Tell Everyone

[i]

[ii]

1 Chronicles 16:8

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

⁸ Praise the Lord
    and pray in his name!
Tell everyone
    what he has done.

My cousin, Jason, sent me a Facebook Portal. It uses WiFi to place calls. If the other party also has a Portal, then we can see each other in high resolution. I was delighted. The first thing I did was call Jason and thank him. He came through beautifully and it was a delight to see him while we were chatting.

Then I called my brother, Jason had also given him a Portal. So we chatted. He lives less than 10 miles away, by freeway. This is way more convenient than driving approximately a half hour by freeway  to see him. Then I saw t hat our friends in Madagascar were on line on their computer. So I called them. Poor guys! Pam was awake but still in bed, Gideon was in the shower. It was 6:00 a.m. there. We had a good chat, because Portal will also use a smart phone and the camera on the smart phone. I told them about my Portal and they were duly impressed. The Portal responds to voice commands, all I have to do is say, “Hey Portal, call Pam!” and it does it. I can say, “Hey Portal, Go to sleep!” and it turns itself off. Ah! But it is only asleep, not off. Because if I say “Hey Portal, wake up!” It’s immediately awake and ready for action.

In the Sixty’s slang that’s real cool! I enjoy telling people about it. God healed me from the very deadly West Nile Virus and I also enjoy telling people I meet what God has done for me. Some will ask what treatment there is for West Nile Virus. As far as I know there is no treatment for it. The hospital I was in kept me alive for three weeks, feeding me at times by IV. It took them three weeks to determine it was WNV for starters. I spent another 5 weeks in rehab, gaining the use of my body and mind again. I had two friends that it killed. I’m not sure why God chose to save me and neither of them. God never explains His reasons.

May I remember to always “Praise the Lord…and tell everyone what He has done!” Thank You Jesus

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[i] https://www.pocket-lint.com/smart-home/reviews/facebook/149010-facebook-portal-review-smart-display-alexa

[ii] https://www.tomsguide.com/us/facebook-portal,review-5945.html

Sharpen Ones Countenance

, 

[i]

Proverbs 27:17 

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁷ Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

In high school I earned a distinction in mathematics when compared with the other math students in the Transvaal Province ofl South Africa.  In college I earend a bachelors degree in mathematics. Then I went on to the University of Iowa for graduate studies in mathematics.

Dr Tom Price walked into my first topology class. There were about twenty of us students in the class. He handed  out those old purple mimeographed sheets of paper. The first page had a list of definitions of terms we would use in the class. Open set, closed set, continuous function. Then a list of the statements of theorems followed.

“When you come to class next time, write down the number of each theorem you can prove. I will get you to write down the proof of a theorem for a theorem you have proved on the black board. We as a class will comment on your proof.  See you Wednesday!” and Dr Price walked out the door.

No sweat, I had been proving theorems ever since high school geometry and trigonometry. I came to class the next time having proved several of his theorems. He had me stand up in front of the class—I really hated that at the best of times—and prove a theorem. I started proving that theorem and my fellow students pounced on me like a bunch of piranha fish. They viscously tore apart everything I wrote . I sat back down in my seat and tried to hide my embarrassment and shame. I noticed that they did that to every student who presented a proof.

As the semester wore slowly by, I learned to present a proof that no one would pounce on. I developed a confidence out of that experience that I could prove anything you handed me and no one could find anything to criticize in my logic or presentation. The other students became my friends. I went on to do my mathematical research in algebraic topology, a branch of mathematics that many mathematicians regard as the hardest math field. Why? Because that class had taught me that there was no proof too hard for me in topology.

Thank You Lord  for “friends” who sharpen my countenance.

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[i] https://blc.edu/academics/courses/subjects/mathematics-courses/

Be Shrewd as Serpents& Harmless as Doves

[i]

Matthew 10:16 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

16 “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves.

In the 1960s I was a missionary in a recently independent country of Africa. I quickly found out that the term missionary was regarded as derogatory. Missionaries were considered to be spies who would report any deviation from colonially established norms to the authorities. This could mean that the offender might be meted out punishment for deviating.

The country was doing its best to establish its own values and divest itself from those imposed on it from abroad. Since most colonial powers regarded themselves as Christian, so-called Christian standards were considered superior to heathen standards. Any practice that appeared in local life that was not western in nature was branded as heathen and hence undesirable in Christian living. Thus Christians were regarded as weak citizens who supported the colonial power.

On the coast of Kenya is a massive fort that was used during the slave trade era. It was built by early Portuguese invaders and was known as Fort Jesus. Many political prisoners during the colonial era were kept in the deep dungeons of this fort. After independence some of these political prisoners became popular leaders. I heard many a political speech that included a statement, “What did Christianity bring Africa? Fort Jesus!”

Instead of calling myself a Christian missionary, I started identifying myself as a Maths Teacher at an Adventist high school. Did it make any difference? Probably not, although when I talked with government officials, they did seem to accept me warmly and immediately. Another reason was that I always tried to speak to them in a local language, no matter how poorly I spoke it. I think it showed that I accepted their values.

Dear Lord, help me to always accept people inYyour  love.

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[i] https://www.explore254.com/kenya/listing/fort-jesus

Luther's 95 Theses

[i]

Romans 13:1

King James Version (KJV)

13 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Recently we experienced the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. They protested the sale of indulgences that forgave sins for a sum of money. It was money from these indulgences that the most powerful authority on earth at the time used to finish the world renowned St. Peter’s Church in Rome.

Luther, a great scholar of Romans, finally decided that his was the time to react against an abuse of this highest power on earth, not to destroy the power, but rather to bring it to its senses; to get it to seriously consider that its actions were actually taking believers who trusted in it to damnation. His action about tore his own soul from his body. He felt that indeed he was treading very close to violating Paul’s instructions in in Romans 13:1. He obeyed the summons of the church officials to come to Worms, Germany for trial in front of some of  the highest secular and ecclesiastical rulers on earth.

He stood before them after answering their questions trembling because of his resistance to the authorities’ attempt to control his conscience, his being subject to the greatest authority in heaven and earth. Meekly he pled, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” They condemned him and would have burnt him alive except that the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had given him safe conduct. Luther had already been excommunicated as a heretic. The church demanded that no contract with a heretic was valid therefore he should be burned. But Charles V remarked, “I would not blush as did Sigismund;” the Holy Roman Emperor who had given John Huss a safe conduct and then revoked it.

Instead they issued the Edict of Worms which declared Luther a heretic  and anybody who should meet him could kill him without guilt. But he was granted safe conduct back to Wittenberg.  He was kidnapped on the way home and placed in secret hiding where he finished translating the New Testament into German thus giving the Protestant Reformation a chance to become permanent.

Thank You Lord for taking the future of Your church out of the hands of evil men. Please continue to actively guide Your church!

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[i] https://zeitzeichen.net/archiv/2016_Mai_freiheitsheld-luther

Woe to a Spammer

[i]

Psalm 19:14 

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

¹⁴ Let my words and my thoughts
    be pleasing to you, Lord,
    because you are my mighty rock^[a]
    and my protector.

Several times a day my phone rings. The caller ID gives me a number that is obviously just down the street from me, or a name that sounds vaguely familiar. Who knows it may be a friend or an acquaintance, but not someone who calls me every day. Still a bit skeptical I pick up the phone and say “Hello.” I don’t often give my name anymore. They should know whom they are calling. No answer and then a click. I say “Hello?” I’m much more skeptical now. Then a voice with an accent from half way around the world says, “I’m calling from Microsoft about your computer. We notice that you have a virus…” By this time I would be a total idiot if I didn’t know that this call has only criminal intent. The crook on the other end wants to get on my computer and pull out my social security number, my bank accounts, my credit card numbers, my business contacts, my friends’ and relatives’ details. It has only mayhem for me. The voice has no more connection to Microsoft than I do.

In the past I have responded with venom and hate. I still want to respond with venom and hate. How dare a villain invade my private space so brazenly? I would like to attach the handcuffs right through the phone lines.

What would Jesus do? I know what Jesus did in Matthew 23:13-39: “Woe unto you …” He minced no words. He told it like it was. This was not a sweet; “Blessed are you …” It was not: “unless you are baptized…”  But there was love in His voice. He loved the fraudster; and hated his fraud. He yearned to have the swindler in his kingdom; not of course as a swindler but as His brother or sister. But in the moment it was simply, “Woe unto you…”

I still can’t say “Woe unto you…” with love in my voice and heart, so I simply hang up on them. That’s not being impolite, that’s being kind with regard to the anger in my breast.

What do you do?

Lord I love you, and I try to love the unlovable. Please make me more loving!

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[i] https://en.softonic.com/articles/the-3-best-apps-for-blocking-spam-phone-calls

Encourage One Another

[i]

1 Thessalonians 5:11 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

Once upon a time I was asked to visit high schools loosely affiliated with the university where I was teaching. I visited them and chatted with the teachers of mathematics there. I asked what they were doing and what training they had for the teaching of mathematics. I found that most of the teachers had no real training in mathematics and wished they did. They all indicated that if we had a master’s degree for teaching mathematics, they would come and take it. Their schools had a program that paid for them to take further studies in their fields each summer if they wished to do it.

I presented this request to my department. There was a favorable reception to the idea, and I was encouraged to look into the matter further. I got in touch with the Mathematics Association that was connected with college math teaching and preparation of mathematics teachers. They had a program that looked really exciting, and I spent hours adapting it to what we did at the university.

When I presented this as a possibility to the department, everybody seemed to be opposed to the very idea. I was accused of being non-professional, of undercutting what the university was doing, of causing everyone in the department to have to do more work, of working against the university’s policy of excellence. I received no encouragement whatsoever. The attacks turned personal. Finally, after months of discouragement, I dropped the whole idea.  

Apparently Paul felt this way in Thessalonica. He was chased out of the city by disgruntled people. Later he wrote a short letter to the church there. Eight times in this letter he mentioned encouragement (in the Holman Christian Standard Bible); that is more than in any two of his other letters.

Lord, use me to encourage those I associate with in their walk with You.

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[i] https://relentlessgrowth.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/encourage/

Bullying

[i]

Ephesians 5:8 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Ian[ii] was a big fellow. To my 5^th grade eyes he looked like a giant. For some reason that I no longer remember, he got mad at me and threatened to kill me. Kids do that, of course. They say things that they don’t mean literally. But I took him at his word, and I was scared. Through the last few hours of class, all I could think of was his threat. I learned nothing about what Miss Ranierⁱ was trying to teach me. My future seemed grim. He was much bigger and probably much stronger than I. What could I do?

As kids we had toyed around with wrestling and fighting—none of it serious. We had come upon a grip we called the Indian Choke Lock that we found impossible to break that made our opponent unable to breathe. I decided to put the choke lock on Ian at my first opportunity.

When class ended that afternoon I dashed out of the classroom first. I jumped up on a ledge a mere foot above the bottom stair and waited. As the kids came running down the steps and out on to the field, Ian came running by me. It should have been obvious to me that he had totally forgotten his threat that had haunted me the whole afternoon. But all I could see was what I considered to be my only chance to save my life—to kill him before he could kill me.

Launching myself into the air, I landed on his back and threw him into my Indian Choke Lock. I was surprised how well it worked. He struggled vainly but couldn’t dislodge me; nor could he breathe. He collapsed onto the ground, but I held on grimly. Eventually some bigger kids saw what I was doing and came over and broke my lock on his throat. He gasped for air and walked away very subdued. I stood up quickly watching for any retaliation. None materialized.

Years went by. I quickly learned that physical retaliation wasn’t the way to go. Usually one could negotiate his way out of a big threat, especially with some serous praying about it.

Lord, thank You for the light—the promise that You are with me and will protect me and that to love others is a much better way.

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[i] https://www.flickr.com/photos/calshakes/6189618611

[ii] Not his or her real name

As Observant as a Child

[i]

Mark 8:18 

The Passion Translation (TPT)

¹⁸ You have good eyes, yet you still don’t see, and you have good ears, yet you still don’t hear, neither do you remember.

There was a family walking towards me on the Barker Dam Trail. The little four or five year old had been looking up at the great rock to his left.

“Daddy, why do they have goats on these rocks?” He queried in typical kids full voice.

“Maybe they keep them for food for the workers in the park.” His father plodded on, watching only where he was placing his feet on the sandy and stony trail.

Instantly there flashed through my mind the fact that kids are far more observant than we adults. I glanced up to the top of the great rock to my right. My heart thrilled at the rare sight of seven beautiful desert big horn sheep in a shady nook in the rock. They were studiously ignoring us. I looked back at the family retreating up the trail. Fleetingly, I felt like calling after the family and sharing with them what they were missing. I didn’t. Someone once quipped, “Ignorance is bliss.” All they had seen were lots of gigantic boulders and sand, and their kid had seen “goats.”

I stepped off the trail and sat down on a large rock and watched these magnificent animals for twenty minutes or more. There were a couple pine trees in the nook and a little green grass that some of them were munching on. Their grayish hides rippled over powerful muscles that enable them to nimbly leap up or down twenty feet if they wished to. Instead they stood there eating or chewing their cud. Big horn sheep are a rare sight in Joshua Tree National Park and I am thrilled every time I have the good luck to see them. It’s only about once in twenty visits or so that I see these magnificent animals that survive the harsh desert we were in.

Dozens of people walked by in both directions on the trail in front of me. To some of them I would say, “Did you see the big horn sheep?” and point in their direction. Many of them shared the thrill I felt, but the majority would glance up and keep trudging. I have no idea why they took the time to come out into this harsh desert.

How often, Lord, do I toil down the road of life oblivious to the great beauty You place all around me?

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[i] https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Bighorn-Sheep/Desert

You Will Trample Snakes

[i]

[ii]

Psalm 91:13 

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹³ You will trample down lions and snakes,
    fierce lions and poisonous snakes.

On a pleasant Saturday afternoon in the late 1970s I took the family walking on the slopes of Helderberg Mountain. We were on a logging road with a tall bank on one side and a steep downhill slope on the other. I was curious about what was on the bank, so I ran and jumped and hooked both hands on the top. Then I pulled myself up until my head came up level with the top.

There, staring me straight in the face no more than six inches from my nose was the face of a puff adder. It was looking me straight in the eye, and its tongue was frantically flicking in and out. This puff adder was fully grown, maybe three feet long and as big around as my wrist. Its bright yellow color showed it had recently shed its old skin. Puff adders can strike from any position without coiling first and have the reputation that a person or animal, once bitten, dies very quickly.

Deciding instantaneously that I had seen enough, I pushed myself back away from the bank and dropped onto the logging trail below. Although they strike extremely rapidly, they are otherwise somewhat slow and methodical. So we walked away from the spot and enjoyed the rest of our outing.

That evening we invited a bunch of science and math students to our home where we made popcorn and homemade ice cream with a hand cranked White Mountain freezer. This was a favorite Saturday night entertainment, and many students came and brought their current romantic interests. While we were talking and playing games, I mentioned my close encounter to the group. Some of them got very excited. One of them used to catch puff adders and turn them in to a place where they were milked for venom to make anti-venom serum.

The next afternoon about four or five students came to our house and then hiked up to where I had found the puff adder. One of them carried a forked stick, and another brought a hessian sack to put the snake into. We climbed the bank at a different place and then crept up on the snake. It was still lying in the same spot soaking up the sunshine. One of the boys pinned the snake down behind its head with the forked stick. Then another brought the sack up. I took one side of the sack opening while he held the other, and we brought it up to the head of the snake.

Being more careless than I should have been, I allowed my hand to get close enough to the snake’s head so that it struck at my hand even though it was still pinned down by the forked stick. I felt the edge of its mouth strike the end of my thumb. Fortunately my thumb was not quite close enough for a fang to pierce my skin. Needless to say, my thumb did not remain there for a second attack. The students and I quickly got the snake into the sack, and we hiked back home.

Thank you, Lord, for being ready to rescue me even when I’m being careless with a death dealing snake!

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[i] https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/353251164519422743/?lp=true

[ii] http://itsnature.org/ground/reptiles-land/puff-adder/

Created for Good Works

[i]

Ephesians 2:10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Earlier in January I went uptown to a stamp show. With all of my cancer fight and what that has entailed, I hadn’t been to one for well over a year. One of the dealers whom I count as a personal friend told me he has been seeing blood in his urine. He is, of course, running scared. He pointed out that we are both well into our seventies and both born under Aquarius—not that I attach any meaning to Zodiacal signs.

His father was a conservative Christian pastor, and my friend had attended a conservative Christian university where he took a theology major. But the years have jaded some of his Christian zeal. His Christian world view, however, still affects his life. I encouraged him to get some immediate medical attention. Between dozens of interruptions by visitors to his booth, we also spent some very meaningful time reviewing the marvelous hope we have in Christ Jesus.

A couple days ago there was another stamp show uptown. I told my wife that I felt I needed to go to this one, too, in order to see my dealer friend. He was there, and I spent several more hours at his booth. He, his wife, and I were able to chat some more. Things had not gotten any better. In fact not only was there still blood in his urine, his wife mentioned that his bowels had also been totally shut down for over a month now.

He had looked gaunt last time and appeared even more so this time. At least he now had several appointments this week for various medical checkups, lab work, x-rays, and other tests. I have fears that things may not go well with him, but at least he seems to have a blessed hope in Christ and his future. I pray for his well being and wisdom on his part and the medical people who help him.

The very next day I had an appointment with a doctor whom I have known for many years. I sat in the waiting room and in an examination room for over two hours. When the doctor came into my room, he closed the door behind him. He sat down and told how a mutual friend of 50 plus years is now on life-support in intensive care. He told me further that he had been chosen as the chair of his church’s finance committee. The experience has been a real eye-opener to him as to how church policies are actually implemented—or simply ignored.

I told him about our experience when my wife and I first went to Africa as full time employees of the church as missionaries. Over the first two years we were shocked at what happened, how policies were ignored, how lies were told, etc. It became a real crisis in our Christian experience: After all, we were working for an organization that we considered to be God’s organization on earth most closely connected with our hope of salvation. After discussing and praying about it, we decided that we were still working for Jesus Christ but were being paid by a human organization. Furthermore, we chose not to fault our Savior for this weak, imperfect, and at times corrupt big business—the church.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the privilege of working for You for our entire career. We pray not only for our own salvation but also for those devoted, but often confused, humans who do things in Your name and for Your sake.

#Stamps, #Stampshows, #stampdealers, #prostatecancer, #IE, #SoCal, #California, Christiancrisis, #corruptchurch, #Savior, #salvation, #hope, #Doctor, #WaitingRoom, #Africa, #ChristLove

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[i] https://www.tsdastamps.com/

What if there were no Bible?

[i]

1 Corinthians 1:4-5

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁴ I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge.

Looking back over the history of the human race as generally outlined in the Bible from Adam to me, I often ponder what it must have been like to be a follower of the LORD. Apparently Adam and Eve got to talk to God face to face. However this did not last very long.

When our earliest ancestors sinned, God met with them personally, perhaps for the last time. This time He[ii] showed them how to kill and skin an animal. Then He showed them how to sew clothes from the animal’s skin to cover their nakedness. I assume He also showed them how to offer a sacrifice on an altar using the same animal. Apparently it was only much later that people started eating animals with God’s blessing.

Thereafter God very seldom communicated directly with humans. We can list a few: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses. People were expected to remember what they had learned about God’s will. Apparently when Moses came, he wrote down human history and God’s instructions. These were carefully stored inside the Ark of the Covenant. The average person never saw these words.

By the time Christ walked on the earth, it seems that most Jewish meeting houses had some or all of the earlier writings that later came to be parts of our Bible. These had been laboriously copied out by hand and so were extremely expensive. Still the average person on the street had probably never read or owned even a part of the Bible. They were still expected to order their lives by what they had heard read to them.

Is it any wonder that so many people never heard God’s word in their whole lives? Is it any wonder that so many religions sprang up all over the world? Finally, in the 15^th century, printing was invented, and the first book ever printed was indeed the Bible. Over the years printed versions of God’s word have become more and more available. In this millennium it has become very easy to get the Bible on your cell phone for free. So we have indeed become “rich” in God’s word. With this “wealth” has come the responsibility of learning what our Creator’s will is for us individually and experiencing the Grace of Christ directly.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us Your Word so abundantly. Grant us wisdom to read and profit from it.

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[i] https://teatimewithev.com/kaleidoscope/printed-bible-or-cell-phone-bible

[ii] I use the masculine pronoun for God advisedly because the vast majority of translations of Scripture that I own, as well as the Greek and Hebrew texts, use it. I do not believe God has reproductive organs like humans and animals do.