Cruise to Eternity, Part 1

We Americans are an independent bunch. In becoming a nation, one of our first documents was The Declaration of Independence. The Fourth of July is called Independence Day. A "self-made man" is much admired. One of Frank Sinatra's most popular songs was "I Did It My Way." A common line in any play about hostile relationships is "I don't need you or anybody else!" Our culture is saturated with the idea of personal independence.

Our culture of independence is one reason why many American Christians are uncomfortable with the concept that God is sovereign. We tend to ignore parts of Bible passages such as Ephesians 1:3-6 when we read it. (The phrases we tend to ignore are italicized.) The New International Version says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

God chose us and predestined us, according to His will and pleasure, even before the creation of the world! Definitely, many American Christians are uncomfortable with God deciding those issues without consulting us. We would rather focus on the God-given ability to choose that is also much in evidence in the Bible.

Here are two examples where the ability to choose is part of the action: Proverbs 1:28-29, "Then they will call me, but I won't answer; they will search for me, but won't find me. Because they hated knowledge, didn't choose to fear the Lord…" Psalm 25:12, "Who is the person who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he should choose." (Holman Christian Standard Bible^®)

We are much more comfortable with the idea that we are free to choose; that we are independent with a will unbound by another's requirements. If we make wrong choices, we may find someone else to blame, but at least it was our choice to make. Check your thinking and see if you share this cultural bias.

So how do we understand the link between the ideas that God is sovereign and that humanity has free will? Both are absolutely true, but trying to connect them in our minds can be like trying to hold fire and ice in your hand at the same time – you may be more comfortable holding the ice than the fire, but neither one of them will be there for long!

The best way I have been able to understand the two ideas' relationship and my position between them is by the analogy of a passenger ship.

If you watch TV at all, you have probably seen the advertisements for luxury vacation cruises. Most vacation cruises pick up a load of passengers at one location, take them to visit other ports, and then return them to their port of origin.

From the time of sailing ships until the 1960's, passenger ships had a much different purpose. (Large commercial passenger airplanes began service to distant countries in the 1960's.) Until large airplanes came on the scene, travel between distant countries relied on passenger ships. Especially in the 20^th century, these ships had first class service similar to the ones found on cruise ships today. They also had second and third class service that were in stark contrast to the luxury of first class staterooms. If you saw the movie Titanic then you might have some idea of the difference.

One of the most popular voyages for many decades was the transatlantic crossings between New York and London. The grand Queen Elizabeth ran continuous service between the two cities for many years.

So for our analogy, we have the Queen Elizabeth loaded with passengers for the trip to London. Rich or poor, young or old, first class or third, the passengers are all on the same ship. None of the passengers have any control over it. They must adjust their plans to the specified departure time. The route they travel over the sea is also out of their control. All details concerning the ship are controlled by the owner. The passengers control some of their circumstances on the ship and their attitudes about the trip. The choices they make in those two areas can go far in determining whether they have an easy voyage or a trip full of trouble.

You probably already see the analogy: the owner of the ship represents God. He owns the universe and determines what will happen. The passengers represent humanity, making the choices that are within our grasp according to our circumstances and our attitudes. Both God's will and humanity's choices are operational at the same time. (In case you are wondering how close this analogy is to reality, consider this: the earth, and the galaxy of which it is a part, is traveling at 1.35 million miles per hour! Did you ask to make this trip?)

All Christians – not just American Christians – do have a choice; we can ignore the sovereignty of God and lose many opportunities to praise Him or we can proclaim with Warren Wiersbe, (as he says in The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament) "So wise and powerful is our God that He can permit men and women to make personal choices and still accomplish His purposes in this world. When He isn't permitted to rule, He will overrule, but His will shall ultimately be done and His name glorified."

A Puddle of Butter

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite stories was about an African boy named Little Black Sambo. The story begins with Little Black Sambo returning to his home from the market. What made this day special was that Little Black Sambo had bought new clothes. He was going home with a new shirt, a nice pair of pants, and a fabulous umbrella to keep the sun off his head.

Now to get home he had to travel a path through the jungle. On his way, he met a tiger who wanted to eat him, but Little Black Sambo, who was very smart and quite persuasive, talked the tiger into taking his shirt, instead. The tiger thought he was now the best dressed tiger in the jungle. Little Black Sambo met two other tigers along the way with the results that they also left him thinking they were the best dressed tigers in the jungle, one wearing his pants and the other carrying his umbrella with a curl of his tail. Poor Little Black Sambo was left with no new clothes at all.

Before he could get home, Little Black Sambo heard the three tigers arguing over which tiger was dressed the best. He quickly climbed a tree to get away from them. That was a good thing because the three tigers came out of the jungle at the foot of the tree, took off Little Black Sambo's clothes, and began chasing each other around the tree. They ran so hard and got so hot that they melted into a puddle of sweet yellow butter.

Little Black Sambo climbed down from the tree, dressed in his new clothes, scooped up the butter in a pot, and went merrily home.

At my age in that distant past, it seemed perfectly reasonable to me that the tigers should melt into a puddle of butter as they raced around the tree. I know many times I have felt hot and sticky enough to melt into my own puddle of butter!

Only in recent times have I come to understand what holds our bodies together so that we do not become such a puddle. Thanks to a molecular biologist and to an evangelist named Lou Giglio, I know the reason that we do not melt into our own puddle of butter; the cells of our body are held together by a molecule called laminin. This molecule has the shape of a cross. Yes, a cross like the one on which Jesus died. (If you have not seen anything about laminin, follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejj51hNIL3E&feature=related to see a video of Lou Giglio discussing it.)

I get excited about laminin because I love the symbolism of the natural world that gives me insight to the spiritual world. The structure of laminin and its purpose gives us several symbols.

The first symbol is one we made; the cross itself is a symbol. It represents all of Jesus' redemptive work that leads to salvation. When we see a cross, we automatically think of the Christian religion.

The second symbol is seen in the purpose of laminin and relates to creation. In the first chapter of the book of Colossians, it says that Jesus Christ created everything and that He holds all things together. So it is highly fitting that our cells are held together by a molecule shaped like a cross, symbolizing the truth that Jesus holds together each of us.

The third symbol is applied on the spiritual plane. The first chapter in Colossians also states that Jesus Christ is the head of His body, the church. The analogy of the church being the body of Christ appears many times in the New Testament and just as a cross-shaped molecule holds the cells of a physical body together; the work of Jesus Christ on the cross holds the members of His church – the cells of His body – together.

In the past twenty years, many people who thought it was their communion or denomination that was holding them together with other members have been shocked to discover that glue was not strong enough. When the organization of which they were a part decided to follow a path that was clearly not one established in the Bible, they left the organization. They discovered that they had more in common with others who were not part of their denomination or communion; the common denominator, the glue that truly holds us together, is always the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In an organization claiming to be a part of Jesus' body, any glue based on humanity's rules or opinions will always fail to hold and leave a puddle of bitter rancid butter in the end.

90 Years of God’s Faithfulness

My blog is late this week for a very good reason; we were out of town celebrating my Mother's 90^th birthday.

My sister, Jeanita, and I love Mother and cherish our time here on earth with her, so we wanted to give her a really nice gift for her 90^th birthday. The only thing she asked was to be with her family to celebrate it. So we decided to make it a very special occasion.

We are blessed that Mother is physically and mentally healthy, which makes traveling possible even at age 90. Since Mother's home for many years was the town where my sister still lives, we decided to give the party in DeKalb, Texas instead of New Orleans where she now lives.

Once we began planning, we had volunteers and ideas coming from everywhere. My daughter Julie found a memory tree and suggested that we give one to Mother for the family gift. You can see the tree holding miniature photo frames in the picture. My daughter Melana took care of the cake and the publicity. She also suggested that we make bookmarks for mementos to give our guests. Since my good friend Ve is awesome at making cards and bookmarks, she made them for us. She also came up with the theme for the party: Celebrating 90 Years of God's Faithfulness.

Jeanita and my brother-in-law, Larry, rented the hall and designed the layout and decorating scheme. Another friend and adopted sister, Judy, traveled with Mother and me. She also suggested some of the final decorations and helped with the clean-up. I designed ten posters, one for each decade of Mother's life (plus an extra one). Mother and I found photos from every decade to put on the posters. I also included newsworthy highlights for each decade to bring context to the pictures. Mother and Jeanita made almost 400 cookies.

At the party, friends and family members took videos and snapped photos. Several grandchildren kept the cake, cookies, and punch flowing. Four of Mother's great grandchildren also worked to make our guests feel welcome. Over 50 people celebrated with us.

Before Larry blessed the festivities with prayer, he read a tribute to Mother that another friend and our Bible study leader, Anna, had written. Anna captured Mother's life so beautifully that we wanted to start the celebration by sharing it with our guests. Her tribute is written here.

"Dearest Muriel,
Happy 90^th birthday!!! What a blessing it has been to me to get to know you. I admire your steadfast devotion to our Lord and God and I admire that even though you have lived 90 years, you are still willing to be obedient to what God calls you to do and to continue to change under His loving hand. You have laid down your life over and over again and the result has been that you are such a wonderful example of a woman of God and you are still bearing fruit.

"This scripture has your name written next to it: Psalm 92:12–15: "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree and they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming 'The Lord is upright. He is my Rock and there is no wickedness in Him.'

"I love you, Muriel, and I appreciate your witness. Anna"

No matter how long I live, I desire to have that testimony, too. May God grant a green and fruit bearing old age to us all.

Once in a Thousand Years

Earlier this month, something unusual took place. In fact, it was a once every thousand year occurrence. At five minutes and six seconds after 4 a.m. on the 8^th day of July, this year, the time and date was 04:05:06 07/08/09. This will occur again in 3009, assuming the culture that exists then writes time and date the same way most Americans write it now.

This information came to me through one of the e-mails that populate the Internet. Since I am an engineer, just seeing this set of numbers started me thinking about other combinations. It turns out that this is the last set in a sequence of five. The first one is 00:01:02 03/04/05. This set has the rule that every first digit of every pair is a zero. If the rule is changed to another one that allows the first digit to be a zero or a one, then five more sets can be added in a longer sequence. It begins with 00:01:02 03/04/05 and ends with 09:10:11 12/13/14. (Engineers like to play with numbers this way.)

One sequence caught my eye: 07:08:09 10/11/12. That is the birthday of one of my relatives. She will be 44 years old on that date. That probably is of no importance to you, but it did cause me to look more closely at this particular number combination. Since I know that coincidence and luck do not have any part in my life, I decided to see if the combination might have a spiritual significance.

(Note to anyone who has not accepted Christ's death as their release from slavery to sin: you may have coincidence and luck all over your life. The Bible tells me, however, that those who have accepted Christ as their savior have nothing in their lives that He has not given permission to be there.)

One of the things I have been studying is the Bible's use of symbols. Since God does multiple things simultaneously, factual events recorded in the Bible can also have prophetic meaning and contain symbolic meaning at the same time. The Israelites' Tabernacle described in Exodus is a great example of this.

Anyway, numbers in the Bible can be symbols for certain ideas. If we look at the numbers in 07:08:09 10/11/12 the ideas that correspond with the numbers can be the following:
7 – Completion or fullness
8 – New life or new beginning
9 – Fruit of the Holy Spirit
10 – The Law of Moses
11 – Unknown (If anyone can provide insight and scripture references to support the symbolism, please leave a comment.)
12 – Divine order

One way to interpret these numbers is that on the morning of October 11, 2012, some work of God will be completed and a new beginning involving both the New and Old Covenants will occur, somehow involving God's divine order.

My relative's age, 44, also plays a part in the symbolism. The number 4 represents the whole earth. When something is repeated – "4" – "4" – the certainty of it happening is emphasized.

I am NOT PREDICTING that the world is coming to an end.

All throughout the Bible, God shows us times when He starts and ends different works. So far all this exercise has done is heighten my awareness that God is at work in the world. I will pay special attention to the morning of October 11, 2012, if I am still around to appreciate it. Maybe you can join me…

Shock and Awe

This week, I Googled some presenters to a writers' conference I want to attend. Afterwards, on impulse, I Googled my own name. I had not done that in two or three years, so I was surprised by the number of hits that came back. Most of the ones were from my engineering days; no surprise there.

However I did find more recent postings as well: my entry in The Writer's Edge, a comment on Rachelle Gardner's blog, product reviews for Amazon and Christian Book Distributers and, right in the middle of the second page, a Spanish text entry.

Now my Spanish language skills are limited to "Si" and "caliente." Thanks to the "translate this" tool on Bing, I was able to turn the text into English. The translation was not perfect, but it was clear enough for me to recognize the article.

That is when I went into shock. A New Year's Day letter that I had sent to a few family members and friends in 2004 had made its way to this Spanish language site. You can see the article at http://www.renuevodeplenitud.com/el-arco-iris.html.

The letter was posted in 2006, correctly attributed, with only a few changes. I can say that, after my shock wore off, I was delighted that those responsible for the web site thought the letter was interesting enough to post. I am still in awe that God arranged for me to have a tiny presence on the web that glorified Him before I even knew what blogging was all about. I have posted the letter (slightly edited) below so that you can read it in the original language.

Dear friends,

The last day of 2004…how can that be? It seems like yesterday that we began the year. God has blessed me in so many ways, this year. I want to share with you one of those ways. He gave me a gift of beauty so incredible that it’s difficult to put into words.

On a trip to Texarkana, Arkansas to see my daughter and her family, my Mother and I were driving through some thunderstorms. The direction we were driving and the angle of the sun gave us the most complete double rainbow set that I have ever seen. We were crossing over the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which rises in a high arc over the river, so we could see completely to the ends of both rainbows on the opposite bank.

As we left the bridge, it appeared as if we would drive right under the highest part of the arc of the closest rainbow. Instead, both rainbows appeared to jump away from us as we approached them. The road curved and we began driving towards the end of the rainbow nearest to us. I expected the rainbow to jump back again. It did not!

As we approached the end of the rainbow, the bands of colors began to change. The red, orange, green, violet and blue bands began to fade and thin until they were completely gone. However, the yellow band of color didn’t fade away. Instead, as we came closer to the end, the band of yellow became wider and the color deepened to a rich, beautiful gold.

The band of gold was now directly in front of us, the end anchored firmly in the traffic lane in which we were driving. The golden light was several feet wide at our closest approach. Then wonder of wonders, we drove right through it, the golden light flowing like a thin sheet of water - first over the hood of the car, then over the windshield!

I cannot explain how Mother and I felt at that moment except to say that it was a holy time. We were humbled by the graciousness of God to give us such a unique experience. We felt lifted right to the gates of heaven! It was difficult for me to keep both my hands on the steering wheel because what I wanted to do was to raise them in praise to God!

As I’ve thought over our experience, I think I can guess the origins of the legend about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I believe that it may have begun as someone else having had an experience similar to ours. I assume that they told others of this amazing occurrence. As the story spread, it would be easy to have “band of gold” changed to “pot of gold”.

A verse in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans tells us that God will “graciously give us all things.” It is out of His boundless storehouse of surprises that we are given the most unexpected gifts. This year, 2004, will always be “The Year of the Rainbow” for me. Happy New Year!

Q4U: Have you had either an unusual web site experience or a notable experience with a rainbow? If so, how did you react?

A Grand Opportunity, Take Two

Three weeks ago, I wrote about an opportunity - literally - to stand up for God. It was, for most Christians attending the event, a missed opportunity. (Read this post: A Grand Opportunity.)

Every day we have not-so-grand opportunities to stand up for what we believe. Sometimes we wonder if the ways we honor God in the small things make any difference. Today I want to share a true story told to me by one of my dear friends.

Ms. Verla was married for 43 years. For 37 of those years she prayed for her unsaved husband. He was a difficult man to love and for whom to pray. He was mean and verbally abusive. He attempted to sabotage her every attempt to live a Christian life in their home.

He did have one upbeat habit, however, he liked to tell jokes. Unfortunately, the jokes he enjoyed telling were rude, vulgar, and obscene. To Ms. Verla, they were another cross to bear.

By the grace of God, Ms. Verla's husband got saved. To her delight, he begin attending church with her. One Sunday, a few weeks after her husband's salvation, they were a little later than usual leaving the auditorium. Since most people had already left the building, they had a few extra minutes to talk to the preacher who was waiting at the door. As Ms. Verla and her husband stopped to shake hands with him, Ms. Verla's husband decided to tell the preacher a joke. Ms. Verla was extremely embarrassed because the joke he told was vulgar and totally inappropriate.

The preacher listened to the joke, but he neither smiled nor laughed when Ms. Verla's husband finished telling it.

Her husband said, "What's the matter, Preacher, don't you think it's funny?"

To which the preacher replied, "I cannot listen to, participate in or laugh at that kind of joke."

"Why, because you're a preacher?"

"No, because I'm a Christian."

And so they left.

The next Sunday, Ms. Verla's husband decided to try again.

"So, Preacher, have you heard the joke about..."

The preacher held up his hand to stop him.

"Wait. Is this another joke like the one you told me last week?"

"Yes."

"Then I cannot listen to, participate in, or laugh at that kind of joke."

"Why? Because you're a preacher?"

"No, because I'm a Christian."

This time they left with the joke untold.

The next Sunday, Ms. Verla's husband could hardly wait for the sermon to end. As soon as he got to the preacher he said, "Preacher, I've got a joke for you."

"Is this a joke..."

"No, Preacher, it's not."

So Ms. Verla's husband told a joke he had memorized from The Reader's Digest. The preacher enjoyed it and they both laughed together.

According to Ms. Verla, her husband never told another vulgar joke to the preacher or to anyone else. That was one of the first indications she saw that God was changing his heart.

Do we take a stand the way the preacher did? How many of us refuse to listen to vulgar jokes or gossip or criticism of others? The small choices that we make are important. We can choose to take a stand for what is right in God's sight, telling others why we do it without being disrespectful or judgmental. It takes practice, but the rewards are worthwhile. We can turn an uncomfortable situation into a grand opportunity to bring light into darkness.

Heat Wave

I live in New Orleans where we had two hot topics last week. The Times-Picayune, our city newspaper, had both subjects on its front page on Thursday morning.

The main headline was Louisiana State University's scorching victory over its arch rival, the University of Texas, in the College World Series of baseball. This is LSU's sixth win since 1991 and the source of much enthusiastic celebration here, despite the heat wave.

And that, the heat wave, was the other hot topic last week. Sharing the front page with LSU's victory was the headline telling that New Orleans experienced the hottest day in recorded history. An official temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Audubon Park. Our outside thermometer showed 106 degrees of truly oppressive heat.

This dangerous heat was the cause of a very uncomfortable experience for my Mother and I on Wednesday afternoon. No, we did not have heat stroke. When I renovated the house after hurricane Katrina, I had the whole house thoroughly insulated, so we were cool in spite of the outside temperature.

In the same renovation, I also brought the fire alarm system up to code so that every room has a smoke alarm. Also, in the hall, a unit was installed to monitor for carbon dioxide, as well as smoke. In the laundry room and in the attic, the units test for high temperatures. All of the units are tied into the same electrical circuit and all of them have battery back-up. When one unit senses a problem, all of them go off.

That is what happened Wednesday afternoon. Mother and I were peacefully resting and reading when a piercing wail filled the house - in stereo! - and the hall unit began shouting, "Fire! Fire!" every fifteen seconds. The sound level was enough to destroy the ability to hear and to drive us out of the house.

From a previous experience, we knew that turning off the circuit breaker would not stop the noise because they all had batteries. From that same experience, we knew that as soon as the unit that had been triggered was removed from the circuit, the wailing would stop. In that instance, our neighbor, Mark, had come to our rescue, since our ten-foot ceilings keep us from reaching them.

Fortunately, Mark was available again; so bringing his ear plugs, he came over and removed the seven units that are in the living space in the house. However, even after he removed the others, we could still hear the alarm in the attic. That unit was the one which had triggered. Based on the design specifications, this meant that the temperature in our attic was at least 135 degrees which is the trigger point for the alarm unit. Mark gamely went into that hot attic and removed the source of the problem, bringing peace and quiet back to our household.

The whole episode caused me to consider the way I look at my life. For me, this is a time of peace, joy, and contentment. That does not mean my life is perfect. In 2005 I lost my health and a career that I loved. My home city is subject to hurricanes six months of the year. However, an old hymn we sang when I was a child sums up the reasons my circumstances do not rob me of peace and joy.

"My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand."

Most of the headlines in our newspapers tell about negative circumstances. Unlike the headlines in last Thursday's paper, there is seldom anything on the front page to celebrate. In fact, the world's media usually sound alarms so loudly that they attempt to drive me off the foundation of my life, try to get me to stop trusting and to start worrying.

If they sound an alarm, it does not necessarily signify a dangerous condition. Just as I did when our fire alarm went off, I check the validity of the media's alarms with my actual condition. If the media is saying"Disaster! Disaster!" I read Psalms 91, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty... No disaster will come near your tent." If I hear shouts of "Trouble! Trouble!" God tells me in Psalm 91, "I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him."

I can turn off the TV, throw away the newspaper, change the radio station, click off the Internet; I can silence the alarms. I do not ignore the possibility or the reality of difficult circumstances, but I choose not to be forced off my foundation and lose my peace and joy to worry and fret. I choose instead to trust God and like the writer of Psalm 91 "Find refuge under His wings." Thus, just like last Wednesday when Mark removed that last alarm, the alarms no longer disturb me and peace and joy are restored.