tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14007245633232396872024-03-05T04:56:53.151-07:00E-MusingsDavid Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.comBlogger968125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-66327835335613080142022-07-09T13:23:00.004-06:002022-07-09T13:23:33.963-06:00Going and Not Knowing <p><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">When Abraham was seventy–five years of age, God called him from his home in Ur of the Chaldees to move to Haran, and then to Shechem, to Bethel, to Egypt, to the Negev, to Hebron… Rootless, homeless, </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">“going…and not knowing.”</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> That was the story of Abraham’s life. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Age brings change, uncertainty, adjustment, transition from a familiar past to an uncertain future. It is movement from a family home, to a small apartment, to a retirement community, to a nursing home—the “last resort,” as one wag put it. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So we, like Abraham, pass through paths unknown, making our way from one place to another, always traveling: “going…and not knowing.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But we could not be more safe for we dwell in the shelter of the Most High; we rest in the shadow of His wings. The "God of old" is our dwelling place and underneath are His everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 37:27).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Others may choose another habitation, but God is my dwelling place til traveling days are o'er and I reach my heart's true home. My days may be uncertain but my destination is secure: the place our Father prepared for His children long ago (John 14:1-4).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper7.10.22</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">Please note:</span></b><span style="color: #414141;"> This will be my last post for awhile. I’m taking a break and “recalibrating” as my Google map app would say.</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-64597172398751767552022-06-27T08:05:00.005-06:002022-06-27T08:07:12.896-06:00<p> </p><table data-en-clipboard="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr><td data-colwidth="188" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“Instead of…”</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Instead of the thorn, a cypress tree will spring out of the ground; instead of a thistle, the myrtle bush—a living and lasting monument to God” (Isaiah 55:13). </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It's one thing to eradicate thorns and thistles—barbed vines that encumber and impair those that pass by. It's another to see these plants turned into objects of towering strength and beauty. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span>Ask God to do this for you: Ask Him to search you and show you the thorns and thistles in your speech and manner, the prickly ways that cause pain in others (Psalm 139:23,24). </span></span><span style="color: #222222;">Ask Him to turn them into thoughts, words and acts that bless and beautify.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">God will do this in His own time and way, for Himself, for you and for others. It will be “a living and lasting monument” to God’s eternal goodness and grace.</span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Wait for this. Expect it. God is able to do immeasurably more than you can imagine (Ephesians 3:20).</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">6.26.22</span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-66863545888085511392022-06-22T17:43:00.004-06:002022-06-27T08:08:14.485-06:00 The Mountain of God<p> </p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Let snow fall on Zalmon,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan;</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountain,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">at the mount that God desired for his abode,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">yes, where the LORD will dwell forever? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">—Psalm 68:14-16</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Mount Zalmon is located in a chain of perennially snow-capped mountains between Lebanon and Syria with peaks that rise over 9,000 feet. In Canaanite mythology it was Baal's abode. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Yet mighty Zalmon, a massive eminence, looks at little Mount Zion (2,300 feet) with "envy" for God has chosen it, as his dwelling place forever. And…</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It shall come to pass in the latter days</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">that the mountain of the house of the LORD</span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">shall be established as the highest of the mountains,</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">and shall be lifted up above the hills;</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">and all the nations shall flow to it… (Isaiah 2:2). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I’m reminded here of Peter’s words: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “<i>God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.</i> Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:5). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So then, I say: I don’t have to be an mighty, “many-peaked” mountain to matter. I can be a little hill. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">6.22.22</span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-11103477817559779662022-05-30T09:16:00.006-06:002022-05-30T09:47:54.725-06:00 Open Wide!<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;"><img data-en-clipboard="true" data-hash="fd69f395c477f6140043c21869d07b3c" data-natural-height="1538" data-natural-width="2745" data-pm-slice="0 0 []" data-type="image/jpeg" /><img data-en-clipboard="true" data-hash="fd69f395c477f6140043c21869d07b3c" data-natural-height="1538" data-natural-width="2745" data-pm-slice="0 0 []" data-type="image/jpeg" /><br /><span style="color: #414141;">I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">. —Psalm 81:10 </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="color: #414141;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #414141;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiq05_eErP-HZQtKB5y2CBr3tVTjCu7bznJhjfUHZ2x-Zn9WGrPlp2SvqdvwvDngA7zUN-o45E2W_RVuOwpZho_9E3ivUpUpFHKLHmSyIyLc01dlrDN7VryqA_TfXftkQb-CS7dVomJx8Ht5w1tOE8K8alR19qTRb55bJ42Bq2dy_R-lr_EvtjSqwBMUA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="2745" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiq05_eErP-HZQtKB5y2CBr3tVTjCu7bznJhjfUHZ2x-Zn9WGrPlp2SvqdvwvDngA7zUN-o45E2W_RVuOwpZho_9E3ivUpUpFHKLHmSyIyLc01dlrDN7VryqA_TfXftkQb-CS7dVomJx8Ht5w1tOE8K8alR19qTRb55bJ42Bq2dy_R-lr_EvtjSqwBMUA=w464-h259" width="464" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><img data-hash="fd69f395c477f6140043c21869d07b3c" data-natural-height="1538" data-natural-width="2745" data-type="image/jpeg" /></span><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">This verse begins with a direct quotation from the preamble to the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Thou shalt not; thou shalt not; thou shalt..." (Exodus 20:2).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Here in this psalm, however, where you might expect another list of rules, God offers a lovely grace-note: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Israel's history, like mine, is a tale of underachievement, yet God does not call for greater effort. He rather asks us to lay our "doing" down and receive what He has to give.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Trying to keep rules and make myself a better person is a losing cause. I know because I tried it for years. God alone is the source of goodness for He alone is good. We must ask for his righteousness and keep on asking.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Long, long ago, on the Cross, Jesus did away with our wrong-doing. Now He lives to make us good children. If we open our mouths wide He will, in his time, fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other traits we admire in Him and seek for ourselves. He will feed us with the "finest of the wheat," and satisfy us with "honey from the rock" (Psalm 81:16).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Honey from the rock!" Sweetness flowing from an unexpected source. Who could imagine that someone so "wholly other" could be so near at hand?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Weary, working, burdened one,Wherefore toil you so?Cease your doing; all was doneLong, long ago. —James Proctor</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">5.30.22</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span data-markholder="true"></span></span></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #564ce2;">*</span> Photograph taken by our neighbor, Duane Gray. Used by permission.</span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-24774385920900210102022-04-29T13:38:00.007-06:002022-04-29T13:38:54.062-06:00 Think on These Things<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">“Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8 </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">The Message</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">).</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">It’s generally thought that Paul had abstract thought in mind (right thinking) and that may have been his intention. I wonder, however, given the context of the book, if Paul is not encouraging us to think about the “things” that we observe </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">in others.</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Rather than fixing our minds on the flaws we see in our brothers and sisters would it not be better to think about those attitudes and actions that are “true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; the things to praise, not the things to curse?—t</span><i><span style="color: #414141;">he goodness that we see</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Rather than see, think and speak evil of others, would it not be better to fill our minds with </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">these</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> “things.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper </span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-14011983250343396882022-04-11T13:50:00.004-06:002022-04-11T13:51:47.537-06:00The Life of Riley<p> <span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking." —Carl Sagan</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There's a little stream over in Eastern Oregon near the Idaho border called Riley Creek. It was named for "Judge" Riley, a prospector who grubbed for gold there in the 1870s, largely unrewarded.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Early one morning his partner left camp and discovered a rich deposit of gold near their campsite. He raced back shouting, "Wake up, Riley. We're rich!" "Wake up, Riley. We're rich!" Riley, however, was unmoved. He had died during the night in his sleep.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We live the life of Riley. We, "grunt and sweat under weary life," as Shakespeare said, and then we die. Why go on, we ask ourselves, when every beat of our heart, like a muffled drum, is marching us closer to the grave? Why work and toil and face an endless sequence of frustrations in a world where everyone sooner or later ends up under the ground?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Yet there is an odd hope that springs eternal, a "thing of feathers that perches in the soul," a wistful, flighty thought that perhaps some "thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Mary Trumbull Slosson, a last century author whose quaint and profound folktales give a "glimpse of Joy beyond the walls of the world," writes of that hope in a story about a little boy that was "scaret of dying."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Once there was a boy that was dreadful scaret o' dyin'. Some folks is that way, you know; they ain't never done it to know how it feels, and they're scaret. And this boy was that way. He wa'n't very rugged, his health was sort o' slim, and mebbe that made him think about sech things more. `Tany rate, he was terr'ble scaret o' dyin'. `Twas a long time ago this was,—the times when posies and creaturs could talk so's folks could know what they was sayin'.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And one day, as this boy, his name was Reuben,—I forget his other name, —as Reuben was settin' under a tree, an ellum tree, cryin', he heerd a little, little bit of a voice,—not squeaky, you know, but small and thin and soft like, —and he see `t was a posy talkin'. `T was one o' them posies they call Benjamins, with three-cornered whitey blowths with a mite o' pink on `em, and it talked in a kind o' pinky-white voice, and it says, "What you cryin' for, Reuben? "And he says, "`Cause I'm scaret o' dyin'," says he; "I`m dreadful scaret o' dyin'." Well, what do you think? That posy jest laughed, the most cur'us little pinky-white laugh `t was,—and it says, the Benjamin says: "Dyin'! Scaret o' dyin'? Why, I die myself every single year o' my life." "Die yourself ! "says Reuben "You `re foolin'; you`re alive this minute." "`Course I be," says the Benjamin; "but that `s neither here nor there,—I've died every year sence I can remember." "Don't it hurt? "says the boy. "No, it don't," says the posy; "it `s real nice. You see, you get kind o' tired a-holdin' up your head straight and lookin' peart and wide awake, and tired o' the sun shinin' so hot, and the winds blowin' you to pieces, and the bees a-takin' your honey. So it's nice to feel sleepy and kind o' hang your head down, and get sleepier and sleepier, and then find you `re droppin' off. Then you wake up jest `t the nicest time o' year, and come up and look `round, and—why, I like to die, I do." But someways that didn't help Reuben much as you `d think. "I ain't a posy," he think to himself, "and mebbe I wouldn't come up."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Well, another time he was settin' on a stone in the lower pastur', cryin' again, and he heerd another cur'us little voice. ` T wa' n't like the posy's voice, but `t was a little, wooly, soft, fuzzy voice, and he see `twas a caterpillar atalkin' to him. And the caterpillar says, in his fuzzy little voice, he says, "What you cryin' for, Reuben? "And the boy, he says, "I `m powerful scaret o' dyin', that's why," he says. And that fuzzy caterpillar he laughed. "Dyin' ! "he says. "I `m lottin' on dyin' myself. All my fam'ly," he says, "die every once in a while, and when they wake up they `re jest splendid,—got wings, and fly about, and live on honey and things. Why, I would n't miss it for anything ! "he says. "I `m lottin' on it." But somehow that didn't chirk up Reuben much. "I ain't a caterpillar," he says, "and mebbe I would n't wake up at all."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Well, there was lots o' other things talked to that boy, and tried to help him,—trees and posies and grass and crawlin' things, that was allers a-dyin' and livin'. Reuben thought it didn't help him any, but I guess it did a little mite, for he could n't help thinkin' o' what they every one on `em said. But he was scaret all the same.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And one summer he begun to fail up faster and faster, and he got so tired he couldn't hardly hold his head up, but he was scaret all the same. And one day he was layin' on the bed, and lookin' out o' the east winder, and the sun kep' a-shinin' in his eyes till he shet `em up, and he fell asleep. He had a real good nap, and when he woke up he went out to take a walk.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">And he begun to think o' what the posies and trees and creaturs had said about dyin', and how they laughed at his bein' scaret at it, and he says to himself, "Why, someways I don't feel so scaret to-day, but I s'pose I be." And jest then what do you think he done? Why, he met a Angel. He'd never seed one afore, but he knowed it right off. And the Angel says, "Ain't you happy, little boy?" And Reuben says, "Well, I would be, only I `m so dreadful scaret o' dyin'. It must be terr'ble cur'us," he says, "to be dead." And the Angel says, "Why, you be dead." </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">And he was</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">!</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Spring posies, trees and creaturs are hints that there is hope for God has planned it that way. But spring alone may leave us with Reuben's worry: "I ain't a posy and mebbe I wouldn't come up."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Spring's hope may be only an illusion, a thought poet Richard Le Galliene picks up in a poem entitled "When I am Very Old." He writes of April baring her flowering breast "In secret woodlands, and, with eyes of dew/Lies to the others as once to me and you." That's why T. S. Eliot, in his pre-Christian days, thought April was, "the cruelest month."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is a truer word: Jesus' said: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25,26).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Who said this? One who rose from the grave. Talk is cheap, they say. It's one thing to make a bold assertion; it's another to back it up. But back it up Jesus did by rising from the dead, "the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20). His resurrection is the guarantee that God can bring us up and out of the ground. If we believe Jesus he assures us that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of us will continue after we die.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Living again means living out the thought of eternity that God has placed in our hearts; meeting loved ones lost through separating death; living in a world without blood, sweat and tears; seeing our Lord who loves us so much he gave up everything to unite us to him forever.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But there's another meaning I see: since we go around twice we don't have to go for all the gusto now. We may live in broken and ruined bodies for awhile; we may endure poverty and hardship for a time; we may face loneliness, heartache and pain for a season—but no matter. We don't have to have it all this time around. There is a second birth.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">From my series: “For Heaven’s Sake"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />4.11.22</span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-42610999074276659522022-04-09T16:18:00.005-06:002022-04-09T16:23:52.602-06:00Like a Weaned Child<p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">From Carolyn…</span></p><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Good Morning, Friends,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So much of the world is in turmoil these days. As I look around so many of our friends have a measure of turmoil, pain and grief in their homes and in their hearts. Perhaps you can relate. Whether it's that one child who is always on your mind, or the next doctor's appointment for a health issue that does not go away, or too much month at the end of the paycheck. Or perhaps it is decisions that keep stacking up and you just don't know what change will bring.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">As I was thinking of the muddles of life and the turmoil they can stir up in a heart, it reminded me of something that happened years ago in Palo Alto. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David and Ron Ritchie were asked to officiate at a funeral for the son of a missionary couple they knew. The young man rode with the Hell's Angels and died of a knife attack in San Francisco. The funeral was held in the woods in a basin in the Santa Cruz mountains. A large number of the Hells Angels all rode up together on their bikes. After the service where Jesus and the gospel were presented, the leader of the Angels came up to David and said,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> "I've got a putt and a pad and my 'ole lady, but I ain't got no peace." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Sometimes in the turmoil we all realize we "ain't got no peace." Well, how do we get the peace God has promised, even after we have peace with Him?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Psalm 131 has been on my mind recently.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><h3><b><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Psalm 131</span></b></h3><h3><b><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">A song of ascents. Of David</span></b></h3><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><sup><span style="color: #414141;">1 </span></sup><span style="color: #414141;">My heart is not proud, Lo, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. </span><span style="color: #414141;">But I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother; </span><span style="color: #414141;">Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I love that picture of a toddler resting on his mother, no fuss, no demands, no trauma. Just peace. And I have come to see it is possible to rest childlike on God and be at peace if we have done the two things above this picture. First, the psalmist had humbled himself before the Lord, not demanding or a proud look at the situation. Next, David realized and agreed that some things he will not understand. But God does. So David could rest peacefully and be content.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It wasn't that David just said, "Whatever." or "Oh well." But he was learning to trust God for the future. As he put his hope in the Lord he could wait in peace. Even when he did not understand. He knew the Lord as the child knew his mother.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">This is not a one time thing, of course. But it is a posture we can take over and over.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Today I am praying for you to keep the picture of the peaceful child in your heart as I am praying to keep it in mine. I am praying you will find the "peace that passes understanding" as you learn that the Lord is worthy of ruthless trust, It's a process. The Holy Spirit is our Helper.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">With Love from Above,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Carolyn</span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-24400961703605812802022-03-23T18:23:00.003-06:002022-03-23T18:25:28.803-06:00My Very Prop<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large; text-align: center;">“By faith Jacob worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.” —Hebrews 11:21 </span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There’s an antique umbrella rack in the entrance to our home in which we keep the canes and walking–sticks of several generations. One of my favorites is a slender staff with a gold–plated knob, engraved with the initials “DHR.” It belonged to Carolyn’s great–grandfather, Daniel Henry Rankin, whose initials, curiously, are mine. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">My study houses another collection: an intricately carved walking stick, hand-crafted by a friend, a shepherd’s crook from Israel, my father's peeled, apple–wood staff and his blackthorn shillelagh among others. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Out in the garage there's a barrel filled with a collection of snowshoe and cross-country ski poles, wading wands and trekking sticks that I’ve gathered through the years. Now I've traded up to a bright-red “Nitro” walker. </span><span style="color: #0d0000;">This is now </span>“the staff of my age, my very prop" (Shakespeare), a daily reminder of my need <span style="color: #0d0000;">to lean </span>on God and his faithfulness. He has supported me in the past with his right hand; he is guiding me this day with his counsel; and “afterward he will receive me into glory” (Psalm 73:23,24). "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow." Who can ask for anything </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">more?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Like old Jacob I too worship, “leaning on the top of my staff.” I’ve become rather fond of my prop. It reminds me every day that we all need Someone to lean on. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">David Roper</span><br /></span><span style="color: #414141;">3.20.22</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-13575274893902225722022-03-17T10:03:00.005-06:002022-03-17T10:09:21.775-06:00 Lies Frae End to End<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">Some books are lies frae end to end,<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">And some great lies were never penn’d:<br />Ev’n ministers they hae been kenn’d,<br />In holy rapture,<br />A rousing whid (exaggeration) at times to vend (vent),<br />And nail’t wi’ Scripture.</span></span></p><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">—Robt Burns, “Death and Dr. Hornbrook”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“A man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last" (Acts 4:36-5:5).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Heavens to Murgatroyd! One lie, you die! </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Well, not exactly. This was a one-off to put down a marker: </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">lying is serious sin. </span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">People who cheat, even a little, are generally dishonest in other areas. People know that and can’t fully trust them. "I’m not upset that you lied to me,” Fredrick Nietzsche lamented. “I'm upset that from now on I can not believe you.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">The fundamental reason to be truthful is Paul's reason: "Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Colossians 3:9,10). God is the God "who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">God's children, like their Father, are true through and through. </span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Satan is the “father of </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">lies</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">." God is “the Father of </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">light</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> (truth)…” (James 1:17). So, I ask myself, "Who's </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">my</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> daddy?"</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">David Roper<br /></span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">3.17.22</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-14676802945888000812022-03-07T12:08:00.001-07:002022-03-07T12:08:18.947-07:00Wrong Way Riegles<div data-en-clipboard="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []" margintop="14" style="margin-top: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It was New Year’s Day, 1929. The University of California at Berkeley was playing Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl. Roy Riegels, a Cal defensive back recovered a Georgia Tech fumble, ran laterally across the field, turned and scampered sixty–five yards in the wrong direction—straight toward Georgia Tech’s goal line.</span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">One of his own players, Benny Lomm, tackled Riegles just before he scored for Georgia Tech. On the next play Georgia Tech blocked the punt and scored. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">During the half–time, Riegles hid in a corner of the UCLA locker room with a towel over his head. His coach, Nibbs Price, said nothing to him and very little to the team. Three minutes before the second half he said quietly, “The team that started the first half will start the second half. Riegles cried out: “I can’t, coach; I can’t go back in. I’ve humiliated the team, the school, myself. I can’t go back in.” “Get back in game, Riegles,” Price replied, “The game is only half over.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Our failures may not be as conspicuous as Riegles’, but we all have our wrong–way runs and the memories that accompany them, recollections that rise up to taunt us in the night watches. There’s much of our past we would undo if we could, or redo. Louis Fletcher Tarkington wrote for all of us when she mused,</span><i><span style="color: #414141;"> </span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #414141;">I wish that there were some wonderful placeCalled the Land of Beginning Again,Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">And all of our poor selfish grief</span><i><span style="color: #414141;">Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the doorAnd never put on again.</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">There is such a place. It's found at the feet of Jesus, who freely sets our sins aside and puts us once more on the path of obedience. We must accept His full and free forgiveness and then forget ourselves. That we are sinners is undeniably true. That we are </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">forgiven</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> sinners is undeniable as well. We must take what forgiveness we need, put aside our "poor selfish grief” and get back in the game, for the game only half over.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“We remain such creeping Christians,” George MacDonald said, “because we gaze at the marks of our own soiled feet, and the trail of our own defiled garments…. We mourn over the defilement to ourselves, and the shame of it before our friends, children or servants, instead of hastening to make the due confession and then forget our own paltry self with its well-earned disgrace and lift up our eyes to the glory which alone will quicken us….”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Price put Riegles’ miscue behind his back and got him back in the game… as does our gracious Lord.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What a coach! What a God!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">David Roper</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">3.7.22<br />Excerpted from </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">A Man to Match the Mountain</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></p>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-23689325380495775662022-03-06T13:27:00.001-07:002022-03-06T13:30:22.632-07:00Fighting the Good Fight<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">"This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child...(that) you may fight the good fight, by holding on to faith and a good conscience. By rejecting </span><b><span style="color: #414141;">this</span></b><i><span style="color: #414141;"> (conscience)</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">, some have made shipwreck of their faith" (1 Timothy 1.19)</span></span></p><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">In my first church, where I served for a time as a youth pastor, we offered a college prep course to graduating high school seniors to prepare them for college. We taught classes in theology and apologetics to provide a solid foundation for their faith, knowing that it would soon be under attack. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Lately, however, I've come to see that most young men and women do not lose their faith in college because they’re overwhelmed by the logic of unbelief. </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">They do so because they drift into sin. </span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Temptations to sin abound, especially temptations to sexual sin, and most young Christians, away from the influence of parents, church, community and friends, are unprepared for these assaults on moral constraint. Little by little they sever their moral mooring-lines, drift out to open sea, founder on the shoals and "make shipwreck of their faith.".</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">This is the argument of the text above: The "good fight of faith" is waged by holding on to one's faith (the truths we believe) </span><b><span style="color: #414141;">but also by keeping a good conscience </span></b><span style="color: #414141;">(obedience to the truths we believe). The clause "by rejecting </span><b><i><span style="color: #414141;">this</span></i></b><span style="color: #414141;">" is the crux. The relative pronoun, "this" is singular and refers to the noun "conscience." "By rejecting </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">conscience</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> some have made shipwreck of their faith."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">The verb “rejecting" is a strong word and means "to refuse to listen." We know what God is asking us to do, but we turn away from it to delve into sin and thus set in motion a chain of events that culminate in radical unbelief. </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">The Message </span></i><span style="color: #414141;">paraphrases the text this way: "There are some, you know, who...thinking anything goes have made a thorough mess of their faith."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Our consciences cry "foul" when we think and act contrary to the truth. If we fail to listen it will become more shrill and we must then try to assuage it. One way to do so is to deny the truth that's plaguing us. That rids us of the dissonance between our set of beliefs and our behavior. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Then, the arguments we hear in the classroom that disparage the faith begin to take on resonance, gather strength and become more persuasive. Traditional arguments against the Faith are singularly unpersuasive when viewed objectively. </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">It's when I </span></i><b><i><span style="color: #414141;">want</span></i></b><i><span style="color: #414141;"> these arguments be true that they gain force and win my approval</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">[It’s worth noting that apologetics (rational arguments for the faith) have little value in persuading non-Christians. They are, as John Calvin said, “secondary aids to </span><b><span style="color: #414141;">our</span></b><span style="color: #414141;"> imbecility”—have some usefulness to encourage and strengthen those who already believe.]</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">How then do we fight the good fight and "hold on to faith" when that faith is challenged? By listening to the conscience as it's directed and corrected by God's word and then doing what he's asked us to do. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And, it's worth noting, we'll always know what he's asking us to do.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />3.6.22</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-27577585234711016822022-02-22T17:45:00.005-07:002022-02-22T17:48:06.466-07:00The Bush<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the account of Moses’ conversation with a bush, a story Jesus entitled simply, “The Bush” (Luke 20:37). </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">This is the way Moses tells the story (Exodus 3). </span></p><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">He was trudging through the desert trailing his father-in-law’s little band of sheep when he spied a bush. On fire. </span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">That in itself was not unusual for dry lightning often set fires in the desert. Nor was there anything special about the bush. It was a scraggly, old desert sage or creosote bush, one of millions, barely subsisting in the wilderness. But extraordinarily, the bush was not consumed by the flames. </span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So Moses turned aside to see the sight, whereupon, he encountered a talking bush (or rather God talking in a bush) and entered into one of history’s most remarkable conversations.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">God (in the Bush)</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “Moses, Moses!”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">Moses</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “Here I am”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">God (in the Bush)</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “</span><i><span style="color: #414141;"> I have seen</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> the oppression with which the Egyptians have oppressed my people… </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">I will send</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> you to Pharaoh to bring my children, out of Egypt.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">Moses</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “Who me? WHO AM I?” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">(I think, had God called Moses forty years before he might have answered. “I’m your man!” for he was then a young man, a mighty warrior, full of self-confidence. But there’s nothing like trailing a band of moronic. malodorous sheep for forty years to draw down one’s sense of worth and well-being.)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">God (in the Bush)</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “It doesn’t matter who you are. I will be with you.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">Moses</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “Well then, WHO ARE YOU?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #414141;">God (in the Bush)</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">: “‘I AM’</span><sup><span style="color: #564ce2;">[1]</span></sup> is who I am. ’I AM' is the name I have given myself. What do you need, Moses: wisdom, love, courage, righteousness, power, patience? ‘I AM’ all you need! … And that’s all you and I need to know. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But, I ask you, why this indirection? Why speak to Moses in a shrub and not “face to face” as was God's custom. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Because, you see, the medium (the bush) </span><b><i><span style="color: #414141;">is</span></i></b><span style="color: #414141;"> the message: "If God is in it, any old bush will do.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />2.21.22</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><sup><span style="color: #564ce2;">[1]</span></sup> God’s name, probably pronounced Yahweh, is based on the Hebrewverb "I am."</span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-59824608029423779072022-02-13T12:56:00.007-07:002022-02-13T12:57:48.082-07:00"Winter into Winter"<div data-en-clipboard="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []" margintop="14" style="margin-top: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Is that a deathbed where a Christian lies? </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Yes, but not his—’tis Death itself that dies. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">—Samuel Taylor Coleridge</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">***</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">I’m fascinated by stories of "unreached people groups” and the means by which the gospel finds its way into these cultures. </span><span style="color: #414141;">This week, while reading a history of England, I came across this report:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">In 731, a British abbot, known to later generations as the Venerable Bede, wrote the first history of England: </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">The</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">Ecclesiastical History of the English People</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">. (The world also owes to Bede the practice of reckoning years from the birth of Christ.) </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Bede tells us that King Edwin, a 7th century king of North Umbria, called a council of his wisest retainers to consider their response to the evangel. Bede reports that one of the king's chief men gave the following speech, in which he compared our life to that of a sparrow flying through a hall in winter: </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, is like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the house wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your eldermen and theons, while the fire blazes in the midst, and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">How dark and bleak. And how tragic. One brief moment of existence, “but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all.” Why go on when every breath we draw is taking us into an uncertain, terrifying future? </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">I think of friends and neighbors around me, living “without hope” (Ephesians 2:12), “passing from winter into winter again,” not knowing what is to follow. But, thank God, by His mercy we can be "born again into a life </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">full of hope.</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> through Christ’s rising again from the dead! We can now hope for a perfect inheritance beyond the reach of change and decay, kept in Heaven for us. In the meantime we will be kept by the power of God operating through our faith, till we enter fully into the salvation which is being held in trust for us at last” (1 Peter 1:3-5).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">This is indeed “the doctrine that tells us something more certain” that “seems justly to deserve to be followed.” Heaven is “kept” for us and we are “kept" for heaven. It’s an open invitation; the door is wide open. Bede tells us that King Edwin entered in and many of the people of North Umbria with him.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Jesus said,, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25,26). This is the unshakable guarantee, the rock-solid assurance, the blood-bought promise. </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">“Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” </span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Do you believe this? There is nothing “more certain.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">David Roper</span><br />2.13.22</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-67973052585359380992022-02-10T12:32:00.003-07:002022-02-10T12:37:38.523-07:00Staying Put<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #414141;">I’ll stay where you put me; <br /></span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">I will dear Lord<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">Though I want so badly to go.<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">I’m eager to march with the rank and file, <br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">For I want to lead them, you know.<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">I long to keep step to the music loud,<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">To cheer when the banner’s unfurled,<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">To stand in the midst of the fight straight and proud,<br /></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">But I’ll stay where you put me, dear Lord.</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">In Homer’s version of the</span><i><span style="color: #414141;"> Odyssey</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">, battle weary Odysseus sets sail for Ithaca after long years fighting in the Trojan War. He forsakes the voluptuous sea nymph, Calypso to go home to his wife Penelope and her needlepoint.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">In a modern sequel to </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">The</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">Odyssey,</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> Nikos Kazantzakis has Odysseus returning home and staying long enough to slay Penelope’s suitors, but he cannot cure his restlessness, and soon sets sail again for parts unknown. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Kazantzakis echoes our nagging yen to move on.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> Certainly there may be good reasons to move to another place, but simple restlessness—“looking for a greater challenge”—is not one of them. Long ago I recognized my discontent for what it is: a longing for that elusive “something more”—that hunger for God himself that will not be satisfied until I reach my final home.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I met an old fellow some years back—Ralph was his name—who managed a backcountry ranch. I asked him if he ever thought of moving to a less remote place. “Why would I do that,” he drawled, “when I’m already where I want to be.” </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There’s a good deal of wisdom in those words, especially when we know that our present place is the place God has put us and thus is the place we want to be. We can "stay put” until he tells us it’s time to move on. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div data-en-clipboard="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Oh restless heart, that beats against your prison bars of circumstances, yearning for a wider sphere of usefulness, leave God to order all your days. Patience and trust, in the dullness of the routine of life, will be the best preparation for a courageous bearing of the tug and strain of the larger opportunity which God may some time send you" —L.B. Cowman</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-84636898169867226442022-01-31T10:43:00.000-07:002022-01-31T10:43:02.173-07:00War and Peace<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #414141;">“The sole cause of wars and revolutions and battles is nothing other than </span><b><i><span style="color: #414141;">desire</span></i></b><span style="color: #414141;">.” —Plato (5th Century BC)</span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">“It is insatiable </span><b><span style="color: #414141;">desires</span></b><span style="color: #414141;"> which overturn not only individual men, but whole families, and which even bring down the state. From </span><b><span style="color: #414141;">desires</span></b><span style="color: #414141;"> there spring hatred, schisms, discords, seditions and wars” —Cicero (1st Century BC)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You </span><b><i><span style="color: #414141;">desire</span></i></b><span style="color: #414141;"> and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.</span><i><span style="color: #414141;"> You do not have, because you do not ask</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">” —James (1 Century AD).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What causes revolution, war, schism, discord, sedition, border disputes, racial tension, marital spats, sibling rivalry? Why can’t we get along?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Ancient wisdom answers: Conflict stems from “</span><b><span style="color: #414141;">desire</span></b><span style="color: #414141;">,” a Greek word (</span><i><span style="color: #414141;">hedone)</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> from which we get our word “hedonism.” Hedonism is the belief that pleasure is the highest good. Taken to its extreme it is a relentless pursuit of personal pleasure without regard for others.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is nothing intrinsically wrong with pleasure. “Pleasures are shafts of glory,” C. S. Lewis said, intimations of God’s goodness and love, serendipitous occasions of his grace. Pleasures only become troublesome when they're snatched in the wrong way, or at the wrong time. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The worst of it comes when the pursuit of pleasure puts us in conflict with another human being similarly inclined. Two drivers converging on the last parking space at a crowded mall comes to mind. One or the other is thwarted, a frustration that can escalate into lethal rage. “You want something, but don’t get it, (so) you kill,” James writes. The unguarded pursuit of pleasure leads to terrifying violence. James does well to warn us.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">James’ solution is profoundly simple: When in the pursuit of pleasure you collide with someone pursuing his or her pleasure, rather than insist that your needs be met, stop, step back and “ask (God)." Bernard of Clairvaux wrote long ago, “What will you do if your needs are not met? Will you look to God to meet your needs? God promises that those who seek first the kingdom and his righteousness will have all things added to them” (from </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">On the Love of God</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">One proviso: We cannot dictate the time or terms of our satisfaction. It may be that God will give us what we desire straight away, or he will give it later. Or he may ask us to forgo the thing we sought, but give us the pleasure we sought apart from the thing we were seeking, for lasting peace and joy, of necessity, exist apart from natural causes.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Whatever, our Lord gives a “greater grace” (4:6), greater than any outcome we snatch on our own.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />1.31.22</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><br /></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-21390161412550410202022-01-20T13:57:00.008-07:002022-01-20T13:57:59.131-07:00Jacob’s Ladder<div data-en-clipboard="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []" margintop="14" style="margin-top: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jacob was on the lam, fleeing from Esau’s fury, and came to “no particular place,” as the Hebrew text suggests. As night was falling, he cleared a spot in the rubble-strewn ground, and found a flat rock on which to lay his head. He soon lapsed into a deep sleep in which he began to dream. In his dream Jacob saw a stairway, rising from the stone at his head, connecting heaven and earth.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The traditional ladder is such a favorite image it’s a shame to give it up, yet the picture of angels in ungainly apparel scrambling up and down the rungs of a ladder leaves much to be desired. The term usually translated “ladder” actually suggests a stairway or stone ramp like those that led to the top of ziggurats, the terraced pyramids raised to worship the gods of that era. The ziggurat with its steep stairway was a symbol of man’s efforts to plod his way up to God. It was hard work, but there was no other way to get help when you needed it (see Genesis 11:1–4).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">It’s odd how that pagan notion has found its way into our theology. Some early Christian writers used the ladder as an analogy for spiritual progress, tracing the steps of Christian faith from one stage to another, rising higher by self effort. Walter Hilton’s literary classic </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">The Ladder of Perfection </span></i><span style="color: #414141;">is based on that notion. The old camp-meeting song “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”draws on that association. And who can forget “Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin? In each case the emphasis is on the ascent of man.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">What caught Jacob’s attention, however, was the fact that God had </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">come down </span></i><span style="color: #414141;">the stairway and was standing next to him, for that’s the meaning of the preposition translated “above” in 28:13. (“And behold, the LORD stood </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">beside</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> him,” The same Hebrew word is translated “nearby” in Genesis 18:2 and “in front of,” in Genesis 45:1.)</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #414141;">God was standing beside him. </span></i><span style="color: #414141;">The God of Jacob’s father, Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham, was in this lonely place with him, contrary to Jacob’s expectations and far from the traditional holy places he normally associated with God’s presence. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it,” Jacob declared with wide-eyed, childlike astonishment. “This [place] is none other than the house of God.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">Jacob got the message, but God was taking no chances. He highlighted the picture with a promise that would sustain Jacob through the weary days ahead: “I am with you and will watch over you </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">wherever</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> you go . . . I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised” (Genesis 28:15).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">His promise is our promise as well. “God has said, ‘I will never leave you; I will never forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). He is present with you today—in the lonely place where you find yourself sequestered. Our Lord is with you every moment of every day. There is no moment when you are alone. You can say of every site and circumstance, “Surely the Lord is in </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">this</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> place.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">G. K. Chesterton was asked by a reporter what he would say if Jesus were standing beside him. “He is,” Chesterton replied with calm assurance.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper 1.19.22</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana;">Adapted from the chapter “Jacob’s Ladder” in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #414141;">The God Who Walks Beside Us</span></i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"> </span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-3030014319464196842022-01-20T13:50:00.006-07:002022-01-20T13:58:40.872-07:00Grace Upon Grace (Upon Grace)<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">He said to me, "What do you see?” I said, “I see a lamp stand of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace' to it!" (Zechariah 4:2–7).</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Zachariah envisioned a menorah with a receptacle at the top to catch the oil that dripped continuously from two olive trees that flanked it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"What is this?" Zechariah asked. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit." </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Zachariah was called to encourage Israel's governor Zerubbabel and those associated with him who were rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, a structure that the Babylonians had reduced to a "great mountain" of rubble. "Carry on," Zechariah insists, "for the Spirit of God is an indefatigable source of strength and energy."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Thus, in like manner, you and I can tackle mountains great and small, not by our own strength, but by the ever-present resources that flow from the Spirit of God. "if we burn steadily through the long dark hours, it is because we have learned to translate into living beauty those supplies of grace which we receive in fellowship with Jesus" (FB Meyer).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What mountain (or mountains) do you face this morning? A difficult encounter that looms before you? A relationship that has been reduced to rubble? A painful, sinful habit you've tried again and again to surmount? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So carry on. The Spirit of God is with you, an unfailing, ever-present source of grace. "For from his fullness [you have] received, grace upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, <i>ad infinitum</i>" (John 1:16). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">1.16.22</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-38334526411563341052022-01-03T11:25:00.002-07:002022-01-03T11:25:53.780-07:00 It’s Impossible! (Thoughts on the New Year)<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Thus <span style="color: #414141;">says the LORD of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets…’ Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'If it is marvelous (impossible) in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous (impossible) in my sight,' declares the LORD of hosts?’" (Zechariah. 8:4–6). </span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jerusalem had been reduced to a pile of rubble and yet, as Zechariah assured God’s people, the city would be built again: old men and women would gather in the parks and squares of the city to kvetch and kibitz; children would play in the streets. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Impossible," Zechariah's detractors muttered.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But we should never allow reason or common sense to tell us what God can or cannot do. He is the God of the impossible, the one who created perfect order (cosmos) out of primal chaos (Jeremiah 32:25). Nothing is impossible for him to do! (cf. Genesis 11:14; Job 42:2; Matthew 19:26).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">He can reclaim a life that is ruined beyond reclamation. He can find a prodigal that is irretrievably lost. He can soften a heart that has hardened into stone. He can heal a church that is beyond repair. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Indeed, "you will see greater things than this,” Jesus said (John 1:50). There is nothing that the LORD of Hosts cannot do! </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Got any rivers you think are impossible?</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">God specializes things thought impossible;</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And He can do what no other power can do.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="14" style="margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />1.2.22</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-51965856874441858922021-12-30T09:22:00.007-07:002021-12-30T09:27:25.590-07:00Looking Up<p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #414141;">"Poor little bird, you can't fly!" "No, but I can look up!" —George MacDonald</span></span></p><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD;In the morning I will direct it to You,And I will look up. —Psalm 5:3</span></span></i></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">For years my morning routine was the same: I completed my morning ablutions, snatched a cup of coffee and my iPad and got my news brief for the day. Then I settled in to meet the Lord.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">No longer. I'm learning—first thing—to "look up.”</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span>Looking out and about is unnerving: our world is circling down the drain. Pundits and prophets report the end of civilization as we know it and the scene on the ground confirms it. The world’s in a hand basket, as old folks say, </span></span><span style="color: #414141;">and we have a pretty good idea where it's going.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">Given the spin we're in, it's better to "look up," to lift up our voices first thing in the morning and "direct" our thoughts to the LORD; to take the worries off our minds, where they have no business being, and put them into his hands where they belong. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">And then, with hearts at rest we can sally forth to meet the day, or shelter safely at home.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">There's an old saying: “To make a beginning is the whole," and worship is the best way to begin. Perhaps I can do no more this year—my sphere of influence is small—but I can certainly do no better. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">David Roper</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-size: large;">1.19.20</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-59249479595038580242021-12-13T12:43:00.005-07:002021-12-13T12:43:46.101-07:00Nativity I<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> <span style="color: #414141;">An </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">ad hominem</span></i><span style="color: #414141;"> reaction is </span><span style="color: #202124;">an argument directed against a person rather than the position he or she is maintaining. It’s a logical fallacy.</span></span></p><div><span style="color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It was an argument that, on one occasion, was used against Jesus by the Pharisees, who, bested in a debate with him, turned and attacked his reputation: “Well at least we’re not born of fornication,” they sneered, with the implication: “As you were!” (John 8:41).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jesus’ contemporaries never understood his miraculous conception, nor, to be honest, do we.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">John Donne tried very hard to express the mystery and the wonder of it: </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Ere by the spheres time was created thou [Mary]Wast in his mind, who is thy Son, and Brother;Whom thou conceivest, conceived; yea, thou art nowThy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother,Thou wast light in dark and shut’st in little room<i>Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb.</i> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">No, we’ll never understand Jesus’ unique conception. All we can say is that once for a very specific purpose, Immensity was cloistered in a young woman’s womb.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #414141;">We can only hallow the day when, nine months later, ”the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward us </span><i><span style="color: #414141;">appeared</span></i><span style="color: #414141;">" (Titus 3:4).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div marginbottom="16" style="margin-bottom: 16px;"><span style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />12.12.21</span></span></div>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-22750165463471045222021-11-23T08:10:00.002-07:002021-12-30T09:23:59.563-07:00 Global Warming<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.” —Revelation 16:8-9</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I decided last summer to put an end to some of my questions about global warming and read a number of books and articles on both sides of the debate. Like that fabled poet, I "frequented doctor and saint, and heard great argument..."</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">First off, it does seem that the earth is warming though it’s impossible to know if this is a cycle, or a trend leading to an extinction event. Only time will tell. (It was somewhat comforting to learn that 2020 was a bit cooler than 2014.)</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Second, though we're putting more hydrocarbons into the atmosphere than in previous centuries, there's no evidence that these "greenhouse gasses" are necessarily the cause of global warming. That's a conclusion beyond science and the scientific method. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So, like that poet, I, unconvinced either way, "came out by the same door as in I went." </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But, though I'm agnostic about global warming, I have one certainty: God makes earth's weather. Global warming, if it exists, is not anthropogenic (man-created), as they say. God controls earth's environment and uses it to get our attention. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Whenever we're tempted to play God, he shows us we're not quite ready yet. Typhoons, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought, catastrophic floods, and out of control forest fires make it obvious who's running the show. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">11.19.21</span></p>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-13687675985733867892021-11-19T09:13:00.009-07:002021-11-19T09:15:06.351-07:00The Vine<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…” (John 15:1).</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jesus and his disciples were making their way through the Kidron Valley on their way to the Mount of Olives, passing through vineyards along the way. A simile sprang to Jesus’ mind: I am like a vine; my disciples are my branches; God, my Father, is the vigneron.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jesus introduces the analogy with what appears to be a stern warning: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he (the Father) takes away…” This, at least, is the way most versions render this verse.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I would suggest an alternate and more hopeful translation: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he lifts up from the ground.” </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The words translated “he takes away,” is one Greek verb that, in its fundamental sense, means “to lift (something) up.” (The early Latin versions of this verse translate the phrase with tollet, “he raises up.”)</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">In that culture vinedressers often found live branches that were firmly attached to the vine, but, having fallen off the treillage, were trailing in the dirt. First they took each leaf in hand and washed it down, wiping away the mud, mold and infestation. Then they “lifted it up” and attached the branch once again to the trellis, in fresh air and sunlight, away from vermin and grime.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So, Jesus assures us: Your Father will not “take you away” when you fall, even though you fall again and again. He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He will “lift you up” that you may bear fruit—indeed much fruit—once again (15:2,3).</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Mine is hope in my Redeemer</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Though I fall, his love is sure</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Christ has paid for every failing</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I am His forevermore —CityAlight</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">11.17.21</span></p>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-15656035229535153442021-11-16T12:07:00.009-07:002021-11-16T12:07:53.812-07:00Augustine and His Kin <p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf” (1 Corinthians 15:29).</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“I have no idea what this text means., Augustine wrote in a commentary on 1 Corinthians 15,and in reference to Paul’s phrase, “baptized on behalf of the dead."</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">To be Augustinian is to approach the scriptures with full awareness that we “know in part,” to never allow our certitude (how sure we are) to outstrip our certainty (how sure a thing is).</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">John Calvin, said, “Let this be our sacred rule: to seek to know nothing except what scripture teaches us; when the Lord closes his holy mouth, let us go no further.” Or, as Paul would say, let's not “go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6).</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I’m told that one evening after dinner at one of the Oxford colleges, a porter handed an English Lord his hat. “How did you know it was mine?” the Lord asked. “I didn’t,” the porter responded, “I just knew it was the one you came in with.”</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Bully for him: A steady refusal to go beyond the facts.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />
11.16.21</span></p>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-68476052972293328922021-11-10T10:57:00.002-07:002021-11-10T10:57:15.868-07:00Working Together With God<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="section-wrapper" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-synthesis: none; min-width: 100%; width: 737px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="font-synthesis: none;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="section-background" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-synthesis: none; min-width: 630px; width: 630px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="font-synthesis: none;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="section-content" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-synthesis: none; min-width: 630px; width: 630px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="font-synthesis: none;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="dm-text-block" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-synthesis: none; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-synthesis: none; line-height: 0px; width: 20px;" width="20"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></td><td align="left" style="font-synthesis: none;" valign="top"><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> <img height="93" src="https://d19cgyi5s8w5eh.cloudfront.net/usr/5323058f84059941cca1a758318fcd1c/img/8a80c91cc11a3fa49bac4f85f7ebf5baca155db2" style="border: 0px; line-height: 14px; outline: none;" width="140" /></span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"God reconciled us to himself throughChrist, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation… In this way, we are working together with God" (2Corinthians 5:18, 6:1). </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Imagine that you've been apprenticed to Michelangelo, the creative genius and celebrated Renaissance artist. You're a novice, but he has invited you to participate with him in painting "The Creation of Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Your assignment is to fill in a tiny portion of a fold in the drapery behind the form of the Creator. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So you work for hours, lying on your back on a rickety, wooden scaffold, 65 feet off the chapel floor, wet lime plaster falling on your face and irritating your eyes, knowing that no one on earth will acknowledge your contribution. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">But you will have added to the beauty of the whole.</span> The painting would be incomplete without you. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Paul makes a remarkable statement in the text above, one easily lost in the misplaced chapter heading: "So then, we are working together with God." </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">God alone has reconciled the world to himself in the Cross. Now he stands with arms wide open to receive all who will come. Yet, though he has done all to bring salvation to us, he has given you "the ministry of reconciliation," to those who come your way. The picture will be incomplete without you. </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"But, I'm old," you say—or a house-bound invalid, a hard-pressed mother, a weary care-giver, a retired pastor with time on his, or her hands. “I'm out of the picture. What part can I play?"</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">You can love and you can pray—mighty works as it happens, when you're working together with God.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />11.10.22</span></p></td><td style="font-size: 0px; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 0px; width: 20px;" width="20"> </td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" height="20" style="font-size: 20px; font-synthesis: none; height: 20px; line-height: 20px;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400724563323239687.post-91094300877279319672021-11-08T10:01:00.005-07:002021-11-08T10:02:18.125-07:00 Feed My Lambs<p><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="color: #414141; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my lambs…” (John 21:13)</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">In 1627, Samuel Rutherford penned a letter to Marion M'Naught, wife of William Fullerton, minister of a small Presbyterian church in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. Things were not going well for William, and he had few to "speak a good word" for him. He wanted God to "transplant" him to another place, perhaps a larger place where his gifts would be acknowledged and better utilized.</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Rutherford wrote, "All God's plants, set by His own hand, thrive well. Ask of God a submissive heart. Continue for the love of the Prince of your salvation, who is standing at the end of your way, holding up in His hand the prize and the garland to the race-runners. Your reward shall be with the Lord, although the people be not gathered (as the prophet speaks); and suppose the work do not prosper...you shall not lose your reward.”</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Though the people be not gathered, "continue for the love of the Prince of your salvation.” Shepherd His lambs. Teach, pray, listen to their bleating and love them. Do it because you love Jesus “who is standing at the end of your way, holding up in His hand the prize and the garland to the race-runners.” </span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Though “the work do not prosper...you shall not lose your reward.”</span></p><p style="color: #414141; font-synthesis: none; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 16px;"><span face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">David Roper<br />11.8.21</span></p>David Roperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09990151247190346091noreply@blogger.com0