Overcoming Substance Abuse

[i]

 

Psalm 51:12

New English Translation (NET Bible)

¹² Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey!

My wife, Sylvia, stopped and chatted briefly with a beggar at the freeway off-ramp. His sign read, “Save me from myself.” She sensed in him the sincere desire to rid himself from a life of substance abuse. She chatted with him a second time a day or two later. He committed to going with her to a Salvation Army place that gives alcoholics (and druggies) a place to live and eat while they are coming clean from their controlling substances.  She offered to take him and then came to me and asked me to go with her. I didn’t totally approve of what she had done, but I was certainly not going to let her be alone with him.

When we went to fetch him, he was not at the prearranged place. We finally contacted him at his girlfriend’s home. It became evident in the ensuing conversation that he was definitely for real in his decision to come clean. It also became evident that although he had claimed to have been off of alcohol for some period, his trip to his girlfriend’s place was to indulge his habit one more time.

On the drive to the Salvation Army hostel, he told of us his conversion to Jesus Christ a couple of years previously. He spoke in glowing terms of the euphoria that came over him when he accepted salvation. He expressed the hope that this euphoria would take hold of him again. From our conversation it became apparent to me that the young man was seeking the feeling of ecstasy more than victory over the substance.

I told him of my conversion to Christ and how my Christian experience had grown but without the same feelings as at the time of conversion. I did my best to encourage him to continue the spiritual fight by the help of the strength that Christ’s Spirit would provide him.

We sat through a careful questioning an officer of the Army gave him. It put more of the hard reality of the ongoing fight in his future than I had given him on the hour’s trip over. The officer pointed out that unless he had been clean for six weeks they wouldn’t take him into their program. He did provide an address of a family that was willing to take him in and let him live with them for the six weeks and warned him strongly that they couldn’t help him if he didn’t pass this period of probation.

Sylvia had gotten in touch with the young man’s mother. She was obviously at wit’s end. She was also very hopeful and thankful that Sylvia had taken an interest in her son. Things did go well for a period of time, but then, without the initial euphoria, he went back to his old ways of living.

The Psalmist’s desperate plea for God’s sustaining power is the absolutely critical part in our battle against the united forces of evil that are seeking to destroy us.

Our Almighty King, may Your sustaining power give us the overwhelming desire to keep obeying You!

---

[i] https://blog.uniongospelmission.org/the-impact/panhandling

#California, #IE, #Alcohol, #Dependence, #MotherSon, #SalvationArmy, #CleanOfDrugs, #Psalms, #Conversion, #Habit, #Euphoria, #Ecstasy, #Overcome, #Panhandler

CYRUS THE GREAT

[i]

Isaiah 44:28; 45:4, 13 

King James Version (KJV)

²⁸ That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid…

⁴ For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me…

¹³ I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts.

According to the setting presented in Isaiah 1:1, Isaiah wrote this book between 739 and 681 BCE. History records that Cyrus[ii] lived between 598 and 530 BCE. Taken at face value, this prediction of Isaiah preceded the reign of Cyrus by well over 100 years. Christians have traditionally assigned omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence to God. As such God can read history not only in what has already occurred but equally in what is yet to come.

Many biblical scholars worry that if a supreme being has perfect foreknowledge, then that knowledge removes the possibility of created beings having free will. If these creatures do not have free will, then they are not responsible for their own sins, so Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is unnecessary. Some of these scholars date “Deutero-Isaiah,” chapters 40 to 55 of Isaiah, to a prophet who lived in Babylon during the captivity of the Jews and already knew of Cyrus. They claim his/her writings are published as part of the prophecies of Isaiah. This raises the very real concern about what we mean by all scripture being inspired by God. Is God relying on a misrepresentation to get the prophetic message to the world?

My physicist friends insist on another way to look at creation and the Creator. We must assume that in the beginning God created our entire universe, which includes both space and time. In this case God is outside of both time and space. This means that God is not restricted to the inexorable march of time. God can view time as completely and clearly as He can physical space. This concept of creation gets us around whether or not there is a Deutero-Isaiah. What does this do to the problem raised about human free will?

As I see it, in either case we still have divine foreknowledge. What I do not see is that foreknowledge automatically includes God’s fore-ordaining human actions. It does include acknowledging that God’s intellect and knowledge are infinitely greater than humans can know or understand.

Lord, I thank You that although Your thoughts are infinitely higher than mine, You still take a personal interest in me and my life.

---

[i] https://iranterritory.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/happy-cyrus-day-the-king-of-persia/

[ii] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cyrus-the-Great

Weapons to Fight in the Light

[i]

Romans 13:12

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹² The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light.

When I was probably about 8 years old we had a student at Helderberg College who taught our Sabbath School class. He was very persuasive and very knowledgeable. He also had an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ and His soon return. He looked at current world events—around 1950—and assumed that all the prophecies about Christ’s return had already been fulfilled. He stated that he guaranteed categorically that Christ would return within 5 years at the very most. It made a huge impression on me, or I certainly wouldn’t remember it all these years later.

I got much of his expressed certainty, but I do remember wondering whether it would really happen. The thought of Christ’s coming struck fear into my life rather than wondrous hope. Christ’s coming meant He would judge me, and I knew that my life and thoughts would reveal that I wasn’t ready. What it did mean to be ready? In my young life it meant that I would no longer be sinning—something that still hasn’t happened. I did not understand what the grace of Christ means to every Christian. It is this grace that makes me ready in spite of my sinful nature.

Unfortunately my teacher hadn’t put this verse into either his or my thoughts about getting ready. “Let us take up the weapons for fighting in the light.” A weapon of great consequence is the “Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17 KJV). Now close to 70 years later, it appears that we have a new tool in this Sword. Devout men and women of God are demanding that we provide Scripture to each people group in their own heart language. Furthermore they are anxious, willing, and able to step in and provide the manpower to produce these translations. Truly this is a modern outpouring of the Holy Spirit to provide the most powerful weapons “for fighting in the light!” With these weapons against him, Satan is hard pressed like never before. He is redoubling his fiendish efforts to defeat Christ and us. But we have the infinite power on our side, and we can indeed overcome by Christ’s amazing grace.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us this new and most potent weapon against the enemy of all human kind in our day.

---

[i] https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2016/march/wycliffe-associates-leaves-wga-bible-translation-son-of-god.html

NEW BIBLES IN SPITE OF PERSECUTION

[i]

[ii]

Matthew 5:11-12 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹¹ “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.¹² Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We are just back from a weekend set of meetings called the Wycliffe Associates President’s Summit in Carlsbad, California. We listened to a number of heartening reports of how their new MAST program is allowing the translation of Scripture into languages worldwide. It provides printed text and also audio and various sign language versions for those who would rather not read or are visually or audibly handicapped. Some of these languages have never even been written down. It is a technique that, I’m sure, is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It allows us to provide an excellent and accurate translation in an unbelievably short time. Some have translated a whole New Testament in a fortnight.

Satan is not taking this lying down! WA brought in two African leaders who told of the extreme trials they are meeting in their respective home countries. Both had experienced physical beatings and imprisonment for their faith. Hundreds of Christians have been brutally killed. This has left each of them stronger and more determined to provide Scripture for their people so that they can meet terrible opposition with the knowledge, hope, and faith that comes only from reading and understanding the Word of God.

One of these leaders comes from what is probably the first Christian country on earth. He reminded me of Bekele Heye, a Christian leader from his country whom I met a half-century ago. Heye was a visiting speaker at a camp meeting in Tanzania where Sylvia and I were working. I’ll never forget some of his words to those African believers. He told them, “Don’t wish you had been born with a white skin. One day I went out into the fields with a white missionary, and we worked all day in the sun. The next day this missionary was in hospital where all his skin came off. Meanwhile I was still out in the field growing food for my family.”

Heye also warned his listeners “Don’t think that this is a white man’s religion from Europe or America. Almost 2,000 years ago Africa had it first when the Ethiopian ambassador came back from having been baptized by the deacon Philip. Since that time we have kept the Christian faith to ourselves and haven’t taught it to the rest of Africa. Now these missionaries have come from other countries to do the work God originally gave us to do.”

Thank You, Lord, for showing us how to use modern technologies to reach the entire earth so that a “vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Revelation 7:9) can soon be gathered in front of Your throne.

---

[i] http://globalchristiancenter.com/christian-living/lesser-known-bible-people/31308-the-eunuch-of-ethiopia

[ii] https://www.google.com/search?q=ethiopian+eunuch+acts&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS744US744&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMj-3V0uXdAhVE6lMKHafoAHUQ_AUIDygC&biw=1116&bih=538#imgrc=G89oFVhp0BT6pM:

Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord

[i]

Psalm 98:4 

King James Version (KJV)

⁴ Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

As I write this, the world is in Russia watching the FIFA World Cup playoffs. Stadiums are full of fans who have gathered for two hours of a game between the teams of two different countries. When a player makes a great play, the whole stadium seems to rock under the roar of the gathered soccer aficionados. Around the world, people gather in pubs to watch the play and shout their feelings.

We were in Monterey, Mexico, during another playoff some years ago. Our host took his TV out onto his front patio, connected big speaker boxes to it, and all the neighbors gathered around. Even here great roars of approval would echo up and down the street as people expressed their enthusiasm for their home team’s performance.

What benefit did these millions of enthusiasts gain when their team scored a goal? From their responses one would think that this gave them long life and great wealth. When the home team would do poorly or when the competing team would score a goal, a loud moan of anger and pain would escape their lips. If one didn’t know better, one would wonder if the watching throng had just suffered incalculable loss. The supporters would debate long and vociferously about what the players should have done.

The liturgical church service I attend and often participate in is a carefully orchestrated performance that has every part carefully laid out and coordinated to fit exactly into a given time slot. We have grand music performed by a professional on a magnificent pipe organ. I must confess I love the magnificence of the music. I sit back and close my eyes and allow the organ waves of praise to God to thrill my every nerve, marrow, and fiber. If the music is especially moving, I will allow myself to respond with a subdued, reverent “Amen.” Otherwise, I follow the hymn’s injunction to “let all the earth keep silence before Him!”

When, on occasion, I read the liturgy, I do my best to read it meaningfully and with careful dignity. I would be stunned if what I read elicited a heartfelt response, no matter the sense of what I read, even if it came from the verse listed above: “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” For some reason we just don’t worship God that way! Is this Laodiceanism?[ii] If so then God tells us he will spit us out of his mouth.

Lord, I love You for what You have done for me! Use my voice and my very soul to praise You with appropriate enthusiasm.

---

[i] https://es.fifa.com/fifaeworldcup/photos/galleries/y=2014/m=9/gallery=ea-sportstm-fifa-15-for-sony-playstation-3-2444281.html

[ii] Indifference in religion or politics (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Cancer Recovery

[i]

Isaiah 40:31 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

³¹ but those who trust in the Lord
will renew their strength;
they will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not faint.

This week I completed my last chemo infusion. I started the chemo five months ago in January. At that time I had made remarkable recovery after the West Nile Virus bout I contracted a year and a half before. Our dog Katie and I would walk over the La Sierra Hills in front of and behind our home. Katie would come home dragging her tail behind her and trying to duck into the shade of every desert plant that looked like it might offer a bit of cool respite.

Then I started the chemo. Within a scant fortnight I was winded just walking up to the Pumpkin Rock nestled on a low point on the ridge to the west of our home. Since then I have only once or twice made it up to the saddle point—an even lower destination. Otherwise I have restricted my goings to the almost level area in our valley. I walk with uncertain steps and brace myself for any slight slip on the dirt. I feel this constant headache that decries my actually being upright. Sylvia walks next to me gently pushing the middle of my back on the uphill stretches.

Meanwhile Katie runs joyfully around and digs energetically in every gopher burrow and rabbit hole she can find. I have pushed myself to walking about 2,000 steps according to a pedometer program I have on my smart phone. Then I return home and sit in the recliner and allow my heart and lungs to catch up with my body. Usually I am too tired to even sleep, but if I do, it will often be an hour and a half before I awaken. That is unless Katie suddenly explodes into a barking session.

Now that I am no longer being infused with the chemo poison that is supposed to zap the cancer I’m carrying, I eagerly await the renewal of my strength in a very literal sense. The Lord brought me back from a much closer brush with death during my West Nile episode. I fully trust that he will again fulfill this promise in Isaiah.

I thank You, Lord, that I can trust in Your promises and that You have seen fit to preserve me a second time. Let’s go for it, Lord!

---

[i] https://www.google.com/search?q=pumpkin+rock+hike+norco&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS744US744&source=lnms&tbm=i

Adventist Missionaries to Africa

[i]

Acts 2:17 

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁷ And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams

This weekend the Fellowship of Adventist Missionaries to Africa (FAMA) held its biennial meeting in Cicero, Indiana. I had been planning to be there for two years now, but my cancer treatments nixed that possibility. I have been leading FAMA for most of the last 4 years but left it in the very capable hands of Charles Schlunt. Imagine my delight when Dr. Russell Staples phoned me Sabbath afternoon and gave me a firsthand report of the meetings.

In 1954 my father, C. Fred Clarke, was called to Solusi Mission, then a 10 grade high school to convert it into a 4 year college for the training of Africans to prepare them to be leaders in the Adventist Church. He overcame almost insurmountable obstacles, and in due course they graduated their first four students. When I was in Tanzania, I had the privilege of working very closely with Thomas Lisso, one of those first four graduates.

Dr. Staples, Professor of World Mission, Emeritus, at Andrews University is a pioneer Adventist missionary both from Africa and to Africa. He started teaching at Solusi with Dad. Then he became the second president of the university and set it on its very successful course. It is one of the major universities in the country of Zimbabwe and was the only university to remain open during the worst of that country’s tragic financial collapse. Solusi has had as many as 5,000 students from many parts of Africa. It is practically at the center of the Southern Africa—Indian Ocean Division of Seventh-day Adventists, apparently the largest division of the Adventist Church.

Dr. Staples reported that of the close to 22 million Adventists in the world, 11 million live in Africa, and of those 3.5 million are in the SAIO Division. This success can be traced back to the far sighted leaders who yielded to the leading of the Spirit to prepare for this vast need and tremendous growth.

Last summer Sylvia and I stopped by the Staples home where we were hosted for several days. I encouraged Dr. Staples to give a presentation at the FAMA meetings. At the time he turned me down, but I was delighted when Charles visited him, and he agreed to do it. He gave an overview of the history of missions in Africa, and his presentation was well received.

If you would like to be placed on the mailing list for the FAMA Newsletter, please contact me by responding to me on this blog.

Lord, thank You for the Outpouring of Your Holy Spirit and for those willing to follow Your leading.

---

[i] http://solusi.ac.zw/event/voluntary-week-of-spiritual-emphasis/

God Will Provide

[i]

Genesis 22:8 

American Standard Version (ASV)

⁸ And Abraham said, God will ^[a]provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son: so they went both of them together.

After I taught in Tanzania for five years, the mission offered to send me back to graduate school to earn my doctorate. Actually they sponsored me for the standard nine months, and then I was on my own to finance the rest of the degree. I spent those nine months back at the University of Iowa passing my PhD comprehensive examinations and reacquainting myself with people in the department.

One of my fellow graduate students had just finished his dissertation and was looking for a teaching position. He sent out applications to over 1,000 colleges and universities. Eventually he heard back from two of these institutions and was finally accepted at an obscure women’s college. His experience alerted me to the new reality. When I did my Masters degree six years earlier, there were job openings for mathematicians all across the country. But by this time there were more new mathematicians than there were jobs available.

When I approached my math department and asked whether I could obtain a teaching assistantship, they were very hesitant about even considering my application. As I chatted with them, they helped me understand that the university felt some responsibility for actually placing their graduates. They could see that in the present job climate that could be very difficult.

Sending up a quiet prayer, I explained that I was at the university on a leave of absence and that there was a position available for me when I completed my studies. That was what the committee needed to hear. They enthusiastically agreed to support me for the next three years with a teaching assistantship that was sufficient to cover our family expenses and my tuition.

Thank you, Lord, for providing sufficient for our needs throughout our life.

---

[i] http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/education/higher-education/university-of-iowa-changes-leadership-strategy-20171112

How Do We Determine Truth?

[i]

John 4:24

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Sylvia and I were studying with a woman who showed much interest in what the Bible teaches. She had a roly-poly little dog that was covered in long black curly hair. He would welcome us each time we came with the exuberance only a little dog can show. Then he would settle in her lap, and she would feed him chocolates while we talked. (Don’t believe all the stories about how bad chocolate is for dogs. It certainly wasn’t bad for this little dog. If you are older, you’ll remember that doctors used to say that chocolate was bad for us, too.) This woman liked and accepted everything as we went along.

Eventually, we reached the study of what day was the day of worship. We pointed out that Jesus kept his Sabbath on Saturday, the day the Jews went to the synagogue. We talked about how the disciples kept the Sabbath after Christ’s death and resurrection. We prayed about it and invited her to church on the next Sabbath. We also told her to think about the topic. Naturally she had an excuse for not joining us the next Sabbath.

The next time we met to study with her, the little dog danced and barked his excitement at seeing us again. His whole body wagged with his tail. We inquired about what thoughts she had about the Sabbath. She answered readily, “Let’s pray about it!” We concurred.

“Jesus, should I keep the Sabbath!” she demanded in a loud voice. Then even louder, “Answer me, Jesus! Do you want me to worship on Saturday?” She continued her pleading and demanding for well over five minutes.

Neither she, nor we, heard any response from Jesus or anyone else. Finally she turned to us and said decidedly, “See, Jesus didn’t answer me. He would have answered me if he really wanted me to keep your Sabbath.” We spent some time talking about how God speaks to us. Sometimes He does speak to people directly and openly. Much more often He chooses to let us reason from the Bible what course of action He expects us to pursue. To worship Him in spirit and truth we need to be open to both sources.

We visited a couple more times, but her spirit had cooled, and though she didn’t express any animosity towards us, it became evident that the Holy Spirit could no longer reach her through us. So we parted as friends and fellow Christians but not as fellow believers.

Lord, please help me to follow You as You reveal Yourself to me.

---

[i] https://www.thepointcommunity.net/2015/06/12/spirit-and-truth-frankfort-61415/

When is it Essential and When Not?

[i]

2 Timothy 2:23 

New King James Version (NKJV)

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

We attended church one Sabbath in one of the larger Adventist churches in Michigan. Two of my cousins were with me, one Adventist and the other Lutheran. We were planning to eat at the Sabbath potluck after the service. (Dad always used to say, “If you want to taste good vegetarian food, attend an Adventist church potluck.”)

While we were waiting for the good ladies to get things going on the potluck, I noticed an old man in a wheelchair. On a second look I recognized him as Edward Specht, my major professor from college days some 50 years previously. He was well up in his nineties but still totally with it intellectually. I knew him to be someone who “did not suffer fools kindly.” We were having a great time reminiscing when a woman walked up to me and demanded, “Are you from La Sierra?”

“I am!” I replied, and turned back to Ed.

“Well, it’s a crime what you are teaching to those Adventist youth.” She was on her soap box in full style. She went on and on with accusations and misinformation.

I tried to gently and politely get rid of her or shut her up: to no avail. She was just itching for a fight. Finally, I assumed my voice of authority and commanded her, “Listen, lady, I am visiting with my former major professor whom I haven’t seen in decades. Leave us alone!” I turned my back on her and continued talking with Ed. She finally left in a huff, figuratively shaking the dust off her feet. Ed looked half amused and half pained. I knew he had been subject to controversies and bigots before that he simply had to walk away from.

I began to sympathize with Paul who had to face bigots who criticized his stance on things like circumcision and eating of certain foods. Over the years the topics have changed from the nature of Christ, to communion service, to baptism, to origins, to ordination, to wearing of clothes or jewelry, to evolution, to the role of women in church, to sexual preference. Historically people have actually died for their stance in the particular argument of the day

La Sierra and all other Adventist universities are walking a serious tight rope between keeping their secular accreditation and meeting church expectations. To best meet the intellectual and spiritual needs of the students, La Sierra requires all students who take freshman biology, where the subject of evolution is ever present, to take a 10 week seminar to help them reconcile science and Scripture.

Lord, may Your prayer for us to be one in Your love be fulfilled in Your church today in spite of our different understandings!

---

[i] https://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/tag/religious-bigotry/

Just Where Is Heaven?

[i]

Ephesians 3:17-19

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁷ and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some have pointed out that Heaven is a spot on the other side of the Great Orion Nebula. Furthermore God’s administrative center must be hidden behind this magnificent nebula.

On the other hand we view that God is the creator or prime generator of not only our Solar System but of the entire vast universe we detect beyond it. Whether your concept of this creation stretches back in time to a monumental week some 6,000 years ago--or to an inconceivably huge big bang some fourteen billion years ago--or some point of the past in between, you probably have breathed the query, “What was God doing in the eternity before this universe?”

St. Augustine quoted someone who quipped in response to this question, “He was preparing hell for those who pry into mysteries.”[ii] From the context of this remark Augustine clearly regarded this answer as an ill-posed jest.

But seriously, since God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever;”[iii] He was undoubtedly creating other universes. Where might he place these other universes? Well, certainly not within our universe; they must indeed be “beyond” or “outside” our universe, which was not here before He created it.

It is not impossible that Paul was hinting at a possibly vaguely understood concept when he expressed a four-dimensional measuring “length and width, height and depth” of God’s love. This concept just might be vital for our understanding of the presence of God. If there is another spatial dimension besides the three in our universe, then God would not have to be in a heaven over 1344 light years away. He might be just a scant millimeter away in this fourth spatial dimension and yet be beyond our sensory perception of Him.

Writers of the newly reincarnated science fiction Star Trek series hint at a similar notion of a space “warp”. How can space be warped unless it is in a dimension outside of the space itself?

Thank You, Lord, for being ever close to our side at all time!

---

[i] http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Portal-Vortex-Time-Travel-Wormhole-Warp-Space-2514312

[ii] Book XI, Chapter 12 of the Confessions of St Augustine

[iii] Hebrews 13:8 (HCSB)

God Is Not Finished With Me Yet

Jeremiah 10:23

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²³ I know, Lord,
that a man’s way of life is not his own;
no one who walks determines his own steps.

The other day some kids were taunting Katie through our back fence. I watched it from a point where the kids couldn’t see me. When one of them threw something at Katie and scared her, I remonstrated with them. They dashed away out of sight yelling back at me. I knew at the time that my approach was poorly chosen. What I should have said was something like the following.

“Hey guys, dogs are pretty stupid when they bark at somebody from behind a fence. I often feel that way, too. Katie doesn’t recognize you. She may even think you’re up to no good. If you owned that house, you might even want a dog to bark at somebody in your backyard whom you don’t know, especially if they were there with malice in the minds.”

This may even have earned their empathy. If not, we may still have parted as friends not antagonists. Hindsight is always 20/20. Jeremiah adds this prayer to his lament that we don’t walk the way we want to:

“Discipline me, Lord, but with justice—not in Your anger, or You will reduce me to nothing.”

Truly the Lord does discipline us but with far more grace than we ever deserve.

Thank You, Lord, for covering our erring steps with Your marvelous undeserved, forgiving grace.

Preacher, Cook, Blog

[i][ii]

Psalm 143:8

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁸ Remind me each morning of your constant love,
    for I put my trust in you.
My prayers go up to you;
    show me the way I should go.

I sat in the large congregation of people celebrating the life of Dr. Harold Fagal. As they told of how he had let his witness be known, first as a pastor and later as a professor, I decided that I should write down my thoughts about God and put them somewhere where others could read about them if they wanted to.

I created a file on my computer called simply Devotions, and my first entry was on January 26, 2011. I continued filing my thoughts and turning over and over in my mind how I might place them where others could see them if they chose to. People had spoken about blogs and how they could find things on a blog. I had no clue what a blog was, but that weird word stuck in my head.

Then I purchased the video Julie & Julia simply because my daughter’s name is Julia (and definitely not Julie). In the movie Julie created a blog where she entered her experiences of cooking each of the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog gained lots of readers. Julie then published these blogs in a book. Julia Child was livid with anger; she felt that Julie was simply using her name to make money. I said to myself that if Julie could make a blog, so could I.

Between Julie and my own nagging head, I started to investigate blogs. I found there were lots of public blogs. Many of them cost a monthly fee, which I was not about to pay. Some of them were free, and Blogspot seemed to be a leader in the free group.

So on November 8, 2013, I posted my first blog, entitled Speaking Well, about a young soldier on duty in Germany who spoke the most abominable English I had ever heard but loved me into reconsidering Christianity after I had completely given up on it. I ended that blog with the prayer “Thank You, Lord, for your love that flowed through this soldier to me. May Your love flow through me to others!”

For seven years now I have written hundreds of devotions, and for well over five years I have posted some of them. I tend to be technologically challenged, and it still takes me a half hour or more to post a single blog, not counting the hour or two it takes me to think about it and write it down. I see that last year I only posted 13, about once a month! I can do better than that.

Father in Heaven, You remind me each morning of Your love for me; help me to express my appreciation to You more frequently.

---

[i]Harold  Fagal http://ak-cache.legacy.net//legacy/images/cobrands/PE/photos/mugs-513521mg_20110109.jpgx?w=200&h=200&option=3&fc=fff

[ii] Julia Child http://cook.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/cook/editorial/blog/legacy/devour/2010/8/Julia-Child-The-French-Chef-588.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.616.462.suffix/1505357138862.jpeg