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

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)

Old Age

Titus 2:2

King James Version (KJV)

² The aged men [are to] be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

Seventy-five years have gone by since I was ripped out of my mother’s womb. In my youth my parents had a lot to be proud of and a lot to be disappointed over. I have pushed the limits in most things that came my way. In some directions, pushing the limits has been both exciting and rewarding. At other times it has been embarrassing and even on occasion expensive.

I purchased a Ford F150 4x4 pickup that I don’t need on a daily basis in my line of work. It averages 12 miles per gallon of gasoline, which makes it the most expensive vehicle I’ve ever owned.

It has taken me through hundreds of miles of raw desert, both beautiful and ugly. It has brought home a trailer load of my daughter’s belongings from Kansas down a thousand miles of glare ice and falling snow. Numerous times it has taken me across the Rocky Mountains on sand, dirt, and rocky trails sometimes barely visible. I have confidently challenged roads and trails from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. It uncomplainingly sports thousands of scratches running from the front grill to the tail gate from desert thorn bushes crowding the tracks.

Sylvia, my faithful life partner, loves adventure as much as I and has supported and accompanied me in our varied experiences. We installed a cap over the pickup bed, and on long trips we put a mattress back there. This allows us to sleep almost anywhere we can find a spot to pull over, including Walmart parking lots. We have slept—or sometimes tried to sleep—in our F-150 during fierce, tornado-alley rainstorms, desert heat, and mountain frost and have actually done very well for ourselves.

In many ways our experience with the F-150 parallels what God has put up with in my life. He has supported me through near death from West Nile Virus and on Los Angeles freeways. He has rejoiced with me in celebrations like children’s weddings and graduations and commiserated with me through loss of many friends and the death of my parents. Like the Ford, He has given us of the beauties and bounties of life and walked with us during poverty, scarcity, and sickness. 

Lord, as old age embraces us ever more firmly, continue to support us, and renew our faith, love, and patience.

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