Rest Awhile

 

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Mark 6:31 King James Version

³¹ And he said unto them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while:” for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

 

We often join my brother Elwood and his family and friends for Friday evening dinner. At the last one I told some family stories, and the group seemed interested. I’m sure that if I gave a quiz afterwards, the group would fail it dismally—but one never knows.

I usually drive home through the back streets of Norco on a road that runs close to the Santa Ana River, the river that gives Riverside its name. Then we drove around the west and north sides of the La Sierra Hills.

We watched the setting sun as we drove along. The many small golden clouds in the western sky sported gilded linings, and golden rays of light shone in every direction. As the sun approached the western slopes of the Los Angeles Mountains, I stopped in the parking lot at the entrance to the Hidden Valley Nature Center.

Getting out of the car, I sat on a rock next to the car as we watched the sun slide slowly and inexorably behind the mountains. The glow of the clouds morphed gently from shining gold into a rich orange and then faded into grey as the clouds were engulfed by the earth’s shadow.

The impatience within me wanted me to drive on, but Christ’s invitation to His disciples who were so busy they didn’t even have time to eat, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while,” beckoned me to reflect on Christ’s experience.

I’ve been brought up on Rudyard Kipling’s philosophical poem, “If”—that ends with this:

“If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run

  Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”

I asked myself what right I had to sit on a rock and watch the beauty of a sunset.

That, of course, is a standard question that was entirely out of place for the occasion. We may envision Christ as rising up long before daylight and working until long after dark every day. It is, however, a vision that only the great deceiver could thrust upon us. Christ’s life is better envisioned by His attending a days-long wedding feast and, as His first miracle, providing extra wine for the feast. I credit Him for the beautiful interlude into an altogether busy schedule and a gorgeous welcome into His day of rest.

 

Lord, thank You for creating rest while You were creating this earthly home for us.

 

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[1] https://www.pickpik.com/sunset-dawn-nature-mountain-turkey-landscape-73211

Chris Oberg

[1]

Isaiah 58:10

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁰ and if you offer yourself to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted one,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
and your night will be like noonday.

 

Chris Oberg has been our lead pastor for 13 years. This is a long time for an Adventist pastor to remain at the same church. But where could she go? This church is one of the largest churches in the South-Eastern Conference of the Adventist Church. Most other conferences are not hiring female pastors.

She has long fought for the acceptance of women as equals in the sight of God and especially in the the church. One would expect that, of course, because of her gender. She has become more and more interested in helping the unfortunate, the discriminated against, the impoverished in our community. She took in the LGBTQ+ community and created a place for them to worship and be accepted. She assigned a pastor to foster a separate building for health and wellness.

Chris resigned her post as lead Pastor of the La Sierra University Church to promote the cause of the less fortunate in our Riverside area. The last count of homeless in Riverside County found 2,884[2] individuals. There are many more who are desperate for the bare necessities of life.

Now with this new move, she should be fulfilling the prerequisites of this promise in the book of Isaiah, and we should see her career blossom and her fame grow. Her work should become known everywhere, even in the dark places of this world. Go for it, Chris!

We pray for God’s guidance in pursuing her new mission. We also pray for the choice of a new pastor for our church!

 

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[1] https://www.adventistreview.org/141510-16

[2] https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/health/2020/12/28/riverside-county-homeless-point-time-count-canceled-2021/4066741001/

Vaccine Competition

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John 14:2

Good News Translation

² There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so.

 

My oncologist instructed me to go and get vaccinated for COVID-19 before coming back to see him. I went to our Riverside County website to sign up for a vaccination. There I found four forms I had to fill out in order to request an appointment. Without an appointment it was impossible to get the vaccination. The county had just opened more appointments. I picked a site and started to quickly fille out the four forms. Before I got to the second form, I got the message: “Error due to the rate of applications.” I groaned and started again. This time the same thing happened.

I picked another site and started again. This time I got through three of the four forms. I was elated, except then I received a similar error message. So, I went through site after site and date after date. There were four vaccinations sites available and five dates available. When I had finished all the sites, I started again at the beginning. Finally, I got through all four forms and was given a review of all the data I had submitted.; I was exhausted but somewhat elated. Then I received another error message—just as fatal. I groaned and started again.

This time I got to the actual appointment site. The instructions were “Choose a time slot and register for it.” There were time slots starting at 8:00 a.m., then 8:07, 8:14, etc. all the way to 5:00 p.m. Next to each time slot was the message, “appointment not available.” My heart plummeted. Undaunted, I picked another site and started again. Same result. Finally, I worked my way through every site and every date and got the same message. All 1,280 slots had been taken by other people.

Not only was I totally exhausted, but I was just plain out of luck! What could I do? Absolutely nothing! I was like the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda. Every time the angel stirred the pool, (John 5:4) someone else made it into the pool before he could get there. Then Christ came along and bypassed the system. It was obvious I needed Christ to come along and help me bypass the system.

That’s exactly what happened in the person of Dr. Vo. That same afternoon Sylvia got an attack of hypertension, and I took her into the Riverside Medical Clinic Urgent Care. Dr. Vo urged both of us to register for the COVID vaccination at the RMC website. She checked it out, and because we were both patients of the RMC, we each already had a slot. We just had to accept them.

Thank You, Lord, that we already have rooms You have prepared for us in Your Father’s house. We eagerly accept them.

 

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-distribute-a-covid-19-vaccine-ethically/

 

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[i] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-distribute-a-covid-19-vaccine-ethically/

Tread on Serpents

April 25, 2017

Luke 10:19

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁹ Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

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Thirty or more years ago when we were searching for a home near La Sierra University, we spelled out several criteria. We wanted a home near enough for me to walk to work. It had to have four bedrooms, one for us, one for our boy and one for our girls, and one for a guest room especially for grandparents. We hoped it would have a swimming pool so we could keep an eye on what our kids and their friends were doing. We also hoped it would have access to countryside where we could walk for recreation. Of course, it also had to be in our price range.

The home we got couldn’t have matched these criteria any better. Its selling point to me was that it was situated in a little valley with desert hills on three sides. We could walk up into the hills by simply walking past three houses, and we were into the hills. During a normal year the hills turn a rich green color in the winter rains. For spring, summer and fall the hills are the color of dried grass.

Almost every day over the last 30 odd years we have walked at least some distance up into the hills, usually with a dog at our heels or galloping merrily ahead. The dog’s favorite pastime is chasing, unsuccessfully, every lizard that makes a mad dash to get out of our way. Occasionally it would be a bird, ground squirrel or rabbit. Even more rarely, there would be a lone coyote or as many as four or five them to give us a short thrill of the chase.

Sylvia and I have delighted ourselves in counting the number of species of flowers actually blooming on a particular walk. Usually we count anywhere between a dozen and two dozen species. During spring after the hills have turned brown, we find the richest number of flower species. The other day we had counted over 40 species and were at the very top of our La Sierra range and heading home down a very rough trail.

As I walked I suddenly felt something soft under my right foot, not the usual rock hard surface. In the shortest of moments, far shorter than it takes to think it, let alone write it, I shifted the weight off my right foot and made a lunge for Sylvia. I grabbed her by her waist and pushed her backwards and away. I guessed it might have been a snake I had stepped on and didn’t want her to be bitten. She thought I had lost my balance, which I have been doing since my bout with West Nile Virus, and fought to keep me upright. Neither of us fell, and I swung around to see what I had stepped on.

Right where my foot had trod a thick red western diamond backed rattlesnake was slithering slowly away from us. It hadn’t so much as tried to rattle and warn us. It had also not bitten me. I don’t know whether it had tried or not. I was wearing heavy jeans and thick leather shoes, so it might have tried but failed to penetrate to the skin. Furthermore, red western diamond backs are known to be reticent to bite unless directly attacked. But I do feel that I was under the direct protection of the Lord. In the words of Christ in the next verse:

"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Thank You, Heavenly Father!

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[i]  http://www.desertusa.com/reptiles/red-diamond-rattlesnake.html

Conversation Starters

[i]

John 4:27New

International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Recently, at the delightful reception of a beautiful wedding, eight of us were sitting at a table where 6 of us were more or less closely related. The other two were total strangers. For some reason I personally feel uncomfortable ignoring the presence of someone who is in close proximity to me. I guess that in the past I have been snubbed enough times to not like the feeling.

Introducing myself, I asked the couple their names. They told me. Over the next half hour I found out they live in Riverside, where I live. Riverside has close to a half-million people, so it’s no surprise that we didn’t know each other. They’re happily married after some thirty years. They have a 24 year old daughter who might be getting married one of these days and two teenage sons.

They’re hoping to move north and live within 30 miles of the Canadian border once they both retire. Naturally, their children do not share their joy in living in the wilderness. “What are you going to do for fun, Dad?” The couple loves the out of doors, especially hiking, an interest we share enthusiastically. We spoke of places near Riverside that we enjoy visiting. When we parted at the end of the evening, we hugged each other as though we had been long time friends.

Later I couldn’t help thinking of how I had come from being a dedicated nerd and introvert to the point where I could talk to people like these. Many years ago a long time friend introduced us to Amway. I worked Amway hard and lost money consistently. It just wasn’t my kind of life. But I learned one thing from these zealots. They encouraged me to “FORM” strangers. This is an acronym of a way to get others talking, so I don’t have to, and make friends in the process. Ask the new acquaintance about these:

F    their Family;

O    their Occupation;

R    their Recreation;

M    then present your Message.

I was encouraged to listen closely and, as soon as possible, try to write down names and important points for later reference. Although I never sold a box of soap (Amway), I found this FORM acronym of great help whenever I found myself sitting uncomfortably next to someone I didn’t know.

Try it on someone you’re sitting next to on a plane or standing next to in an interminable line. It is absolutely amazing what you’ll learn. Usually the former stranger parts from you thinking about what an interesting conversationalist you are because you let them do all the talking.

Lord, thank You for an easy way to talk to strangers, like You did with the Samaritan woman. And give me wisdom to weave Your message of love into the conversation.

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[i] http://infed.org/mobi/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/conversation_jason_schukltz_cc_by_nc_2_flickr_jdawg_484678361.jpg