April 12, 2019

Father, I am so privileged to be your child.  You have led me down the path you have chosen for me for 69 years.  The only regrets are the times I took my eyes off you and placed them on my own desires.  I am so humbled and grateful that you have forgiven me.  I love that you are in control of my life.  Because of that, I have peace, and I choose JOY!  Amen!

April 4, 2019

"The greatest sacrifice is not that of physical death; the greatest offering is when we take our hands off our lives so Christ can live in us victoriously and joyously.  If our hearts are not clean, we will fight him or resent him.  When we let him have our whole heart, then we delight to do his will, and there is a sweetness in it.  That sweetness comes from precious fellowship with the One with scarred hands.  There is no earthly joy like this.  Don't miss it."
(Dennis Kinlaw - this day with the master)

Welcome, 2019!

I am still here!  I know I have not blogged in a long time, but every now and then I hope I will just stop by and give you an update, so you know I still exist.  

In 2018 I decided to post my college writings in my blog as a way to save them and delete the hard copies off my shelves.  I will forever be downsizing my library!  Books and notebooks take up space, and are heavy to move.  Now that most everything is electronic, I thought I would try to go that route a bit, and empty some shelves and file drawers.  But I kid you not...when I am into reading a book, I want the hard copy in my hand!  I'm not good with holding an electronic and marking my place.  Yeah, I'm still an old fashioned girl in many ways.  

We are in Michigan this winter.  Paul has been under various eye treatments and diabetic changes, so it has been necessary to stay close to his doctors.  His insurance frowns on us taking care of routine business out of state.  This is the year, however, that Paul will join me in the Medicare journey part of life, and I hope that frees us up to head south more often. 

Some day we hope to be living back in Southeast Tennessee...the area of the country where Paul took his first job out of college, and we basically raised our family there.  We absolutely loved the climate, having the change of seasons, but nothing drastic!  I'm sitting here in my office looking out at our snow fall from last weekend that hasn't faded a bit (10"), and trying to thaw out from the frigid temperatures of the last couple of days (negative degrees wind chills).  When winter comes in Michigan, it stays around a while.  Granted, there are some pretty sites out there...if I can stay inside and just look at it!  But having two dogs to walk, it can be bone chilling!  The last two days the dogs have had to use the indoor potty pad...Mamma wasn't going out or exposing them to the single digit or below zero temperatures!  

Paul still has both of his parents living here in Michigan.  His father turned 90 last week, and still going strong.  However, there is still a need for us to be close by to assist Paul's sister in the health care of their mother.  This is another reason for us to still be in Michigan.  In God's timing, He will lead us.

So here we are almost to the end of the first month of 2019.  I'm excited to see what God has in store for us in the year ahead!

Christian Ethics

Christian Ethics, taught by Martin Baldree at Lee College, Spring 1990.

How My Ethics Were Formed

A funny thing happened on my way through life---my ethics were formed.  Since I was born at an early age, and am now approaching 40, life has offered me several years and many situations through which my ethics were formed.  Life is a continual growing experience, and I am open to changes.  Therefore, my ethics may still be in the process of forming, but I believe the basic foundation has been laid.  I know who I am in Christ, and I know what I stand for.  In one simple word, I stand for Truth.

The foundation began when God gave me the privilege of being raised in a Christian home by parents who were solidly committed to their faith in Jesus Christ.  Each day in our home was started with the family gathering for Bible reading and prayer together.  I grew up very aware that I was accountable before God as well as to my parents.  My tender conscience has become the root to all of my ethical decisions.

Attending church whenever the doors were open was our family lifestyle.  Church became another area of accountability for me.  My entire social life revolved around the church community.  School dances and clubs had no appeal to me as they were not part of my world.  The Christian atmosphere in my home and my church and social world sheltered me from the norms and values of the world.  Perhaps this sheltering was not the best preparation for me to face the real world as an adult, but I still count it a privilege and a blessing to be raised in such an atmosphere.  It gave me the solid foundation I needed when I did start facing reality in the world, and decisions and choices had to be made.

My constant exposure to the Christian lifestyle, and my tender conscience, led me to a public altar at the age of eleven to confess my sins and accept Jesus as my own personal Savior.  What weighed heavily in my mind was the candy bar I had stolen several months earlier.  I confessed this not only to Jesus, but also to my parents.  My mother made me realize how important it was to make things right after confessing the wrong.  It is called restitution.  That has become one of my ethical codes.  If I choose to do wrong, then to be forgiven I must go back and make it right if I possibly can.  Knowing that has kept me from choosing to do wrong many times.  Apologizing and admitting guilt can be very difficult and humbling.

What is astounding to me is that the very world which shaped me and protected me as a child, the church world, is the one in which I was broken and crushed.  I came face to face with situations that made me evaluate life very closely.  There came a point where I had to make a choice.  Did I want to end life, which had become such a disappointment, or did I want to live life above the circumstances, walking on in faith as a child of God, totally dependent on Him and no longer focused on living to please mankind.  I chose life.  It was time to grow up, and live as Jesus would have me live. 

As long as I lived at home I was responsible to live according to my parents' rules.  When I married and moved to the south, I became a member of a church which based religious experience on rules.  Some were rules I had grown up with and felt comfortable with, but some were much stricter.  For several years I lived a life of fear that I would break someone's rules and displease them and God and be condemned to hell.  Where was the "freedom" in Christ I heard about in songs and scripture?  I found myself becoming very critical and bitter toward others.  My attitudes were certainly not Christ-like as I became disillusioned by Christianity as portrayed by church leaders.

After living a few years in the conservative Bible Belt, we were transferred to the Chicago area by my husband's company.  There we attended a very liberal church of our same denomination.  In the south I was too liberal for the church, and in the north I was too conservative for the church.  I upset the apple cart no matter where I was.  The frustration of trying to please church leaders left me in a constant state of emotional upheaval.  If I did 99 things right, and one thing that was not pleasing to someone, it was the one things that I was judged by.  My sensitivity to people made this an issue that would try to destroy me again and again.

I was sick of trying to please people.  I began to intensely hunger to live accountable to God alone and please Him, regardless of the opinion of man.  In January of 1987 I asked God to set me free from what others thought of me as long as I had His approval.  I found that when I pray a sincere prayer from the heart, God answers.  He does not usually answer in the way I expect Him to, but His ways are best.  My road to freedom has been a three year walk of faith, through the valley of failure, through the desert of depression, and on into the hill climbing of preparation for full time service to God.  Today I am a free woman---free to live for Jesus, free to please God, free to serve others in love (Galatians 5:13:  You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom in indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love.)

As a teenager I read the book and saw the movie "In His Steps".  The theme of the story is living as Christ would live.  In each decision the question should be asked, "What would Christ do?"  That is the question I ask myself when facing ethical decisions.  I am dependent upon His guidance.

The experiences I have come through have helped shaped my guidelines for living.  Perhaps they could be called my ethical guidelines.  In closing, I share them with you.

• Above all else, be honest.  Be honest with your feelings, your words, and your actions.  The conscience rests much easier when you know you have been honest, for deceit is destructive.
• Always part leaving the best impression you can, for it may be the last impression you leave.  Life is so uncertain.
• Give everything over to God:  the hurts, the anger, the frustration, the confusion, the "why's?".  The only safe and sane place for it is in God's control.  Otherwise, IT begins to control YOU, and guess who loses!
• Remember life is a moment by moment commitment.  Determine to whom and to what you are committed, and live it moment by moment.  God's will for you is not HERE or THERE, but it is simply that you be totally submitted, totally obedient to Him in each situation, each moment that comes your way.
• Continually practice the formula for JOY:  J (Jesus first) O (others second) Y (yourself last).

New Testament Survey - Chapter 5

I and II Peter

These two books in the New Testament were written by Apostle Peter.  They were written  to Jewish Christians as well as Gentile Christians throughout the Mediterranean world.  

The theme of I Peter is Christian suffering.  We are reminded that we will suffer just as our Lord Jesus Christ suffered.  But suffering is only temporary, whereas salvation is eternal.  In suffering our faith is refined in the same way that fire purifies gold.

The theme of II Peter is preservation of the true faith.  True Christian character is defined as diligently seeking moral excellence; one who is knowledgeable; one who exercises self-control; and one who perseveres and does not give up.  Peter warns against false teachers and mockers.  The Lord's return will come like a thief in the night, and we must be ready.


I, II, III John

Apostle John is the author of these three books in the New Testament.  They were written for preservation of the faith.  Christianity settled the Jewish Christian dilemma of faith versus works.  Now John fights against the philosophy of Gnosticism.  This was a belief that Jesus could not be both God and man.  

John writes to give security to those who have believed and that they might be certain of their faith.  Certainty comes through walking in the Light, accepting Jesus as the Son of God and having fellowship with God.  The love for God and the love for material things cannot co-exist.  True love for God is expressed by obeying Him.  


Revelation

The last book of the New Testament was also written by Apostle John.  The purpose of the book was to encourage Christians under persecution to be faithful to God...God is in control! 

Chapters two and three are letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor.  Then John wrote of the three woes in chapters four through twenty.  Chapter 21 tells of the creation of the new heaven and new earth, and the book ends in Chapter 22 where it is stated that Jesus is coming quickly (22:7).  Thus the New Testament ends.

The events of Revelation are in this order:
1.  Present Age

2.  Tribulation - seven years; rapture may occur prior to this and is the first resurrection where every believer is spared of going through the tribulation period.  (Many scholars do not agree with this timing of the rapture.)

3.  Battle of Armageddon - the second coming of Christ who comes to defeat the armies of satan on earth and to establish the Kingdom of God.

4.  Millennial Age (1,000 years) - an age of Peace - Christ and all his saints establish the Kingdom of God on literal earth.  The saints rule and reign during this period, ruling over the sinners that come out of the tribulation alive.  Satan is chained in the abyss, so there is no sin during this age of Peace.

5.  Satan is Loosed - for a season he will try and tempt people from tribulation period who must then decide to go with the Kingdom of God, or succumb to sin and satan.  This is the final rebellion.

6.  Great White Throne Judgement - This is the second resurrection.  The judgement is of sinners, not saints.  The wicked and satan are cast into the lake of fire, and the earth is destroyed by fire.  God creates a new earth where there is no sea.

7.  Eternity.

This concludes my notes from my class on New Testament Survey.  I would enjoy taking a class like this again, and perhaps I will.

New Testament Survey - Chapter 4

Continuation from my class notes:

The Book of Hebrews

The author of Hebrews is unknown.  Many would surmise it was written by Apostle Paul, but it would be unusual for Paul not to identify himself in this letter, since he did in his other 13 epistles.  Since my studies in seminary, I lean toward an author no one else has mentioned...Priscilla.  Paul often stayed with Priscilla and Aquila, and they were under his teaching as they did tent making together.  The theology in Hebrews is very much Pauline, but presented in a different manner.  

Priscilla, being a woman, did not dare mention her authorship of the letter as it would have been discarded by her culture, as well as ours.  She knew women were not respected for their knowledge or skills.  She was very wise in withholding her identity, while presenting one of the strongest writings in a book intended for reestablishing the Jewish Christians in their faith.  They could not go back to Judaism and remain established in their salvation experience.

The arguments made in Hebrews are that Jesus Christ is better:
- than angels
- than Moses and Joshua
- as a high priest than the Levites

The New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant, as the Laws are written on the heart, not on a tablet of stone.  Faith is the key to salvation and results in practical Christian conduct.

The Book of James

James, the brother of Jesus, is responsible for authorship of this book.  The crowd he addresses is the Jews in the Diaspora.  He puts strong emphasis on practical Christian living.

James stresses doing more than believing, unlike Paul.  True Faith does not discriminate; is always complemented by good works; controls the tongue; does not argue with his neighbors; and remains in open communication with God.  Key verse in James:

James 1:22 New Living Translation (NLT)

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

New Testament Survey - Chapter 3

Continuation from my notes:

Paul wrote three letters which are considered the Pastoral Epistles:  I and II Timothy and Titus.

The first letter of Timothy is addressed to Paul's devoted disciple who was pastoring in the church at Ephesus.  Paul focused on the administration of the local church.  The epistle is divided into four major sections:  personal greetings; qualities of the laity; qualifications for church leadership; and admonitions to Timothy concerning the ministry.

The second letter to Timothy continued admonitions to him concerning his conduct and ministry.  The two most notable challenges:

2 Timothy 2:15 New Living Translation (NLT)

Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

2 Timothy 3:16 New Living Translation (NLT)

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

Paul's second letter to Timothy is considered to be Paul's last epistle written.  However, before writing II Timothy, Paul wrote a pastoral letter to Titus, who was also a young pastor struggling with the difficulties of church administration.  In this epistle Paul focused on qualifications of leadership and content of sound doctrine.

Titus, more than any other epistle, emphasizes grace and good works:

Titus 3:4-8 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 But—

When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.[a] 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

8 This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone.

This completes the 13 letters written by Apostle Paul, which comprises almost half of the 27 books included in the New Testament writings.