Do It Right the First Time

Genesis 39:19-20

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁹ When Potiphar heard his wife’s account, his face flushed with anger. ²⁰ So Potiphar, Joseph’s master, put him into prison and locked him up in the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.

In the center of the university business office stood a huge work bench. No one had ever cleaned it, and the pattern of the linoleum covering of the bench could barely be seen because of the filth, grime, stain, grunge, and dirt on it. Workers had obviously spilled their Postum^®, hot chocolate, or root beer while eating their greasy sandwiches on it. No one had ever even wiped it off. All of this had dried on and was camouflaged by pencil traces and erasings, ball point pen marks, and ink spills.

[i]

It was my duty to clean the business offices every night after the day crew had given up and gone home. I would start working about six o’clock in the evening and work through till midnight or much later. When I went back to my room, the offices were always thoroughly cleaned and sparkling when I got done−except for this work bench eyesore.

For well over a year I had waited for someone to say something, suggesting that the horrid thing be cleaned. No one ever did. During the work day it was usually more than half covered with the normal papers and documents of interest. It probably didn’t seem as bad to them as it did to me when I came in.

One night I finally decided I needed to do something about that work bench. I got out the best cleaning chemicals we had. I took the professional grade steel wool and went to work on it. By three o’clock in the morning I had cleaned half of it, and that half looked beautiful. I had classes in the morning, so I went back to my room and caught a few hours of sleep before my morning classes. I figured I would get the other half done the next night.

That afternoon my boss called me in. The university business manager had called him. He was furious that whoever cleaned the offices had only done half of his work. Half of the work bench was still so terribly filthy that it couldn’t be used. He had gone on and on about it until my boss was afraid he might trigger an aneurism.

[ii]

My boss was a prince of a man and extremely understanding. When I told him about the work bench and how it had never, ever been cleaned and how long and hard I had worked on it, he understood. But he knew more about human nature than I did. He recognized that people don’t look at the part well done but only on the part still undone. He taught me a great lesson. As with  Joseph, I had been doing the right thing all along, and it only rose up to bite me.

Thank You, Lord, that You read my heart and motives and understand why I do things and then respond accordingly.

---

[i] https://superriska.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/lessons-from-dirt-and-dirty-dishes/

[ii] http://godcenteredmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/mean_boss_aa035791.jpg

#MISUNDERSTOOD #FAULTFINDER #LEARN #LESSON #MOTIVES #HARDWORK #IE #CALIFORNIA #JOSEPH 

Mothers Day and My Good Wife

Proverbs 31:30

The Voice (VOICE)

³⁰ Charm can be deceptive and physical beauty will not last,
    but a woman who reveres the Eternal should be praised above all others.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Sylvia has been married to me for almost 50 years and a mother for over 45 of those years. She loves the Lord and often spends an hour a day reading his word and meditating on it.

She is widely loved, and her advice and sympathy are often sought. A mother with growing children and living down the street is fighting a battle with breast cancer. She came to Sylvia for support and wisdom. Another woman on our street just lost her job. The first thing she did was to come into our home for sympathy and counsel. Another single mother is seeking answers in her own life, help for an ailing teenage daughter, and watching her beloved grandmother die from advanced liver cancer. Sylvia surprised a homeless former GI in front of the post office the other day by reciting to him his family problems and his desire to help the family. He had opened his soul to her on a previous occasion months ago. He forgot; she didn’t.

While walking around the neighborhood, I often run into people, kids, strangers who will say to me, “Oh, you’re Sylvia’s husband. She is a truly wonderful person.” Often they will proceed to tell me of an incident where her caring love helped them through a bad time.

Sylvia’s influence is not limited to locals. In the past fortnight, she has been on the phone with a widow in Tennessee who has suffered more major health problems than anyone should have. She lost her home in a fire not too long ago. Another widow who is a long time friend phoned from Michigan. This time it was about a grandchild who had to leave church school because of her parents’ financial mismanagement. Sylvia sent a care package to another long time friend who is living with an abusive husband in Canada. Sylvia has the back of our car loaded with her late mother’s clothes to take to a widow in her 70s who is living hand-to-mouth on odd jobs she can find.

Sylvia has her own bank account that she delights in using to help provide, often anonymously, for others in need. She speaks of Adventist Frontier missionaries as though they are her own family members.

Her love for children has led her to produce a CD called Angels by my Bed to bring hope and encouragement to them when their problems loom over their little heads. You can visit her website with the same name.

Thank You, Lord, for a wife who reveres You consistently.

#GOODWIFE #CONCERN #NEIGHBOR #WIDOW #MUSIC #CHILDREN #IE #CALIFORNIA #MINISTRY #BIBLESTUDY

Climbing Shoes

Ephesians 6:15

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Joshua Tree National Park is one of my most loved places on earth. It is only about a two hour drive from our current home. The best part of the park is the Wonderland of Rocks. My brother and I go there as often as we can get an excuse. We often have a number of friends or acquaintances with us since they provide the needed excuse.

We love to scramble around on the vast boulders ranging in size from the dimensions of a car on up to a small mountain. Many years ago we went there with Mark and Jeff who did a lot of technical climbing with several thousand dollars worth of equipment. We always do free climbing—with no extra equipment. They enjoyed the extra challenge of climbing with us using no equipment. Naturally we didn’t do some climbs that really required a rope and other gear for safety.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters

Genesis 25:20

The Voice (VOICE)

²⁰ and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah (the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean).

While driving a truck with my cousin’s goods in it from Idaho to Southern California, I listened to Meg Meeker’s Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters. She outlined the current practices of a majority of teens and pre-teens. To say that I was stunned and shocked is to put it mildly.

Some years ago the women’s dean at the university told us that today’s students are expected to perform some kind sexual gratification as early as on the first date. They are in constant fear of contracting some kind of sexually transmitted disease. I listened, amazed and in sorrow, about today’s loose morals.

When I was a kid there were only two sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) that anyone worried about: Syphilis and Gonorrhea. But those diseases are curable, so they are merely an annoyance. Dr Meeker, a pediatrician, points out that today there are over 24 different STD’s. Many of these, like HIV/AIDS and Herpes, are not curable. HIV/AIDS has been in the news for decades. Herpes is passed on not only by transmission of human fluids but also by mere contact such as holding hands. It is a known cause of cancer of the cervix. In the New York Times (May 4, 1982) Dr Clyde Crumpacker pointed out that the Herpes virus is blamed for more human diseases than any other virus[i]. 

Meeker claims that a significant percentage of girls between 10 and 15 are expected to perform oral sex, often in group situations. Since sexuality is encouraged by public media such as TV and magazines, the girls think about it all the time. She insists that teen depression should be considered as a STD because the girls become depressed since they normally do not enjoy the sex and consider themselves to blame.

She claims that fathers are the only real solution to reversing the trend and giving their daughters the ability to resist being sucked into this tragic lifestyle. They can get girls to value their virginity until marriage like Isaac did of old. Of course, she encourages dads to take control of their own lives and commit to a lifestyle connected with a higher power. She points out that this higher power is usually the Judeo-Christian God. She also urges fathers to do everything in their power to prevent divorce. She blames radical feminism for poisoning wives’ minds into thinking that they are not living up to their potential by remaining married.

[ii]

Lord God almighty, bring us back from lackadaisical parenting to being the strong, responsible parents that can reverse the self destructive direction our society is moving.

---

[i] http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/04/science/herpes-now-blamed-for-more-illness-than-any-other-human-viruses.html

[ii] http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2010/06/father-daughter-reading-outside.jpg

Joy to Those Who Wait

1 Thessalonians 4:4-5

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
⁴ Each of you should know that finding a husband or wife for yourself is to be done in a holy and honorable way, ⁵ not in the passionate, lustful way of people who don’t know God.

Recently I was honored to be invited to attend the wedding reception of a former student of mine. She was an excellent student in college. She didn’t major in math, but I have long since forgiven this error in judgment on her part. She had a polymath interest in the world of knowledge. She and her brother and friends loved climbing in Joshua Tree National Park with us when a group of us went out there.

Her parents were missionaries to a foreign land for a time while she was growing up. This experience greatly enriched her understanding of the world. It helped her put many of the pettiness of American fads and fancies in proper perspective. On the other hand growing up as a missionary kid during formative years often results in the child’s being somewhat socially maladjusted when he or she returns to live in the homeland. The effect in her was barely noticeable except that she didn’t seem to have a lot of guys falling over each other wanting to date her. 

As a leader in her high school student association, she was privileged to attend a special leadership retreat held for leaders in all area Adventist academies. While there she became friends with a young man from another academy. They took several classes together while students at La Sierra University, but their friendship didn’t grow into the romance that makes a “happily ever after” story that warms the heart.

Instead, he went off to medical school and she to a different graduate school. He earned an M.D. and she a Ph.D. They lost touch with each other. She obtained a professorship and started going to Joshua Tree with us again. I noticed, with concern, that she was depressed to the point that she had lost some of her normal, spontaneous joie de vivre.

Then, suddenly her Facebook entries became radiant with joy--and pictures of her and the young man she had met the better part of a decade before. The romance deepened. She no longer joined us at Joshua Tree. She was totally taken up with this wonderful courtship. After their simple wedding and honeymoon in Austria, we were invited, along with other friends, to celebrate with the family!

May God bless and prosper their union as well as everyone who reads this.

Road Rage

Galatians 5:24

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their corrupt nature along with its passions and desires.

Years ago I was teaching an evening class at Fitchburg State College. One evening as I was driving to class going down an almost deserted city street, I came up behind a motor cyclist doing about 15 mph (25 kph). He did his best to stay exactly in front of me. I began to realize that he was enjoying keeping me crawling along the street.

We came up to a red light, and I stopped next to him to await the green. He must have been dreaming for a moment because I quickly pulled ahead of him when the light turned green. I continued on down the road at the speed limit. This must have angered him because he pulled up right behind me and tailgated me down the street. In my rear view mirror I could see him riding so close to me that his front wheel was almost touching my bumper.

This went on for several blocks. There was no traffic, so he could easily have whipped on around me, but instead he clung to me like a leach. I could feel my corrupt nature seething with anger. A sudden all controlling, irresistible, diabolical urge to hit the brakes hard flooded my entire being. It took full possession of me. I could just see him wrapped all over the back of my station wagon. It would be his fault since he ran into the back of me. There was no possibility that he could avoid the wreck. It would teach the leach some manners and might indeed kill him. Death was too good for him!

But my corrupt nature was literally crucified. Its hands and feet were nailed down and couldn’t move. It had no way of hitting the brakes. Soon a cold sweat broke out on my forehead as I realized what had tried to take possession of me. I began to imagine how I would be able to live with a possible murder on my conscience. I have thanked the Lord many, many times for nailing my corrupt nature down at that time.

Oh Lord, continue to keep my corrupt nature nailed securely to Your cross.

To Treat or Not To Treat

Genesis 42:1-2

The Voice (VOICE)

Now when Jacob found out there was grain to be had in Egypt, he talked to his sons about it.

Jacob: Why do you just keep sitting here looking at each other? ² Listen! I’ve heard they have grain for sale in Egypt! Go down there, and buy grain for us so that we have enough to live and won’t die of hunger.

Mom used to tell of a neighbor they had in Oklahoma, whom I’ll call Joe. He had the reputation of being the laziest man in the county. One day during harvest time another farmer took pity on Joe. The farmer drove up to Joe’s home on a wagon stacked high with corn and drawn by a couple horses. Joe’s field was filled with corn and overgrown with weeds. His family was destitute and wearing mere rags. Joe was sitting in a rocker on his front porch and staring vacantly at his fields. The farmer called to Joe, “I’ve got a good load of corn here. Can you use it?”

Joe queried, “Is it husked?”

“No, you’ll have to do that yourself.”

After a minute’s reflection Joe drawled, “Drive on! The Lord will provide.”

Dick, a colleague of mine, had a grapefruit size tumor on his lower abdomen. I asked him how he was treating it. He replied that he wouldn’t use chemotherapy because of the harmful side effects it had on the body. He obtained a natural remedy from Mexico and used it faithfully. Esmé developed a brain tumor. She told me of the pain it caused her and how she was not going to have surgery and radiation. She was afraid of the effects this treatment would have on her memory. She, too, found a natural remedy that she could rely on. Then there was Robin who had prostate cancer.

There are two things that Dick, Esmé, and Robin had in common. For one thing, they all had a deep and abiding faith in God and His healing power. The other is that they all died from their cancers. Did God forget His promise to heal all our diseases (Psalm 103;3)?

One cannot help but query; since God had promised to make a great nation of his descendants, did Jacob deny his faith by sending to Egypt for food rather than waiting for God to provide it in Canaan for him? Was Joe showing more faith than Jacob? Are we denying our faith when we use modern medicine? Are we showing less faith if we combine modern medical treatments with natural treatments?

Dear God, whenever a crisis arises, You have an ideal solution. Help us to see and follow Your solution.

Image from http://www.dvucancercare.com/wp-content/themes/dvucc/images/pages/simulation.jpg