I felt some regret over my column about the G-Eight summit when I heard former president Carter make such critical comments about Bush. Carter's had my admiration but now lost some of it for jumping onto our current president so heavy. Bush has several very sticky issues ahead and shouldn't be hampered by such put downs. He came back from Europe and sent our secy-of-state over to Asia for hard nosed dealings that included gigantic China. Powell used the expression "business between superpowers" which showed his concern. Right here at home Bush has come out for granting amnesty to several million illegal aliens, which is surely a tough position that will loose him hard right support and seems like a surrender in preserving the nation's borders. There's even a battle now over Mexican trucks on our Interstates since they don't meet safety standards. Ahead still is the issue of federal funding for stem cell research. It's loaded with even more controversy than the invasion from Mexico (which brings also a hugh population born here at expense of our public health). Reproductive technology has progressed so fast that I can't grasp it all. While some of us worry about too many babies already (mostly out of wedlock), en vitro births abound for affluent citizens with hundreds of thousands of unused embryos left over in refrigeration awaiting final disposal. Those who claim that the human soul begins at conception, as the pope does, want us to see them as too sacred to be torn apart to get stem cells that can create healing for diabetes, Parkinson's disease, etc. even though they may finally have to be just discarded. Other sources of stem cells are available from bone marrow, body organs, or even cadavers. Since these are cells that have the potential of growing into any part of the body, none have as great a plasticity as the ones from embryos, which are cell clusters first produced by the female egg fertilized with a male sperm. Embryos become fetuses after a few weeks when all the cells begin differentiating into specific organs or parts of the body. Since the lungs are where the "breath of life" will enter (after birth), I'm inclined to see air breathed into them (Gen.2:7) as "ensoulment" rather than at the moment of conception. Such is how the Jews view it, I'm told. "Soul" in Hebrew means a breathing entity. But since a fetus already has lungs awaiting use, aborting it would still be killing a potential or pre-soul. So the pope's opposition to stem cell research is just the tip of an iceberg which also forbids contraception in general. Thus, legitimate sex is only for the sake of procreation, and that only within marriage. Unwed mothers with no way to support their children become a heavy burden on the pro-life argument. And statistics show that number increasing greatly. It's hard to see such conception as divine when it defies GOD's express commandment. And the Bible uses the word "bastard," though we properly soften it to "love child" for the sake of so many innocent offspring. It's still a mystery as to just when the soul begins, though surely later than conception. In Scripture the soul equals body plus spirit (the same word in Hebrew can mean either spirit or breath). And the Hebrew word for soul is applied to both animals and mankind, since all of them breath air; a more literal expression would be "bundle of appetities," somewhat in contrast to the Greek "psyhe" of the New Testament meaning "mind." Thus the brain becomes more focal to soulhood than the lungs. And it's the latest organ to develope before birth, long after conception. Still, only the grace of GOD could allow the use of those frozen embryos in this sin laden situation, as I see it. If left to private laboratories it will become a commercial industry selling cells from potential souls. In fact there's a company in Mass. already producing the embryos by paying women for their egg cells. Then they'll sell the stem cells they harvest for research. Sounds unseemly, yet look at all those awaiting cures for chronic diseases they suffer. Lord we ask for Thy grace! Have mercy upon us most merciful Father in the name of Thy son Jesus Christ. after Bush, they'll have it all. Ugh!
Glen and I try to learn the names of those to whom we minister because that acknowledges their identity as persons rather than things, beings rather than objects. It's been said that GOD made things to be used and persons to be loved, but the devil puts that rule in reverse. From considering an inmate's mistaken notion in our last prison Scripture study, I've gained a fuller insight for myself. It's about names and their significance to the Incarnation. Our Bible lesson was that familiar prologue of John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD...". We discussed the Word's becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. But Cornelius, a loyal black attender, insisted that the text referred to when Jesus was being created. Glen told him Christ was never created; that He was the Creator instead, though the inmate didn't seem to get it. He claimed that GOD made the baby Jesus through the virgin Mary by a great miracle and the child grew up into the Man. I said that there's a big difference between creation and pro-creation; that begetting a child isn't making one. And I stated that the Son was eternally begotten of the Father, even before mankind existed. Being supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary at the apex of time was His manner of entry into this creation. Later I recalled two texts about that blessed event (from Matthew and Luke), telling how Joseph and Mary only quoted a name the Almighty had separately told to each of them--Mary at her conception when Garbiel spoke to her, and Joseph some months later in a reassuring dream from the LORD after her pregnancy had raised doubt in his mind. Just as GOD the Father already had the Name YAHWEH (that He gave to Himself), so did He give His Son an even fuller designation before all time. Surely that's why it is capitalized in the opening chapter of our King James version of the New Testament: JESUS, or YESHUA (from Yehoshua in Hebrew="Yahweh saves"); so it is the very word for "salvation" in the Old Testament. Thus JESUS completes the divine Name translated to Moses as "I am," into the full Name revealed that first Nativity night: "He is savior" or "Thou art salvation." Just saying the Name puts you into prayer to the Ancient of Days, everlasting Father, LORD of hosts, Almighty One.
This may be the day that it's finally over. I saw a sign from Florida, "First we were Gored but now we're Bushed." So getting a president could be your Christmas present, America. Just hope there'll be a letup so that we can pay attention to other things: that International Space Station is now the third brightest object in our night sky, and it will eventually be twice as large a sight. As a sign of nations pulling together instead of apart it could be a Christmas star of the 21st century. I saw the Discovery channel's two hour report "Living Aboard the Space Station" and am thankful our five shuttle astronauts got their job done and returned safe Monday night. I think there's two Russians and an American up there, with four more to join them later. One said that living in weightlessness was as big a shift as anphibious life coming out of the sea onto land millions of years ago. A philosopher speculated that babies born in that new graity free environment may be a new species that will never be able to survive on earth again. Is this the beginning of a heavenly race? Wow! But back here on earth we see Israel's dilemma still unresolved as Barak steps aside. He hopes the Palestinians will see how much worse a leader Israel could get and thus agree to offers he had made. Then he could be re-elected. It's an all or nothing "gamble." (the word comes from "game" in which artificial risks are taken for selfish gain. So I use quotes to show that instead it's a bold and necessary risk in this post-modern era of probability theory) Shalom
Ehud Barak may be losing his big rish on the Israeli election since the Kennesset is trying to change the law that prohibits Nathaniel Netanyahu from running against him. If the bar against non-members of that legislative body is removed, Netanyahu will probably beat Barak. His one hope is to get a deal from the Palestinians before the election that can lift his popularity with Israelis. Barak means "lightning" and he'll have to move that fast to bring it about. Arafat now seems to hold the winning card for him. Arafat nows that Barak has offered the Palestinians a lot more than Netanyahu ever will. His Likhud party is hard line right but Barak's Labor party is more to the center. Everything happening is in a pressure cooker as time grows so short. Still we should "pray for the shalom of Jeru{sholam)" as Psalm 122 directs. It's the site from which our Lord ascended to heaven and where He's expected to return. Moslems even sealed the eastern gate on that mount where their mosque, Dome of the Rock" is located to prevent Christ from entering. And Palestinians think they should be allowed to have that area for a capitol of their new state. Yet a lot of them are Christians of an orthodox origin. But not evangelicals by any means. How does that factor into the equation? We'll see soon!
Bethlehem was a small village at the time of Jesus' birth a dozen or so miles south of Jerusalem. And though it has become a famous town known all over the world today for it's church of the Nativity and Manger Square, these words of this song about the King's return seem to me as still depicting Bethlehem (especially amid reports of no pilgrim tourists this Christmas): "The market place is empty, no more traffic in the street. All the village scenes are idle, no more time to harvest wheat. Busy housewives cease their labor, in the court room no debate, work on earth is all suspended....as the King comes through the gate. Oh...the King is coming, the King is coming. I just heard the trumpet sounding and now His face I'll see. The King is coming! the King is coming!! Praise GOD!!! He's coming for me." The joy of this season celebrating Messiah's first coming is but a foretaste of all that's in store for those who are His own at the final return. Such is our "blessed hope" described in Titus 2:13. One of the songs I've learned at prison services is a sort of creed: "Lord we lift your name on high. Lord we love to sing your praises. You came from heaven to earth to show the way; from the earth to the cross, our debt to pay; from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord we lift your name on high." It's such an appealing summary of events in the Gospel, but needs one more added,I feel: "Your returning is so nigh." I saw an article in our Rotarian magazine entitled "Keep Hope Alive." Jesse Jackson says that so often that I assumed it was about him. But it told of so much depression suffered by those left out of this Yuletide joy; especially the millions of elderly who have grown weary of their illness, infirmity and dependance on others providing their care. Psalm 71 says "O GOD, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wonderous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O GOD, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come" (vs.17&18). Jesus has some brave souls I've met in nursing homes who keep looking to see Him. Even the aged St.Paul said "I charge thee therefore before GOD and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at his APPEARING and his kingdom...," and wrote next to tell young Timothy "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand ...there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness...and to all them also that love his APPEARING(2 Tim.4)." Thus, Paul's source of hope, despite all the wickedness and abuse he encountered in a lifetime, was his Lord's coming back again. Of course Jesus does come back at the moment of death to receive the spirit of each person who trusts in Him. He said at the Last Supper/Great Passover to the eleven, after Judas had gone: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also." He went to GOD in spirit from the cross, then after the resurrection, ascended bodily to heaven. Thus when Christ returns with the host of angels that the shepherds saw near Bethelhem, He will bring the spirits of all humans who died in faith to be rejoined to their glorified bodies on resurrection day.
There were fears that a couple of electors might defect from Bush on Monday and cause a tie vote with Gore. That would have upset the election outcome again and thrown it to Congress for settlement even beyond the Supreme Court. But Nevada's votes came in last to give Bush 271, one more than the essential 270. It seemed to me like David over Goliath as enormous California had earlier given all it's 54 to Gore, but next door Nevada's measley count of just 4 settle the matter for two giants that got so much attention, California and Florida. Now the inaugeration is an even month from now as W puts together his cabinet. With so much of the economy depending on Alan Greenspan, maybe he'd make a good secretary of the treasury. But he doen't want president Bush to make all those tax cuts until the national debt is paid down. That's appealing but just might keep Greenspan from being asked. The wealthy don't feel like they cause the debt. Most of them made fortunes in the private sector. So why should they bear the brunt of that three trillion owed? Guess I sort of agree with them. Let Greenspan stay where he is as all of us pray for his health and well being, along with that of the economy. Bush has begun his presidency with a worship service in Austin that I saw on TV. He has a strong sense of family values (vs the pro-abortion and gay agendas) and he's personally committed to total abstainece from drinking. I see him as a good example for our nation and believe that his "compassionate conservatism" is real. His dad once called for "a kinder and gentler world" which startle me then. I'd been conditioned to hear that kind of talk from Democrats, so it took me by surprise. Now George W has been elected on such a platform. I heard just now that the likely treasury secretary is a close friend of Greenspan, though he' surely for the big tax cut. And I'm glad gasoline is getting cheaper since I drive a route every day. Here's a song to the tune of London Bridge you can sing with me: "Gasoline is coming down, coming down, coming down. Gasoline is coming down, here at Christmas." Shalom
THE SOJOURNER 12-22-99
We're grateful for those who have made donations so that Niece can have gifts for Prison Fellowship and similarly unfortunate children at Christmas. And there's still time for any other help as we crown our year this way. Just call 665-2224 and we'll come after it. Now I understand that the big crown over the intersection of Paul Ave. and Chickasaw St. in downtown PV is being used for it's last celebration. If only that time capsule could have waited a couple of weeks to be sealed, what an addition this might have made. But size would probably have blocked any such possibility. The crown is too huge to overlook, though I'll bet some of you've never noticed it up there through the many Christmas seasons. I assume it is for the infant Messiah who will grow up to be crowned King of Kings, though He was born in a stable and laid newborn in a lowly manger. I hadn't paid attention to it myself until now, when I've heard it will no longer be in use. Perhaps a symbol no longer needed, since we're expecting His return even before that casket/capsule is to be opened fifty years hence. It could fly open along with all the graves that will when He appears. Still, that was an impressive ceremony out in Wacker Park, and the first such sealing I'd ever witnessed. All the students and teachers from PV's schools made a sizeable crowd even without those of us extras. Made me reflect on some of the very ancient tombs that have been opened by archeologists during this century giving us a look at civilizations long since vanished. And some more recent findings startle us. There was that article Sunday here on the opinion page about a "photograph of Jesus" that's been reported in an attic trunk by a Jerusalem tabloid. It was supposedly taken with a primitive type camera the Romans were claimed to have used. Ugh. Sounds to me like that shroud of Turin that some still believe to have Jesus' face print on it, though investigators have largely discredited such notions. Better to prepare to meet Him face to face in the great and final morning of His coming in glory which His first appearing at Bethlehem guarantees.
Venezuela has lost over 15,000 lives we're told now, from mud slides in the past week. News gets more and more apocalyptic as history approaches it's final climax on earth. Of the twenty some million souls down there, about 90% are Roman Catholic. What a sad season of Christmas celebration it must be with so much death and pain. Our prayers for them. And remember Guatamala a year or so ago. In contrast, our nation faces growing terrorist threat from Algerian agents. Seems that PanAm flight 109 bombed out of the sky over Lockerby Scotland a few years back was the start of global terrorism. Then the World Trade Center bombing, followed by our two embassies in Africa. Osamma bin Laden hides in Afganistan to direct radical Islamic followers in what may reach a climax on New Year's Eve. FBI agents have caught them in Seattle last week and Vermont now, but who knows where else for Y2K? I'm still suspicious that EgyptAir's fatal plunge was terrorism in the heart of that pilot who caused it. Certainly we see how Satan plants such suicidal madness even in the minds of youth so that our schools are no longer safe. Now that Oklahoma's had the Ft.Gibson shootings, those videos of young devils in Littleton CO are even more repulsive. Sunday's headline of the "Oklahoman" said that experts find a common thread running through all 14 in the news so far, narcissism. Young males of well-to-do families get so engrossed in self that they are enraged by any irritation. Drugs are not the cause we're told. In fact, they could be the prevention. So again, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph.6:12). Thus we need to put on "the whole armour of GOD" which is more than physical protection. Still our police have needed bullet proof vests for several years. When I was pastor in Waurika a decade ago, we raised funds to buy them to be worn by the sheriff's department. Now it looks like high school teachers and students need to have them too. What a world it's turned into down here below. How we need the grace of the Lord Jesus more than ever! "Maranatha" is our cry (1 Cor.16:22). All seems to focus on the Jewish state that began in 1948 in the middle east. I took this book "Who Is Israel" and showed it to the inmates at LARC Sunday evening. Some of them are astute Bible students and I told them I was glad to learn that I'm not a Gentile. Rather I'm of the Ephraimic house of Israel just as Jewish believers are of the house of Judah. If we get another millennium, Christians and Jews will find each other in allegiance to Yeshua as Messiah. Ephraim was the younger son of Joseph who was placed ahead of his older brother, Manasseh, when Jacob/Israel blessed his grandsons. Thus all ten tribes that broke away are called Ephriam, which is the other house of Israelites now being brought out from among the Gentiles by Jesus Christ (Yeshua Messiah) into the one Israel of GOD or Church, called in metaphor "His body." Shalom/Salaam
THE SOJOURNER 12-26-99
We made history six months ago at Rotary when Jeanie Menefee became our first lady president. Then last Friday she was elected a Paul Harris Fellow. That's an honor the club bestows on members most appreciated for service. But I have a vocabulary problem: how in the world is she going to be a lady fellow? I guess we'll just keep bending the language to fit new situations. I perfer that to saying Paul Harris Person the way we've done for mailman, policeman, fireman, etc. Never-the-less, she's been a great Madam President for the club. And what a delightful talk Governor George Nye g gave as he makes you so proud to be an Oklahoman. No wonder he was our state's CEO for two terms, first two termer in Oklahoma's history. I hadn't realized that Wiley Post from over at Maysville had invented the space suit, until Nye described how he used a deep sea diver's helmit for breathing as he flew to new heights in aviation. Neither had I known that there are more Sooner astronauts than from any other state. And our Shannon Lucid has the most time in out there of any person. And I myself add this note since all the Mars probe failures of late, that Donna Shirley's little "Sojourner" land rover stands as the last great success. Now the Discovery space shuttle has restored public confidence with it's repair of the Hubble telescope here in earth orbit. But I don't know if any Okies helped. It got to fly after ten delays of launching, a nearly impossible feat. But then all went so very well to work on that four billion investment. And the International Space Station may be ready for occupancy early in 2000. Haven't heard of terrorist threats out there, though they've become a bigger Y2K fear now down here than any computer glitches on New Year's Eve. A senate preparedness committee expressed doubts about our Y2K readiness, but the state department and FBI have come up with terrorism that's worse here of late. Also, be aware that Y2K is a whole year long. It only begins at midnight Dec.31. I asked the Lord for a 2000 text and He gave me Phillipians 3:13: "But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of GOD in Christ Jesus."
Now in a lighter mood I'll report that WW had a Christmas pet parade a week ago Thursay and the first place winners are shown in this week's Gazette. There was a dog with wings and halo and one dressed up like Santa. So why didn't we get Critter down there as something cute, which she always is. Yet a horse named "Precious" won "best in show." That name sounds like some little animal, but "a precious little horse?" And I never thought of horses as pets. Then could you have a camel or an elephant? Maybe that exotic animal park will be coming next time. Or perhaps I could get my Skylark in. It's a '94 model Buick getting pretty tired and worn, but is sort of a pet to me. We've been through a lot. Even felt like I was riding a motorcycle while the rear window was out all summer. And the radiator was always overheating until it got replaced. Now the heat's where I need it and there's warmth inside. I can even hear the radio again without all that wind blowing through. And yes, a pet is something you keep spending to keep isn't it. Well then my Skylark sure qualifies. And a horse that gets you around places would too. Maybe cowbows feel that way about their's. I've heard that the great itinerant preacher John Wesley expected to take his horse to heaven fully saddled. That fits with all the helpful creatures often pictured around the manger doesn't it in this season of divine Shalom/Salaam