I Will Always Keep You Safe

Isaiah 46:4 Contemporary English Version

⁴ I will still be the same
when you are old and gray,
    and I will take care of you.
I created you. I will carry you
    and always keep you safe.

 

It is Sylvia’s birthday today as I write this. She loves the Lord. She has always loved the Lord. When I got disillusioned and was ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater, she still clung to the Lord. Growing up she aspired to be a missionary to Africa, to the islands, to Asia, to South America, no matter. We ended up going to Tanzania in Africa. When it came time to leave Africa, she resisted until the Lord almost had to chase her out.

Two of her babies were born in Africa. Numerous times her first daughter nearly died of malaria there, but our great God took care of both her and the child He gave her.

She had placenta previa when her second daughter was born, and she praised the Lord that He placed her in the greatest hospital in Iowa. He had her up and walking the next day.

Later South African Airways tried to ban her from flying because she was with child. They were heartless and anxious to destroy her by abandoning her in the big city of Paris. However, God carried her and kept her safe. He forced SAA to abandon their malicious attempt.

When she was “old and gray,” she fell some thirty feet down a rock face, broke seven bones, and gashed open her head. God sent a helicopter to pick her up and take her to hospital. Again, she was up and walking around the next day.

She was a passenger in a car when an 18-wheel truck T-boned her. In what appeared to be a sudden death situation, God stepped in and slid the car out of the path of the accelerating truck after letting the truck push it sideways for over 50 feet. Insurance totaled the car, but she got out and walked away.

Yes. She had her bout with COVID-19. For ten days she could barely keep either food or water in her stomach. She ran a fever and coughed. God helped modern medicine shake her out of death’s clutches.

Thank You, Lord, for taking care of and keeping Sylvia safe through more than eight decades!

 

Hurry to Obey

 

 [1]

Psalm 119:60 Good News Translation

⁶⁰ Without delay I hurry to obey your commands.

 

Dad once commented that the Lord had a hard time with him. Unless God knocked him up the side of his head with a 2 x 4[2], He had a hard time getting Dad’s attention. At times I know I am like that.

Sylvia and I went to Africa as missionaries shortly after we got married and I got an education. Or intention was to be missionaries for the rest of our lives. It had been three years of double-digit inflation and no cost of living (COL) adjustment. It was December 1978 and we were not making it financially. Sylvia was not able, at that time—with three kids, to hold down a job. In 1979 we were due a furlough. We prayed the Lord to either give us a substantial COL adjustment or we would take it as a sign that we should return to the U.S. on permanent return (PR).

We fully expected the Lord to give us a COL because we had pledged our lives to the mission field. He didn’t. Because of our pledge, we delayed accepting His directions. We delayed for four months. We actively tried to get an increased income flow—to no avail. We were sure we had misread His intentions. I felt a growing level of stress pressing on me. It was almost palpable. I got a job offer in the States and had delayed deciding on that too. Suddenly it was either accept it or lose it. We urged God to tell us what to do. That evening the two by four struck—God said in a sardonic voice, “I already told you!”

Thud! Finally, I felt it. I responded immediately, resolutely “Okay, God, we’re going on PR!” Stress vanished. In its place I experienced a profound peace.

Grant us, Lord, the ability to recognize Your voice and “hurry to obey” it.

 

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[1] https://www.taproot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/115567s.jpg

[2] A board of indefinite length with a cross section that is two inches by four inches—commonly used in California to construct houses.

Hospitality to Total Strangers

 

[1]

1 Peter 4:9 Contemporary English Version

⁹ Welcome people into your home and don't grumble about it.

 

Oliver and Geraldine Lien were the foundation of the Adventist church in Iowa City. Oliver was head elder, and Genevieve was the church treasurer. While we were there, I was elected an elder in the church. She told me that one of the duties of an elder in a small church was to be hospitable to strangers who came into town and called the church seeking hospitality—usually a bed for the night but sometimes just a meal.

One time he passed a call on to me from an older couple who were Adventist missionaries in a far eastern country. They were on furlough and just passing through. They were full of the grace of God and stories of their experiences. They had served there for many years and were quite mystified by modern American life. They drove an old car that looked like it had more than the usual number of miles on it. I didn’t learn how they got the car, or who owned it. They were headed east to visit family and friends and planned to be there for several months.

Having recently returned from five years of mission work in Tanzania, we understood a lot of their feelings and empathized with them fully. We encouraged them to stop by on their way west. They did, indeed, stop by on their way west several months later. They were headed back to their mission field and another three years or more of service. They exuded a glow of the joy of the Lord which they shared liberally with us.

All visitors were not of the same caliber as these. One such stole a sizable sum of cash from my brother, who was also visiting us. He had spoken glowingly of attending his Adventist church back in Texas and sharing in their Sunday church potlucks. That should have warned me that he might be dangerous. Christ spoke of having naïve followers, and I have been made aware that I have fallen into that classification on more than one occasion.

We still rejoice in that special visit from our missionary friends. We value the experience immensely and wouldn’t trade it for anything. In our current situation in a California metropolis, we sense only too well the problems the unhoused bring to our community. What would Christ have done and how would He have lived if He had come to America in the 21^st century?

Lord, thank You for encouraging us to show hospitality even though it backfires on occasion.

 

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[1] https://media.swncdn.com/via/22746-1-pet-4-9-fbjpeg.jpg

To Tithe or not to Tithe

[1]

 

Isaiah 25:1 King James Version

25 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

 

Alan[2] phoned me the other day and told me he had reached a low spot in his finances. “I have reached the end of my finances. I owe $100 tithe. If I pay the tithe, I will have nothing to live on for the next two weeks. What shall I do?” He was experiencing a major crisis of faith as well as finances. He has been paying tithe for the better part of a year, and all has gone well. Now he was completely at the end of his rope.

Immediately I thought, “Been there—done that!” I didn’t say that of course. But my life flashed before me in an instant. I remembered our second year as missionaries in Tanzania, 1968. The mission organization had miscalculated my salary the during 1967 and wrote me that they were going to have to take it out of this year’s salary. “We know you will need some money to live on, so we will send you $20 a month so you have some cash.” Even in Africa, that was a mere slap in the face. Yet God came through beautifully.

Years later, at Helderberg College in South Africa, the organization had forgotten to take out our U. S. Social Security tax for two years. It was calculated on what our salary would have been in the States. In Africa our salary was roughly a quarter of that. So when they took out the equivalent of 3 years SS tax, it left us very little to live on. Besides that, the country was experiencing double digit inflation, and we received no cost-of-living adjustments. But, true to God’s promises, we came through debt free. Then God organized, against our desires, for us to transfer to the States. That definitely turned out to be the best move for us at the time.

In the States we have been essentially a one salary family. Throughout our whole married life—58 years in June, we have tithed our income. Most of the time we have tithed after taxes. I have reasoned that my taxes go to finance various wars including Afghanistan and Iraq, support for unwed mothers, and welfare for people who choose not to work; so, I could not, with a clear conscience, count that as “increase”.[3] Even in the States I have seen our bank balance come down to less than $10. God has always stepped in—sometimes at the very last minute—to help us.

Now that we are retired, we are living very well. When I get concerned about what will happen to us if runaway inflation destroys our savings, I remind myself that God has never let us go hungry or without a home to live in. He will see us through.

I reminded Alan that in Malachi 3:10 God has urged us to “Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.”[4] If he chose not to tithe, God would understand, but if he chose to pay his tithe and trust God, he would experience a great thrill as God rewards his faith. This is the only point in our Christian experience where God urges us to test him!

Lord, thank You for challenging us to test You. And thank You for coming through time and again for us, often in the nick of time.

 

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[1] https://thechurchadmin.com/do-church-members-have-to-tithe/

[2]  I have changed the name and circumstances, but the experience is very real and happened within the week of this writing.

[3] Deuteronomy 14:22 (KJV) Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.

 [4]  Today’s English Version (1982)