Gird Up the Loins of Your Mind

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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

 

God is iInfinity and Infinity is God

 

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Psalm 147:5 New American Standard Bible

⁵ Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite.

 

The NASB gives a marginal reading for [a] (the word “infinite”) as literally “innumerable.”

In 1968 I took a graduate course in Mathematics labeled Set Theory. There was a very astute Catholic nun in our class. We sort of gravitated to each other because we both openly identified ourselves as Christian. We often compared notes with each other and encouraged each other in the faith. One day our teacher talked about infinity. An obviously infinite set is the regular counting numbers[2] Z = {1, 2, 3, …}. This set Z is clearly infinite because there is no biggest number. [You can reason that if x is the biggest number in Z then clearly x + 1 is also n Z, so our assumption was false.]

Our teacher then reasoned that the set of all fractions Q of integers is also infinite because it contains the integers [{1/1, 2/1. 3/1, …} are all fractions.] He then proceeded to show that Q has no more numbers in it than Z. So, he called this kind of infinity countable or numerable. Then our teacher went on to show that the set of all real numbers R is infinite, but Cantor proved very ingeniously that R is not numerable. So, the infinity of R is a bigger infinity than that of Z. We call it uncountable or innumerable.

Realizing that there are at least two different infinities, one bigger than the other, the natural question is: “Are there more infinities, even bigger than the two we have discovered?” He went on to show that there are bigger and bigger infinities.

My nun friend and I walked out, both of our heads buzzing with this new concept we had talked about. Finally, she looked at me and stated, “I don’t care about all that. For me God is Infinity and Infinity is God! That’s all I need to know!”

Is God infinite for you? If so what kind of infinity is your God? How does this affect your concept of God?

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[1] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/egPANcJWOWs/maxresdefault.jpg

[2] We use Z because the word for counting numbers in German is Zahle. We use Q because the set of fractions can be described as the set of quotients of integers. And we use R for all numbers including numbers that are not quotients of integers, such as π, √2, √3, e, etc.

Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings

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1 Corinthians 2:9 King James Version

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

 

Jessie came to live with us from rural Kenya where she was born and grew up. She had come to study in the U. S. She’s my daughter by an interesting custom amongst her people. When a brother in the family becomes wealthier than the rest of the family, a man can send a child to the wealthier brother and proclaim the child to be his. The new father can do anything he wishes with this child. Often the child becomes a servant in the new family, However, sometimes the new father will educate the child and send him/her off on a lucrative career.

I was best man in her father’s wedding and, as such, became his “brother”. Since I lived in the States, I must indeed be wealthy. So, she showed up unannounced on my doorstep with a letter from her father stating that she is now my daughter and I can do with her as I wish. I was unaware of my position as her “father” until she handed me the letter.

Jessie’s father and mother were high school teachers in Kenya, so she came from an educated family. They owned a car and lived in a home much like ours here in this country. Since she aspired to be a medical doctor and was a high school graduate, I took her down and introduced her to the student finance person at our local college, who got her set on a firm financial footing so that she could attend the local college.

Most of the things she encountered in her new home were no surprise to her. However, there were a few things that she hadn’t experienced in rural Kenya. One thing caught her attention immediately: a garage door that opened and closed by the push of a button. Every time we went anywhere in the car, she insisted on pushing the button. It became an absolute delight to her to feel the power she wielded to make the door open and close, merely by the push of a button.

We have lived during an unprecedented age. Many things have changed since I was a kid. Where I once used a typewriter, I now have the computer I’m typing this blog on. As another example, we have a “new” car, and yesterday I felt it nudge me when I got too close to the edge of my lane on the freeway. That is totally new to me: even five years ago I wouldn’t have thought this possible. Therefore, I can’t even imagine the marvelous things God has prepared for us in the Earth Made New.

Wow! Lord! What a wonderful life You have in store for us! I can hardly wait! Thank You!

 

 

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[1] https://pixels.com/featured/what-god-has-prepared-deborah-d-campbell.html

God and Good Living

 

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 Deuteronomy 8:7 Good News Translation

⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a fertile land—a land that has rivers and springs, and underground streams gushing out into the valleys and hills;

 

Shortly after we were married, we spent five years on a rural mission station in Africa. I was sent there to teach math and science. We lived in a lovely mud brick house that was plastered and whitewashed, and had red cement floors. We had electric lights in every room and one electric outlet per room. The electricity was only on from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. If the electricity didn’t come on, I had to shoulder my tool box and hike a couple blocks and fix the generator. We often left the lights switched on, for obvious reasons. Our kerosene operated fridge needed the wick adjusted every so often or the flame would either go out or get too high and coat the ceiling with soot.

We had cold running water. I took a cold dip in the bathtub each morning. During droughts I would leave water in the tub for days and take a dip in it each morning. When we had water problems, I shouldered my tool box and hiked a mile down to the water pump—we had no car—and fix the pump. This might take only a couple hours or a fortnight. If the lights or water went off, it meant the entire mission was without lights or water. When I didn’t notice, someone would come and pound on my door—there were no telephones. When the drains were blocked anywhere on campus, it was my duty to unblock them.

We had a small garden with one papaya tree in it. Often someone would come by and pick my unripe papaya and come to my door and try to sell it to me.

By contrast, now we live in a lovely home about the same size in California. The house is wood framed with plaster walls. The floors are cement and covered with carpet or tile. We have lights and several outlets in every room and electricity all day long. On the rare occasion the lights go out, we wait for only a few seconds, and they come on again. We have an electrically powered fridge that needs no special attention.

We have hot and cold running water. In cool weather I take a warm shower each morning. In hot weather I usually take a morning dip in our swimming pool. Rarely does the water go off, and we are notified beforehand that it will be off. When the drains get plugged, I phone a plumber. We have several working phones that sometimes call us too often.

Two cars park in the garage. In the yard, we have a small orchard with lots of citrus fruit, guavas, avocados, figs, and bananas that supply us with more than enough to feed ourselves and the rats around us.

In the yard behind the first house I had dug a garbage hole, where we dumped all our garbage—when it filled up, I would light it and let it burn. It would sometimes burn for more than a day. Then I could pack it down and add more garbage. Here at this new house, I place all the garbage in three bins, which are emptied weekly, by the city.

Yet in both houses we found joy and love and comfort. It’s not just what one has or lacks that makes it pleasant or unpleasant. The attitude we adopt can make each sufficient and livable.

Thank You, Lord, for these common luxurious necessities that You keep us supplied with in all circumstances.

 

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[1] Our home in Africa