Gird Up the Loins of Your Mind

[1]

1 Peter 1:13 (Margin) Holman Christian Standard Bible

¹³  Therefore, when you have the loins of your mind girded ready for action, be serious and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

Our church has started a plan this year of reading the whole Old Testament in one year. I encourage you to adopt it. I encourage you to discover YouVersion.com for yourself. I first tried it several years ago, and it had so many features that I finally gave up in disgust. Judson Nelson, my brother-in-law, helped get back on it in a meaningful way a year ago. Thanks. Jud!

However, install it on your phone and sign into it. It has well over a hundred different versions of the Bible The second language I learned as a kid (English was my mother-tongue) was Afrikaans. At one point in my life, I learned the Lord’s prayer in Afrikaans. At the end of its Sabbath worship service, the church urges all its members to pray the prayer out loud together, “In any language that you wish.” So, I started praying it in Afrikaans. Well, after 60 plus years, I didn’t trust my memory. I checked out YouVersion.com, and after some experimentation, I found at least five different translation versions of the Afrikaans Bible! I have no clue how many English versions it has, but there are many.

As you open YouVersion, it gives you the verse of the day. At the bottom are several icons representing various popular features, one of which is “plans.” Click on that one. Click on the button “Find Plans”. One of the plans is “Bible Projects | Old Testament in a Year.” If you start today, you have only thirty-six sessions to catch up.

This morning, we read Genesis 12-14. It starts the story of Abraham. In chapter 14 Lot is captured by a Persian invading army and carted off with his wife and children towards Persia. In Abram’s entourage, he has 318 trained soldiers. Together with his allies they spring a night surprise attack, and he defeats the reveling invaders and recaptures all of their loot including the people they were taking back to sell as slaves in Persia.

What never ceases to amaze me is the size of Abram’s household. If he has 318 troops, he must have had well over a thousand people, including wives and children, etc. In other words, this was no lonely Bedouin camp with a dozen or so people camping out in the desert. He also had his troops ready for action so they could set out at a moment’s notice.

Our verse encourages us to have girded up the loins of our minds, ready for immediate action—in other words, be ready to fight to retain the grace we have been so graciously given. God has freely given us a vast store of His grace. Let us be ready to defend it at all costs until He comes.

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[1] https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FGNQHGXeC4TKxHrX6_XoXvOTERRJdyNqx5rfu9x4-BHI.jpg%3Fwidth%3D900%26height%3D471.204188482%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D34adac866fccb5d199143cdfe0f3a2124974bf2b

 

Laughter and Sadness

 

[1]

Proverbs 14:13 Easy-to-Read Version

¹³ Laughter might hide your sadness. But when the laughter is gone, the sadness remains.

 

My wife and his wife were good friends. Sylvia had encouraged Edna to publish a picture book of Biblical women. She had edited the book for her. She had even chosen to write a moving novella on the tragic life of Rizpah, one of Saul’s concubines, because of this picture book.

When Edna’s husband Leroy was cruelly struck by Parkinson’s disease and finally succumbed to it, I attended his memorial service. I had really not known Leroy, so I listened to the tributes paid to him by his children, his friends, and several of his pastors with great interest. I realized that He loved a good joke. A former pastor spoke of how he relied on the chuckles that Leroy sent him to lighten up his sermons, week by week.

We laughed with the speakers, but in the back of my mind I realized that behind all of the humor, there was a pervasive sadness. His family went home that night. The merriment was gone at 3:00 in the morning, just the aching void left in their lives.

The majority of us in the church that Sabbath, were people who were there to support the family. A funeral is where family members come, not only to pay their last respects, but to see others in the family. Others whom they may have not seen in many years, but really wish they had kept up with over the years. Family ties and bonds are renewed. Many old personal injuries, real and perceived are laid aside, as petty or meaningless from this distance. On some rare occasions old animosities resurface—which I do not believe is happening in Leroy’s family.

Help us in honor and brotherly love to prefer one another above ourselves. 

 

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[1] https://www.myfarewelling.com/article/how-to-plan-a-funeral

Divorce for Religious Differences

 

[1]

1 Corinthians 7:13,16 New International Version

¹³ And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. ...  ¹⁶ How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? …

 

In the 1940s and 50s we spent many years at Helderberg College of Higher Education where Dad was teaching. I remember a Mrs. Bower attending the Helderberg SDA Church every Sabbath. My parents became good friends with her. She and her husband lived in the Strand, a seaside village about 6 miles (10 km) from the college. On the rare occasions when we would go to the beach, we often stopped in to see her. She served us tea while she and my parents had a good visit.

Mrs. Bower had a great desire to see an Adventist church in her town—the Strand. She conducted many bake sales and other money raising events to help raise the money to build that church. My parents admired her for her almost single-handed efforts towards her goal.

Mr. Bower was not a believer, but he tolerated his wife’s devotion to Adventism—to an extent. Of course, he also criticized her publicly for her Sabbath keeping and singleness of purpose to build the church.

Years went by, and in 1954 our family moved to Solusi in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where Dad converted a 10-grade school into a 4-year university. We heard, through the “Adventist grapevine," that in 1955 Mrs. Bower finally achieved her goal, and a church was built in the Strand. A few years later she passed away.

[2]

 

In 1960 I returned to Helderberg as a college student. On one Sabbath at Helderberg Church, they held a baptismal service. To my surprise, Mr. Bower was one of the people who was baptized. After his baptism he gave a tearful testimony. He spoke of his devoted wife and how much he had laughed at and hindered her zeal for the Lord and a church in the Strand. He only wished he could do those years over again. He also wished he had taken his stand for Christ while she was still alive to rejoice with him. Every time I read First Corinthians, Chapter 7, I am reminded of the Bowers.

 

Lord, thank You for encouraging us to keep the salvation of our families in mind throughout our lives

 

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[1] A picture of the Strand SDA Church from Google Maps

[2] A close-up of the church’s 50^th anniversary celebration, from the previous picture. This memoir comes strictly from my childhood memories and may have gotten some details wrong, for which I apologize.

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Why Do the Wicked Prosper?

 

March 3, 2022

[1]

Psalm 73 Good News Translation

²  I had nearly lost confidence;
    my faith was almost gone
³ because I was jealous of the proud
    when I saw that things go well for the wicked. …

¹⁶ I tried to think this problem through,
    but it was too difficult for me
¹⁷     until I went into your Temple.
Then I understood what will happen to the wicked.

¹⁸ You will put them in slippery places
    and make them fall to destruction!
²⁸ But as for me, how wonderful to be near God,
    to find protection with the Sovereign Lord
    and to proclaim all that he has done!

 

During the late 1960s I taught at a rural boarding high school in Tanzania. The main support of the small village that had grown up near the school was poaching from the nearby Serengeti Game Reserve. Several villagers owned Land Rovers that they would use to drive out into the reserve at night and bring home animals that they sold for their meat and hides.

In order to avoid suspicion the Land Rover owners would strip the wheels, seats, and engine which would be kept by other villagers. They parked the stripped vehicles next to their homes. They were all old and showed no signs of having been used within the last several years. However, in the late afternoon a group of men would cluster around the vehicle. They would bring the missing parts and reassemble them. About five o’clock they would pull into the school gas station for gas. By the next morning they would have finished their hunting trip. The dusty vehicle would again be lying next to their home, wheels, seats, and engine all missing. It would appear to have not been used for a long time.

Several hunters would climb into the reassembled vehicle and drive out across a river that harbored both crocodiles and hippos. They were very careful to take a slightly different route each time so that no track appeared for rangers to follow them. They would mainly shoot large antelope, hack the carcass into liftable size pieces, and load them into the back of the landrover. When It was full they would head home and sell the meat to the villagers, including some of the staff of the school. Sometimes the Land Rover would break under the heavy load; then they would come on campus and seek me out to weld the break.

One of these poachers was much more prosperous than the others. His Land rover was practically new, a pretty green color. He dressed well, spoke passable English, and was much revered amongst all the villagers. We became friends. While he was making a delivery to one of the staff on campus late one night, I asked him if he had official permission to shoot the game. He smiled and assured me he did and produced an official looking requisition that had several animals listed on it.

One night he was out in the reserve loading the animals they had shot into his Land Rover when the rangers came upon him. Instead of jumping into the vehicle and fleeing like was usually done, he decided to have a shootout with them. During the fight he was killed. The rangers brought the vehicle back to the village with his body in it. The other hunters were carted off to jail. This time I saw his blood mingled with the blood of the animals. Of course, this did not put an end to the poaching.

There was a huge outdoor funeral for him. I joined hundreds of people who came to it, not only from that village, but many of the surrounding villages. Our school chaplain preached the sermon. He preached for several hours, while everyone stood or sat around patiently and listened. He covered the grand themes of Christianity in detail, including salvation, grace, the state of the dead, and the Sabbath. He told me later that he knew that this was the only time many of these people would hear the whole Gospel. He felt compelled to use the occasion to the best advantage for the Lord.

Oh Lord, thank You that You look after Your followers so well, even though we might not be as prosperous as the world’s tycoons. 

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[1] https://www.nrt-kenya.org/news-2/2020/11/5/10guardians-grevys-zebra-champion-stephen-lenantoiye

Water on Mars?

 

 [1]

1 Peter 5:8-9

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁸ Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. ⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

 

When the serpent (devil) tempted Eve, he had very little to go on. He used ventriloquism to make it appear that the serpent was actually talking and promised Eve that, as the serpent, had gained the ability to speak by eating the forbidden fruit, she, Eve, would gain precious knowledge by eating it. She was tricked, and all the evil in the world today resulted from her falling for it.

Likewise, the devil will stoop to any deviant, low, and mean device to capture us. Shortly after I got to high school, we had a discussion in a Friday night meeting about things to do on the Sabbath. Some students suggested that since God is love, and that he gave us love, including physical love, we should read novels about love. A lot of students thought that was a good idea.

I countered that since God is love and, in the commandment, He stated that the seventh day is the “Sabbath of the Lord Thy God,” therefore, we ought to be reading about our love for God instead of physical love. My reasoning sort of brought the discussion to a close.

Several of my fellow students approached me afterwards and told me that my reasoning was very convincing. They would appreciate it if I used it “on our side.” Their compliments fed my ego, and I began looking for places where I could support “our” side, and there were lots of places that I could. Some of those places actually supported what I considered to be the Lord’s side. On the other hand, it is also easy to use reasoning to support evil.

For example, just the other day, I overheard someone commenting that as scientists have examined some global structures on Mars, they have come to the conclusion that, early on, Mars was covered by water. Those same scientists examine the very same structures on earth and conclude that the earth was never covered by water. Why not? Because that would support the concept of a Genesis flood, and that is unconscionable.

Oh Lord, may my reasoning be guided by your Holy Spirit!

 

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[1] https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/what-happened-to-marss-water-it-is-still-trapped-there

You Will Trample Snakes

[i]

[ii]

Psalm 91:13 

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹³ You will trample down lions and snakes,
    fierce lions and poisonous snakes.

On a pleasant Saturday afternoon in the late 1970s I took the family walking on the slopes of Helderberg Mountain. We were on a logging road with a tall bank on one side and a steep downhill slope on the other. I was curious about what was on the bank, so I ran and jumped and hooked both hands on the top. Then I pulled myself up until my head came up level with the top.

There, staring me straight in the face no more than six inches from my nose was the face of a puff adder. It was looking me straight in the eye, and its tongue was frantically flicking in and out. This puff adder was fully grown, maybe three feet long and as big around as my wrist. Its bright yellow color showed it had recently shed its old skin. Puff adders can strike from any position without coiling first and have the reputation that a person or animal, once bitten, dies very quickly.

Deciding instantaneously that I had seen enough, I pushed myself back away from the bank and dropped onto the logging trail below. Although they strike extremely rapidly, they are otherwise somewhat slow and methodical. So we walked away from the spot and enjoyed the rest of our outing.

That evening we invited a bunch of science and math students to our home where we made popcorn and homemade ice cream with a hand cranked White Mountain freezer. This was a favorite Saturday night entertainment, and many students came and brought their current romantic interests. While we were talking and playing games, I mentioned my close encounter to the group. Some of them got very excited. One of them used to catch puff adders and turn them in to a place where they were milked for venom to make anti-venom serum.

The next afternoon about four or five students came to our house and then hiked up to where I had found the puff adder. One of them carried a forked stick, and another brought a hessian sack to put the snake into. We climbed the bank at a different place and then crept up on the snake. It was still lying in the same spot soaking up the sunshine. One of the boys pinned the snake down behind its head with the forked stick. Then another brought the sack up. I took one side of the sack opening while he held the other, and we brought it up to the head of the snake.

Being more careless than I should have been, I allowed my hand to get close enough to the snake’s head so that it struck at my hand even though it was still pinned down by the forked stick. I felt the edge of its mouth strike the end of my thumb. Fortunately my thumb was not quite close enough for a fang to pierce my skin. Needless to say, my thumb did not remain there for a second attack. The students and I quickly got the snake into the sack, and we hiked back home.

Thank you, Lord, for being ready to rescue me even when I’m being careless with a death dealing snake!

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[i] https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/353251164519422743/?lp=true

[ii] http://itsnature.org/ground/reptiles-land/puff-adder/

How Do We Determine Truth?

[i]

John 4:24

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Sylvia and I were studying with a woman who showed much interest in what the Bible teaches. She had a roly-poly little dog that was covered in long black curly hair. He would welcome us each time we came with the exuberance only a little dog can show. Then he would settle in her lap, and she would feed him chocolates while we talked. (Don’t believe all the stories about how bad chocolate is for dogs. It certainly wasn’t bad for this little dog. If you are older, you’ll remember that doctors used to say that chocolate was bad for us, too.) This woman liked and accepted everything as we went along.

Eventually, we reached the study of what day was the day of worship. We pointed out that Jesus kept his Sabbath on Saturday, the day the Jews went to the synagogue. We talked about how the disciples kept the Sabbath after Christ’s death and resurrection. We prayed about it and invited her to church on the next Sabbath. We also told her to think about the topic. Naturally she had an excuse for not joining us the next Sabbath.

The next time we met to study with her, the little dog danced and barked his excitement at seeing us again. His whole body wagged with his tail. We inquired about what thoughts she had about the Sabbath. She answered readily, “Let’s pray about it!” We concurred.

“Jesus, should I keep the Sabbath!” she demanded in a loud voice. Then even louder, “Answer me, Jesus! Do you want me to worship on Saturday?” She continued her pleading and demanding for well over five minutes.

Neither she, nor we, heard any response from Jesus or anyone else. Finally she turned to us and said decidedly, “See, Jesus didn’t answer me. He would have answered me if he really wanted me to keep your Sabbath.” We spent some time talking about how God speaks to us. Sometimes He does speak to people directly and openly. Much more often He chooses to let us reason from the Bible what course of action He expects us to pursue. To worship Him in spirit and truth we need to be open to both sources.

We visited a couple more times, but her spirit had cooled, and though she didn’t express any animosity towards us, it became evident that the Holy Spirit could no longer reach her through us. So we parted as friends and fellow Christians but not as fellow believers.

Lord, please help me to follow You as You reveal Yourself to me.

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[i] https://www.thepointcommunity.net/2015/06/12/spirit-and-truth-frankfort-61415/

Sabbath in Pisa Italy

Mark 2:27

King James Version (KJV)

²⁷ And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath

[i]

My family stood on the Piazza dei Miracoli (the Square of Miracles) in Pisa, Italy. This Sabbath day was indeed a miracle with some white fleecy clouds in a deep blue sky. It had rained for days, and now it seemed that God smiled on us. We had visited the Cattedrale di Pisa, a magnificent church with an expensive marble façade. I love the great cathedrals of the world. I love their splendor, but even more I love the reverent silence gracing the old stone structures.

As we walked into this cathedral, our voices had automatically hushed to awed whispers. I touched my finger to the holy water and made the sign of the cross, not that I believed it had any redemptive effect. I was too far gone for that. But it seemed to be the thing to do. My family watched in silence with skeptical smiles on their faces. They made no attempt to do likewise.

Outside again we entered the famous Campanile and climbed up to the bells. The tower leans precariously away from the church, and climbing its stairs is almost like climbing a ladder of a ship in a storm. This tower was made famous when Galileo simultaneously dropped two spheres of the same diameter but different masses. The experiment demonstrated to the watching crowd that Aristotle’s claim that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, was false.

Dad owned the only camera in our family. I suggested he take a picture of the beauty of the church and bell tower. He adamantly declined to do so by saying, “It’s Sabbath, son.”

“But Dad, it’s the only time we’re ever going to see it!”

“Yes, but a picture of this tower is found in every physics textbook.” Dad had taught physics for years and had a masters degree in physics, although at this juncture he was actually the president of a university.

Dad had taken pictures before on Sabbath. He took pictures on Sabbaths afterwards. Sabbath was wonderful day of family togetherness. We walked beaches, climbed mountains, explored gardens and other places of beauty. However, to Dad the physicist, this tower represented work, and as such he distanced himself from it to the point that he wouldn’t even take a picture of it on Sabbath. Otherwise, Dad worked hard all the time, night and day. His good health lasted him past his hundredth birthday, and I attribute it at least partially to his celebrating every Sabbath by not working on it.

Thank You Lord for the Sabbath rest You made for us!

#California, #IE, #SABBATH, #PISA, #LEANINGTOWER, #GALILEO, #PHYSICIST, #WORK, #TENCOMMANDMENTS, #CATHEDRAL, #ITALY, #GRAVITY, #HOLYWATER, #FACADE, #PHOTOGRAPHY, #CENTENARIAN

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[i] http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2012/05/precariously-leaning-towers-of-world.html

From Lusaka to Harare--Almost

[i]

Galatians 1:8, 9

King James Version

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed.

Hitchhiking from Lusaka, Zambia, to Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, I caught a ride in a little, old gray Hillman. The driver, a kindly man old enough to be my father, stopped and offered me a ride as far as Salisbury, now Harare, Zimbabwe. I accepted gratefully, tucked my suitcase in the boot (trunk), and climbed into the front seat next to him. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and spoke of our various occupations. I was selling Christian books in the Copper belt region of Zambia to earn my way through Helderberg College. I forget his actual occupation, but he was a leader in the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zambia.

After an hour or two we started down the escarpment into the Zambezi River valley. Suddenly a great, tropical thunderstorm burst upon us. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and the rain came down so heavily that we couldn’t see beyond the bonnet (hood) emblem of the car. He found a spot on the shoulder and pulled over to let the rain ease off.

While we sat there he started talking very earnestly about the doctrines he held so dear. One of the topics he spoke about at length was the eight New Testament verses that Protestant pastors use to support their keeping Sunday, the Catholic holy day. I had been exposed to those verses previously and countered with proofs he couldn’t contest that none of them supported a change of the holy day to Sunday. Another was the Arian heresy that Christ was merely a good man and not divine. Again I countered with Scriptural evidence that indeed Christ is God.

We drove down and across the mighty Zambesi and on up the escarpment on the other side. As we travelled he went through the major doctrines of the Witnesses, and I very ably countered each one. I confess that at the time I was not a believing Christian and was doing it purely for the joy of intellectual debate. My knowledge of Scripture clearly matched his and was probably better. My speech exhibited neither Christian love nor concern for his soul. On the other hand, he was really pleading with me for my soul.

Eventually I had angered him beyond what any God fearing person should ever do. Hours from Salisbury there was a Sinoia Hotel made for travelers who would stop for the night or at least for some liquid refreshment along their journey. The Hotel was well off the road, but he stopped along the shoulder, got out, and took my suitcase and placed it firmly on the ground. “You’re getting out here!” he commanded. I did.

The exuberance of besting a knowledgeable opponent lasted a long time. But the shame and remorse of misrepresenting my gracious Savior has lasted longer. The poor man did not understand the grace of Christ, and it should have been my responsibility to convey this to him. Unfortunately at the time I had no better understanding of grace than he did.

Thank You, Lord, for Your limitless grace and love for all of us, JW’s included. May I not be accursed because I teach “another gospel”!

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[i] https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2369/5715069061_6b1f693e34_b.jpg