-10-14T14:30:00.000-04:00

Gutters serve to redirect water.

Gutters keep water from drenching

anyone who stands in the doorway.

During my years in College and Seminary, the position of Senior Pastor at the Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church was filled by Charles Ashman. One of the hymns that he used quite often as an invitation hymn was the following:

How I praise Thee, precious Savior

that Thy love laid hold of me;

Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me

that I might Thy channel be.

Just a channel full of blessing

to the thirsty hearts around

to tell out Thy full salvation

all Thy loving message sound.

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,

a clean vessel in Thy hand;

With no power but as Thou givest

graciously with each command.

Witnessing Thy power to save me,

setting free from self and sin

Thou who boughtest to possess me,

in Thy fullness, Lord, come in.

Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit

hearts that full surrender know;

That the streams of living water

from our inner self may flow.

Refrain:

Channels only, blessed Master,

but with all Thy wondrous power

flowing through us, Thou canst use us

every day and every hour.

The words and the meaning of that hymn came back to me in full force today as the workmen were installing gutters on both Philip and Michael's houses.

There are several reasons why gutters are a valuable attachment for a house, though very few houses come equipped with them nowadays.

They serve to divert water from over the doors. Without them it is possible to get a drenching while entering the house, just from the water coming straight off the roof and across the doorway. They also serve to keep the water from beating down flower plants that may be right in the line of water falling from the roof. Thirdly, they keep the water from washing away the mulch that is placed around the house to keep the weeds from taking over the area next to it.

Thinking about these uses of the gutters (channels) I got to thinking about how important it is to keep them from being clogged up. On several occasions I've had the 'privilege' of cleaning out gutters that were full of leaves. Depending on how long they had been in place, the leaves were either composted into an ugly slime, or they could be swept out easily. Cleaning them up could involve as little as a good sweeping and as much as a scraping and scrubbing with chlorine bleach.

If we want to be channels, we cannot have a buildup of obstructions in our life. The effectiveness of our life before the world, or lack thereof will be directly proportionate to whether or not we are clear channels. We serve as channels allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us to direct His blessing and message toward others. When it is turned in the right direction, and deflects its contents to the most useful area, our life can have a powerful effect on those around us.

My prayer is that the channel, that is my daily life and practice, will be clean and rightly directed by the Holy Spirit today.

Absence Makes the Heart....

2010-09-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

Mary enjoying some rest this past week.

For the first time in many years, Mary and I are separated (geographically) for a long period of time.

The occasion for the first separation was a 45 day missionary conference trip I had to make alone in 1980. The trip took me as far north as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, as far South as Roanoke, VA, and east to Virginia Beach, VA. I remember it as a sweet time of getting to meet many of God's children, but at the same time a period of loneliness because of the daily experience of missing the companion whom the Lord had made especially for me.

This experience has been brought back to me as Mary is in Dahlonega, GA helping our daughter Elizabeth to get her household packed up and ready to move to Las Vegas.

The separation has not been as bad this time, though I certainly do miss my dear wife. There are several reasons for this:

I am in a regular routine here, with work five days a week.

When I'm not at work, I have been doing some reading, and have kept up with the blogs that I follow.
Our son, Philip, and daughter-in-law Rosalyn and granddaughter Rachel, are hosting me, and I see them daily.
It has made me think a lot about many things, especially the God-established institution of marriage.

It has reinforced the meaning of Proverbs 18:22 "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD."

An added blessing to that is the fact that the wife the Lord prepared for me is a good wife, not just a "good thing". She has been a treasure of great price--an acquisition of favor from the Lord!!!

I look forward to meeting with dear folks at church every Sunday, and though it is only once a week, it is a real blessing.

With so many things for which to be thankful, I believe this separation will be good for our marriage. Nonetheless, I miss her, and I have been experiencing the truth of the adage: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Prayer needed.

2010-09-07T11:33:00.001-04:00

When we arrived in Argentina as missionaries in 1975, the "dirty war" was at its worst. A few days after we arrived, an attack on the arsenal at Monte Chingolo (about five miles from where we were living) netted a death toll of 21, if I remember correctly. This was only one of many terrorist attacks against the military government which was in power at the time. We were never affected by all of this, though my brother Aldo, who lived in another neighborhood, had a neighbor who was shot to death as he answered his doorbell.
The final outcome of the "dirty war" was the "disappearance" of thousands of persons. Many of these were killed by the military, many others by the terrorists, and yet another large group fled the country and set up their activities in other nations, such as Uruguay and Chile.
Argentina enjoyed an uneasy peace for several years, and finally was able to have an election, though not without some well founded claims of fraud. With a few exceptions (e.g. the bombing of a synagogue), it has remained a peaceful realm for about twenty to twenty five years (most crime is limited to robbery and burglary).
An article sent to me by a dear brother has alerted me that Argentina is once again a direct target of those who would export terrorism. The article, describing the finding and confiscation of a shipping container packed with 960 AK-47 rifles, raises the question: Where were these rifles headed? Where did they come from? Who was behind their shipping?
Several things are known: 1)These rifles were very popular with the revolutionary and terrorist groups of the '70's, 2) They are presently used mostly by the Venezuelan armed forces. 3)They were also used in Angola and several North African nations in the insurgency movements.
These facts lead one to ask the question? Is this a sign of a resurgence of the war of terror that moved from one country of South America to another in the '70's?
If it is, what are we as Christians to do?
May I suggest the following:

Keep up to date on what is happening in the countries where you have missionaries.
Pray daily for your missionaries' safety.
Pray that the gospel will have its effect, and that it will bring about the salvation of many potential terrorists.
Commit yourself to the task of combatting evil by sharing the love of our Savior, and His provision for salvation.

I've been convicted lately of my tendency to stray from the Apostle Paul's commitment "not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." I Cor. 2:2

Since all other avenues of "solution" to this world's problems are dead end streets, I must dedicate myself to knowing Christ and making Him known. Will you pray with and for me that this will become the one passion that will drive my life?

The Memorial

2010-08-26T09:33:00.000-04:00

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; II Corinthians 1:3

Mike's Father, siblings Bryan and Maureen and their spouses, Annie and Jean

90 yr.old WWII Veteran Stands at Attention as Color Guard Folds Mike's Flag
He then gave it to Mike's widow

Quinn and Amy Sampson

and their three children showed their love and respect for Mike

by traveling from Ocala, FL

It is always good to do some re-evaluation after an event. When things go well, we can rejoice and consider what could have been done better. It is somewhat harder to do the evaluation after things have not gone well, for that is when one is faced squarely with the question: What did I do wrong? What must I change to avoid failure in the future?
The memorial service for Mike Williams was the occasion for some soul searching. The service itself went very well, with testimonies concerning Mike's salvation, his relationship to the community, to his employers, his church, his children, and finally the presentation of the Gospel which had become the firm foundation of Mike's faith. Many of his relatives on his dad's side were present, and I believe the gospel message was so clear that none of them can say they never heard the Gospel.

So what was there to regret? My regret was that I did not take the time to get to know Mike's relatives a little better. It was good to see many of the church folk interacting with them, and for that I am thankful. It was good, also to know that they thought enough of Mike to come from Port St. Lucie and Tampa,FL John's Island, SC, Richmond VA, Rochester,NY and a family of four who even came all the way from Maine. It was also wonderful to see some of his former work companions from Cingular days, and to hear the testimony of his district supervisor and his direct report supervisor from Avaya, his latest employment. What a joy to find that the reason they all loved him was not because he was the life of the party, but because his integrity was well recognized all around.

It was a joy to hear a little more about his childhood from two of his uncles, Geoffrey and Greg who were only about ten years his senior, and to find they remembered and cared enough to make the long trip from New York and Maine to be present. Uncles Dan, Gerald Sr. and cousin Gerald Jr. were also present as well as many other friends from his employment and from the church.

I was sorry to find out after the service that many of the pictures I got were not good enough to bother you with them, but you will find many related pix in Kathy s and Lizzie's blogs.

He was only ten years old.

2010-08-17T11:06:00.000-04:00

After an early breakfast, Mary and I headed to "Save-A-Lot" to pick up some fruit, vegetables and milk. This is typically our routine on my day off. After that, we usually stop by one of the other stores in the area, and, when necessary we stop by the bank. About once every two or three weeks, this is followed by a visit to the Dunkin Donuts right closeby. Not a big deal, but a regular routine, and it fits comfortably.

Today was destined to be different. I often forget to take our cell phone with me. Today, however, Mary made sure we had it with us. About halfway to Goose Creek, the phone put forth its polyphonic tones. I hardly heard it through the leather protector and my pocket. Mary had to tell me it was ringing.

What I heard when I answered took a moment to sink in. Our daughter Kathy was on the other end, and it was plain she had been weeping. Referring to our daughter Elizabeth's husband, she said, "Mike died this morning". I have often thought what it would be like to receive such a call about a friend or relative (after all I'm sixty two, and many of my friends and relatives are either older or contemporaries).

But to hear that our former Marine son-in-law had passed away in his early forties was a real shock.

This brought me back to remember some of the facts concerning Mike. Though he never served on the battlefront in a war, his time in the Marines had taken him to Korea, Japan and several places in the US, and his "semper fi" character showed up in his loyalty, his attention to detail, and his patriotism, and I'm sure many other things which I may not have recognized.

Elizabeth met him while she was working at Bell South Mobility. They were in the same class while in training, and they got to know each other quite well.

Through a series of very sad experiences, he ended up alone, practically penniless, and without the possibility of keeping up a house. It was at this time that Philip, our oldest son, invited him to stay in their home until he could get back on his feet--with only one proviso, that he would attend church with them.

At the time we had just started studying the epistle to the Romans in Sunday School, and it was about six months later that we arrived at chapter 5. On the way home from work one day, he and Elizabeth were talking about what had been taught, and Mike said that if what Romans said was true, he was not a Christian. Elizabeth shared with him how he could become a Christian, and right there, in his own words, "10 years ago today - on our way home from work, Elizabeth and I pulled over inside the Wekiwa Springs State Park in Apopka, Florida ... I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior ..." That was July 26th, 2000.

That was ten years ago. We have been excited to see the changes the Lord brought about in his life, not the least of which was his burden for the souls of his family.

At that time, a whole lot of things happened in his life. We usually lump them all together in the expression from Jesus' session with Nicodemus, Mike was "born again". So you see he was only ten years old in God's reckoning.

We are so thankful to have had him as a brother in Christ for ten years, and as a son-in-law for eight. Yes, we will miss him, yet we will always know that death did not have victory over him, for he had been snatched from the very gates of hell and brought into the family of God, transferred from darkness unto light, his eternal destiny changed from an everlasting Hell to the joy of being in the ranks of those who will spend eternity worshipping Jesus. For this reason, he knows, and we can repeat with the apostle Paul "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory, Where, O death is your sting?" (I Corinthians 15:54,55)

Remember, Repent, Return

2010-08-12T02:04:00.000-04:00

This last Sunday we visited a church in Summerville. It is a new church plant, 2 1/2 years old, and has an attendance of about forty. Pastor Al Edgington, a Grace grad from the mid seventies, brought out three very important steps we as Christians need to keep in mind and use as measurements in our walk with the Lord. Speaking from the first seven verses of Revelation chapter 2, he pointed out that the church at Ephesus was a good church, which the Lord commended very openly and clearly. They were hard working, constant, diligent, and always on the lookout to make sure that false doctrine did not creep into the congregation. They also had been called upon to suffer hard times and ill treatment for their faith, and did not back off and experience burnout. They also studiously avoided the practices of those who would lord it over the people in the church, who thought of themselves as God's gift to the church rather than undershepherds, whose responsibilities needed to be carefully and prayerfully thought of as caring for the sheep, not beating them into submission.
But the Lord did point out one thing that needed to be changed. The people had fallen into a perfunctory though dutiful, feelingless though orthodox worship, which could not possibly have the freshness of a new believer's walk with God. That is why he calls on them to Remember what it was like to be so in love with Jesus that they would have done anything he told them to do, and they would have done it gladly. The Lord has been pointing that out to me recently in the area of my walk with Him, my relationship to my wife, and my interaction with my children. I remember how exciting it was to be involved in helping out at a Good News club as a teenager, mentoring young men in Argentina, and leading a few persons to Christ, how wonderful it was to be a newlywed husband, taking on the wonderful privilege of loving and caring for my wife, how thrilling it was to arrive home tired from work and have my children jump up and down with excitement when they saw me (the feeling was mutual, though I did not dance with joy). It was marvelous, and I have fond memories of all of that. But what has happened? I have often thought of that, and concluded that I have come to take much of that for granted, and the joy of it has dulled. I would still not trade any one of the memories for the world, but I need to clean the lenses of my spiritual glasses so that I can see all of these things in the same perspective that I saw them back then. The challenge then is to Repent, that is, to have a change of mind, to seek the Lord's guidance as to what will bring back that first love. The result will be a series of changes in actions which will bring me to do the things which I did before, in the heat of that first love. It is to Return to the basics, devotion to Him showing His love to those around me, seeking to do that which is best for my wife, and finding points of intimate contact with my children and yes, also finding out what I can do that will bring joy to my grandchild. This, by the grace of God, is my commitment, and I pray that it will soon be noticeable.

Malversation or Negligence?

2010-06-28T13:14:00.000-04:00

Joash was one of two kings of Judah of whom it is stated that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. One negative point is mentioned, though, and that is that during his reign, the high places remained in place and functioning, thus making Israel a pluralistic society.
Joash meant well, and he had a good mentor. He even started a building fund to renovate the temple. The money was being collected, in the form of census money--a sort of income tax, personal vow money--a sort of faith promise gift, and voluntary gifts. Yet twenty three years of Joash's forty years of reign went by and no repairs had gone into the temple. So the king called a meeting of all the priests and asked them to explain why the work had not yet begun. I can imagine there were a few red faces, as some--maybe all--of the money that had been collected in that manner over that period of time had been used for anything but benevolence. The priests had been commissioned to get the job done, and they had not done the task committe to them. So Joash set up an independent commission for building maintenance and repairs. Another detail which I had not noticed until now is that it seems that the priests were no longer allowed to collect or administer the funds.
A special coffer was prepared with a slot in the top, where the priests would drop the offerings as soon as people brought them in. An accounting team made up of the royal secretary and the high priest would count and bag the money when the chest got full. Once the accounting was done, the money would be turned over to the maintenance and repair commission, who would then disburse it to the subcontractors. All the expenses of repairing the temple were paid out of there. This was their temple repairs fund, and was not to be used for anything but just that. Evidently, the money had been used in the past for anything that was needed urgently or wanted by the priests. Thus, II Kings 12:13 makes it a point to state that the money was not spent on utensils, instruments or any furnishings. It was strictly used for maintenance and upkeep.
The building maintenance and repair commission was not required to give an account of how they spent the money given to them because they acted in all honesty.
The money for supporting the priests came from other sources, namely the guilt and sin offerings.
Reading through this passage made me realize how easily we, as sinful human beings can twist things around to our own benefit. Notice some interesting facts.

Whether out of calculated misuse of the funds, out of carelessness in bookkeeping, or out of ignorance, the priests were guilty of having misappropriated funds. This brought about the need for the king to intervene and cause a change in the disbursement practices. The priests were replaced by a special commission as payroll officers, as they could not be trusted to handle the funds correctly.
The system for collecting and accounting for funds had to be changed, requiring a safety chest and at least two persons in charge of counting and bagging the money.
Appropriations for fancy decorations and "new and improved" utensils were deeply curtailed, and maybe even shut down completely.
Compromise, shown by the tolerance of the worship of canaanite gods, was allowed, thus creating an atmosphere of temporizing and conciliation, which later on led to the buying off of Hazael by giving him all the sacred objects--some of which were national heirlooms, and others had been made with the misappropriated funds from the Temple Repair Fund.
This compromise brought about a temporary respite for Judah, but, as is often the case, lowered the morals and morale of its people, and gave a very poor example for those who followed behind.
In the end Joash was murdered, and was succeeded by his son, Amaziah, who annulled much of the good Joash had done by doing evil in the sight of the Lord in abundant manner.

I'm tempted to take each of the above facts and make modern day applications. Suffice it to say that, though the checks and balances are legally in place in our country, for the most part a good portion of them are being ignored, bypassed and even flouted. What lies in store for us if we continue in this pathway?

Hang in there!!!

2010-06-09T12:02:00.000-04:00

II Kings chapter two tells us the events in the "passing on" of Elijah. He was either notified by God that this was the next event in his existence, or he sensed it. Whatever might be the case, Elijah told his sidekick Elisha that God had told him to go on to Bethel. He told him to stay right there. The scripture tells us that Elisha was aware that a momentous occasion was coming up, and he determined not to let Elijah get out of his sight. He said he would go with Elijah. Once they arrived at Bethel the prophets there asked Elishah if he was aware that Elijah was about to be taken away by the Lord on that day. Elisha said he was, but that he did not want to talk about it. I'm not sure whether it was out of grief, or because he was waiting for Elijah to mention it, but one thing was sure, and that was that he had no intention of letting Elijah get out of his sight. Elijah tried to shake him off once again by telling him he had to go to Jericho. Once again Elisha refused to stay behind, and once again the prophets at Jericho notified him that Elijah was to be removed on that day. The same scene occurred there, and next Elijah tried to get out of Elisha's presence by saying he had to go to the Jordan. When they arrived, the scene was repeated, with a slight variant. This time the Bible tells us that there were fifty apprentice prophets who came and stood at a distance to watch what would happen. At this point, when they arrived at the Jordan river, Elijah rolled up his cloak, and struck the waters of the Jordan. As it had for the Israelites in Joshua's time, once again the Jordan opened up, and Elijah and Elisha crossed to the other side. Finally alone with Elisha, Elijah brought up the subject of their separation. He asked what he could do for him before he departed. Elisha's astonishing answer can only be accepted as a righteous request judging from the response Elijah gave him. He told him the only way that could happen was if Elisha were to see Elijah being taken up away from him. It is this passage in the narration that makes it obvious that Elijah was testing Elisha to see whether he was prepared to take on the responsibilities of "chief prophet" for God. Elijah's life had shown that it was imperative that whoever followed in his footsteps would have to have sticking power, as being God's prophet was no easy task.
As if to test whether he had really received a double portion of Elijah's spirit, Elisha called out "Where now is the Lord God of Elijah?", and then struck the Jordan. God showed him clearly that He was still very present.
I don't suggest that we ask for mountains to be moved or waters to be parted, but why not ask God "Where is the life transforming God of our grandparents and our parents?" and then plunge into the river of witnessing to our friends and neighbors expecting that same God to be with us and show the same results???
And above all, if we know we are on the right track, let us hang in there, because God may just be testing us to improve our trust in Him and our determination to see His blessing in our lives.

A Wife of Noble Character

2010-06-06T16:19:00.000-04:00

King Lemuel was a very wise man. We don't know much about him, as his exact identity is not absolutely given in scriptures. What we do know is that he had a very wise mother, who taught him many truths which our politicians would do well to learn today.
She warned him of the danger of strong drink, not for the typical reasons, such as that 'it will take away your inhibitions and make you act the fool', or 'it could make you unstable and cause you to fall and break a bone,' or so many other things she could have told him. Instead, she warned of the results of strong drink as they relate to the welfare of his people. He mentions;
--The danger of bad judgment as a result of drinking.
--The danger of depriving his people of their rights because of a false sense of his own importance.
--The danger of favoring the powerful instead of defending the defenseless--widows, orphans, the unborn, the poor and needy, etc.

In reflecting upon the type of wife his mother would have recommended (and he was probably looking at her as a role model), Lemuel has many things to say.

She must be a woman of noble character. In these days of electronic timing devices, and automation, the value of a ruby may not seem too great, but most of the watches in my youth were valued on the basis of how many of their spindles were set in rubies. The more rubies, the more valuable and exact the watch. Thus a woman of noble character was like a 12 ruby watch was in my young days. No rubies=cheap.. Many rubies=value and quality.
She is a woman whose husband can trust to seek the best for him, so that he can excel in the world of business and community relations.
She is creative, working with her hands--this particular woman spun thread, wove, knit, did needlepoint, crocheted etc. Others might be extremely good at planning the movements of the house and the meals, logistics, etc.
If she lived today, she would be a devotee of the CouponMom, and she would know where to find the best deals. In those days, she evidently operated a fleet of 'desert ships' camels which traveled all over finding the best deals.
At four or five in the morning she would be up and putting into practice what she had already planned the day before--quietly and efficiently solving the problems that came up by substituting one type of food for another, or even replanning the whole meal.
She would always have a financial plan, and she would work it. Emergencies just did not occur, for she would anticipate the possible outcomes and be ready with the provisions for each contingency.
If she lived today, she would be making most things from scratch, and they would taste much better than the prepared and pre-cooked packages to be had in the grocery store.
She would anticipate the needs of the family, and have the staples to fill those needs. Her only emergency purchases would be for unexpected guests and/or illnesses.
She would be generous with those in whom she sees need, and would recognize the difference between the professional 'moocher' and the truly needy.
She would make sure that there are enough blankets on the bed, and that the windows are closed when the heat/air conditioning was on.
She would be the backup team for her husband, who must face the world and its attacks.
Her faithfulness and dependability would make her husband look good in the community--even to the point where the community leaders look upon him as a peer.
She would be able to produce enough for her family, and even have enough to sell to the public.
The future would hold no fear for her, because she has all the bases covered.
When she spoke, others would listen, because though her words were few, they had been well thought through.
She would be a great housekeeper, and there would not be a lazy bone in her body.
She would have the respect of, and deserve the praise of those who count the most--her children and her husband.
She would be outstanding, even over and above the best of all.
She could be beautiful, but her greatest beauty is the internal beauty that comes from being reverentially respectful of the Lord.

Forty years ago, on June 5, 1970, the Lord gave me just such a wife, and all I can say is to repeat with King Lemuel:

"Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate." (Proverbs 31:31, NIV)

Is It Because There is no God in Our Lives?

2010-06-05T06:55:00.000-04:00

As Mary and I read the first chapter of II Kings, I was struck with the repetition of the phrase "Is it because there is no God in Israel...?"
King Ahaziah was one of the many ungodly kings of Israel. He had so thoroughly rejected any leadership from God, that when he was injured in a fall from the upper story of his house in Samaria he never even thought about consulting God about his prognosis. Instead, he sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, one of the canaanite gods.
God intercepted the messengers by sending Elijah, His prophet, to meet them and give them the answer they needed to bring back to the king. The prognosis was not good. Ahaziah would die.
Since the messengers came back so soon, it was obvious to Ahaziah that they had not made the trip to Ekron to consult Baal-Zebub. He asked them why they had not gone, and they gave him Elijah's message. The king wanted a description of the person who had given them the message, and when they gave it, he immediately recognized the divine messenger, and he was not pleased with the message.
As if to defy the messenger and the message, Ahaziah sent an army contingent to have him escorted to his presence. But in doing so, he hypocritically called Elijah a "Man of God" though he most likely did not recognize him as such. Recognizing the 'invitation to a summit' as a ruse, Elijah focused on the title Ahaziah had used in calling him to meet with him. Since that expression had been used, he responded with a conditional statement. "If I am a Man of God", he said, may fire come down from heaven and consume the "official escort" and his party. God responded by affirming Elijah as a Man of God and exposing the king's unbelief--he burned the soldiers and their captain on the spot. At this, an unrepentant Ahaziah sent another envoy with another fifty soldiers, and emphasized his command with the term "at once". Once again, Elijah challenges the veracity of their message by stating "If I am a Man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" The result was the death of another fifty one men. Ahaziah was still not willing to change, and he sent another army platoon with its sergeant. This leader realized he was dealing with the real thing, and he chose to admit it publicly by falling on his knees before Elijah and begging for mercy. What all he said, I don't know. The Bible only tells us he asked for Elijah to have respect for his life and that of his soldiers. At this point, God told Elijah it was okay to make the trip to Samaria to face king Ahaziah.
At this point, Elijah confronts Ahaziah with the burning question: "Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?" He then gave him God's verdict: "Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" And that's the end of the story, for the passage goes on to say that he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.

As I read this passage, I could not help but think that maybe there is a modern day application to this narrative. The question could be put to us, as individuals:

"Is it because there is no God to consult in your life that you are consulting how to books, psychologists, psychiatrists, horoscopes, spiritualists, health and wealth preachers, and propounders of psychobabble?"

Or to us, as the church:

"Is it because there is no God to consult in your church that you are consulting church growth specialists, business advisors, specialty musicians, celebrities, politicians, fundraisers, 'architectural evangelists', pollsters, media specialists, etc.?"

Or to us as a nation:

"Is it because there is no God in your nation to consult that you are consulting the theories of Marx, Engels, Keynes, Darwin, Sartres, Freüd, Kierkegaard and so many others to formulate your laws and ethics?"

The answer to all of these is: No, there is a God, but we are not sure we want to live by His rules. We would rather pick and choose ideas from all of the above, formulate a church theology, a personal lifestyle, and a national ethos that is more "pleasing" to our feelings, our sense of morality (or lack thereof) and our unbridled natural desires.

In answer to all of the above, we have the word of the Lord, as described in Romans chapter one.
We see the "slippery slope" of degeneration going on about us as Paul describes it by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

--Mankind has known God, in a general sense, through nature and conscience.
--Mankind has refused to glorify God
--Mankind was unthankful to God.
--Mankind's mind became empty.
--Mankind saw its emptyheadedness as "sophistication"
--Mankind's heart became darkened.
--At this point, God describes them as 'foolish'.
--They become idolaters, worshipping man, then animals, then birds, then reptiles, and finally Mother Nature and Earth itself.
--The first thing to go out the window is mankind's morals. (fornication, adultery,homosexuality
disregard for human life, and finally bestiality are all progressive signs of this deterioration). The resultant degradation leads to a renewed emphasis on erradicating any mention of God from daily personal and public life.
The final stages of this decadence are a mind that is gone totally haywire, having no moorings, and finally, physical death.

Knowing all of this, it is important that we seek to snatch some out of the jaws of this destruction. This cannot be done through politics, psychology, self help, how to books or reformation. It can only be done by pointing them to the cross, and not being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, which, as it destroys the old and regenerates the individual, will have a profound effect on society.

A word about work

2010-05-29T13:55:00.000-04:00

When God gave His rules for living, He said that we are to work six days and rest one. Somewhere along the way, several things have deteriorated. One of them is the type of work we do, another is the place of our work, another is our attitude toward work, , and the final is the quality of our work.

lt has become almost typical in the workaday world for people to dislike what they are doing. As human beings, we were created to have dominion over God's creation, to keep it operating smoothly in the area where we have control. This is best done when we are working on our own, producing something. In our grandparents' times, a large percentage of the population worked the land, farming, raising livestock, and doing the different things that go with an agricultural society. This was an ideal setup for most people, because a majority of us are maintainers. Our best work is done with our hands, and we enjoy seeing the fruit of our labors. Then too, if we are naturally doers it is hard for us to do work that involves deep thinking, and if we are maintainers, we are not very creative, and creativity comes hard for us.

The persons whose abilities run in the area of thinking and formulating ideas are a much smaller percentage of the population. They are the visionaries, and very often they march to a different drumbeat than the larger group of maintainers.

There is one other group of people, whose every thought runs in the area of organization, the organizers.

Each of us has a little bit of each of these qualities, but excels in one.

In the work force, there must be a very large group of maintainers, the "working stiffs" who spend their time doing all the repetitive details. A much smaller group is the organizational group, whose job is management, and finally a very small group are the "idea people", who are constantly coming up with new ideas about how to do old jobs. If we want to really enjoy what we do, it is necessary for us to do some serious thinking about which of these groups we fit into. I enjoy building something, but only if someone else has already pioneered the way, and I can follow the instructions. Outside of the work of the ministry, where I only excelled in the area of discipling, my strongest point is keeping up what someone has already organized. Thus, in my work at WalMart I find myself enjoying the repetitive work of getting the display shelves back into shape after a day of the customers destroying my work of the day before. On the other hand, new ideas (the visionary's forte) are hard for me to accept. And a change in the organization of things takes a long time to sink in.

In the old days I probably would have made a decent farmer, except for one thing. Farming is hard work, and I never had the stamina for hard work. It does have its advantages, though. For a farmer, work is task oriented. He has the daily work that goes with the care of livestock, and he must work some during the winter repairing his equipment, but the BIG task is in the springtime and the fall with the planting and the harvest. In between, the work is a little lighter, though what little experience I have in that area tells me that farming is hard no matter what time of the year it is. The huge advantage is that you get to see and enjoy the fruit of your labor.

With the advent of the industrialized society, the work was broken down into such small bits of labor that only the organizers were able to see the work from beginning to end. For me, the only thing that made it interesting to work in a factory was that I was able to travel in my daydreams and follow the parts I was making to their final destination. For example, there are some John Deere products out there that have Teflon lined bushings in their high speed, high temperature hydraulic systems which I made back in the early '70's. And surely there are still some huge articulated earth movers made by the R.G.LeTourneau company which have liners in their articulations which I made in the presses at Gatke Corporation possibly half a world away in Warsaw, IN. That made a totally boring job interesting. You see, in my mind's eye, I was far away, somewhere at a site where a brand new cloverleaf was being built and participating with my contribution of a bushing or a balljoint liner, or a brake block. But that is a poor substitution for being able to see the whole picture in person. And that is what was so exciting about the ministry. Being there, getting involved in the process and seeing the results is much more rewarding than knowing theoretically what the part I made does.

Then again, the type and the place of work are not very exciting if they are not complemented with the right attitude about our work.

It is extremely important to see the value of and the reason for the work we do. How exciting it was to see the change in the life of a person as he/she was being transformed into the image of Christ! It is something of a wonder to look at what has become of the folks that have crossed my path, and whom I have somehow been used to influence, and realize that the Lord's plan has brought them this far, and that He used a large number of people to guide them. To think that it was my privilege to be one of those persons is enough to make me extremely thankful for the time He gave me in full time service. But it also makes me wish for more. I miss the interaction with people, the opportunity to share the Word in a small group or one-on-one setting, and I wonder whether the Lord will ever open those doors for me again.

Meanwhile, it becomes clear to me that my job is to have the right attitude about the task I have before me right now, and to strive to do it with the best quality that I am able to put into it. As my Sunday School teacher put it,

I must do the RIGHT Thing

with the RIGHT Attitude

and do it RIGHT Now.!

Winding down

2010-04-22T10:01:00.000-04:00

It's been a week and a half since Rachel went back home with her parents. We had a wonderful time with her, and learned to know her a little better. Mary and Michael did most of the planning for the week she was here. We left early Sunday morning for Myrtle Beach, spend the rest of a day and a half there, and then traveled back home.

Grandmother and granddaughter

While there, we spent a short time with Aunt Judy, a favorite with Rachel. She also enjoyed feeding the llama at a small petting zoo.

Rachel feeds the llama

The hotel where we stayed was just next to the Yacht Club, so this is the sight we saw when we went behind the hotel. Notice the lighthouse in the background. I'm not sure if it is functional, but it was an interesting touch.

Yacht Club Basin

The rest of the week was spent as we normally do, except that on two occasions Rachel and I took a walk within the neighborhood. Then on Saturday we took a picnic lunch and went down to Charleston to see the Angel Oak, a live oak tree which is said to be over 400 years old

Angel Oak

On our way down there, we saw the entrance to a park, and thought we would just stop by and take a look. It was the Charles Towne Landing park, and it just so happened they were holding a commemorative celebration of the founding of Charleston. It was interesting to hear the history of the city. Seems that the Kiowa Indians were in constant danger of being attacked by the Westo Indians, who were equipped with firearms. when they found out that the British were in the area looking for a place to settle, they invited them to come to the area, a peninsula formed by the convergence of two rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. In exchange, the British would help protect the Kiowas from the Westos. It was interesting to me that the chief of the Kiowas carried the title of Cassique. Obviously they had some cognate words which they shared with the Indians as far south as the Pampas of Argentina, for the word used for the chief of an Indian tribe in the southern cone of South America was cacique, just a variant spelling of the same word.

The most impressive part of the whole celebration was the firing of the cannons. It seems incredible that a position could even be protected with such equipment. It took a long time to reload, and when it was fired it let out a puff of smoke so huge, that with thirteen of them firing they would not have even been able to see well enough to do any aiming. And OH the noise!!!

Well, the week was over, and we had an enjoyable time. A week and a half later, we are back into the normal rhythm of life, we have been able to wind down, and we can look back at a week spent with our granddaughter with joy, looking forward to future opportunities to have her in our home.

We hope that the psalmist had grandchildren in mind also when he said "children are an heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him..." We are thankful for our children, and also for the blessed privilege of having a grandchild. We trust they will look back at our lives, as I do at the lives of my maternal grandparents and thank the Lord for the heritage left for them in the lives of their parents and grandparents.

The Joy of Grandparenting

2010-04-02T09:58:00.000-04:00

Those among us who have grandchildren can identify with the bumper sticker that says "If I'd known how much fun being a grandparent is, I would have had grandchildren first". Though that may not be an exact quote, it carries a deep significance.
Starting a few minutes ago, we have the joy of having our grandchild in our home for about ten days, and I am sure we will enjoy every moment of it.
But the question arises: "Why do we enjoy grandparenting more than we did parenting?"

I believe there are several reasons, the first one of which is usually the main and sometimes the only one that is mentioned:

"When you are a grandparent, you can spoil the child and then send him/her home."
Though there may be some truth to that, I don't believe it is the main reason why grandparenting is so much fun.

I believe that grandparenting is exciting because you are able to stand at a distance and observe the development of your grandchild without falling into the rut of seeing specific instances and getting stuck there rather than seeing the whole picture. One example is the joy of watching Rachel's excitement as she tells us of the contents of her Easter Eggs. When our children were small, I was concerned with the dangers of children getting legend and fact mixed up (e.g. Santa Claus vs. the Baby Jesus, a large feast at Thanksgiving vs. recognition of God's Provision, and the Resurrection vs. the Easter Bunny with the idea of Spring and new life, etc.)

Rachel

As she told us of the meaning of each little piece of memorabilia contained in her plastic Easter Eggs, I could see that her teacher at Ridge Baptist Christian School and her parents have done a great job of taking what could be a source of heresy (maybe even apostasy) and using it as an illustration of the New Life we can have because of our identification with Christ. The Easter bunny was not even mentioned, and hopefully that omission will be the clue that a very observant child (and Rachel is certainly that) needs to get the fact that it is the legend, and New Life in Christ is the TRUTH. It was an emotional moment for me to see her excitement as she picked up one of the last eggs and said "This is my favorite, because it's empty, like Jesus' tomb." Yes, she understands what it's all about.

Rachel shares her egg illustration

Another reason it is a joyful experience to be a grandparent is maturity. When we were raising our children, I had to grow up with them. There were so many things I learned as I was practicing on them. That is, regretfully, what I look back on and wish I could do over. But I am still trying to grow up, so when do you stop? Only, as Scriptures tell us, when we are in His presence and "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is". But meanwhile, I have learned so much that dealing with my grandchild a constant source of joy.

And although there are many other reasons that could be cited, the final one I want to mention is the ability to lay our careers aside and just enjoy. Mary is no longer teaching, but this time is a nurturing and teaching experience she relishes. As for me, when we were missionaries, I was almost constantly preoccupied with the work at hand, and I believe I missed out on some potentially thrilling opportunities. This is not the fault of the missionary responsibility, nor of the missionary society, but rather my own, for the way in which I approached missionary service. My brothers, who in their own way are each involved in missionary service, are approaching it in a totally different way, and I am trying to learn from them. One of them, who is actually in full time missionary service, is having a wonderful time getting to know people with whom he is interacting along the lines of their hobbies and their likes and dislikes. He is seeing the Lord work in those lives. Another brother is a pastor who happens to be mostly self-supporting, and in a world where ministers are looked upon as selfserving moochers and conmen, that keeps him above the fray and gives him the opportunity to show people that a 'man of the cloth' can be honest and have integrity. My youngest brother, who owns a mechanic shop, started it several years ago with the express purpose of being a witness to his customers through his integrity, high quality workmanship, and personal witness. If I had approached missionary service from the same perspective, I believe I would have enjoyed all the other aspects of my life better.

All this to say I'm looking forward to a wonderful ten days with my granddaughter.

A Bit of Local Culture

2010-03-27T16:53:00.000-04:00

Once a weekend getaway and vacation town for Charleston people, Summerville, SC is now a city with a life of its own. Today they marked the kickoff of activities for this season with the Flowertown Festival http://www.summervilleymca.org/flowertown/ . Far from being just an exhibit of flowers, it is a huge display of arts and crafts from the whole Southeast. It is considered the number one Arts and Crafts and Cultural fair of the Southeastern United States. As a Southeastern event, and because it reflects the culture of this portion of the country, one striking show of regional culture was the very visible presence of a local bagpipe band. Long time Carolinians are fanatical about their Scottish ancestry, and there are activities of all sorts during the season, including a Scottish Festival where serious games are engaged in to commemorate the Scottish strain of the population.

The Bagpipe Band

Besides the interesting and well organized exhibits, it was also possible to see that the setting would be a very peaceful place for a walk in the park on a Sunday (or Saturday or any other day) afternoon stroll, with its bridges, creeks, shade trees and pretty pathways. We enjoyed a little of this even on this very busy morning, as Rachel posed for a picture on one of the bridges.

Rachel

After walking up and down the blocked-off streets which contained a huge number of tents neatly lined up in a row and each manned by a craftsperson or an organization which was seeking our attention, we were ready for something to eat.

The Kickin' Chicken

All in all, a Saturday morning of family enjoyment, each seeking out what interested him/her most.

A Week of Different Scenery

2010-03-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

A week ago I took the airplane to go to Indianapolis, where my sister picked me up and took me to Mother's home. After a good time of chatting along the way, we arrived at Mother's shortly before she would go to spend the evening with Dad at Grace Village Health Care where she feeds him and then waits until the nurse or orderly puts him to bed. Then she comes home.

I got some good pictures of Dad. They do not show how weak he has become, because he always has a smile, and as I mentioned in another blog, he is known for that. However, he is very weak and falls asleep as soon as there is nothing to keep his attention. He did have some responses that show that he still has a sense of humor, and that at least at some times he is lucid. One could only wish that it was clear how often that is, and what he is thinking at some times.

When I asked him about his childhood, he said something like "that was a long, long time ago". But there is one thing he has not forgotten how to do. Mother asked him to pray before she started feeding him one evening, and he spoke up loud and clear, with no hesitation. No, Dad has not forgotten where his sustenance comes from.

The best time, though was the time spent with my family. First with Rita, on the way from Indy to Winona. Then with Mother and Dad. Then with Alan and Sharon on Sunday when I went to their church and afterward to their home for the Sunday Noon meal.

Sharon and Alan

Nicolas

Daniel

Also invited to the meal were Victor and Dori Wagner, dear friends from Argentina, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship.
That evening, after having spent all day in Michigan visiting her home church, Tina came back and visited with us for about an hour. We had a delightful visit and I got to know my neice a little better.

Tina

While we were sitting at the table, Victor stopped in to bring us some "bombas de crema" (cream puffs) that Dori had made. Delicious!!! Sorry, didn't get a picture of them.

Victor Wagner

Monday evening, then, Nicolas took me down to Yorktown to Chef (Stephan) and Karen's place, and we had a delicious meal prepared by the famous Chef himself. It is a regular practice in that home, and they have a wonderful time.
"Chef" and Karen

There I got to see my nephew Sam and his beautiful little family.

Sam, Kristie, Malachi, Elijah and Zion Koch

It was also a joy to see my grandneice, Kayla.

Well, here we are back home, and I'll be back to work tomorrow. It was a definite change of scenery, and it was good to take a break.

I will try to be a little more "graphic" in future blogs. This was my first try at it, as my forte is more "prosaic".
Goodbye, til the next blog.

Shoot straight, leave the results up to God.

2010-03-21T22:16:00.001-04:00

I don't know why I never saw it, but in reading Scripture with Mother this morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The passage was Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3, and the occasion is a message from the Lord to Ezekiel. God addresses Ezekiel and tells him as a first measure to stand up and listen. God has a message for him. Once He says that, He enables Ezekiel to have the strength to stand up straight and firm, and then Ezekiel is able to hear the message loud and clear.
The message is to be passed on to Israel. They are characterized as rebellious against God. This is not a passive rebellion, it is defined as active transgression, and it continues even to that day. There were no repentance or even second thoughts there-it was a willful disobedience, described as impudence and stubbornness.
The message was not to be a homily made up by Ezekiel, an exhortation to be good little boys and girls. It was a clear message given not as personal opinion, but as a direct declaration from God. "Thus says the Lord"
The result would be that whether they heeded the message or not, there was no question about two things: The messenger was definitely God's prophet, and that messenger was speaking God's Word.
As I read the words of this passage, it dawned on me that as a Christian I have a much happier prospect. True, many will not listen to or heed the Gospel, but if I speak in the power of "Thus says the Lord", I can be sure that whoever hears my words will not mistake me for an impostor, nor will they be able to say that I invented the message.
This is a great encouragement to all of us who share the message of God with others. Once we have given the "thus saith the Lord" message we are not to worry about the outcome, for those words will do the job, either as a convicting agent or as an agent of hardening--a catalyst to bring about a decision, for salvation or for condemnation

"We Just Love Him, He's Always So Sweet"

2010-03-20T22:54:00.000-04:00

Bobbi,the lady who comes in on weekdays to get Dad cleaned up in the evening and put him to bed made that comment to me on Thursday. I had to thank the Lord for that, as many who have had parents or relatives who suffer from Alzheimers have told me that there was a stage in which they became violent and totally out of control. Dad always lights up with a smile, and though he doesn't do much talking (just one or two words, and then only in answer to a closed ended question)he is always pleasant, and seems totally at peace.
I've often wondered what my reaction would be when faced with the indignity of having to have someone change me, and then use a machine much like those that mechanics use to lift an engine into and out of a car to lift him into his bed barely covered by a diaper and a hospital nightgown. Maybe I would do well, but most likely I would balk. Dad is passive, never showing any anger.
I believe that in situations like this we can see the results of Dad's lifetime of applying the fruit of the Spirit to every aspect of his existence. For this I not only thank the Lord, but I am praying that He will make me more like my Dad and that I can say with the apostle Paul (as Dad could say, if he chose to do so) "be imitators of me, as I am of Christ".

Breaking Chains: A Necessary Discipline

2010-03-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

I've thought much lately about how Dad's walk with the Lord helped him to break some serious chains that were formed by a dysfunctional home situation--His father was present in the home 'til he was 16, but much of the time was disconnected from his task as a father. His oldest brother served as the pillar of strength, and an emotional husband for his mother, and his siblings mostly learned to fend for themselves without much direction except what their mother and oldest brother could give. That was not much because Grandma was too busy taking care of her family, and Uncle Herman was involved in working to support the family of ten children. Nevertheless, all the siblings learned much from Uncle Herman. They learned personal discipline, dogged determination and a stern personal work ethic by watching his example, and they also learned to obey the Lord.
But the element that I believe was missing in the family was the open expression of love. Oh, I'm sure it was there, as demonstrated by the fact that the children all revered their mother, but it was not often shown in an overt manner.
The preacher who spoke at the Spanish church yesterday showed us four principles which would help us to break the chains of past experiences. Let me say before I go any further that though I believe a person is deeply influenced by those past experiences, he is not under any obligation to shape his life on the basis of them. We have a much better guideline--the Owners' manual, provided by our manufacturer--and we need to pattern our life on the basis of principles we find in it.
Speaking from the life of Hezekiah, (II Kings 18) he drew out those principles which can be of great help to us in patterning our life.
As a first principle, he pointed out that Hezekiah learned from the errors of his father. Hezekiah's father was Ahaz, and he was one of the worst kings Judah ever had. Somewhere along the line, Hezekiah discovered that he did not need to follow his example, and he decided instead to pattern his life after the life of David, spoken of here as his father. David was far from perfect, but he was 'a man after God's heart', and Hezekiah wisely chose to go back several generations and take his ancestor David as his father image. Some of us have a much better prospect--we can take the life of our own father, recognize his errors and avoid them while at the same time imitating and following through on his good example. Thank you, God, for godly parents!!!
Principle #2 He acted according to God's Revealed Will. Not only did he remove the high places, smash the altars of Baal and cut down the Asherah poles (dedicated to worshipping the goddess of fertility), he also went one step further and destroyed the bronze serpent which Moses had made in the desert. It had become a traditional place of worship!! I wonder, do I have a high place I need to remove? How about my devotion to money, security, my house, or some other 'good' thing which has become an obsession in my life? And I would never watch Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Army Wives, MTV, and many other programs that are an open representation of Asherah poles, but what about the more covert programs? Have I stopped to think of what they can do to my walk with the Savior? And oh, by the way, how about making a regular shrine out of perfectly good things? Baptism by triune immersion, the threefold Communion service--are they becoming more like a bronze serpent to which I return as if by compulsion, and which are a detriment to my fellowship with my brothers in Christ who do not practice such things? Don't get me wrong, I still feel cheated when I just practice the Eucharist, but I dare not let that stand in the way of my fellowship with my fellow saints... that would be tantamount to the people of Judah having a bronze serpent planted at their place of worship, and expecting all to bow down before it as a test of fellowship.
Principle #3: Hezekiah trusted the Lord and did not cease to follow Him. This trust led to obedience. And the obedience brought with it God's blessing. So trust leads to obedience and that leads to blessing which then brought success.
Principle #4: Hezekiah separated himself from evil. While his ancestors and the kings of Israel had made alliances and surrendered their sovereignty to the king of Assyria, Hezekiah did not. He chose rather to depend on the protection of God and obey Him only. Lately there have been many conferences and symposia in which declarations have been made and signed under the heading of the mistaken notion that Jesus' high priestly prayer was a prayer for uniformity rather than what He was actually asking for which was unity.
So, as Hezekiah, I want to learn from the errors of my ancestors, and break their chains. I must also act upon God's will, obey Him and align myself with His desires. And finally, I wish to break away from evil in its every manifestation.

Devotion to Duty

2010-02-09T08:37:00.000-05:00

From the age of five, he knew he wanted to be an aviator. Because of this knowledge, he never wavered in his choice of activities. Everything he did he saw as preparation for that ultimate goal.
This condition is a totally foreign concept to me. I can remember thinking it was so cool to be a grocer like Don Salvador, or the grocer/postmaster, like Don Pascual, or maybe a pharmacist like whoever gave the empty bottles to the nurses-in-training who spent their days off at our home in Don Bosco, a suburb of Buenos Aires, and brought us kids the empty bottles to play with. Or maybe a bus driver like "Machi" Ravera, or a teacher like Srta. Dina, my sixth grade teacher, the first teacher I ever really liked.
I guess the idea of being a pastor/teacher grew in me, rather than being a strong conviction from the start. But having so much contact with missionaries in our home and pastors and evangelists in my grandfather's home (a fiercely independent Baptist pastor)just naturally planted the seed, and by the time I was ready for college, I knew I wanted to be in full time service somewhere, somehow.
Not so with "Sully" Sullenberger, pilot of USAir flight 1549. His life was totally engulfed in preparation, analysis, singleminded decisions which would eventually lead him to his fame as the pilot who had to ditch his plane in the Hudson river, but did not lose one soul in the process. I admire people like that, even though I cannot trace my path along the same lines.
In his book "Highest Duty", Mr. Sullenberger shows how he kept filing away mental notes which, in the long run, all worked together for the purpose of saving the whole passenger and crew list of flight 1549.
Though the whole book is fascinating, two questions that Sully's daughters asked, and his answer to them stand out in my mind. The first one: "What is integrity?" seems easily answered, and indeed it is, theoretically, but in practice, the answer is much harder to flesh out. Sully's answer "Doing the right thing even when it hurts" has been the best working definition I have ever heard. Not that it is a perfect definition, it's just the best 'working' one. Pat answers are good when theorizing, but when you are in the heat of the battle, the 'working' definitions are the ones you want to be in full force. Daniel and his friends were among the best examples of this. Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah were about to be thrown into the "heat" of the oven, and they knew it would most likely mean the loss of their earthly life, but they replied that they knew God could save them from it, but if He didn't, they were still going to do the right thing and not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image. Daniel was an easy target, because everyone knew that he always did what was right in the matter of worship, so his jealous colleagues chose to get him in the area of his 'weakness'-- integrity. They knew he would not vary from his worship time.
The second question posed by one of Sully's daughters: "What is the best job in the world?" and you would think he would have answered that being a pilot was the very best job in the world. But his answer says quite a bit about his world view. "It's the job you would do even if you didn't have to." That answer hit home. I've often wondered what that job would be in my case. I know it would have something to do with words, and language, but I have never pinpointed it. I know it would also have much to do with the Scriptures, but have never found an area where I truly could excel. Yes, I enjoyed being a missionary, I even enjoy being a "milk-slinger" at WalMart. But the times I enjoyed the most were when I had a group of High School and University students with whom I got together and we discussed the Scriptures and their application in a very informal setting. The problem had to do with the sense that it was possibly too enjoyable, and therefore, that I was not doing my "duty". That was always an unnecessary dichotomy which existed in my missionary service. I always felt somewhat guilty doing that kind of ministry, because I was having too much fun at it. Formal services, on the other hand, satisfied my sense of duty, but did not always give me the enjoyment I should have had from service to our Lord Jesus.
Now that I am sitting here wishing I had someone or a group of persons with whom I could interact in this manner, I wonder whether it will ever happen again. One thing I'm learning,though. When it does, I plan to enjoy it thoroughly, and never question whether I'm doing my duty or not. I'll just do the right thing regardless of the cost, and I'll do it even if I don't "have" to do it.

Don't touch the Annointed One!

2010-01-28T09:49:00.000-05:00

Reading the Bible for information is interesting. Reading it with a view to obeying can be downright scary!!
Consider the story of the life of David while he was being pursued by Saul to take his life. On two occasions, the first being when David caught Saul "lookin' like a fool with his pants on the floor" and could easily have killed him (I Sam. 24), since Saul had no idea that David was in the same cave, and the second when God anesthetized the whole army so that David could have killed Saul with no witnesses (I Sam. 26), David chose to refrain from doing so. Was it because he was afraid to kill? He had proven that was not the case when he confronted Goliath. Was it because he did not believe that he would one day become king over Israel? I don't believe so.
When the end came for Saul, and he and Jonathan and his siblings died in battle, did David rejoice? Once again, the answer is a resounding "NO".
As I read these passages, it became obvious to me that one fact stood out in all three of them--David's deeply held conviction that he had no right to even raise a finger against "the Lord's annointed".
David was confident that God would do what was right, and he was totally aware that God had annointed Saul for life, so he chose to sit tight and wait for God's hand to move, rather than try to help God along. The time would come when he would be avenged, and when Saul died, David's mourning was real.

I wonder, how do I measure up to the example of David. Oh, sure, I have not made the moral mistakes he made, but what about his example in the area of respect for authority, recognition of God's hand in government, and loyalty to God's appointed 'ministers'.
I've had to learn many lessons along this line, among them:

Those in government are God's "agents". God has put them in their place and it is His job to take them out in His own timing. (Rom. 13)
I need not fear them, for they are there to fulfill a part in God's plan.
There is a time and a place for me to be proactive. We have elections, and I must participate. We have information, and I must be aware of it and whether it is true or biased.
God's hand is in all things, and he will pull the plug when He is ready, not necessarily when I want him to do so.
Loyalty, an almost lost virtue today, requires that I get all the facts before I come to a conclusion about those in government. I must realize that I am not privy to all the details that those in government are aware of.
Those in government are human also, and as such they, too, make mistakes.
I must show my respect for authority in my prayer life, my comments on those who are obviously in the wrong, and by not writing them off on everything.
I have two weapons against an erring 'minister' (government official)--prayer (at all times) and the ballot box.

I pray that the Lord will help me to have the proper respect for government and thus be part of the "loyal opposition" or the "righteous backing" to those who are in authority.

Our Source of Strength

2010-01-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

When David and his men returned to Ziklag after having been rejected for duty by king Achish because of conflicts of interest (I Sam. 29), he found that the Amalekites had raided his city, taken all the women and children and their possessions, and burned the city. Chapter 30 tells us of the return. David and his men sized up the situation, and at that point they "wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep (in modern terms, they cried their eyes out). The interesting outcome of this episode was the reaction of the two parties. All of them had lost everything, wives, families, goods, homes, livestock, etc. David's men, however, had a totally different reaction than David to this event. Though it is true that they all wept, David's men sought to fix blame. So they started discussing the idea of executing David by stoning him. What good would that have done them? None--it would only have worsened the scenario.
Each of these men was overcome by bitterness. On the other hand, David, who had just as much to lose as any one of his men, did not give in to the standard human reaction. He found strength in the Lord his God.

Yes, they had all wept, but when all was said and done, the final reaction was totally opposite.

In the case of David's men, a move was on foot to a) fix blame and b) kill the one who was "to blame". David did the thing which characterized him: He a) found his strength in the Lord, b) called upon the Lord for guidance (called for the priest and the ephod and consulted the Lord), and c) took action, thus recuperating all of the most valuable items (his family and that of his men, his possessions and those of his men).

As one person put it "God will not steer a parked car", and David was aware of the principle involved, and his general response was to act after requesting guidance. The Bible is not like other books which cover up the sin of their heroes. David did move away from his typical response on occasion, and he paid dearly for it, but as a typical response he did not a) become bitter and b) try to fix blame. On the contrary, he a) went to the source of his strength, b) asked for guidance, and c) acted upon that basis. This why God spoke of him as "a man after my own heart."

May the Lord help us each to be "men/women after His own heart"

The Illuminati, Voodoo, and Grace

2010-01-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Because his avuncular demeanor, well spoken speech, professional looks, and extreme visibility, and despite his charismatic theology , I have to say that I was surprised that Pat Robertson had the temerity to state something to the effect that 'Haiti suffered from a devastating earthquake because of its "pact with the devil" '. It is simplistic to make a statement like that, since we do not have access to the knowledge of the devil's plans, except to know that his greatest desire is to take God's place, rather than to take the place God meant for him to have as the most beautiful of all created beings.

My natural tendency is to get the bulk of my exercise 'jumping to conclusions', so it is easy for me to see how Mr. Robertson got to the point of saying such a thing. The idea was not totally foreign to my thinking. There is one difference, though. I'm not visible and charismatic, either in my personality or my theology. And there is one fact that should govern our thinking at all times--divine revelation as given in the Scriptures.

I've puzzled over this whole matter on many occasions, but the Haiti earthquakes and Robertson's statements have made me think about it much more in depth.

Many truths come into play at this juncture of history:
1) The devil does not have any power that God does not allow him to have. This is clearly illustrated in the book of Job, where Satan accuses Job of being a mercenary, of obeying and honoring God because God gives him all kinds of good things. It is at this moment that God tells Satan that he has permission to test Job's mettle. But there is one thing that God will not allow Satan to have, and that is the power to put Job to death.
2)Many governments and governors have been in league with the devil, even though they did not know it, and in the end they have been fulfilling God's plan. Witness the case of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and many other world leaders throughout the ages. Each had his own agenda, formulated by the devil (the hue and cry of conspiracy theorists in the 60's and 70's was that the Illuminati were controlling the world) but guided here on earth by seemingly independent, autocratic, leaders who were nothing more than unknowing puppets in the hands of the devil.. But the devil, who, as the Spanish saying goes 'knows more because he is old than because he is wise' (sabe mas por viejo que por sabio) is unwittingly fulfilling God's plan.
3) Those of us who believe in the imminent return of Christ cannot be surprised by the occurrence of earthquakes in many different places, for we believe that these are signs that His Second Coming is soon, and since that is so, we are to be taken out of this world about seven years before that fact.
4) Christians and pagans have suffered much through all of this. True, there have been cases of providential protection, such as the Lord's protection of men like Frank Garlock who was there at the time, and Elysee Josef and his church planting and encouragement team from the Haitian Grace Brethren churches in Florida who were there for the purpose of encouraging the believers there, but there were many other true believers in Christ who were not spared. Are we to think that for some reason or another God did not protect them, and that they were in league with the devil? Certainly not!!!
5) God does say that his curse rests on some unto the third and fourth generation (Ex. 20:5), but He also says that His blessing carries over much further for those who love Him (vs. 6).

It is to this last statement that I would like to append the lesson I can see in this whole situation. Since we cannot with any degree of certainty attribute this to a blessing or a curse from God, it seems much more correct to see it as just another avenue for witness. There are at least three ways in which this can be true.

a) The believers in Haiti can be used of the Lord to share the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus.
b) The almost immediate and unassuming way in which Christians have been dealing all along with catastrophes such as this through errands of mercy, feeding the hungry, and many other demonstrations of love, coupled with the clear presentation of the Gospel can be a powerful tool in the hands of God for His Glory.
c) Whether there is any truth to Robertsons statement or not (and I must put it that way because Haiti is basically a voodooistic and synchretistic catholic society) this can be an opportunity for true Christians to be about the task of laying siege to the gates of Hell and helping to break the chains of sin that are clearly visible in all societies, but which can only be broken by the transformation brought about by regeneration in the lives of individuals. A society cannot be transformed as a group. It is only as individuals are brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and become salt and light for those around them that societies are brought to a point of real change. And that is not needed only in Haiti. It is imperative that if we are to see change that makes a difference anywhere in this world--yes, even in our "Christian" USA--it should come as a result of individual regeneration. Any other change, however thorough it may be, will only be short-lived.

So what can we do about it?

Yes, we can fulfill our civic duties, but that is only superficial.

We can break the chains of societal sin by committing ourselves to obedience to the Lord Jesus, and by guiding our families into the path of obedience, so that they will be brought to the point of being salt and light in a world full of unwitting followers of the devil.

And we can quit worrying about possible pacts with the devil that our governments or the Iluminati may or may not have made. You see, we've already read the last chapter of the book, and we know He (the LORD JESUS) will be the victor!!!

On the relative importance of sight

2009-12-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, for some time now my family has been doing the driving for me whenever we travel anywhere. Now, in a further development, my doctor has told me I ought not to be driving at all. As you might imagine, at almost 62 years of age, that is awfully young to be thus curtailed. And it also puts a damper on any activities I may want to undertake in the future, as I will have to depend on my family or Greyhound to be my transportation. In all fairness to my family, I must say that I do have the worst driving record of the bunch, so they have reason to want me to stop driving. But in a nation such as ours, driving is an extension of being, and one gets so used to it, that it no longer seems to be a privilege--we consider it a necessity. If I were in Argentina, where I was born, and served for twelve years as a missionary, I could get along quite well without driving, and might even choose to do so if that choice were afforded me. Not so in America. Only the rich can afford to be chauffered, and my family can't be at my beck and call to take me anywhere I might want to go.

The toughest part of this whole thing is that my eyesight is not the problem. Most of my driving problems have stemmed from my propensity to fall asleep at the drop of a pin. According to my doctor, this is due to the poor function of my liver, which does not clean up my blood well enough, and thus leaves me at times lethargic, and at other times functioning at a mediocre level. I guess where I feel it the most is in the area of my greatest interests. I thoroughly enjoy reading and playing/working with words. However, I find that unless I am totally rested (nine or more hours a night) and/or the subject is extremely fascinating, I cannot read more than one or two pages without falling asleep.

Now to the import of the title of this blog in our conversation:

Since I have very good eyesight (when wearing glasses), I am still able to perform well at work and reading is no great problem. Driving should not be, either. So why should I have to depend on everyone else for my transportation?

The answer has to do with a lesson in dependence. We Americans are a very independent lot, but we choose to be independent in the areas that we want to be independent. In other areas we are not afraid to recur to the government, our employers, our churches, etc. for help.

We seem to forget (or am I the only one?) that the Lord has invited us to "cast all (y) our anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. (I Peter 5:7) I have always been very independent in the area of mobility, so not being able to drive provokes a sense of cabin fever that needs to be conquered. The future seems so empty without the ability to travel. I was looking forward to being able to do some travelling once I graduated from the ranks of the workers and stepped into that realm known as retirement. So what is ahead? Here, again, is a lesson in dependence. I must learn to depend on my Lord, who wants the best for me. It may be that He is opening up a huge and effectual door of opportunity which I could not see at the speed at which I was moving (which by the world's standard was very slow, but was not in line with "be still and KNOW that I am God"). And I must definitely learn to "walk by faith, not by sight". And in that area there is a different sight that must be developed, and which many Christians never do get acquainted with. It is the sight which tells us that there is more to our life with the Lord than meets the eye. In a day in which Image is the operative word, we must learn to walk in the area of Substance. Not all of what God wants to do in our lives will make sense right now, but He is the one with the plan. We must be ready to move according to it.

May God teach us these lessons.

On NOT celebrating Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T12:32:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading both of my daughters' blogs (I was way behind) and my SIL's famous Just a Southern Girl, and they all had something about thanksgiving. I was uplifted by each of them. I decided it would be good to share what our Sunday School teacher pointed out to us this last Sunday. As a math teacher, he introduced his subject by saying he was going to prove his point in the same way that many Theorems are proven--by showing that the opposite premise is false. Thus, if we celebrate Thanksgiving it is because we believe the true premise, and the false one is in error. He pointed out that most stores barely give a cursory mention to Thanksgiving, and even then, they miss the point altogether by calling it Turkey day!!!

He gave several reasons why people did not feel and act thankful in the gospel of Luke.

--The debtor who owed 50 denarii was not thankful because he was forgiven little.

--The rich farmer was not thankful because he had a huge crop and was self-sufficient.

--The nine lepers who were healed did not return to thank Jesus because they were too busy attending to the red tape involved and they did not want to seem like beggars. Only the outcast of the bunch came back and thanked Jesus

--Others do not thank because they feel entitled to whatever good comes their way, and it is demeaning to admit they have a need which only God can fill.

Each of these reasons for not being thankful were invalid, and as such, they prove the truth--that we ought (owe it, which is the background of the word that is translated ought) to be thankful.

I'd like to suggest that Thanksgiving Day is the most sacred of all our holidays. It is truly an historic Holy Day for the USA.

When we were missionaries, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving day as such, but on several occasions I made it a point to explain the meaning of the holiday to some of the folks whom we were closest to. For at least one of them, the lesson made an impression.

I'd like to suggest that Thanksgiving is a Holy Day for us in the USA for several reasons.

We give thanks to God, not to any specific person or people group. Revisionist U.S. History books say that Thanksgiving was an occasion in which our forefathers gave thanks to the Indians for having helped them to survive the harsh winter and make it through to the next harvest. Not so. It was a convocation of all the people who had survived until the first crop and a special invitation was given to the aboriginal people who had helped them out. Its specific purpose was to Give Thanks and Praise to GOD for having kept them through the tough first year on this land which required much more labor than their former land just to give a large enough crop. So the OBJECT of thanks is God, not man.

Our thanks are given in spite of the negative circumstances. Our forefathers did not have it easy. They had come from hard circumstances in which they were being persecuted for their faith into hard circumstances in which they suffered death and illness at the mercy of the climate. They were thankful because they could now worship God as they were convinced He wanted to be worshipped. So the REASON for thanksgiving is God's providence, not liberation from persecution.

Thanksgiving is a truly American Holiday. Because it was instituted at a crucial time in history, and by a specific group of people, all of whom were interested in religious freedom over and above all other possible gains (financial, land ownership, freedom of expression, freedom from feudal societal structure and others) it is, for me, today, an extremely sacred holiday, one which is, if not exclusively, at least eminently American.

What should we do about it? Thanksgiving should be a year long practice which is not just emphasized once a year, but is truly a daily attitude.

I like what some have done. Make a list of ten, or a dozen, or a baker's dozen reasons why you are thankful. Try to remember that every day, and add specific instances to your mental notes.

Always keep in mind the object of your thanksgiving. Make your life Christ-centered, not man-centered.

Keep in mind the reasons for your thanksgiving, both for personal attitude adjustments, and for a guideline for judging your decisions and actions concerning the world around you.

About change... is it good or bad?

2009-09-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

Since leaving the mission field, it seems that life has been all about change. There have been many changes of address, which most already know. But there have been other changes. The Lord has been dealing with me about many changes that needed to be made and still need to be finished.

When we left Argentina, I had every intention of returning. My intention, however, never came to fruition for several reasons: As I look back at twenty years of life in these United States, I realize that the Lord has been modifying my character, my lifestyle, my philosophy of ministry and many other things.

The frustration at leaving what I had thought to be my life work was a huge burden. The first thing that the Lord had to show me was that in my missionary work in Argentina I had not taken Mary and my children into consideration as I should have. Sometimes not at all. My attitude was, in effect, that the Lord had called me to the mission field, and my family should go along with it. I've paid a dear price for that attitude, as the main source of my happiness had been the privilege of working with the people to whom I was ministering. In doing so, I was unbalanced in their favor, and my family suffered from it. Thankfully, God´s providence took over, and Mary´s faithful servant attitude shows through in our children´s life and attitudes, and for this I take no credit.

Shortly after we arrived back in the US in 1987, I was diagnosed as diabetic, and it has taken a toll on my health. Though that was not the reason we stayed back, it certainly was a tool God used to do some serious modifications in our whole family's lifestyle. It has taken a long time, but we are now stabilized in that area, though I still have several health issues to deal with. The change had to come, but oh, how I fought it! Employment has not been an easy road, either, as I started at an entry level at forty years of age, with the added disadvantage of no skill set except my language abilty, which has been very useful, but has made no difference in my ability to improve our standard of living.

One of the real reasons (though there were many official reasons) why we stayed back was because my philosophy of missions differed from that of many of the newer missionaries, and especially those who had not yet arrived on the field (they arrived two weeks after I left). They wanted to try an experiment in team church planting, and I had not been open to that idea. What´s more, I did not want to let them have the liberty to try it. Personal observation and more maturity has proven me wrong, but I had not yet acquired an understanding of the principle of teamwork. That came later as I was involved in eldership rule in my local church at the places where we have lived. The result? God took me out of the way so that others could have a chance to experiment and learn by trial and error. He has blessed, and for that I am grateful.

If you'll notice, this has been written in the first person singular. The reason for that is that I must take all the blame for the mistakes made. My family has suffered for it, I'm sure, though they have had a real impact on people around them whereever they have lived and worked, and for that I am extemely thankful.

In conclusion, I have to admit that it is not easy to write this, but it is hard to express any other way. What have I learned from all of this?

1) God is Sovereign, using our mistakes, sins and foibles for His glory, though that does not always bring us immediate happiness.

2) God can use us whereever we are, and home and the workplace are the first places to prove it.

3) Missionary work is not to be undertaken lightly, nor as an individual decision. It must involve the whole family unit.

My heart's desire is to dedicate the rest of my life to whatever comes in hand to do for Him.

If the Lord so allows, I would want to be involved in a number of short missionary trips for the purpose of helping missionaries in whatever they may need for me to do that is within my power to do. I have recently become aware of two couples who now live in Spain and who were in our church in Rosario. I want to visit and be a blessing to them. Another couple from the Argentine fellowship is in Italy, several are in Mexico, one couple in Chile, and one young lady whom I do not know, but who is a missionary under the Argentine church is serving in Africa. How wonderful it would be to be able to convey a blessing to each of them! As Paul was thinking of undertaking missionary journeys, he said that he longed to be able to impart some spiritual blessing to those whom, though he did not know, he loved and wanted to help. How much more wonderful and exciting to be able to be of blessing to those whom you know and love!

Change... oh how I dislike it... but is it good? Even when it does not give us immediate happiness, in the long run God uses it to shape us and conform us to the image of Christ, and that is good.

About source and motivation

2009-08-16T18:44:00.000-04:00

Sunday is an exciting day. For one thing it is one of my days off. But more importantly, it is the opportunity to be with brothers and sisters in Christ at church. Today we went as usual to the Northside Baptist Church in North Charleston. But for the worship service, Philip and I decided to be adventuresome and go to the chapel building where the Spanish church meets while the rest of the family went to the English service.
Pastor Alex Millàn, who has been a missionary to Mexico, is now engaged in a church plant with the kind of philosophy that I think a church ought to have--to reach Hispanics, lead them to the Lord, and equip them for ministry while at the same time encouraging their children to integrate into the English congregation. So hopefuly this congregation will be a continuing ministry but also a feeder for the local congregation.
This morning he had a message which was a real challenge to me, because I have often thought about the fact that some non-Christians are even nicer than true believers. He spoke about the source and motivation for the three qualities that ought to be basic in a Christian´s life.
Speaking from I Thess. chapter one, he pointed out that these three qualities are Faith, Love and Hope. Here are the basics of what he shared, with a few interpretive illustrations I have added.
If one is busy working at being good, putting on a good image, it will surely do much for the people around him, but in order for it to be God´s work it must be borne from and motivated by a solid belief in the only One who is truly Good. I recently read something which clearly illustrates this fact. Many millions have been raised by celebrity types who have done concerts for the benefit of assuaging hunger in Africa, fighting AIDS, and many other causes. But the basic tenets of their faith point toward the ¨goodness of man¨, and the motivation is to glorify themselves. How different from the Thessalonians of this passage, and many servants of the Lord since then whose base was their strong belief in God and whose motivation was His Glory!
The second quality has to do with work based on love. Pastor Alex gave a good illustration in comparing the work that a young boy might do. He might spend five or six hours working out at fùtbol (soccer), and not even be tired, but if mom asks him to carry out the garbage his response is "but mom, I'm tired". Why the difference?. Because he loves fùtbol, but not housework. The Thessalonians had shown their faith by doing a labor of love, and they were not even tired! The difference, of course has to do with source of the pull toward this labor. The work involved in soccer came from an inward source of love for the game and a personal motivation to excel, whereas the work involved in carrying out the garbage came from an outward source of a request from mom, and the motivation was either a sense of duty or fear. The Thessalonians were not tired from their work, because its source was from inside, and was motivated by love for the Lord and their brothers and sisters. We read later that they even begged to be included in the privilege of giving to the suffering saints in Jerusalem, though they themselves were in dire straits.
The final quality he mentioned was Hope which is steadfast or which perseveres. This Hope has one source, and that is their union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Its motivation is the knowledge that whatever one may have to go through here on earth is small compared to the glory of our future presence with Him.

This week I will strive to make these three qualities come alive in my life.

The Rewards of a Man of Faith

2009-07-31T08:39:00.000-04:00

As Mary and I read through the passages in Joshua 13 through 19, I couldn't help but wonder why this was all included in inspired Scripture. Do we have a need to know? After all, at first glance it seems to be just a platting description for a subdivision. There were twelve sections of land, one for each of the tribes. But no, there were actually thirteen. And of those thirteen, ten were assigned to specific tribes of Israel. So where are the other three? God made it a point to emphasize several things, and I believe that is why this whole description is included. Each of them have to do with service to God. First, the Levites did not get any plot of land. They were to be spread out among all the tribes for they were to serve the tribes by representing them before the Lord, and leading in their worship. This would take up enough of their time that they would not have time to farm, so they would only get a small lot on which to keep livestock. No farming for them, that was a full time job, and they could not do justice to both the Lord's service and farming. The other eleven tribes were to support them with their offerings of animals and firstfruits of their crops. The Lord emphasized that the Lord would be their inheritance. Second,the portion that one might have considered to be their inheritance was divided up between the two sons of Joseph. So as Americans, we ask ourselves, why this "unfair" division of wealth? Once again, I believe there is a good reason for this. It was a reward, given posthumously to Joseph, for his mistreatment and enslavement at the hands of his brothers and the Egyptians. God gave his tribe a double portion in restitution, and as a reward for having been the instrument in God's hands to save the whole family. Finally, there was an extra special reward for Joshua. He was given a whole city for himself and his family. I believe this ties in with the extra special reward that was given to Caleb. Was this because he was a military man? No, it was not, though he was a genius at military strategy. Was it because he was in touch with God? No, it was not, though he had been the closest to God outside of Moses. I am convinced, comparing 19:49,50 to 14:6-14, that this special inheritance was meant to reward Joshua for having been a man of faith. So he and Caleb both received this kind of reward.

Though I am not a proponent of the health and wealth theology, I believe we can glean from these examples some principles that are applicable to all of us as children of God. These are:

1. God expects His people to take care of His servants.
2. God will bless us and our children for our faithfulness to Him.
3. God will reward faith when we trust Him in a Psalm 37 pattern:
a) Fret not at the prosperity of evildoers.
b) Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
c) Delight yourself in the Lord.
d) Commit your way to the Lord.
e) Rest in the Lord.
f) Cease from anger.
g) Depart from evil.
h) Wait on the Lord.
i) Take note of [and imitate] the mature and upright person.

After each of these verbs there is a description of the effect that will happen in our lives if we live by them. Though we are not a continuation of Israel, the principles apply, and by living this way, God will fulfill His purpose in our lives, as evidenced in Eph. 1:3, where a parallel can be drawn. God blessed Israel with all material blessings in earthly places in the Promised Land. God has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. All we need to do is appropriate them.

Another Saint is in Glory

2009-07-30T08:16:00.000-04:00

Another connection to the past has gone on to Heaven. Yesterday, Mother went to the graveside service for Dortha Dowdy. The last of the missionaries that were on the field when Dad and Mother arrived in Argentina, Dortha was the faithful wife of J.Paul Dowdy, and they had been on the mission field for about eight years at the time. At the time I begin to remember them, they lived in a large (and I mean large, 26 rooms) house which was the original "casco" (hub) of the "estancia" (spread or ranch) called La Carlota, from which the town got its name. At sometime along in there, possibly while Dowdys were on furlough (now known as home ministries), we lived there, and during that time the James Marshalls arrived in Argentina, and lived in the same house (we still had plenty of room).

Mrs. Dowdy was a Southern Belle, and was used to giving orders. She knew how to administer a large spread, and she did it well. One of my earliest recollections was hearing her call for her youngest son, who was almost my same age (give or take a few months). You could hear her from a long distance. When you heard RAW BER...R...R...T you felt like you were in the middle of a hollering fest, or a hog calling contest, and you knew that Robert had better hie to.... and fast.

In a very real sense, she was the ideal wife for J. Paul. He was contemplative... she a woman of action. He was a scholar, she a housekeeper.

Proverbs 31 comes to mind when I think of her. Her husband could count on her, she was frugal and businesslike, and she was devoted to her family. They did not need to fear whether they would have clothing or a place to live, for she would make sure that these would be available and in good shape.

Another saint has been ushered into Glory, and that gives those of us who are left here one more reason to be 'homesick'. Yes, I want to see Jesus first of all, but it will be wonderful to have fellowship with all those who have gone on before. We do not sorrow like the world does, though we do feel the departure of a dear sister and friend, and we grieve with her three sons, James, Roger, and Robert.

Overconfidence: The killer within

2009-07-13T12:15:00.000-04:00

Rereading the passage in Joshua 7 and 8, I was once again reminded of the dangers of overconfidence. The question that came up in my mind was: When is it okay to be confident and when is it not?
Israel had just won an impressive victory over Jericho. They had completely anihilated their enemy. The next town in line for destruction was Ai, and the advance team, aka scouts or spies came back with their impressions. These impressions were based on two false assumptions. The first was that they had singlehandedly destroyed Jericho. The second was that all things would go equally well in future engagements. Therefore they recommended a reduction in military power for this particular sortie, as they would just be attacking a small town.

What happened, however, was totally unforeseen by them. In the aftermath of a total rout with thirty six casualties, Joshua tore his clothes, fell face downward to the ground and led a daylong pity party with himself and the elders of Israel as participants. His conclusions were also false. They were: First, that all things had been equal to those in their encounter with Jericho. Second, that they might have been better off had they not risked crossing the Jordan and Third, that God's name would be besmirched by this event.

God's response touched upon the key issues: First, Israel has sinned. Second this is no time for self pity. and Third, this is not a time for prayer but for ACTION.

Confidence can only come when we are firmly planted on the right base. That foundation is a complete trust in God's promises coupled with a pure life based on exact obedience to God's direction. Israel had very quickly forgotten that God had promised that HE would chase the enemy away before them and that HE would say When and How to destroy them. If a reduction in military force was His decision (e.g. Gideon against the Midianites) all would go as He said it would. But if something was missing (total obedience in this case), they could not expect anything but disaster. There is no time or place for self-confidence and/or the subsequent self-pity. There is, however the need for constant weeding in the garden of our relationship to Him. When and if we are sure that there is no unconfessed sin, and we are resting on His promises and His power, we can be absolutely sure that He will give the victory. That is the time for action, and that action can rightfully be bathed in petition and thanksgiving.

The biblical illustration is that of the subsequent victory of Israel over Ai. God gave Joshua the formula for a campaign which would contain the element of surprise, and a victory without casualties. From that time on Israel had victory in all cases where they heeded God's plan, and they suffered the consequences when they did not consult Him.

In his book "ZVI and the next generation," Ellwood McQuaid tells of the repetition in modern history of this problem of overconfidence. "The decisive Six-Day War(1967) had been a high-water mark for Jews who had returned to Zion with such high hopes. The very euphoria enveloping the sweeping victory over the Arabs and the climactic reunification of Jerusalem helped set the stage for the near disaster of Yom Kippur (Oct. 1973). The Arabs saw the overconvidence produced by Israel's self-indulgent euphoria as a weapon in their hands. Egyptian General Ismail commented to this effect by saying, "He (Israel) is, moreover, an enemy who suffers the evils of wanton conceit." Israel learned the hard way that conceit could be a deadly companion." (p. 80)

This picture is a strong reminder to me concerning the need to keep my confidence in the right person (not myself but Christ) the right position (dependence upon God and not on self) and the right preparation (constant surveillance on my personal life and reliance upon the cleansing that only He can do in mylife).

Disastrous consequences of redirecting our sights.

2009-05-28T10:07:00.000-04:00

I'm spending a couple of days with Mother and Dad here in Winona Lake, IN, and, as is their daily routine, we had breakfast and immediately brought the Bibles to the table. They are reading through the Bible about two chapters a day (used to be 3 or 4, but Dad can't keep up now), and today we were in II Kings 16 and 17.
Lately it has been my experience that I have seen many things that are out of line both in my life and in church situations, but it never came home to me like this morning.
The kings of Judah and Israel were generally a bad lot (with only two exceptions). We know this because the Lord tells us so and the statement is something like this: "Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God" and then there is a description of the areas in which this particular king departed from the right path. So it was with Ahaz. Though he was king of Judah, he "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even sacrificed his son in the fire" thus going one step further than they in his apostasy. Others had not destroyed the asherah poles, and the high places, now he was worshipping at them. He did this in imitation of the worship of the people that the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel.
He seemed to find every place to be a good place for worship of the canaanite gods.
Now the attacks come from the outside in the form of Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel. God was at the ready to save Ahaz and Judah from this invasion, but Ahaz had his head turned in the wrong direction. Instead, he looked to Tiglath Pilezer, king of Assyria. Bad mistake! You see, God had the answer, but Ahaz was not in tune with God's radio station! He sent a message to Tiglath Pilezer. He reminded him of the fact that he (Ahaz) was a taxpayer, and under the terms of the Middle East Taxpayers Protection Act he needed protection NOW! Money was not an object, for Ahaz had at his disposition a number of silver and gold plates, bowls, etc. which he sent along as his contribution for the 'favor' of his protection. So Tiglath Pilezer obliged by attacking and conquering Damascus. Ahaz met him there, and they took a look at the city. Ahaz' eyes were drawn to an altar which was there, and he found out that he could get the blueprints for it. It was so much more modern and up-to-date than the old altar in Jerusalem! Why, if we had an altar like this, we would certainly have a better attendance at the House of the Lord!! So he sent a blueprint to Uriah the priest, who immediately put his workmen to the job of a Temple remodelling project. By the time Ahaz got home, the project was completed. Oh how much nicer the temple and its equipment looked. It was even equipped with a back-up altar (the original) in case this one should happen not to work sometime, such as, when I really need God.!! So Ahaz went ahead and presented a sacrifice on the new and improved altar (a NoNo which caused Saul to lose his kingship, for the priest was the one that was supposed to officiate at the offerings).
The final touches in the remodelling project struck me as horribly reminiscent of churchianity today. The small wash basins were on movable stands. This is just a temporary thing. Why not make a permanent base, so that the Temple will look more stable and not just a fly by night outfit? The large washing tub which was supported by a set of cast bronze bulls now became permanent on a stone base. The Sabbath canopy, a religious symbol of the day of rest, together with the royal entryway, not to be used by just anybody, was removed. Interestingly, these actions were taken "in deference to the king of Assyria." Without a doubt that was brought about, at the very least, by a passing comment by Tiglath-Pilezer to the effect that such "exclusiveness" offended him.
Ahaz, as so many others since then, changed direction in the area of management. God was meant to be the regent and manager of His People, Israel. But instead, Ahaz took his problems to Tiglath-Pilezer, whose only interest in him was the fact that he, too, felt threatened by Rezin and Pekah.
He changed direction in his view of money. God's perspective on money is that it is to be used to honor Him and to help others. But Ahaz used money to buy help and show subservience to Assyria.
He changed direction in his view of ministry. After seeing the altar in Damascus, Ahaz must have thought "There's no way we can compete with this with our li'l ole portable altar" and "the Temple is getting somewhat rundown--I'm sure there are believing Israelites who are ashamed to worship in such dingy surroundings. We need to remodel--besides, it will be much more acceptable to Tiglath-Pilezer."
I got to thinking... When I am in a tight squeeze, do I go to God for help, or do I bring it to a friend, a banker, a doctor who will be glad to take $2-300 from me without necessarily helping at all. Do I see spreading money around as the solution to my problems and those of my church, missions, family life, etc. Is it easier for me to buy "rice Christians" than to tell others of salvation in Jesus Christ?
Am I a devotee of "architectural evangelism". I like things nice, don't I? I actually heard one gentleman speak of church building design as his contribution to "architectural evangelism"
Am I substituting physical food for spiritual food?

Just some thoughts...

Who is my neighbor?

2009-05-19T08:06:00.000-04:00

It seems that the Lord works in my life by bringing an idea to mind and then having the same idea come to mind through the messages I hear during the next week or two.
On my way home from work the other day, I heard most of a very good message on the subject of my duty toward my neighbor.
Speaking from Luke 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan tells us much about our personal response to need around us.
May I say in passing, that I have always admired the Amish for their loyalty within the family and their community. I have also admired the Mennonites and a few other groups for their care for the needy and those who have been struck by a natural disaster.
It is interesting that the lawyers of Jesus' day were conscience stricken at some of Jesus' teaching, and tried to knock Him down in other areas (logic, application, etc.) in order to justify their own lack of action on behalf of the ones who could not protect themselves.
It was on such an occasion that Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. The setting is that of a person who has been attacked, robbed and left for dead (not exactly one who is able to do for himself). Jesus tells of the reaction of three different people when they see this terrible scene.
The first, a priest (equivalent roughly to a preacher in our day) saw the scene, crossed over to the other sidewalk and continued on his way. Today it might mean moving over several lanes on a highway in order to avoid doing something about someone in an accident, or moving to another neighborhood in order to avoid seeing the sights altogether. He may even have had the cleanest of motives, such as the need to keep himself available to the people he was headed to minister to. God forbid he should be laid up for a week until he could be cleansed of the uncleanness of having touched a body of someone who might just be dead. This would have interfered with his schedule. Or maybe he was already running late, and he figured someone else would take care of him, a layman, perhaps?
The second, a levite (roughly equivalent to our deacons and trustees) whose job was to take care of the business of the temple. His response="Not my JOB". Once again, he may just have had the interests of the temple in mind, and felt his job there was of utmost importance, and therefore he could not spare the time and effort.
The third, a Samaritan, despised by the Jews for being a half-breed, product of an interracial marriage, and not a follower of God as prescribed by the Law.
His response was amazingly simple: "Here's a man in need... here I am... I've seen the need... I'm able to help... I will help... "
The speaker pointed out that there are several negatives this man had to overcome to do this.
1) The person in need was Unknown. The idea that we are only responsible to our family is not biblical, for we are challenged to care for our family first, and then others, especially those who are part of the family of faith.
2) The person in need, if able to, would have been Unkind. He was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, so it can safely be assumed that he was a Jew who resided in Jerusalem, and had business to do in Jericho.
3) To help this man was Inconvenient as he, too, had business to transact, or he would probably not have been out on the road exposing himself to the weather and the possible attack of highwaymen.
4) To help this man was definitely Unprofitable. His reaction could have been very different. He could have said "I should do something about it? I don't work for a Non Profit Organization!!" In stead he put his own personal time, money, and provisions into the act of helping a person in need.
I'm sure the Samaritan was no more excited about seeing a person all covered with blood, lacerations and bruises than I would be, but Scripture tells us that he "had compassion on him" that is, he cared about him, felt for him. Then he did something about it. After disinfecting them with wine, and soothing them with oil, he bound his wounds, then he lifted him onto his own donkey, and walked the rest of the way leading his donkey until he arrived at the local inn, where he made him as comfortable as possible and then made arrangements personally with the innkeeper to take care of the man until he could personally come back and check on him, promising to pay the difference when he arrived back from transacting his business. Then, and only then, he went on to do his own business.

Lord, help me not to lose sight of people and their needs. Keep me balanced, clinging to the truth, but also being willing to invest in others who have needs that they cannot meet.

As the song writer said "Lord help me live from day to day in such a self-forgetful way, that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer shall be for others. Others, Lord, yes others, let this my motto be: Help me to live for others that I might live for Thee."

A Pile of Rubble

2009-04-19T03:01:00.000-04:00

With folks missing at work, and one very important night shift gentleman going on vacation next week, I began last week to feel somewhat like the Israelites did when they were in the process of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 4:6 says "So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart." But the time came when opposition, through agitators, ridicule, criticism, and outright hostility came into play in the form of a group of renegades who did not follow God's way, and the Israelites began to be worn down. Fear came into play, the magnitude of the job seemed greater than they could bear, and their enthusiasm began to wane. It all looked like "heaps of rubble", and they became discouraged. Their work suffered, and they were compelled to take inventory of what they had available to them, and this drove them to turn to God.
Though I had no hostility displayed toward me, and my fellow workers have been more than kind to me, there was something inside me that was eating away at my "heart". I was beginning to be disheartened because of the "pile of rubble" (backstock) that was building up. I had to take inventory and I realized that I had more on my side than I had thought. God was answering my daily prayer that I might "honor and glorify" him in all that I do. My surroundings hadn't changed (I was still working in a cooler at an average temp of 43 degrees), my fellow workers had not changed (they were still cordial, helpful, and cooperative), the work load hadn't changed (I was still moving about two tons of milk, cheese, yogurt and juices a day--a veritable 'heap of rubble'), but my attitude had changed (I was once again 'shining forth Jesus Christ') and that made the difference.

Planting Trees

2009-04-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago a young couple (and they do look young to us now!!) presented their baby for dedication. Those of us who have participated in such a ceremony know that the dedication is, however, a Parent Dedication.

Pastor Felber's challenge that morning was a call to plant shade trees. He suggested that parents (and I see this as extending to grandparents) need to plant at least three kinds of shade trees in our children's lives. These are:

The truth of God's Word. He pointed out that to plant this kind of tree: (Ps. 119:105 & Deut. 6)

--We need to be consistent in our personal devotions.

--We need to be consistent in family devotions.

--We need to be consistent in teaching God's Word to our children.

The discipline to do right. (Prov. 23:14,15)

--We must practice discipleship (modeling and training)

--We must teach them to obey immediately and happily. (Eph. 6:1-3)

--We must help them learn to honor and respect others. (Mark 12:30,31)

The right atmosphere in which to learn. (Col. 3:21)

--In order to do this, we must win their heart.

a. We dare not embitter them by changing the rules of the game constantly so that they become disheartened. ("lose heart") This would cause them to have a listless, moody, sullen frame of mind.

b. The twig is to be bent into shape and it must be done with caution, lest we break it.

2. --We are responsible for our own attitude. It must be just as good as that which we demand from our children.

He concluded by challenging us to consider what kind of shade we will provide, and how we will shape the little twigs that are our responsibility.

Though my children are all grown and on their own, I had to think seriously about what this meant to me as a grandfather and a role model. A huge challenge indeed!!

Surround Sound

2009-04-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

One of Michael's desires, even when we lived in Acworth, was to have a "man room". He had something of the sort there, but there were also many other things in there, such as two large bookcases filled with Mary's books and mine (mostly mine).
In this house in Monck's Corner, he has a room specially dedicated for that. He just recently purchased a "surround sound" system, and today the installers installed it. It is amazing. We thought "stereo" gave us the feeling of solid sound, but with five speakers and a "subwoofer" this is truly unbelievable sound. Watching a DVD (Marley and Me) tonight I was amazed at the realism and the sense of being in the middle of the action.

This got me to thinking about the announcement of the rapture in I Thessalonians 4:16 "...for the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God..."

This loud command will come at any time. When you are watching a movie, you have a good idea when the loud sounds are going to come, but the coming of the Lord Jesus will not have the visible signs to go with it. True, there will be many events that will happen and are already happening which let us know that it can happen at any time, but even the Lord Jesus did not know the exact time when this would happen because, as a man who had laid aside the independent use of his divine attributes (Philippians 2:6-11) he only knew what the Father revealed to him while he was here on earth.

The loudness and the commanding nature of the announcement of His second coming for His saints, together with the element of surprise, will be far and away more impressive than "surround sound."

It is for this reason that it is important that we be ready at all times to present ourselves before the Lord, not so that we may be worthy of being in His presence, for that is already taken care of by the cross work of Christ, but in order that we might be able to stand before Him unashamed.

My constant prayer is that this may be my state of preparation. It would be so much better than to be saved but "so as by fire". May that be the desire of each of us who call ourselves His children.

See the New Blog

2009-03-27T22:28:00.000-04:00

We have recently moved from Acworth, GA to Moncks Corner, SC , and I have chosen at the same time to change the title of my blog to "Comments from the corner." You can now find a somewhat more newsy blog at www.commentsfromthecorner.blogspot.com

A new name for a new location

2009-03-27T21:40:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are, three weeks into our status as South Carolina citizens. We are now living in Moncks Corner, SC. If you'll e-mail me, I will be glad to send you our exact address.
Speaking of moving, our Bible reading yesterday was the introduction to the book of the Recapitulation of the Covenant (otherwise known as Deuteronomy). In this chapter, Moses gathers the people and prepares them for a reminder concerning what lies ahead by giving them an outline of their history since they left Egypt, and reminding them of God's sovereignty and their need for His guidance and protection.

The history points out how God has dealt toward them by showing His power in discrediting the gods of Egypt and bringing them out of their slavery. He brings them to Mount Sinai after miraculously opening up the Red Sea so that they can cross on dry land. He then tells Moses to make the preparations for entering the land of Canaan.

As I read this passage, I was surprised to see a detail which I had not seen before-- the idea of sending spies out to check out the land was not Moses' idea nor God's, but it came from the people. Another detail was that they all came back with a very good report.

So, how come they did not go right in and conquer the land immediately? It was a conflict of WILLS. It was GOD's will vs. Israel's will. Moses points out that "you were unwilling to go up: you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God." (Deut. 1:26) This was not an intellectual battle. They had seen God's work, so they knew He could do what He promised. They had seen the land, so they knew that the land was good. But there was another force at work here: There was a total lack of trust in God. Only two out of twelve were willing to trust His promises. Instead, the other ten led the chorus of "grumbling", an undercurrent of insinuations and detractions which questioned God's good will toward them. The result was that the people were discouraged (they lost heart), and a whole generation lost out on God's blessing. They saw enemies everywhere, but did not take into consideration the huge advantage they had by having God on their side. Nothing Moses could say was able to dissuade them. They were not about to trust. They could not see the truth of what Moses said "...God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." (1:31) When I read this verse, I was reminded of the poem which many of us have read, and which has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion-- "Footprints" describes in the form of a dream this very fact. When we can only see one pair of footprints in the sand, it is not because God has abandoned us, but rather because He has picked us up and carried us through a difficult situation.

As we enter this new phase, I pray that our precious Lord will make each of us aware of His daily presence in our lives, and that we will be willing to follow Him here in the Corner--not hiding away or grumbling, but valiantly forging ahead in the confidence that He is with us at all times, and will pick us up and carry us when the circumstances seem unbearable.

Have a wonderful day trusting Him, and depending on Him!!

Is God's Second Best Good Enough

2009-03-20T09:17:00.000-04:00

Sears may have started it in the area of merchandising, but many other retailers have followed. They offer the GOOD, the BETTER and the BEST. Of course, when it comes to merchandise, we all want the BEST, and whether we get it depends on what we can afford.

But in the lives of the Israelites God was willing to give them the BEST. When Moses sent out the spies to look over the land, Joshua and Caleb came back telling of the prospects. They even had to enlist some help to carry the huge bunches of grapes they picked in the Promised Land. But Israel chose to be a "democratic" society and not listen to the two spies who were in tune with God's BEST. The majority ruled, and a landslide at that. After all, the prospect of going out to fight for a land that God had promised was not exactly exciting. Someone might actually get hurt!

So they chose the BETTER. Yes, it was better than being slaves in Egypt, though that was GOOD for almost 400 years. But the quality of life there had deteriorated as Egypt found that the Israelites were hard workers, and decided to get more and more out of them--production, production, production!

Now, because Israel chose not to forge ahead and achieve the BEST, all the men of military age at the time of the spies' report would not get to enter the Promised Land.

Almost forty years later, after camping out in the desert for most of that time, Israel was faced with the prospect of actually being allowed by God to enter the Land of Promise. Numbers 32 tells us that 2 1/2 tribes of Israel (Reuben, Gad and Manasseh) had decided for the BETTER, leaving the BEST to the other 9 1/2 tribes. When Moses tried to dissuade them from that plan, they would not reconsider. So Moses pointed out that the choice was not going to be that easy. The men of military age would still have to go across the Jordan and help the others conquer the land, but they would not be able to inherit the Promised Land. They would stay at the threshhold and achieve only the BETTER.

Normally we could not make these applications, but both Moses and the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews make the application, so we are more than justified in doing so. Many followers of Jesus Christ (which is GOOD) stop short of the BEST by choosing the BETTER. Rather than letting Him have all of themselves and the bountiful goods that He supplied them with in the first place, they choose to hang on to the BETTER and get into a daily routine of sameness--same job, same services attended, same niceties said to fellow workers, etc. Their theme--and I confess it is tempting to fall into this rut-- could be:

About evangelism: "I'll help pay the salary for a Minister of Outreach"
"That's what the pastor gets paid for."
"I'm not gifted in that area"
About missions: "I'll support our church's missionaries."
"I'll go do support work so that the missionaries can do the work they were called to."
" I can support a national for much less than it would cost to keep me on the
field, and he can do the job so much more efficiently."
"I'm a farmer--I can teach them to support themselves by farming."
About personal growth: "I am what I am--it's in my genes--there has been much improvement,
but I can't see where I can change who I am."

While many of these statements are true, they fail to take into consideration one factor: What is God's BEST for me? They also fail to take into consideration who it is that will effect the change in our lives and in the lives of those whom we touch. Our job is not so much to DO what God wants us to DO, as it is to BE who He wants us to be--the doing will be the result.

If you feel like I'm preaching at you, be aware that I'm really preaching at myself. It is impossible for me to recount the number of times I have chosen the BETTER and missed out on the BEST.

So as I go along I will try to remind myself of the importance of weighing the possibilities and choosing the BEST God has for me.

And we know...

2009-02-13T03:27:00.000-05:00

"And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28 NIV)

How things appear to us and what actually IS in God's plan are not always the same. Much of life is much better understood in retrospect than in prospect.

There are a number of things that have happened in the last few months that easily fit into that pattern. And there is not a clear vision yet as to HOW God is working in all of these things. It is at these times that we are compelled to fall back on our knowledge of Scripture and our limited understanding of WHO is in control.

A wise Christian once said "Never doubt in the dark what God showed you in the light" It is at those dark times that I have a tendency to doubt the great truths that I know to be God's revelation to us.

In this verse there are several truths that we need to keep in mind:

As students of His Word, there are certain things we KNOW, not because we can explain them, but because He said them.

God is working in ALL things. We may not see it, but His hand is behind all the events of our lives.

His work is for the good.

His work for the good applies especially to ALL things that befall those who love Him.

His work also is for the good in the area of bringing those of us who are the elect in line with His plan for our lives. How else can the tragic death of a believing loved one work for the good in the life of one who is being drawn to Him? Or how else can the loss of a job refocus our lives? Or how else can His allowing a thing so terrible as a war, or the loss of all earthly goods in a natural disaster, or the loss of much of our savings for the future in a market crash be considered for the good?

There is only one explanation to all of this. God is working in our lives for the good because we are CALLED according to His PURPOSE (the act of God in making a plan, and then acting according to that plan as if it had already happened) God does not set out to bring about disasters in our lives. He simply works through those disasters to shape us into the image of Christ, and to bring those whom he has chosen to Him.

With these truths in mind, we can face the future with confidence, knowing that whatever comes into our lives (even the self-inflicted hurts brought about by our disobedience--not that I would recommend them) will in the long run bring about a good result because He has a Purpose for our lives.

There are way too many things happening in our lives and our nation right now which are not only distressing, but are not understandable apart from our KNOWledge of the truth of this verse.

So let us go forth today in confident dependence upon what we know about Him and His Plan.

Is Tithing for Today?

2009-01-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

Chapter 18 of Numbers is an interesting commentary on what God expects of His people, and why.

After the divine validation of Aaron as the High Priest in chapter 17, God chose to give a job description for him and his family, which had to do with all the ministry in relation to the Tent of Testimony. They were to perform all the tasks that had to do with the Tent. There was a clear demarcation of duties, for it was not permitted for just anyone to deal with the sanctuary or the altar. Stepping outside of their area of responsibility not only jeopardized them, but their next higher in the chain of command, Aaron himself. The promised result was not pleasant. It was death for both the transgressors and their immediate superior. This not only reinforced the sanctity of the ministry and its different aspects, but it also made each leader accountable for those who were to report to him.
This was not just a job (though it did involve work). It was, above all, a gift which God gave to the priests. This was a full time ministry, and precluded the possibility of dedication to a full time "career" outside of that ministry. Anyone who was not from the priesthood could not come near the sanctuary, under penalty of death.
So, how was the priest and his family to be provided with food, clothing, and shelter? Here is where the tithe comes into the picture.
There were twelve tribes. All the tribes had a 'province' assigned to them except Levi. This 'province' or portion of land was divided into family sections. Each family worked its own section and was responsible for its portion of the land, and farming, raising livestock and administering of this land. The land was not personal property. It was a parcel apportioned by God to each family for adminstration purposes. For this reason, a parcel of land apportioned to a family which had economic problems due to crop failure, pestilence, death in the family, etc. was to be redeemed for the head of family by the goel or 'kinsman redeemer' so that the family portion, and thus its livelihood might be preserved.
This was God's way of providing for his people, and teaching them that everything belongs to Him and is only on loan to mankind. (The native-american idea of open ranges may actually be more biblical, after all; that thought needs more exploration for there are many facets to it and sinful human nature must also be taken into consideration).
Every tribe was to give a tithe. Later on, when Israel got a king, the tithe was not ten percent, but rather ended up being 23 1/3 percent of gross income, which was to be used to support the government. Every tribe was to bring its tithe to the Levites, whose job was to administer it. This meant that there were eleven tribes (including the two half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) bringing their tithes to one tribe (Levi). The tribe of Levi was to present the best ten percent of all of the tithes that were brought in to Aaron as an offering to the Lord. This was to be the wages for Aaron's work as High Priest.
We see here a pattern. Eleven tribes gave their tithes to one tribe. This was their wage for the purpose of dedication to the ministry. They, on their part were responsible to give the best tenth percent for an offering to the Lord, which went to support the ministry of the Tabernacle.

Now for the question at hand. Is the tithe to be extended into the Church? In order to answer this we must ask ourselves two questions: What was the purpose of the tithe? and is the Church a continuation of Israel?

Once the tithes were finally established, they were applied to three things: 10% to the support of the Levites, 10% to the support of government, and 3 1/3% to beneficence.

It is clear that the tithe, therefore is not being applied to everything today. Why not? There are at least three reasons: 1) The government is now a totally separate entity from the religious aspect of life. 2) The government has absorbed much of the task of beneficence (welfare) and thus distorted it from its original purpose and 3) Because the Church is not the same as Israel, the requirement for giving a tithe is no longer in existence.

On the other hand, though, I believe that it is time for the church to take its place in society as the agent of beneficence, for that would make the welfare program much more correct and efficient than it is as administered by government bureaucracy.

Though we are no longer bound by the law, it is important for us to consider the proportion of Old Testament tithing in our church decisions and in our personal commitment to giving.

If we were to take this into consideration, we would end up having a good distribution of the monies available. In order to support a pastor on the same level as the median income, it would take eleven families besides the pastor. Thus, he would be able to give ten percent (a 'tithe') of what the eleven families would give toward the support of the pastor) and live off the rest at the same level as the median income of the church. Though this is not law, it is common sense, and should be taken into consideration when deciding at what level to support a pastor, and when a church is in condition to support a pastor. As for government expenses, we all know that we can transfer some of our giving from the government to our church. This is one advantage we have in our country which many do not have. And as for welfare, it is scriptural to watch out for the needs of our family and our extended family, which I believe is to include the church.

Taking all of this into consideration, it becomes obvious that the tithe is a good starting point, rather than an end in itself. I would therefore not refer to the giving in our church as "tithes and offerings", but rather "financial worship". Let us strive to worship Him, not just in words, but in our deed$.

Following The Chain of Command

2009-01-22T22:34:00.000-05:00

There are many aspects of life that have been hard for me to assimilate. One of these is the place of, and the importance of f0llowing the chain of command. As I have thought and prayed about it, it has become evident to me that I have not been very successful at following, nor have I been obedient in the area of taking my place in the chain of command.
In our society this is an endemic problem. Children are taught to question every decision made by those whom God put in the chain, wives are taught to be "their own person", and men are portrayed as useless accessories in the chain, or at best the necessary evil for the purpose of producing more children who will then be taught to "do their own thing". In the process each one ends up stepping out from under the umbrella of protection that God has placed for him/her, and the result is anarchy. In the words of the book of Judges "everyone did as he saw fit".
Thankfully, there is still a remnant of those who are willing to follow God's Chain of Command. It is not easy, and I, for one, have stumbled over it all too often, but it does bring God's blessing.
In reading a chapter a day, Mary and I have just read Numbers 14, and I was struck with the fact that when Moses interceded for those who had stepped out of the chain and rebelled against Moses, God said "I have forgiven them, as you asked. Nevertheless as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times--not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it." (Num. 14:20-24) We read later in the chapter that when Moses announced to the people what God's verdict was, they did two things: They mourned bitterly as if to say, together with the whole world system, "don't we have a First Ammendment?" Where is our "Freedom of Speech?". Their next act? Direct disobedience. They decided to strike out on their own, ignoring not only the Main Leader as designated by God, but the very one who had given him his orders for them, God Himself.
God's response was quick and to the point. He made them withstand the consequences of their mutiny against God, and His appointed leader, and that very day, having gone up in their presumption, thus stepping out from under God's umbrella of protection, they were severely beaten by the Canaanites and Amalekites. This had two results: God's Name was besmirched, and many individuals died.
I've often wondered, (because I know more about my heart than you do) whether I would even have survived childhood if God had dealt with me in this manner.
Two facts stand out to my attention: 1) I am no better than the Israelites who chose to disobey God's chain of command. 2) But PRAISE GOD He has covered me with Christ's righteousness, and I am protected by Him.
We, as followers of Christ, and in an attitude of thankfulness, need to make it a discipline to remain under the umbrella of protection that only God's Grace can provide. To do otherwise may not bring about punishment, but it certainly will bring about a loss of God's blessing and protection, all because of our willfulness and self sufficiency.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-01T02:14:00.000-05:00

Well, a new year has begun. We got to bed last night at about 7:30 PM, and I was asleep by 8:15 PM, shortly after the Final Jeopardy Question. As often happens, the question was one that brought up at least three different possible answers, only one of which is correct. That is, of course, the actual meaning of 'trivia'--a place at which there are three possible roads one could take, but only one leads to the right destination.
A new year--many possible decisions--all of which may be good, but which to take is another question. I might choose the good way, which will bring blessing to me and my family, or I may choose a better way, which will lead to being a blessing not only to me and mine, but to others around me also. Or I can choose the BEST way, which will have an effect on me and mine and those around me and will be of lasting blessing.
I have no New Years resolutions--those are soon broken. I have only a New Year's prayer "Teach (me) to number (my) days aright that (I) may gain a heart of wisdom"(Psalm 90:12)

May each of you be blessed richly in his/her walk with the Lord this year. This is my prayer for all of you and for myself for this year 2009.

Solomon and Circadian rhythms

2008-12-20T00:55:00.000-05:00

It is now almost 1AM. I fell asleep just as Jeopardy was finishing, and am now as wide awake as a nocturnal hunting animal. In another hour or so I will start to doze again. As my doctor warned me, night work would confuse my Circadian sleep rhythms. (Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are a family of sleep disorders affecting, among other things, the timing of sleep. People with circadian rhythm sleep disorders are unable to sleep and wake at the times required for normal work, school, and social needs. --Wikipedia) After two and a half years of working 3AM to noon or later, those rhythms are not just confused--they seem to be stuck in the night mode.

In thinking about this, a passage came to mind which bears considering as I approach the autumn of life. Yes, folks, I don't think of it as that, but that is what it is, and I discover daily the truth of the little sign Grandma Hirschy had in her living room which said "Ve get too soon oldt, und too late schmart."

The passage I am referring to is the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes. Even those of us who were "good" kids can look back at many episodes in our lives and say with the Preacher "Meaningless, meaningless! ... Everything is meaningless!"

But for the presence of God in my life in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit, much of life would be without meaning, useless, an endlessly repetitive performance of tasks. But if I have learned anything in the last four years, it is that even in endless repetition, God can give us joy, and even pleasure, if we heed the words of the Preacher: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them'." (Eccl. 12:1, NIV)

If that dimension of life is not found, life truly does become, as verses 2 through 7 illustrate, an endless "organ recital" in which the only thing we can think of is what is going wrong with our bodies and how our members are slowly shutting down and leading us to the final resting place of our flesh--the grave.

Once we have learned the joy of keeping our Creator in mind as a practice of life, though, we can conclude with the Preacher: "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

With all of this in mind, I can only ask: Why does it take me so long to learn such wonderful truths? Was it necessary for everything to start falling apart before I realized that what puts meaning into life is a life of constant "God sightings". His work is always there--but quite often our lack of positive response makes us blind to His presence and insensitive to His desires for us. My desire for the rest of my life is to be always alert (even if I don't sleep at the right times) to God's work in my life, and ready for another day of rejoicing in my walk with Him.

The Quadruple Annunciation and Three Responses

2008-12-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

Pastor Jim Laird had a very good message this morning. He shared with us the four annunciations. There is only one annunciation in the Bible, you say. Well, while technically that may be so, there are actually four. These are the annunciation to Zechariah, when an angel from the Lord told him of the birth of John the Baptist, who would herald the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. The message was that Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were 'way too old to have children, would have a child. Zechariah's response brought him a reproof from God in the form of a nine month case of extreme laryngitis. Why, because his response was one of "disbelief". After all, did he not know of the precedent God had set with Abraham and Sarah? God has very little tolerance for our disbelief.
The second annunciation was the one which we always call by that name. The archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a child, and that the child would have no physical father (though he did have an adoptive father in Joseph). Mary understood the words she was hearing, but was not able to understand how this could possibly happen--after all, it had never happened before, and never will again!! So her question was born of lack of belief, not disbelief. Our lack of belief can come about due to lack of information. God is okay with that, so long as it does not mean we choose not to believe because we cannot see how it could happen. God blessed Mary by giving her an answer--With God nothing is impossible. He also gave her the joy of being His vehicle for bringing Jesus into this world. WOW! The Word tells us that she treasured these things in her heart. Of course, she did. If we were to ask her about it, her response would have to be "if I told you, you'd never believe it." But at the wedding in Cana, her belief had matured, and she said "do whatever He tells you to do." Oh that my trust in Him would be so deep that my response would be "Aye, Aye, Sir", not "Why, Why, Sir".
The third annunciation came to Joseph when he had found out that Mary was expecting her first child. Since he had nothing to do with it, he naturally assumed that she had been unfaithful to her betrothal vows. But he loved Mary so much that he did not want to humiliate her, so he was planning to divorce her quietly. Enter an angel from the Lord, who told him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home and give her his family name, for God was in this thing. His response, though he did not understand all the details, was to consider the source of the message, and to follow through with taking her as his wife, without consummating the marriage until after Jesus was born. His action was proof of his belief, and if he had been mentioned in Hebrews, he would have been in the list of the Heroes of the Faith. God's direction is not always the "logical" thing. Many times it requires a decision to obey in spite of consequence. That is what Joseph did.
The fourth and final annunciation was given by a multitude of angels to the shepherds who camped out in the fields taking care of their sheep. The message was that a Savior was born, and their response was a joyful belief accompanied by immediate action. They did not even go and get a "sheepsitter", but went immediately to see this one who was born the Messiah of Israel. God rewarded them with a place of honor in the Scriptures. They did not question the message or the messengers. They only responded with immediate joy and extreme curiosity. I had to think: What would be my response in such a situation? Would I believe readily, and act upon that belief, or would I want proof?
God wants us to trust Him enough to obey without doubting. He does not always tell us why, but when he tells us what he wants from us, our response should be to obey joyfully and immediately.

Be Still and Know

2008-12-03T17:15:00.000-05:00

Impatience is a human trait. Even a person who is naturally calm and longsuffering shows impatience sometimes. Now that everyone at my workplace and at our church knows that we are planning to move to Charleston, SC, I have begun feeling like the laughingstock, because no progress is being made toward that move. Michael's house has not sold, my transfer has not come through, and the economy has gone down to such a point that it may be impossible to sell the house except at a great loss.

But we are convinced that the move is His will, and are pursuing it while at the same time following our routine. So the question comes up: Did you pick up a wrong cue somewhere? Second guessing is not hard to do in my case, since most moves we have ever made have resulted in a worse financial situation. Looking back, though, they have brought about different aspects of growth that I needed, and for that I am thankful. Our move to Atlanta brought me face to face with the fact that I had not done much in the way of outreach, and that I knew even less about informal evangelism, the kind that allows people to get close to you and see what makes you tick and only then seeks a decision on the part of the unsaved person. I was able to observe the results in the life of several of the church folk here at Grace Church, and came to the conviction that it was not only what I needed to do, but that it would fit my way of relating to people much better than "buttonholing" a person on the first chance encounter. I asked the Lord to give me the opportunities to put that type of evangelism into practice, and He started to put a real burden on my heart for several of the vendors I dealt with day in and day out. After over a year of establishing a caring relationship with them, I began to find out about their lives, and finally felt that I was having some impact on them. Several of them turned out to be believers who desperately needed someone to care about them, pray for them and listen to them. Others were aware of the gospel but had not yet made a decision for Christ. Easter Sunday 2008 was a glorious day in that one of my vendors came to church (where he had attended as a child over thirty years ago) and made his public decision to accept Christ as Savior. It has been such a joy to see him grow throughout these last eight or nine months, and see how he has become burdened for others and has led one of his friends to Christ.

Many times during these four years of working at my present place of employment I have been ready to throw in the towel. But at those times the Lord has reminded me that my job is to be a witness, and that I am to "be still and know that (He is) God". (Psalm 46:10)

So we are back in "God's waiting room" waiting for Him to move in the salvation or rededication of others around us and the transfer to Charleston. His timing is always perfect, and any impatience on my part is wasted energy.

On Thankfulness and Generosity

2008-11-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

"Thankful people are generous people; We, of all people, ought to be the most thankful." Our pastor, Jim Laird said this morning. He went on to point out that we have so many things to be thankful for that all else is negligible.

So I thought I would list some of those things.

Family and friends who love us. Coming from a large family, and being a member of the FGBC gives me a huge list of these. The only problem with that is that I am not able to dedicate to each of you the time I would love to.
Salvation. Just this morning our Sunday School teacher was reminding us of the security we have in our relationship with Jesus, because it is not based on our merits, but rather on the finished work of Christ on the cross. We don't have to "justify" our own salvation. Jesus has done so by means of a "declaration of righteousness" guaranteed by His blood.
Jobs. We have been so blessed as a family in this area. Not only have we had steady, secure jobs, but as a general rule they have been enjoyable. How many do not have this privilege.
A nation with a government that is stable. Even when we do not always agree with what goes on, we can be sure of one thing. Our nation is as stable as a free nation can be, and for that we are thankful. Many nations have greater stability, but it is based on lack of individual freedom, and in many cases on oppression.
Food clothes and a roof over our head. The Scriptures challenge us to be content if we have those three things. In fact, I actually added one, because the roof is not mentioned. However, we have much much more, and I am thankful for these.
God's Word in our own language and the freedom to read, study, and obey it.

Having so much to be thankful for, we ought (owe it) to:

Tell others about the righteousness they, too can enjoy by trusting Christ as their Savior.
Communicate with our family and friends. (Oh, how miserably I have failed in this area!)
Seek to do our best at our jobs, not only for enjoyment's sake, but also to glorify God.
Pray for our leaders. They are not perfect, and we may dislike their ideologies, but we can ask for Divine Intervention in their lives, and for wisdom for them.
Conserve as much of what God provides, and then strive to share with those in need. As a nation, we will sooner or later pay for our wastefulness.
Read, study and obey God's inspired Word, not as a great piece of literature, but as what it is... His lifebreath exhaled for our benefit, and meant for our good at all times, not only when it suits us!!!

May this THANKSGIVING Season bring to our rememberance many more reasons for thanks and ways to be generous.

Real life Illustrations of Biblical Truth

2008-11-09T14:37:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading my dear sister-in-law's interesting post about having to go to the Civil Register to 'get married again'. It brought back memories of a time almost thirty three years ago when we arrived in Argentina with three children and eight years of marriage (proved by a marriage certificate which was notarized, legalized and had all the other legal requirements applied to it), when I went to pick up our National Identity Documents, and found that, although Mary's had a notation to the effect that she was married, mine showed me as single. I was especially provoked because of the trouble I had taken to get every i dotted and every t crossed, and to top it all off, I did not think to have a photocopy, but gave them the original, which they did not return.

So here I was, a 'single' man, living with a married woman with three kids, and serving as a missionary in Argentina. What to do? I couldn't marry her, for she was already married. I couldn't leave her because I loved her, had promised to care for and protect her, and she had three children by me.

This crazy state of affairs was, of course only an international bureaucratic snafu. But several years later, as I was teaching through the book of Romans, it became clear that there was more to it than that.

Because I was present when our marriage took place, (boy was I ever... it rained cats and dogs that afternoon, and about two hours before the wedding found me mopping up the foyer of the church where the torrents of rain had come in through a broken window) I knew that I was married. I also knew that Mary was my wife, because when I lifted her veil to kiss her, I recognized it was she and not one of her sisters.

So in my personal history book, these facts took precedence over anything any Civil Registry officer could say. Maybe they thought I was not married because the person married was Lynn Arthur Hoyt, and they had me listed as Arturo Lyn Hoyt but the fact remains that my marriage was deeply etched in my memory, and they could not take that away from me. I can, and I will, live as one who 'considers' himself married. Even if I wanted to experiment, there would be no loophole which would give me any right to a dalliance based on the laws of Argentina.

The Apostle Paul challenges us to live on the basis of what we know to be true. We know that our salvation is a sure and guaranteed fact because the guarantee comes from our bridegroom himself, who bought us and paid for us. Therefore He himself challenges us to "reckon" ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God. His work on the cross made our salvation possible, and because of this we have every right to make an entry in our memory book which says that on such and such day, when we became part of the Bride of Christ through trust in Him, His righteousness was applied to our account, and we can set our course of action on the basis of that entry, paying no heed to the insinuations and accusations of the Enemy of our souls.

As we set our course of action in that direction, the next logical step is for us to yield our entire being to Him to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who will just naturally prompt us to obey the Scriptures and be totally sold over to Him for His control.

Those are the theoretical facts of the case. So my question to myself is: Have you made that notation in your little black book that says: 'I am now the property of Jesus Christ, and there is noone else who can take His place'? Do you live that truth in spite of the enemy's slander and opposition? I pray this is so, both in my life and yours.

What is your definition?

2008-11-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

The events of the last two years, with the constant posturing by candidates, speculation by pundits, musings by those of us who are acquainted with Bible prophecy have been bothersome, a motive for concern, laughable, scary, revealing, and many other things at different times.

I found them bothersome in that an expression has come to the forefront which has been used to a point of causing weariness. This expression is "person of faith". What is the new usage of the expression? May I point out that for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, this is not even an understandable expression, as it lacks the personal touch that comes from a walk with the Savior himself.

But in its use by the world around us, it can be used to signify anything from the simple trust a child places in his/her father and mother all the way to a deep confidence which gains its strength from having its taproot sunk very deep into the source of that faith.

For the past few elections, nearly all the participants have claimed to be persons of faith. Depending on who gave them that title in their written or spoken communications, the expression can be used as a term of reverence, derision, suspicion, hatred or love. The facial expressions involved can show pity, a feeling of superiority, a snarl of dislike or in isolated cases a wide-eyed look of unbelieving respect.

It is for the reasons above that I do not choose to call myself a person of faith. You see, faith is of no value unless the Object of that faith is worthy and trustworthy. Mankind, education, money, other persons, corporations, political systems, philosophies and creeds are not a good enough object for my faith. Faith, in my understanding, is not "believing in spite of evidence", a condition which the world seems to ascribe almost universally to Christians, but rather "Obeying in spite of possible consequence."

As the events of the next few hours, months or years unfold, it will be necessary to have the obedient kind of faith that weighs the possible consequences, but chooses to do God's bidding nonetheless. It will have to be the kind of faith demonsrated by Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah, who chose not to act out their world imposed names of Shaddrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but rather made a deliberate decision to live like servants of the Most High God, and said "O king, our God is able to deliver us...but if he doesn't choose to do so, we will still obey Him".

I am quite sure that, if and when the occasion comes when I must make such a conscious decision, God will give me the grace to do so. My concern, however, is whether I will do so with the right attitude, a conviction that I am on the winning side, not the 'whining' side.