It's Not What, It's How

 

[1]

Mark 12:43 Good News Translation

⁴³ He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others.

 

Once, while I was teaching at Ikizu in Tanzania during the period 1967-1971, the Adventist churches in the whole country set aside the offerings on one Sabbath for Ikizu and its needs. I was excited that we would get enough money to fund some desperately needed projects.

When the money finally came, it was much less than $100. That came from some 20,000 believers. I inquired around and asked what had happened. Why did we receive so little? The members were very candid. Everybody is saying to themselves, “This is to build up the school. Let the Americans provide the money; they have lots of it! They have always done it before.” Tanzania had been independent for less than 10 years. They were still accustomed to the mzungu (white foreigner) providing everything that was needed. This included all that the church needed.

My heart sank. I had visions of the country, and especially the church in that country, taking off and doing great things for God. I used to tell my students that I was there to work myself out of a job. I told them that they shouldn’t be bringing a missionary to teach mathematics. There were lots of Tanzanians who were just as capable as I to do it. They shook their heads in disbelief. (As a matter of fact, I was the last missionary to teach math at Ikizu. When I left there at the end of 1971, we had two Tanzanians on the faculty who were qualified to teach mathematics.)

In 2003 we returned to Tanzania by invitation when the Adventist church was celebrating its 100^th anniversary of Adventism in that part of Africa. The celebration was held on the campus of Tanzania Adventist College (TAC). They needed funds to expand the college and to make it into an accredited university. I was privileged to observe how they had taken over fund raising in a very serious and professional way. Within a very short period of time. they had achieved the desired accreditation, and TAC became Arusha University. Last I heard they were seeking to build a second university. Since there are over three-quarters of a million believers, they desperately need more than one university.

We can all learn from the story of the widow’s mites. When we give as we are able—or step out in faith to give even what we think we cannot afford it, the Lord again multiplies as He did with the two coins the widow placed in the offering box.

Lord, expand our vision to encompass the fact that with Your help we can achieve far more than we can possibly imagine.

 

 

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[1] https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/what-are-widows-mite-coins/

Sing and Shout

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Psalm 95:1-2 World English Bible

95 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
    Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
² Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving.
    Let’s extol him with songs!

 

At Solusi in Zimbabwe and at Rusangu in Zambia and in many other churches in the newly independent republics in Africa, I had my soul transported into the grace and love of God by the singing. The people sang in full four-part harmony. They sang with deep spiritual joy that was entirely contagious.

As a kid I remember how we sang joyfully and forcefully enough to make the windows rattle. We loved those songs that were joyful, that had loud chords and praised the Lord.

Then I came to Ikizu in Tanzania. Most kids refused to sing. Those who did sang as though they were singing a dirge. It was as if they were forced to sing. They reminded me of the ancient Israelites who were marched off in chains to Babylon. They hung their harps on the bushes and sat and wept on the shores of the Euphrates.[2] Their captors expected them to sing, but, of course, they couldn’t

Then Pastor Mbwana joined the school. He evidently saw what I saw. However, he knew what to do to remedy the situation. He had a repertoire of Swahili gospel songs all set to the much-loved folk tunes of the people.

Suddenly the students came to life. Their singing was joyous and heartfelt. They made the walls reverberate. My heart leapt for joy. I must admit that the alien, to me, music made me do a double take. I felt alienated, strange. Was this really Christian music? This was music glorifying the gospel. It just wasn’t western type music. I decided to embrace it.

Many of my fellow missionaries, however, were shocked to their core. My music appreciation never has been very cultural or classical, so I didn’t resonate with their horror. They wanted to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. There was a distinct beat to the new music. Those who had long taught and been taught about the evils of Rock and Roll feared it might lead to that. I talked with them and pointed out to them the beautiful change that had come over the students’ singing and themselves. This finally got them to hold off their criticism and wait to see what would become of it.

Thank you, Lord, that Your salvation reaches all people in their own setting.

  

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1F8AvJBfk

[2] Psalm 137

GPS and theWisemen

 

[1]

Matthew 2:9 Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁹ After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen in the east. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.

 

In the year 04 BC, electronic GPS was non-existent. It appears that many of the people never gave any thought to the shape of the earth they walked upon. Approximately 240 years previously, an African-Greek by the name of Eratosthenes, believing the earth to be round, set out to find its circumference. He knew that on summer solstice the sun was directly overhead in a deep well in what is now Aswan, Egypt. In other words, it cast no shadow there. By measuring the length of the shadow of a vertical pole in Alexandria and hiring some skilled surveyors to accurately measure the distance between Aswan and Alexandria, some simple mathematical proportions enabled him to calculate the circumference of the earth.

The U.S. has placed 31 Global Positioning Satellites in exact orbits around the earth so that each remains above a fixed spot on the equator of the earth. This way there are always at least 5 satellites within view of any point on earth—except the poles. Each satellite emits a distinct radio signal. Then a GPS device calculates the exact angle of four or five of these satellites. It then performs a series of very exact calculations and can tell the exact altitude, latitude, and longitude of the device. By pinpointing these “’tudes” on a map data base, we can see exactly where we are.

Think about the amount of knowledge and technology that is needed to perform this feat. Now imagine going back in time and trying to explain all of this to Eratosthenes! Undoubtedly, he would think that either you knew a bunch of magic, or you were stark raving insane.

If you have used a GPS to guide you to a place you were going, you know how it can occasionally actually mislead. One time, in the arid country northeast of Denver, Colorado, I asked the GPS to take me to the nearest Walmart. It got me off the freeway and led me along a dirt trail to a spot with no buildings in sight—just extremely dry grass and a few cottonwood trees. Another time, I was driving across a miles-long bridge in Louisiana when it demanded that I make a right turn off the bridge and into the bayou. A third time, while I was driving east across the Yukon in Canada, the GPS positioned me 50 miles north of the highway I was driving on. And I could go on and on.

The wisemen, or magi, were following a star—precursor to the GPS—to find the infant Christ. It led them directly to Herod’s office. They must have felt like I did on the occasions mentioned in the previous paragraph. It probably took them several days before the word came from King Herod that he blessed them on their way to Bethlehem and asked to be informed so he could come and worship the Christ, too. This showed God’s divine purpose to alert the Jewish equivalent of Washington DC to the birth of the Messiah. That evening, when they left the city, they rejoiced to see the star back in its place. Again, they followed it until it actually led them to the exact place where the Joseph of Nazareth family was living.

Father in Heaven, we are relying on you to lead us accurately into your kingdom.

 

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[1] https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/seeking-synchronicity-star-bethlehem-story

Holier Than Thou!

[1]

Romans 14:10 Good News Translation

¹⁰ You then, who eat only vegetables—why do you pass judgment on others? And you who eat anything—why do you despise other believers? All of us will stand before God to be judged by him.

 

Mom hated meat of any form. She had grown up a vegetarian, and by default she brought her family up as vegetarians. She and Dad had a prenuptial contract: Dad would never ask her to cook meat for him, and Dad could bring home guests anytime he wanted to.

Over their early married years Mom started to grow warts on her hands. She would show them to doctors and they would joke about her playing with frogs—but nothing they did cured her. She became very self-conscious about shaking hands with people. No one knew what might have caused them on her. Eventually she had well over twenty warts on one hand some fifteen on the other. Many of them were very big.

Several people suggested to her that if she ate meat, the warts might go away. Mom didn’t believe them. She knew that there are plenty or meat eaters who also have warts, so she poopooed the idea.

Our family were missionaries in Africa and we had our first furlough back to the States in 1946 and 1947. On our way back to Africa we took the SS Vink, a Norwegian cargo ship from New York to Lobito Bay, Angola. There were only four families, all returning missionaries to Africa that were passengers on board. Being a cargo ship there was a limited range of food available.

“I think I’ll try eating meat, since our diet is so limited on board here.” Mom said. And for three weeks she ate a heavy meat diet—and hated every meal. However, by the time she got to Africa, the warts had begun to shrink. So for the next six weeks after reaching home in Africa, she continued to eat meat. The warts all shrank and disappeared, and never returned. Mom switched back to a vegetarian diet for the rest of her life. The warts never returned.

Good Adventists in most countries are also vegetarians. Mom got a lot of criticism from her fellow Adventists for eating meat. She would explain that 1. She hates meat; and 2. She ate it only to take away the warts. They would reply, with a superior look in their self-righteous eyes, “Yes, people will find any excuse to eat meat!”

As a matter of interest, Mom died when she was 66 years old. Dad married again. His second wife also cooked vegetarian meals. Dad died at almost 101 years of age. Both of his wives predeceased him.

Lord, preserve us from judging others by our own perceived standards of righteousness.

 

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[1] https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/veggie-christmas-feast-box-organic 

Enthusiasm, Even for Work

 

[1]

Colossians 3:23 Holman Christian Standard Bible

²³ Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men,

 

In high school I was required to do somewhere between 4 and 8 hours of physical work a week. My first year there I worked for my math teacher Ken Thomas. He had created a little industry making honey frames to go in bee hives. With very primitive equipment he set up a mass production system that taught me quite a bit. He left at the end of the year, and I have no recollection of what I did for physical work my last two years. I assure you I had no enthusiasm for what I was doing. Part of that was that we got paid a tickey an hour. That was the equivalent of about 3¢ an hour. Even in those days that was a total insult to anybody. When my mother learned about it, she was furious, “I can’t even get you work clothes at that rate!” she fumed.

When I went to college at Andrews University, my whole attitude had changed. I shopped around at various work opportunities and found very little that would fit in my schedule. The head of custodial, Art Davis, saw me vainly searching for work: “I’ll give you work” he offered. I jumped for it. The next Sunday I reported for work. There was a call for all students to help reap ornamental gourds on the farm, so Mr. Davis sent a bunch of us over to help the university farm. They had planted a whole field of these pretty little fall decorative items.

I grabbed a bag and started picking all the good ones. It was back-breaking work because the gourds were all on small vines close to the ground. But I worked cheerfully and with enthusiasm. I didn’t realize that some people were watching the whole group of us who were doing this. Word got back to Mr. Davis. When I reported for work the next day, I discovered I had not only a job but also a friend in Mr. Davis. He told me he appreciated my enthusiasm and work ethic. He gave me the best paying jobs on campus and enabled me to pay my own way through college until I graduated.

I confess that the thought had not entered my head that I was doing this for the Lord. But over the next few years, I discovered that a lot of the bosses I had were not like Mr. Davis. They wanted to get the absolute most out of me and pay me the absolute least they could get away with. After the first year of full-time teaching and abuse, I said to my wife, Sylvia, “I have decided that I am working for the Lord, but humans are paying me. I will continue to work for the Lord.” She concurred with me. God saw to it that I always had a job and, although I never got rich, things went better and better for me and my family. I gained a lot of satisfaction from my work, and now we are comfortably retired. Praise the Lord!

Thank You, Lord, for prospering us and for giving us a satisfying life.

 

 

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[1] https://www.ebpsupply.com/blog/how-to-use-floor-buffer-vs-burnisher

Water on Mars?

 

 [1]

1 Peter 5:8-9

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁸ Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. ⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

 

When the serpent (devil) tempted Eve, he had very little to go on. He used ventriloquism to make it appear that the serpent was actually talking and promised Eve that, as the serpent, had gained the ability to speak by eating the forbidden fruit, she, Eve, would gain precious knowledge by eating it. She was tricked, and all the evil in the world today resulted from her falling for it.

Likewise, the devil will stoop to any deviant, low, and mean device to capture us. Shortly after I got to high school, we had a discussion in a Friday night meeting about things to do on the Sabbath. Some students suggested that since God is love, and that he gave us love, including physical love, we should read novels about love. A lot of students thought that was a good idea.

I countered that since God is love and, in the commandment, He stated that the seventh day is the “Sabbath of the Lord Thy God,” therefore, we ought to be reading about our love for God instead of physical love. My reasoning sort of brought the discussion to a close.

Several of my fellow students approached me afterwards and told me that my reasoning was very convincing. They would appreciate it if I used it “on our side.” Their compliments fed my ego, and I began looking for places where I could support “our” side, and there were lots of places that I could. Some of those places actually supported what I considered to be the Lord’s side. On the other hand, it is also easy to use reasoning to support evil.

For example, just the other day, I overheard someone commenting that as scientists have examined some global structures on Mars, they have come to the conclusion that, early on, Mars was covered by water. Those same scientists examine the very same structures on earth and conclude that the earth was never covered by water. Why not? Because that would support the concept of a Genesis flood, and that is unconscionable.

Oh Lord, may my reasoning be guided by your Holy Spirit!

 

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[1] https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/what-happened-to-marss-water-it-is-still-trapped-there