Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”   He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

Matthew 8:19 – 21

I come from a rather large family, 11 children!  I am number 9.  One thing is certain, as I look back, these people were like no one else, they were my bothers and sisters!  I did not choose them, but I had them and they were truly different from anyone else.  I had nothing to do with that.  My Father and my Mother had me and all the others.  We were made one by birth, not because of our selection.  Would I have chosen these 10 to be my brothers and sisters?  Never thought of that.  They just were!

Likewise, I am in the family of the Lord.  In this family my brothers and sisters are not of my choice, but of God’s decree.  Are they second class brothers and sisters?  In a way, but in a more significant way they are my siblings because I was born of the will of God, by his Spirit, as were they.  This is a most delightful gift of grace.  I have brothers and sisters all over this great world.  Praise the Lord!

Flickers startle us with their color patterns. Here one samples our sunflower seed.  We enjoy feeding the birds, that is for sure.  Never gets old!

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (My underlining.)

This is the day after our annual Thanksgiving Day.  For us, it was a family day, full of memories, good food and a central desire to be truly thankful.  This year our circle was a wee bit larger, if I remember correctly, all around Jane and Glenn’s laden table, food for the occasion, in the best of our family’s tradition. After a hearty, very familiar “God is great,” we shared the most delicious meal, prepared by loving hands.  It included cranberry sauce, turkey, goulash and much more, things that make such times great, and pleasingly memorable.

In the Lord’s Prayer we plead, “Give us today our daily bread.”  For bread, we surely give thanks, as we did yesterday.  But the heart of Jesus’ prayer comes later when he asks us to forgive others, several times.  In fact, the Lord’s Prayer has much more to say about forgiving others than for “giving thanks.”  We do need daily physical bread – food, shall we say – but to do the will of the Father we must be first and foremost “forgivers,” not eaters.

I have wondered at times what Jesus means when he warns of “temptation” in this context. Could it be that a huge temptation is to withhold forgiveness?  Even physical bread does not do its best work if we hold grudges, at least that is what I have heard.  Even our stomachs work best when we forgive others.

Maybe we should call this day, “Forgiveness Day.”  Jesus would certainly approve of that because that is what he taught always.

Pray without ceasing.  Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I Thessalonians 5:17, 18

A blessed and necessary word of God for me this morning.  Pray always in everything.  Not necessarily for everything.  Prayer helps to sort all that out.  In any case, we who are in Christ Jesus never stop praying.

Nor do we stop giving thanks.  Again, we read, in every circumstance, not for every  circumstance, necessarily.  Therefore, we can continue to praise God always, the goal of faith in our God.  He is always there, and we are in Him.  We never forget that because He never forgets us!

So, what is God’s will for me this morning?  To praise Him!  That is it!  Everyday is Thanksgiving, of course, but praise God for a day to think particularly on that!  Like now.

Our circumstances in life have ups and downs, but this should not keep us from praising and thanking God.  What a glorious way to live!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.   Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.

Psalm 139:13 – 18

These words of the Lord are taking on a new meaning for me as I realize that my blood count, etc., indicate that I will not be able to be the picture of health that I have been for these past 90 or so years, that the processes can be slowed some but there is no cure.  I am about to begin a process where my symptoms will be slowed some if I am understanding correctly.  My records over the past few years show a steady decline.  Now, needing a downward correction.

This Psalm is so precious to me just now.  What I am slowly discovering God knew from the beginning of my life. And what a life it is and has been!  He not only created and nurtured me, but he was there in every stage of my long, long life.  In no way could I even begin to describe how God sustained my physical health through the years, but he did.  While in my spirit, God kept me satisfied and believing.  That continues as weakening health issues are now the new way to walk.

So, as the Psalmist wrote, God’s thoughts to me are vast, outnumbering the grains of sand!  That is amazing!  My thoughts toward God are no less real and healing.

The time has come for setting up a regime to arrest the blood, etc., problems I have been carrying.  When I look at the list of things they are checking, my head spins.  It is all another language to me.  Oh, well.  Just so they know!

Today I have an appointment mid-day to begin to get started on a routine that I understand includes 7 shots (5 a day then skip Sat and Sun then two more – total 7).  This is to slow down the deterioration of my counts.  All in the Ephrata office – treatments, that is.  Anna Ruth and Jane will take me.

I do not even try to decipher the description of most illnesses or meds.  That is in the hands and minds of Dr. Amiga and others in the office.  All made it clear, if I feel that I cannot continue the shots for some reason or another, they want to know.  I hope things go well.  I pray so.

So, here we go.  This is the first attempt to interrupt the deterioration in my counts.  I sincerely hope that I can get on with the shots.  I will do my best to tolerate that.

You, dear reader, probably know a lot more than I about health issues like this.  So, your prayers and thoughts are what I need, and hope to receive.  Thanks much.

I will keep you in touch, especially if things go wrong.  Otherwise, remember this old man in prayer.   Thanks much.

Don

What more could I have done for My vineyard that I did not already do in it?  Why, when I waited for it to yield good grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

Isaiah 5:4

I read this sad word of Isaiah this morning and I found myself hoping that I do not produce sour grapes.  As I was growing up when something did not work out for one of us boys, we heard these words, “sour grapes.”  I had no idea where that phrase came from.  Here it is in Isaiah 5, where the author is greatly troubled, why after all the blessings from God, did the Children of Israel turn away from Him to follow strange deities?

I was created to bear sweet grapes to bless myself and others.  Behold, what do others get when they reach for a fruit in my tree?  Do they find a sweet, nourishing fruit there, or an attractive fruit that is in fact not sweet or nourishing at all, but bitter?  My bitterness coming through!

This breaks the heart of God. We hear God say, Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed.  Really!

Lord, purify me, make my fruit sweet and nourishing.

Our hearts were truly blessed as our friend, Paul Burkholder, entered the warm embrace of his Lord.  It was all very sudden.  He suffered a stroke from which he did not recover.  Paul was a brother in the Lord who blessed us beyond measure.

I recall, when moving to New York City in 1960, Paul and his dear wife Miriam were newly sent missionaries to that great city.  At the time I think there were several church planters sent by Eastern Mennonite Board to the City.  It was all very new.  Among them were Paul and Miriam.  We got to know them when we lived there, studying at NYU.

Paul, along with Glenn Zeager and John Kraybill, earned their living as taxi drivers.  So, they were more or less self-supporting.  I thought that to be quite admirable.  None of those workers had any special training for what they got into, so they did their best to support themselves.  I was impressed.  Anna Ruth and I were blessed as we got to know that amazing group of people, among whom were Paul and Miriam.  That was almost 58 years ago!

We kept in touch, sort of, through the years and felt a unity with the Burkholders because they embraced the message of revival that we also loved.

After many fruitful years of ministry, they moved to Landis Homes where we reconnected.  We joined hands in the ministry of revival and felt the life and blessing of Paul and Miriam.  Eventually Paul, who was a member of the Forest Hills Mennonite Church, got the blessing of the congregation to have our revival group to meet there on a quarterly basis, which we did for many years.

When Miriam went on to glory we felt a bit bereft but Paul pushed on and lived a fruitful life as a single man, giving a good deal of attention to his growing family, scattered far and wide.

If there was ever a man who rested absolutely in the arms of Jesus, it was Paul.  His love for his Lord gave meaning to his life, blessing many and encouraging all who desired a deeper life with Jesus.  He remains in my heart, a brother indeed.  I felt his love until his death, and after.  Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings I received as we shared life with Paul and Miriam.

As Winter closes in, our small fish ponds take on a different look.  The pin oak leaves from a tree at least fifty yards away love it here, obviously.  As they form on branches in the Spring, they are pure life.  Through the year they adsorb carbon dioxide and exude carbon monoxide.  Then as the winter season approaches, all is at rest.  Time for me to ponder and snap a picture or two.  Thank you, Lord, for this lovely revelation of your redeeming and renewing love.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. “

Isaiah 1:18

Yesterday, a week before Thanksgiving, we got our first snow of the season – about five inches.  Once again, I was amazed to see how a heavy blanket of snow, like this one, changes the landscape so much.  It covers everything.  Everything is white and fresh.  What is underneath is not seen, but the whiteness of the covering is startling.  Nothing changes the landscape quite like a snow like this.  The first snow of the season blesses me.  It reminds me of the grace of God whose light covers all sin in the life of a believer, like me.  The Bible speaks of this directly or indirectly over a hundred times.

As I recall from my Physics class, what appears to us as white is in fact not an absence of color but all colors together, producing the illusion that white is a single color when in fact it is all colors.  When the Bible, in dozens of passages, uses the image of snow it points to cleansing, purity, beauty and a host of other responses.

So, my mind focuses on this reminder of God’s saving grace in Jesus.  It reminds me that I am covered by this brilliant light that outshines all others, the light of Jesus Christ.  Lord, thank you.  When you see me, you see me cleansed and made pure white by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Savior.