Last Friday in February

It's an icy afternoon in south-central Texas, which in itself is a problem. To get to the driveway this afternoon, I had to jump off the deck, for the ramp and stairs were covered with ice, and way to dangerous particularly carrying a cup of coffee. This has been about 24 hours of freezing rain, and it is still raining. The cedars are covered and bending low. There is no need to try the roads, for the folks down here have never heard of salt and sand, and the local folks want to drive as though to deny that the road is slippery. The safest place is here in front of the computer, I have owed you a word for some time now.

In the days after Thanksgiving we had planned a trip to Oklahoma City to set up for the National Reigning Horse show, when Ann wrenched her knee.She was in such pain that we canceled our trip. As the weeks wore on, she felt better, so we planned a trip to Tennessee to deliver the big truck that had been sold, and was to be delivered. We started out during the second week of December, but as I passed Fredericksburg just north of Kerrville, I was uneasy about the way the truck was functioning, so I turned around and came home. Two days later, the truck wouldn't start, and so I put a battery charger on to bring the batteries up (three batteries) to run the starter. I stopped to have my friendly mechanic check it out, and found number two battery badly shorted out. It would have been bad news on a twenty hour trip.

Christmas was coming, so we had Christmas dinner with our friend in the nursing home. I came home with a lot of good memories, full tummy, and the flu. (Both Ann and I had our flu shots earlier). Two days later, Ann joined me in entertaining a long lasting friend. During the end of January we felt like getting up and around a little, and completed our round of annual Doctors appointments. Last week would have been the time to get the truck on the road, but it decided to rain, freeze and snow all the way from here to Nashville. I know more about the weather there than I do in San Antonio. It's still raining here and the airports are canceling flights in Dallas right and left. (Dallas is 5 hours drive from Kerrville.)

I appreciate the fact that many of you came back to the website to check on us. We have had nearly 5000 hits on our site and the year is just begun. We are planning some shows this spring, and then the Nationals this fall. The financial climate, and price of gold will determine our future. Just a word for some who are old customers of Jimannique: if you've had your eye on a piece over the years, or want Ann to make a piece for you, this would be a good time to call her and discuss it.

I'll try to get back in the “Bible” groove for the next sessions. I have lived the history that some of my grandchildren are now studying. One might have said truthfully, History was easier for you when you went to school, there wasn't as much to learn. Remember, “They that don't study History, are doomed to repeat it.” (I remember when Cuba was a free country, Israel became an independent country, the picture of the sailor kissing the lady on the streets of New York as our boys returned from the battle zones, men and women were freezing in the mountains of Korea, when I heard the radio reports of Pearl Harbor, and The Wizard of Oz was born.), and Ann, who is from Missouri can tell you more from her perspective. So here we are and we do watch the national scene from a number of perspectives. More later.

Lent--

This is the beginning of a period in our church year known as “Lent”. It has been a traditional time of preparation for the Day of Resurrection. (Easter.) There were several different practices which originated during the Middle Ages which have traces from the monastery, or the Early Roman Church. The church that met in the Upper Room, or the church in someone's house, was expecting Jesus to return within the hour or in a few days (a month at most), so life and practices were adjusted to the moment. There was little need for a refresher course of Jesus' words. For the most part, every person present had seen and heard Jesus, or knew someone who had.

Bible Study in the early church was unheard of. The whole Bible as we know it today was not developed until the last of the third century. There was great discussion over the Books to be included, and still there are thirteen books that appear in the Roman edition that are missing in the “Protestant” Bible. The scrolls were copied in the newly developed monasteries by men who may have put more stock in their religious enthusiasm than they might have by highlighting their scholarship.

It was the Elder John who introduced the term “Jot or tittle” to the Christian vocabulary. “Not a jot or tittle will be replaced or lost until Jesus comes again.” The jot or tittle was the vowel signs in the Hebrew written passages. By changing or omitting one vowel sign you could change the the meaning of a word, and sentence, or even a paragraph. When I was in grammar school, we had to copy a passage from a book, so I would look at the page, and turn to my paper and write what I saw. Back to the book, back to the page until all was copied. The “high speed” copier was set up with one of monks sitting at the end of a long table, reading the text, and several brothers sitting at the sides writing as he spoke. Multiplying this over a period of three hundred years, does give cause to wonder. The new church was formed in the late 300's, and the practice of coping texts continued.

An eye to the Scriptures must include this and other factors that have given us the Bible in it's present form. The first impediment in understanding what the early writers were saying has to do with language and translation. I have studied and learned Greek and Hebrew to enter the ministry. I studied what I call a transliteration of the language. We learned the vocabulary so that when we saw a word in the text, we wrote the English word that matched it. We did not learn the Greek word or thought process of the word. The famous example was the word, “lu-o.” This word is the first word one learns on the first day of Greek class. It means to loose or to destroy. If I'm a slave, it means a great deal to me if the king says to someone, “lu-o” (loose) the slave, or “lu-o” (destroy) the slave. You can tell by the context of the passage. It is not always that easy to determine what the writer was saying. We have some major doctrines in our present church that are still based on such textual differences.

Here's a new twist for your Bible Study. Discover and understand both sides of the controversy that faces us on issues, so that you can decide for yourself what the correct interpretation of these passages might be. Be very sure before you pass judgment on someone else that thinks differently. Adjust your Christian practice to match your discoveries. Now, that's Bible Study.

It's been a while. I have written a number of blogs that might be included in a book, but will not work in this setting. I have tried to stay away from the political aspects of Bible studies, but have found myself back at square one on several occasions.

At the end of several centuries of history, the Jewish nation was getting farther and farther away from the principles of the early prophets and judges. They had wished for a king, and God had asked them why they would want a king. Their answer was something to the effect that all of the surrounding nations had one. God said that a king will enslave you while getting richer and richer on the additional taxes collected. The very thing happened in the nation as prophesied before the Captivity.

Something is happening in our world even now that parallels that time.

People had moved far enough away from the teachings of the early fathers, that sin was becoming more of the accepted norm than righteousness. The thing that worries me is the term, “false prophets.” These were teachers, leaders, priests, and religious leaders that kept telling their members that all was all right, and that if they just “ate, drank, and be merry”, they would be safe. They lied about the message, and were able to convince the people that black was white, that lies were truth, and the old law was replaced with a new way. Only a few stood in their way, such as Jeremiah, and some of the now known minor prophets. (Only because they wrote shorter books.)

The parallelisms are true for today as they were then, because it is the story of nation building according anthropologists. Nations, built on moral principles, move through a series of steps, of which one of the last of the steps is similar to the end of the kingdoms of Solomon, and beyond. Even though they were the Chosen People, promised success and prosperity, God allowed foreign nations, (even raised them up) to come against the Jews, and carry them away to foreign lands. None, save one or two leaders ever returned to Israel. The sin of the people was completely wiped away, and a time of righteousness began with God's law again. God was honored in one way or another until the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD.

I'm going to leave this as it is until another day. It is time to be tender as doves, and wise as serpents. Weigh well that which is being taught and preached in today's Christian churches. Your survival depends on it.

You have given me quite a lot of room as far as subjects for these articles. And yet, I come back with another piece of elder musing. Some years ago I left a way of life, when I packed all that I could from a ten room house, and moved 1200 miles away. I left friends and life patterns behind. My parents had died a couple of years before and the children had grown. My former help-mate had left for the big city. I started with a new companion who had a chronic disease. Life burned on for ten years, when my good friend passed away.

I had returned to Iowa County, WI on several occasions during that ten years. I visited my old office, and the early stages of the remodeling project at Mineral Point.

For ten years, now, Ann and have traveled, and we have had our share of elder health issues. Between myself, her daughter, and her changing health patterns, we had several major crises. What's happened to the time?

We just watched a movie where two young men were frozen in one of those cript-freeze experiments. In their story, the impossible happened where they were thawed 29 years later. They returned to their former homes and families. The older man's little girl was now a grown woman (early 30's) with two small children of her own. The man's wife had aged 30 years, had married and divorced, and now had a good friend. The frozen man had also been frozen in age. He looked and thought like he did the week that he was frozen. His wife was running a business in the old home place. No one could believe that the two men were still alive. `

What changes one who sleeps, but now awakes must one discover. Facebook has opened my eyes more than I would have ever guessed. I just saw a family that I haven't seen since 1995. The twins had not been born when I left. There are young people starting their adulthood lives.

You can never go home. Even though I can't imagine that I have changed. My body occasionally reminds me that when I can't lift like that, or walk as far. I marvel at the wonderful new generation you all have become. One or two in each parish have kept in contact, and I appreciate that. I have some older folks who send humor and thought provoking articles. I always look forward to those.

We are just about through the medical appoints for this round. The doctor had mixed messages for us, but she still keeps trying to keep ahead of our aches and pains. We want to slow down on the traveling with the business, some. There are a couple of shows that we may do from a wheelchair, but the horse folks have been Ann's life since the late sixties. We still touch many lives. Our web site received nearly 2000 hits in the first weeks, just from folks like you. Thanks you. We are still here to serve ygou, pray for you, and love you. Until we meet again. Pastor Dave

You have read in my blogs on many occasions as to the thin veil between the physical and the spiritual, in Biblical times. The visit of the strangers to Abraham's campsite that night, long before they had left Canaan and entered the lands promised, flowing with milk and honeywas just such an time. It was the custom to invite strangers to eat of the same meal that the family was served, and to bed down with the group which was all the members of the household. There was safety in numbers and to be invited to spend the night in the confines of the group meant safety for another night. As the men were setting around the fire, one of the strangers offered a blessing in gratitude of the hospitality extended. He said that Abraham would be the father of a great nation, and that his seed would extend from horizon to setting sun. Up til now, Abraham was childless. Sara was barren. For whatever reason, it was necessary to show that it was Sara and not Abraham who was barren, for when a handmaiden was offered, as was the custom in such situations, a son was born. It was Sara that laughed out laud from the flap of the tent. She know she was well beyond the child-bearing years, and Abraham had probably assumed the same position as one “over the hill.” It was with that laugh, that Sara did not speak until the baby, Issac, was born.

I have two representations of angels on the top of a bookcase. They are each holding trumpets, incidentally each facing “east”. The chosen people of God know why this might be significant, or why such brass wire representations might have value. The sad thing is that images of such angels might cloud my perception if an angel appeared in any other form than a brass wire creature with a trumpet. So was not the case, for Abraham recognized the men and received their message.

I have never seen an angel, but I know there are angels around us. When I look back on our lives, I have way too many instances that are miracles, or unexplained to be cast into the file of circumstances or happenstance. We did not have the backup support of the Salvation Army, or the county aid group when we started out for the Southern Plains to take a church west of Oklahoma City. We traveled with a young child, in a car that should have not been taken out of the city. When we crossed a railroad track in Kansas City, the tongue broke out of the trailer that had all our household belongings and we pulled it to the side of the road. We traveled on until we got to the northern border of Oklahoma. We were out of money, and out of gas. I was able to leave my watch as assurance that I would be back to pay for our gas. (Gas was about 20 cents a gallon).

Three weeks later, one of the young men of the community loaded up some old gas pipe onto his pickup, and he and I headed north. We stopped at the gas station and picked up my watch. The first step was easy. On to Kansas City where I wondered what we would find. Neither of us had much money, but we were living under the grace of a loving God, and watchful angels. It had rained for several days straight, so an entire construction company was sitting in the local cafe, waiting for the ground to dry so they could get back to work. My friend and I walked into that cafe and announced that we were the one's who owned that abandoned trailer and we needed a welder.

The construction welder stood up and announced that he was the man we were looking for. The gas pipe was retrieved from the pickup and he sowed that pipe into place as if it were the finest silk from Paris. He had welded the tracks and castings on the heavy equipment, and he knew just what to do. At the end of the day, he charged us for the several rods he had used, wished us well and to drive safely.

Somewhere in all of that was an angel or two that watched out over us and directed the script to such an extent that to write the story or act out the movie of our trip would be written off by critics as impossible. Thank you Lord. I will never laugh out loud when the impossible become the possible, even such asthe reality of these events. Angels are welcome here.