Christmas 2020

I hear a lot of whining about what a rough year 2020 has been. Imagine a year when the government has banned public meetings of your church. Violations of the ban are likely to get you fined or imprisoned. Speaking the truth of the gospel has been outlawed. Personal expressions of your faith are being criminalized. Society as a whole is not just ignorant of the Bible; they are belligerent to its message of salvation. Those who attempt to spread the Good News are often persecuted and sometimes even martyred. There has never been such a troubled year.

Except that what I just described was the situation facing the first generation of the church. And it grew explosively. When the Roman Catholic church took the place of secular government in the Middle Ages, it again became dangerous to express beliefs that were contrary to the controlling powers. The Roman church viciously persecuted biblically patterned groups like the Waldenses and Albigenses; men like Wycliffe and Hus were persecuted or martyred for telling the truth as they believed it.

Although the Reformation brought some relief for truth-tellers, even Calvin was known for harsh judgments against those who disagreed with his particular brand of reform. When a group of people attempted to escape persecution for their beliefs in Europe in the Seventeenth century, they founded Plymouth colony in the New World, only to carry on the exclusiveness and bigotry they were leaving behind. Folks who wanted to practice a private version of the faith outside the community were shunned or worse. “Papists” were banned outright, a feeling that carried all the way to the presidency of John F. Kennedy in the 1960’s.

Everyone is familiar with the “under God” controversy surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance and the battle to remove the Ten Commandments from public spaces. I heard yesterday that an HOA somewhere won’t let a homeowner put a cross on his own property. Despite the promise of the First Amendment, religious speech is criminalized being branded “hate speech” when it criticizes a protected group. 2020 has been a tough year, but it’s really nothing new.

I have been introduced to a new way of looking at the situation facing Christians by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. I discovered Heiser’s enlightened view when I read The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible a few years ago. (See “Understanding the Book of Job: The Heiser Effect”) Since then, besides a couple re-reads of Unseen Realm, I have followed more of what he has written. Heiser is a scholar of ancient Mideastern languages, particularly biblical Hebrew. His work has opened my eyes to the supernatural worldview of the biblical writers and their audience.

This matters at Christmas because of what Christmas means in the supernatural world. As the word came to the Apostle John from heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” Heiser opens our eyes to the fact that bringing a new King into the world upsets those who have claimed rulership of that world for millennia. Jesus’ dialogue with Satan during His temptation proves that the dark lord assumed ownership of the kingdoms he offered to the King. (Mt. 4:9-10) The King said He was bringing a sword (Mt. 10:34) and the kingdom would come by force. (Mt. 11:12)

The baby that shepherds worshipped in the manger would grow to become the divine/human representative of God charged with the retaking of the kingdom. The Savior had to live in the flesh so that He could die to save all flesh. His physical death was required to regain the lost kingdom and to purchase life for Himself and all who believe on Him. The marvel is that the Messiah didn’t stay dead; He was raised from death to reign over the earth, first in a spiritual victory; then He will ultimately return to reign physically with His faithful followers.

In 2020 we are in the same place as our brothers in 120 and 1220 and 1620: we are in the midst of a cosmic battle for control of the earth. The word John heard from the 24 elders was, “We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful, the one who is and the one who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.  And the nations were angry.” (Revelation 11:17-18) The reign has “begun,” but the spiritual powers have not yet been put fully in subjection. “The nations” are angry because they see their power being drained away.

Heiser paints a clear picture of how the “nations” are associated with the powerful beings that populate the spiritual realm. Even before the Messiah came, the Psalmist noted that, “the nations rage.” (Psalm 2:1) Psalm 2 ends with a warning for the “kings” who rule the earth: “So then, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his anger burns quickly. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Heiser makes it abundantly clear that these “kings” are the spirit beings that God, the King of spirits, placed in charge of the nations while He took Israel for His own. (Deuteronomy 32:8)) The nations were set aside temporarily while God worked out the redemption plan through Israel. The fulfillment of that plan began in a manger in Bethlehem. It continued through the agony of Messiah on the Roman cross where a victory was won over death. It continues in 2020 with the struggle of Christ’s followers who attempt to bring the Kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness. ((See “Bringing the Kingdom”)

If this seems like a dark message to share at Christmas, remember that when Simeon prophesied over Mary at her baby boy’s temple presentation, he told her a sword would pierce her heart. The New Testament is full of warnings that tribulations and trials will come. We are in a war; expect trouble. The thing that makes this a happy message is that we know who wins – who has won really. We cannot be surprised that things are tough; it was promised. The good news is that persevering produces strong faith (James 1:2-4) and suffering is the “evident token” of our salvation. (Philippians 1:28)

Smile and sigh at the wonder of the manger. Marvel at the angels’ announcement to the shepherds. Then grit your teeth and take a deep breath so that you can stand firm when “the nations rage.” Remember Who stands by your side. Remember the closing line of Psalm 2: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Adolescence. Ugh!

I can’t decide if it’s God’s sense of humor playing a joke on parents or an example of His deep wisdom that our children go through the trials of adolescence. It is not a modern development. I think I hear it in Joseph’s interaction with his brothers (Genesis 37); even Jesus at twelve (pre-teen? tweener?) demonstrated what looks like typical teenage behavior on one level. When He stayed behind in Jerusalem after the feast and was not found until three days later by his parents, his retort to His distraught mother might be updated thus: “Duh! You should have known where I was.” (Luke 2:49)

My own teenage rebellion was mild by comparison to some. I think my desire to please my dad and earn some expression of affection kept me from the worst I might have considered. As a teen in the sixties, I grew my hair as long as he allowed (collar length, no more). I listened to that dreaded rock music my parents despised (while they made me listen to classical in proportion to the rock). I smoked the tires a few times on my mom’s 396 c.i./325 h.p. Chevy Caprice station wagon. In the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll days, my deeds were very mild-mannered.

While the adolescent trials may be endemic to the human condition, I do believe our society has increased the likelihood that trouble may come. First, we have extended the period during which teens may express themselves independently. For most of human history until the late twentieth century, children went to work and began a more-or-less adult life at the start of adolescence. The development of universal education lasting thirteen years pushes adulthood and its responsibilities much later, even later yet for children who attend college right after high school.

The other societal phenomenon that makes today’s adolescent more likely to have problems is the freedom most children are given at an early age. In many modern homes, children have their own room, their own TV, their own computer giving them a degree of independence that was unknown until recently. Add to this the almost universal teenage driver’s license and often free use of a car, and you have a recipe for disaster. The teens who don’t kill themselves (and their friends) by driving insanely drive themselves into all sorts of places they would not otherwise be able to access. Prognosis: trouble.

One would hope that teens from Christian homes would be spared these temptations. As a teacher in Christian high schools for many years, I have witnessed the evidence that this is too often not the case. In fact, it seems as if the children from stricter parents tend to push the limits even harder than their less restricted peers. I cannot count the number of times I have heard teens say they despise rules when the reasons for the rules are not explained to them in any acceptable way. When petty infractions incur draconian discipline, many teens decide that all rules were made to be broken. I have seen many disasters including suicide committed by teens who could not bear up under the seeming mindlessness of their parents’ requirements.

One can understand the frustration that caused Mark Twain to quip, “When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole.” Overkill, yes, but understandable. Children differ in how they react to adolescent trials and must be treated accordingly. As I watched things in the home where I grew up, I saw everything from complete compliance in one of my siblings to near disastrous rebellion in another. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as Twain humorously suggested.

The Bible principle that best instructs parents on this issue is found in the often quoted, often misunderstood Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is often misunderstood as meaning that parents can mold a child in the way they think he should go: make rules for him to follow. I don’t think this is what the Teacher intended. Hebrew is a picture language, and the picture painted in this verse is instructive. A literal translation might read, “Begin training your youngster according to his tastes (literally: mouth)….” Many parents do take the mouth analogy seriously, thinking of a horse’s bit that forces the way. I prefer to see it as a call to find out the child’s interests and talents and help him develop them. Naturally, if a child “likes” breaking things and hurting people, this does not apply. But generally, children gravitate toward things they enjoy, and they can succeed at. Here is where the parents “lead.”

This idea of helping a child find his sweet spot in life is a metaphor for what God does with His children, I think. He places His Spirit within us at [re]birth, and the idea is that we will develop the natural talents we are given alongside the spiritual gifts God provides each one of us. If we allow God to “train us up in the way we should go,” when we mature in Christ, we will find satisfaction and have no desire to, “depart from [God’s plan for us.]” I’m glad God’s treatment is not like Mark Twain suggested but instead of stifling us, He “provides us all things richly for [our] enjoyment.” That enjoyment is doubled when we seek His path for us and walk in it.

The New Iconoclasts

 I was visiting family last weekend, and somehow the question of who discovered America came up. I asked my eight-year-old (“I’m going to be nine.”) grandson if he knew. He shook his head, and to be fair, he may simply have forgotten that lesson if it was ever mentioned. However, when I asked if he knew about Columbus, his Mom informed me that they no longer teach that Columbus discovered America because he is thought to be an evil person. We also discussed the fact that the continent of America was probably “discovered” by Vikings, possibly Leif Ericson, long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. And, of course, the island Columbus first landed on isn’t even American territory.

Columbus did eventually get to the American mainland where he continued his “evil” European domination. I will not deny that the European taking of the Western hemisphere was arrogant imperialism with a large dose of bigotry and condescension. However, to discard all mention of the great explorer is to lose a sense of his truly great achievement: he debunked a false notion that ruled the scientific community of his day. He proved the earth was not flat. He may have miscalculated the planet’s size, but he was correct about its shape. He opened the door for the Age of Exploration.

Columbus also extended the reach of the dominant culture of his day, the consequences of which were not fully positive. Nor were they completely negative. Say what you will about 15^th century Roman Catholic theology, Columbus and subsequent explorers did bring knowledge of the Savior of the world to the “new world.” In his own words, Columbus expressed his desire to bring Christianity to the people of the newly discovered continent. Secular historians, the sanitizers of history, put his evangelistic zeal in the category of arrogant imperialism. How dare he think his religion was superior to that of the natives.

While modern missiologists will no doubt shudder at the tactics of Columbus et al, their motives cannot be impugned. Certainly, the explorers of the Enlightenment day sought riches. Had Columbus not promised to return with ships laden with gold, Ferdinand and Isabella would never have financed his venture as a missions trip. We may never know whether his primary motivation was economic, religious, or simply a burning desire to prove his round earth theory. But if we erase Columbus from the history books, we will never get to have that discussion.

It is a discussion worth having. Just as Israel was commanded to remember her history, America should remember hers. I realize the history of Israel is the story of God’s redemption of the human race and therefore eminently important, whereas America’s history is not inspired Scripture with eternal significance. However, in the same way that the Israelites could track the coming of the Messiah through her past, Americans can trace the development of a nation that is unique in all human history. There are valuable lessons to be learned from a study of the American foundations. We live in an ordered universe where the principle of cause and effect operates not only in the “hard” sciences like physics but in the social sciences as well.

To erase great men from our history because they were greatly flawed is to eliminate the possibility of learning from the ill effects of their actions. To hide their flaws as my grade school history did with Columbus isn’t ideal either. Surely a balance can be found between painting him as the devil incarnate and whitewashing him as God’s righteous servant. Even a third-grade student could be made to understand the man’s sincere religious motivations and his prowess as a navigator and sailor while recognizing his moral and fiscal failures as an administrator.

I know my third-grade grandson can understand the nuances of flawed people. Like too many young children today, he has had live with the consequences of moral failure. Children should not be “protected” from the reality of the mixed alloy of human character; it is valuable information. The Bible certainly does not gloss over its heroes’ moral difficulties. Remember that David and Moses were both murderers. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived according to the biblical record, couldn’t control his carnal desires. Peter denied his Savior at a critical moment while all the others closest to Jesus fled into the night.

I believe it is foolish arrogance to read our twenty-first century political/moral sensitivities back into history. Deleting Columbus or any other person who doesn’t meet a modern, politically correct standard has the same effect as the ancient historians who made up tales that suited their fancy. Mythology makes for entertaining reading, and often it presents moral lessons, but it is not a substitute for a true account of actual events in the past.

This is a big problem, but a committed group of parents could stage a coup at the next school board election and influence a local body to make changes that would lead to an honest history curriculum. Even within the dreaded Core standards now adopted by most states there is room for a local district to supplement their history texts with those that present the real thing. Our children deserve to know where we have come from as a nation. Who knows; maybe if our public schools had been teaching history honestly for the last few decades there would be fewer young people who think socialism is the answer to all our problems.

December 6, 2020

In the weeks and months leading up to December 7, 1941, there was a battle going on in Washington DC. The opposing sides were called the Hawks and the Doves; they were also called interventionists and isolationists. The battleground up to that point had been ideological. All-out war had been raging on both sides of the world: Europe was falling under the blitzkrieg of Hitler, and Japan had begun grabbing territory in a number of places. The battle in Washington was between those who thought America needed to get involved in Europe and those who thought not.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was leading the Hawks; he saw the wisdom of helping our allies in Europe both to protect them and to stop Hitler before He spread his mayhem to our shores. On December 6, the Japanese and Americans were in a heated negotiation in which the Japanese were looking for assurances from the US government that continued Japanese expansion in the Pacific would not be opposed by the US. Japan was promising the US that they had no designs on anything close to Hawaii, let alone our West Coast. Because the Hawks wanted to step in to help fight Hitler, they were desperate for a way to avoid a war on two fronts. They were willing to let Japan have a few islands in the South Pacific and some territory on the continent of Asia if they wanted to take it.

The Doves believed that neither the Pacific nor the European wars were any of our business. They may not have approved of some of Hitler’s policies (some of which were not yet known), but they pointed to lucrative business arrangements currently in place with many German companies. To declare war on Germany would not only cut off profitable trade with them; it would inevitably cost millions of dollars the US could ill afford as we were just climbing out of the worst depression the country had ever seen. The Doves were just as anxious as the Hawks to see some arrangement made with the Japanese but for different reasons. None of them cared if the little Emperor of a tiny island far away wanted to expand his territory, and they never imagined he had the military might or the temerity to attack the US.

The US Constitution and sound economic thinking were on the side of the Doves. From an emotional point of view, history may also have played to their hand. WWI had cost countless lives and dollars, and no one wanted to see a repeat performance of that costly event. President Wilson’s team had gotten around the Constitutional problem of using the US military for purposes other than strictly protecting our borders; the Doves did not want to see that card played again. The problem was then and is now that the President holds the trump card: only he can declare war. Congress must eventually approve funding, but the country can become deeply committed with just a declaration from the White House.

As everyone knows, all bets were off on December 7. Japan surprised both Hawk and Dove (though some were suspicious beforehand) by attacking Pearl Harbor. The December 8 declaration of war against Japan moved the Axis powers to declare war on the US. By December 11 the US answered in kind. WWII was now our war too. Some would say, macabre and it sounds, that the war was good for America; it lifted us out of the depression and set us up for the greatest period of growth industrially and economically the world had ever seen.

After we returned victorious, we kept the factories cranking and became the world’s most rabid consumer nation. While wonderful economically, consumerism is not necessarily an unmixed blessing. The social and cultural changes brought on by the war cannot be overstated. Women were suddenly incorporated into the workforce and became a necessary cog in the economic engine. This changed both corporate and family dynamics. While it is true that many women stayed home raising Boomer babies during the fifties, by the sixties the need to choose between career and homemaking drove more and more women into full-time employment.

The baby boom came to a screeching halt when birth control became not only readily available but nearly a necessity. The decoupling of sex from procreation also instigated the expansion of free love without biological consequences. Abortion on demand legalized by Roe v. Wade in 1973 encouraged the woman’s rights movement and further destroyed the meaning of “family.” In order to maintain the lifestyle that had become expected, two incomes were required. The “latchkey child” was born.

The industrial/technological race that had begun with the war effort continued and a little-known organization called DARPA (primarily a military outfit) brought the world-wide-web into being. Once computers and the Internet because ubiquitous, all our social structures changed dramatically. Children became attached to blinking screens and stopped reading. Social “networks” took the place of face-to-face relationships for young and old alike. Cybercrime developed encompassing everything from industrial espionage to pornography. The world grew very small.

Here ends the history lesson as I recall it; I may be off on a detail or two, but I stand by the general drift. Now the WHAMM. The world began a radical transformation on December 7, 1941. No one can say what might have happened had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor or had we not joined the battle in Europe. Perhaps we would have come to our present state without the explosive pressure of the military/industrial complex fueled by WWII. The fact is we got where we are in the same way a frog gets boiled: put him in cold water and turn up the heat; he will boil to death.

As Christians, we should be mourning many of the changes that happened since December 6, 1941. As Christians, we should be watching what is happening in our country today. I believe a Biden presidency will mark a declaration of war on the America that has existed for approximately three centuries. I believe Joe Biden will be a puppet for the forces of progressive ideology that want to fundamentally change America. If you think I am crazy, I think you aren’t paying attention. The progressive wing of the Democrat party is in control; they are saying openly that they want America to be dramatically different from what it is today.

Except for their policy on immigration, which sincere Christians might debate, the Democrat platform is largely unbiblical; parts of it are anti-Christian. As bad as that sounds to me, it is not un-American (except the anti-Christian part); the US is not a Christian nation. We are not governed by a theocracy, nor do I want that. What I want is for Christians to wake up and realize that the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation is being excavated out from under us. If that is what the majority of Americans want, then that’s what we’ll get.

I don’t think a properly educated majority would want it though. I’m not even sure a majority of those who voted legally in the last election want it. However, because the last generation of school children were not taught history, and because they had moral relativism crammed down their throats, a great many people who are old enough to vote think they want what the progressives are selling. Add to that number the sizeable apathetic portion of the “moral majority” as it was once called, and you have the reason for our current situation.

There may be no way to avoid a Biden presidency. If the Senate falls into Democrat hands as well as the White House, the damage to the America I love will be substantial over the next four years. Obama had a pretty good run at progressive hope and change during his eight years, but much of that was undone by President Trump. Biden’s gang will start hacking away again with even more power if the Senate is theirs, but that too could be countered if a conservative administration follows in four or even eight years. Maybe the radical Democrat policies will scare enough people into voting them out in 2024; maybe not. I know God is in control, but so did some of the Israelites who ended up in Babylon for seventy years; they sat by the river and mourned their loss. I hope I don’t have to join them.

Related posts: Obama Is Not The Problem; And Freedom for All; The Right to Bear Crosses; America Held Captive

Election: God’s Choice

 Election is such a loaded word. It has created an historic divide within the church, and it creates serious problems with those outside the body of Christ as well. The basis for God’s electing power rests solely on His existence as Creator. As the potter does to the clay, so the Heavenly Creator chooses what to make of each lump of human clay. Only those jealous of God’s power question His right to exercise election by His grace. He chooses whom He will, and the chosen properly rejoice, but in humility they recognize it is by grace alone that they stand.

The resistance to or denial of God’s right to elect stems from the original sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. God chose to give Adam and Eve all things freely to enjoy with one exception: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were allowed to take the fruit of any tree but that one. (Genesis 3) It was necessary for God to make this Adam’s choice, for only in having a choice does freedom mean anything. Adam demonstrated the reality of human free will by choosing to rebel against God’s command; Adam chose independence over dependence. The sad result is that because of Adam’s rebellion, all humans are now independent unless their Creator graciously chooses to bring them back to the dependence of His family in Christ.

To become a part of God’s family, a new birth is required. As Jesus told Nicodemus, a second birth by the Spirit is the only way to get back into God’s good graces. We are all born of water, which is to say born of Adam, but only the chosen are born again or born from above by the Spirit. It is as Paul says repeatedly: we were dead, but God chose to make us alive in Him through Christ. The New Testament also frequently uses the metaphor of adoption to describe our situation in God’s family. Neither by birth nor in adoption does the child choose his family; the parent does.

The child in the orphanage looks at the child chosen for adoption with jealousy; it may seem unfair that one is chosen and one not. The difference with the adoption by God is that the offer of adoption is made to all. The mystery of election is that God chooses those who choose to accept His grace. Someone once explained election by imagining a sign over the entrance to Heaven. From the outside it read, “Whosoever will may enter.” Looking back from the inside it read, “Only the elect may enter.”

Some argue that this condition negates the possibility of human free will and makes us all puppets strung along by the Divine Puppeteer. This is not necessarily so. Even though I have been chosen before the foundation of the world, I do not have evidence of that choice until I begin to explore its ramifications. God may work behind the scenes, as it were, drawing me to Himself, but until I acknowledge His work, I have no proof that He even exists, let alone that He has chosen me. Prior to the moment I turn to God, the fact that Heaven knew me was unknown to me; I didn’t know my true identity.

The pages of the Book of Life are hidden to me. Before I chose to believe God and accept His grace, I had no idea if my name was in the Book or not. Now that I have turned to God, I am not without a witness to the fact that I am chosen; Holy Spirit confirms to our spirit that we are children of God. Confirmations of my status as elect of God pile up as I pursue my walk with Him. A day finally came when I was able to say that I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep me until the day of His revealing.

To me, the reality of God’s sovereign election becomes a source of great comfort. First because I know my adoption was purely by His grace and through His power, nothing can remove me from His family. Second, acknowledging God’s absolute sovereignty in personal election is linked with my belief that He is sovereign over everything. If God did not reign completely over everything, He could not promise anything, including my eventual eternity with Him. If the ancient enemy of God controlled even one thing outside of God’s permissive will, the end of the story could not be written with any certainty.

It matters if God is totally sovereign. I will give an illustration ripped from today’s headlines, as they say. I am writing this as the debate over who won the 2020 presidential election continues. People from both sides of the debate speak with certainty about their conclusions. The problem is that the two opinions are mutually exclusive. Either the election was legitimate, and Biden is the rightful winner and next President, or the election was rife with fraud and the outcome is uncertain. I chose this illustration purposely, not just because it is timely as I publish this article, but also precisely because I don’t know who will take the oath of President in January. On one level, I don’t care who is going to be President because I know who rules the universe, and He is sovereign over President Trump or Biden.

Someone may say this is irrelevant to my election to salvation, but it is not. The same God who has the right to choose who will join His family also chooses who will be President. This is the inarguable result of believing in a totally sovereign God. If the Democrats stole this election through voting fraud on a grand scale, they did it only because God allowed it. If legal cases are presented and won placing President Trump in for another term, that too is by the rule of God. I don’t see how it can be both ways having God be sovereign in the affairs of life but not in election to salvation. Either God is sovereign, or He is not.

The real mystery here is that while God is totally sovereign, humans have total free will. I am forced every day to choose what to eat, what to wear, which lever to pull in the election, and so on. The fact that God already has those decisions figured into His grand design is irrelevant to me because I don’t know what God knows. I still have to make choices. It took me years to get to that realization, but now that I am here, I am at peace. I pray you may find peace as well. Choose to hear the psalmist share God’s recommendation: “Be still and know that I am God.” Let God be god and make the best choices you know how. Then don’t fret; He’s got this.

Can’t Fix This

My wife shared a devotional with me yesterday that hit me right where I live. It would have been fitting at any time in my life, but it is especially meaningful these days. One of the core characteristics of my personality is the need to fix things. This applies to everything: people, objects and situations. I remember as far back as my high school dating days, my girlfriend, now wife, would be upset over something, even to the point of tears sometimes, and I would ask what was wrong. She would usually say, “Nothing.” I would press, trying to find a way to help. I still remember her frequent response: “Stop trying to fix me.”

Then there is every car I have ever owned (over two hundred and counting) and every house we ever lived in (fifteen) that I wasn’t satisfied with on some level. There was always something I wanted to do to customize, improve, repair or remodel on every one. Ironically, I often failed to put my fixes on until just before we sold the item. We might drive a car for years with a sticky door latch, say, and then when I put it up for sale, I would fix the thing to make it more appealing. I mention that to say this: the desire to fix it percolated in my mind, but the motivation or opportunity to actually do something didn’t rise to the level of immediacy.

I have also fretted over the situations that surround me as well. Political, social, relational conditions that didn’t measure up to my wishes plagued my thinking with a desire to do something that seldom rose to the level of action. Things were never quite right at home, at work or in the state house or Washington. Somewhere about mid-life I began to hear the words of the Apostle Paul, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” I wanted that, but like every other thing I wanted to fix, I couldn’t seem to fix my longings to fix things.

Now that devotional my wife shared: “Problems are a part of life. They are inescapable, woven into the very fabric of this fallen world. You tend to go into problem-solving mode all too readily, acting as if you have the capacity to fix everything. This is a habitual response so automatic that it bypasses your conscious thinking. Not only does this habit frustrate you, it also distances you from Me.

“Do not let fixing things be your top priority. You are ever so limited in your capacity to correct all that is wrong in the world around you. Don’t weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own. Instead, make your relationship with me your primary concern. Talk with Me about whatever is on your mind, seeking My perspective on the situation. Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask Me to show you what is truly important. Remember that you are en route to heaven and let your problems fade in the Light of eternity.” (Jesus Calling: November 30)

I can’t begin to tell you how deeply those words spoke to me. As I said at the open, they would have been appropriate at any time in my life, but now they hit me like a ton of bricks. If you have read my blogs lately, you know that I have been trying to fathom what is going on with the whole corona virus “pandemic.” The rampant fraud being alleged across the nation in the Presidential election has also caught my attention (understatement!) As I write this, we are living full-time in an RV we bought to be an occasional summer camper, not a daily live-aboard, so something bigger is necessary. A bigger trailer will mean a bigger truck to pull it with. Our financial situation is pressured as we wait for the sale of our house to be completed, and we stretch dollars to pay off the credit accounts we built up (mostly) from rehabbing the house (Mr. Fixit again).

I have never needed Heaven’s perspective more than I do now. I’m not afraid of death – far from it. I say with Paul, “for we live by faith, not by sight -- so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” That takes care of the COVID 19 scare. If you read my articles on the election, you know the political mayhem saddens me, but I know the One who is in control. As far as needing a bigger living space and something to pull it around which ties to the financial needs, God has always provided what we need to get by. If it is His will that we stay on the road, I believe there will be a way to afford larger quarters.

That takes care of the material/psychological things. The really important things have never been in doubt. The one thing I don’t feel the need to fix – couldn’t fix if I wanted – is my eternal destiny. Jesus bought my golden ticket on the cross; I know where I’m going. What I need most right now is to learn what Paul learned: “to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” I am getting better at that. Now, about those custom touches to my truck….

The Goodness of God in the Bad Times

I have been having an interesting discussion with a friend about how much responsibility God bears for the bad things that happen to people. I have been talking about this with many people and studying the Scriptures for decades; I even wrote a paper on it in Bible college. My friend has said previously that he believes God is in charge, but not in control, which allows him to think that God does not have responsibility for troublesome circumstances. This is difficult for me to square with the way God’s total sovereignty is revealed by His actions recorded in Scripture.

Perhaps the clearest statement of God’s sovereignty in all things is the shocking (to some) statement in Isaiah 45:7 where God tells the prophet, “I form light and I create darkness; I make peace and I create evil; I am Yahweh; I do all these things.” God stakes His very identity on the fact that He “creates evil.” We must first understand that the word “evil” here does not encompass moral evil. The Hebrew word speaks of calamity, disaster or unpleasant circumstances. To the surprise of many, God does not shrink for owning responsibility for these things which, in context, are His way of judging His people for their unfaithfulness.

One response to this is to read Isaiah 45:7 as if it reveals the Old Testament God, whereas Jesus reveals a different sort of God in the New Testament. This argument suggests that Jesus never created any “evil” while He was on earth. Rather, the Son was just, merciful, kind and good all the time, which appears to be the case on the surface. Certainly, Jesus did have a few harsh things to say to the religious hypocrites of His day, but He didn’t call down lightning or send fiery serpents to plague them, at least not during His earthly ministry.

After the Cross and the establishment of His church, I think God’s unchanging nature is revealed anew. When the church was only a few weeks or months old, Ananias and Saphira felt the up close and personal judgment of God; they lied to the Holy Spirit and POW!, POW! Two dead. (Acts 5:1-11)  Then there is Paul on the island of Cyprus telling the crooked sorcerer, Elymas, “O you who are full of all deceit and of all unscrupulousness, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord! And now behold, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a while.” (Acts 13:10-11) ZAP! One struck blind.

That kind of harsh treatment did not stop there. A few years later, Paul told the Corinthian believers that some of their number had “fallen asleep,” a euphemism for death, because they partook of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. (1 Corinthians 11:30) There is also the writer’s clear implication in the book of Hebrews that God uses unpleasantness to chastise His children. The verb, disciplines, used in Hebrews 12:6 is in the present, active, indicative tense. That tense is always used of a person’s direct action. Some may want these unpleasant occurrences to be a case like Job’s where God allowed Satan to trouble Job by giving permission as opposed to taking direct action. That position is difficult to support in the case of Ananias and Saphira or Elymas, and there is no clear ground for claiming the permissive, passive nature of any of God’s discipline.

This leads many to question the goodness of a God who can serve up badness to His own people. The answer is found in the Hebrews 12 passage. There are two good reasons for accepting that God “creates evil” in believers’ lives. First, the Hebrews author says it proves God’s love, the opposite of what some would think. Quoting the Old Testament in the New, bringing solidarity between the two, the Hebrew passage says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or give up when you are corrected by him. For the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves and punishes every son whom he accepts.” (Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-6) To add emphasis to the point, the writer continues, “But if you are without discipline, in which all legitimate sons have become participants, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.” And there is the second reason God brings trouble into our lives: to give us “peaceful fruit.”

I agree that God is good all the time, and yet I will not shrink from saying that the troubles that come our way may be God’s doing so that He might conform us into the image of His Son. I remember that His ways are higher than mine. Romans 8:28 may properly be translated to say that God works all things in His loved ones’ lives [even the bad things] to accomplish His good purposes. Good can come from “evil.” The Cross of Christ is the ultimate, deliberate creation of evil by God. The goodness that came from that evil cannot be overstated. The entire sweep of redemptive history reveals a God who uses disaster, calamity and unpleasantness to bring about the salvation of the human race. Because of His love for us, Jesus faced the cross that His Father ordained because God so loved the world. When it comes from God’s hand, even “bad” can be good; it just depends on how you define “good.”

 

Related articles: Finding God in COVID 19; The Winnowing Fork of God; Today’s Chaldean Chastisement

Karen and Clair’s Excellent Travel Adventure Chapter Two: Installment Two

I’m not one to blather daily on Facebook about every little thing I do. However, when people learn that Karen and I are living full-time in an RV and travelling the country, they invariably ask what it’s like; many also claim they would love to do the same. Because of that interest, I am publishing another installment of my travel journal. You can stop here and move on to something else if you are not interested.

Week Six (Election Week!)

Our first week in Golden Valley was uneventful except for the national drama of the presidential election. As I write this on Saturday, four days after the election, Biden is still six electoral votes short of winning, but there is little doubt of the outcome. On the other hand, there is no certainty Trump will concede as he has expressed his distrust of the results in several states, promising legal challenges. What bothers me beyond the lack of trust in the system is the fact that once again half of my fellow countrymen (and women) have cast a vote to fundamentally change what America has been for centuries. They think they want a socialist country. I hope the result they get so obviously a bad choice very quickly, that in 2024 we can chuck the experiment and get America back on track.

Forget politics; que sera, sera. When we landed in Golden Valley last Sunday, I was slightly disappointed. First, the price had gone up $100/month since I reserved back in September. Then the park itself was underwhelming. It is all gravel except for a 12x8 concrete pad at each site. I knew from my web research that the trees, one for each site, were going to be small, but IRL they seem insignificant. They are little good for either shade or protection from the wind.

The wind has been easy to take until yesterday. We put up the screen room right away, but had to take it down in preparation for a two-day windstorm with 20-30 mph winds and gusts over 40. That event brought us our first dust storm. It was a small one, only lasting a few minutes, but it was dramatic nonetheless. We now have two or three days of rain in the forecast, so we will be closed inside our little (little) trailer for the duration.

We made several 20 mile trips east into Kingman for groceries and hardware items. Home Depot to the rescue. And they have our favorite grocery: Smiths. Yay! We also went 17 miles west to Bullhead City to visit a Lowes because I was given a gift card by the generous folks at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center. It was a wasted trip because they didn’t have the pipe I needed to hook up our sewer. Who could imagine they would not even carry 3-inch PVC? Really! That meant another trip to HD in Kingman. We also discovered a quirky but tasty treat in old town Kingman, in their Route 66 historical district. We have eaten at Rickity Crickets twice already. There are several other places we will try out as well as every fast food and sit-down restaurant you could want in the new part of Kingman.

I ordered an electric bike before we got here hoping it would arrive about when we did. FedEx has held it up for several days, but I am supposed to get it Monday. I am like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I plan to ride it daily for my cardio exercise and hopefully explore some of the desert nearby. It is a fat-tire folding model which is supposed to be able to handle even sandy terrain with the tires partially deflated. The electric motor can be used either as a pedal assist or a full-on motor-driven bike. I get my bicycle and motorcycle in one toy. Karen is not overly pleased with the cost ($1,000), but I hope she will get over her disappointment. I dream of one day getting her one too.

We looked into another park just down the road, and we may move there in December to save the $100 we are paying here over the advertised rate. It is similar but with paved roadways and tall, mature trees surrounding the entire perimeter. That may help protect from the wind somewhat. We will lose the unobstructed view of the valley and surrounding mountains, but the savings and the protection should compensate for the loss.

Week Seven

Sunday November 8, 2020: First it’s the wind. Not a gale, but steady enough and strong enough to rock the trailer a little once in a while. Then the clouds darken, and the rain showers come. Not steady downpours like in Michigan, but scattered, now-and-then showers pelting just enough to sound mean on the fiberglass roof over my head. Suddenly the pelting takes on a sharper sound: hail. Little BB size ice pellets bounce off the roof and the gravel surrounding the camper. It lasts maybe a minute. It all stops for a bit, then starts over: rain then hail again… and the wind. Thunder, once then again. The sky is heavy, dark and low. We’re under a storm cloud again. I’m waiting for the rain to start again. And the hail maybe. The wind picks up; the trailer responds with a waggle. I think we will be right under the storm this time.

I can see fluffy cumulus clouds over at the southwest horizon. The setting sun reveals blue sky over there, but between me and them it is nasty. Flat-bottomed, bumpy gray that fades as the rain blurs the view. Maybe it’s just to our north. Red and orange on the radar says we are just out of its reach. But the rain is back; heavy and almost sideways in the wind. Forty-five degree angle on the window-tracks. Harder rain this time like a Michigan thunder shower. Sheets of rain freight train over the trailer.

Thirty-three degrees predicted tonight as the cold front that brought the thunderstorms also brought a drop in temperature. It has already dropped a few degrees, and the windows are fogging as the furnace burns propane to keep us comfy. Living in an RV is different than living in a house. I feel closer to nature, even though I am in a park surrounded by other campers. I only have an inch or so between me and the real outdoors instead of two-by-fours and fiberglass and shingles and an attic. Winter here means 20’s or 30’s at night and 50-60 in the daytime. I can handle that as long as the water lines don’t freeze. I may have to hook up the line heaters in December. We’ll see. I am loving it whatever happens.

The Rest of November

One week has rolled into the next in such a way that weekly entries are unnecessary. Don’t misunderstand that I am bored or have nothing to do. Quite the opposite. We have done some sightseeing, visited three desert wineries (Surprise!) and I have put about eighty miles on the new bike. I try to ride at least twenty minutes every day as my cardio workout. It is so much more fun to do that by cruising the desert two-tracks than sitting in the rec room on a stationary bike. We have developed a pattern of Monday breakfast in either Kingman or Bullhead City followed by shopping. Then on Friday we have our “date night” in one of the two, usually involving shopping as well. We have found some fabulous restaurants already, as you would know if you follow us on Facebook.

It is December 1^st as I write this. Today we are moving from Tradewinds to Adobe RV park five miles down the road. The wind I mentioned earlier blows through our current park stirring dust like crazy. I love the view the open arrangement provides, but the wind takes away some of the enjoyment. We will be moving to the center of Golden Valley the “city.” It’s little more than a few gas stations, convenience stores and swap meets (big thing here, I guess). Geographically, Golden Valley is about ten miles east-to-west and about forty miles north-to-south depending on where you draw the southern boundary.

I will miss my view; I can see the mountains marking the north, east and west edges of the valley from my campsite. Adobe is surrounded by trees that block long-distance views so that my neighbor’s trailers will be the main feature I see there. We are giving up the vista for two reasons: first it is $95 dollars cheaper per month ($240); second the park had paved drives and the surrounding trees I mentioned that will hopefully cut some of the wind/dust we are dealing with here. Sadly, the park will not allow any type of screen/tent structure on the lots, so we can’t use our attached screen room. If we find we can’t live without it, we may be moving again. Stay tuned.

Exam Time

Having been a schoolteacher for most of my career, I am used to thinking of examinations as a way to measure progress in learning. Self-examination is something I didn’t begin until my mid-life. I am currently in another season of introspection. Some people belittle introspection as “navel gazing,” a waste of time. I prefer to follow Socrates who asserted that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think the Apostle Paul echoed the philosopher’s opinion when he recommended taking one’s measure in at least two places, and Peter joins him as well. (2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Corinthians 11:27-30; 2 Peter 1:10-11) as well as demonstrating that he took the inward look himself. (Philippians 3:4-11)

Having been through the process of self-examination before, I find I generally have had to reconsider who I am based on what I have discovered about myself. For example, when I used to look back on my life as a student in elementary and secondary school, I thought of myself as a nerd. My wife assures me that cannot be true because she would never have married a nerd. I mentioned my nerdiness to a fellow-classmate at our fiftieth high school reunion and she agreed with my wife; she had not thought me a nerd either. This misapprehension didn’t really cause any harm or bring any shame, but it does make me realize that others don’t see me for what I think I am.

After being married to my high school sweetheart for a couple decades, I had the opinion that I was a fine example of a loving, Christian husband. Then something brought me into that state of introspection, and I began to realize that I had fallen far short of perfection. In fact, I think I was basically a jerk for quite some time. I was not consciously abusive, but because I had never tried to learn what my wife really needed, I dragged her through a life furnished with most of what I needed thinking she was fulfilled as well. That was a wake-up call, and I still hear that alarm ringing on occasion.

About the same time, I discovered my wife had unfulfilled needs I was ignoring, I also came to the surprising conclusion that for all of my thirty-seven years, I had been trying to please my father. My Dad was of that “greatest generation” that suffered through a Depression and fought in WWII. Like may of his peers, he didn’t share much of what he was feeling. He was also a workaholic which meant that even if he had been more forthcoming with expressions of emotion, he wasn’t around very often to share them with me. I realized during my mid-life examination that I had been asking, “What would Dad think,” about everything in my effort to garner some praise or at least recognition.

I also got a shocking revelation from one of my children a few years later. I had always thought I was a really good father. I even began to write a seminar program to share my expertise on raising perfect kids. It’s probably a good thing I never finished it. My oldest was approaching middle age herself when she told me (in a context I have forgotten) that as a child, she was afraid to talk to me about anything important. Although none of them ran away from home, each of my children found someplace else to be immediately after high school, and I haven’t seen much of them since then. Apparently, the nest was a little prickly.

Now I am looking over the fence at seventy. I am examining what I have been and done in my three-score and ten. I have said for most of those years that I am called and gifted by God as a teacher, and I would have said in the past that I have done well at that. Even though I am retired, I still have occasion to teach by my writing and in person when given a chance. Lately I have been told that my teaching methods are not only ineffective, but even harmful in some instances. This is bringing on another bout of self-examination. I haven’t decided if my detractors are correct, but I have to look because of what Socrates said.

Now I will explain why this autobiographical rambling belongs on a site that claims heaven always matters most. First, there is one thing I am positively certain of: it doesn’t ultimately matter what others think of me or even what I think of myself. All that matters is what God thinks of me, and I know beyond doubt that He thinks of me as His child, accepted in the Beloved. When He looks at me, He sees Jesus. I am seated in the Heavenlies at His right hand, the place of highest honor. I have done nothing to gain His acceptance and His love; Jesus has done everything necessary to guarantee it. I don’t find this truth by looking into my mind, which I have just demonstrated is messed up. I learn the truth of my position by looking into the mirror of the Word as James calls it. God’s Spirit testifies to my spirit that I am his child.

The second reason these ramblings belong here is this: the preceding paragraphs were written yesterday. Today, Pastor Bill Johnson of Kingdom Life in Muskegon shared a word that spoke clearly to what I had written, but in a remarkable way. Bill spoke of the need to be grounded in the love of our Heavenly Father and to be rooted in the foundational teachings of the Word of God. He pointed to the words of Jesus that warned of times to come when deceit and lawlessness would cause many believers to drift away from righteous moorings. Finally Bill referenced Hebrews 12 which warns of a “shaking” that will cause worldly things to fall away.

I’ll keep trying to be a better husband-father-teacher-man, but I won’t waste a minute worrying if I am a good son of my Heavenly Father; He has taken care of that – no examination needed. I will also focus my deepest efforts on clinging to the things that cannot be shaken while letting go of all that can. I have been a sincere, diligent student of the Bible for over forty years. In spite of all that, I don’t think I have ever felt a more compelling desire to immerse myself in the Word and be conformed to it. I pray everyone in Christ’s true church will find the same passion. With everything that is happening in the world these days, I am reminded that there is an examination coming, perhaps soon, that we don’t want to fail.

Red Letters; Red Faces

In the title, I am referring to the practice of putting Jesus’ words in red letters in some Bible translations. Some people believe we should take the words in red more seriously than the others. Certainly, Jesus words are very important because He was speaking as the perfect Son of God, and every word His followers recorded is Scripture. I am not discounting the importance of Jesus’ words.

However, there are two things to consider when interpreting Jesus words. First, the things Jesus said during His earthly ministry were spoken almost exclusively to ethnic Jews who were under the Old Testament system of Judaism. His message echoed John the Baptist’s in that He repeatedly called His listeners to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. He called for change of mind because a major change in how they would approach God was in the offing.

One example of how Jesus’ words need reinterpretation will illustrate what I mean. At one point He counselled His listeners to “leave your gift there before the altar” if they had any issues with a brother. Since we no longer sacrifice animals on the altar in the Jerusalem temple, this counsel must be reinterpreted if it is going to apply to New Testament believers. The same condition exists with Jesus’ instructions about the temple tax, ceremonial cleansing of lepers, interaction with tax collectors and the military, and countless others. Principles can be extracted from the words, but they don’t apply to us directly.

The second thing to consider about Jesus’ words is that one of the last things He said was that His disciples would get a fuller understanding of His words after the Holy Spirit came to help them. This means that the words of the New Testament writers who came after the gospels have as much weight as Jesus’ own words and may have better clarity. There is no conflict between the “red letters” and the rest of the letters in your Bible. These too must be reinterpreted in some instances because of cultural changes that occurred in the intervening centuries, but the principles drawn from either set of words will align one with the other.

The reason I mention the red-letter controversy is slightly obtuse, but I will try to explain how I got here. A corollary to the well-known question, what would Jesus do? (WWJD), is what would Jesus say? (WWJS) Now comes the leap: how would Jesus say what He said? We know from the biblical record that different groups of people had different reactions to the same words of Jesus. The religious leaders thought Him a heretic; there were some who thought Him a lunatic; a few recognized Him as the Son of God. Same words, different perceptions.

The ill-conceived idea that perception is reality doesn’t fit here at all. Jesus spoke only truth – ultimate reality. Yet He was misperceived by many of His hearers. Here is the crux of my problem: WWJS needs clarification as to the tone of the Master’s delivery. In my youth, I was known by many for my use of the Bible as a club. I beat people into agreement – rather, I tried to. Often as not, I drove them away instead of drawing them closer to the truth.

I want to say I have grown away from my earlier misadventures in teaching, but of late I have been accused of something akin to my Bible-thumping ways. After decades of Bible study, I fear my method of delivery may not have grown at the pace of my knowledge. I am still accused of insensitivity at times, occasionally causing people to get red-faced with anger. When I look at some of Jesus’ words, I want to say I am following His example. Here are some troublesome red-letter words: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” I try to imagine Jesus saying that in a tactful, loving tone. I struggle. At one point, Jesus looked at one of His closest disciples and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” Put yourself in Peter’s place and try to hear that in a loving tone.

There are many other red-letter examples of questionable tone such as Jesus calling the hypocrites of His day vipers, whitewashed tombs and sons of the devil. One wonders how would Jesus handle crazies on Facebook? How would He engage with misguided politicians in our representative democracy? How would He react to believers who embrace the homosexual lifestyle? I know: He would love them all. But love can sometimes get tough to borrow James Dobson’s coin. WWJD?

The books of the New Testament are full of admonition, correction and rebuke. No one is more corrective than Paul, yet he suggests his readers, “become imitators of me as I imitate Christ.” I am currently reading Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. He makes a strong point to both his proteges not to engage in petty squabbles or meaningless disputes. I suspect I have ventured into that territory occasionally, although I pray it has not been expressing heresy as were the subjects of Paul’s correction. The best I can do is to continue to pursue and present truth with this admonition foremost in my thinking: “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow into him with reference to all things, who is the head, Christ.” Then, hopefully, red letters or black, at least I won’t be red-faced.

How Can They Think That?

For almost two decades I have been trying to understand the “liberal” or progressive mindset. These labels encompass most twentieth century Democrats, and today’s Democrats are more puzzling than ever. When I was on the road, I spent hours listening to the BBC and Air America and the mainstream media on satellite radio trying to understand where the liberals were coming from. I think I finally have the answer.

My Bible reading today was in 2 Thessalonians where Paul describes the workings of the “man of lawlessness.” It is not lost on me that the most radical progressives are exactly that: lawless. Anarchists who call for defunding of police are the essence of lawlessness. Many of the political left’s other policies follow the same idea. They remove the law against murder by giving women the right to kill their unborn children. They remove the laws governing immigration so that the country may be overrun and the economy destroyed by illegal aliens. They remove the law against homosexual marriage, destroying the traditional meaning and purpose of marriage in the process. They despise the laws of free-market economies that have allowed America to flourish and prefer to redistribute all wealth in a socialist/communist pattern.

Virtually all the planks of the progressive platform would upend society as we know it and replace it with a socialist vision that would be anathema to the Christians who founded this country. Recent experience, history and logic itself demonstrate that their policies don’t work – never have. This makes me ask why they are so adamant about their revolutionary ideas. Paul tells the Thessalonians why: “God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” The Apostle said much the same thing about homosexuality in Romans: “God gave them over to a debased mind.” Similarly, he cautioned the Ephesians, “that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk: in the futility of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, who, becoming callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness, for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.”

There is something else at play here that motivates people to remain “ignorant” as Paul calls them in Romans and Ephesians: lust. Lust for power and all that it provides is the primary motivator of many politicians in both parties. I wrote before about the corrupting influence of power (“The Uncorrupted Life”). This helps to explain why so many laudable campaign promises are abandoned once the statehouse or Capitol Hill are gained. The levers of power are controlled by a small oligarchy in this country, and for better or worse, that elite band must either be mollified or manipulated to get anything done.

Where does this leave Christians who want to see the Kingdom come? On our knees where we rightfully belong. I cannot find anyplace in the New Testament that encourages us to take over secular government to accomplish God’s will. We are commanded to pray for our leaders so that things will go well. We are also promised that God remains in control despite the hubris of ignorant people (Paul’s description) who think they run the show.

I am writing this between election night 2020 and inauguration day 2021 with no certainty who will be making the speech in January. I have decided to stop debating and redouble my praying. Paul’s characterization of the people with whom I would disagree tends to make me think I am wasting my words on them. I am not being arrogant or dismissive; I am being confident that God’s will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the final outcome will be for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. I think I am on pretty solid ground there.

Related posts: Honor the King, What is the Church?, Beware of Bowlegged Politicians, What's Wrong With Politics in America, Bringing the Kingdom

Karen and Clair’s Excellent Travel Adventure Chapter Two

 Day One: Muskegon, Michigan to Norwalk, Ohio (October 1, 2020)

We had to finish packing up what we were leaving and loading what we were taking. It was 2:15 before we finally called it quits and hit the road. I am not proud of the way we left the house for Lucas and Michael. Things were in major disarray and I realized after we were on the road that I forgot to pack up a few things. Karen and I had reached the end of our collective rope, physically and emotionally. Had we worked one minute longer I fear we would have fallen into the pit of despair. So we left.

It had been raining off and on all day. God was good and gave me a short dry period to load the truck and hook the trailer; then it poured again. Our only major traffic slowdown was on US 31 right in Muskegon. Once we hit I-96 we sailed at top speed (trailer puller top speed: 65) all the way to our first stop in Lansing for fuel and potty break. Then we motored to Ottawa Lake, Michigan without even slowing for Ann Arbor (at 5:00!) and took on fuel and grabbed snacks from the trailer.

Ohio slid by with no trouble and we were blessed to arrive at the Sandy Ridge Winery and Mercantile just before they stopped serving in their restaurant. We started with a glass of wine; they had a passable Chablis and a good cabernet each with their own label. No vines were visible, so we assume they ship juice in from elsewhere and do their vintner magic. We shared a delicious plate of pork tenderloin slices bronzed in a mango barbeque served with fried plantains. There was a corn and bean slaw on the plate as well, but we found it too peppery to enjoy. We topped it off with a sea-salt crusted sugar cookie. Num!

We slept soundly through a quiet night on the edge of Sandy Ridge’s parking lot alongside a field of ready-to-pick soybeans. Our over-packed trailer and truck weathered the first day well. Nothing terrible happened in the stacks of stuff in the trailer, and I was pleasantly surprised to get 9.7 mpg in spite of all the extra weight. I think we had a tailwind most of the way; in any case, it was a good first day once we abandoned the drudgery of packing up the house. As I type this, my muscles ache from the last-minute race to finish the storage job, but all-in-all I am happy and looking forward to day two.

Day Two: Norwalk, Ohio to Cumberland, Maryland

We had a quiet night’s sleep next to the soybeans. We pulled out around 9:00 and started south, looking for a place to eat breakfast. Karen spotted a local eatery called Cattleman’s in Savannah, Ohio which turned out to be perfect. Delicious omlette and good coffee (and no mask required). It’s always fun to try the Mom and Pop places along the way. After breakfast we wandered down US 250 to the Interstate system. 70 to 79 to 68 and we were in Cumberland by 5:15.

Our spot on the Harvest Host list for this night was 1812 Brewery out in the hills by Cumberland. Apparently it is quite popular as a music venue. They had a blue grass band for Friday and a Nashville country-western singer and dobro player for Saturday.  They bring in a food truck for the concerts, so we had a plate of “crabby fries” that turned out to be a meal. The crab sauce and cheese was delightful, but unfortunately they peppered the fries too heavily for our tastes.

There were two of us camping and a large crowd showed up for the music. Luckily the band only played until 10, because we could hear it quite well in the trailer even though we were down the hill a ways. I had a great night and I am ready to head to Virginia. There are lots of mountains ahead, but we have already tested the little Dodge somewhat. We had some pretty substantial climbs yesterday in West Virginia and Maryland, but I was able to keep it up to no less than 50 mph. Our best tank yet was the one going across Ohio at 9.7 mpg. God has been blessing us with a tailwind so far. Couldn’t be happier.

Day Three: Cumberland, Maryland to Toano, Virginia

If I thought yesterday’s hills were a tough climb, today woke me up. Ms. Google directed us cross-country through the backside of Maryland and West Virginia. A couple of the hills were so steep that we were at 10 mph and about 3,000 rpm. We were on roads that were so narrow, I had to sweat every time someone approached from the other way. After a couple hours of climb and turn, climb and turn we reached a state highway that even had painted center lines. It took us smoothly into Winchester, Virginia where we finally found an IHOP for breakfast.

After breakfast we travelled about four hours of Interstate and we arrived at the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center, our “home” for the next three weeks or so. We were fortunate to get a campsite as there was a large group from Beth Messiah mostly in tents nearly filling the small RV area. Saturday afternoon and evening was NOISY with young campers running and screaming all over the place. By evening, we were blessed to hear the shofar announce a Sabbath end service (didn’t know there was such a thing) which they held in the pavilion near our campsite. What a joy to hear Yeshua in place of the name Jesus in our favorite worship songs. The “rabbi” preached a short message about how Yeshua tabernacled (tented) with us – fitting in a setting where they were tenting for the weekend.

Day Four: Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center

Today was a day of rest – much needed rest. We were treated to another short devotional and singing by the Jewish Christian group in the morning before they packed up and went home. The rest of the day was filled with silence and getting more settled in the camper. We left the house in Muskegon with so much extra stuff that it is a challenge to find a place for everything. Karen assures me that once we eat away at the extra foodstuffs, we will be back to a more reasonable load.

Our extra clothing isn’t going to go away though. Although we are in balmy 70’s here and look forward to more of the same for most of the winter, we will be visiting Salt Lake City a few times to see our daughter and her family. It can be snowy and cold there as we learned two years ago when we wintered there. That means we have to have at least a small wardrobe of cold weather clothes. The bed of the pickup is going to be our storage shed for most of this trip I think. I’m so glad I purchased the Softopper truck capper; it doubles the usable square footage of the small bed.

Tomorrow we begin our work-camp experience here at the Center. I’m not sure yet what all we will be doing, but they have assured us we will be kept as busy as we want to be. The understanding is that we will work about twenty hours per week for which we are given the campsite and our utilities for the week. Last time we were here I did everything from logging to pool maintenance to utility vehicle repair while Karen helped out in the kitchen as they prepared meals for the program participants. COVID may reduce the number of people who will use the facility, but as yesterday proved, it won’t be vacant. Whatever they have for us, I know we won’t be bored.

Day Five: WCRC

Met with Bob Briscoe this morning and set up a meeting with the maintenance head, Andrew. When we met in the afternoon, we decided I could work six hours a day for four days and earn my keep. Lots to do: trees to cut down, firewood to split, the pool needs to be cleaned for winter (they leave it full as it seldom freezes hard).

After the meeting, Karen and I went into Williamsburg to my old favorite, Home Depot, for some things I needed to complete a few projects. We are gradually finishing the transformation from a summer vacation trailer to a live-aboard home. By the time we finish, there won’t be a wall, a cupboard, a shelf or anyplace that is not re-purposed as storage of some sort. I am reminded of the pictures I have seen of hoarders’ dwellings: stuff everywhere. Oh well; if it gets too bad, we may just buy a bigger rig.

Day Six: WCRC

Began the “work” part of work-camp today. The Center goes through lots of firewood, so splitting and hauling the wood to the various distribution points throughout the grounds is a big job. I worked with another volunteer for several hours today, and between us we hauled seven wagon loads of firewood. Here I am lumberjacking again. Whew! Karen will have kitchen duty Saturday, so I am only going to work three days. The plan is to give the Center four days of five to six hours to earn our keep. If I end up hauling wood all three days, I will be ready for a long weekend!

The campground itself is a beautiful, quiet forest setting. Quiet except for the other campers’ dogs. We have one on either side of us that gets left in the camper alone for hours each day, barking and whining almost constantly. I don’t understand people who say they love their dogs yet abandon them in a tiny space to loneliness and fear all day. The absent owners don’t have to listen to their pets’ desperate cries for help hour after hour.

Supper by a campfire and a movie tonight (there goes some of that firewood I split). After my hard day’s work, I was off to bed at 9:30; 7:00 wake-up comes soon enough. Tomorrow will mark our first week in this adventure. I can’t access the Internet with my computer here at the campground, so I will find a place to connect and post the weekly journal as soon as I can.

Day Seven: WCRC (10/7/20)

We have been on the road for one week. I can’t tell whether that is a surprise because it seems longer than that or shorter. One moment it feels like we have been living in the trailer for weeks, and the next moment it feels like we left Muskegon yesterday. Either way, I think we are settling in well. There’s still too much stuff everywhere, so we have to continue to pare down. There aren’t many more options for adding shelving or hangers for the detritus that clutters every horizontal surface. We are already using the bed of the truck as a “closet” for our winter clothes and a cupboard for food we brought from home that won’t fit in the trailer. I think we need to rediscover the freedom of knowing how much we can live without that we had on the fifth-wheel.

Today I played fireman, or rather fire watchman. We started burning a pile of brush which I monitored while splitting another wagonload of firewood. Once it burned down to a smolder, I deposited the wood and spent an hour helping a fellow-camper with a project. Then after lunch I was off to another burn pile and spent a couple smoky hours watching that before heading back to the trailer. Let’s just say I wasn’t keen for a campfire at home.

Week Two in Review (10/8-15/20)

Nothing too dramatic to report unless you count three days of almost continuous rain. On Sunday afternoon we visited a winery that has totally embraced the tasting-as-tourism idea. While the winery is only about 35 years old, it was built to resemble the 1619 era when the area was first settled. At the entrance to the tasting area, a sign proclaimed, “When it rains, we pour,” so the gray skies didn’t faze us. Wine tasting is served in a two-story, covered “picnic” shelter that overlooks some of the 300 acres of vineyard. Comfortable chairs, couches and coffee tables are arranged in a social distance manner around the two floors. The servers bring a flight of wine to taste or you can order a glass and a charcutier board to enjoy.

During the rain days I polished off an entire Robin Cook novel. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent prepping and painting two shower rooms in one of the cottages. We did have some unwanted excitement on Wednesday when I got a splinter of something in my eye and it caused a subconjunctival hemorrhage. I checked my eye late in the afternoon and was horrified to see the wide streak of red in my eye. We went to the Williamsburg Regional Medical Center emergency room where a promised 20-30-minute wait became 90. After waiting in the examining room again, in about five minutes with the medic I was pronounced safe and sound. I was finally discharged 3 hours after we arrived.

The rain was ushered in by a cold front which made it necessary to run the furnace at night to fend off the temperatures in the 40’s. Daytime highs are back in the high 60’s, so it’s not bad. We finally have the sun back too. We are hoping to do some sightseeing this weekend – maybe Jamestown and a couple museums that look interesting. More on that in next week’s recap.

Week Three (10/16-22)

For our Friday night date we went to Kephi’s Greek Kitchen and had one of the best Greek meals I have ever had. We discovered Greek cuisine back in Lansing years ago. Since then we try to sample it when we find it; it’s not as popular as some other ethnic offerings apparently. Kephi’s is a jewel. Beautifully decorated, well served and delicious.

We spent a day at the historic Jamestown settlement. It was interesting, but not as much as Yorktown. There was a school group that created some crowding, and we skipped the tour of the replica boats that brought the original Europeans due to a long line. The three boats looked very authentic and completely detailed from our vantage point on the shore. The visitor center and movie were very informative; they have a large display area with several rooms depicting the stages of Jamestown’s settlement by Europeans and, surprisingly, Africans.

My work this week was supposed to be cleaning the pool, but there were electrical problems, so the pump won’t run consistently. The maintenance super, Andrew, and I repainted the lines on one of the tennis courts and I split some more wood from a tree we took down. Before we knew it, Friday came and we packed up to leave Williamsburg.

Week Four (10/23-30)

Friday and Saturday nights were spent at Whippoorwill Farms, a small organic farming operation that is part of the Harvest Host outfit. We spent $20/night for water and electricity. I wanted to run the air because it was in the 80’s in the daytime and only in the high 60’s at night. The hosts were gracious and helpful when we arrived, but the accommodations were very rustic. We tried arrived late Friday and did little more than hook up and eat supper before we hit the sack. On Saturday we went into Savannah for a tour. What an interesting place! We rode a hop-on-hop-off trolley with an entertaining and informative driver who gave us a full picture of the history of the city. They have the largest historical district anywhere in the US, according to our driver. It is extensive; our tour lasted over 90 minutes after which we walked the riverfront and ate lunch on a second-floor patio overlooking the street and river traffic. Fabulous people-watching and some delicious scallops.

On Sunday we left the farm and travelled to Theodore, Alabama and our next stop at All About Relaxing RV Park. Cute name and wonderful park and people. We stayed a couple days here last spring and knew we wanted to come back. Unfortunately, hurricane Zeta is headed right for us, so we have to make a decision whether to stay the week as planned.

We decided to flee the hurricane because it promised three days of rain and up to 50+ mph winds… not exactly relaxing. We covered four states (AL, MS, LA, TX) and stopped at another Harvest Host location, Franscone Winery in Anahuac, Texas. We tasted some interesting local wines and had alligator egg rolls for our supper. It seems Anahuac is the gator capital of Texas; the creatures can be found along the side of the road or in your yard if you are “lucky.” The wife of the winery owner, Suong, is from Vietnam. She used to make pork and chicken eggrolls, but one time the organizers of the annual Gator Festival told her she couldn’t serve anything that didn’t have alligator in it – thus began the tradition of gator eggrolls; delicious.

Because from Alabama to Texas we probably bridged bayou, delta and river with a thousand alligators, it is only fitting that we ended the day with an alligator meal. This is not what Karen probably envisioned for her birthday dinner (10/27), but it certainly was unique. Even though we are on the edge of Galveston Bay, and a walk along the pier is tempting, we intend to move on because of high percentage chance of rain throughout the day tomorrow.

It took four days and three nights to cross Texas on I-10. Whew! The two major cities we went through were Houston and El Paso; both were smog covered and stinky. The hill country of West Texas was pretty, but with the added struggle of a strong headwind, fuel mileage was awful averaging around the low sevens. The highlight of the whole Texas trip (after Anahuac) was a detour off I-10 through New Braunfels to visit a place called Water 2 Wine. I know it would offend some people to think of a Christian winery, but if Jesus could make wine in Cana, why not believers in Texas?

The Travle Adventure Ends (10/30-31)

It is interesting to note how often the topography changes at a state border. Once we crossed the Rio Grande just inside New Mexico, the hills of West Texas became the flat desert of New Mexico. After two days of struggling with the hills and wind, our little rig sailed a across the flat land at top speed (my top is just over 65) and still got a record 10.2 mpg. The country started to roll again right at the Arizona border, but there were still plenty of long, flat downhills.

We stopped at a beautiful campground in Benson, Arizona called Butterfield RV resort. We considered spending an extra night to do some sightseeing, but the lure of our final destination only 357 miles away was too strong. The campground has a private observatory, and the dark sky makes for a great show on every clear night. One day we will have to come back for that and to check out the Chiracahua National Monument. Boulders stacked precariously on boulders the size of busses make for some interesting vistas. We had a sample of the amazing feature in Texas Canyon when we passed through on the way to Benson.

Saturday will find us at Tradewinds RV Park in Golden Valley, Arizona, our winter home (we think). They are holding a spot for us through April on a month-by-month basis. If we decide not to stay there through until spring, we have only to give them ten days’ notice that we are leaving. The park charges $235/month plus electric (probably $25-30 until A/C season), so I can’t imagine staying anywhere for less. It will be a long haul around the Grand Canyon and up I-15 to see Elissa and family in Salt Lake City, but there was nothing closer available that didn’t cost twice as much and still keep us from freezing.

If spring comes early, we may head north to Draper, Utah where we stayed two years ago. We could spend the month of April and do some weekend camping with Elissa, Nick and the kids. From there we can run the northern route home along the Canadian border into Michigan’s upper peninsula and then drop down below the bridge to our summer spot in Montague. If we do that, we will have driven a circle around most of the outer states of the lower forty-eight from fall ’20 to spring ’21.

It has been quite an adventure so far. Our 23-foot home is too small by almost any measure, but when we set up the 8x14 screen room under the awning, it is almost livable. After we circle back to Michigan next spring, we will have to decide whether to continue in tiny house mode or look for something bigger (again). Our spot in Montague at Trailways Campground won’t allow anything bigger, so our decision will either have to wait until fall, or else we will have to find another spot to park. Either way, unless something drastic changes between now and then, I think we will be living the nomad life for a while. It’s still too much fun!