January
Probable Holy Days for 2023
And You Shall Know by Cynthia Saladin
February
Waiting by Cynthia Saladin
Know How to Wait by Charles H. Spurgeon
March
If You’re Still Alive and Breathing by Cynthia Saladin
April
Pain, Suffering, and Death by Cynthia Saladin
May
Change by Cynthia Saladin
June
Bearing Fruit by Cynthia Saladin
July
Lessons from the Varmints by Cynthia Saladin
August
Open the Eyes of My Heart by Cynthia Saladin
A Matter of Devotion by Ron Saladin
Refreshing Sleep by Charles H. Spurgeon
September
Ricky and the Run Home by Ron Saladin
Purpose, Prepare, Produce, Present by Cynthia Saladin
October
In the Heart of a Friend by Cynthia Saladin
November
Christ on the Sabbath by Jeff Caldwell
God is With Us by Cynthia Saladin
December
Sandcastles in Our Lives by Bill Stough
Book Review: Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air by Jeff Caldwell and Lizé Drieman
I'll Follow With Rejoicing by Cynthia Saladin
January
Holy Days for 2023 (Probable)
🗓️ Tues, April 4th - Communion Service after sunset
🗓️ Wednesday, April 5th - Passover Day
🗓️ Thursday, April 6th - First Day of Unleavened Bread
🗓️ Wed, April 12th - Last Day of Unleavened Bread
🗓️ Sunday, May 28th - Pentecost
🗓️ Sunday, September 17th - Trumpets
🗓️ Tuesday, September 26th - Atonement
🗓️ Sunday, October 1st - Sabbath, October 7th - Feast of Tabernacles
🗓️ Sunday, October 8th - Eighth Day
And You Shall Know
by Cynthia Saladin
We’ve talked about repetition in the Bible. The phrase “verily, verily” is an assertion of truth. When God says something two or three times, we know that He’s emphasizing it for a reason. So have you ever counted how many times the phrase, “And you shall know that I am the LORD,” is found in the book of Ezekiel? Some form of it is found 50 times! That’s amazing. In Ezekiel chapters 6-7 alone, it’s found seven times!
These are chapters delineating the unrighteousness of the various nations (including God’s people) and the consequences incurred by their violence, disobedience, pride, arrogance, and overall iniquity. After God states the judgement which will come upon them, He says, “And you shall know that I am the LORD.” He is God; the idols are nothing. God’s laws are to be obeyed; He is the omnipotent Judge; He will be recognized as the only God.
But there is also an intimation that they didn’t know God; if they had truly known God, they wouldn’t have been doing the things they were doing. This same idea is in Hebrews 3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. An unbelieving heart causes disobedience of, and rebellion toward, God.
Unbelief, furthermore, caused a lack of miracles. Look at Matthew 13:58, And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Mark 6:6 records Jesus’ response: And he marveled because of their unbelief.
To say that this is not good is an understatement! That Jesus would marvel at the unbelief of the people is striking. He is, after all, the One who created mankind. You wouldn’t think that we could do anything that would surprise Him. But the unbelief of the people of His hometown amazed Him.
But we, the people of God today, we wouldn’t be guilty of unbelief. Would we? Take a look at this scripture:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)
It is not an accident that those witnesses are found in the preceding chapter - the Hall of Faith. These are the true believers who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:33-38)
These believers, this great cloud of witnesses, showed their faith through their deeds - regardless of whether it meant great victories over fire and lions and war or whether it meant suffering, pain, imprisonment, or death. They ran their race with endurance - because of their belief in our Great God, because of the hope set before them.
In a word, they knew God. Do you know the Lord your God like that? But really, more than us knowing God, we must be known of God (Galatians 4:9). We know how very important that is (Matthew 7:23)! So what do your actions say? Do you know God? Are you known of Him? Or do you have an evil heart of unbelief?
Final Thought:
A priest, a rabbit, and a minister walk into a bar.
The bartender asks the rabbit, "What'll you have?"
The rabbit says, "I don't know. I'm only here because of autocorrect."
February
👞 👠 🥾 👢 👟 🥿
Waiting . . .
by Cynthia Saladin
How much of your life do you spend waiting? We can hardly wait for spring . . . or for the Feast . . . or for the baby to be old enough to sleep through the night . . . or for the house to sell . . . or for Daddy to get home from work. We even have rooms especially designated for . . . waiting. Phrases about waiting pepper our lives: Wait for it! Wait! But wait! Wait for the beep! Money is waiting for you. Wait your turn. Wait just a minute. Wait until this ingredient is sautéed, blended, melted, transparent, charred (?) before adding this other ingredient to [the mess]. Even - waiting for the other shoe to drop. But there’s a problem.
We don’t like to wait.
So God has to teach us how to patiently wait. Psalm 37:7 says, Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! It’s hard to wait when we want to see justice carried out against someone who is doing wrong!! Unless we’re the wrong-doer! But even then, Isaiah 25:8-9 says, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
So we have to learn to completely trust that God’s got it sorted. Psalm 130:5 says, I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I like how the NIV puts it: my whole being waits. That’s the goal. It’s not 90% of my thoughts. It’s not mostly I wait and hope with a few occasional lapses. It’s full, complete waiting on God with all of my being.
How can you get to that place, that place where you not only patiently wait, but you quietly wait?
Habakkuk knew that Judah was going to be conquered and taken captive. He was dismayed and fearful, but he knew it wasn’t the end of the story. Habakkuk 3:16 says, I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
It’s trust - complete, unwavering, soul-comforting trust - that God is good, that God loves me, that God has my best interest at heart, that no matter what happens, God’s will is best. It’s the trust that Jehoshaphat exhibited in 2 Chronicles 20:12, when things looked dire: We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. God fought that battle for Jehoshaphat. He only had to stand still and see the deliverance of the LORD (2 Chronicles 20:17).
Our trust is experiential. The more we draw near to God, the more we seek Him, the more that we learn to love Him, trust Him, and wait upon Him. Eventually we want to get to the place where we can say, like David did in Psalm 34:8 (NKJV), Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
But I think there’s one more level. Once we’ve learned to patiently wait and quietly wait, God expects us to productively wait. What should we be doing while we’re waiting for His coming Kingdom? Occupy ’til I come. Luke 19:13. We’re supposed to be about God’s business, not just sitting around, waiting. So what then? Seeking His face (Psalm 27:8). Immersing ourselves in the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15). Praying (1 Thes. 5:17). Singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 1147:7). Producing fruit (John 15:2). Preaching the gospel in our actions (1 Peter 2:12). Encouraging one another (1 Thes. 5:11). Living a life of righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17).
Maybe, it’s a growth process of learning to trust God because we’ve sought His righteousness - and now we’re at peace. Isaiah 32:17 (NIV) says, The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
I’m not there yet. I’m not always still and peaceful. I’m still waiting. . .
👞 👠 🥾 👢 👟 🥿
Know How to Wait
by Charles H. Spurgeon
He that believeth shall not make haste ( Isaiah 28:16)
He shall make haste to keep the Lord's commandments; but he shall not make haste in any impatient or improper sense.
He shall not haste to run away, for he shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic. When others are flying hither and thither as if their wits had failed them, the believer shall be quiet, calm, and deliberate, and so shall be able to act wisely in the hour of trial.
He shall not haste in his expectations, craving his good things at once and on the spot; but he will wait God's time. Some are in a desperate hurry to have the bird in the hand; for they regard the Lord's promise as a bird in the bush, not likely to be theirs. Believers know how to wait.
He shall not haste by plunging into wrong or questionable action. Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing; but faith makes no more haste than good speed, and thus it is not forced to go back sorrowfully by the way which it followed heedlessly.
How is it with me? Am I believing, and am I therefore keeping to the believer's pace, which is walking with God? Peace, fluttering spirit! Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him! Heart, see that thou do this at once!
~reprinted from Blue Letter Bible: Faith's Checkbook, 11.29.22
Final Thoughts:
I've just written a song about tortillas; actually, it's more of a rap.
March
If You’re Still Alive and Breathing by Cynthia Saladin
After Ron and I concreted the potholes in our road, he set out cones so no one would drive through the wet concrete. A couple days later, I took Pepper in the pickup to retrieve the cones. Our next door neighbor was fixing fence right at that spot, so we visited for a while. Pepper was busy inspecting our work and other interesting smells while we were talking. After several minutes, I collected the cones, said good-bye to Dan, and called the dog. I didn’t see Pepper anywhere! But then I glanced down and he was standing quietly by my side. Dan laughed at me, calling for a dog who was close enough to touch. I just shook my head, thinking about how often we are surprised - because we are totally expecting something else. We fail to observe what is right in front of us.
Passover is coming. In fact, this is the preparation month for the New Year. When I saw the first quarter moon last night, I thought about how we’re seven weeks out from the spring holy days. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it really hard to read the gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. To realize that He suffered the betrayal, mocking, torture, and abandonment on my behalf grieves me deeply - even while I know it was the only way that I could be redeemed and reconciled to the Father, the only way I could be adopted into the family of God and have the hope of eternal life.
Over the past twelve weeks, I’ve read through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus four times (as I’ve been working on sabbath school materials for CEM). Each time, the lessons on betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter, the rejection, mocking, and crucifixion bring me to tears.
So as I was reading Matthew 28, I was caught by surprise. Kind of like Pepper standing right next to me, I wasn’t expecting to be hit so powerfully by the words of verse 8. The angel had just told the women that Jesus had risen from the dead. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
I could envision the women’s fear, having just seen the angel. What stopped me in my tracks was the phrase “great joy.” It’s not surprising, after all, because with what they had all just experienced, to be told that Jesus was alive? Oh their joy must have been extreme. I imagine the women carrying the spices and the burden of Jesus’ death - and all that falls away like shackles to lend wings to their feet as they run to tell the disciples the good news. Joy? Undeniably! Joy unspeakable!
Thinking of their joy, I thought of Jesus’ joy. Hebrews 12:2 says, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Similarly, it’s the mindset of the apostle Paul who, after having been stoned, scourged, left for dead, said (2 Cor. 4:17), “For these light and momentary troubles” - wow, really? These are light and momentary? He says, “For these light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all.” In comparison to the joy and the glory set before Paul, all of his troubles and sufferings were just “light and momentary troubles.”
I needed this perspective this morning. The cattlemen of western Nebraska have had such a hard winter that they’re almost out of hay. They think they can make it until April 1st, but there’s no hay to be had within 500 miles. They don’t know what they’re going to do. . . . A seventeen year-old just lost both legs in a horrific tragedy because justice is not swift and so there’s no deterrent to criminals. . . . Death, cancer, pain, suffering. . . . war, persecution, godlessness, government corruption. And it just keeps getting worse.
Jesus said we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33). Paul characterized his trouble as light and momentary. The passage in Hebrews exhorts us to run with endurance, to not grow weary or fainthearted, that in our struggle against sin we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)
We have the same joy set before us - a place where there is no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). We just need to persevere, fight the good fight, to overcome. It’s not just a matter of endurance, either, because as we persevere, we are lights in an ever-increasingly dark world - a world that doesn’t have the hope we have. If we are gloomy and downcast, they won’t want our hope. If we exhibit the peace and joy of knowing that God’s kingdom is waiting for us, that will speak volumes louder than any words could.
The funny thing about my whole thought process this morning is the song that I realized was playing in my head. It’s Matt Maher’s “Alive and Breathing:”
Joy still comes in the morning
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you're still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don't stop dancing and dreaming
There's still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord
Kinda like Pepper standing right by my side, here were the words I needed to hear today - almost taking me by surprise because I wasn’t focusing on them; I was thinking of all the trouble and pain and suffering. But really! This life is just temporary. In the light of eternity, these are light and momentary troubles. They are nothing compared with the eternal weight of glory that is ours in Jesus Christ.
I was left with this thought: Appropriate the words from Matthew 28:8 in your own life. Jesus is alive! Go spread the news with fear and great joy.
April
Pain, Suffering, and Death
by Cynthia Saladin
We don’t like death - unless it’s spiders and mosquitoes. We hate suffering. We avoid pain, like, well, the plague. We don’t even particularly like uncomfortable situations. So it’s no wonder the topic of the death of Jesus Christ is something we tend to keep at arm’s length. We grieve, I grieve, that it was my sin that caused his suffering and death. So the tendency is to consider Jesus’ death with our head, dispassionately, rather than our heart. It hurts less.
Because we want to avoid that pain, I wonder if that’s part of the reason God allows pain in our lives. We intensely miss family members who are no longer with us. We dread the passing of the ones we know are getting older and more frail. But a person usually lives 70+ years . . . until their warranty expires, as one septuagenarian quipped. But it’s the death of our pets (horses, cats, dogs, fish, chickens, bearded dragons) that hits us almost unexpectedly. When we take home a puppy, we don’t think about how quickly the next 10 - 15 years is going to fly by; we don’t want to consider how soon we’ll be dealing with the end stages of the life of a pet who shared so much joy and companionship with us.
But God allows it for our good. How do I know this? Consider the Passover lamb. It was chosen from the flock on the tenth day of the first month (Exodus 12:3). Once chosen, Ron Dart once opined that it was probably adopted into the family for the next 3-4 days - until the beginning of the 14th day of the month. Then they killed the lamb.
That lamb that they’d had their heart softened towards, developed a bond with, had a relationship with (if you will) would die at their hand - and not because of anything the lamb had done wrong. It was so that the blood would prevent the death of the firstborn - at least in the original Old Testament passover. Subsequent years, the lamb was killed as a reminder of being saved from the Death Angel. Regardless, the death of the Passover lamb pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for each one of us.
We can’t bring Jesus into our homes as if He were a lamb. But in these days leading up to the Passover, we should be spending more time considering all of the symbolism - allowing our hearts to be softened towards Jesus and the work He is doing in our lives; developing and deepening the bond that we have with our Messiah; strengthening that relationship. Jesus died for us - not because He’d done anything wrong. He was innocent! But He died that our sins might be forgiven, that we might be reconciled to the Father, and have the assurance of Eternal Life.
We know this. We talk about it. But do we truly know it enough, deeply in our hearts, to the point that it changes how we live our lives? Put in other words, does the suffering and death of Jesus Christ impact us enough that sin becomes anathema to us?! Do we strive with everything we are to make Godly choices, to avoid transgressing God’s law, and to show by these actions that we value deeply what Jesus did for us?
We can’t just let the Passover come and go each year as a theoretical, theological construct! It has to move us deeply. It has to resonate enough to create a change - a change in our heart and mind and lives, where we focus our attention and goals and desires.
Our family is suffering the death of our 15 year-old black lab. How I hate death! I long for the day when the last enemy, death, is thrown into the Lake of Fire! But I can’t help thinking that it’s no coincidence that she was nearing the end (and died) just as we are approaching Passover. And I am impressed again with the fact that Jesus’ death needs to be more painful to me than Velvet’s death is. He’s my Savior! I daren’t become so complacent (because I face it every year) that I fail to recognize its importance and pertinence and value.
So why does God allow suffering and death? I believe there are several answers to that. The short answer is that death is a consequence of sin. But God can use something bad for our good, even as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
And, it’s all part of the examination process that we must go through prior to taking the bread and the wine each year. We must recognize the enormity anew each year of what Jesus has done on our behalf. We must apprehend its significance to our lives and allow God to change us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ because of that understanding.
I hate death. I don’t eagerly embrace pain and suffering. But I am humbly grateful for the redemption Jesus achieved for me because of His suffering and death. It’s a good, if sobering, place to be as we go into the spring holy days . . because we observe Passover to proclaim the Lord’s death ’til He comes.
1 Peter 1:13-21 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
🌷🌷🌷May
Change
by Cynthia Saladin
You would think that “change” is a 4-letter word by the way that we react to it. To say that we don’t like change is akin to me saying that I don’t like heights. As my family well knows, heights immobilize me. I’m fine when I’m away from them, and I may even think that I’ll do fine the “next” time. But when we went to the Grand Canyon, I was petrified. Now granted, not all change affects us this way - just as not all heights bother me. I was absolutely fine in a hot air balloon. I am okay on lookout towers. But, put me in a position where I could easily envision myself falling and I’m a basket case. And that’s the crux of my fear.
So what is there about change which repels most people? We don’t like changing to something new because it’s unfamiliar and we have to work harder to adjust and become productive again. Think about getting a new computer or starting a new job. Until we regain our footing, we are uncomfortable, stressed, and perhaps fearful of the outcome. Nothing is guaranteed; the change may not prove to be beneficial in the end.
Some change comes whether we like it or not. Getting married is a big change. Thankfully, God has programmed us to want to be married because the learning curve is fairly steep; change and compromise is almost certainly a daily occurrence for a while after a wedding. Having a baby is another life event which necessitates changes that young parents likely never saw coming - like the eventual empty nest some two decades down the road. Getting older, with its associated aches and pains, is a change we all dislike and dread - especially when we see it happening to our loved ones. And amazingly, the age-associated changes almost catch us by surprise at times, although we rationally know it’s a part of life at this time.
Yes, we resist change. We prefer to be stuck in our rut. Look up photos of the Oregon Trail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Trail_Ruts). You can see what being stuck in your rut entails! There are still tracks across Wyoming, where the wagon wheels transversing over the rock eventually wore grooves. That wasn’t a bad thing up to a point, because they knew the trail led somewhere, they weren’t lost, there was water up ahead, there wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle if they stayed on this path. Obviously it was a good way to go: so many others had taken it that it’d worn a rut into the rock. But the problem became this: the ruts wore so deeply that once started onto that path, they couldn’t get out!
Hmmm! That sounds a whole lot like our carnal human nature. We are stuck in our rut with no way out. Even if we wanted to change, which we don’t like to do anyway, we couldn’t. It takes an act of God.
We like to sing, “Change my heart, O God,” but Psalm 51:10 indicates a more radical change when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God . . .” The change from a carnal nature to a godly nature is the metamorphosis spoken of in Romans 12:1-2. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), not just an improved version of our old selves. The change, then, must be drastic and total. There are no half caterpillar/half monarch butterflies running/crawling/flying around.
But perhaps there’s another aspect of change to consider. Henry Lyte wrote in “Abide With Me” these lyrics: “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.” There is no shadow of turning (James 1:17) within our God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Because He does not change, we are not consumed (Malachi 3:6). That’s very good!! He is patient and kind and long-suffering, wholly holy and righteous and just. And the more we spent time seeking Him and fellowshipping with Him, the more we experience His love and goodness - and the more we desire to be like Him.
God, in His goodness and love, has gifted us with His Son to start that process of being changed. But He has also gifted us with the Holy Spirit, which will lead us into all truth (John 16:13), which testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16), and empowers us to do God’s will (Acts 1:8).
“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart!” I love the opening line of this hymn! How true it is that godly change, although not easy or comfortable, is the very best thing for every individual! So as we’re counting down the days to Pentecost (and experiencing a myriad of changes in our physical lives along the way), may we embrace the spiritual change that God has designed for us in Jesus Christ. May we rejoice in being freed from slavery to sin and shame. May we change our perceptions of “change” to differentiate between change and decay that is part of our fallen world and the godly change which ensures eternal life with God beyond the vanishing point.
June
Bearing Fruit
by Cynthia Saladin
In John 15:16, Jesus told His disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
There’s something absolutely wonderful about fruit!! I don’t know that asparagus is fruit, but it is the first thing I harvest every spring. And it’s delicious! It also provides that little bit of encouragement I need to put in the work to eventually have more to harvest.
Planting, weeding, watering, and even harvesting is work. My strawberry and blueberry harvests are overlapping this year. Usually when the strawberries are done, I know that the blueberries will start. This year, we are picking cherries as well. I am loving having three different types of fruit to harvest all at the same time!
I have tomatoes set on and a green pepper that is almost ready to harvest. It’s fun and exciting and, as I said, it provides the encouragement I need to keep working.
But that’s not really the fruit Jesus was talking about in John 15:16.
Ron and I are experiencing the fruit of our labor in another area. All three of our children are married, or soon will be, to Godly spouses. Just as I put the work into the garden, Ron and I diligently worked as parents. But, in both cases (the garden and our kids), God gave the increase. We feel incredibly grateful to God for His goodness in providing the mates He did for our children.
But that’s not exactly the fruit Jesus was talking about in John 15:16.
The fruit that God wants us to produce comes from being connected to the vine. It is the natural outflowing when our lives are not only dedicated to His service, but are truly functioning within His will. (It has to be both because Jesus warned that there would be people who seek to kill His followers and think they do God a service. You can be dedicated and still be wrong.) So then, how do you know that you’re acting in His will?
Romans 12:1-2 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We want to discern the will of God. So first we have to be all in - present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Whatever He wants us to do, we will do. We may not get that right all the time, but we understand the concept. And we understand the next requirement too: do not be conformed to the world. I don’t know about you, but as I watch this world decay into more and more godlessness, I don’t want to be conformed to the world. It’s the next section which is the crux of the matter. We must be transformed. This is the Greek word from which we get metamorphosis. Paul gives us a vivid object lesson in using this word! Metamorphosis is the process by which a Monarch caterpillar goes into the cocoon and dissolves into a glob of muck, then reforms into a beautiful butterfly. We, who have been chosen by God, who have accepted Jesus as our Savior, and who have been baptized, are in that process now of being reformed into new creatures in Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Metamorphosis is a crucial part of knowing what God’s will is in our lives.
So look at this next phrase: that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. Ah! Here’s where our work begins. It’s not a good test if it’s not based on the very best information. That means you have to study God’s word, searching out guiding principles and eternal truths. Bible study, prayer, meditation - all of these vital components to testing, they all require time and careful attention. It’s work! Oh, but the reward is great! The fruit of devoting your life to diligently seeking God and His ways is finding what is good and acceptable and perfect.
There’s one other very vital component to this whole process of seeking God’s will in order to produce fruit: fellowship. We need one another! We need the encouragement of sharing God’s word and our hearts. We need the iron sharpening iron. We need the hugs and smiles. We, as social creatures, designed this way by God, need each other for our spiritual, mental, and physical health. This being so, the best way for a predator to take out one of the flock is to separate the victim from the rest. Don’t let the enemy separate you from your church family.
It’s like a line of dominoes. Fellowship is a vital component (as is prayer, fasting, and meditation) in testing and discerning God’s will for our lives. Being in God’s will is paramount in producing fruit that will last. And man, oh man, harvesting that fruit will be sweet!! It’s time to get to work.
July
Lessons from the Varmints
by Cynthia Saladin
In the wake of the death of our two labs, we have experienced the unexpected consequence of a whole lot more varmints attacking the garden. As if deer, raccoons, rabbits, birds, and squirrels weren’t enough, we’ve recently added ground hogs to the mix. Ron and I installed an electric fence with wire wrapped around the garden at three levels. And lest you think that would keep the critters from eating my garden, the lowest wire did not stop the box turtle from making his way into the patch to take a bite out of my first ripe tomato. That specific tomato plant had three layers of fencing around it and he still got through!
As I was walking back from relocating him to the pond, I was contemplating the attack on our garden by the critters this year, as well as the severe lack of rain, and now the extreme heat. Getting anything to grow, much less thrive, under these conditions is a lot of work - requiring determination and perseverance. Hmm. Working hard. Perseverance. Not giving up. Fighting the good fight. Staying the course. Working to produce fruit.
It seems like there’s a spiritual application here. In gardening terms, then, what fruit am I producing for the King? Am I being fruitful for His glory? Is there something to show for my existence? If I have been called into His service (aka accepted His Son as my Savior and now call myself a Christian), then I’d better be producing fruit. Not weeds. Not dry ground. Not barren bushes.
That’s going to require some work. (That’s a hyperbolic understatment!! ) O.K. What kind of work?
So what am I learning from this experience?
It’s amazing how God can use the physical elements in our lives to teach us spiritual truths!! So in gardening terms, regardless of what varmints, heat, weeds, and drought you are currently experiencing, stay the course, fight the good fight, and produce fruit for the King!
August
Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord
by Cynthia Saladin
I walked out early one day this week to rake grass. The dog and the cat decided to go along. The dog thinks it’s his duty to follow me around and protect me - even from turkey vultures who have invaded our air space. But I’m not quite sure about the cat. I don’t know why she goes along. That particular morning, I decided it was comic relief.
I had raked a pile of hay about four feet tall and had moved on down the field. When I heard the cat meow, I looked to see what she was doing because she’s normally a very quiet cat. She was surveying the pile of hay. Suddenly she sprang, I assume, to get on top of it for a better view of everything. But her spring landed her about two-thirds of the way up the pile. It honestly looked like a cartoon - with hay and cat legs all avalanching down. When she touched solid ground again, she rocketed to the tree line where she lay, her tail flipping back and forth, expressing her total disgust with the whole thing.
She probably didn’t appreciate my laughing.
I continued working, thinking about possible ways to relate what I’d just seen to something God might be teaching me. Maybe I am attempting something that has little profit and will not succeed. But that seemed like a reach. Perhaps it was just God’s way of giving me some amusement - and I continued raking hay.
Not too long later, I was tired enough that I decided to go pick blueberries; that’s a lot easier than raking hay into piles. I was in for a shock.
I had last picked blueberries four days earlier. I had about decided they weren’t worth picking this year. They are small and not so sweet. In the heat and the dry summer we’ve had, they just aren’t very good. But that was before we got four inches of rain!
The blueberries were twice as big as they had been and they were so sweet I decided to employ Christopher’s method of picking blueberries: one for the bucket, three for my mouth.
Then it hit me. The rain! The life-giving water is such a powerful illustration of the Living Water that we can only get from Jesus Christ. We need it, and Him, for thriving and producing fruit - good, desirable fruit. What we produce in our lives, apart from God, is filthy rags - kind of like the blueberries that weren’t worth picking. In contrast, the blueberries that responded to the water were very desirable and wonderful - just like the fruit we can produce for the glory of God when we’re seeking Him, relying on Him, following His ways, being obedient to His law. The difference is almost unbelievable!
And here’s the kicker! The rain which fell didn’t care if the blueberry bush was there. It didn’t impact the rain. Similarly, even though our obedience to God’s law affects God’s heart, it doesn’t impact any of God’s attributes, His holiness or character. God’s law is for our good; it’s totally for our benefit.
I had thought God was using the cat to teach me something that morning. But He just used her to get my attention. The blueberries and the rain were the object lesson. Praise God for His goodness.
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A Matter of Devotion
by Ron Saladin
The headline caught my eye: Smut-free love stories. I was curious, so I googled and found Amazon had dozens of titles for “clean” romance novels. Encouraging, I thought.
I’m not much of a fan of romance novels; I prefer action movies. Many years ago, my favorite was probably Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now that’s action, perseverance, and courage, and it’s riveting. Nevertheless, I came to stop going to movies for the most part and actually ended up throwing out the Raiders DVD, primarily due to Indy’s foul-mouthed co-star.
I’ve heard lots of profanity over the years. I grew up in a working class neighborhood of South St. Louis City. I sold newspapers as a kid on a corner a few feet away from the entrance to a tavern. I went to public schools and worked a while at a factory before being drafted into the army. Later I worked for almost 33 years in a blue collar trade with men who knew how to cuss proficiently. I’m no stranger to profanity of all sorts.
Nevertheless, I have come to refuse to voluntarily support any entertainment venues which refer disrespectfully or irreverently to God as is so often done in movies. I do not understand why Hollywood believes blasphemy is a necessary part of action movies. Does it make the hero appear stronger or more capable? Do we have to tolerate hearing God’s name taken in vain to realize a person is a really bad person? I don’t think so. Good acting can get that across, and who in their right mind would want to show disrespect toward God and have it recorded for all to see in a future judgment? A lot of intelligent people down through the centuries in many religions see future retribution as a logical reality; it might be wise for confident non-believers to hedge bets a bit. The God of the Bible says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (ESV, Exodus 20:7). Guilt has a way of holding on long after the money is gone.
I know I want no part in offending an eternal, all-powerful Being who is zealous of references to Him and promises a future reckoning. The Bible says the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Only a fool would argue with that.
There’s another reason, though, to forego financially supporting such movies. If a movie was crudely disrespecting my family or friends, I would not pay toward its success. I have an allegiance to the people I care about in my life. Should that not extend to my God? Why should professing Christians support such stuff?
I don’t know, but a friend suggested an answer. Those that do not care about God are more devoted to their beliefs than those who profess to care about God are devoted to their beliefs. Ouch. That stung a bit. I’m afraid I’ve been there. But maybe the times are a-changin’. Some movies seem to be experiencing a backlash against discarding historical moral values. Will adventure movies with strong heroes who honor God come back into vogue? Maybe. Sound of Freedom has done very well.
In the meantime, keep those smut-free romance novels coming. They just need a dinosaur or two, or something, to speed up the action.
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It was the beginning of term at a primary school in Brooklyn. The teacher asked the children their names one at a time, and for each to spell their name out loud. When she came to a young boy and asked his name…..
"Ravashanka Vankatarataam Bannerjee," he replied.
"How do you spell that?" asked the teacher.
"My mother helps me." said the little boy.
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Feast of Tabernacles
Plans for the Feast of Tabernacles are well under way. If you don’t know where to keep the Feast, there are lots of options available. Check out the list of some of them at http://www.feastgoer.org/feast23.html
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“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt
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Refreshing Sleep
Charles H. Spurgeon
So he giveth his beloved sleep ( Psalm 127:2 )
Ours is not a life of anxious care, but of happy faith. Our heavenly Father will supply the wants of His own children, and He knoweth what we have need of before we ask Him. We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour, and not wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive. If we have learned to rely upon our God we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the Lord, our meditation of Him shall be sweet, and He will give us refreshing sleep.
To be the Lord's beloved is the highest possible honor, and he who has it may feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therefore every selfish wish may go to sleep. What more is there even in Heaven than the love of God? Rest, then, O soul, for thou hast all things.
Yet we toss to and fro unless the Lord Himself gives us not only the reasons for rest, but rest itself. Yea, He doth this. Jesus Himself is our peace, our rest, our all. On His bosom we sleep in perfect security, both in life and in death.
~Reprinted from Blue Letter Bible,
Faith’s Checkbook, July 2, 2023
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Our seven-year-old daughter was thrilled when we took her to Disney World for the first time, and she headed straight for Space Mountain. I worried that the roller coaster would be too scary for her, but she insisted. To her delight, we rode it twice.
The next year we returned to Magic Kingdom, and my daughter, now eight, again dragged me to Space Mountain. As we stood in line, though, I could see her soberly studying the signs that warn about the ride's speed.
"Dad," she said, "I don't think I want to go."
I asked her why she would be nervous when she had enjoyed herself last time.
She replied, "This year I can read better!"
God calls us to place child like faith in Him. "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:15 (Collected from the Internet)
September
Ricky and the Run Home
by Ron Saladin
I attended grade school at Oak Hill. I remember the school was located on a bit of an elevation with large trees lining one side. Appropriately named, I guess.
Spring had arrived and the end of the school year was approaching. The gym teacher took us outside for a softball game. I was one of the captains, and we two captains took turns choosing our teams. More out of default than being chosen, Ricky ended up on my team. As I remember, he was a rather quiet and small of build boy.
When the time came, Ricky stepped up to the plate. We were encouraging but didn’t expect much. To our surprise, he swung hard and solidly connected, sending the ball into the outfield. The race was on, one chasing the ball and Ricky sprinting around the bases.
Ricky won and crossed the plate. He had hit a home run! It was a happy moment, at least for Ricky and our team. That changed very soon though. Our hero walked over to the bench, but something was wrong. Soon people crowded around him. An ambulance was called but to no avail. Ricky died.
Unknown to most of us there that day, Ricky had a heart defect. I seem to remember, for some reason he had not taken his medication that day.
The Bible reveals we who are descended from Adam all have a heart defect. It is an incurable problem no medication will heal. A total transplant is needed; a new heart needs to be generated.
Regeneration happens in a moment. Jesus defined that event in John 5:24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
However, passing from death into life does not automatically bring with it perfection. Those who actually have the faith Jesus described will be faced with decisions which frequently test their priorities as Christians. We can talk a good talk but what we place our time, efforts, and resources into demonstrates the depth of our commitment over the rest of our lives.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus identified several groups of believers, some produced 100 fold, some 60, some 30. Harvests do not happen overnight; a steadfast endurance is needed.
Another way of looking at this is running a race. Paul uses this analogy in 1 Corinthians 9:24,
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Obtain is translated from a Greek word which has in view here the idea of getting the prize with eager and vigorous effort, keeping focused on the finish line and the prize.
I’ve participated in a number of 10k races. I’m not a runner by nature, and none of the races were easy for me. It took determination to reach the finish line.
The finish line for us as Christians is on the other side of the death of the body. That seems like an unlikely goal to be running for with eagerness and great effort. But that is where Christ is. The destiny of the church is to be at home with Him forever.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:4-10
It would be good to approach the finish line with the conviction of Paul.
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Our captain knows us very personally.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16
God has selected His team; you are not there by default. The team of Christ has been appointed to produce and has been given the means to do so. We are called to step up to the opposition, to swing for the fences, to run with gusto the race before us, to produce something for the scorecard in spite of the opposition.
So . . . Whose team are you on?
Batter up.
Purpose, Prepare, Produce, Present
by Cynthia Saladin
Why are you here? What is your purpose? Do you feel God’s Spirit moving you to accomplish a task, to reach for a goal? If you’re a parent, you know that God has gifted you with the responsibility of rearing that child to know and love God. If you’re married because God has gifted you with a mate, you are ever growing in that union! And if you are a Christian, you know that God has called you to preach the gospel to the people around you - sometimes using words if you have to. But none of those purposes is easy . . . usually. They require work and time and effort and preparation, most of the time.
Preparation is necessary for a good outcome. If you want to have a good meal, some advance preparation is necessary. If you want a flourishing child, some preparation (including a good stock of diapers) is a very good idea. If you want to have a joyful wedding, you likely will put in months of preparation so that things will go as smoothly as possible. If you plan to preach the gospel (in word and deed), you’d better prepare.
Thoughtful purpose and intentional preparation usually directly affects what you produce. Without proper preparation, aka having all of the necessary ingredients, the chances of a successful meal production decreases drastically! Without serious purpose and extensive preparation, you will not (likely) produce a good test result on a major exam. Without good planning, construction of a house becomes more haphazard, more expensive, and much more of a headache.
If you live as a solitary hermit in a remote location, you could get away with a minimum of preparation. Who would there be to produce something for, except yourself? Presenting a delightful product would be practically pointless. While such solitude may seem somewhat appealing, it would soon lose its attractiveness, because it’s not really the purpose for which any of us were created. And physical meals are not really our focus either.
We were created for God’s pleasure. He expects us to do the task He’s set before us, to bloom where we’re planted, to produce fruit. And like that perfect meal, He expects the fruit production to be something delightful to behold. That is, we need to be producing fruit worth eating, so to speak.
So why are we considering this right now? Well, gardens are producing much fruit. The grape harvest is underway. Some of the harvest is wonderful; some of it is less than desirable. But as we’re bringing in the fruit of our labor from the garden, we’re thinking about the fall harvest festival, the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s the preparation month and we’re all busy making plans to go to the Feast. We’re ready to rejoice with our church family, church people we haven’t seen for a year or perhaps many years. We’re ready to feast, listen to messages, relax.
But.
Have you considered what fruit you are taking to present before the King? Wait. What? Sure. Deuteronomy 16:16 says that three times in the year the males are to appear before the LORD in the place that He would choose, and they are not to appear empty-handed. That kinda means you had better prepare to bring something worthy of giving the King. Oh and verse 17 says that we are to give an offering in proportion to the way the King has blessed us. Are your mental calculators going? Are you thinking about how to put a number on the blessings God has gifted you with this past year? Is that really the point? A monetary gift?
That’s good, but maybe He wants more: are you prepared to offer Him a living sacrifice? Are you coming before Him with growth - obvious growth - from where you were last year at the Feast? Have you found your purpose in seeking God with everything that you have and everything that you are so that you can produce fruit worth presenting to the King?
I don’t know what you have purposed in your heart to present to Him this Feast. I know that as I’m bringing in the harvest, I’m considering more than the physical fruit; I’m evaluating the spiritual fruit that I have to show for the past year. And I’m purposing in my heart to prepare in the coming year to produce a better harvest to present before Him.
Selah.
In the Heart of a Friend
by Cynthia Saladin
We had a very good Feast of Tabernacles, thoroughly worshipping God and rejoicing before Him with good messages, thought-provoking Bible studies, engaging worship music, beautiful hiking/exploring excursions, soul-thrilling baptisms, unexpected reconnections with friends, opportunities to forge new friendships, and the tangible presence of God. It is likely not coincidental that Psalm 133 is one of the last psalms of the Psalms of Ascent! (Pardon my understatement!) “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (133:1)
We are social creatures! When we’re at a feast site where the atmosphere fosters worship, rejoicing, and fellowship in
community, it’s balm to our souls!! We totally “get” the imagery of dwelling in a dry and weary land; the richness of the Feast of Tabernacles is a vivid contrast to what’s back home.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! That is, it doesn’t have to be just once a year when we are rejuvenated! Every Sabbath we have the opportunity to come together in community worship and to feel God filling our souls again through worship, Bible study, and fellowship.
Additionally, in this age of instant communication, we should be intentional to stay in contact with new friends and long-time friends. We need each other. We need the encouragement and exhortation from each other - and all the more as we see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). One song puts it this way: “We are pilgrims on a journey, fellow travelers on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.”
And here’s the kicker, you never know when a conversation will have a huge impact on someone, even if you deemed the words insignificant. Our great God knows exactly what we need, and, because He uses people sometimes to accomplish His goals, our chance encounters, conversations, and impulsive comments aren’t always as coincidental or unimportant as we might think. He can use each of us to “pour into” someone else His life-giving words.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem poignantly expresses this quite well:
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroken;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
The Feast of Tabernacles takes us out of our daily routines and environment. It eliminates the distractions of daily life. It immerses us in community, encouragement, peace, and love. It reminds us of the joy of fellowship. It gives us a taste of the family reunion to come - and leaves us hungering for more. Because you know how wonderful all of that is, you know it’s worth the effort it requires to taste it again and again in consistent small ways until we meet again next Feast.
P.S. Don’t be like cats: If cats could text you back, they wouldn’t.
November
Christ on the Sabbath
by Jeffrey Caldwell
Christ, in His earthly ministry, has much to say about the Sabbath. But Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept is the most neglected. Christ originated the Sabbath and certainly understands God’s holy purposes for its holiness (Genesis 2:2-3, John 1:1-3).
Jesus underscores God’s purpose for creating the Sabbath in telling us: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people” (Mark 2:27 NLT)! “God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy” and a day of rest as a commemoration of His completed “very good” creation of the heavens and the earth—to meet the needs of people. Furthermore, the Sabbath was declared holy “to meet the needs of people” before there was any sin and without reference to sin, as a gift of God to humanity for His holy purposes.
“God’s law was given [after sin commenced] so that all people could see how sinful they were” (Romans 5:20 NLT, my comment in brackets). It is sinful to fail to honor the holiness of the Sabbath and God’s holy purposes for it, but those holy purposes and that holiness originated BEFORE and without reference to the sinfulness that came afterwards.
The Sabbath is holy before sin. When people were in complete harmony with God there was no need for God to “command” them to keep it! Now that we have sinned, the Sabbath nevertheless remains holy “to meet the needs of people”! The Sabbath ever meets the needs of people: before sin, and after sin.
Given Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept, that “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people,” we can be sure it was honored as holy by Adam and Eve with God and by all the faithful servants of God whose lives are recorded in the Scriptures. The holiness of the weekly Sabbath was never rescinded or undone by God, regardless of the tradition of most of Christendom.
Christ never changes His mind about holiness: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! So, the weekly Sabbath is honored as holy, not only before and after sin throughout biblical times, but the weekly Sabbath is prophesied to be honored as holy by all humanity in much better times yet to come (Isaiah 66:23).
It is not Christ who teaches us to ignore and trample on the holiness of the weekly Sabbath. Nor does He characterize honoring its holiness—as HE intends it to be honored—as any sort of burden!
Christ’s teaching remains the same, whether Christendom listens or not: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! The holiness of God’s weekly Sabbath not only commemorates Creation, but it also celebrates the holy freedom God intends for His children (Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 5:15). The LORD’s instructions given in Leviticus 23 confirm the weekly Sabbath as “an official day for holy assembly” which Christ honored by example throughout His earthly life.
Christ, our Teacher, Judge and King, has not transferred the holiness of the seventh day of the week to the first, nor has God given it to any man nor group of men to do so.
May God give us more grace to let our devotion to CHRIST--and thus especially to HIS teaching--be pure and undivided!
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God Is With Us
by Cynthia Saladin
Listening to the radio the other day as I was running errands, I realized that every song I heard had some mention of God with us. Of course, even his name, Immanuel, means “God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). And the whole Bible is about God with us: us in Christ, Christ in us, our relationship with God. The covenant language is that we would be to God a people, and He would be to us our God (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:1; Ezekiel 36:28; Hosea 2:23; 1 Corinthians 6:16, etc.) It’s stated again in Hebrews 13:5, that God is with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us.
So why don’t I believe it? Why don’t I believe that God is always with me?
Why would I say that? Well, actions follow belief. If I truly, deeply, thoroughly believed that God is always with me, then I would not be anxious about the unexpected happenings I encounter. (Stress and concern is normal; undue anxiety and worry is unbelief.) From traffic delays to the dog breaking a duke claw nail, from injuries to current events, from financial considerations to even death. Don’t I believe that God is with me and has it all sorted?
I’ve been singing the song Kate introduced to me during the Feast in 2021, “Sleep in the Storm.” Read the words. “If it’s Your desire, lead me straight into the storm. . . . Teach me how to sleep in the storm.” To be at peace enough to sleep in the storm requires a confident, child-like trust that God’s in control for my good. And He wants me to absolutely believe that! Immanuel. God is with us.
So . . . how well do you sleep in the storm?
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December
Sandcastles in Our Lives
by Bill Stough
I stood on the Florida beach and looked admiringly at the sandcastles. These were very well done. One of them was a three-foot sized starfish that looked almost real. It was obvious that a great deal of effort had gone into constructing these sandcastles. The artist, who stood nearby, was a man of about thirty-five years of age. Not all sandcastles are made by children.
The unfortunate thing was that each morning of the next day the sandcastles were gone. Some were taken away by the waves during the night, some just fell apart because they dried out, and some were wrecked by a tractor which came by early each morning to smooth out the sand for people who would use the beach that day. I pondered about what we can learn from all of this.
Putting effort into things that will perish is what this world is all about. The great of this world are people with money and power. And what happens to that money or power when they die? It all goes away.
Adolf Hitler was a man who had massive power. He terrorized the world - including the people of Germany. The whole world stood in fear of Hitler, and those nations which were successful in their fight against him were nearly bankrupted by the effort. Yet Hitler died as all people do. What good does that power do him now? He built one of the most impressive sandcastles of the twentieth century, but that empire was destroyed even before he died. He shook the world, but now he is dead.
It reminds me of a scripture in Isaiah 14:16-20. (I realize this scripture does not apply specifically to Hitler. But it fits so many of this world’s tyrants!) Those who see you stare at you they ponder your fate. Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home? All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot you will not join them in burial for you have destroyed your land and killed your people.
A few seek power as Hitler did, but the most common way of building sandcastles in our society is striving for money. We are very materialistic, and many readers of this article are in that trap and don’t even know it. The comedian Jack Benny was told, “Jack you can’t take it with you.” His reply was “Then I’m not going.” Of course this was all a comedy routine, but Jack Benny did die and took no money with him. What are we striving for? What fills our minds more than we’d care to admit to others?
In the parable of the rich food in Luke 12:13-21 Jesus said, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (vs 15). How many people do we know who agree with Jesus on this? How many people by their actions show they disagree? What about us? What do our actions show? Are we in massive credit card debt because there are things we “must have” whether we can afford them or not? How many fights occur in our homes over money? Who says we must always have more and we must strive and worry if we don’t? Isn’t this life just a temporary mist that appears then just vanishes (James 4:14)?
Always remember that is all goes away when we die, but God has promised to provide for us now and give us eternal life if we seek the Kingdom and his righteousness first.
Even the great of this world find what they strive for goes away, sometimes even while they still live. One of the great explorers of the world was Christopher Columbus. It took great daring on his part to sail into unknown territory. He found a world he didn’t know was there. After his first voyage in 1492, he returned to Spain and was at the top of the world. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed Columbus an admiral and made him viceroy of all the territory he discovered. Yet he was a poor administrator and was arrested and taken back to Spain in chains after his third voyage. Columbus finally was released and sailed one more time, but nobody cared about him any more. He died only fourteen years after first landing in the new world. At his funeral no representative of the king followed his coffin. Ultimately, the new world was named America, not Columbia, after Amerigo Vespucci, another explorer who reached the new world after Columbus.
Surely trying to build anything lasting in this world is an illusion. We should not be distracted but instead look for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).
Some of the information in this article concerning Christopher Columbus was taken from The Voyage of Columbus Rex and Thea Rienits and Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison.
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Book Review
Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air (Dec 2022) is the finest book on dinosaurs I’ve ever seen. Page by page the brilliance of the writing and the quality of the information it presents blew me away. Reading it left me gushing with enthusiasm. It includes almost up-to-the minute discoveries besides being outstanding in its presentation of dinosaur (and other large extinct creatures) biology, and every chapter is footnoted with sources in the scientific literature, including “creationist” journals. It’s well-illustrated with excellent diagrams, photographs and other artwork. Though refreshingly from a “creationist” perspective, the genus profiles, for example, include conventional dating, so that it well serves dinosaur enthusiasts of any worldview. Sarfati, the lead author, is one of the most intellectually gifted of Christian apologists alive today; a chemist, he has published hundreds of papers both in mainstream and Christian scientific journals.
~Jeffrey A. Caldwell, Horticultural Consultant
Lizé’s evaluation of Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air:
1) I have read several books on dinosaurs and young earth from a Creationist point of view and this book says the same things. So that's good that it aligns with what they're saying.
2) I think the information is really thorough and detailed. I don't think it is really for elementary aged kids. In fact I lean more towards it being for high school kids, perhaps upper middle school. There's not enough colour/pictures for younger kids to engage with. Nor is there any hands-on type learning. It's just information. And lots of it.
3) I think it's one of the best dinosaur resources that is "all in one" book. The stuff I have from Answers in Genesis/Newleaf Publishing/Masterbooks Curriculum is good but I either have to get several books to get all this information, or theirs is black and white and less engaging.
4) The actual book itself- it is kind of heavy- if it was a book you wanted to hold and read aloud while kids look at the pictures, it would be rather cumbersome. But other than that I think it is fine.
5) It definitely feels textbookish more than coffee table resource, but like I said- it has a lot of great information all in one place and I like that a lot. I also like how many sources they site at the end of each chapter.
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I’ll Follow Him With Rejoicing
by Cynthia Saladin
It’s a wonderful thing to always have a song playing in my head. Today’s song is
The future lies unseen ahead, it holds I know not what;
But still I know I need not dread, for Jesus faileth not.
Doth he not know what I shall meet upon life’s rugged way?
Will he not guide my halting feet lest from the path I stray?
No matter how things look to me, nor if they threaten sore;
I know my way prepared shall be, for Christ leads on before.
The glory of eternal dawn shines from his smiling face;
So trusting him I follow on, with heart made strong by grace.
The chorus is:
I’ll follow him with rejoicing, with rejoicing, rejoicing;
I know he safely will lead me on to my eternal home.
I appreciated the words of this hymn encouraging me this morning! I don’t know about you, but I feel like we are under attack like we’ve never been before. Suicide and false accusations. Sickness and disease. The onward creep of age, change and decay. People all around us are struggling with so many things! And that’s not even considering the political morass in this country or the war in Israel or a society loosed from moral and ethical foundations. The imagery of the waves rising around Peter as he walked to Jesus becomes very personal; we are getting to experience just how easy it is to take our eyes off the Master and to become distracted by the things around us.
Praise God I have a song in my head to refocus my attention on Him. The future does lie unseen ahead. And I don’t know what it holds. But I am reassured by God that I don’t need to fear it. God’s still sovereign; Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33) I just need to trust Him.
Sometimes God knows that I need more than the song in my head, so He gave me a cat. Almost every morning I take the dog for a walk around the upper field. With few exceptions, the cat goes along. One morning, she was nowhere to be seen, so Pepper and I started off without her. About halfway around, I looked back across the field towards the house. There was the cat coming straight across the field towards me. This is not good. It’s a big brown field. She’s a little black cat. There’s nowhere she can hide. We have a lot of hawks and owls. This isn’t the cat’s first time outside in the real world; I could tell she was very nervous about crossing that open field. She would leap a few steps and then crouch down and look all around for a hawk or owl. But her desire to get to me was stronger than her fear and here she came. I walked to meet her because I am also fearful of an owl making her his lunch. As I did, I couldn’t help thinking about how important it is that my desire to be with God overcomes all of my fears about what’s going on in the world - personally, culturally, globally, or right in my own backyard. I need to just keep singing those songs and following Him with rejoicing.
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Final Thought: "Accept that life produces more relationships than you can nurture, [and] activities than you can keep up with.” - Dr. Henry Cloud
Probable Holy Days for 2023
And You Shall Know by Cynthia Saladin
February
Waiting by Cynthia Saladin
Know How to Wait by Charles H. Spurgeon
March
If You’re Still Alive and Breathing by Cynthia Saladin
April
Pain, Suffering, and Death by Cynthia Saladin
May
Change by Cynthia Saladin
June
Bearing Fruit by Cynthia Saladin
July
Lessons from the Varmints by Cynthia Saladin
August
Open the Eyes of My Heart by Cynthia Saladin
A Matter of Devotion by Ron Saladin
Refreshing Sleep by Charles H. Spurgeon
September
Ricky and the Run Home by Ron Saladin
Purpose, Prepare, Produce, Present by Cynthia Saladin
October
In the Heart of a Friend by Cynthia Saladin
November
Christ on the Sabbath by Jeff Caldwell
God is With Us by Cynthia Saladin
December
Sandcastles in Our Lives by Bill Stough
Book Review: Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air by Jeff Caldwell and Lizé Drieman
I'll Follow With Rejoicing by Cynthia Saladin
January
Holy Days for 2023 (Probable)
🗓️ Tues, April 4th - Communion Service after sunset
🗓️ Wednesday, April 5th - Passover Day
🗓️ Thursday, April 6th - First Day of Unleavened Bread
🗓️ Wed, April 12th - Last Day of Unleavened Bread
🗓️ Sunday, May 28th - Pentecost
🗓️ Sunday, September 17th - Trumpets
🗓️ Tuesday, September 26th - Atonement
🗓️ Sunday, October 1st - Sabbath, October 7th - Feast of Tabernacles
🗓️ Sunday, October 8th - Eighth Day
And You Shall Know
by Cynthia Saladin
We’ve talked about repetition in the Bible. The phrase “verily, verily” is an assertion of truth. When God says something two or three times, we know that He’s emphasizing it for a reason. So have you ever counted how many times the phrase, “And you shall know that I am the LORD,” is found in the book of Ezekiel? Some form of it is found 50 times! That’s amazing. In Ezekiel chapters 6-7 alone, it’s found seven times!
These are chapters delineating the unrighteousness of the various nations (including God’s people) and the consequences incurred by their violence, disobedience, pride, arrogance, and overall iniquity. After God states the judgement which will come upon them, He says, “And you shall know that I am the LORD.” He is God; the idols are nothing. God’s laws are to be obeyed; He is the omnipotent Judge; He will be recognized as the only God.
But there is also an intimation that they didn’t know God; if they had truly known God, they wouldn’t have been doing the things they were doing. This same idea is in Hebrews 3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. An unbelieving heart causes disobedience of, and rebellion toward, God.
Unbelief, furthermore, caused a lack of miracles. Look at Matthew 13:58, And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Mark 6:6 records Jesus’ response: And he marveled because of their unbelief.
To say that this is not good is an understatement! That Jesus would marvel at the unbelief of the people is striking. He is, after all, the One who created mankind. You wouldn’t think that we could do anything that would surprise Him. But the unbelief of the people of His hometown amazed Him.
But we, the people of God today, we wouldn’t be guilty of unbelief. Would we? Take a look at this scripture:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)
It is not an accident that those witnesses are found in the preceding chapter - the Hall of Faith. These are the true believers who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:33-38)
These believers, this great cloud of witnesses, showed their faith through their deeds - regardless of whether it meant great victories over fire and lions and war or whether it meant suffering, pain, imprisonment, or death. They ran their race with endurance - because of their belief in our Great God, because of the hope set before them.
In a word, they knew God. Do you know the Lord your God like that? But really, more than us knowing God, we must be known of God (Galatians 4:9). We know how very important that is (Matthew 7:23)! So what do your actions say? Do you know God? Are you known of Him? Or do you have an evil heart of unbelief?
Final Thought:
A priest, a rabbit, and a minister walk into a bar.
The bartender asks the rabbit, "What'll you have?"
The rabbit says, "I don't know. I'm only here because of autocorrect."
February
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Waiting . . .
by Cynthia Saladin
How much of your life do you spend waiting? We can hardly wait for spring . . . or for the Feast . . . or for the baby to be old enough to sleep through the night . . . or for the house to sell . . . or for Daddy to get home from work. We even have rooms especially designated for . . . waiting. Phrases about waiting pepper our lives: Wait for it! Wait! But wait! Wait for the beep! Money is waiting for you. Wait your turn. Wait just a minute. Wait until this ingredient is sautéed, blended, melted, transparent, charred (?) before adding this other ingredient to [the mess]. Even - waiting for the other shoe to drop. But there’s a problem.
We don’t like to wait.
So God has to teach us how to patiently wait. Psalm 37:7 says, Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! It’s hard to wait when we want to see justice carried out against someone who is doing wrong!! Unless we’re the wrong-doer! But even then, Isaiah 25:8-9 says, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
So we have to learn to completely trust that God’s got it sorted. Psalm 130:5 says, I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I like how the NIV puts it: my whole being waits. That’s the goal. It’s not 90% of my thoughts. It’s not mostly I wait and hope with a few occasional lapses. It’s full, complete waiting on God with all of my being.
How can you get to that place, that place where you not only patiently wait, but you quietly wait?
Habakkuk knew that Judah was going to be conquered and taken captive. He was dismayed and fearful, but he knew it wasn’t the end of the story. Habakkuk 3:16 says, I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
It’s trust - complete, unwavering, soul-comforting trust - that God is good, that God loves me, that God has my best interest at heart, that no matter what happens, God’s will is best. It’s the trust that Jehoshaphat exhibited in 2 Chronicles 20:12, when things looked dire: We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. God fought that battle for Jehoshaphat. He only had to stand still and see the deliverance of the LORD (2 Chronicles 20:17).
Our trust is experiential. The more we draw near to God, the more we seek Him, the more that we learn to love Him, trust Him, and wait upon Him. Eventually we want to get to the place where we can say, like David did in Psalm 34:8 (NKJV), Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
But I think there’s one more level. Once we’ve learned to patiently wait and quietly wait, God expects us to productively wait. What should we be doing while we’re waiting for His coming Kingdom? Occupy ’til I come. Luke 19:13. We’re supposed to be about God’s business, not just sitting around, waiting. So what then? Seeking His face (Psalm 27:8). Immersing ourselves in the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15). Praying (1 Thes. 5:17). Singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 1147:7). Producing fruit (John 15:2). Preaching the gospel in our actions (1 Peter 2:12). Encouraging one another (1 Thes. 5:11). Living a life of righteousness, peace, and joy (Romans 14:17).
Maybe, it’s a growth process of learning to trust God because we’ve sought His righteousness - and now we’re at peace. Isaiah 32:17 (NIV) says, The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
I’m not there yet. I’m not always still and peaceful. I’m still waiting. . .
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Know How to Wait
by Charles H. Spurgeon
He that believeth shall not make haste ( Isaiah 28:16)
He shall make haste to keep the Lord's commandments; but he shall not make haste in any impatient or improper sense.
He shall not haste to run away, for he shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic. When others are flying hither and thither as if their wits had failed them, the believer shall be quiet, calm, and deliberate, and so shall be able to act wisely in the hour of trial.
He shall not haste in his expectations, craving his good things at once and on the spot; but he will wait God's time. Some are in a desperate hurry to have the bird in the hand; for they regard the Lord's promise as a bird in the bush, not likely to be theirs. Believers know how to wait.
He shall not haste by plunging into wrong or questionable action. Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing; but faith makes no more haste than good speed, and thus it is not forced to go back sorrowfully by the way which it followed heedlessly.
How is it with me? Am I believing, and am I therefore keeping to the believer's pace, which is walking with God? Peace, fluttering spirit! Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him! Heart, see that thou do this at once!
~reprinted from Blue Letter Bible: Faith's Checkbook, 11.29.22
Final Thoughts:
I've just written a song about tortillas; actually, it's more of a rap.
March
If You’re Still Alive and Breathing by Cynthia Saladin
After Ron and I concreted the potholes in our road, he set out cones so no one would drive through the wet concrete. A couple days later, I took Pepper in the pickup to retrieve the cones. Our next door neighbor was fixing fence right at that spot, so we visited for a while. Pepper was busy inspecting our work and other interesting smells while we were talking. After several minutes, I collected the cones, said good-bye to Dan, and called the dog. I didn’t see Pepper anywhere! But then I glanced down and he was standing quietly by my side. Dan laughed at me, calling for a dog who was close enough to touch. I just shook my head, thinking about how often we are surprised - because we are totally expecting something else. We fail to observe what is right in front of us.
Passover is coming. In fact, this is the preparation month for the New Year. When I saw the first quarter moon last night, I thought about how we’re seven weeks out from the spring holy days. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it really hard to read the gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. To realize that He suffered the betrayal, mocking, torture, and abandonment on my behalf grieves me deeply - even while I know it was the only way that I could be redeemed and reconciled to the Father, the only way I could be adopted into the family of God and have the hope of eternal life.
Over the past twelve weeks, I’ve read through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus four times (as I’ve been working on sabbath school materials for CEM). Each time, the lessons on betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter, the rejection, mocking, and crucifixion bring me to tears.
So as I was reading Matthew 28, I was caught by surprise. Kind of like Pepper standing right next to me, I wasn’t expecting to be hit so powerfully by the words of verse 8. The angel had just told the women that Jesus had risen from the dead. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
I could envision the women’s fear, having just seen the angel. What stopped me in my tracks was the phrase “great joy.” It’s not surprising, after all, because with what they had all just experienced, to be told that Jesus was alive? Oh their joy must have been extreme. I imagine the women carrying the spices and the burden of Jesus’ death - and all that falls away like shackles to lend wings to their feet as they run to tell the disciples the good news. Joy? Undeniably! Joy unspeakable!
Thinking of their joy, I thought of Jesus’ joy. Hebrews 12:2 says, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Similarly, it’s the mindset of the apostle Paul who, after having been stoned, scourged, left for dead, said (2 Cor. 4:17), “For these light and momentary troubles” - wow, really? These are light and momentary? He says, “For these light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all.” In comparison to the joy and the glory set before Paul, all of his troubles and sufferings were just “light and momentary troubles.”
I needed this perspective this morning. The cattlemen of western Nebraska have had such a hard winter that they’re almost out of hay. They think they can make it until April 1st, but there’s no hay to be had within 500 miles. They don’t know what they’re going to do. . . . A seventeen year-old just lost both legs in a horrific tragedy because justice is not swift and so there’s no deterrent to criminals. . . . Death, cancer, pain, suffering. . . . war, persecution, godlessness, government corruption. And it just keeps getting worse.
Jesus said we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33). Paul characterized his trouble as light and momentary. The passage in Hebrews exhorts us to run with endurance, to not grow weary or fainthearted, that in our struggle against sin we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)
We have the same joy set before us - a place where there is no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). We just need to persevere, fight the good fight, to overcome. It’s not just a matter of endurance, either, because as we persevere, we are lights in an ever-increasingly dark world - a world that doesn’t have the hope we have. If we are gloomy and downcast, they won’t want our hope. If we exhibit the peace and joy of knowing that God’s kingdom is waiting for us, that will speak volumes louder than any words could.
The funny thing about my whole thought process this morning is the song that I realized was playing in my head. It’s Matt Maher’s “Alive and Breathing:”
Joy still comes in the morning
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you're still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don't stop dancing and dreaming
There's still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord
Kinda like Pepper standing right by my side, here were the words I needed to hear today - almost taking me by surprise because I wasn’t focusing on them; I was thinking of all the trouble and pain and suffering. But really! This life is just temporary. In the light of eternity, these are light and momentary troubles. They are nothing compared with the eternal weight of glory that is ours in Jesus Christ.
I was left with this thought: Appropriate the words from Matthew 28:8 in your own life. Jesus is alive! Go spread the news with fear and great joy.
April
Pain, Suffering, and Death
by Cynthia Saladin
We don’t like death - unless it’s spiders and mosquitoes. We hate suffering. We avoid pain, like, well, the plague. We don’t even particularly like uncomfortable situations. So it’s no wonder the topic of the death of Jesus Christ is something we tend to keep at arm’s length. We grieve, I grieve, that it was my sin that caused his suffering and death. So the tendency is to consider Jesus’ death with our head, dispassionately, rather than our heart. It hurts less.
Because we want to avoid that pain, I wonder if that’s part of the reason God allows pain in our lives. We intensely miss family members who are no longer with us. We dread the passing of the ones we know are getting older and more frail. But a person usually lives 70+ years . . . until their warranty expires, as one septuagenarian quipped. But it’s the death of our pets (horses, cats, dogs, fish, chickens, bearded dragons) that hits us almost unexpectedly. When we take home a puppy, we don’t think about how quickly the next 10 - 15 years is going to fly by; we don’t want to consider how soon we’ll be dealing with the end stages of the life of a pet who shared so much joy and companionship with us.
But God allows it for our good. How do I know this? Consider the Passover lamb. It was chosen from the flock on the tenth day of the first month (Exodus 12:3). Once chosen, Ron Dart once opined that it was probably adopted into the family for the next 3-4 days - until the beginning of the 14th day of the month. Then they killed the lamb.
That lamb that they’d had their heart softened towards, developed a bond with, had a relationship with (if you will) would die at their hand - and not because of anything the lamb had done wrong. It was so that the blood would prevent the death of the firstborn - at least in the original Old Testament passover. Subsequent years, the lamb was killed as a reminder of being saved from the Death Angel. Regardless, the death of the Passover lamb pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for each one of us.
We can’t bring Jesus into our homes as if He were a lamb. But in these days leading up to the Passover, we should be spending more time considering all of the symbolism - allowing our hearts to be softened towards Jesus and the work He is doing in our lives; developing and deepening the bond that we have with our Messiah; strengthening that relationship. Jesus died for us - not because He’d done anything wrong. He was innocent! But He died that our sins might be forgiven, that we might be reconciled to the Father, and have the assurance of Eternal Life.
We know this. We talk about it. But do we truly know it enough, deeply in our hearts, to the point that it changes how we live our lives? Put in other words, does the suffering and death of Jesus Christ impact us enough that sin becomes anathema to us?! Do we strive with everything we are to make Godly choices, to avoid transgressing God’s law, and to show by these actions that we value deeply what Jesus did for us?
We can’t just let the Passover come and go each year as a theoretical, theological construct! It has to move us deeply. It has to resonate enough to create a change - a change in our heart and mind and lives, where we focus our attention and goals and desires.
Our family is suffering the death of our 15 year-old black lab. How I hate death! I long for the day when the last enemy, death, is thrown into the Lake of Fire! But I can’t help thinking that it’s no coincidence that she was nearing the end (and died) just as we are approaching Passover. And I am impressed again with the fact that Jesus’ death needs to be more painful to me than Velvet’s death is. He’s my Savior! I daren’t become so complacent (because I face it every year) that I fail to recognize its importance and pertinence and value.
So why does God allow suffering and death? I believe there are several answers to that. The short answer is that death is a consequence of sin. But God can use something bad for our good, even as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
And, it’s all part of the examination process that we must go through prior to taking the bread and the wine each year. We must recognize the enormity anew each year of what Jesus has done on our behalf. We must apprehend its significance to our lives and allow God to change us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ because of that understanding.
I hate death. I don’t eagerly embrace pain and suffering. But I am humbly grateful for the redemption Jesus achieved for me because of His suffering and death. It’s a good, if sobering, place to be as we go into the spring holy days . . because we observe Passover to proclaim the Lord’s death ’til He comes.
1 Peter 1:13-21 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
🌷🌷🌷May
Change
by Cynthia Saladin
You would think that “change” is a 4-letter word by the way that we react to it. To say that we don’t like change is akin to me saying that I don’t like heights. As my family well knows, heights immobilize me. I’m fine when I’m away from them, and I may even think that I’ll do fine the “next” time. But when we went to the Grand Canyon, I was petrified. Now granted, not all change affects us this way - just as not all heights bother me. I was absolutely fine in a hot air balloon. I am okay on lookout towers. But, put me in a position where I could easily envision myself falling and I’m a basket case. And that’s the crux of my fear.
So what is there about change which repels most people? We don’t like changing to something new because it’s unfamiliar and we have to work harder to adjust and become productive again. Think about getting a new computer or starting a new job. Until we regain our footing, we are uncomfortable, stressed, and perhaps fearful of the outcome. Nothing is guaranteed; the change may not prove to be beneficial in the end.
Some change comes whether we like it or not. Getting married is a big change. Thankfully, God has programmed us to want to be married because the learning curve is fairly steep; change and compromise is almost certainly a daily occurrence for a while after a wedding. Having a baby is another life event which necessitates changes that young parents likely never saw coming - like the eventual empty nest some two decades down the road. Getting older, with its associated aches and pains, is a change we all dislike and dread - especially when we see it happening to our loved ones. And amazingly, the age-associated changes almost catch us by surprise at times, although we rationally know it’s a part of life at this time.
Yes, we resist change. We prefer to be stuck in our rut. Look up photos of the Oregon Trail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Trail_Ruts). You can see what being stuck in your rut entails! There are still tracks across Wyoming, where the wagon wheels transversing over the rock eventually wore grooves. That wasn’t a bad thing up to a point, because they knew the trail led somewhere, they weren’t lost, there was water up ahead, there wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle if they stayed on this path. Obviously it was a good way to go: so many others had taken it that it’d worn a rut into the rock. But the problem became this: the ruts wore so deeply that once started onto that path, they couldn’t get out!
Hmmm! That sounds a whole lot like our carnal human nature. We are stuck in our rut with no way out. Even if we wanted to change, which we don’t like to do anyway, we couldn’t. It takes an act of God.
We like to sing, “Change my heart, O God,” but Psalm 51:10 indicates a more radical change when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God . . .” The change from a carnal nature to a godly nature is the metamorphosis spoken of in Romans 12:1-2. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), not just an improved version of our old selves. The change, then, must be drastic and total. There are no half caterpillar/half monarch butterflies running/crawling/flying around.
But perhaps there’s another aspect of change to consider. Henry Lyte wrote in “Abide With Me” these lyrics: “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.” There is no shadow of turning (James 1:17) within our God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Because He does not change, we are not consumed (Malachi 3:6). That’s very good!! He is patient and kind and long-suffering, wholly holy and righteous and just. And the more we spent time seeking Him and fellowshipping with Him, the more we experience His love and goodness - and the more we desire to be like Him.
God, in His goodness and love, has gifted us with His Son to start that process of being changed. But He has also gifted us with the Holy Spirit, which will lead us into all truth (John 16:13), which testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16), and empowers us to do God’s will (Acts 1:8).
“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart!” I love the opening line of this hymn! How true it is that godly change, although not easy or comfortable, is the very best thing for every individual! So as we’re counting down the days to Pentecost (and experiencing a myriad of changes in our physical lives along the way), may we embrace the spiritual change that God has designed for us in Jesus Christ. May we rejoice in being freed from slavery to sin and shame. May we change our perceptions of “change” to differentiate between change and decay that is part of our fallen world and the godly change which ensures eternal life with God beyond the vanishing point.
June
Bearing Fruit
by Cynthia Saladin
In John 15:16, Jesus told His disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
There’s something absolutely wonderful about fruit!! I don’t know that asparagus is fruit, but it is the first thing I harvest every spring. And it’s delicious! It also provides that little bit of encouragement I need to put in the work to eventually have more to harvest.
Planting, weeding, watering, and even harvesting is work. My strawberry and blueberry harvests are overlapping this year. Usually when the strawberries are done, I know that the blueberries will start. This year, we are picking cherries as well. I am loving having three different types of fruit to harvest all at the same time!
I have tomatoes set on and a green pepper that is almost ready to harvest. It’s fun and exciting and, as I said, it provides the encouragement I need to keep working.
But that’s not really the fruit Jesus was talking about in John 15:16.
Ron and I are experiencing the fruit of our labor in another area. All three of our children are married, or soon will be, to Godly spouses. Just as I put the work into the garden, Ron and I diligently worked as parents. But, in both cases (the garden and our kids), God gave the increase. We feel incredibly grateful to God for His goodness in providing the mates He did for our children.
But that’s not exactly the fruit Jesus was talking about in John 15:16.
The fruit that God wants us to produce comes from being connected to the vine. It is the natural outflowing when our lives are not only dedicated to His service, but are truly functioning within His will. (It has to be both because Jesus warned that there would be people who seek to kill His followers and think they do God a service. You can be dedicated and still be wrong.) So then, how do you know that you’re acting in His will?
Romans 12:1-2 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We want to discern the will of God. So first we have to be all in - present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Whatever He wants us to do, we will do. We may not get that right all the time, but we understand the concept. And we understand the next requirement too: do not be conformed to the world. I don’t know about you, but as I watch this world decay into more and more godlessness, I don’t want to be conformed to the world. It’s the next section which is the crux of the matter. We must be transformed. This is the Greek word from which we get metamorphosis. Paul gives us a vivid object lesson in using this word! Metamorphosis is the process by which a Monarch caterpillar goes into the cocoon and dissolves into a glob of muck, then reforms into a beautiful butterfly. We, who have been chosen by God, who have accepted Jesus as our Savior, and who have been baptized, are in that process now of being reformed into new creatures in Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Metamorphosis is a crucial part of knowing what God’s will is in our lives.
So look at this next phrase: that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. Ah! Here’s where our work begins. It’s not a good test if it’s not based on the very best information. That means you have to study God’s word, searching out guiding principles and eternal truths. Bible study, prayer, meditation - all of these vital components to testing, they all require time and careful attention. It’s work! Oh, but the reward is great! The fruit of devoting your life to diligently seeking God and His ways is finding what is good and acceptable and perfect.
There’s one other very vital component to this whole process of seeking God’s will in order to produce fruit: fellowship. We need one another! We need the encouragement of sharing God’s word and our hearts. We need the iron sharpening iron. We need the hugs and smiles. We, as social creatures, designed this way by God, need each other for our spiritual, mental, and physical health. This being so, the best way for a predator to take out one of the flock is to separate the victim from the rest. Don’t let the enemy separate you from your church family.
It’s like a line of dominoes. Fellowship is a vital component (as is prayer, fasting, and meditation) in testing and discerning God’s will for our lives. Being in God’s will is paramount in producing fruit that will last. And man, oh man, harvesting that fruit will be sweet!! It’s time to get to work.
July
Lessons from the Varmints
by Cynthia Saladin
In the wake of the death of our two labs, we have experienced the unexpected consequence of a whole lot more varmints attacking the garden. As if deer, raccoons, rabbits, birds, and squirrels weren’t enough, we’ve recently added ground hogs to the mix. Ron and I installed an electric fence with wire wrapped around the garden at three levels. And lest you think that would keep the critters from eating my garden, the lowest wire did not stop the box turtle from making his way into the patch to take a bite out of my first ripe tomato. That specific tomato plant had three layers of fencing around it and he still got through!
As I was walking back from relocating him to the pond, I was contemplating the attack on our garden by the critters this year, as well as the severe lack of rain, and now the extreme heat. Getting anything to grow, much less thrive, under these conditions is a lot of work - requiring determination and perseverance. Hmm. Working hard. Perseverance. Not giving up. Fighting the good fight. Staying the course. Working to produce fruit.
It seems like there’s a spiritual application here. In gardening terms, then, what fruit am I producing for the King? Am I being fruitful for His glory? Is there something to show for my existence? If I have been called into His service (aka accepted His Son as my Savior and now call myself a Christian), then I’d better be producing fruit. Not weeds. Not dry ground. Not barren bushes.
That’s going to require some work. (That’s a hyperbolic understatment!! ) O.K. What kind of work?
- It means fighting against the weeds that would invade. Perhaps the weeds are symbolic of what grows in my life if I’m not truly centered on my Messiah - the stuff that makes me spiritually unfruitful and wastes my resources.
- It means hours of watering because otherwise the ground is dry. Perhaps that’s symbolic of the desperate need I have to stay grounded in God’s Word and to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in all things. Without the Living Water, no Godly fruit is going to grow and thrive.
- It means fighting against the bugs, the birds, the squirrels, the rabbits, the ground hogs, the raccoons, the deer, and the turtles who are not only eating the garden, they are destroying in their wake. Perhaps the varmints are symbolic of the attacks Satan throws against us 1) to see how determined we are to persevere, 2) to incite us to complain against God (after all, He made the critters), and 3) to dampen our joy in working to produce fruit for God. And perhaps there are so many different varmints to help me realize that Satan will attack from every angle he can. He’s relentless in his quest to not only derail me from being fruitful for God, but to also cause as much destruction and death as he possibly can.
- It means fighting against the heat. While we do need the heat, extreme heat will keep the plants from setting on fruit. Similarly, when trials and troubles are heating up our lives (aka in the midst of the fiery furnace of illness, financial stress, relationship tensions), we need to find our relief in relying on God.
So what am I learning from this experience?
- God doesn’t insulate His people from trouble just because they belong to Him. There are still lessons to be learned and determination to be fostered.
- If you think you have prepared for all of the attacks, just be aware that there may be something you haven’t considered yet.
- Mulching the garden with thick hay is still the best way to fight against weeds. It also keeps the water from evaporating too quickly and insulates against extreme heat. As the hay deteriorates, it provides nutrients to the soil. Hay is a much better cover than cardboard or paper or landscape material. Similarly, fellowship, prayer, and meditation provide the insulation we need, to help us retain the Living Water, provide encouragement, and fight temptation in the midst of trouble. There’s no good substitute.
- God provides what we need when we need it. One person gifted us a small tiller which Ron repaired - a perfect tool for me to keep the weeds out. But, it involved some work to make it useful. Another friend gifted us a solar electric fence. So while God didn’t miraculously eliminate the weeds or the varmints, He did provide the tools I need to deal with them. Spiritually-speaking, God provides what I need to deal with the attacks and the temptations in my life. I just need to use those tools.
- Ron and I have spent more time together this summer working on the garden. Working as a team to achieve a goal is always more productive. I’m reminded again that a cord of three strands is not easily broken, and two are better than one. God did not intend for us to go it alone. We need each other. In the same way, we need our church family to effectively produce Godly fruit for the King.
It’s amazing how God can use the physical elements in our lives to teach us spiritual truths!! So in gardening terms, regardless of what varmints, heat, weeds, and drought you are currently experiencing, stay the course, fight the good fight, and produce fruit for the King!
August
Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord
by Cynthia Saladin
I walked out early one day this week to rake grass. The dog and the cat decided to go along. The dog thinks it’s his duty to follow me around and protect me - even from turkey vultures who have invaded our air space. But I’m not quite sure about the cat. I don’t know why she goes along. That particular morning, I decided it was comic relief.
I had raked a pile of hay about four feet tall and had moved on down the field. When I heard the cat meow, I looked to see what she was doing because she’s normally a very quiet cat. She was surveying the pile of hay. Suddenly she sprang, I assume, to get on top of it for a better view of everything. But her spring landed her about two-thirds of the way up the pile. It honestly looked like a cartoon - with hay and cat legs all avalanching down. When she touched solid ground again, she rocketed to the tree line where she lay, her tail flipping back and forth, expressing her total disgust with the whole thing.
She probably didn’t appreciate my laughing.
I continued working, thinking about possible ways to relate what I’d just seen to something God might be teaching me. Maybe I am attempting something that has little profit and will not succeed. But that seemed like a reach. Perhaps it was just God’s way of giving me some amusement - and I continued raking hay.
Not too long later, I was tired enough that I decided to go pick blueberries; that’s a lot easier than raking hay into piles. I was in for a shock.
I had last picked blueberries four days earlier. I had about decided they weren’t worth picking this year. They are small and not so sweet. In the heat and the dry summer we’ve had, they just aren’t very good. But that was before we got four inches of rain!
The blueberries were twice as big as they had been and they were so sweet I decided to employ Christopher’s method of picking blueberries: one for the bucket, three for my mouth.
Then it hit me. The rain! The life-giving water is such a powerful illustration of the Living Water that we can only get from Jesus Christ. We need it, and Him, for thriving and producing fruit - good, desirable fruit. What we produce in our lives, apart from God, is filthy rags - kind of like the blueberries that weren’t worth picking. In contrast, the blueberries that responded to the water were very desirable and wonderful - just like the fruit we can produce for the glory of God when we’re seeking Him, relying on Him, following His ways, being obedient to His law. The difference is almost unbelievable!
And here’s the kicker! The rain which fell didn’t care if the blueberry bush was there. It didn’t impact the rain. Similarly, even though our obedience to God’s law affects God’s heart, it doesn’t impact any of God’s attributes, His holiness or character. God’s law is for our good; it’s totally for our benefit.
I had thought God was using the cat to teach me something that morning. But He just used her to get my attention. The blueberries and the rain were the object lesson. Praise God for His goodness.
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A Matter of Devotion
by Ron Saladin
The headline caught my eye: Smut-free love stories. I was curious, so I googled and found Amazon had dozens of titles for “clean” romance novels. Encouraging, I thought.
I’m not much of a fan of romance novels; I prefer action movies. Many years ago, my favorite was probably Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now that’s action, perseverance, and courage, and it’s riveting. Nevertheless, I came to stop going to movies for the most part and actually ended up throwing out the Raiders DVD, primarily due to Indy’s foul-mouthed co-star.
I’ve heard lots of profanity over the years. I grew up in a working class neighborhood of South St. Louis City. I sold newspapers as a kid on a corner a few feet away from the entrance to a tavern. I went to public schools and worked a while at a factory before being drafted into the army. Later I worked for almost 33 years in a blue collar trade with men who knew how to cuss proficiently. I’m no stranger to profanity of all sorts.
Nevertheless, I have come to refuse to voluntarily support any entertainment venues which refer disrespectfully or irreverently to God as is so often done in movies. I do not understand why Hollywood believes blasphemy is a necessary part of action movies. Does it make the hero appear stronger or more capable? Do we have to tolerate hearing God’s name taken in vain to realize a person is a really bad person? I don’t think so. Good acting can get that across, and who in their right mind would want to show disrespect toward God and have it recorded for all to see in a future judgment? A lot of intelligent people down through the centuries in many religions see future retribution as a logical reality; it might be wise for confident non-believers to hedge bets a bit. The God of the Bible says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (ESV, Exodus 20:7). Guilt has a way of holding on long after the money is gone.
I know I want no part in offending an eternal, all-powerful Being who is zealous of references to Him and promises a future reckoning. The Bible says the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Only a fool would argue with that.
There’s another reason, though, to forego financially supporting such movies. If a movie was crudely disrespecting my family or friends, I would not pay toward its success. I have an allegiance to the people I care about in my life. Should that not extend to my God? Why should professing Christians support such stuff?
I don’t know, but a friend suggested an answer. Those that do not care about God are more devoted to their beliefs than those who profess to care about God are devoted to their beliefs. Ouch. That stung a bit. I’m afraid I’ve been there. But maybe the times are a-changin’. Some movies seem to be experiencing a backlash against discarding historical moral values. Will adventure movies with strong heroes who honor God come back into vogue? Maybe. Sound of Freedom has done very well.
In the meantime, keep those smut-free romance novels coming. They just need a dinosaur or two, or something, to speed up the action.
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It was the beginning of term at a primary school in Brooklyn. The teacher asked the children their names one at a time, and for each to spell their name out loud. When she came to a young boy and asked his name…..
"Ravashanka Vankatarataam Bannerjee," he replied.
"How do you spell that?" asked the teacher.
"My mother helps me." said the little boy.
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Feast of Tabernacles
Plans for the Feast of Tabernacles are well under way. If you don’t know where to keep the Feast, there are lots of options available. Check out the list of some of them at http://www.feastgoer.org/feast23.html
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“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt
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Refreshing Sleep
Charles H. Spurgeon
So he giveth his beloved sleep ( Psalm 127:2 )
Ours is not a life of anxious care, but of happy faith. Our heavenly Father will supply the wants of His own children, and He knoweth what we have need of before we ask Him. We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour, and not wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive. If we have learned to rely upon our God we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the Lord, our meditation of Him shall be sweet, and He will give us refreshing sleep.
To be the Lord's beloved is the highest possible honor, and he who has it may feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therefore every selfish wish may go to sleep. What more is there even in Heaven than the love of God? Rest, then, O soul, for thou hast all things.
Yet we toss to and fro unless the Lord Himself gives us not only the reasons for rest, but rest itself. Yea, He doth this. Jesus Himself is our peace, our rest, our all. On His bosom we sleep in perfect security, both in life and in death.
~Reprinted from Blue Letter Bible,
Faith’s Checkbook, July 2, 2023
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Our seven-year-old daughter was thrilled when we took her to Disney World for the first time, and she headed straight for Space Mountain. I worried that the roller coaster would be too scary for her, but she insisted. To her delight, we rode it twice.
The next year we returned to Magic Kingdom, and my daughter, now eight, again dragged me to Space Mountain. As we stood in line, though, I could see her soberly studying the signs that warn about the ride's speed.
"Dad," she said, "I don't think I want to go."
I asked her why she would be nervous when she had enjoyed herself last time.
She replied, "This year I can read better!"
God calls us to place child like faith in Him. "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:15 (Collected from the Internet)
September
Ricky and the Run Home
by Ron Saladin
I attended grade school at Oak Hill. I remember the school was located on a bit of an elevation with large trees lining one side. Appropriately named, I guess.
Spring had arrived and the end of the school year was approaching. The gym teacher took us outside for a softball game. I was one of the captains, and we two captains took turns choosing our teams. More out of default than being chosen, Ricky ended up on my team. As I remember, he was a rather quiet and small of build boy.
When the time came, Ricky stepped up to the plate. We were encouraging but didn’t expect much. To our surprise, he swung hard and solidly connected, sending the ball into the outfield. The race was on, one chasing the ball and Ricky sprinting around the bases.
Ricky won and crossed the plate. He had hit a home run! It was a happy moment, at least for Ricky and our team. That changed very soon though. Our hero walked over to the bench, but something was wrong. Soon people crowded around him. An ambulance was called but to no avail. Ricky died.
Unknown to most of us there that day, Ricky had a heart defect. I seem to remember, for some reason he had not taken his medication that day.
The Bible reveals we who are descended from Adam all have a heart defect. It is an incurable problem no medication will heal. A total transplant is needed; a new heart needs to be generated.
Regeneration happens in a moment. Jesus defined that event in John 5:24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
However, passing from death into life does not automatically bring with it perfection. Those who actually have the faith Jesus described will be faced with decisions which frequently test their priorities as Christians. We can talk a good talk but what we place our time, efforts, and resources into demonstrates the depth of our commitment over the rest of our lives.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus identified several groups of believers, some produced 100 fold, some 60, some 30. Harvests do not happen overnight; a steadfast endurance is needed.
Another way of looking at this is running a race. Paul uses this analogy in 1 Corinthians 9:24,
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Obtain is translated from a Greek word which has in view here the idea of getting the prize with eager and vigorous effort, keeping focused on the finish line and the prize.
I’ve participated in a number of 10k races. I’m not a runner by nature, and none of the races were easy for me. It took determination to reach the finish line.
The finish line for us as Christians is on the other side of the death of the body. That seems like an unlikely goal to be running for with eagerness and great effort. But that is where Christ is. The destiny of the church is to be at home with Him forever.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:4-10
It would be good to approach the finish line with the conviction of Paul.
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Our captain knows us very personally.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16
God has selected His team; you are not there by default. The team of Christ has been appointed to produce and has been given the means to do so. We are called to step up to the opposition, to swing for the fences, to run with gusto the race before us, to produce something for the scorecard in spite of the opposition.
So . . . Whose team are you on?
Batter up.
Purpose, Prepare, Produce, Present
by Cynthia Saladin
Why are you here? What is your purpose? Do you feel God’s Spirit moving you to accomplish a task, to reach for a goal? If you’re a parent, you know that God has gifted you with the responsibility of rearing that child to know and love God. If you’re married because God has gifted you with a mate, you are ever growing in that union! And if you are a Christian, you know that God has called you to preach the gospel to the people around you - sometimes using words if you have to. But none of those purposes is easy . . . usually. They require work and time and effort and preparation, most of the time.
Preparation is necessary for a good outcome. If you want to have a good meal, some advance preparation is necessary. If you want a flourishing child, some preparation (including a good stock of diapers) is a very good idea. If you want to have a joyful wedding, you likely will put in months of preparation so that things will go as smoothly as possible. If you plan to preach the gospel (in word and deed), you’d better prepare.
Thoughtful purpose and intentional preparation usually directly affects what you produce. Without proper preparation, aka having all of the necessary ingredients, the chances of a successful meal production decreases drastically! Without serious purpose and extensive preparation, you will not (likely) produce a good test result on a major exam. Without good planning, construction of a house becomes more haphazard, more expensive, and much more of a headache.
If you live as a solitary hermit in a remote location, you could get away with a minimum of preparation. Who would there be to produce something for, except yourself? Presenting a delightful product would be practically pointless. While such solitude may seem somewhat appealing, it would soon lose its attractiveness, because it’s not really the purpose for which any of us were created. And physical meals are not really our focus either.
We were created for God’s pleasure. He expects us to do the task He’s set before us, to bloom where we’re planted, to produce fruit. And like that perfect meal, He expects the fruit production to be something delightful to behold. That is, we need to be producing fruit worth eating, so to speak.
So why are we considering this right now? Well, gardens are producing much fruit. The grape harvest is underway. Some of the harvest is wonderful; some of it is less than desirable. But as we’re bringing in the fruit of our labor from the garden, we’re thinking about the fall harvest festival, the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s the preparation month and we’re all busy making plans to go to the Feast. We’re ready to rejoice with our church family, church people we haven’t seen for a year or perhaps many years. We’re ready to feast, listen to messages, relax.
But.
Have you considered what fruit you are taking to present before the King? Wait. What? Sure. Deuteronomy 16:16 says that three times in the year the males are to appear before the LORD in the place that He would choose, and they are not to appear empty-handed. That kinda means you had better prepare to bring something worthy of giving the King. Oh and verse 17 says that we are to give an offering in proportion to the way the King has blessed us. Are your mental calculators going? Are you thinking about how to put a number on the blessings God has gifted you with this past year? Is that really the point? A monetary gift?
That’s good, but maybe He wants more: are you prepared to offer Him a living sacrifice? Are you coming before Him with growth - obvious growth - from where you were last year at the Feast? Have you found your purpose in seeking God with everything that you have and everything that you are so that you can produce fruit worth presenting to the King?
I don’t know what you have purposed in your heart to present to Him this Feast. I know that as I’m bringing in the harvest, I’m considering more than the physical fruit; I’m evaluating the spiritual fruit that I have to show for the past year. And I’m purposing in my heart to prepare in the coming year to produce a better harvest to present before Him.
Selah.
In the Heart of a Friend
by Cynthia Saladin
We had a very good Feast of Tabernacles, thoroughly worshipping God and rejoicing before Him with good messages, thought-provoking Bible studies, engaging worship music, beautiful hiking/exploring excursions, soul-thrilling baptisms, unexpected reconnections with friends, opportunities to forge new friendships, and the tangible presence of God. It is likely not coincidental that Psalm 133 is one of the last psalms of the Psalms of Ascent! (Pardon my understatement!) “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (133:1)
We are social creatures! When we’re at a feast site where the atmosphere fosters worship, rejoicing, and fellowship in
community, it’s balm to our souls!! We totally “get” the imagery of dwelling in a dry and weary land; the richness of the Feast of Tabernacles is a vivid contrast to what’s back home.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! That is, it doesn’t have to be just once a year when we are rejuvenated! Every Sabbath we have the opportunity to come together in community worship and to feel God filling our souls again through worship, Bible study, and fellowship.
Additionally, in this age of instant communication, we should be intentional to stay in contact with new friends and long-time friends. We need each other. We need the encouragement and exhortation from each other - and all the more as we see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). One song puts it this way: “We are pilgrims on a journey, fellow travelers on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.”
And here’s the kicker, you never know when a conversation will have a huge impact on someone, even if you deemed the words insignificant. Our great God knows exactly what we need, and, because He uses people sometimes to accomplish His goals, our chance encounters, conversations, and impulsive comments aren’t always as coincidental or unimportant as we might think. He can use each of us to “pour into” someone else His life-giving words.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem poignantly expresses this quite well:
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroken;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
The Feast of Tabernacles takes us out of our daily routines and environment. It eliminates the distractions of daily life. It immerses us in community, encouragement, peace, and love. It reminds us of the joy of fellowship. It gives us a taste of the family reunion to come - and leaves us hungering for more. Because you know how wonderful all of that is, you know it’s worth the effort it requires to taste it again and again in consistent small ways until we meet again next Feast.
P.S. Don’t be like cats: If cats could text you back, they wouldn’t.
November
Christ on the Sabbath
by Jeffrey Caldwell
Christ, in His earthly ministry, has much to say about the Sabbath. But Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept is the most neglected. Christ originated the Sabbath and certainly understands God’s holy purposes for its holiness (Genesis 2:2-3, John 1:1-3).
Jesus underscores God’s purpose for creating the Sabbath in telling us: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people” (Mark 2:27 NLT)! “God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy” and a day of rest as a commemoration of His completed “very good” creation of the heavens and the earth—to meet the needs of people. Furthermore, the Sabbath was declared holy “to meet the needs of people” before there was any sin and without reference to sin, as a gift of God to humanity for His holy purposes.
“God’s law was given [after sin commenced] so that all people could see how sinful they were” (Romans 5:20 NLT, my comment in brackets). It is sinful to fail to honor the holiness of the Sabbath and God’s holy purposes for it, but those holy purposes and that holiness originated BEFORE and without reference to the sinfulness that came afterwards.
The Sabbath is holy before sin. When people were in complete harmony with God there was no need for God to “command” them to keep it! Now that we have sinned, the Sabbath nevertheless remains holy “to meet the needs of people”! The Sabbath ever meets the needs of people: before sin, and after sin.
Given Christ’s most significant Sabbath precept, that “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people,” we can be sure it was honored as holy by Adam and Eve with God and by all the faithful servants of God whose lives are recorded in the Scriptures. The holiness of the weekly Sabbath was never rescinded or undone by God, regardless of the tradition of most of Christendom.
Christ never changes His mind about holiness: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! So, the weekly Sabbath is honored as holy, not only before and after sin throughout biblical times, but the weekly Sabbath is prophesied to be honored as holy by all humanity in much better times yet to come (Isaiah 66:23).
It is not Christ who teaches us to ignore and trample on the holiness of the weekly Sabbath. Nor does He characterize honoring its holiness—as HE intends it to be honored—as any sort of burden!
Christ’s teaching remains the same, whether Christendom listens or not: “the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people”! The holiness of God’s weekly Sabbath not only commemorates Creation, but it also celebrates the holy freedom God intends for His children (Exodus 20:11, Deuteronomy 5:15). The LORD’s instructions given in Leviticus 23 confirm the weekly Sabbath as “an official day for holy assembly” which Christ honored by example throughout His earthly life.
Christ, our Teacher, Judge and King, has not transferred the holiness of the seventh day of the week to the first, nor has God given it to any man nor group of men to do so.
May God give us more grace to let our devotion to CHRIST--and thus especially to HIS teaching--be pure and undivided!
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God Is With Us
by Cynthia Saladin
Listening to the radio the other day as I was running errands, I realized that every song I heard had some mention of God with us. Of course, even his name, Immanuel, means “God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). And the whole Bible is about God with us: us in Christ, Christ in us, our relationship with God. The covenant language is that we would be to God a people, and He would be to us our God (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:1; Ezekiel 36:28; Hosea 2:23; 1 Corinthians 6:16, etc.) It’s stated again in Hebrews 13:5, that God is with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us.
So why don’t I believe it? Why don’t I believe that God is always with me?
Why would I say that? Well, actions follow belief. If I truly, deeply, thoroughly believed that God is always with me, then I would not be anxious about the unexpected happenings I encounter. (Stress and concern is normal; undue anxiety and worry is unbelief.) From traffic delays to the dog breaking a duke claw nail, from injuries to current events, from financial considerations to even death. Don’t I believe that God is with me and has it all sorted?
I’ve been singing the song Kate introduced to me during the Feast in 2021, “Sleep in the Storm.” Read the words. “If it’s Your desire, lead me straight into the storm. . . . Teach me how to sleep in the storm.” To be at peace enough to sleep in the storm requires a confident, child-like trust that God’s in control for my good. And He wants me to absolutely believe that! Immanuel. God is with us.
So . . . how well do you sleep in the storm?
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December
Sandcastles in Our Lives
by Bill Stough
I stood on the Florida beach and looked admiringly at the sandcastles. These were very well done. One of them was a three-foot sized starfish that looked almost real. It was obvious that a great deal of effort had gone into constructing these sandcastles. The artist, who stood nearby, was a man of about thirty-five years of age. Not all sandcastles are made by children.
The unfortunate thing was that each morning of the next day the sandcastles were gone. Some were taken away by the waves during the night, some just fell apart because they dried out, and some were wrecked by a tractor which came by early each morning to smooth out the sand for people who would use the beach that day. I pondered about what we can learn from all of this.
Putting effort into things that will perish is what this world is all about. The great of this world are people with money and power. And what happens to that money or power when they die? It all goes away.
Adolf Hitler was a man who had massive power. He terrorized the world - including the people of Germany. The whole world stood in fear of Hitler, and those nations which were successful in their fight against him were nearly bankrupted by the effort. Yet Hitler died as all people do. What good does that power do him now? He built one of the most impressive sandcastles of the twentieth century, but that empire was destroyed even before he died. He shook the world, but now he is dead.
It reminds me of a scripture in Isaiah 14:16-20. (I realize this scripture does not apply specifically to Hitler. But it fits so many of this world’s tyrants!) Those who see you stare at you they ponder your fate. Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home? All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot you will not join them in burial for you have destroyed your land and killed your people.
A few seek power as Hitler did, but the most common way of building sandcastles in our society is striving for money. We are very materialistic, and many readers of this article are in that trap and don’t even know it. The comedian Jack Benny was told, “Jack you can’t take it with you.” His reply was “Then I’m not going.” Of course this was all a comedy routine, but Jack Benny did die and took no money with him. What are we striving for? What fills our minds more than we’d care to admit to others?
In the parable of the rich food in Luke 12:13-21 Jesus said, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (vs 15). How many people do we know who agree with Jesus on this? How many people by their actions show they disagree? What about us? What do our actions show? Are we in massive credit card debt because there are things we “must have” whether we can afford them or not? How many fights occur in our homes over money? Who says we must always have more and we must strive and worry if we don’t? Isn’t this life just a temporary mist that appears then just vanishes (James 4:14)?
Always remember that is all goes away when we die, but God has promised to provide for us now and give us eternal life if we seek the Kingdom and his righteousness first.
Even the great of this world find what they strive for goes away, sometimes even while they still live. One of the great explorers of the world was Christopher Columbus. It took great daring on his part to sail into unknown territory. He found a world he didn’t know was there. After his first voyage in 1492, he returned to Spain and was at the top of the world. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed Columbus an admiral and made him viceroy of all the territory he discovered. Yet he was a poor administrator and was arrested and taken back to Spain in chains after his third voyage. Columbus finally was released and sailed one more time, but nobody cared about him any more. He died only fourteen years after first landing in the new world. At his funeral no representative of the king followed his coffin. Ultimately, the new world was named America, not Columbia, after Amerigo Vespucci, another explorer who reached the new world after Columbus.
Surely trying to build anything lasting in this world is an illusion. We should not be distracted but instead look for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).
Some of the information in this article concerning Christopher Columbus was taken from The Voyage of Columbus Rex and Thea Rienits and Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison.
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Book Review
Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air (Dec 2022) is the finest book on dinosaurs I’ve ever seen. Page by page the brilliance of the writing and the quality of the information it presents blew me away. Reading it left me gushing with enthusiasm. It includes almost up-to-the minute discoveries besides being outstanding in its presentation of dinosaur (and other large extinct creatures) biology, and every chapter is footnoted with sources in the scientific literature, including “creationist” journals. It’s well-illustrated with excellent diagrams, photographs and other artwork. Though refreshingly from a “creationist” perspective, the genus profiles, for example, include conventional dating, so that it well serves dinosaur enthusiasts of any worldview. Sarfati, the lead author, is one of the most intellectually gifted of Christian apologists alive today; a chemist, he has published hundreds of papers both in mainstream and Christian scientific journals.
~Jeffrey A. Caldwell, Horticultural Consultant
Lizé’s evaluation of Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air:
1) I have read several books on dinosaurs and young earth from a Creationist point of view and this book says the same things. So that's good that it aligns with what they're saying.
2) I think the information is really thorough and detailed. I don't think it is really for elementary aged kids. In fact I lean more towards it being for high school kids, perhaps upper middle school. There's not enough colour/pictures for younger kids to engage with. Nor is there any hands-on type learning. It's just information. And lots of it.
3) I think it's one of the best dinosaur resources that is "all in one" book. The stuff I have from Answers in Genesis/Newleaf Publishing/Masterbooks Curriculum is good but I either have to get several books to get all this information, or theirs is black and white and less engaging.
4) The actual book itself- it is kind of heavy- if it was a book you wanted to hold and read aloud while kids look at the pictures, it would be rather cumbersome. But other than that I think it is fine.
5) It definitely feels textbookish more than coffee table resource, but like I said- it has a lot of great information all in one place and I like that a lot. I also like how many sources they site at the end of each chapter.
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I’ll Follow Him With Rejoicing
by Cynthia Saladin
It’s a wonderful thing to always have a song playing in my head. Today’s song is
The future lies unseen ahead, it holds I know not what;
But still I know I need not dread, for Jesus faileth not.
Doth he not know what I shall meet upon life’s rugged way?
Will he not guide my halting feet lest from the path I stray?
No matter how things look to me, nor if they threaten sore;
I know my way prepared shall be, for Christ leads on before.
The glory of eternal dawn shines from his smiling face;
So trusting him I follow on, with heart made strong by grace.
The chorus is:
I’ll follow him with rejoicing, with rejoicing, rejoicing;
I know he safely will lead me on to my eternal home.
I appreciated the words of this hymn encouraging me this morning! I don’t know about you, but I feel like we are under attack like we’ve never been before. Suicide and false accusations. Sickness and disease. The onward creep of age, change and decay. People all around us are struggling with so many things! And that’s not even considering the political morass in this country or the war in Israel or a society loosed from moral and ethical foundations. The imagery of the waves rising around Peter as he walked to Jesus becomes very personal; we are getting to experience just how easy it is to take our eyes off the Master and to become distracted by the things around us.
Praise God I have a song in my head to refocus my attention on Him. The future does lie unseen ahead. And I don’t know what it holds. But I am reassured by God that I don’t need to fear it. God’s still sovereign; Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33) I just need to trust Him.
Sometimes God knows that I need more than the song in my head, so He gave me a cat. Almost every morning I take the dog for a walk around the upper field. With few exceptions, the cat goes along. One morning, she was nowhere to be seen, so Pepper and I started off without her. About halfway around, I looked back across the field towards the house. There was the cat coming straight across the field towards me. This is not good. It’s a big brown field. She’s a little black cat. There’s nowhere she can hide. We have a lot of hawks and owls. This isn’t the cat’s first time outside in the real world; I could tell she was very nervous about crossing that open field. She would leap a few steps and then crouch down and look all around for a hawk or owl. But her desire to get to me was stronger than her fear and here she came. I walked to meet her because I am also fearful of an owl making her his lunch. As I did, I couldn’t help thinking about how important it is that my desire to be with God overcomes all of my fears about what’s going on in the world - personally, culturally, globally, or right in my own backyard. I need to just keep singing those songs and following Him with rejoicing.
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Final Thought: "Accept that life produces more relationships than you can nurture, [and] activities than you can keep up with.” - Dr. Henry Cloud
