READ, OR JUST LISTEN?

Refer to Isiah 29: 10 - 14

When we don't read God's word -- when we don't regard it as important enough to spend some time at -- God could make us dull as he has done in these Isaiah verses. When we rely too much on what men teach (v. 13 "their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men") we stupefy ourselves to what God has written to us. We find it easy to say, "we can't understand the Bible, it is a 'book that is sealed' We will not put in the effort".

Some, a few, passages are very difficult. Some we understand only after years or reading and thinking about them. Some are never more than partially understood. Some we never understand.

However, the actual number of verses in the Bible that one can not understand is very small. Almost all of them we can understand. Most all of them we can understand in English; we don't need to know Hebrew and Greek. We can understand them in Old English or New English or Slang English -- it's just not that hard.

There is one guarantee: if we don't read we will not understand. If we let someone else tell us what it means we only know that that person understands. It may be correct, or just useful, or just plain wrong.

When men go long enough not making the effort to read the Bible the wisdom and knowledge vanish. The very "wise" ones they depend on to tell them what God says -- or even to tell them what is "right" -- loose their wisdom.

BEING UP, NOT DOWN

I have been reading some old journal entries. I noticed many were about putting myself down ("I feel I am worthless") followed by attempts to uplift myself ("You are worth something, look on the brighter side ...")  I think, over the years, I am getting better at being positive.  Positive moves me forward, negative turns me backward. Positive brightens may outlook, negative dims my outlook. Positive help and improves my family, negative destroys my family.

I would like to pass this caution to my sons:  Do not waste your time by being negative about yourselves or the situations you are in.  It will not help you, it will hinder you; it will not build, it will destroy. Through negativity you not only risk yourselves, but you put your families at risk .

Being truthful and seeing life as it is good but being negative is not good. There are always two or more answers to a question; there are always several descriptions for a situation.  Travel toward the more positive answer and the brighter situation.  There is always a choice.  You must look.

GOING TO WAR

Deu 7:1-2  "When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them . . . ."

Let's view this as the nations representing our corrupt natures. They are not peoples we are to conquer, but our tendencies toward corrupt, unkind actions and words.

We do need to destroy those things. We do need to wipe them off the face of our personality. We are to war ruthlessly against ways that are not God's ways, and thoughts which are not God's thoughts.  We can leave none of them alive. They will destroy us if we do.

SELF WORTH

One thing many self-help books talk about is self-worth. We need to take account first what God thinks and says, then we need to take account of what he says about us. I propose it should be in this order:

 -- What does God want generally
 -- What does God want for mankind
 -- What does God want for me personally
 -- What is the state of my self-worth

Much of the time we think of this in reverse fashion: "How am I worthy right now, and, oh yeah, what does God think?" Or worse: "What about me and what do others thing?"

ARM CHAIRS

I've been reading "The Case For A Creator" by Lee Strobel. He shows how the Cosmologists and Astronomers make lots of statements about size, composition and distance of stars. All anyone can see of a star is a pinpoint of light. A distant star can not be resolved optically into a disk the way planets can.

From just a pinpoint of light and an armchair they make all these confident statements. "This star is this many billions of miles away and uses these nuclear processes to burn up this kind of gas." I have an armchair too; I can make confident statements.

Let us be fair. To the side of their armchairs they have advanced instrumentation to measure electromagnetic radiation and sophisticated optical devices (both on earth and in space). They have experience with nuclear processes here on earth. They have knowledge and skill with high mathematics while I need a hand-held calculator to do my checkbook.

Many times what you say from your armchair is as good or better that what the other guy is saying. But some times what the other guy is saying is better. Listen carefully before you become too proud of your armchair.

INERTIA

I have inertia and sometimes don't want to come away from my house to do things with people, or to have them come into my house. If I am alone I seem to desire to stay that way. I need to be very careful not to let this attitude over-take me.

All of us do not have much value alone, by ourselves. We need to have interaction with others: it's the only thing we leave behind. The only thing that changes and moves the world (or at least society) is the conversation, the letter, the touch, the physical presence. Of those, only the letter persists so as you can touch it.

Although -- the expression of love can persist through generations demonstrated by the attitudes and actions of those effected by it.

You can't do those things by siting in your house. I want to be known as a friendly, hopeful, knowledgeable man. But I can not do this if I do not see people. "He that will have friends must show himself friendly".

LETTER TO SONS

I wrote this letter in March and I don't know if I ever sent it, either via post or email:

Sons,

My time of actively funding and directing the course and events of your lives has long since past; as it well should. My goal as a father was to equip my sons to be fully functioning and active adults, and you all are.

One of my roles now is to encourage you without becoming intrusive or a nuisance. The greatest, most valuable piece of advice I can offer is for you to read the Bible every day. Your mother and I still read aloud to each other daily. I recommend you do the same with your wives. We find hearing God's concepts together to be very engrossing and uplifting.

However you read, individually or separately, alone or as a family, do not blindly accept what other men say the Bible means. That includes me. Know what the Bible says to you. You can not know what it says unless you read it. If the Bible truly is the word of God (which it itself says it is) it deserves more than one reading.

Do not fear that every time you see me I will be asking, "Have you been reading your Bible lately?" I will not do unto others what I would not have them do unto me. But I do talk to God about it from time to time.

I am proud of my sons and I like to be around them. And they have exceptional taste in women, they married well. I am grateful they love and provide for their children.

LEFT HAND THREADS

The handle on our toilet came off the other morning. I lifted up the lid to find the nut holding it on had come off. I screwed it back on. As I did I noticed it had a left-handed thread. They do this so that the handle won't unscrew itself every time someone flushes.

I remember my brother, David, teaching me about left-handed threads as I was watching him work on his bicycle. Bicycles use left-handed threads for the same reason toilet handles do, so the peddles won't unscrew themselves as you peddle down the road. The right-hand crank has left-handed threads on its bearing holder and peddle.

How many things we must pick up along life's path: left-handed threads, keep to the right, pass on the left (unless you are in England or a colony). We learn them, and use them, and probably pass them along to others without even realizing.

(I don't know how that handle came unscrewed when the normal effect of using the lever should be to tighten it. Is it a conspiracy? Does someone have a key and is sneaking into our house when we are away and unscrewing the toilet handle? Do they break in through the attic? Is there a Worm-Hole or Time Warp through which the aliens are moving? Is it the Evil Spirit of the Toilet Tank?)

PASS IT ALONG

We read that Moses, " took the book of the covenant, and READ IT IN THE AUDIENCE OF THE PEOPLE: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient ". (Exodus 24:7)

Once he had read the covenant it was entirely up to the choice of the people whether they would actually obey it. We know from history that they generally did not.

When it comes to our children it's the same way. Whether we read the Bible or teach any moral (or practical) lesson, they have the choice whether to obey. Other than enforcing appropriate speech and activity within our own walls (for as long as that lasts), the only act we can perform is pass the instruction along: reading the Bible, teaching, living as examples and so on.

Lizzie and I have read and taught and lived as examples to our children. And by their choice they have lived productive, loving and godly lives. I expect they (and we) will continue; because living good is so much easier and rewarding than living bad.

There is something else to draw out too. Rather than looking forward to what our children might do, let us also look back to see what we have done. Have we lived our lives well? Have we generally done what our parents would have wanted? (And I thank God here that we had good parents.) Have we earnestly striven to do and think what God wants? Can we improve?

Moses could look back at his own efforts with God and say, "I have done the best I knew to do." We, all of us, should want to be able to say that. .

THE FERRY RIDE

When my Father was alive and before I started High School, every summer our family used to travel to Westport Island, Maine, for two weeks of vacation. The island was separated from the mainland by a river (I think). We got to it by way of a cable ferry. The ferry was essentially a raft, domed in the middle. You would drive on, and if you were the first car on, you would drive up over the dome and park at the other end. The ferrymen would put blocks of wood under your tires to keep you from having a free, permanent car wash. When all loaded up and secure, The ferrymen would signal the guy at the wench station who would haul the ferry across the water to the other side.

One time the cable parted and all of us, cars, passengers and ferrymen, went floating out to sea on the tide. Nearby Lobstermen saw our distress and pulled alongside. They made fast to the ferry and pulled us to where we were going. I don't remember which side we ended up at, but we stayed there at least as long as it took to repair the cable.

I don't know how anyone else felt, but I was not afraid. Maybe I was just too young to imagine the possible consequences: lost at sea, shipwrecked, captured by pirates, food for the fishes ...

I also don't know if my parents had an ideal happy marriage. I do know I never felt insecure as if my whole world could shatter. If my parents did not have love, they had respect, dignity, honor, consistency. If it was not ideal, they stayed anyway. That is why I did not wring my hands when the ferry cable parted.

GOOD CONVERSATION

I was reading about Abraham, the biblical patriarch. He was a very rich and powerful man having direct influence over hundreds of people. This could only be because he significant management skills. But he was a man, a human, just like the rest of us. He had two legs, two arms, a nose, etc.

He was a person like you are a person, like Barack Obama is a person. As people we can speak with each other. Put any two of us in a room and we can have a conversation. One or the other of us can speak and the other can listen. We can each share alternate times of speaking and listening.

I can envision an enriching time of conversation where the person in the "superior" position does not look down on the other. And the person of the "inferior" position is not awed by the other. Each can enjoy the conversation as equal partners. There is a flaw in the relationship when either one demonstrates a weakness: either by feeling superior or being overcome with awe. After all, the other in the conversation is another person, not a god or a dog.

I enjoy having engaging conversations. I'd like to think Abraham or the President would be the sort of man who would do this.

BASEMENT ROCK

My Mother loved plants and had them all over the house. So my Father built her a greenhouse. It was attached to the back of the 66 South Street house, under the Sun Room.  There was a head-high crawl space under the Sun Room which had a door to the outside. He built the greenhouse just outside, and surrounding, this outside door.

The crawl space's other walls were the foundation walls upholding the main house. There was no door from the crawlspace into the cellar. This was not handy because there was no inside path from the house to the greenhouse. So my Father decided to punch a door opening in the cellar wall. To say the word "punch" is much easier than the task he set for himself for the walls were composed of heavy boulders dragged down from the North by the Pleistocene glaciers.

I helped my Father on this task. Very patiently he used a couple of large pry bars, assorted pieces of scrap lumber, and short lengths of pipe to extract a large boulder from the wall (3'x3'x3'), roll it through the cellar and out the back cellar door, out of the back yard to the street, around to the front of the house (uphill), to the front door of the house, turn it and place it just right so that a flat surface of the boulder made a tread of one of the front steps. He then used other rubble from the cellar-to-crawl space opening to construct the other steps.

He was not afraid to do things he had never done before. He did not back off a job because he did not have training or previous experience for the task. He made do with what was available for the work. He thought about what had to be done, and then he did it. From watching him I knew I could do this too. I guess I thought all men are supposed to be this way.

If you have the time and resources there is probably no job too hard for you. Maybe you already have the resources.

PLAY TIME

Look beyond what's now

Tuesday night as Mom and I were leaving the church small group to go home I looked up and saw a newish moon lighting some moving clouds. I said, "Oh look, Lizzie, see the moon." The others had come outside too and were and were talking among themselves as we all had been doing for the preceding two hours. The moon drew me away; I went to another place or state than the present scene.

Although it's certainly not a good practice to be mentally absent from those around you too often, it is beneficial from time to time. It will make a wider playing field for your mind and make the experience of you life richer.

As you go about your business observe, notice. Think of the attributes of what you're seeing; how does it relate to other things? How does it relate to People, governments, your family? Does it have important eternal meaning, or is it just curious? This will feed your arsenal of topics for discussion. Bring it into your life: talk with others about it, discuss it, ask questions about it.

For me this is entertaining, it's amusing. It's, well, playing. I like playing. Playing is better than work (or worse, doing nothing). It's really good if work is play.

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DO, IT'S WHO YOU DO

No matter what you do or what you have, it will all pass away. The things you have eventually will go into anothers ownership; they will disintegrate into dust or be dissolved into some fluid. The job you do will be done by someone else who will do it differently.

People are the only thing that last: influence and ideas pass from generation to generation. They pass from culture to culture.

A man has influence if he is among other people either physically or remotely by phone or other ways (writing, internet, letters). If I do not seek the opportunities to influence I can not waste my time regretting that I have no influence. If I do not try to make myself of consequence then I will be of no consequence.

If I look in the mirror I should smile at myself because I am the only one who is going to get it done -- and I can make me do it. All the value that I am is right there.

I am a very valuable man; Jesus thought so -- thinks so. So do not waste the value.

Small dreams bring small results, big dreams bring big results, no dreams bring no results.

Go thou, influence!

THE EMBRACE OF GOD

[Originally from MotorcycleMoment Blog].  I was sitting in church Sunday and heard one of those songs using the phrase the "embrace of God". I can not identify with the "embrace of God". I suppose it's because my father never embraced me. No men I knew in my childhood embraced. It was not a "manly" thing to do.

I don't remember my Father ever touching me in any way except to spank me when I deserved it. (And I'm sure I did deserve it.) I never got spanked much; I don't really remember a specific instance of it. I just know it happened once and a while. Never a pat on the shoulder or a poke in the ribs.

So, the "embrace of God" means nothing to me.

I treated my boys differently because I heard from somewhere that Fathers were supposed to show physical affection to their children. These days it is "old fashioned" for men not to show affection. So I showed it to my boys.

It was easy when they were young. Yet when my sons grew into their teens my childhood experience tried to kick in: "real men don't hug". But I fought it and hugged my boys anyway. Today we hug. It's the manly sort of hug: throw your shoulder into the other guy and put an arm around the back. A few pats don't hurt.

I wonder if my sons understand "the embrace of God"?

THE BALD HEADED PARROT

Before I went to elementary school I wanted to hang out with the big boys. My brothers and the neighbor kids used to sit on the stonewall in the yard next to us. I was not really welcome. As I was listening to them one day they told this joke about a one-legged, one-eyed parrot who lived on a farm and liked to f--- the chickens (yes, they used that word). I did not understand the joke but all the rest seemed to like it. They told me to leave. I went back to the house where my Aunt Janice was visiting with my Mother. Since the joke was supposed to be funny I thought they would enjoy it, so I told it to them. In my youthful way I stumbled along until I got the part where I told them what the parrot liked to do with the chickens. I noticed grey expressions moving accords their faces. I couldn't finish the joke for they stopped me and told me to go outside and tell my brothers to come in. I did not understand why, but I knew it was not going to be good.

BEING BORN

I was born in Simms hospital in Arlington, Massachusetts on August 4th, 1944. My mother says I was a twin, but the twin did not survive. (I've always wondered if my parents could not afford me so the other one was given up for adoption). I have a birth mark which may be related to the twin in that we were somehow connected together..

I can remember drinking from a baby bottle and watching the bubbles march like solders up to the top of the bottle. I can remember netting over the crib rails, mosquito netting, I suppose. I remember some sort of toy mobile hanging above me. I remember a blanket spring clamp made to look like a duck. If you could manage to squeeze it hard enough to get the jaws open. It really hurt if you caught your finger in it.

World War II was still going on then, but of course I remember nothing about it. My Father did not participate in the military because he worked on the railroad (Boston and Maine), and railroad men were exempt from military service. The railroads were vital to the national security and to the war effort. My brothers were too young. My Mother's brother (Uncle Eddie [Hoxie]) served in the Coast Guard. Since that time there has been other wars (although they were not called that): Korean, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iraq, and probably others I am not remembering.

TRAINS

I loved to go down the street to the train depot. It was down South Street at the bottom of the hill form where we lived. (I lived in 65 South Street, Bedford, MA, and later in 66.) At the station a single track came in from Lexington. It split and one track went past the baseball field to Billerica, and the other went to Concord. I loved the steel rails and the ties and the smell of creosote, specially on a hot summer's day. Every once and a while a tie would have a nail hammered into it with a number cast into it's top. I always wanted to (but never did) pull one out and keep it for myself. In the early days (at least my early days) three passenger trains came out from Boston in the evening. They would stay the evening at Bedford and go back to Boston in the morning. They were pulled by steam engines, 4-6-2s as I recall. When they came out, and after the passengers got off, the engines would pull up to the water tower, the fireman would get on top of the tender, open the lid to the tender's water tank, lower the big spout from the water tower, and fill the tender with water. Then the train would pull forward across South street beside the lumber company, uncouple the passenger cars, pull up to the "Wye", Back up to the engine house where they stayed the night.

My Father worked on the railroad. He was a Fireman. In the old days he would actually shovel coal from the tender into the firebox. It was very hard work going up the side of a mountain when they had to generate a lot of steam.

That's why I have always loved the railroad and admire big, heavy moving things. Large works of mankind are fascinating..

I would have built a model train set up but I lacked the discipline to carry it through. I acquired the model trains and built some model buildings, cut some plywood, but never finished.

My Father told me two things: "Never work for the railroad." and "Never join the armed forces." He never explained the reasoning. I didn't work for the railroad, but I did join the navy. Just this moment I realize part of the reason: big heavy moving things and large works of mankind.

Love --PapaJ

STARTING AGAIN

I am today trying to figure out the various blogs I have made. I have lost control of the personal stuff. At one time I wanted to move all my stuff to the WordPress software, but now I can't make head-nor-tails of it. I must have lost some key file somewhere.

Well, I've spent too much time trying to find and fix WordPress. The only one I'll keep it on is Submission Is Not Silence (submissionisnotsilence.com). I'll use blogspot from now on trusting that Google will not fail.

My ultimate goal is to provide my thoughts to my boys, as deep or as shallow as they may be. I never knew that my father thought. I would have liked to. So, I will do that here.

I know I put stuff up here before and the other blog, MotorcycleMoment. As I find the old blogs I may re-post them to keep them in one container. (That is, IF I can find them).

-- Love, PapaJ