It Continues

Another day deep in the dark pages of the history of the people of God. Oh! how depressing! In eight more days (8 more studies) I will finally be in the NT (New Testament). It is a chore and a strong determination that keeps me from just setting this aside and thinking I'll do it some other time in the future, rather than slop through the blood and gore to do the study as it was meant to be done. Granted today wasn't as bad as it has been but it's still filled with events and attitudes that weary my spirit. The author must have realized how trying these chapters would be (seeing everything distilled and concentrated the way he's done it) because at the conclusion of tomorrow's lesson (I have a seminar to go to tomorrow so I did tomorrow's study today) he wrote: "We need to remind ourselves that the story is pre-Christian. The New Testament would teach a better way of dealing with enemies." [Well, I should hope so.] The thing is this is history and history is partially meant to teach us things today that we learned the hard way in the distant past. And the worst is almost over because Sunday moves into the Psalms. Whoopie! While they are certainly not void of the wont for blood, they do begin to bring in a little rejoicing, a little joy, and praising of our glorious God who desired the very best for us before the creation of the world. He has desired to give us blessing after blessing if we would but serve Him and worship Him alone. We failed over and over again but He stayed faithful to His promises and managed to reserve a faithful remnant at all times so that He could fulfill His promises in future days with future generations. More deserving generations? No, I don't think so. We are not to this day, deserving of a blessing. We go astray and lead and encourage others to go astray with us time and time again. God keeps His promises because He is deserving, He is worthy of his promises. There was so much idolatry during this period of time I've been looking at. I can maybe see drifting away and forgetting or getting into such a spirit of laziness that we just don't want to bother or take the time. But spending time, energy, and revenue worshiping foreign, false gods ... idols?! I just can't see it. I mean, how mighty can a god be if we have to carry him wherever he might want to go. Why worship something that you can carry around in your pocket? Or step on? Or drop down the latrine? What kind of god is that???

But you know, what a great king Josiah was! He took the throne at the age of eight and when he was just sixteen years old the high priest found the book of God in the temple. The book was read aloud to the young king and afterward his rule went throughout the land reestablishing pure worship. He brought about a sweeping religious reform by destroying all the pagan temples and idols, including a place called Topheth, where people, including some of Judah's kings, had sacrificed their own children to the false god Molech. He tore down a temple to Ashtoreth that had been built by King Solomon and Josiah reinstated the Passover celebration. Josiah's rule didn't last too long though. Sadly, he was killed in battle at the age of thirty-nine still a young man.

As I mentioned earlier I will be going to a seminar tomorrow from 9:00 to noon. This one is on membership. What it means to be a member of a church. What the benefits and responsibilities of membership are. After tomorrow I will have one more seminar and then I will have completed all four in the series. I think there may be a fifth one, I'm not sure. They only advertised the four but I thought I read somewhere where about a fifth one but I only saw reference to it one time so I don't know what that means. These seminars have all been so beneficial. We learn so much in them. Actually tomorrow's will be the first seminar of the series but I'm taking them out of order. (It's okay; I can do that.) I've taken numbers three and four and I will take the second one, last, in June. Did I confuse you there? If I did, just ignore it. It's not important.

Our swarm of hummingbirds seems to have left the area. We were having four and five out there waiting turns to get to the feeder and then all of a sudden there's just one or two. I saw two last night but since last Sunday we've only seen one once or twice a day. They must have just stopped by on their way to somewhere else. I miss them. They are so much fun to watch feeding. And each one has its own distinct personality and we named them in the past. One year we had Bill and Bob. Bill had a bent beak and Bob sat around constantly bobbing his head up and down.

Did I tell you that our redbud is NOT dying? I can't remember if I told you or not. It was suggested to us that perhaps the late frost had taken the tree and that seems to be what it was because it's starting to "green" itself. It's starting to turn green; you can see it in the sunlight. So it's not dying after all. And once we realized it was the frost we noticed that the tip end of several branches on the big oak tree (that had also already leafed out) had shriveled up after the frost and looked dead too. Whew! I was so worried about that tree.

My friends in Liberia are doing okay although I haven't gotten an update in about a week. I say okay because Ashton is slow coming back from another bout of malaria and Jakin was playing soccer and hurt his hip. They thought it might be dislocated. They had plans to take him to the hospital ship out in the bay and have him looked at. Ashton too because it is taking so long for Ashton to get better this time. They wanted to make sure it wasn't something worse.

Heather and her brood are preparing for a 3-week trip back east. I'm not sure what day they plan to leave but I'd appreciate it if you would keep her on your prayer list. A "bug" was working its way through all of them so a prayer for good health would be appreciated, I know. Also for safety while they are on the road. They will be going in their 15-passenger van and 31 foot trailer. So if any one is out driving around and you see something that might look like them, wave real big. They'll love it.

I'd also like prayers for Christine. Christine in a baby, baby Christian who was just baptized a few weeks ago and she is so much like a dry sponge ready to soak up anything from anyone. She needs protection that she won't be misled by false teachers. I'm in particular talking about Jehovah's Witnesses. She is prime for their magic spell. Believe me I know. She sat with me last Sunday and I asked her if she'd like to get together sometime during the week and just kind of go over the basics (like she didn't understand about communion, she didn't know if she was supposed to be partaking or not) and answering any questions she might have. I just want to get her planted solidly on her feet before the wolves and scavengers can get their teeth into her. She said she'd like to do that so if you could, please pray that we will be able to find a day and time where we can meet together at church and just start with the basics. She needs to learn that her salvation is secure and rules and regulations won't save you. I thought we'd start with either Galatians or Philippians (or the second half of Romans) and just start reading them together and just talking about what we read. You know, what it means to a Christian today. She doesn't understand that the Law has been fulfilled, that your salvation rests on your faith alone, that we are saved by grace. I was exactly where she's at spiritually when the Witnesses got me. I knew just enough to know there was so much more I wanted to know and the Witnesses offered me a tempting dish of self-righteousness, a way to earn my salvation and I don't want that to happen to her. Christine is so shy. She's like a little bird that doesn't call attention to herself, just as sweet as anyone can be. I don't think she's had the chance to make many friends here at the church and, truthfully, I think she's too shy to make any for awhile. I'm hoping she'll sit with me again on Sunday. I'll watch for her because I have a little book in my Bible to give her. I told her I would be bringing it for her. It's called Christianity 101: Now That You're a Christian, a Guide to You Faith in Plan Language. I thought that would help her a little bit until she and I can work out the logistics of an actual study. But pray for me that I can teach; and pray for her that she can learn. It's just that I can see myself in her so clearly. I was younger than Christine but I had recently become aware of my own spirituality. I knew I believed there was one true God and I believed in Him. I just wasn't sure what all went with my new faith. And the Witnesses came along and said, you must do these things. You must not do these things. Right on down the line. And where that made it easy for me to "know" I was saved (because I kept the rules) it just opened me up to a world of bondage. As a JW you are never free! You are never saved! All you have to do is mess up just once and you're kicked out on your ear. Bondage. Such bondage. Thanks in advance for your prayers. I just took it on my own to reach out to her. I mean, our age differences are so great (she's 19) but she just looked so lost when she walked in the door last Sunday.

A little history on Christine. Back in October our church went through the 40 Days of Purpose campaign and we chose to go with the small group model. We were all supposed to go around and invite our neighbors to a small group meeting. My friend, Evelyn, thank God, was obedient to that and she went to Christine's house and invited her parents to the small group. She mentioned to Christine that she might like to go to Youth Group sometime. Well, Christine's parents weren't interested in the small group, but Christine began going to the Youth Group activities. (I think Evelyn took her to the first couple nights.) Anyway, Christine came to a saving understanding of the grace of God and asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. And she was baptized a month or so ago. I thank God every day for Evelyn's faithfulness. Through her obedience a lamb was brought into the fold. Praise God! So anyway you can see what I mean by her being such a baby Christian. And I love that her name is Christine. Please pray for her.