Whatever Happened To ?

     A frequent sidebar when I am on the internet is a link to one of those "Whatever happened to. . ." websites. Though I try not to waste time pursuing them (because I'm already wasting time writing or looking at Facebook) I admit that I'm tempted to see how the child stars, teen idols, & sex symbols of my formative years turned out--or burned out. Hoping, of course, that those that didn't drink or drug themselves to oblivion, will have the good grace to look older and flabbier than I am. But the nearly famous I have been thinking of lately are Jesus' brothers. We know of the faith of two of them, because they are published authors in the New Testament--James and Jude.
     James appears to be Jesus' nearest sibling according to the order of names in Matthew 13:55. I have thought a lot about James. As brothers, James should have been Jesus' faithful supporter. It should have been James, instead of John, that Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to while on the cross. But apparently, James was not there to receive the responsibility. I think guilt over his failure is the reason Jesus made a private appearance to James, as he did to Peter, after his resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:7) By unbelief, James had betrayed his own brother. But we know by his epistle that James came to fervent faith and became the early leader of the Jerusalem church. Sorry Catholics, but if the early church had a pope, it was James, not Peter.
     Jude, who may be Jesus' youngest brother according to the list above, also wrote an epistle.While James' letter was about persecution and practical behavior, Jude was warning about false teachers that had already invaded the church. Neither brother used their earthly relationship to Jesus as a claim to fame, instead, they described themselves as his bondservants.
     That leaves two brothers and at least two sisters unaccounted for. Whatever happened to Joseph (Jr.) and Simon? I have no doubt that they, also, came to faith. I cannot imagine that Jesus would let his own earthly parents spend eternity without the company of all their children. That is a parent's greatest fear. This is one of those cases where I remind myself that the Bible leaves out far more than it records. There is no further record of the brothers, just as there is no mention of the death of Joseph, but that does not mean their lives were unimportant to God. No life is unimportant to God. When we get to heaven we can click on that sidebar, take the seminar or ask them in person, "So, what happened. . . ?"

Sometimes I Trust God

Sometimes I Trust God

Sometimes I trust God

in the warm afterglow of 

intimate worship.

And sometimes I trust God

with the resignation

of someone who has lost a battle

and has no other choice.

At other times I trust God

with the grim determination

of a fighter about to enter the ring.

Lately, I trust God 

with a tear in my eye

and a tear in my heart

from bending my will to God's.

Mostly, I trust God
out of mindless habit
accustomed to the company of my King.

But, in the end,
whatever my motive
the best way I can honor God
is to trust Him.

All We Wanted Was Our Country Back

  

    Yesterday was the inauguration of our 45th president, Donald Trump. His win was a great surprise to the liberals who had believed their own propaganda about Hillary's overwhelming victory. The conservatives were also surprised, but by the childish, almost third-world reaction of the losing party who refuse to be "Trumped". So on behalf of the deplorables, let me explain what happened. All we wanted was a president who:

•       Put American interests before global ones.
•       Supports an economic system that offers greater opportunities to the laborer than the lazy, and understands the goal is to create wealth, not redistribute it. 
•       Knows our prosperity isn't something to apologize for. We didn't steal it. We built it.
•       Calls terrorism what it is, and not "workplace violence".
•       Does not apologize, like a battered wife, to countries who attack us, as if we provoked them.
•       Recognizes that Israel is our one friend in the Middle East, and the only nation on whom God has placed his blessing.
•       Knows that we cannot placate enemies who want to kill us.
•       Respects the principles upon which this country was founded.
•       Understands that disagreement is not hatred, bigotry or oppression.
•       Remembers that citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and should go to those who respect our culture and our laws.                                               

     Yes, many of us, most of us, wanted someone wiser, more humble and less vocal than Donald Trump. But anyone old enough to vote, is old enough to know we don't always get what we want, especially in elections. Whoever our choice might have been, God is sovereign, so we must accept and support the president we got.  And all we really wanted was our country back.

4 Days Dead

    We just studied the raising of Lazarus in BSF and I have been thinking a lot about those four days Lazarus was dead. Not wondering where his consciousness was all that time, or how he felt at being called abruptly back to earth. There is no knowing that til heaven, but I plan to attend that seminar. My thoughts have been with his sisters and the other mourners. How bleak those four days must have been. It looked like Jesus didn't care, like God was doing nothing at all, like hope was dead. But all the while Jesus was waiting for his Father's timing. And, in the end, the miraculous raising was all the more glorious because of those four days.
     So, in my rush to see my prayers answered, I may be trying to rob both myself and God of greater glory. Not to mention robbing myself of the peace I could have by trusting God while I wait for His answer. I will try to remember, when my prayers seem to have fallen into dead space, that I might just be in the four days phase.

The Snatcher and the Shepherd

     I should not have been surprised when, a few weeks after God's divine intervention on the road to Rimrock, our son began to doubt again--not God's reality, but His plan. Satan had snatched away much of the beauty of that experience. To paraphrase a current ad campaign, "When you're Satan, that's what you do." Satan loves to turn truth into lies, faith into doubt, and good into evil. He is the Snatcher. He snatches the seed of God's word sown into the world (Mt. 13:19) He snatches the joy of new believers by making them doubt their salvation. I vividly remember my own experience of that. And, if he could, he would snatch Christians themselves from God's hand. (John 10:29) Sometimes, he even snatches the joy of the Stone Pillar from Reed and I. The Snatcher is not only the bearer of bad news, he is bad news. The good news is, we have a Shepherd.
     The Shepherd knows his sheep in all our frailty. It does not matter that the Snatcher is strong and the sheep are weak, because the good Shepherd is our protector. He has promised that nothing can take us from God's hand and that promise is just as true for those He is drawing to salvation as those who already belong to Him. The hand that draws us is the same one that keeps us. The Snatcher is pursuing our straying son, but so is the Shepherd. The main issue is not the desire of the sheep to be back in the fold, but the desire and love of the Shepherd. Trusting the Shepherd who found me and has taken care of me all these years is the least this Lamb can do.

If I Gave My Son

     There are many who feel that salvation through faith in Christ is too exclusive. They are right. Jesus himself said the way to heaven was a narrow path and that few would find it. This sets off the "fair meter" all humans are born with. But it seems more fair to me if I think of it in terms of the following parable. If:

     My son and I were walking on a lonely stretch of road and saw a house on fire. We could see through the windows that there were people inside but they did not seem aware of the danger they were in. The windows were barred from outside and the front door was already on fire. The only way of escape was the back door and the fire above it was already collapsing the door frame. My son was strong and brave, so he volunteered to stand in the doorway and support the burning beam to make a way of escape for those inside, risking his own life to save them. He called from the doorway, but only a few of the residents came out. I banged on the barred windows telling the people inside to run to the back door to safety. But they did not run. They did not even stroll. One argued that there was no fire, another said, if it became necessary, she would try to squeeze through the bars on the window. Several others were trying to put out the flames with hopelessly ineffective extinguishers. "Please", I told them, "my son is suffering in the doorway. He is dying to save you." But they answered, "We don't want your son to save us, offer us another way."
     Would I do that? Now I am not nearly as gracious or merciful as God, and my son is not pure and perfect like Jesus, but I am a parent and I know how much I love my son, and those who ignored his sacrifice would deserve their doom. God gave his Son, there is nothing He could offer to up the ante, even if He wanted to  It was grace that God provided any way. And it is grace that He has not provided many, leaving us to wonder if we are on the right path. It would seem fair to me that my only offer was my final offer, if I gave my son.

Time, Travel and Weasels

     I love to travel, especially when it is winter, and especially when the destination is somewhere warmer, which is about anywhere this year. So I was delighted to find out Reed needed to go to Dallas for training in February. Once Reed's training schedule was confirmed, I went to Kayak, which is my default flight search sight.  I found a good deal for the week we needed through JustFly, but it required flying out on Delta and back on United. JustFly sent me to Delta to book the outgoing flight. Presumably, they would send me to United to book the return flight. But I never got to find out because, after having input traveler information twice--when I got to our zip code it perversely returned to the beginning of the search, so I input the traveler information again, got to the payment portion and realized Reed needed to pay for his ticket on his company card. I could not pay separately for two passengers. Reed and I would need to separate. After 39 years of marriage, this was not as traumatic as you might think. But when I went back into JustFly, I couldn't find that fare again. I wound up trying Expedia, whose $400 fare turned out, after I put in our information, to be $1775. But I spotted the elusive thing again on Hotwire, which promised there were just 3 tickets available for that price.
    I decided, since money was no object for Reed's ticket, and it certainly was for mine, that I would book my ticket first. That part went smoothly, but before I could make Reed's reservation, I had to back out of Hotwire and enter it again to find the $400 fare. Unsurprisingly, there were still three tickets left at that price. I carefully double checked Reed's info (after nearly listing him as female) and he gave me the correct credit card (after nearly using the one from his other employer). But the site refused to accept the card. So he called the director of maintenance to find out why the card would not work, only to discover he hadn't okayed the school with the chief pilot yet. No problem, I had 24 hour free cancellation. But, problem, it was Saturday and Reed's boss wouldn't talk to his boss until Monday. Reed couldn't call the chief pilot directly because his boss would regard that as an act of treason. Since that company's credit cards get hacked on a regular basis, that was probably why it was declined. I estimate that I spent 4 hours between researching fares and attempted bookings and only managed to get a ticket for the person who did not need to go.
     So I am going to Dallas in February. I am skipping school, even if it's paid for.  I hope Reed gets to come. I think travel sites are created by sadistic, unemployed travel agents, or possibly weasels--probably both.