Midnight Answer

 

[1]

Psalm 84:12 Contemporary English Version

¹² Lord God All-Powerful, you bless everyone, who trusts you.

 

Two Canadian students, Sarah and Nolan, told me they wanted to write a historical novel about my mother. Intrigued, I consulted with them over a period of three months or so last year. This summer when Sylvia and I drove east on vacation, I decided I’d like to meet them while we were out there. They both seemed excited by the prospect. While back in Michigan, I tried to set up a time to see them. Over a period of a week or more, I got more and more frustrated because I couldn’t work something out for the convenience of the three of us. I found it impossible to get hold of Nolan by phone. I was discouraged beyond measure.

On Saturday evening, June 22, we were at Sylvia’s cousin’s home in Oswego, Illinois. After walking their dog Munchkin around the block, we retired to our room. We chatted about what we should do next, wondering seriously if the Lord didn’t want us to see them and decided to lay out a fleece. At 8:12 p.m. CDT, I sent Nolan a text: “Nolan, as you know we are planning to be in Canada soon, and we would love to see you. Please call me on WhatsApp or regular cell phone or text me so we can finish laying our plans.”

We decided that if he didn’t call or text, we would know the Lord didn’t want us to stop and see them. We went to bed and to sleep. At 12:45 a.m. CDT, my phone jarred me awake. It was Nolan. We chatted for 18 minutes. During the conversation I asked him to arrange for a meeting with him and Sarah, together or separately. I would arrange my trip to be there at the time or times he arranged.

Relief and peace flooded me. I lay back on the bed and laughed for the next 20 minutes while Sylvia slept the sleep of the just. My mind went through the experience of Abraham and Sarah, when they laughed at the news that they were going to have a baby boy—Abraham 100 years old and Sarah 90! I laughed because of God, who doesn’t sleep, arranged the call so quickly and in the middle of the night.

 

Remember the events? In Genesis 17 God tells Abram he is going to have a son through Sarai and changes both of their names. “Abraham bowed with his face to the ground and thought, ‘I am almost 100 years old. How can I become a father? And Sarah is 90. How can she have a child?’ So he started laughing” (Genesis 17:17 GNT).

Then in Genesis 18, God visits Abraham’s camp on His way to Sodom, and again He announces that the couple will have a son. Sarah is inside the tent listening to the conversation. “So, Sarah laughed to herself and said, ‘Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.’

“Then the Lord asked Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Can I really have a child when I am so old?”’…

“Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. ‘I didn't laugh,’ she said.

“‘Yes, you did,’ He replied. ‘You laughed.’”  (Genesis 18: 12-15 GNT)

The encounter impressed them so much they named their son Isaac, which is Hebrew for “He will laugh!”

 

We all agreed to meet at the St. Thomas SDA Church On June 29, 2024. This was also the church’s 125^th anniversary celebration, so it was crowded. We not only had the privilege of meeting Nolan, a third-year student at university, and his family—parents, and sister—but also Sarah and family—parents, two sisters and four brothers. Sarah narrated a video history of the St. Thomas Church. We gained a rich blessing from the faith of both families. Now we look forward to reading their book.

 

Dear Lord, thank You for Your personal intervention in our affairs when we need Your wisdom!

 

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[1] https://www.facebook.com/stthomassda/

Why Coso Junction Rest Area?

[1]

Proverbs 3:6 King James Version

⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

 

We had planned to take a trip to the north during this month of August. Sylvia has a brother who lives in Washington, and I have three cousins there. Besides that, we have a number of relatives and friends along the way. We laid out an itinerary and phoned the people we planned to visit. Remarkably, they were all going to be home and welcomed us to stop with them.

We debated whether to take our Ford F150 pickup or our Kia Forte sedan. Sylvia was anxious to take the car—it is very comfortable and interfaces well with our phones, and gas mileage is at least a factor of two better than the pickup. I love the car, but for traveling purposes I love the F150. We have a cap on the back and a comfortable bed that is always ready for us to just climb into. We can park it anywhere, and that becomes our home! One night a couple weeks ago, in our Forte, we pushed the seats back and stretched out to see if we could sleep in the Forte. Sylvia did pretty well; I finally drifted off to sleep about 2:00 a.m. The Forte trunk size is ample so that we don’t need to place any of our luggage on the back seat. That way we could stretch out the front seats without having to find room for the baggage behind them. We agreed to take the Forte.

When I rolled out of bed Monday morning, August 5, the day of our planned departure, I said to the Lord, “You know that I haven’t really talked to You about this trip. Bless us on the highway! Speak through us as we talk with our loved ones in route. May we be a blessing to them.” Then I thought a bit and prayed further, “If You want us to not take this trip, let us know. If you want us to see other people on the trip that I don’t have on our itinerary, we’ll gladly adjust our itinerary.” This increased my confidence as we packed the car, dropped off Katie with our son Fred and his wife Uni and their big dog Oso, and headed north.

The day was hot, about 105º F (40º C), as we filled up with gas and headed up the Cajon Pass and then north on US 395—dubbed locally as the Suicide Highway. By the time we reached the summit of the pass, the temperature had also risen to 114º F (45º C). The Forte has a much better A/C than the F150, and it ate up the miles while keeping us in comfort. Well past the suicide part of the highway, we came to the Coso Junction Rest Area. We stopped for the bathrooms. We usually walk around the rest areas to get a bit of exercise but didn’t here; it was still 111º. We had pulled out our map and were examining it when my phone rang.

 It was my ENT specialist, Dr de Jager: “I’ve just gotten one of your lab reports. You’ve got Staphylococcus Aureus. It has probably coupled with your MRSA. You need to get to the emergency room.”

“I’m 168 miles (270 km) away from home in the middle of the Mojave Desert.” As I said it, I remembered the prayer of the morning.

“Well, I feel that it is very important that you get attention right away. Find a hospital or urgent care nearby and go to the ER.”

Almost the closest was Riverside Community Hospital at home. If I was going to be hospitalized, I wanted it to be near home. It was 5:00 p.m. We turned around and headed home. I was exhausted and asked Sylvia to drive for a while. Sensing the urgency, she headed down the road at break neck speed. After about 50 miles of that, I traded places with her and headed home as though we were just traveling normally. It was 9:00 p.m. when we pulled into the hospital, and they threatened to admit me. Around 2:00 a.m. they gave me a script and told me to go home.

The net result is that we have postponed our trip north—indefinitely. By the next day I was feeling significantly worse and am happy that the Lord indicated what He wanted us to do.

Thank You, Lord, for taking an active part in my life. Now I pray that You will help me lick this disease.

 

 

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[1] At Coso Junction CA. The Sierra Nevada Mountains on the left have Mt. Whitney, Highest point in the lower 48 states; https://igx.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/2226492_O7xexnk_dUZWCf9iIyKR_BeU1OLTSmFE3gJkUPpMQmM.jpg

Our Father in Heaven

[1]

Matthew 6:9 Common English Bible

⁹ Pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name.

 

Our church uses a liturgical style worship in its 9:00 service, following loosely the Revised Common Lectionary. The actual liturgies are written locally by people who gently try to correct some of the perceived Adventist departures from common modern norms. For example, the Adventist church has prayed the Lord’s Prayer publicly in unison for a long time—certainly as long as I can remember. It has always used the words found in the King Jame version of Matthew 6: 9-13

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. …”

At one point I learned that in twentieth century English the word “which” is usually used for animals and inanimate objects and “who” is used for persons, so I unilaterally switched to “who” when I pray the Lord’s Prayer, but I never promoted it generally:

“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. …”

But then as “thee” and “thou” fell into disuse, the NKJV has it as

“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. …”

However, in our liturgical service, I don’t remember adopting that version. In our service our pastors tried to switch everything possible to gender neutral. Longstanding terms for God such as “Lord” and “King” were dropped and replaced by the gender-neutral term “God”. In fact, masculine pronouns like “He,” and “Him” were replaced by never using a pronoun for God, even though the English sounds uncomfortable. There were a number of persons who tried using “She” and “Her” on an equal basis with “He” and “Him.” But that never caught on.

Several people expressed strong resistance to the use of “Father.” Some went so far as to indicate that they had experienced a terrible father who abused them continuously while they were growing up. They stated categorically that they would not be a Christian if they had to use “Father” when referring to God. All agreed that they couldn’t use “parent:” it just didn’t cut it.

After a protracted church board meeting at which I was not present, our liturgy appeared with the first part of the Lord’s Prayer:

“Our holy Guardian God, hallowed be Your name. …”

Using “Guardian” instead of “Father” really sounds awful to me. I get mental images of the whole foster parenting situation where guardians have abused their foster children. I also get images of a prison situation where prisoners are guarded in a cruel and heartless manner. It totally erases the loving care that many fathers have had for their children—some notable exceptions are inevitable in a sinful world. However, Jesus chose to use “Father” in His prayer and throughout His ministry. He was more aware of men who have abused their fatherly position than we are; yet He used “Father” consistently. 

I mentioned my feelings about “Father,” to both our head pastor and the current writer of the liturgies. I was politely ignored and dismissed. When I am liturgist, I consistently replace “Guardian” with the word “Gracious”. It’s not that my choice is superior to theirs: it isn’t. It just relieves me from using the offending term without disrupting the service. No one has mentioned noticing it so far.

Heavenly Father, thank You for ignoring our petty feelings and foibles and exercising true fatherly love and grace in Your dealings with us. May Your kingdom come soon.

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.quotationof.com/heavenly-father.html

Son of Man

 

[1]

 

 

John 6:27 Common English Bible

²⁷ Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One^[a] will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.”

 

Our Adventist church uses a liturgical style worship in it’s 9:00 service, following loosely the Revised Common Lectionary[2]. I attend this service regularly and have the privilege of reading the liturgy at least once in most months of the year. I value the experience and gain a personal blessing and try to make the reading a blessing for those who hear me. The actual liturgies are written locally, which often gently try to correct some of the perceived Adventist departures from common modern norms. For example, the Adventist Church official policy is to only ordain males to be pastors. So our current liturgies try to encourage us to think in a gender neutral manner.

On Sabbath, August 3, 2024 the gospel reading for the day was John 6:24-35. The liturgist chose to read it from the Common English Bible (CEB) version. Most English versions, in fact all of English versions on the Bible Gateway website, except the CEB, read “Son of Man,” the name which Christ tended to call Himself. The CEB, which I quote above, tries to be gender neutral and translates the name as “Human One.” Because most people will not recognize this appellation, it gives a marginal reading at “[a]” as the “Son of Man.” I knew it sounded strange to my ear when he read it.

My personal feeling is that this steals the intended meaning of the text, in order to appease a fanatical element in the church. This turns our attention away from Jesus’s intended meaning of His Mission as Messiah to that of gender equality issues. The Adventist mission is to prepare the world for the Second Advent of Christ and Sabbath sanctity and the end of the Great Controversy—the Universal Climax to the eradication of sin and Satan. Gender inequality is an unfortunate result of Satan’s rebellion against Christ. It has societal importance, and Satan is using it to direct our attention away from our divinely assigned mission.

Lord please keep our attention on what You have assigned us to accomplish in these last days of earth’s history.

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[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=gender+inequality+images&oq=GEner+inequality+ima&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhge0gEKMjE4ODFqMGoxNagCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#vhid=ZTJdnZU4eonWHM&vssid=l

[2] See the Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Common_Lectionary