#214: Early Morning Questions

I've been thinking since about 5:05am. Here are a few ruminations for you:

Since Jesus "...Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted," what carpentry mistakes did He make that might have been covered up but to which He owned up in order to come to my aid when similar things happen?

Did Solomon print out his Proverbs and put them on the bumpers of his chariot? Did his chariot have bumpers? Did Solomon get any of his fabulous wealth from selling chariot bumper stickers?

How calloused were Jesus' hands from all that carpentry He did? Did His hands ache at the end of the workday or was He still too young to deal with arthritis? What did He say when he got the inevitable splinters in His hands...or hit His thumb with a hammer?

Where's the balance in taking pride in your work...doing it "as unto the Lord" as Colossians 3:23 says...and pride going before a fall?

Would Jesus have had a Facebook profile? Would anyone have believed the statistics? What applications would He have put on it? How many Friends would He have? Could the Bible be considered Jesus' Facebook? Or would it be Face The Music Book?

Gotta go play with some prospective fire wood.
Got further questions?

#213:Hiroshima's Fallout

Yep, back in 1945, Harry Truman authorized the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on this day in history. Three days later he had Nagasaki removed from the face of the earth... except for the rubble, of course. That makes Harry the only world leader so far to actually use nuclear weapons on an enemy, not just threaten to use them. A Democrat from Missouri...the I'll Show You State! in this case...pulled the trigger. Makes you think about the Party's hot air stance on war and the like, if you think about that sort of stuff, of course.

Now, the Japanese Empire broke the Christian Sabbath on December 7, 1941 by bombing Pearl Harbor. The irony is that they failed on all three of their objectives: to eliminate the U.S. carriers, to destroy the oil fields, and to keep the U.S. out of the war...and, now they have the distinction of being the only nation in history to actually have nuclear weapons used against them...assuming you don't count the tests the U.S. has done in our own atmosphere as an attack against ourselves and the Chernobyl meltdown back in '86 in the Ukraine as an attack against themselves!! Oh, fyi..."Chernobyl" means "wormwood" in either Russian or Ukrainian, I forget which...one of the words in the Book of Revelation describing future nasty events when bowls are poured forth, etc.

Now, a Japanese brother pointed out to me that some medical fallout from the bombing of Hiroshima is that the treatment of leukemia was significantly advanced and has benefited millions of people over the last half century as a result of Japanese doctors' work in the field.
It is interesting, too, that the guy who led the raid on Pearl Harbor, Mitsuo Fushima, was given a Christian Gospel tract in Tokyo by an American, Jake DeShazer, who had gotten converted in a Japanese p.o.w. camp when he went down in enemy territory with the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo. Fushima then became a premier evangelist in Japan in the late 40s through the 50s.
You just never know how good can come of evil in the providence of the Lord.

I guess Daniel 2:20-22 are a good historical perspective to keep in mind at all times, no matter what the times are, "Daniel answered and said, 'Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, And knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him.'"
Got radiation therapy?

Source: Rusten, E. Michael & Sharon. The One Year Book of Christian History. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 2003.

#212: 180,000 and Counting

Well, I didn't get where I was going in the prayer journals yesterday, but today...the "tomorrow" I did NOT worry about yesterday...I did. Since December 13, 1980, the Lord has answered 180,000 specific prayer requests of which I know; which means there's probably ten times that many that I don't know about that are already answered, too.
In any event, I did not get injured cutting up parts of a felled oak tree for firewood for a buddy today.
Some missionaries to Russia did get their 3-month visas.
And, as usual, I recorded the Ten Daily Basics for me and The Cook. You need to know about them because you're missing out on "counting your blessings" every morning you awake. Here's how it works. If you've prayed for:
Strength for the day (Dt. 33:25)
Daily Bread (Mt. 6:11)
Forgiveness for any particular thing (1 John 1:9)
Protection from evil or "lead us not into temptation" (Ps. 91:11)
More answers (Jeremiah 33:3)
...then every morning you wake up after a day when you've received these items, you've got five more answers to prayer you probably haven't even considered when you've been wondering if the Lord actually hears you or not.
Not much more need be said.
Got your prayer journal started yet?

#211: 20 Years Ago Yesterday

Since I was away yesterday, I didn't get to read my usual morning 4 devotions, so I doubled up today. My notes in One Year Book of Christian History (you all should really get a copy!) indicates that 20 years ago yesterday I began praying for Christian Singles as a group, one of the categories mentioned in Post #209. I figured Singles...that would be never-marrieds, divorced types, and widows/widowers...who really need helpmeets should follow the simple instructions of Matthew 6:33,34 and watch how the Lord provides in answer to my requests based on that Prayer Rock. (Post #207) Here's the text: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

So, my request is, "Cause them all to be seeking first Your Kingdom, Lord, then match up the horn dogs who need to get married in Your perfect timing!" Hey, Jesus was a redneck carpenter who created the procreative function, so why shouldn't I just talk to Him the way He already knows I'm thinking before I ask?!! Besides, the Spirit's working within/alongside me to clean up my prayers that I don't know how to pray aright, so I can't lose!

Speaking of that...it's time to do some journaling. I've got 179, 944 answers in my journals and I want to see if I can hit 180,000 by the end of the day. Catch y'all later. I'm kinda wound up this morning and aint got no parents! ;) (Smile, Archangel!)
Got personal notes?

#210: Guardian Angels and Blood Brothers

Well, The Cook became The Baritone this weekend and sang up a storm...well, practiced during a storm...in his hometown. Actually, four of us had a good laugh as thunder rolled in the background as he worked through "When The Storm Passes By." He sang quite well today and caused a bunch of the cotton-headed saints to rejoice that they've known him. I'm glad the Lord has given him the talents he has that I've been able to benefit from for 28 years of being Jesus' Blood Brothers as well as the opportunity to pray for him as he sings to hold him up as his angels do...the same two that kept him safe at Hershey Park several weeks ago. This here picture of an angel is ok, but I think the ones guarding us are a lot fiercer and faster, based on our travel time There and Back Again, as Bilbo wrote in the Red Book of the Shire, and some of the spiritual scrapes we've been in for almost three decades.
We didn't run into any Nazgul on our trip (other than the one by whom we're occasionally haunted at the dinner table) but we did get to see Art Monk, a devout Christian who played wide receiver for the Washington Redskins, inducted into the Football Hall of Fame on the motel TV as we rolled channels. It was once again a case of "...he who honors Me, I will honor..." being worked out and a solid testimony of Christ's faithfulness presented to a ton of people on ESPN.
If you're reading this and don't know what the heck I'm talking about, don't worry, I'm listening to the soundtrack from "The Lord of the Rings" I was recently given by The Cook/Baritone and I'm waxing eloquent with some tears running because of the one track that's playing.
Better quit before I actually get sentimental and get salt water in the keyboard and Elfson has to replace it with yet another!
Got tissues?

#209: Pray By Categories

On May 13, 1983...yessiree, Bob, it was a Friday!...I had a localized epiphany. I was reading in Ephesians chapter 6 and came to the part that said, "Pray at all times in the Spirit for all the saints." The question to ask when you get a Biblical command is not "Why?" but "How?" I figured there was no logistical way I could either know who all the saints are worldwide, nor did I have the time to pray for all of them even if I spent 24 hours in the presence of the Lord...not a bad idea, actually, but my creditors expect me to pay up through working by the sweat of my face.

Soooo...the Spirit reminded me that the Father is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient...all powerful, everywhere, and knowing everything. Eureka! The answer was to pray for "All the Saints" at the same time, not with a "God bless us, everyone" watered down, Tiny Tim prayer, but by using Scripture to put teeth into the requests. For instance, take Ephesians 6:10-20 and reword it back to the Lord, with direction from the Spirit (cf. Romans 8:26) something like this: "Lord, CAUSE all Christians to stand firm in Your strength, to know the spiritual warfare we're in, to put on the whole armor of light daily, to be praying for each other in the Spirit, and to be boldly proclaiming the Truth as You give us opportunities!!" (Number of exclamation points are optional, indicating your fervency to see it done.)

What this morphed into was establishing groups of people and Scripture Shorthand in my journals along lines like this:

Pregnant Sisters: Dt. 33:25 strength for the day, minimize Gen. 3:16 birthing pains, Phil. 4:4-19 to work out in their lives.
Teaching and Ruling Elders: Ephesians 4:11-16 (equip them to equip others)
Bible Translators: 2 Timothy 2:7, John 14:26, 1 Cor. 15:58 (teach them what they need to know, bring it to their remembrance, keep them steadfast)
Sick (physically/mentally) Saints: James 5:13-16/Mt. 11:28/Dt. 33:25/Pv. 3:5-8
Single Saints: Mt. 6:33,34/Ps. 119:9-18 (cause them to seek first Your Kingdom...grant them what/who they need & keep their ways pure according to Your Word)

You get the idea. Got categories of your own?!! Pray 'em up!!

#208: Happy Birthday Bud Key

For some reason, I'm guessing because Frances is the female sound-alike name...or maybe "Francis" sounds a bit too formal, men born since the 1920s (maybe earlier) with the name Francis are usually called "Frank" or "Bud" by their friends and relatives.

In any event, Francis Scott Key was born August 1, 1779 ("back in the day" when using all three of a person's names was popular). I'm guessing that most Americans know that he wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814 while watching Fort McHenry being shelled by a British gunboat during the War of 1812; although, these days that may be a brash assumption to make. Except for those of us who read The One Year Book of Christian History or do research for religious magazines, most folks probably don't know he was a devoted Christian and presided over a meeting of the American Sunday School Union in 1830 that set a goal of establishing Sunday schools in the towns and villages of the Mississippi Valley region that covered about 1.3 million square miles. The effort, by the way, was successful but took 50 years instead of the ambitious 2 the original plan anticipated.

The tune to "The Star Spangled Banner", according to Wikipedia, was the official song of the Anacreontic Society that was designed to praise music, but had lots of lyrics that caused it to be known and become popular as a "drinking song." Even if you knew Key wrote the SSB, did you know that he also wrote the hymn, "Lord With Glowing Heart I'd Praise You?" There's an interesting article at [http://www.faithalone.org/journal/1995i/Mosher.html] if you have a hankering or your interest is piqued to check out the hymn and some things about it.

My brain sees all sorts of twists and cul-de-sacs to run into with comments on our national anthem being connected with a drinking song, but rather than run completely down hill, I'll simply bring us back to celebrating the Lord's Providence in raising up one of His own for just such a time in American history as was needed at the time. As 1 Samuel 2:30 says in part, "...for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed"...even as part of that great cloud of witnesses Hebrews 12:1 talks about, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..."
So, America...this Bud's for you!
Got Amazing Grace?