All Saints and All Souls

Serving in Germany in the 1950's we witnessed their observance of "All Saints" Day on Nov. 1 or 2 and "All Souls" Day on Nov. 2 or 3 each year. The former honors departed "saints" of the Roman Catholic Church who are prayed TO, while the latter emphasizes the need to pray FOR the souls in torment in "purgatory" or hell. As we write, there is a controversy in and out of the Church regarding the advisability of canonizing Pope Pius XII who signed an agreement with Hitler in 1933 which may explain why he never publicly denounced the Holocaust or made much greater efforts to protect the Jews in Europe. Israel, of course, is strongly opposed to him being declared an official "saint." We are, too, because Scripture makes it clear that it is GOD who is in the saint-making business and not a religious hierarchy (which is why we were preaching the Gospel in Germany anyway)! Biblically, a "saint" is a SINNER SAVED by grace! The New Testament word means "to be set apart FROM sin and set apart UNTO God" and he addressed Christians in Rome as "beloved of God, called to be saints" (Romans 1:7). He saluted believers in Corinth as "them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (I Corinthians 1:2), etc. In our KJV Bible the italicized words indicate they have been added for meaning, and I would paraphrase it "called TO BE saints DOWN HERE and seeking to become SAINTLY DOWN HERE" by obeying God's Word "for the perfecting (spiritual maturation) of the SAINTS" (Ephesians 4:12)! Truly, simple faith in Christ makes all believers "meet to be partakers of the SAINTS in light" NOW and throughout eternity (Colossians 1:12-14). But prayer FOR "all souls" already in eternity is futile. NOW is the time to become a saint and as a saint to be more and more saintly ... set apart for Christ's use and glory!

How do you "justify" that?

Having been turned down for our high school basketball team because of some high blood pressure, I thought service in the Armed Forces at the onset of WW II was "out" for me. (Later, of course, I did volunteer for the U.S. Navy and was accepted.) So for a few months I worked at the R.R. Donnelley printing plant in Crawfordsville, IN, just 20 miles from Wallace. Since I was an "unknown quantity" for lengthy employment there, I was assigned to the Make-Up Department as a sort of "printer's devil," ready to do any unskilled task. That department "made up" the trays of lead type from the linotype machines (massive things that churned out what our word processors do today). My job on a little manual "proof press" was to run off copies of the text and send it to the proof readers for reading and marking any corrections necessary. The process called for re-setting the lines of type, then, after coating these with red ink, re-inserting them in the tray and again making a copy on the proof press to be sent one or more times back to the proof reading for approval until the text was perfect. Sometimes the lead type-slugs were hurriedly placed back in the tray in a helter-skelter effort and had to be straightened ... i.e., "justified" in the printer's language! Webster says that "to justify" this way means "to space (type) so that the lines will be of the correct length," or, apart from printing, "to show to be just, right, or reasonable," or, "to free from blame or guilt; absolve." This latter definition didn't make sense to me until, after WWII, I repented of my sin and received Christ as my personal Saviour and began really studying my Bible. "Therefore being justified by faith, we (I) have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). The Bible word means not only the forgiveness of sin and the removal of its guilt and punishment, but also the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me and restoration to God's favor for me and all who trust Him. Wow! I kept a little lead slug from my printing days reading "proofed by Grimes" which I had to place in each tray on the proof press, and it is reminder that I am "straight" in God's sight through Christ's work on the Cross and Resurrection and I am kept straight in my daily life as I walk with Him! Proverbs 3:5,6. What a deal for a "printer's devil"!

'Ray for Reunions!

Living here in Crawfordsville, IN, now, we take a break now and then to have a walk and picnic

snack at Milligan Park not far away. I always experience "deja vu" as I recall Pyle Family reunions there some 70 years ago! The Pyles originated in NC, TN and KY and are related to "Coonrod" Pyle who pioneered with Daniel Boone, and Sgt. Alvin York (mother was a Pyle), a

a WWI hero. Bill's mother was Jewell Pyle through James G. and Gillie A. Pyle who settled in Foutain County IN. But those Pyle reunions were blessed with plenty of aunts and uncles and cousins, plus fried chicken and all the trimmin's with the coldest ice tea you can imagine, served

with a dipper from a huge farm milk can ... and homemade ice cream! A highlight for me was the

recreation in the afternoon, usually a softball game, with all those cousins. Well, a week ago Sunday Mary K. and I drove to Beechwood Park at Rockville to attend this year's Reunion. We were down in numbers, of course, but it was a joy to see cousins Ken, Herman, Leonard, Conrad (who came from CO) and Larry Pyle and their loved ones and others, one couple driving up from MS. (By the way, for obvious reasons, we couldn't get a softball game organized this time!) We are grateful to Ken and wife Julie for keeping in touch with everyone and keeping geneaology, pictures and archives and setting up the reunion in recent years. But as we grow older and our family branches enlarge and scatter it grows more difficult to have regular family get-togethers,

and this is just a sad fact of life. However, it is so good to know that, for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, there is a grand reunion COMING for the family of God!

Jesus promises: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also!" (John 14:1-3) We pray that each of our readers will look forward to that grand get-together ahead ... it may be SOON!

The staff of life

Guess I've always enjoyed bread products, and recall making the run home from school in record time when I knew Mom was baking yeast rolls for lunch ... yummee! But when we served as missionaries in Germany in the 50's we really came to appreciate "Brot," especially the hard-crusted dark bread and the breakfast rolls call "Broetchen" ("little breads"--"Semmeln" in Bavaria). One day from our apartment in Frankfurt we watched a little old lady on the 5th floor across the street dangling a basket on a rope to the ground floor -- in front of the local bakery! Of course they loaded in her ordered Brot products and she quickly reeled up the basket ... talk about service! Another time there we observed a little boy walking down the street from the bakery with a shopping net full of Broetchen bouncing along on the sideweek behind him. We wonder if "Mama" asked him about those dark spots in the rolls? Ach, some new spices, maybe? A loaf of that good dark bread cost us about 1 German mark (their dollar), worth at that time 25 cents in our money ... try to find a loaf of bread now at that price anywhere! Bread was, and still is, a staple in the German home, but there was, and is, a shortage of spiritual bread in that land, as well as in America. The prophet Jeremiah describes his own people centuries ago

as having the same problem: "All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul..." (Lamentations 1:11) Material bread satisfies for a short time, but the Lord Jesus Christ advises us: "I AM the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst!" Then the Psalmest invites everyone to "O TASTE and SEE that the LORD is good...! (Psalm 34:8). Have YOU done that?

The wells of salvation

To get back to that flowing well at the bottom of the hill going southeast out of Wallace and just north of the old covered bridge, it reminds me of another well west of town where I used to slake my thirst after a bike ride out to a wooden dam on Mill Creek in the summertime. "Sulphur Spring" was fed by a pipe out of the hillside and ran into a steel drum. That was the coldest, most refreshing water ever! Everybody drank out of that famous "watering hole," including horses ... until some years ago the property got a new owner who diverted the spring water into a business of selling water! Now, I hope that the town or some private person will not close off the "new" well, and I do look forward to getting a "sip" there now and then. That reminds me of a wonderful Bible promise found in Isaiah 12:2,3 - "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." When the new well was drilled near the Bridge and could not be tapped, some town residents up on the hill found the water level in their wells was sinking and there was momentary fear of losing ALL the water supply to the town (so I heard)! Well, it hasn't happened yet, but surely is a possibility at some future time. However, dear reader, the wells of salvation -- eternal life, forgiveness of sins, peace, joy, assurance, hope, etc., etc., are available through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ... and ...will never run dry! He promises in John 4:14 and 6:35 - "...he that believeth on Me shall never thirst!" Have you "sipped" yet; and, if so, do you continue to "sip"?

Bridge To Somewhere

On Sunday before my 83rd birthday on Monday, March 3, our sister and brother-in-law, Jean and Bob Larsh, invited Mary K. and me, along with older sister Joan and husband Russell Gooding, for food and fellowship at the Grimes Ole Home Place in Wallace. We surely enjoyed the time together reminiscing about "the old days" and I was privileged in the nice afternoon weather to take a traditional walk down the southeast hill out of town down to the old Covered
Bridge over the creek at the bottom of the hill toward the Lutheran Church. The town has built
a nice little rest park with picnic shelter, a playground and ballpark just to the north of the bridge in "bottom land" and ... drilled a well just below the bridge which turned out to be a flowing well (almost draining the citizens' wells above in town!) producing that cool, refreshing
water I remember from childhood. I remember, too, that the Covered Bridge itself was a major
link to the east by gravel road for many decades. Now, it has been bypassed by a new modern bridge and blacktop road. But I played in, around and under that bridge as a kid -- fishing for bluegills and shooting waterbugs with my BB gun, and watching our faithful little Terrier "Fanny" go crazy sniffing for varmints! I'm so glad the town is preserving the bridge (even using
it as a Halloween Haunted House), but it is sadly now just a "Bridge To Nowhere"! As I huffed and puffed back up the Hill, stopping occasionally to rest on my cane, I thought: "Well, I'm glad
that there IS a Bridge To Somewhere, and that I came to know Him as my Lord and Saviour
near this place so many years ago." Yep, Jesus said: "I AM the Way, theTruth and the Life...
no (one) cometh unto the Father, except by Me" ...and... "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out!" (John 14:6; 6:37). I was ALMOST running as I reached the top of the hill! At least I wanted to, for sheer joy!

From "ammo" to "amore" - Part II

Sage #1 continues: I had just returned from three years service in the Navy during World War II. (Some of that time was spent as a radioman with the Navy gun crew aboard armed merchant ships, once transporting bombs and other ammunition to our troops in the Southwest Pacific ... that's where my side of the "ammo"-"amore" equation comes in!) Anyway, as I returned home to Wallace, IN, I was anxious to resume my "social life," and soon asked my mother is she knew any really Christian girls in our area that I might ask for a date. She wisely replied, "Why, give Mary Kathryne Jackson a call!" I faintly knew Mary K. (or "Katie" as she was known "way back when") as a friend of my younger sisters, but gave her a call right away and she agreed to go to church with me. As we got acquainted the next few weeks she discovered that I did not really know the Lord as my personal Saviour, so she patiently and lovingly shared the Gospel with me over hamburgers after church services. On the evening of Mary 13, 1946, after she once more explained John 3:16 to me, I knelt in the livingroom of her parents' farm home and asked Christ to save me. She told me later that I looked as though a tremendous load had been lifted from me. It was the burden of sin! I just praise the Lord for forgiving me and giving me eternal life that night. And I thank Him also for giving me in due time Mary K. as a wife and coworker these many years, serving the Lord together first in Germany and then in home fields. Truly, "the LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad!" (Psalm 126:3) ... and that's real "amore"!