My comments on scriptures follows:

Dalton, continued:

    When I first started with the City each officer was evaluated monthly.  We had a form that listed common activities to Police work such as number of traffic stops, citations, warnings and written warnings issued, number of arrests, misdemeanors and felonies.  Number of miles traveled during the month, open doors found, investigations conducted and other items of interest to the Chief.  We kept track of our activity on the days we worked on this form.  This information was turned into the shift sergeant who compiled it, typed it onto the form and added his own comments about the Officer’s work.  This was less an evaluation and more of a time sheet.  However, the sergeants could call attention to improvement needed in whatever area they deemed necessary and they could point out activity that was done well.  The back page had a few standard items to check off at the top and then about four fifths of the page was left for the sergeant’s comments. 

As a new officer I filled one out, Sarge commented, but I was really evaluated by the PFC, Jack, as to how I was doing as a probationary officer.  I went to day shift a couple of weeks before I went to the academy.  When I returned from the academy they put me back on Graveyard with Sarge.  I remember the first evaluation I received from him.  His comments were, “Work satisfactory, no complaints.” 

Jack told me that Sarge was a man of few words on those evaluations.  If you did your job it was “Work satisfactory, no complaints.”  If he felt the officer needed to do something different, ie working too much traffic and not enough alleys the officer’s evaluation read “Work Satisfactory.”  If the officer did something extra special, solve burglaries, made a difficult arrest, etc. the praise was “Work very satisfactory, no complaints.”  Jack said, somehow those evaluations meant more to him than the long detailed comments by other sergeants.  I came to understand and appreciate Sarge’s ways.

Over the next few months some of the veteran officers mentioned that Eggleston was really opening up.  We had a number of new officers go through the shift.  All of us were in our early twenties.  He talked to us all, encouraging and actually joking with us.

One night, just before Sarge retired, there were three of us working; Mike, Sarge and I.  Both Mike and I were still on probation although we had gone through the academy.   It had been a quiet night.  About 4:30 am, or so, we received a call of a hit and run.  It was in Mike’s patrol area so he handled the call.  He gave us the description of the suspect vehicle and then continued with his report.  Sarge came out of the office and helped.  We looked for the car, but didn’t find it.  It was found in a garage the next day.  Sarge drove by the accident scene and looked at the victim’s car from his patrol unit.  I heard him say, over the radio, “It looks to me like it was a truck and might be green in color (this was surmised from the paint transfer and the damage of the victim’s vehicle.)  What do you think?”

Now unless a person knew Sarge, that transmission was just standard radio traffic between two officers.  But, neither Mike nor I could believe what we heard.  As Mike relayed the story to the day shift sergeant the next day, (who had never heard of Sarge being that personable) he was asked, “What did YOU say?”  Mike said, “I told him it looked that way to me too.”  Everyone just shook their heads, it was truly amazing.

To be concluded:

Ephesians 3:5-6  Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

⁶ That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Philippians 1:9-10 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

¹⁰ That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

The Jewish people knew they were the Chosen People of God, He told them.  As a people those that obeyed God stayed true to Him and did not marry outside the faith.  Even those that were on the fringe understood the importance of marrying another Jew.

They knew what happened when they strayed into other cultures, how their loyalty to their spouse overcame their loyalty to God.  They ended up worshiping idols and living a life of sinful behavior.

Those that stayed true to God had a good understanding of what was expected of them.  They knew their history – although many didn’t take the lessons to heart.  But then, as now, the need to study God’s Word and seek His direction was an important part of their obligations as Jews.

The Jews are still the Chosen People.  But Jesus opened up the opportunity of eternal life with Him to all people who believe in Him.  When we accept Christ as our Savior we are part of the family of Abraham, adopted through Christ; we are partakers of the salvation promised the Jewish people and we are now the Sons of God.

Having accepted that promise, it is important for us to learn all we can to help us grow in His promises.  To learn more about who God is, what His nature is, and how we can serve Him better.

As any servant serving his master, the more we understand of what the master wants, the more efficient we are in our service.

To do that we must listen to those that know the Word.  We must study the Word for ourselves.  We must spend time in prayer with God.  We must spend time with Him.  As we study and learn of Him we grow closer to Him, we grow in our love for Him, and in doing so in our love for others.  We are servants of the eternal God.

I was watching a program the other day.  Some of the actors were portraying people that are quite wealthy; others police officers and still others the servants to the rich family.

The members of the family were condescending to both the officers and their servants.  They were demanding and arrogant.  They were the important ones and the others were just ‘servants’ that matter only in what they can do for the family.

As I watched the show I couldn’t help but contrast that family with Jesus.  He came from heaven and all the perfection that is there, to earth where it isn’t even close to being perfect.

He came as a child to an ordinary, blue collar family.  He lived as they lived, without special privileges.  He preached love and consideration for others.  He preached to be the leader, in His organization, you had to serve others and demonstrated it many times over – up to and including washing His disciples feet.

We serve a God that doesn’t ‘Lord’ it over us.  He knows who He is and doesn’t need to put His servants down in order to make Him feel better.  He is an benevolent God to those that serve Him, less so to those who deny Him.

Most of us have had bosses that we would do anything for; they were great people and treated their subordinates with respect.  They would bend over backward to help us and to make us comfortable in our employment.  We worked under them; we knew what kind of a person he was and we had tremendous respect and admiration for them and whatever they asked we did with alacrity.

As we study His Word and work with His Holy Spirit we learn more about Him.  We learn of His Love and Grace to us.  We learn that He wants the best for us.  As we grow closer we develop that same respect, admiration and desire to serve as we had with that boss we respected.  Then, as we continue in His service, our love grows even deeper than we could ever have imagined and not serving Him with all we have is no longer an option.

That is my desire, so that everything I do is for Him.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again

My daily thoughts on scripture are below.

Dalton - continued from:  That morning, after he had fed the inmates and cleaned the office, he took me out to breakfast... 

We sat for two hours as he told me what to watch for, how to handle the drunks and not to bother the railroaders that would walk to the depot from the motels at about 3:00 am in the morning – that by the way was a big thing to him, almost like committing a felony. 

He hated drunk drivers.  But he told me how he also hated the judge deciding the businessman could get a reduced or dismissed charge while the little guy always got the full brunt of the charge.  He said after he had seen that happening once too often, he came up with his own bail process.  “I might as well be the good guy,” he said.  “Why let the judge be the good guy.”

I had previously noted that there were two kinds of Reckless Driving charges and bails; one with and one without alcohol “involved.”  At the time Reckless Driving with alcohol involved, was not as serious offense as Driving under the influence of alcohol.  That morning I learned why, Sarge came up with the idea that if he had a drunk driver that he wanted to give a break he charged him with the “Reckless driving, alcohol involved” up the bail from $150 to $175 and took him to jail.      Breathalyzers were just coming out, so the lesser charge allowed him to haul him to jail without the BA, he got a lesser penalty and most were happy with that.  That wouldn’t begin to work in today’s world, but it worked then – and as I said earlier Sarge ran his shift and no one bothered him, as in this case not even the judge.  It soon became an established process, although the truth be known, few officers used the alcohol involved charge; they charged them with Driving under the influence of alcohol.  But, Sarge was proud of his contribution to the local criminal justice system.

I learned later that Sarge had never taken a new officer to breakfast or spent as much time with him as he had with me that morning.  I worked with him until he retired a few months later, and I enjoyed the short time we had together.  During that time we had a couple more new officers come on the shift and he did the same thing with them.

Sarge was a very private person and didn’t expose much of his personal life.  He was an older man probably well into his 60’s when I met him.  Physically he was small in stature, standing about 5’ 8” and about 150 pounds, but he was tough and no one challenged him on the street.  He was a veteran of World War II fighting in the Pacific Theater.  He had been captured by the Japanese and had survived the March to Bataan and the prison camps. 

As noted earlier, Sarge pretty much ran his shift separate from the rest of the department.  He got results and kept the city out of trouble, so he was pretty much left alone.  He wanted us in the alleys and back areas of the city, checking businesses looking for signs of entry and suspicious characters.  We handled calls and did other police work, but he really preferred we did not do traffic on his shift.  At the time I came on Sarge, PFC Jack, Norm and Dorthea were the standards on the shift.   Other officers would be rotated on and off about every three months.  Some of those officers were ardent traffic cops and went ahead and worked traffic.  They knew Sarge wouldn’t be happy, but also knew they would only be there a few weeks and weren’t too worried about their evaluations being too negatively affected.  Sarge wouldn’t give them a glowing report, but he wouldn’t hurt them either.  Because of his age and lack of activity some officers would wonder if Sarge should even still be on the department, especially since there were times he would be the only other officer available for backup.  They rarely said it in front of me, I wasn’t concerned, and NEVER in front of Dorthea or Jack both were fiercely loyal to Sarge and helped to keep the rumblings down. 

To be continued, Art :-)

Psalm 30:4  Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Ever feel like you are not feeling up to praising God, just too tired, or too ill, or too injured; lying in bed and cannot do the things you normally do?

You have so many pressures on you, the kids, work, boss, coworkers, home, everything seems to be coming down at once and you can barely pull yourself together to even look ahead, let alone take time to give thanks to God.

You feel you just want out, there is nothing to be thankful for?

I think, at times it happens to all of us, we get burden with just trying to live this life and make it through another day.

It doesn’t matter what may be going on elsewhere in the world.  We know, mentally, that others are being killed for their faith but, our world we are in consumes us with its own frustrations.

We fill we are bound with ropes that we cannot break free of and we are spinning in the wind – we have no control over our lives, something or someone else is always dictating what we are to do; and now, God also has demands on us?  We are ready to explode.

It is important that we recognize this happens, that there are times that we may feel this way – and it may go on for days.  We are not alone, but that often doesn’t seem to matter, because we feel so alone.

The world has its release for us, entertainment at the flip of a switch whether it be the internet or television, escape is just a moment away.  We can go to our hobbies, or games, take trips, there are so many ways we can get away from it all – but even these things can become a burden and we no longer get enjoyment from them.

We know verses that tell us to praise God, but His benefits seem so far away and we are not receiving any of them.  We feel we cannot praise Him; we just don’t have it in us.

There were two verses that struck me this morning.  First the one above, where we are told to praise Him, just because He is who He is: holy. 

When we are down in the dumps, when we feel like everything is coming down on us we are genuinely upset.  The problem, though, is we often get into that ‘why me?’ phase and instead of being able to see our way up, we become depressed and either lash out at others, or go into our shells.  It becomes ‘all about me.’

When we praise God for who He is, forgetting about asking for anything, forgetting about even asking for guidance, just praising HIM for being our God, we start to allow our spirit to refocus on God and He will reach out to us through our praise.

Praise is not given to God to flatter Him.  It is given to Him because He deserves it.  When we praise Him we become more aware of His place in our lives.  Praising Him is an important function for our spiritual well-being, not to ‘get Him to do something’ but to embrace Him and His Grace.

God is not like us where praise can make us puffed up and ‘feel good about ourselves.’  Praise to Him is a demonstration of our recognition of His rightful place.  It pleases Him because we desire to grow closer to Him, and that is what HE wants.

The second verse is similar, but I had never really noted what it said before this morning, it was a real eye opener:

1 Thessalonians 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I am always amazed at those that have gone through great trying circumstances and are able to keep positive in their testimony and their lives.  They are imprisoned and they sing praises; they are struck with incredible illnesses or injuries and they exude the presence of God; they lose close family and friends to senseless violence and are able to forgive the offender.

Many of these people are not perfect, by the way.  I read recently of a Christian visiting a church in another country, bringing bibles to them.  He was appalled at the minister’s personality and attitude to those that were not his countrymen; it was an offense to this man.  – Yet, this minister had endured many tortures and imprisonment and came out strong for Christ.  Through his testimony and ministry over 50,000 people have come to Christ. 

I read another article where a person whose very life bespoke service to God and absolute commitment to Him, yet, she too had to be brought up short at times by a friend because her attitude was not what it should be.

But they have learned to take this verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you;  literally.

Read it again, it doesn’t say FOR everything, it says IN.  It doesn’t say to be thankful for the all the pressure, all the failures, etc. it says IN those things give thanks to God.

I know Paul said in   2 Corinthians 12:9-11 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

And we often focus on those verses – but that was Paul.  It is a good example, not because he enjoyed the persecutions as some sadist, but because he knew he was being effective for Christ; satan was working overtime to stop him.  He had learned that he was not strong enough, on his own, to preach the Gospel and endure the reproaches, but God could do it through him.

There are other verses, also that tell us to rejoice when we are taken over by those that would silence us for Christ’s sake.

But this morning I realized that while I may not have the same faith, yet, that Paul and others exhibited, I can still give praises to God IN my circumstances – I do not need to give praise because of them.

1 Thessalonians 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you;

The verses such as those written by Paul are important for us to ascribe to, but in striving for that ability and faith, we can rest in the fact, that what God wants of us is our thanks to Him for Christ; and praise for who He is. 

It is very difficult to say to God, ‘thank you for all these burdens’ – although as we grow closer to Him I believe we will be able to say that, because we have a better understanding of His trust in us to allow us to go through these circumstances – but for those of us without that great faith, yet, we can feel better about our life in Christ when we realize that we don’t have to thank Him for the persecutions, but we do need to thank Him for being Him as we go through them.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again

As I said in an earlier post, from time to time I will talk about people who have had some impact on my life, particularly as a law enforcement officer.  Today I thought I would begin to tell you of my first sergeant, Dalton.

As a Reserve Officer I had worked with most of the officers.  But there was one shift that NO reserves worked, at least not on those days the Sergeant worked.  It was Graveyard, the midnight to 8:00 am shift.  The Sergeant was Sgt. Eggleston.  He not only did not like reserve officers, his philosophy was “I would rather have no officer on the street than to have a reserve working.”  Sarge had come to us from a similar size department almost 15 years prior to me joining.  He was hired as a sergeant and given Graveyard shift.  While other sergeants came and went and they rotated their shifts, he never left Graveyard.  It was his domain, and NO ONE questioned him.  Even the Chief almost always let him have his way.  I had asked the sergeant once if I could ride and was given a direct and stern “NO!”  I was surprised, as far as I knew I had a good reputation among the officers.

Linderman the shift’s patrolman First Class (PFC), equivalent to a corporal’s position, talked to me later.  He told me not to take it personally.  While Sarge was working in the other department he had a reserve riding with him.  They responded to a fight call in a bar.  It was a brawl, with several people fighting.  Sarge was the first unit there and his back up was still minutes away.  He went on in, because he had a reserve riding with him.  However, the reserve never went into the bar and Sarge was hurt pretty bad; it laid him up for several weeks.  When the reserve was asked where he had gone, he stated, “I decided right then and there I didn’t want to be a police officer and walked away.”  Sarge learned; and no matter what anyone else said, he wanted nothing to do with reserves.  No one challenged him.  I always made a point of saying hello to him, though, whenever I saw him.  I liked the man, and from what I had heard from other officers, he knew how to be a good cop.

I learned when I was commissioned as a Probationary Police Officer what my shift assignment was; I would be going to Graveyard shift, with Sergeant Eggleston.   Now I wanted to go to the shift, but I have to admit I was apprehensive it was the same feeling I was getting as I drove down the hill into the ranch/city.  I wasn’t afraid, but, nervous; I didn’t know how Sgt. Eggleston was going to treat this former reserve and new probationer.   I arrived at the appointed time of 11:30 pm.  Sarge was already there; he usually came in around 10:00 pm.  He looked at me and said, “Heard you might be coming over.  You’ll be riding with Linderman until bar closing.  At that time I want you to come in and work with Dorthea to learn the desk.”

It was a quiet night and about 2:35 am I came into the office.  When I first started we had three “matrons;” one Matron for each shift.  Dorthea was the Graveyard Matron.  The Matrons worked Monday through Friday.  They had several duties one of which was manning the radio and assisting the officer in the field with checks for the status of the citizen the officer may have stopped.  They answered the phone, and if necessary they would dispatch us to the call.  They also handled all walk in traffic, typed reports and records filed papers as any records clerk is required to do.  They also monitored the jail in the basement.  Each shift was assigned certain additional duties, for example Graveyard Matron counted out the money from the meters and parking tickets as well as posting the tickets.  On the weekends an officer took over the office duties.  Usually that task was rotated between the officers.  However, until an officer could be turned loose on his own, that officer worked the desk on the weekends.  While I had been around the department for almost a year, I had never had any experience with the desk duty.

Dorthea showed me how to work the teletype, check for warrants, the differences between our radio and the county radio that was sometimes monitored.  She had me run some registrations and checks for warrants on the teletype.  The officers working the desk were not expected to do the paperwork, but we did have to do all dispatching duties. 

That morning, like almost every work day, Sarge came in about 4:10 am.  Part of Graveyard’s responsibility was to go to a local all night restaurant and pick up the breakfast for the inmates at 4:30 am.  Swing Shift “fed” the inmates at 4:30 pm; the law required two meals and they could not be more than 14 hours apart.  When Sarge worked he always took care of breakfast.  Then he would clean the office and do paperwork the rest of the shift.  On occasion he would go back out, but not often.  He was available to assist an officer, if needed, but other than an assist he pretty much stayed in the office.

That morning, after he had fed the inmates and cleaned the office, he took me out to breakfast. 

To be continued,

Genesis 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Those of you that read through my tombs know that I often point to the physical beauty and the complexity of the world as confirmation of a Creator – and that Creator is God.

I was called on it the other day.  How can God say everything He created was good?  How can I praise the beauty of the world with there is so much ugliness?  We look around us and see hunger, we see man attacking man, we see poverty and greediness, people dying from disease and violence, we see desolation caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes.  To this person the world was not good and did not understand how anyone who could make such a Pollyanna statement.

Angry, upset stating if there is a God, He is not who we say He is.  He is not a loving caring God or none of this would be happening.

Every believer hears this comment often.  The state of the world is God’s fault for not correcting it and/or allowing it to happen.

On the sixth day of creation, when God made that comment, the world was perfect.  There were no flaws.  There was no death.  We look at meat eating animals today, but in the Garden there were no meat eaters, there was no death. 

Verses 29-30 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My, ate vegetation, not each other.  Man did not eat meat, he was a vegetarian. 

There was no illness, there was no pain and there was no struggle to live.  Everything every creature and man wanted or needed was there for them to eat.  Neither man nor beast had anything to fear, they lived in harmony.  On that day, and for many others the world was perfect.

So what happened?  Have you ever assigned something to someone only to have them create a problem so great that it took hours and money to fix – or it had to be discarded and another thing purchased to replace it?  You had faith in them, they knew what they were supposed to do, they knew how to do it, but they deliberately didn’t follow the protocol or their orders?  When they deliberately disobey orders, it doesn’t go well, does it?

Verses 26-28 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Adam and Eve were created to take care of earth and all the things within it – as well as give pleasure to God as He walked and talked with them in this beautiful garden. 

They didn’t have to work hard, everything grew.  They didn’t have to worry about animals attacking them or each other, they didn’t have to wonder where their next meal was coming from; they didn’t worry about diseases or natural disasters.  When we speak about heaven on earth, this was as close as it gets.  The world was perfect when they were given the responsibility to take care of it.

But because they disobeyed God, they brought sin into the world and the world was no longer perfect.  We have been going down hill ever since.

So why hasn’t God done something about it?  He did.  He sent a flood – remember?

Genesis 6:5-8  And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶ And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

⁷ And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

7:22-23 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

²³ And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

God started over with man, and the animals, and gave man another opportunity to get right with Him.  He also promised He would never send such a flood again.

But man continued to sin.  Continued to think he could be equal to God and to become a god. 

Genesis 11:4-8 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

⁵ And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

⁶ And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

⁷ Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

⁸ So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

God gave man dominion over the earth.  He also gave Him the ability to make decisions.   Adam used that ability to disobey God and sin against Him.  As a result, man has been under the pain and results of that disobedient act.  And unfortunately, man continues to be disobedient.

God has given man many opportunities to turn back to Him.  The Old Testament is full of examples of men who have served Him and men who have denied Him – and what happens when they do.

God has told us what will eventually happen through His prophets and in the writings of the Apostles.  He told the Jews of old that He would send a redeemer who would allow them to have the same relationship with Him that Adam had before he sinned. 

Jerimiah 33:13-15  In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that telleth them, saith the Lord.

¹⁴ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

¹⁵ In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

And He did:

Luke 1:30-33 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

³¹ And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

³² He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

³³ And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Acts 13:22-23 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

²³ Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:

And man has continued to reject Him.  God has given man many opportunities to change, to turn back to Him; yet man continues to reject Him.  Not all, of course, so there is hope for man.

So why doesn’t God just come down and correct the situation.  Why does He continue to allow satan rule over us?  God could, if He wanted, wipe all of the ugliness off of the earth.

Yep, He can.  But He wants to give man as much opportunity He can to turn to Him.   He has chosen to use men who have turned their lives over to Him to spread His Gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

God uses man to spread His Word.  While we may look at the persecution and torture as evil – and it is – God looks at it not only as evil, but as an opportunity for His people to spread His Word.  Paul’s persecution of the Christians forced them to flee, but in doing so, they told others of their new found faith, and many were saved because of it.

Acts 8:3-4  As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

⁴ Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

Still as now, the multitudes would not accept Christ and the guidance of God through the Holy Spirit.  To them nothing seemed to change – but Peter points out they have, we are still in peril of being destroyed.  The only thing that stands between us and the final days of the last days, and condemning those that are not in His service in this world, is His patience and desire to have as many people saved as possible.

2 Peter 3:4-9  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So how do we convey that to the unbeliever?  The same way Jesus did, by using the Word of God to tell them.  There will be those who choose not to listen.  There will be those who will listen but not understand or choose to still go their own way. 

But in God’s Word is His presence.  His Holy Spirit works on people.  He will show them Christ in us, but He can be more effective when we use God’s Word in our witness.  We know it is sharper than any two edged sword and will strike at the heart.

That is why it is so important to study His Word, so we are prepared for those opportunities we have to talk about Jesus.

We do not have to defend the Word of God, nor do we need to apologize for our beliefs.  The Word of God is the basis for what determines right from wrong in this World.  We do not have to give up that base just because others condemn it, or because the accuse God as not being loving enough.  The Holy Spirit will bring it home to them, one way or another. 

While we may not fully understand how that works, we know that God does and that is all that matters.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again

Nice day today.  Celinda is finding the joys, and work, of canning fresh produce.  Late night yesterday and early morning today to get it all done; it is work, but gratifying.  AND to a large degree, fun.

Josh and Deed came up and replaced the garden faucets for us, Steven dug the holes and is learning about plumbing.  CeeCee is finding all her toys, the house outside, the fruit sitting on the floor getting ready and having a lot of fun.  She is growing, much too fast!

Well, everybody has left and it is just Carla, Blaze and I – and the cats, of course.  We will just be sitting back and watching some games for the rest of the day.  

Mathew 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I know this was in response to God providing worldly needs, but it is also true in our decision making processes.

I always think I have to do it.  It is up to me.  The old saying of “if something is going to get done, who does it?  If not me, who then?”  Almost seems to be my mantra; often without realizing it.

I understand delegating, I can do that, but it is hard for me to release control to someone else.  I am doing a tad better, because there are a number of things I can no longer do by myself.  When we delegate it is important to not only give the person(s) the responsibility to do the task, but the authority to get it done.  While the ultimate responsibility is always on the person who is in charge, the person getting the job done has to have the ability to make decisions.  We must let go, we must trust the person to do the job correctly.

Relinquishing control; necessary, but not easy.  I am not the only one who has trouble with that; that doesn’t make it ‘okay’ for me, it is just a comment acknowledging I am not alone.  Everyone does to a degree.  However, if we are going to get closer to God; if we are going to be an effective servant for Him, then we must relinquish our lives, our desires to Him.

In effect we are delegating our decision to Him; and trusting Him to make the right ones and tell us what we must do.

We must allow Him to have complete control of our lives and not hold anything back.  I have to admit that is one of my most difficult things to do as I walk with Him.  How do we do that?

Do we ask Him about every decision we make, we make hundreds if not thousands a day (at least those of you that are still in the work place.)  How do we differentiate between trust in Him and trust that decisions we make, without consulting Him, are appropriate?

Where do we draw the line, if indeed we should draw a line?  We can become paralyzed if we are not careful and become indecisive and of no use to anyone.  God is interested in our lives and helping us to be successful in not only our spiritual lives but also in our family and work lives.

We know nothing is too big or too small in our lives for Him to be of interest in our lives – and He is willing to counsel and direct us.  But I wouldn’t think much of an employee who had to ask me every time they made a decision; especially when it comes to what they have been trained to do.   

They know what to do, how to do it, and are quite capable of making the right decision.  Yes, there are times that a task or situation requires them to touch bases, get advice or even get told what or how to do something.  And the boss, ‘usually’ is there to give that advice or command.

It is nice and comforting to have access to someone who really knows what needs to be done.  God knows, in every case.

There is a simple statement that I have to admit used to and still irritates me, “Let go, let God.”  As if it was as simple as that.  It is more than that; it is trusting in the God we know.

The only way we can know Him is to study His Word, be in communication with Him on a regular basis.  We have to allow Him to open up the darkest compartments of our heart and then allow Him to purge those things that are hidden from view – and often times from our own view and understanding.

It is recognizing that not only do we come with skills to serve Him, but we have baggage that defines much of who we are in this world.  The bias formed in our youth, things we have been taught by parents and in school – and indeed some of the things that we have been told in church.  We also have experiences that shape our response to what goes on in our lives, and not all of them are positive.

There are those who seem to be able to turn things over to God a lot easier than others – I am one of the others.

But as I grow closer to Him; studying His Word, spending time in meditation and prayer and just allowing Him to spend time with me – there is a difference, you know – I am finding that the need to relinquish control to Him is a bit easier.

Obviously we don’t have to ask Him about every single decision – and sometimes things are thrown at us where we don’t have a lot of time to make a decision.  We need to understand that He has given us an ability to learn from Him, it is simply applying what we have learned to the situation at hand.

The Holy Spirit can guide us on a continual basis, WHEN we are allowing Him to do so.  When we learn to listen to Him, that small tug He gives to us, that tells us that we are in dangerous territory and need to take more time before acting comes through ‘loudly.’ 

MOST of the time we have time before making a decision; we do not have to be in a hurry – although there are those that try to pressure us to do so, we don’t have to listen to them.  If there is a question whether it is something that will be pleasing to Him, then we definitely want to inquire of Him.

For most situations we know what should be done.  We know the difference between right and wrong; job well done versus a haphazard job; lazy versus good work ethic – being foolish and common sense (which isn’t as common as we would think.) 

There will always be times where we should automatically think, wait a minute – God what do YOU think.  Especially in major decisions; unfortunately there have been a ‘few’ times where I thought, hhmmm, shoulda checked with God.  And He says, yep, you should have.  I need to remember to ask Him first, not after I have already made the decision – and then have to ask Him to take care of it for me.

If we learn to place Him first, meeting with Him before our day becomes so hectic that we ‘don’t have time’ He will guide us even before we ask Him.  He will give us a heads up if we are leaning away from good decisions.

In our experiences and walking with Him we learn to just automatically touch bases with Him.  And it is important, very important; we need to remember putting Him first places everything else in its proper perspective.

Decisions are easier, the job is easier, and we will do things we never thought possible before.  In addition we won’t have to worry about offending Him, when we ask Him first.  

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again