Mission Faithwalk

When it snows, she has no fear for her household;  for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple (Proverbs 31:21-22)            These verses have confused me for a long time. I never understood why the noble wi fe had no fear of snow because her household was clothed in scarlet. What does the color of one's clothes have to do with keeping warm? What does her wearing fine linen and purple have to do with being a noble wife?            Apparently, the term used for "scarlet" can also mean "two cloaks." Effectively, she makes sure that her family is warmly dressed and can sleep in a warm bed. She sees to the comfort of those who are under her care. Like the other descriptions we've considered recently, this is a characteristic most of us would like to see in the people in our lives.                In addition to seeing to the comfort of her family, she maintains her own level of comf

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls....She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy" (Proverbs 31:15 & 20).               What comes to mind when you wake up before it's light or before the alarm clock goes off? OK, what come to mind after "bathroom"? Recently for me the thought both before I fall asleep and when I wake up is a plea that the day following my waking will be finally be the one in which I live according to God's will. This thought sounds good, spiritual and impressive, but it's not. It's my perfectionism rearing its ugly head. I want today to be the day when I get it so right that I don't need grace. No, I don't say that even to myself, but that's what it would take.             Lemuel's mother advised him to choose a wife who has her priorities straight. This is equally good advice in choosing husbands, friends, and even

          At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”             Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (I Kings 3:5-9)             This month's Readers' Reflections in the Faith section of the Times News paper included this question: If God offered me anything I

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. (Proverbs 31:13-19)        Are you busy? The sort of wife Lemuel's mother advised him to find was a busy lady. She was the head of a diversified corporation. While its main focus seemed to have been textiles, she also dealt in real estate, agriculture and import/export. She knew her stuff and took care of business and her businesses were typical activities for that time period. It's exhausting just reading about her day.             I know some people who fit this description. Some of them have more than one job. Some are stay-at-home mothers who are developing

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.   She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:10-12)               Yesterday, I wrote about Solomon's advice to his son. Today, we're starting to look at a woman's advice to her son. Some women complain that this chapter demands too much of women. I disagree. Like yesterday, the advice is equally applicable to a daughter. Both a wife and a husband of noble character is hard to find . Both are treasures.             Can you imagine   having someone in your life who completely trusts you...with good reason? Someone who values things that are important to you? Someone who doesn't use you? Someone who does good for you, daily, all her/his life? What would it be like to be in a relationship in which the other person considers you and your relationship a priority? Any relationship with any person would b

For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? (Proverbs 6:23-28)             Much of the book of Proverbs consists of things that Solomon, as both father and king, thought it important to teach his son, Rehoboam. I'm assuming the son in question was Rehoboam because he became the next king. We don't know if he also wrote to his other sons or his daughters, but if he did, I suspect this passage would have been adjusted just far enough to speak to the intended recipient. Over and over in his instructions to his son, he advises

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:8-9)             Yesterday, I shared this video on my Face Book page.: David Barton: Revival video . It brought to mind a book I discovered years ago: Generations: The History Of America's Future, 1584-2069 by William Strauss and Neil Howe. It reviews American history with the perspective that approximately every 80 years, America goes through a secular crisis that effectively destroys our country: Revolutionary War (1776), Civil War (1860), Depression and World War II (1929-1945). On September 11, 2001 as I stood in the County Executive's conference room watching the towers fall, I thought, "Here is the beginning of our secular crisis."            About hal

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Matthew 11:4-6) Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “ ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” (Matthew 26:31-32)             In Sunday School yesterday, we watched a sermon by Andy Stanley that discussed the first passage. The second passage is one I have loved for a long time because the Greek includes an interesting word. The Greek word translated "fall away" is the same word from which we get the word "scandal." The same term can be translated   cause to sin, cause to fall into sin, offend, to fall away (from the fa

                Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”                 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22)            I hate to even bring these things up. The hurt can run so deep. Sometimes, you don't even have to remember what happened, but it scars you deeply. Like everyone else, I've been through some things that hurt. Fortunately for me, none of them have been the big horrific sort of things. Some were mere misunderstandings. I'm still not sure I have all the details straight, but when I was very young, I was apparently taken to a hospital for tests. The hospital rules at the time were that either my parents stayed with me 24/7 or they came back when I was ready to leave. The hospital didn't want to traumatize children by having parents coming and going. That's the way that it worked at that hospital at the ti

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)               I'll admit right off, this thought was inspired by my Word of the Day thoughts about rights. Everyone wants his/her rights. People demand their right to live as they choose, and they demand their right to be seen as wonderful, loving people as they demand their right to live as they choose. I'm one of everyone. I want to be "treated like a human being, too," even if that means you don't get to have all the rights that you think you should have.          In my Word of the Day rant, I said that God has the answer to this problem of rights. He does. His answer is....love and die. His great commandment is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today's passage makes it clear. Truly great love, real love, involves being willing to lay down our lives for our friends.   It means killing our egos without

Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD .   You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD ,   make me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:6-8)             Among the arguments being made on either side of the political debates is that if "our" candidate does not win, America is ended. If "our" candidate does not win "Why can show us any good?" There will be no more good. Interestingly, some Liberals are claiming that they will escape to Canada. Conservatives offer no means of escape. They say with Lincoln , " We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth." Both are incorrect, for our God is a god of hope. Even as He sent the Jews into Babylon, He gave them hope. God always promises hope to His children. There may be dark times ahead. There may be darker times than we have ever heard

  When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. (Ecclesiastes 7:14)             When things are going well, be happy?   If you're like me, when things are going well, you might be tempted to think, "Uh oh." That might be part of what's going on in my head at the moment.   On my walk yesterday morning, I found myself thinking, "God, I think I'm going the way You want me to. I want to be going the way You want me to, but I'm afraid I'm not going the way You want me to." What's the problem? Nothing at all. Things are just going along, not too fast, not dramatic, just there. When there's nothing to be upset about, when there's nothing demanding my focus, I don't "be happy" - I be anxious because there's nothing there.             When times are bad... the obvious parallel is "be sad,&qu

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)             This morning I'm thinking about God as my rock. This is the verse that came to mind. What can one say about God being your rock? The usual idea that comes to mind is that God is our safe place. Rocks are seen as being unchanging. In those ways, a rock is comforting. Rocks also don't give when we kick them or otherwise come into sharp contact with them. They don't move. They are not broken. Instead, they break us.             A fortress or stronghold protects us. It surrounds us and prevents others from attacking us. It also closes us in. The walls get in the way. A deliverer can rescue us from, or hand us over to an enemy or negative circumstances. The same shield that prevents us from being harmed gets in the way of our harming others.             God is simple, in that He is who He i

Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit . (Exodus 23:2-3)               There are calls for social justice ringing across the land. In some cases, some have claimed victory for justice as the result of a vote or a poll. If Fifty point five percent of the voting or commenting population say something is right, some say it must be right. Right, that is, unless they disagree with it, in which case the fifty point five percent are stupid. In some cases, some have claimed victory because the courts have declared something right or wrong. More often than not, the reason for the celebration is that supposedly justice has come to all those poor, oppressed people who are their raison d'etre (reason to exist.)          On the 15th, I shared another verse about not showing preference for the poor. I thought it was the only verse. Today I was

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (I Peter 5:5c-7)        Some people I've met describe God as delighting in our humiliation. Seeing us grovel in the dirt, they claim, makes God happy. If their only alternative is for God to accept our replacement of Him with ourselves, I suppose they're right, but it's a false dichotomy. God isn't limited to those two choices.            Our being humble doesn't have to do with our making ourselves seem less in order to placate an insecure deity. It has to do with telling the truth. We are not God, not even close. I played violin as a kid. I could not compare myself with Lindsey Stirling, but I am closer to being in her league than in God's. That doesn't make me a piece of garbage in comparison to either. It just makes me, me. That's frightening

Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery. (II Chronicles 19:7)   Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous . (Deuteronomy 16:19)   But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD , God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me—to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share.” (Genesis 14:22-24)             This afternoon, I watched part of a speech made by Mr. Trump, in which he said that if Christians vote him into office, he will eliminate the threat of the loss of tax exemptio

             Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”             David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LO

  ‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. (Leviticus 19:15)               This is a verse that I suspect most people would find hard to believe it's in the Bible. We hear all the time about how we must be kind to the poor, and that we shouldn't show preference for the rich or powerful. We're to judge them fairly. But in God's commandments to the Levites, who were to lead and teach the people God's ways, God includes this one, that we are not to pervert justice by showing partiality to the weak OR favoritism to the great.             Today, of course, there are those who claim that the poor deserve special treatment to make up for their poor treatment. Can something make up for the pain someone has felt?   There are those who justify their mistreatment of the wealthy as giving justice to the poor even though there is no direct connection between the two. The wealthy must be guilty

  Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.(I Corinthians 11:1)               In 1995, my mother purchased Bibles for each of her children and grandchildren, and wrote a note to them expressing her hope that each would use theirs. I don't recall whether she actually talked about trying to teach us how to die well,   but it's my hope that I might somehow follow her example in that regard. I would like to be half what I remember her being, knowing that at least some of those memories have grown in my memory.         I read yesterday about a woman who was horribly injured when someone threw something off an overpass. She forgave him and told him she hoped that he would use what had happened to become a better man. A short time later in the book, the author made a comment about using our pain well.             I've heard it said that politicians never let a good crisis go to waste. They use them to enhance their own power and prestige. Then there are peop

  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength . (Philippians 4:11-13)      Yesterday, I found myself thinking about my safety preparedness for my word of the day. I'm not prepared enough. I don't have enough supplies on hand. I am not competent enough. Closely related to the issue of safety is the idea of being self-sufficient. I plant gardens every year, and this year especially I have a better crop of weeds than anything else. I'm not self-sufficient enough. As I prepare to give a talk about being a nobody and making a difference, I am convinced I'm not prepared enough, educated enough, or prepared enough to take on the leadership role that I see

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)               In Love As A Way Of Life , Gary Chapman writes about patience. He defines patience as "Allowing someone to be imperfect." In relationships, patience involves listening, getting the facts, facing anger, and focusing on the problem, not the person. Some people have told me that I'm patient. I guess when I don't laugh in their faces I might be showing a little patience. After all, I'm allowing them to be imperfect and giving them time to discover their error on their own.              But, real patience? My real response when people get in my way, slow me down, make me angry, disappoint me, don't do what I tell them to, etc.? Well, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, harder, a little louder, with the jaw clenched. Clearly, they didn't hear me the first time. Of course, there's the other answer that's a classic of m

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)             Love has sometimes been portrayed as a frilly, fragile thing, or a primal, primitive thing with everyone sitting around campfires in the evening at Woodstock just enjoying being there with everyone. We don't tend to like to think of love as slavery, or as what we do when the beloved one is at his/her darkest or ugliest. Love is for the clean, neat, and well-behaved, not for the one who hasn't taken a shower in two weeks and wanders into the bedroom scratching   and smacking his lips and belching over   the fried chicken you planned for dinner tonight. It's

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)           It has been about a year since this all started. I didn't start blogging until September, but it was in July that I decided that if Dad was going south for the winter that I had to go with him. I quit my job. I took Grace (my Shiba) through training classes. Dad, Grace and I moved from a 3 bedroom ranch to a thirty year old 37 foot motor home that we parked in a nice resort in Zephyrhills, FL. I made friends there and started singing again. I decided it would cost less to let my hair grow than to get it cut and colored. I did research and wrote a couple articles, and even sent one out to be published. It seems to have fallen into a black hole. I joined a writer's guild, the master of which trashed my idea for a story. He's shredded other bits of poor writing that I thought was good (He was rig

My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not. (Proverbs 5:1-6)               So much tragedy crossed my computer screen in the past 24 hours. Six police officers dead and five injured in Dallas. They were shot by someone who used a protest of two police killings of civilians as his/their trap. A video of a young man who was treated brutally by a police officer after the young man foolishly and repeatedly disobeyed the officer's commands. A young woman apparently went to a professor for counseling after she found out she had genital warts. She was upset that she might have difficulty co

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you .(James 1:19-21)               This passage is one we all need to hear in this time when so many are out for the blood of this political candidate, or that terrorist, or the police, or some baker of cakes or photographer   who declines to participate in something he/she believes sinful. The road rage that is sometimes treated as humorous has become social rage. This social rage - social self-righteousness - does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. This isn't saying you can't argue someone into Heaven. The righteous life that God desires is a righteous life in the one who is raging. It is the one who is raging to whom God says to get rid