Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

Psalm 17:6

The Psalmist was assured that anyone who calls on God will be heard.  We do not stand alone in a desolate place, we stand, rather, among those who have been snatched from this world and by the miracle of salvation are ushered into a new way of looking at life and all reality.  We know that God will hear us.  As his children, how could he do otherwise?  We are blessed beyond measure.

This is Sunday morning, we hope to be with our beloved congregation at Chestnut Hill Mennonite, the Charles home church for many years.  It is a precious place, a precious experience, to be with our family in Christ.  We are blessed beyond telling.  How they could love us through these many years is an indication of God’s goodness.  Thank you, Lord.

I go with a patch on my head, but with a song in my heart!

Thank you, Lord.

Rejoicing in hope. 

Romans 12:12

The New Testament writers emphasized the power of hope. This is not a concept I hear much about these days.   Come to think of it, when have I heard a sermon on the hope that believers cling to with all their might and heart?  Have we lost the urge to hope?  Do we just pretend that all we have is what we have, nothing more?  Any reflection on the writers of the New Testament point to the essential nature of hope.

Paul emphasized hope!  He went so far as to ask believers to rejoice in hope!  What happens when we longer hope?  I suppose it is the way most of us believers deal with the future and our place in it.  For Paul, a strong hope is essential for our walk of faith.  I need to revisit this urgency to hope!

Listen to Paul.  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)  Overflow with hope?  What does that mean?  Not just hoping a bit or when it looks like everything else fails but hoping because it is the essential urge of all believers.  Without hope, what does it mean to me to trust God?  This such an essential in our lives of faith that it is possible only by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Friend, let us recover the place of hope in our walk of faith.

Today Jane took Anna Ruth and me to Hershey Medical.  It was decided that I tend to my scalp and left ear.  That means the usual cutting and all that plus a recovery period of 5 days at Hershey.  This is all more than I anticipated but it is the only way.

The head wound will have an application of a skin graft that they will take from somewhere on my body… and some good rest.  The ear will have the unwanted part cut away.  I have great admiration for the staff there and am ready to submit myself to some changes in the next few weeks.  Anna Ruth and Jane take me about.  Glenn is behind us as well, but is at work just now.

Prayers are desired and appreciated.  This is all so new to me!  Things change, God’s love does not!!

Love Dad

For those of you who are in our circle of desiciples I just want to bring you up to date.  It is almost a week since they cleaned my scalp.  It is trying its best to heal.  Dr. Stoltzfus, our dear son-in-law tends me every afternoon when he gets home from the hosptial.

That all started a week ago.  Today they will do a scan of my head.  I know little about that.   But it is scheduled at 1:15 pm here in Lancaster.  Then next week I have follow-up appointments to deal what the dear people are finding!

All of this has to do with my cranial area that refuses to heal!  I think that is correct.  In any case, I need to go through several hoops to find out what next.

So, friend, pray with us that the healing hand of our Lord will be in it all, leading me on.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 

I Corinthians 12:12

Paul is explaining a marvelous reality, a body has many parts.  We take this for granted.  But taken into the spiritual realm it astounds us.  We human beings are so varied it is bewildering.  Each culture, of which there are many on the earth, find unity in Christ Jesus.

I am white, American, Protestant, somewhat educated, and all the rest.  I am amazed to know that I am one of many, many members in this spiritual body of Jesus Christ on the earth.  Yet I am a part of the living reality, the body of Christ.

I rest my soul on this truth.  The most wonderful body on the earth is that of Jesus who welcomes all to himself and shapes us into new communities of faith and hope.

On this Thursday morning I praise God, once again, for making it possible for me and Anna Ruth and all of us to be in the wonderful Body of Jesus Christ.  Our connection is real, astounding and life changing.

Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6 – 8

Christians have festivals!  This is the real Festival that is life indeed.

It is a bit strange for us who seldom think about leaven.  I just take it for granted that leaven is just fine.

For the Jews, their history is marked with eating the unleavened and leavened bread.  To begin their feast, they removed the old leaven that they had in their kitchens – a huge decision, to get rid of leaven that they have been using.

The sacred writer explains that the old bread that is the result of the old leaven is contaminated with malice and wickedness.  That must go!  Then they are required to bake new bread without any leaven at all, it is sincerity and truth.

However we read this, the Lord is urging us to live in the newness of life that Christ made possible for us.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Decided to stay at home today, having used some meds for the head, a challenge.  My pate is sensitive and sore.  Glenn, with his skilful Dr hands dressed my wound today.  That was a special joy for me because he knows my every mood, etc.  Thanks Glenn.  You are so good to me.

This week is when the medical people report on their findings and make some plans for where to go from here.  That will be in a week or so.  God knows and that is what really matters.

Hold me in your prayers if you care to.  I appreciate that.

Don with Anna Ruth

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

I Corinthians 6:11

I stand amazed at my position in Christ!  I am washed, sanctified and justified!  Can that be true, little me?  It is true!  It is all possible because of the love and power of the LORD Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  How blessed can we get?

As I read this text, I am amazed that God reached out to me, so to speak, and I now live in Him, have done so for many wonderful years.  So my heart sings with all the redeemed ones, “Thank you God!”

Today,  actually yesterday, was my day for work on my pate, residual cancer spot, etc.  My first appointment at Hershey Medical.  Glenn and Jane joined Anna Ruth and me for the appointment that was a bit drastic, in my mind, and quite hurtful. For one thing, they cleaned out the area, a frightful project, removing tissue, etc.  It was a rather long and painful time for me. I often just cringed and shuddered.  No fun.

In a week they should have all the test results in so that we can look into the future.  That is the next thing.  In the meanwhile I am taking Tylenol to keep the pate pain under check.  And just trying to get rest, not an easy prospect, indeed!  But we are working on it. I had been putting this process off but we are now into it.  So, do pray for me as I submit to what I need to experience to solve the issues I am facing. After all, I am 91!

As I ponder what is happening, I am touched by the love of those who are near to me, especially Anna Ruth.  I feel their support, that is for sure.  And, I know that I am in the hands of God, who loves me with eternal love.

They Hershey appointments were concluded – next stop Isaacs for lunch.  God is good.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.  Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 34:8, 9

I embrace this verse from Daily Light this morning.  I grasp with both hands the reality that the Lord is good.  I know that.  I have experienced that.  I have been blessed by that.  So, why should I doubt or waver?

It is God who is good, not me.  It is God who sees all from the beginning to the end.  So, the place for my mind and spirit to dwell this morning is on God, and on Him alone.

Tomorrow I face a medical appointment that is problematic.  I know that.  The last time I pushed my medical people to help me, they decided that there is little that they can do with my scalp.  I assume nothing has changed and I will get a similar reply. But who knows?  I pray and move forward.

At 91 years of age my demands are very simple.  The Lord is life, He is able, he is all-seeing, he is God Almighty!   So, soul, rest on that!

Those who fear him lack nothing.  Do I fear him, in the good way, like a loving son does his gracious father?  If so, I can rely on Him to fulfill all his promises to me.

Pray for me!  Thanks.