A Jealous God

 

[1]

Exodus 20:5 New International Version

For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God

 

Oso, our son’s dog is staying with us this weekend. He’s a great big dog, probably weighing 80 lbs (35 kg). He’s scared of everything, and very loving. Katie, our own dog, is considerably smaller, closer to 50 lbs (25 kg). She loves us supremely and shows it every time we come back after being away from home. She, too, tends to be scared of all kinds of things, but not as scared as Oso. We have spoiled her rotten. She is the first dog in a long series of dogs, whom Sylvia has allowed to get on any item of furniture. She is only allowed on the couch in the front room. She is delighted when Sylvia or I come and sit with her on “her couch”.

Once a day, we feed Katie a cereal and chicken mix that Sylvia fixes for her. It is a recipe she developed years ago when we were missionaries in Tanzania. Our previous dog, Cleo, lived for 17 years on it and she was a big dog. We keep dry dog food available for our dogs 24/7. They tend to self-regulate how much they eat, so they don’t get too fat.

With a second dog in the house, Katie shows a new side of her character. She is fiercely jealous. When we feed the do dogs the cereal/chicken mix we put it in separate bowls and they each eat their bowl and then dash over to see if the other dog’s bowl is empty—we expected that. But Katie doesn’t want Oso to have any of her dry dog food, so she quickly gobbles it up, too. She eats so much she can hardly walk, let alone run! So we are rationing the dry dog food now.

If Oso comes anywhere near “her couch” she bares her teeth, growls and if he comes closer, she attacks viciously. Anytime they are in the house, Katie is up guarding “her couch”. If we pet Oso, then Katie dashes over and wedges herself between us and the big dog. She wants all the attention. We laugh at her jealous, protective nature.

Every time I see Katie’s jealous side, I am reminded of the second commandment of the Decalogue. God describes Himself: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” This is after two commandments that tell us to have no other gods before Him, and not to make any images, and not to worship any other gods or images. He says he will not only punish us if we do, but will also punish our children to the third and fourth generation.

Thank you, Katie, for showing me the possessive side of our loving God.

 

 

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[1] https://decodingtheword.com/a-jealous-god-el-qana/

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

Singing in the Car

 

[1]

1 Chronicles 16:9 King James Version

⁹ Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.

 

“Daddy! Are we there yet?” “Mommeeeeee! Esther’s got her foot on my side!” “Stop it! Ricky!” “Ow! Daddy, Julia bit me!”

The aggravated voices of the three kids in the backseat would rise to a crescendo. On rare occasion I had to stop the car and belabor the kids—but I quickly found out that that didn’t work; besides I didn’t want the prospect of a car trip to be a prelude to torture.

It’s amazing how long it takes me to remember my childhood. Then I did. I belted out:[2]

“I've got a home in Glory Land that outshines the sun
I've got a home in Glory Land that outshines the sun
I've got a home in Glory Land that outshines the sun
Way beyond the Blue 

“Do Lord, oh, do Lord, do remember me
Do Lord, oh, do Lord, oh, do remember me
Do Lord, oh, do Lord, do remember me
Way beyond the Blue 

“I took Jesus as My Savior, you take Him too
I took Jesus as My Savior, you take Him too
I took Jesus as My Savior, you take Him too
While He's still calling you 

“Oh, do Lord, oh, do Lord, do remember me
Do Lord, oh, do Lord, oh, do remember me
Do Lord, oh, do Lord, do remember me
A way beyond the Blue!”

 

Very shortly there were five voices singing at the top of their lungs. Once we finished one song, someone would start another. Most of the songs were praise songs: “Amazing Grace,” “Oh When the Saints,” and so on. We sang a few secular songs, too: “I Know an Old Woman, Who Swallowed a Fly,” “The Ants Go Marching One by One”, etc. All the irritation and complaining were forgotten.

Thank You, Lord, for songs!

 

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[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=kids+in+car+singing+images

[2] Vernie O. Fossett, Musixmatch, Do Lord lyrics © New Spring Publishing Inc.

 

The Accuser

[1]

1 Corinthians 13:5 Good News Translation

⁵ love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

 

I once had a colleague who expressed deep concern for my wellbeing—and for many of our other colleagues. He would often come into my office and sit down and tell me of his frustrations with a colleague. He enumerated a long list of the perceived shortcomings of this or that particular person.

Mom used to warn me about this type of person, “If he comes in and gossips about a particular person to you, you know what he is saying about you to everyone else.” This particular “accuser of our brethren”[2] left no doubt as to what he was saying about me. As often as not he would start listing all the mistakes I had made. If he ran short of them, he would make some up as he went along. This condemnation could go on for an hour. Eventually he would leave, usually only after he had gotten me furious at his accusations and his thoroughly impugning my motives for doing right. He had a vast, indelible memory of everyone’s faults.

After such incidents, I walked the half-hour home with my heart racing, fearing I might suffer a heart attack. Initially, I planned revenge—but vengeance is not in my nature. Finally, I started praying for him. I prayed for a number of years before I noticed a difference. Gradually these accusatory episodes became shorter, and he began to express genuine concern for my wellbeing and that of others.

Praise to You, Oh Lord, for Your ability to change people‘s attitudes and actions—including mine.

 

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[1] https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/accuser.html

[2] Revelation 12:10

Love Is Patient

1 Corinthians 13:4 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Let’s face it; none of us married the totally ideal partner! I’m afraid I’m not a great communicator. I do things without saying a word, leaving Sylvia mystified. She wonders what I’m going to do next.

We have a library in the house. It fills two complete walls in our smallest bedroom. It then spills out onto bookcases and every level spot in every room of the house. Okay, so we’ve learned to live with it. Our (my) favorite pastime is to go to used bookstores and library book sales and look for more books.

But a major bomb shell hit me when I officially retired. That meant I needed to clean out my office. Not bad! Except it had an entire wall devoted to books. All of those books had to go somewhere. Every time I looked at them, I realize that I wanted to keep most of those books. So many of them arrived at home, most now in our storage shed.

On top of Sylvia’s honey-do list, she wants me to “retire” bunches of books. She still loves me even though I don’t think I have retired a single book in the last ten years. On the contrary, I’ve added several books practically every month. Actually, I just persuaded my daughter to take a collection of 18^th and 19^th century antique books that are family heirlooms. They were in the vacant shelf you can see on the right of the picture. As Neil Armstrong said when he first stepped onto the moon, “That’s one small step…”

Thank You, Lord, for a patient, loving wife.

 

 

 

Prudery

 

[1]

Psalm 73:23 Good News Translation

²³ Yet I always stay close to you,
    and you hold me by the hand.

 

When I was in college, the girls would occasionally tell me about one of their deans of women. At least once per semester, this diminutive spinster would give them a worship talk about appropriate courtship behavior. One of the talk’s unstated purposes was to prevent embarrassing premarital pregnancy, of course. She urged the girls to turn their boyfriend’s picture toward the wall when changing clothes. In this way she would not get used to undressing in front of men. When on a warm spring day, he invites her to a pleasant picnic lunch on the spacious lawns of the university elsewhere and spreads a blanket for them to sit on to eat their lunch, she must refuse to sit on it. Who knows how many short minutes it would be before he had her lying on the blanket, doing terrible things, like kissing her? In the dean’s zeal, she would encourage the girls to never hold hands with their beaus. After all, everyone knows that holding hands leads to pregnancy.

So… what did Sylvia and I do? Neither of us had a car so we could escape the spying eyes. Yet we walked around campus holding hands. This was as much public display of affection as we were allowed on campus. Furthermore, it was pleasurable, and we could chat in subdued voices and still hear each other.

We still often walk hand in hand. Then, of course, when we are hiking in the hills around our home, I will often offer her my hand when we come to a difficult part of the climb. She is highly independent and, in the past, would almost as often withdraw her hand in disdain. But nowadays, after a few embarrassing slips, she will usually take it, or as often, simply lay a single finger in my hand, as though to say, “Now don’t baby me!”

Even God offers the same reassuring gesture by offering to hold us by the hand.

Precious Lord take my hand, lead me on, help me stand.

 

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[1] https://siragainesville.com/category/sti-testing/

Wicked Spiritual Forces

 

[1]

Ephesians 6:12-13 Good News Translation

¹² For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. ¹³ So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.

 

Very recently we took a hike near Heaps Peak in the San Bernardino National Forest along the Rim of the World Highway. The previous week we had experienced a fierce wind-storm. It had blown branches and lots of fruit off our fruit trees. That same wind blew with far greater force over the ridge of the San Bernardino Mountains that the highway runs along. It runs at an elevation around 6,000 feet (2,000 m). Great trees had been snapped off like matchwood. Our trail had been cleared by chain saw. But the forest floor was piled high with the broken branches—the leaves still green from vigorous growth. Our Sequoia Trail ran along the north face of the ridge. We hiked along about half of the trail. There were long patches of frozen, solidly packed snow.

This was probably our dog Katie’s first experience of walking in snow. She didn’t know what to make of this white stuff that made her feet so cold, and they tended to slide out from under her. Sylvia and I picked our way along previous dirt-filled footprints. Finally, about half way around the loop trail, we came to a part covered with deep icy snow. It sloped rather treacherously down to our left. Regretting that we had not attached the ice grips to our shoes that my cousin, Pastor Reneé, had so graciously sent us, we turned around and headed back to the car. We have become more aware of the danger of falling as we have counted off more years in our lives. You should have seen how happy Katie was when she got out of the car in her own home.

As the world rushes on into its “evil day,” the “wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world... the cosmic powers of this dark age” are being allowed to exercise more and more power. We normally don’t see them, far closer to us than we can possibly imagine, but they are there. In my last three blogs I have tried to describe how close this “heavenly world” is to us. Realize that not only our guardian angels but also the demon enemies can be close enough to even be inside us; still we cannot perceive their presence.

Paul urges us to “put on God’s armor now!” This armor cannot be obtained in a gun store or from a digital super hacker. It cannot be obtained from Pfizer or Moderna. In the next five verses of this chapter Paul outlines his concept of the only invincible armor and how to obtain it. He points out that there will be a fight—a fight to the bitter end. Only with this armor will you “still hold your ground.” Read the verses again or postpone doing so at your eternal peril.

Thank You, Lord, that You have provided invincible armor for us. Please help us as we fit it on.

 

 

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[1] https://stockagency.panthermedia.net/m/stock-photos/8604718/slipping-in-packed-snow-and-ice/