Prayer and Proverbs

During our last winter at our country home, we enjoyed a family gathering consisting of  two Lozanne’s siblings and their spouses.  Our visitors called ahead and offered to treat us to a takeout supper of fried chicken.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening and after our guests left rather late, we decided to clean up all the dishes in the morning.  I placed all of the chicken bones and other disposables in a large garbage bag, as I have often done from time to time in the past, beside the waste pail in the kitchen and went to bed.

I am a restless sleeper and I could hear sounds that I mistakenly interpreted as middle of the night personal grooming which Marley is wont to do from time to time.  Of necessity, last year especially, I was up and around every two hours.  As I was moving out of the bedroom, I heard the same smacking sounds I had heard earlier.  As a I approached the kitchen, Marley slinked past me rear end close to the floor and with her tail decidedly firmly pressed down between her legs.  Her guilt was so evident that it was palpable.  As I continued into the kitchen, I was shocked to find the garbage bag in the same position that I had left it hours earlier; however, its contents were now all over the floor.  A closer inspection confirmed my worst fear.  Marley had eaten every last chicken bone that were the remnants of a meal by six adults.  She had never touched a garbage bag before in her five years with us, but the temptation was just too great this time.  The amount of bones she had consumed was staggering and scary.

My heart rose to my throat.  I had always believed that soft cooked chicken bones, which actually splinter when chewed, would surely cause a dog a horrible and painful death.  The quantity consumed conjured in me a belief that a death sentence loomed over the head of our good friend.  My immediate reaction was to pray for what I then believed to be a miracle.  My second act, since it was the middle of the night and emergency wards do not exist for our canine friends, I consulted the internet by way of Google.  I was surprised to find several websites dealing with the same problem.  Much to my relief, another myth was debunked by the website of an eminent American veterinarian. In most cases, I learned, the bones simply pass with a possibility of diarrhea.  In some, but not many, cases the bones cause intestinal distress and may require expensive and extensive veterinary intervention. The welcome advice was to monitor her carefully for forty-eight hours watching for signs of intestinal distress or blood in her stool.  I felt marginally better and indeed watched her very carefully for the two day period.  

It occurred to me several days later that my actions in the middle of the night were very biblically based.  I did two things in the face of what I initially considered a catastrophe.  Most importantly, I started with prayer and then in response to prayer and I sought expert advice.  Jesus tells is in Matthew 7: 7-8 just exactly what we as believers should do.

7 ¶ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

In the face of difficulty, we should always start with prayer.  In this case, I was convicted to seek the advice of an expert which in this digital age is a not a difficult thing to do.  In Proverbs 18:15 we read just that admonition.

15 ¶ The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

In seeking that knowledge we should search out wise counsel as we learn in Proverbs 11:14

14 ¶ Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Marley was closely observed for the next two days.  She suffered no serious ill effects.  Despite her cast iron digestive system, I learned a very valuable lesson.  All edibles, including chicken bones, should be properly sealed and left out of reach.

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The Light

This afternoon I was finally able to finish stringing some Christmas lights on the tree in front of our home.  Such ordinary seasonal jobs don’t get done nearly so easily or quickly  as in the past.  Later, as I drove Lozanne to the hospital for an evening of pastoral care work, we had the opportunity to see many homes decorated with thousands of brightly colored light bulbs.  Each year the display of lights becomes more impressive.  Lights are now strung on every possible outside structure including very tall trees.  The result at night is really quite impressive.  New this season are the inflatable and lighted Santas, snow men, sleighs, skidoos or Santa helicopters actually placed on the roofs.  The sight is really quite beautiful.  I began to wonder to myself this evening as Marley and I  returned alone from the hospital why so much time, effort and money is spent on Christmas lighting at this time of year.

I would like to believe that the majority of these beautifully decorated homes dramatically underscore the true reason for the season and that would be the birth of Jesus.  I am only too aware that the recognition of Christmas has become all too secular and is celebrated simply as a long and commercially entrenched  early winter festival.  I was reading an article the other day by the environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki who was postulating that,  since December 21 is the shortest and darkest day of the year in northern climes, by putting up many lights we are attempting to shed great light in the darkness in the hope of reminding ourselves that spring will actually come with longer days.  He could be right.  Personally, I regard Christmas lights as representing Jesus Himself as he came into this world two thousand years ago.  In John 1: 4-9 we read that Jesus Christ is regarded as light or as in His case, “The Light”.

4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

 6 ¶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.

 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 

In these five verses we learn that John the Baptist was sent by God as a witness to “The Light”.  Jesus, who is “The Light”, provides believers with the light they require to understand and follow in the ways of the true Christian life.  Verse five tells us the light shines in the darkness of this world and yet the darkness (world) did not and can not comprehend it.   This verse summarizes my thoughts on the ever increasing assault of Christmas lighting.  The light gets brighter and brighter with each passing year, but the vast majority just don’t understand why the lights are installed in the first place.

In John 12: 46 Jesus tells us Himself that he has come into the world as a light.

46 “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

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Ever Watchful

This morning I was walking with Marley, our Springer Spaniel, on the road that borders on a resort that provides wildlife tours of game animals kept within its electrically fenced boundaries.  We have walked near there most of the last two seasons and have rarely seen more than a glimpse of any wildlife in the fields and trees.  This morning was different.  A group of eight female deer were feeding from a large round bale of hay placed by handlers not more than fifty feet from the fence.  The does, who were under the watchful eye of a very large buck lounging on the snow covered ground behind them, heard and smelled us long before I became aware of their presence.  Marley’s low and tentative growl caused me to look to my left only to be met with sixteen big beautiful brown eyes staring straight at us. 

 Even as they clamped down on the hay already in their mouths their heads were raised as high as possible and their stare was so firmly fixed that it was actually a little disconcerting.  They didn’t blink and moved not one muscle. Their concentration on the possibility of danger had rendered them immobile with rapt attention.  Only one thing was of any significance to all eight of these impressive creatures and that was our presence at such a close proximity.  Marley, predictably, in the face of larger animals than herself, was careful to not escalate the situation beyond a tentative muted growl, hoping, I suspect, that I would simply tell her to move on.  I stood there for several minutes admiring their silent and perfect attention.  Marley returned the same.  It occurred to me as I admiringly stared back at them that this was the kind of attention that we all should emulate when it comes to a prediction made in the Bible.  

The second coming of Jesus is predicted more than a few times in the Holy Bible.  The words of Luke 21: 25-27 tell us:

25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;

 26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.

 27 “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  

These startling words, all but ignored by modern mainstream religion, are the words of Jesus Christ.  Years ago, when I became a professing Christian, I made a conscious decision to accept what the Bible says, as best I can understand it, as the truth and only the truth.  In my Bible, the actual words spoken by Jesus are printed in red ink.  Every verse I have quoted above  and below is printed in red.  When I see the actual words of our Savior in the Bible,  I sit up and take particular notice.  If Jesus said it, you can be certain that it is going to occur.  We have no idea when He will actually return to take His saints, living and dead, to Heaven, but we know that He will come for those who believe in Him and follow his ways.  He tells us very clearly to pay particular attention in our watch for His return.  We are to watch and pray with the intensity of wild animals seeking out that which is dangerous. What we are watching for is not dangerous to believers, but it promises to be a glorious and joyful sight and eternal experience.

 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

 35 “For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

 36 “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21: 34-36)

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Green Wood

One of my earliest memories is excitedly climbing up onto a pile of wood slabs and throwing them one by one through the coal chute opening into the basement of our house.  We moved from that house when I was six years old and I well remember the day that the workmen installed the ultra-modern oil furnace in that house.  As I consider both memories, I suspect that I was four or five years of age when I began to work with wood.  I loved to move and pile the wood, not just because I got to help and be with my father, but because deep down I truly enjoyed the process of dealing with wood for the purpose of heat.  I didn’t know that fact then, but within one year of owning a home, we burned wood for supplemental heat and continued to do so in every one of our future homes.  My love affair with wood heat has gone on for thirty-eight years.  My obsession has necessarily been replaced, due to my recent inability to keep up with the much loved labour, with more modern forms of central heating; namely, natural gas and electricity. 

I truly love the smell of seasoned wood in the woodshed and indeed the aroma of just a wisp of smoke from a good fire.  The heat produced is like no other.  It is pervasive, heats every part of the home and creates a comfort like no other fuel.  Of course the beauty of an open flame held captive in your home is a very primitive pleasure.  I actually dreamed that in retirement I could heat a home with wood.

For the last six years of our lives, the Lord allowed me that pleasure and we were able to heat our country lakeside home with wood heat.  We possessed a modern wood furnace as well as a large two sided old fashioned stone fireplace.  I loved, while I was able, to split and pile twenty cords of wood late in the spring of each year.  The purchased birch would arrive in front of our woodshed in a very green form.  By green I mean that it was full of sap and not suitable for burning at all.  The moisture in the freshly cut wood prevents it from burning properly and indeed the smoke created from burning green wood can result in the build-up of dangerous creosote in the chimney.  By splitting and piling in the open ended woodshed this vast amount of wood, we were able to provide four or five months of curing of the wood.  During the warm summer and fall days the wood dried out so that it could be burned with efficiency and safety.  There is a short, but fascinating statement attributed to Jesus in the twenty-third chapter of Luke that speaks of green and dry wood.  To put it in context, let us start at verse 28.

28 But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

 29 “For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’

 30 “Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

 31 “For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”  Luke 23: 28-31

I find these four verses to be quite remarkable.  Jesus has spent the previous night and day being brutally dragged through the mock courts of the high priests, Pilate, Herod and back to Pilate.  He had been mocked, beaten, spit upon, and scourged.  Just the chastisement of the whip as wielded by the Roman Soldiers was enough to kill some men before they were crucified.  Jesus is unable to carry his own cross due to his exhaustion and injuries; yet he miraculously stops to speak to a group of women who are lamenting and mourning his tragic end by the side of the road on the way to Calvary.  He is forecasting about thirty-seven years into the future the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in the year 70 A.D.  

It is the words in verse 31 that have the most effect on me.  Jesus is several times in the Bible referred to as a tree or a vine.  In this case he is referring to himself as the green wood that is not filled with sap and the promise of life, but green wood that is filled with goodness, grace, innocence, healing and miracles.  This “green wood” is not fit to be cut down for fuel.  Jesus is telling the women and us that if Roman soldiers will do such evil and violence to He who is innocent, just imagine what they will do the the “dry wood” which represents the evil and rebellious inhabitants of Jerusalem.  There is another level to this metaphor.  If God the Father could see fit to so severely punish his innocent son the “green wood” in order to pay for our sins, just imagine what He will do the the “dry wood” which is fit for burning for all of eternity.  

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As the Bridegroom Rejoices

As I headed for my Volkswagen which was parked, due to the lack of a parking lot, on a distant street, I began to look forward to the weekend.  Another week of teacher’s college was over.  The 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. hours were a shock to the system after attending university for a year.  I longed for the fifteen hour lecture week, especially since class cancellations and skipping early or inconvenient classes reduced the university workload down to a more manageable grind.  Missing class at North Bay Teacher’s College was, we imagined, punishable by immediate expulsion.  I was eagerly driving to pick up my bride of three months.

Our Friday evening routine was very quickly established during that year at normal school, so named because the teaching masters were supposed to inculcate the norms of standard teaching practices.  I picked up Lozanne at our modest (I am looking back with rose colored glasses) one bedroom apartment in the heart of the industrial section of town.  Our first stop was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce which was in the downtown core.  There was but one method to get money to spend in 1968.  After parking and putting a nickel in the parking meter, you stood in a long line in a large high ceilinged and echo filled bank and withdrew the money from your account with a written withdrawal slip.  Our usual weekly withdrawal was $25.00.  We would then buy gasoline as required at thirty-four cents per gallon.  The empty eight gallon tank would cost us $2.72.  We then headed for the A and P grocery store to buy our weekly groceries for around $17.00.  The money left over was our spending money for the week.  We would then head home for a special Friday night meal like frozen chicken pot pie.

I have very fond memories of the early months of our marriage.  For a brief period in our nearly 44 years, there was only the two of us.  There were definitely times of tension as we adjusted to the complexity of married life.  There were also times of joy and growing together as a couple.  It is the times of joy that I best  remember these days.

The Friday evenings stand out, as do the number of times I was late for class in the morning, which oddly seemed to be a very forgivable misstep  at North Bay Teacher’s College.  My uncharacteristic lateness on a regular basis became somewhat of a class joke for both students and teaching master alike.  These memories have lately given me an enhanced understanding of Isaiah 62:5

 5 ... And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

Throughout the Bible the concept of the church becoming the bride of Jesus  is constantly developed.  The prophet Isaiah, who wrote the above words about seven centuries before the birth of Christ, is forecasting a later day when God (Jesus) will rejoice and delight in His church given to Him as a bride.  Who makes up the church?  Simply stated, the church is made up of faithful believers.  It does not consist of any one denomination or religion.  It is made up of those who have professed their belief in the saving work of Jesus dying on the Roman cross in order to pay dearly for our sins.  As I rejoiced over the bride of my youth, as I continue to do so to this day, so God rejoices over those who are true believers in his church.  He sees every one of them as desirable and beautiful just as a bridegroom is expected to see his bride.  I am thankful that I can count myself amongst those men who can truly understand the second half of verse 5 in Isaiah 62.

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The Work of God

Of all the possible idols that can separate us from God, the most insidious, personally speaking, is work. I have been retired for almost a decade. I worked on a part-time basis for another three years following my retirement. I have come to realize that what I considered to be nothing more than a healthy work ethic and admittedly driven ambition was much closer to full blown idolatry. All of my working life, I planned, prepared and studied as necessary for the next promotion. With the exception of one ten year stint as a superintendent of schools, the longest I remained in one position was four years. My average stay in many positions was three years before seeking a new job with better prospects. I moved from teacher to vice-principal in two different schools, to principal of small school, to principal of two small schools, to principal of a larger school, to superintendent, and finally to director of education.

The last thirteen years of my career consisted of 70 hour work weeks with some days ending after 11:00 P.M. I sat through countless meetings, travelled a lot and worked most evenings and a good part of weekends. The odd thing, as I look back, is despite my realization that I worshiped at the shrine frequented by driven workaholics, I am still proud of what I accomplished. I hope I did some good for the students and parents I served. I also had a very supportive wife who was with me every step of the way. I did not know the Lord Jesus as my savior until near the end of my working years. I began to become aware of work being my modern idol replacing ancient wooden statues of various small “g” gods just prior to my retirement.

One has only to browse through the the Book of Proverbs or the Epistles of Paul to learn that the Bible espouses a healthy work ethic. The key word is healthy. For the majority of my career, my approach to work was missing one very important element as presented to us by Jesus Himself in John 6:27-29

27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

28 ¶ Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Without faith in Jesus, no work would be better than hard work. When you live and work by faith in the Son of God, then you are satisfying what God requires for a healthy and productive work life. If you truly fulfill this one requirement, whatever else you do for work will be blessed. Although so called “good works” which we do for the benefit of others around us are not required to achieve everlasting life, when we work with faith we will naturally tend to good works through our actions and our giving. As is often true of the Savior, the most beautiful component of what Jesus tells us in these three verses is the stark simplicity. The only work required of God is faith. Wow.

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Entertaining Angels

I gently pulled back on the stick and raised the nose of the Champ trainer and in that one smooth motion experienced my first take off from a snow covered surface on skis. As I climbed away from the ultra white surface of the frozen field, I tentatively turned the nose to climb in a northerly track that had been set by my flight instructor who sat in the seat directly behind me. We had travelled to the main base of Orillia Airways in order to return the plane to its northern home at a satellite base. I remember that there was only enough daylight remaining to get us safely to Trout Lake near the city of North Bay. As I slowly climbed to our cruising altitude, I was quietly concerned with the ever increasing grayness in the sky ahead of us. Indeed it was too dark for the time of day and the latest weather report that we had received prior to take off.

In a matter of minutes, the clouds thickened and the snow pellets began to hit the windshield with ever increasing audibility and regularity. I was not surprised when I heard the familiar words, “ I have control” meaning that I was to relinquish control to the flight instructor who was about to display some real bush pilot skills. The snow squalls became so intense that we had one choice and that was to land. As Cliff (I have long since forgotten his last name) began a turning descent attempting to go around the worst of the clouds, I set about the task of looking for a suitable lake upon which to land. A medium sized lake ideal for our purposes loomed out of the blinding snow. Cliff made a partial circuit and decided out loud that we had little choice and on the positive side, the lake appeared to be fully frozen. With little ceremony he turned into wind and after completing a cursory landing checklist, landed on the lake surface. Oddly, in my mind at least, he kept the aircraft moving at a velocity closer to lift off speed than taxiing speed. As we headed straight towards the beach, he asked me to turn around in my seat and report any open water in our wake. To my horror, I observed and duly reported that indeed there was slush and water being kicked up behind us by our quickly moving skis. Cliff simply lodged the airplane up on the beach just out of the slushy ice. The wet tracks of our skis stretched out behind us for most of the length of the lake.

As darkness approached, we realized that only an unoccupied cottage might provide us some shelter from the storm and the surprisingly cold night. Behind the cottages, we found a plowed road and before long we presented ourselves cold and desperate at a farm house door. The elderly couple welcomed us immediately into their home. Cliff used their single black party line phone to report our safe but unexpected arrival to his employers. I called my parents to explain why I would not be home that night. I was eighteen years of age. Within minutes, a hot and plentiful supper was on the table and we were invited to spend the night in a large loft which was heated by one ascending black stove pipe on its journey from their well stoked wood stove to the roof and the now clear night sky.

I marvel as I grow older at the hospitality afforded two strangers in the night. This wonderful couple displayed no concern for their safety and seemed to relish the prospect of having visitors to share their meal and their home. I will always remember their kindness, an excellent meal and indeed their good humour.

The recent memory of the experience has brought to mind the words of Hebrews 13:2.

2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

It occurs to me that their actions were indeed biblical. I am fairly certain that on that winter night in 1966, this kind and hospitable couple fell far short of their possible aim of entertaining angels. If it could happen to Abraham and Sarah as described in the Book of Genesis, why could it not happen to them or indeed to any of us? In Chapter 18, the account of three men paying a visit to inform Sarah that she was to become a mother despite her very advanced years is one such example of angelic beings enjoying the hospitality of mere mortals.

After a hearty farm breakfast, we walked back to the frozen Champ and after some initial difficulties started and warmed the engine, freed the skis from the frozen snow and set out to take off for home. Despite the very cold minus twenty fahrenheit degree overnight temperatures, the lake was still slushy on the surface of the hopefully solid ice. Cliff actually taxied at ever increasing speeds around the edge of the lake until such time as he could achieve a take off speed as he turned into wind that morning. I will never forget the wake of watery slush churning behind us as we lifted into the air.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account. All are welcome to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/markthall)