Praise God Continuously

Revelation 4:8 

The Voice (VOICE)

⁸  All day and night they were singing.

Four Living Creatures: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God who is the All Powerful, who was, and who is, and who is coming.

One Saturday night our family had been playing games and enjoying a fun time together. About midnight the phone rang. I answered it, wondering who might be calling that late.

“This is Officer Joseph[i] from Richfield, Utah, Police Department. Do you know Elvin Oblander?”

“Yes,” I replied guardedly.

“PRAISE GOD!” He exclaimed excitedly, a huge amount of relief in his voice.

“How do you know him?”

“He’s my wife’s uncle.” Again I said this cautiously.

“PRAISE GOD!” with even greater fervor.

Officer Joseph went on to tell me that they had found Elvin driving the wrong way down the I-70 freeway. They had taken him in, given him a drink of water, and then started him back onto the freeway. He headed down the right direction but began weaving back and forth across lanes in a haphazard way. This time they felt they couldn’t let him drive further for his own safety as well as that of others. They had asked him whom he knew, and he couldn’t remember a single person’s name, just that he had a sister. They searched his car and pockets and found lots of pieces of paper.

Officer Joseph had called everyone whose name they found on any of these pieces of paper. Either the person didn’t pick up the phone or claimed they didn’t know him. Finally he found a piece of paper where Sylvia had written her name and phone number (minus area code) and personally put it in his pocket.

I explained how Elvin was exhibiting the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. But he had seemed to be able to get around just fine. He had been invited to the reunion of a nursing class whom he had befriended and taken on outings in his car many years previously. The added pressure of extremely high temperatures and his not drinking enough must have accentuated his problems.

“You understand we can’t let him drive anymore. Is there any way you could come and get him?” Officer Joseph inquired.

I asked him how far Richfield was from Riverside and then did a quick calculation in my head. It was roughly a 24 hour round trip. If we left right then and drove all night we would get to Richfield by about noon. Allowing a couple hours to get him and his car and eat lunch, we could be home by about two o’clock Monday morning. I had to teach at eight o’clock that morning. So it was doable. Sylvia would have to go with me to drive Elvin’s car.

“Yes, we can do it.”

“PRAISE GOD!” This was at least the eighth time he had praised God. Once we learned more details of his trip and the mishaps along the way, we too praised God for Elvin’s safety.

Praise God! for looking after His own, especially when they are suffering from dementia and heat stroke.

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[i] I don’t remember his actual name.

40 Years

Nehemiah 9:30

The Voice (VOICE)

³⁰     Year after year, Your patience endured.
        Your Spirit animated prophets, and they spoke many warnings to them.
    In not listening and turning away from the prophets,
        they turned directly into their advancing enemies.

[i]

Forty years is a common number in Scripture. I have always enjoyed looking at numbers and how they are used by Bible writers. For starters God took the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert to the very edge of their promised land of Canaan. Then the people did a strange thing: They raised a hue and a cry about wishing to die in the wilderness. God, in His love and mercy, said to them in effect, “Okay, I see that you feel inadequate for the war in front of you, I’ll grant your wish.” Over the next 40 years their wish was fulfilled to the last person. Meanwhile God waited patiently for a completely new generation.

In the period of the judges, the Lord raised up warrior-leaders. He brought deliverance from severe oppression, and at least four times the peace lasted for 40 years until the death of the judge (Othneil, Deborah, Gideon, Eli). Again for 40 years they languished under the power of the Philistines until Samson delivered them. The kings of the united kingdom, Saul, David and Solomon, each reigned, mainly in peace, for 40 years.

Why 40 years? Obviously I can only guess. The old retirement policy of the Adventist Church required 40 years of service to get full retirement benefits. In all these instances the useful career life of a person is roughly 40 years. God is patient. His patience can outlast our stubbornness.

There is an end to God’s patience when one willingly turns away and rejects Him. God’s Spirit worked with the people in the time of Noah for 120 years, three periods of 40 years, before He made an end to their rebellion. Even then it was not until He saw that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) that the flood came.

Thank You, Lord, for being patient with us for so long and for Your willingness “to cut it short in righteousness.” (Romans 9:28) Please don't give up on us, however.

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[i] Google images: www.seattleartblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/childhood.jpg

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

1 Kings 7:36

The Voice (VOICE)

³⁶ Hiram carved winged creatures, lions, and palm trees onto the braces wherever he found space, and he surrounded them with garlands.

Dad and Mom drove up from Zambia to visit us at Ikizu in Tanzania in their VW Microbus. We spent a couple days driving around the Serengeti National Park. We encountered lions frequently around Seronera, and often, especially in the early mornings, we could spot a pride of 10 or 15 lions clustered around a kill they had made during the night hours. Later in the day we would find them under the shade of a great tree lying down, their bellies fat from eating.

One afternoon we came upon a pair of lions lying lazily in the shade. It became obvious that the lion was interested in the lioness in a much more romantic way than merely as a partner during the hunt. As we watched, he tried to mount her, but she got up and moved a short distance away. He followed after her, eagerly smelling her pheromones. Again when he tried to mount her, she moved away.

When I was a child, Dad and Mom always appeared to be asexual. One time when I was quite young I asked Mom why she wore an undergarment with lots of lace and then put on other clothes to cover it up and no one could see it. She looked at me and responded simply, “Your father likes to see me in it.” I never gave it much thought after that.

Mom was very interested in the lion pair. When the lioness finally allowed the lion to mount her, Mom exclaimed in a hushed voice full of awe, “Isn’t this beautiful and special?” She continued to watch spellbound, as did we all. For Sylvia and me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, although we spent many happy days amongst the animals in the Serengeti.

The Bible often represents God as a lion. We felt privileged to witness lions in a loving, tender moment as well as in their proverbial swiftness and might.

Thank You, God, that You are loving and tender towards us as well as defending us with Your unmatched power.

Love Her As Yourself

Ephesians 5:33

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

³³ To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself

Alice[i] once told me this about her pastor father. He had a cupboard near the ceiling in his house. It was locked and he carried the only key on his person at all times. Whenever he ate bread, he would go to the cupboard, unlock it, take out a jar of jam, and spread his slice of bread generously with his jam. Then he would take the jar and lock it up again. Neither his wife nor children ever got any of Father’s jam.

I still remember the sense of shock I felt over the father’s callous selfishness. How could a minister of the gospel read Ephesians 5:33 and not apply it in such an obvious case as allowing himself to savor the sweet jam and not allow his wife to enjoy the same delight?

A decade or more later, our family visited Plimoth Plantation south of Boston in Massachusetts. The historic village illustrates life in 1627. Each person employed at the plantation represents one of the villagers of so long ago. He or she has studied everything there is to know about that particular pilgrim. Like actors, they try to never step out of character. If you have never visited there, you owe it to yourself to see how our ancestors lived. 

[ii]

We walked into a house where a man was sitting and carving on a piece of wood. I asked him what he was making, and he replied, “A spoon. Do you have a spoon?”

I laughed and answered, “Yes.”

“Does your wife have a spoon?” he asked.

Catching the spirit of the times, I replied with a knowing grin, “No!”

“Neither does mine. She and the children eat their food with their fingers.” He vouchsafed.

I gained an insight into how, in the past, such commonplace necessities as spoons were not readily available, and often the women and children went without, even though the husband might have one. They represented my ancestors. No wonder Paul had to encourage believers, like me, to practice the equality each person deserves under the grace of Christ.

Thank You, Lord, for elevating us all to the same level: Your brothers and sisters.

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[i] Not her real name, although the incident is very true

[ii]  Picture from Google images for Plimoth Plantation

Spring

Song of Solomon 2:12

The Voice (VOICE)

¹² The flowers are unfolding in the fields; the birds are warming up their songs,
    The cooing of the turtledove is heard throughout the land.

In 2008 we flew into Cape Town for our first visit to South Africa in almost 30 years. Long time friend Lincoln met us at the airport, and we spent the first couple nights with his family. The first morning I awoke to kuk-COORRRRR-uk repeated over and over again. The cooing of the ring necked dove sounded something like a concerned query “How’s father?” repeated endlessly.

Immediately, a thousand memories swept over me, memories of awaking in the early hours of a fresh spring Cape morning. After a brief breakfast of Weetbix and fresh, non-homogenized Jersey cow milk rich with a thick layer of cream, I would walk up the slopes of Helderberg Mountain on which we lived. A brightly colored green and yellow pair of Bokmakieries would be calling each other in a loud and musical “bok-bok” and an immediate response of “makierie.” They repeated this often just to express their love for each other. 

At my feet and into the dense bushes of the fynbos that stretched all around me, often impenetrable but hid a wealth of beautiful flowers unrivaled in variety anywhere else on earth. The magnificent protea blossoms attracted the sugarbird iridescent sunbirds anxious for a deep draught of nectar.

Occasionally we would startle a huge family of guinea fowl chicks that would dash away in a dozen different directions and suddenly disappear as though transported into the ether by a cosmic Scotty.  An occasional duiker fled into the dense bush with our excited collie, King, in hot, noisy pursuit.

When I returned home I often had my arms full of a bouquet of watsonias and arum (calla) lilies just for Mom—a treasure of beauty.  And all these wonderful memories called up by the cooing of a dove!

Watsonias on the slopes of Helderberg Mountain 

Thank You, Lord, for the chance to grow up in a place so close to paradise.

How Did This Blog Start?

Jeremiah 2:31

The Voice (VOICE)

³¹ People of this generation, consider again the word of the Eternal.

How did this blog start? I was sitting in a funeral of an acquaintance of mine. As people spoke about him, I realized that he had been a good influence in many people’s lives. At the time I realized that my Christian experience had reached a plateau and stagnated there. In the silence of that funeral I pondered what might give a boost to my experience.

Something I had read from Ellen White swam into my consciousness, “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history.”[i] Thinking back over the past years, I could see many instances in my life where God had led. At times I had followed, but at other times I had chosen not to follow His leading.

My wife, Sylvia, had been reading a devotional magazine called Guideposts and kept some back issues of the annual devotional books Daily Guideposts sitting in the bathroom. Leafing through a volume, I found that writers took a verse of scripture and wrote about a portion of their lives somehow related to that verse.

So I experimented with writing about my own experiences in relation to various passages of Scripture. This practice has renewed my faith and enriched my own experience. I have saved several hundred of these writings on my laptop. A number of them I have shared on this blog site. I like to write about my experiences rather than give an exposition of the verse because this helps me remember the way the Lord has led me.

The very process of writing about a specific incident or idea helps my mind to organize my thoughts about it. I often discover that this process of writing will start in one direction and lead me in a different−and likely more spiritually profitable−direction. You may wish to give it a try yourself. You definitely don’t need a computer to do it. In fact there appears to be a greater benefit in writing something by hand than entering it on a keyboard.[ii]

 [iii]

Lord, thank You for the way You have led me in the past. I know You can and will continue to lead me today.

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[i] Testimonies for the Church v9, p10 quoted from Life Sketches, p196

[ii] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/

[iii] http://thxthxthx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/thx_606.jpg

We Know Not the Hour

Matthew 25:13

The Voice (VOICE)

¹³ So stay awake; you neither know the day nor hour [when the Son of Man will come].

When I was eight or ten, a college student taught my Sabbath School class. He did an excellent job of holding our attention. I vividly remember how he looked at us in all seriousness and said, “We don’t know exactly when Christ will come, but I guarantee you that it will be less than five years before He comes.” He showed us in detail how all of the conditions Christ mentioned in Matthew 24 had been fulfilled. He certainly had me convinced, and I’m sure he believed it just as much as I did.

My view of Jesus’ coming was one of absolute grandeur and magnificence: The entire sky filled with untold millions of heavenly beings, each one shining brighter than the sun, and the redeemed all rising upwards drawn by an irresistible force like a magnet attracting iron. Of course, every one of these people rising heavenward was a great saint and had lived a perfect life before the Lord.

My view of the whole thing was always from a spot solidly on the earth. My teachers and preachers proclaimed this marvelous, perfect character that I must obtain. As I looked at my own life, I knew I was selfish. What kid isn’t? I was deceptive, not harmfully deceptive, but none-the-less not transparently honest. Some of my friends were even more deceitful, but still I hated myself for both of these faults.

A Superman program came on the radio every afternoon around five o’clock. I sat transfixed, listening to the episode. I would imagine it was me flying around and saving innocent people and defeating unthinkably powerful villains. Then Mom would sit me down and ask me if I thought Jesus would listen to Superman if he were a boy in my house. By her very demeanor I knew that, of course, Jesus wouldn’t listen to it. I would admit that Jesus certainly wouldn’t, and I would swear off the program. For weeks I kept the radio off. Then some friends would come over and want to hear that program, and before I knew it I was hooked again. This listening—hearing Mom’s logic—restraining myself cycle would begin again.

No. There was no way that I would be with that ransomed throng rising inexorably to Jesus. He knew too much about me and certainly couldn’t save me. So this persuasive promise the devout college student made to us about the imminence of Christ’s appearance filled my young life with dread. My nights were haunted by the terror of being lost.

As I think back of those long ago days, I don’t remember this teacher being excited about Christ’s return any more than I was. He very ably brought out a sense of urgency. He could talk about the marvels of heaven and the new earth. He stressed that being ready for Christ was absolutely necessary, but I fear that he didn’t have the thrilling hope of redemption. He, too, was burdened with guilt. He had never experienced the marvelous certainty and peace that God’s grace makes possible for each heart who accepts Him. I wish he could have assured me that Jesus died to make me ready for translation and a place with the ransomed.

Lord Jesus, thank You for saving me. Thank You for Your grace that provides me with the marvelous hope You have given me. Thank You that Jesus is coming when I least expect it. Come! Lord Jesus.