Pease, Peace, When There Is No Peace

 

[1]

Jeremiah 6:14 King James Version

¹⁴ They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace."

 

On October 13, 2025, I started this blog when President Donald Trump stated: “We have Peace. There is peace.” I’m sure he fondly hoped that there would be peace.

A thousand or two years before Christ, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. They were long separated because Sarah, Isaac’s mother, couldn’t take the way Ishmael, fourteen years his elder, was taunting Isaac. The two brothers buried their father. That was probably the last time they, or their descendants, ever did something together in peace.

None of the descendants seem to have learned how to forgive when something evil was done to them. Instead, they feel obliged to seek revenge at all costs. Their vengeance seeking may yet plunge this world into a nuclear war that would threaten the survival of the human race. I’m sure that this attitude is the one that caused Christ to say that if we forgive men their sins, God will forgive us our sins, but if we don’t, neither will He forgive us. Matthew 6: 14-15.

It appears that Trump needs to learn the lesson of forgiveness himself. He has still not forgiven California for not voting for him and has refused Federal help for the massive fire burn areas near Los Angeles of last winter.

Lord, help us to be forgiving in love.

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[1] https://www.npr.org/2025/01/10/g-s1-41873/la-fires-los-angeles-palisades-eaton-hurst-california

God is Love

 

[1]

Exodus 20:8-12 King James Version

⁸ Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: ¹⁰ But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

 

The only time God spoke to humanity in His official position, He gave the ten commandments to them through the most impressive set of fireworks ever seen.

The fourth commandment is the center of His presentation. In it He identifies Himself as the Creator of heaven and earth and sea. He states that He made these in six days and rested the seventh, which He calls the Sabbath.

Let’s do a thought experiment. God identifies Himself as a creator of heaven, earth, and sea—that is, of our universe. I think in this way. Suppose God enjoys and administers his vast creations. The biggest number the Greeks named was a myriad. So maybe God spends a myriad years enjoying His creation. During this time His marvelous intellect explores other ideas for another, a different universe. Mentally, He plays around with the physics of this new universe, and the creatures He would like to have. His ideas are vast and sometimes quite strange: think of giraffe vs. rhinoceros, humming bird vs. ostrich, sloth vs. human.

God’s excitement builds over those ten-thousand years until He can’t hold it in. He spends a week creating this new universe. Then he monitors carefully how things develop there while He continues running His vast other universes. His overwhelming rule is that of love: the love of God for His creatures, the love of His creatures for Him, and the love His creatures have for each other.

Time goes by. Myriads progress one after another. Envision this happening since time immemorial. There is no first universe creation. God has always been doing this! Then God’s greatest helper decides he can run all these universes better than God has been doing. He has been God’s right-hand angel since time immemorial. He skillfully starts the greatest coup d’état ever attempted. God in love does not kill him outright, but he is driven from heaven. He chooses to take up residence in God’s latest creation. He swiftly defeats its lord—Adam and Eve. Then God lets him develop his insurrection until everyone in all of God’s universes recognizes that Satan is a brutal imposter.

We are in the final scenes of this fierce struggle. Love eventually overcomes evil. Notice that EVIL is simply LOVE spelt backwards with “I” taking the place of the hug, “O”. Without love, life becomes misery or evil.

I awoke this morning with words of the song “The Love of God” running through my mind.

The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
  The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,
  And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
  On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
  All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
  The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

Frederick M. Lehman, 1917
v. 3 by Anonymous/Unknown

 

Dear Lord, I love You and yearn for Your final banishment of evil and establishment of Your kingdom of love!

 

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[1] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flookaside.fbsbx.com%2Flookaside%2Fcrawler%2Fmedia%2F%3Fmedia_id%3D611018337688184&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=42026be4f25a4ff3dcf7a5f67b18ad81d7193cd05fa28bd9db2cc981f76d4cd8

 

God is a Consuming Fire

 

[1]

Deuteronomy 4:24 Holman Christian Standard Bible

²⁴ For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

 

There are many devout, Bible believing Christians, a number of them my friends and relatives, who tell me that God never kills anyone. God is too loving to kill anyone. Christ, Himself said: ¹⁶ “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (HCSB)

When I mention events like the Flood, the response is that God provided a way of escape—the ark—and they chose not to avail themselves of this. They perished of natural causes. Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea—they could see that this was a trap, and yet they entered it of their own volition. Sennacherib’s army besieging Jerusalem? I forget the excuse offered here. Hellfire in the latter days—responses vary from the non-existence of hell to the surety that God’s love will save everyone. Ananias and Saphira—just a cautionary tale against lying to God, or Scripture does not say that God killed them. The shock of being discovered lying gave them each a heart attack. Korah, Dathan and Abiram who rebelled against Moses just happened to be swallowed by an earthquake, and their 250 supporters just happened to catch on fire.

What we all agree on is that God is extremely powerful and loving. What makes me feel very uncomfortable is when someone says “God is a consuming fire!” means “God is not a consuming fire.” We are treading on extremely dangerous ground when we start dictating which parts of the Bible are true and which are not.

Dear Lord, Thank You for promising us wisdom and an understanding of Your Word. Help us to live in love with all Your children.

 

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[1] Carl Joseph Ministries https://carljosephministries.com/god-is-a-consuming-fire/

Here a Little, There a Little

 

[1]

Isaiah 28:13 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹³ Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them,

“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

line upon line, line upon line,

            here a little, there a little,”

in order that they may go and fall backward

            and be broken and snared and taken

 

This past week I watched The Final Events of Bible Prophecy, by Doug Batchelor. It reminded me of the times I have studied, and what I used in my studies with others. For example, when studying the importance of the Sabbath, Batchelor covered all (is it?) New Testaments texts that mention the “first day” of the week, plus numerous NT and OT texts that mention the Sabbath, to convince us of the importance of Sabbath keeping. I have listened to another pastor (from a different persuasion) use a similar technique, and the same eight texts, to convince me of the sanctity of Sunday.

Once while hitchhiking from Lusaka to Salisbury (Harare today), I was picked up by a Jehovah’s Witness elder. We had to wait for at least 45 minutes near the Zambesi River as a tropical storm dropped so much rain that we couldn’t see the road we were on. While he was driving and waiting, he gave me studies of the key doctrines of his denomination. In those days I was an irreverent 17-year-old, who had studied all those texts he used in 10 years of study in Adventist parochial schools. I would use those same texts to show that they could also support a completely alien doctrine to his. Eventually I became so obnoxious that he couldn’t take me anymore. The road we were on was in dense bush and very wild. When he was near the Sinoia Caves (now called Chinhoya), about 400 km from Lusaka and 100 km from our destination, he pulled over, took my little suitcase from his trunk, and told me had taken me as far as he was going to take me. Then he drove off leaving me standing beside the road.

In retrospect I find the following:

1.      He was a far better Christian than I. He dropped me near the only bush hotel on this desolate road where all of Africa’s “Big 5” freely preyed. Anywhere else I would have been easy prey. At Sinoia Hotel, I could at least find food, water, and a bed.

2.      He knew his Bible very well and enjoyed the comfort of resting in his faith. He supported his faith from scripture, confidently.

3.      My uses of his texts to support a different view than his may have started to cause him to doubt his faith. He did what the Bible admonishes us to do—flee from the devil.

4.      I worry that using the proof-text method to support my faith may result in my going or falling backward and being broken and snared and taken!

Surely Isaiah viewed the Bible study technique described in verses 10 and 13 of chapter 28—the proof text method—as valid. Yet he also sounds the warning that this method could become a snare.

Lord, may Your Holy Spirit guide our study and lead us into all truth!

 

 

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[1] https://bible.art/p/eknuZ6meXfZX7KL7nN0D  I take no responsibility for the misspelling in the picture. I do like the complicated design--which matches the complicated reasoning we sometimes employ.

Big City Astronomy

 

Psalm 19:1 King James Version

19 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

 

Big City Astronomy

 

 

Great astronomical observatories tend to be on high mountains far away from the dwellings of people, with good reason—city lights. Go out in a parking lot sometime and look up. It’s almost impossible to tell whether it is cloudy or clear. At the right times, you may see the moon.

Last week my brother sent me a text message with his first picture of two dots of light in a dark sky between two palm trees. The upper one (brighter) is Venus and the other Jupiter. On Sabbath morning, I went to my bedroom window before 6:00 a.m. and could see the dots, one nestled on the top electric line. I have blue circles in the second picture, around the dots to help you find them. That one was almost too late to be able to see them. The out-of-focus square lines are the mosquito netting on my bedroom window. I took the last picture at 5:00 this morning (August 11). Do you see how close the planets appear to be to each other? The picture was highly adjusted by my phone to make it look more like daylight. The planets are close together above the fencepost. From here on out, you will be able to see both of them before sunrise, but they will be separating steadily. It is major chore to see God’s handiwork in today’s illuminated world.

The sad fact is that today’s light successfully obscures most astronomical events to us living in town. For many years I used to take a group of my students up to Las Vegas to a major computer show. On our way home we would stop at a casino and buy supper. Then we would caravan down I-15 freeway in the dark, I would often exit the freeway in the middle of the Mojave desert, miles from any lights. The caravan would follow me off the freeway. When we stopped in pitch darkness, the students would all run up to my car as I got out, enquiring: “What’s wrong Dr. Clarke?” “Why did you stop?”

When I had their attention and their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I would point skyward and say “look up!” Expressions of amazement would escape their mouths. These city slickers had never before seen the glory of God’s vast starry heavens.

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:6.

I know this is easier written than done, but go out into a very dark night miles away from all city lights, and take you time looking at the marvelous astronomical handiwork of our caring Creator. Spend 20 minutes or more letting the peace of God flood your soul.

Jesus our loving savior will become more real to you, after all He is the one who created this universe: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1: 1-3 Take your mind off of the emaciated, persecuted, haggard, bloody star of “The Passion” And become astounded by the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, almighty God—Jesus Christ.

His redeeming grace is freely offered to you, and His steadfast love and invincible power will see you through to the home He has prepared for you.

 

 

 

 

The Sun is Running out of Energy

 

[1]

Psalm 102:25-27 Good News Translation

²⁵ long ago you created the earth,
    and with your own hands you made the heavens.
²⁶ They will disappear, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like clothes.
You will discard them like clothes,
    and they will vanish.
²⁷ But you are always the same,
    and your life never ends.

 

Since I was ten years old, I have been enamored by the universe. Some things have puzzled me, especially from a creationist world view. [Of course, from a big bang world view I was stymied from the git go—the Big Bang.] One puzzle is the size and apparent antiquity of the universe. Another is the temporary nature of everything. This also appears to be puzzling the psalmist

As we examine the sun, it appears to be a giant bonfire, consuming fuel (hydrogen) at a prodigious rate. Evidently the fuel will run out, whether or not there was ever sin in the universe. This has been disturbing to me. The Lord has designed obsolescence into our home, our planet, our solar system. The psalmist recognized this: “They will disappear, but you will remain. … You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish.” God does not plan that we will remain on the “third rock from the sun” forever! The psalmist concludes “But you are always the same, and your life never ends!” Besides God, the only constant in the universe is change.

In my more adventurous puzzling, I realize that God is definitely not part of our universe. He made the universe; therefore, he antecedes the universe. This is a most comforting concept. Since God is not in our universe, He is outside our universe. If He is outside our universe, then He can be as close to us as He wishes, but since He is outside it is impossible for us to detect Him. Of course, it also means He can interact with us in whatever way He pleases—such as healing, communicating, and adjusting events. It also means that when our sun starts running out of fuel, He can place us in orbit about a brand-new sun.

Thank You Lord that you are always the same especially in our universe where the only constant is change. We count on You for we know You are thinking of and preparing for every change.

 

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[1] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/solar-system-scramble/scramble-text.html

Biblical Contradiction

 

[1]

2 Chronicles 17:6 and 20:33 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁶ His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord; furthermore, he removed the high places and the sacred poles (or Asherah) from Judah.

 ³³ Yet the high places were not removed; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their ancestors.

  

Since January I have been following a plan to read the Old Testament this calendar year. Today, May 31, I read 2 Chronicles 17-20. I don’t think I ever read these four chapters together in one sitting before. 2^nd Kings and 2^nd Chronicles trace the history of divided kingdom of Judah, amongst other things. There were two classes of kings of Judah. One class did right in the eyes of the Lord, and the other class did evil in the sight of the Lord. For those kings who did right, a phrase is usually added stating that although they did right, they did not remove the high places.

My thoughts have always run like this when I read these books. “High places” were common and had existed from the days of Abraham and his offering of Isaac on Mt. Moriah when God substituted a ram for his sacrifice. Solomon, following his worship of God at the high place in Gibeon, received the famous promise by the Lord to be made wiser than any other king. So high places were the traditional places to worship God in those days. However, they often became corrupted, and false gods were also worshipped there.

Most good kings did not take any action against these high places. However, Hezekiah and Josiah did make concerted efforts to remove them. I began to feel that ancient scribes in Hezekiah’s or Josiah’s time who copied the Bible and preserved it for future generations added the criticism that each “good” king was guilty of not removing these high places, to accentuate the reputation of Hezekiah or Josiah, as “better” kings.

Somehow it escaped my notice that in describing the reign of Jehoshaphat, the text indicates that he removed the high places in 17:6, but in 20:33 the standard criticism was attached that he had not been able to remove them. One way to handle this obvious contradiction is to postulate that some scribe had indeed amended the text like I suggest above, but it had escaped his/her notice that what is written in chapter 17 contradicts the later generic statement.

Ellen White comments: “I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views, which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and explaining another. True seekers for truth need not err; for not only is the Word of God plain and simple in declaring the way of life, but the Holy Spirit is given as a guide in understanding the way to life therein revealed.”[2]

God has preserved His Word with its messages to us to lead us unerringly into His kingdom. And now He is seeing to it that His Word is being provided to everyone who wishes to read His offer of salvation.

Thank You, Lord, for preserving Your Word from antiquity until now.

 

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[1] https://www.bibleplaces.com/blog/2013/04/picture-of-week-high-place-of-dan/

[2] . E, G, White Early Writings, p. 220.2.  (1882)

 

Mighty Resurrection

 

[1]

Matthew 28:2-4 Good News Translation

 ² Suddenly there was a violent earthquake; an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled the stone away, and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid that they trembled and became like dead men.

.

In our Better Than 50 Club meeting the week before Easter, I asked the members to bring a text they liked about Christ’s death and resurrection.

John Champlin spoke about Abraham’s answer to Isaac’s question about a lamb for the sacrifice. “God will provide Himself a lamb.” He submitted that Abraham knew that God was providing His body as the sacrifice. He understood what God’s purpose to abolish sin would be.

Amongst other responses to the Easter message, I suggested: Satan, with the cooperation of God’s people had successfully killed Christ by the most inhumane method they could think of. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had been assigned Christ’s dead body and had buried it in Joseph’s rock tomb. On Sabbath the high priest and Pilate, the Roman governor, had stationed a hundred tough Roman soldiers around the entrance to the tomb. No human disciples were going to steal His body and circulate the rumor that Christ had risen. Satan posted legions of his most ruthless angels around the whole area. No angel would dare break through their guard! Satan gloated over his victory over the Son of God.

Although He told them numerous times, Christ’s disciples never understood that Christ would rise on the third day. But God did. On the dawn of Easter Sunday, God’s mightiest angel descended directly to the tomb in a blinding flash of lightning. Satan’s legions of angels on guard, scattered in all directions. The flash of light and bolt of thunder caused a great earthquake and the Roman guard to fall as dead men about the tomb. With his little finger the angel flipped away the massive rock covering the tomb.

The angel called in a death-defying voice: “Your Father is calling You!” Christ immediately stood up. The grave clothes fell from his glorified body, and he strode out of the tomb, a conqueror.

The angel sat down on the rock he had flipped aside just as Christ’s devout women followers came up to the tomb, carrying embalming ointment. They peered into the empty tomb and then turned a questioning eye towards the mighty angel.

The angel spoke to the women. ‘You must not be afraid,’ he said. ‘I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has been raised, just as he said. Come here and see the place where he was lying. ⁷ Go quickly now, and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from death, and now he is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see him!’ Remember what I have told you.’” (Matthew 28:5-7 GNT)

“The Lord is risen!” Our salvation is sure. Let us rejoice in our glorious future.

Dear Lord, we thank You and praise Your name for Your unconceivable sacrifice and Your marvelous love for us.

 

 

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[1] https://baptistspirituality.org/2014/04/24/the-day-after-easter-fear-and-joy/

The Power of God's Word

 

 

Matthew 7:6 (Good News Translation)

Do not give what is holy to dogs—they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs—they will only trample them underfoot

I have been attending a memoir writing workshop by Rose Monge. For this week she assigned the following prompt: “Select a tangible artifact, prized possession or object that has meaning to you. What and why is this artifact so significant? Write about it.” What follows is my response.

I had been teaching for 5 years at a Christian high school in Tanzania. The seniors, whom they called the Form IVs, finished their external exams on Thursday (November 25 1971) and were scheduled to leave for home on that day. They made a special request to stay another day, “to say goodbye!” I encouraged the principal and the faculty to deny the request. I feared they could be up to some mayhem; however, their request was granted. The other classes didn’t take their final exams until the next week, so we had regular classes Friday. I had Form I mathematics at 7:00 a.m. that day. As usual, the teacher who had the first period class each day was also expected to start off with a ten-minute devotional with the students. I locked the classroom door because I saw some Form IV students walking around outside. I started the class on time. However. the Form IVs, started banging on the windows and door and shouting and making more noise outside the classroom. They continued this raucous behavior for the entire period. It was so loud that I couldn’t lecture. When the period was over, I opened the door and started to leave the classroom. However, the 10 disgruntled seniors were not done yet. They formed a circle around the door, one of them menacingly swinging a rawhide whip. The Form I students crowded around the door behind me, so there was no retreat there, Evidently, they were expecting something to happen. The student with the whip stepped up to me and said, “I hear you have called us dogs!”

I said firmly, “I never called you dogs!” I paused, “but Jesus Christ[1]  did. ‘Do not give what is holy to dogs—they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs—they will only trample them underfoot’.”

“Where!” demanded the whip kid.

I opened the little Testament pictured above that I carried in my shirt pocket to Matthew 7:6 and handed it to him, “Here!”

He took this proffered Testament, read it in silence, after a moment’s hesitation closed it, handed it back to me, turned on his heels, and stalked away. His fellows followed him. Although it is well worn, I still treasure this little Todays English Version testament with a color striped cover that saved me from a beating that day.

I stepped into my office door, which was right next to the classroom. I turned to lock the door, but my hand was shaking so badly, I had a difficult time. After locking the door, I sat there for a whole class period and praised the Lord. Fortunately, I had a free period at that time, and slowly my shaking stopped.

Meanwhile the disgruntled boys went to the principal’s office. He told me about the encounter afterwards. They demanded that he come out of his office. He saw the whip which the ringleader was waving menacingly. He declined to come out. They still demanded that he come out so they could talk with him. Whether it was the aura of the principal’s office or just the fact that they figured they couldn’t swing the whip effectively in the office that caused them to finally turn around and leave the building.

They still thirsted for blood, so they went over to the vice-principal’s home and pounded on his front door. His wife came to the door, and they demanded to see him. His wife quickly assessed their menacing attitude and said, “Sorry, he’s in the shower!” and closed and locked the door. They stood around waiting for a long time, hoping for him to come out. Finally it became time to catch the bus, and they dashed off.

Thank you Lord, for using such a little thing as this Testament to quell the fury of the disgruntled youth, and saving me from a beating.

 

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[1] Matthew 7:6 GNT

Massive Disasters

[1]

Romans 8:38-39  Good News Translation

³⁸ For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, ³⁹ neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

When I booted my computer this morning, there was a horrific picture of the fuselage of a passenger jet lying upside down with smoke billowing from one end. The wings had been ripped off the plane, and the whole airfield was covered with snow.

This year has already had more than its shares of disasters. Sylvia and I have both contracted Covid and recovered—again. We have visited loved ones some of whom have suffered much worse, including heart attacks, mental breakdowns, and other major health problems—hey! We are in our ninth decade, and many of our loved ones are there, too. Many Americans succumb to death in this decade.

Unquenchable fires have ravaged great parts of Los Angeles. Fierce winter storms have flooded and frozen much of this nation. It seems like there have been more catastrophic plane crashes than usual. Thousands of people have been snatched off our streets or from their jobs by a vengeful and unsympathetic government and flown to some destination across the globe without any due course to law—and that’s America. Hundreds of government workers have been fired with no warning and left to flounder on their own. Internationally whole cities have been bombed out of existence. Those who have fled have nothing to return to.  

Are we headed into the prophet[2] Daniel’s “time of trouble such has never was since there was a nation”? I rejoice with St. Paul that no amount of disaster and trouble can separate us from the love of God, not even the devil himself!

Lord, thank You that nothing can separate us from You. All we have to do is to daily remind You, by reminding ourselves, of Your promise to keep us from being separated from You.

 

 

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[1] https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/california-los-angeles-fire-pacific-palidades-la-evacuation-latest-news-wctv8656d

[2] Daniel 12: 1 (KJV)