Thinkin' 'bout "hinken"...

As we drove the 20 miles to Yeddo Baptist Church yesterday morning it was truly a "winter wonderland" of frost-covered trees and we marveled again at the handiwork of God in creation and preservation. And, since Mom/Mamaw/Mary K. and I strive this year in our private morning "quiet time" to read through the Bible, we each came to Genesis chapter 32 yesterday and discussed it together on the road. It's the record of Jacob returning with his family and possessions from Uncle Laban in Syria, and anticipating meeting his brother Esau. You will recall that Esau had threatened 20 years before to kill Jacob the next time they met! No doubt Jacob had other problems, but the fear of the approaching confrontation with Esau loomed large in his mindl Alone (verses 24-32), Jacob spent the night wrestling with the Lord and emerged victorious with a new name -- "Israel" (prince with God) -- a new glimpse of the Lord ("I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" ) -- and a new walk! In wrestling with the Lord, "Jacob's thigh was out of joint" and, as a result, "he halted upon his thigh"! In the German Bible it reads: "er hinkte an seiner Huefte!" "Hinken" means "to hobble, halt, limp." Dear readers, I totally emphasize and sympathize with ol' Jacob. Due to spinal stenosis and the degeneration of my right hip, especially the last year, I have been doing a lot of "hinken"! And, as this goes to press, I am scheduled for a visit with my cardiologist to seek clearance for hip replacement surgery, as I have a heart issue, then I see our orthopedic doctor on February 1 to make some definite plans. We need and ask the prayers of God's people, that the doctors may have wisdom and that the outcome will be greater (hopefully pain-free) mobility. Meantime, I get cranky with the discomfort and inconvenience of "hinken" on a cane or walker (pray for Mary K., too), but I'm trusting the Lord to do for me what he did for Jacob -- give me a fresh glimpse of His grace and goodness. Jacob concluded in v. 30: "...and my life is preserved!" In my old German Bible that reads "my soul is mended, or recovered!" Surely, we often enjoy physical healing, but in all our trials as believers we need the spiritual mending and healing, above all! Praise the Lord for Romans 8:28, but let's not forget His goal in all our testings, shown in verse 29, that we might be "conformed to the image of His Son"!

How To Eat A Pomegranate?

Before Christmas a retired nurse friend of ours here in the apartment building, conscious of eating healthy, gave us a pomegranate. We had seen this fruit many times at the supermarket, but somehow had never added it to our diet. So, we had to ask our nurse friend HOW to eat a pomegranate ... don't laugh, you probably haven't attacked one either! Simply stated, one is to cut off the "crown" of the fruit, then score the skin into sections, pulling it apart to expose the white flesh and then pop out the red seeds ... 613 of them according to rabbis as there are that many commandments in Judaism! We didn't count the seeds and didn't eat them right away, either, rather we put them in a covered plastic dish in the refrigerator. Guess we weren't sure how our colons would tolerate the seeds. Finally, ashamed that we were not showing thankfulness for such a gift, Mary K. set the rescued dish of seeds before me and I ate some. Believe me, they are delicious -- reddish juicy flesh around each one and the seed itself with a nutty flavor (tho we seniors have to chew and chew) and chock full of nutrients and antioxidants -- good for the heart, circulation and even prostate! Curious to learn more about this fruit, I "googled" the topic and found that our basic approach was right, but ... the best method was to score the fruit , then pop it open in a bowl of water, which allows the skin to stay on top and the seeds to sink to the bottom, ready for retrieval and consumption ... please don't slurp! In an earlier blog we described the Christmas goodies displayed at the Grimes Food Store in Wallace many years ago. Although Dad never stocked (or maybe heard of) pomegranates, a favorite fruit was the tangerine ... aromatic and juicy... and lots of seeds, but whoever advised eating the seeds? Why all this positive promotion of promegranates? Well, to me the enjoyment of this pretty, ruddy-red fruit (grown mainly in the Middle East, Israel, and here in California) is like reading the Bible. Dear reader, this is to encourage you to start today and read the Bible through, only 3 chapters or so per day, in this new year. They tell us the Bible is still a Best Seller, but I fear so many folks treat it the way I did the pomegranate -- nice to look AT, but seldom looked INTO and for many, never read THROUGH! Yes, like that fruit you will find that opening God's Word carefully, daily and sort of "under water" (asking help of the Holy Spirit) you will have lots of spiritually nourishing and truly profitable precepts and promises to munch on and assimilate. Like King David you will find, "How sweet are Thy Words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103). HAPPY NEW YEAR...as you squeeze

good things out of the Scriptures! P.S. Do a study in your Bible on the pomegranate, too!

Memory Maker

We have had a covering of snow here in central Indiana for two weeks or more, but have missed the huge storms farther north of us. Roads being clear last Sunday morning, we left the apartment early enough to reach Yeddo for the worship hour. We had to use plenty of "Heet" spray to remove the frost from every window and the windshield on "Henry" our trusty Taurus.

But what a winter wonderland with all the frosted trees and snow-covered fields filling the landscape on the way! This caused some "deja vu" discussion between us, since it was the day after our 61st wedding anniversary of December 18, 1949. What a contrast in weather! I graduated from Moody Bible Institute on the 16th and we all hurried back home for the BIG DAY. A former student friend was asked to be my Best Man and stayed all night at my home in Wallace ... I don't think I slept a wink because Carl snored fiercely, but who could sleep, anyway? Since we had made Calvary Baptist Church in Crawfordsville our sending church for planned service in Germany, the wedding was held there early in the afternoon with our elderly pastor Brother Barney Antrobus officiating. The small block church building was packed, and our friend from Lodi, Paul Ray Jr., sang "Saviour, Like A Shepherd Lead Us" as Margaret Starns (Tague) supported Mary K. as Matron of Honor and Carl held me up! No digital or video cameras were present, only a local photographer made the official picture of this earth-shaking event for posterity, but we had the family and the congregation as witnesses, too. They were all invited to the Jackson home in the country west of Wallace for the Reception and quite a line of cars drove through ... no, not snow... balmy, foggy, wet roads for the festivities. Quite a change from 61 years later. However, we must add ... after a short honeymoon in Lafayette, IN (don't laugh, 50 miles was a long drive in those days and student jobs didn't prepare us for a Caribbean cruise!), we started married life in a little tenant house provided by Dad and Mom Jackson on their farm. Then it got COLD and SNOWED, but we survived with a pot-bellied coal stove, plenty of blankets and lots of SNUGGLIN' until we left for another session of training, this time at Grand Rapids Baptist Bible Institute and Seminary. And there we encountered lots more snow and cold and the pre-mission-field experience of living in a 1-bedroom apartment. Then and now we find the Bible to be "right on" -- "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow ...Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?" - Ecclesiastes 4:9-11.

dit-dit-dit-dah!

Some will recognize the Morse code 3 dots and a dash that stands for the letter "V" and is a familiar sound from Beethoven's 5th symphony, I think, but in World War II reminded us that "'V' is for Victory!" The old-time telegrapher spelled out messages in short clicks and long clicks over the wires, but radio-telegraphy technology made it possible to hear the sound of dots and dashes. As a Navy radioman in the war we listened to Morse code broadcasts 24-7 at sea as ships near and far communicated. We were to be alert for any distress signals from ships in trouble and for any messages addressed to our ship. For instance, a possible submarine attack was signalled by "SSSS" over the radio, and, of course, one needing assistance would send out a frantic "SOS"! Because of danger everywhere, radio silence was maintained until absolutely necessary, and so most of us did not get to send messages at sea and often grew "rusty." It takes a very flexible wrist motion to make a really understandable Morse code message on the telegraph key, believe me, but some operators were very accomplished at it and some veterans even used what was called a "bug" telegraph key. As I recall, the "bug" had a side-to-side action instead of the normal up-and-down movement, and so it could really send messages fast, almost like "brrrrrrp, brrrrrp!" When I would listen in to such I was not only amazed at the operator's skill, but also amused when he made a mistake, because he had to stop and correct the error. How did he do that? Well, just like the slow-poke operator with a normal key and wrist motion he simply first spelled out "dit-dit-dit-dit-dit" or "e-e-e-e-e" which, of course, stood for an Error, and then finished his corrected transmission. I've been pondering that solution to mistakes and boo-boos in radio telegraphy and how easy it would be if we could make things right with God or one another by just somehow keying in "e-e-e-e-e" and then everything was okay again! However, it's not that simple. According to God's Word it took the death of His Son on the cross, and our faith in Him, to make possible the forgiveness of sins. Let's be honest, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive our selves, and the truth is not in us. (BUT) if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!" (I John 1:8,9). This does not required any wrist action, but it surely does take some knee action!

The UNcooperative Telephone Company

My hometown of Wallace was blessed with a locally-owned and operated "Cooperative Telephone Company." In the 1930's and early 1940's, of course, the equipment was not high-tech, compared to today, and most of the communication was via "party line," which allowed for the widest distribution of the town news! And every household or business had its own special ring; I think Grimes Store was "2 longs and 1 short" and my Dad the storekeeper answered with a cheery "Jot-em-down Store" (taken from the radio comedy show "Lum and Abner"). And, if you were on a party line, it was not necessary to call central first ... just crank out the appropriate "longs" and "shorts" if the line was free. One summer my teen buddies, Dick Fine and Kenny Davidson, and I somehow got hold of some obsolete old wall phones and planned our own private "tele-com" company, not to compete but to experiment, like boys do! We took the wire from the magneto off one machine, not reckoning on its durability, and strung it on make-shift posts from my upstairs room at least a 100 yards to the Fine residence; then, from there another 100 feet or so across the street to the Davidsons. Believe it or not, when the old wall phones were connected the system worked, and the "Wallace UNcooperative Telephone Company" was born! I use the "UN" prefix because the grand experiment succeeded only a few days at most ... until the next summer storm blew that thin copper wire line all to pieces! Now there is a lesson for us in that experience. Our most modern high-tech systems of communication fail, too. But there is one system that never fails ... for the believing soul... and that is PRAYER, actually reaching Heaven on our knees, and with a personal, direct line! And in God's Word we are encouraged: "Let us therefore COME boldly (with confidence in Christ Who died for our sins) to the Throne of Grace (Heaven's 'central'), that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need!" (Hebrews 4:16) And we don't need to worry about the storms of life interfering with or disrupting this connection. In fact, we should call when we are IN a storm!!! Have YOU tried this system, yet?

The Great Lakes Shuffle

As Mamaw/Mary K. and I finished up washing dishes in our small apartment kitchen recently we discussed my tendency to dribble water on the old-hard-to-maintain vinyl tile floor when drying things! I was reminded of how difficult it was to keep a reasonable "shine" on the tile, and that she had just a short time ago found a liquid polish that made the task somewhat easier. Then I suggested that maybe we should try the "Great Lakes Shuffle" as a solution, but, of course, as a landlubber she had never heard of this. Well, this was the U.S. Navy way of keeping barracks floors spotless (?) at the Great Lakes Training Center/Boot Camp north of Chicago during World War II, where I was a "guest" for 8 weeks or so early in 1943. When reporting for duty the "boot" was issued clothing and shoes, but the shoes were then altered by adding a thick layer of black rubber to make drilling more "pleasant"! Now 150 pairs of thus-altered shoes do a

real number on un-varnished wooden floors in the barracks, so what's the simple solution? -- Each evening before taps every recruit was given a piece of steel-wool, then placing it under his shoe he did the "Shuffle," thereby removing the black marks and maintaining the U.S. Navy reputation for cleanliness! After sharing this with Mamaw I thought about the spiritual black marks that we all have made in our relationship with God. You see we don't need a "shuffle" of some kind, like good works or human wisdom, to know and to please the Lord, "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin!" (I John 1:7) Have YOU tried this solution yet?