The Gethsemane Battle

 

[1]

1 John 4:9

Good News Translation

⁹ And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

 

After many years, last night I again read the chapter in The Desire of Ages entitled “Gethsemane”. In eloquent and deeply emotional prose, Ellen White describes how Christ wrestled with God. He knew that He had come to earth for exactly one purpose—to save the world and its inhabitants from sin. I have seen many definitions of sin: some glorify it, some condemn it, some try to lay out boundaries for it. But in the end, sin is only one thing—rebellion against God. Sin declares puny man’s attempt to deny his Creator and become independent from the only Source of Life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ’s divine nature headed steadfastly forward to the only possible act of redemption for rebellious man. Christ’s human nature, however, sensed the presence of every sin in the world. It felt the eternal separation from God, the terror and despair of inevitable annihilation, the horror of the wrath of God. It buckled and crumbled under this huge weight. His human nature pled with God to find another way of salvation. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” a cry wrenched from His very heart. Then in total submission to the divine within Him, He gave way to divinity: “Never the less, not My will but Thine be done!” Three times he sought reprieve but then acquiesced to His great love for sinners.

To His human view, (that was all that He could see at this point in the struggle), all mankind had turned their backs on Him. Even His chosen disciples had fallen asleep when He asked them to pray for Him. His chosen race, His favored people were bent on His destruction. Why? He had taught them, healed them, encouraged them, blessed their children, even fed them and raised their dead. He had expressed His love to them in every action. Was this why they turned away?

Of course not! When sin comes in touch with purity, divinity, perfection, it has but one response—rebellion. This rebellion was the only thing Christ sensed. Fortunately for us, His vast, unending love drove Him on to yield to the divine will and rescue His creatures in spite of their absolute rejection of Him.

When it became completely obvious that Christ was going through literal hell for us, the mightiest angel in Heaven materialized at His side, driving away all the demons that were clustered around Him and crushing out His very life. The angel strengthened Him for this, the greatest battle of the universe.

Thank You, Jesus, for fighting the battle for me, the battle that I had no hope of winning without You. I love You.

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[1] https://www.deseret.com/2019/6/12/20675446/taylor-halverson-why-did-jesus-suffer-in-an-olive-garden-called-gethsemane#olive-trees-in-the-gethsemane-garden-at-the-foot-of-the-mount-of-olives-in-jerusalem

 

Tithe

  

[1]

2 Samuel 24:24

Good News Translation

²⁴ But the king answered, “No, I will pay you for it. I will not offer to the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing.”

 

All of us who have worked for wages know that our employer deducts various taxes from every paycheck. On our first paycheck, we may indeed have been surprised when we didn’t get the full amount that we had calculated we would receive. When Sylvia and I were in Africa as missionaries, the mission board also withheld tithe from our paychecks. It was calculated in such a way as to take out the most possible. When I inquired why they didn’t let me pay tithe voluntarily, I was told that then most people would not pay tithe. However, by doing this they were robbing us of a special blessing from God.

You may ask, “Are there different ways to calculate tithe?” Yes. One way is to take the gross salary before any withdrawals. Thus, if you earn $10 per hour and work 40 hours per week, your gross wages are $400. So, you would pay $40 for tithe.

A second way is to reason that your Social Security deduction is an investment towards your retirement. I reasoned that when I retired, I would pay tithe on my Social Security. I am retired now, and that is what I do today. Therefore, I deferred my tithe on that portion until I actually received it. Since the withholding for SS is 6.2% from the $400 I had earned, I would be deferring $24.80 towards my retirement. So, my gross income minus $24.80 is $375.20. My tithe for that paycheck would be $37.52.

A third and simplest way is to pay tithe on the actual value of your check. So, if the actual check you got for your week’s work was $312.00, you would pay $31.20 tithe.

If you are confused about how to calculate your tithe, speak to several experienced members of your church. This may include your pastor and the church treasurer. See how they calculate tithe and why they calculate their “increase” the way they do. (Warning: You will find that there are some high-ranking members in your church who do not pay tithe. Ignore their input entirely.)

No matter which way you end up paying tithe, do it faithfully. This is acknowledging God as the provider and owner of all. Your tithe to the Lord will cost you something.

Now read Malachi 3:10 again. You will find your after-tithe dollars go farther than if you don’t pay tithe. Try it! The Lord wants you to test Him on this matter.

In case you’re wondering how Sylvia and I pay tithe, for the 43 years since we have returned from Africa, we have used a modification of the second method above. We found that the Lord has blessed us abundantly. And we strongly encourage you to take the Lord’s promise about tithe paying literally. During our stay in Africa, when our tithe was deducted along with taxes, we didn’t voluntarily pay tithe. We missed both the feeling of sacrifice when we voluntarily pay tithe and also much of the abundant blessing promised to tithe payers.

We are blessed beyond measure by Your generous care for us, gracious Lord. Thank You!

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He Endured Opposition

[i]

 Hebrews 12:3

Common English Bible

³ Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won’t be discouraged and you won’t give up.

 

It was not in my job description, which was to teach science and mathematics. Yet, the maintenance of the entire school plant, including teacher’s homes, fell on my shoulders. I was working upwards of 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Believe it or not, I thrived under the regimen. I still found some time to read and to chat with my wife. Without a vehicle of any kind, we were stuck on the mission, so this brought no variation to my activities.

One year under a new principal, however, things came to a head. He liked to micromanage everything. He would ask me to do something. I would get my workers (students) working on the project and then go and do other pressing things. On occasion he would visit the project while I was away and demand that the workers do something different. When I returned to check on progress, I would find them tearing down what they had done. Stunned, I asked why. They would look a bit confused and then tell me the principal had told them to. When I spoke to him, he would say simply, “I want it done a different way.”

When I disciplined a student in my class, he sometimes reversed the discipline but never told me. Then in front of the class, the student would inform me that the principal had told him that what he was doing was okay. This, of course, had a serious effect on the decorum of the class.

Then one of my student helpers forgot to add more oil into a diesel engine, that powered our water pump, I was in charge of. The lack of oil severely damaged the crankshaft of the engine. The cost of a replacement crankshaft cost more than half the replacement of the entire engine. I reported our problem to the principal. He showed up the next day with a mechanic he had hired from town. He introduced him to me: “Now here is a real mechanic. You go down and see how he fixes it!”

“Good!” I said, “But no real mechanic wants an amateur looking over his shoulder.” I didn’t remind him that fixing things was not part of my job description and that I was doing this merely to save the school a lot of money. The “real” mechanic put some shims in the bearings and ran the engine. It died within eight hours. Then he told the principal, “The only way to fix the engine is a new crankshaft or a new engine. The principal was careful to never mention the event to me again. We parted as friends.

I guess I was discouraged. I gave up and turned in my letter of resignation. This scared the principal. He came to me personally and begged me to stay the two more months to the end of the school term. Then a new principal would take over, and he was going to another job.

Because I was working so much, I had not kept my eyes on the One who had suffered continual opposition and died on account of it. I did not give up but stayed on for a couple more years, until my tour of duty was over. That year was merely preparation for my final year when the opposition came not from the administration but from other directions. That time I was prepared and kept my eyes on Jesus Christ and finished in triumph.

In this current age when a raging pandemic threatens to destroy our lives and an enemy threatens to destroy our democracy, Lord, we rest our future in Your capable, loving hands!

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[i] https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im201402DL-Lister1930s-2cyl.jpg

 

Vaccine Competition

[i]

John 14:2

Good News Translation

² There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.

 

My oncologist instructed me to go and get vaccinated for COVID-19 before coming back to see him. I went to our Riverside County website to sign up for a vaccination. There I found four forms I had to fill out in order to request an appointment. Without an appointment it was impossible to get the vaccination. The county had just opened more appointments. I picked a site and started to quickly fille out the four forms. Before I got to the second form, I got the message: “Error due to the rate of applications.” I groaned and started again. This time the same thing happened.

I picked another site and started again. This time I got through three of the four forms. I was elated, except then I received a similar error message. So, I went through site after site and date after date. There were four vaccinations sites available and five dates available. When I had finished all the sites, I started again at the beginning. Finally, I got through all four forms and was given a review of all the data I had submitted.; I was exhausted but somewhat elated. Then I received another error message—just as fatal. I groaned and started again.

This time I got to the actual appointment site. The instructions were “Choose a time slot and register for it.” There were time slots starting at 8:00 a.m., then 8:07, 8:14, etc. all the way to 5:00 p.m. Next to each time slot was the message, “appointment not available.” My heart plummeted. Undaunted, I picked another site and started again. Same result. Finally, I worked my way through every site and every date and got the same message. All 1,280 slots had been taken by other people.

Not only was I totally exhausted, but I was just plain out of luck! What could I do? Absolutely nothing! I was like the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda. Every time the angel stirred the pool, (John 5:4) someone else made it into the pool before he could get there. Then Christ came along and bypassed the system. It was obvious I needed Christ to come along and help me bypass the system.

That’s exactly what happened in the person of Dr. Vo. That same afternoon Sylvia got an attack of hypertension, and I took her into the Riverside Medical Clinic Urgent Care. Dr. Vo urged both of us to register for the COVID vaccination at the RMC website. She checked it out, and because we were both patients of the RMC, we each already had a slot. We just had to accept them.

Thank You, Lord, that we already have rooms You have prepared for us in Your Father’s house. We eagerly accept them.

 

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-distribute-a-covid-19-vaccine-ethically/

 

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[i] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-distribute-a-covid-19-vaccine-ethically/