DUSTY....

“Dusty”--the nickname for characters in decades-ago cowboy movies or shows--amuses me. Who'd name their kid after dirt? Then I checked a “baby name” book and learned it's related to the Old German for “Dustin,” meaning “valiant fighter.” I guess that would fit for cranky men-of-the-wild-west who had showdowns on Main street. But my relationship with this “dusty” picture had more to do with the angst of housework. If you noticed the picture, you already figured out the culprit.

Are you ready for the ingredients of so-called “dust bunnies”? Dust-researchers suggest they (the “bunnies,” of course) may contain (besides dust) hair, lint, flakes of dead skin, spider webs, pet dander, and pollen. Hmm, sounds like what might have gone in the potion that the wicked queen Grimhilde (in the 1937 Disney cartoon version) cooked up for the poisoned apple she offered (incognito) to pure-hearted Snow White.

“Dust” has lowly but significant symbolism in scripture. First, the Bible says we start and end as dust. God crafted the first man from “dust.” At death, we return to “dust” as our physical bodies deteriorate (1). Between the “born” and “die” dates, dust expressed emotions, as when an angry person threw it or shook it off (2). Placed on one's head, it expressed grief (3).

Another image: an old, abandoned house, full of junk, cobwebs and dust. Some Bibles get that way. They might get a dusting-off when grabbed for the trip to Sunday morning services. I remember Sunday school contests for Bible-bringing-faithfulness. But between Sundays, it was back to “dust.”

If that sounds familiar—if reading through the Bible (Genesis through Revelation) is something you've never done, and want to do, there's help. Some Christian publishers now offer Bibles “styled” with a one-year reading plan. The internet has downloadable Bible-reading plans: Free Downloadable Bible Reading Plans - Search Images Or you might do a simple division problem: divide its 1189 chapters by 365 days. That works out to about 4 chapters a day for a year's read-through.

Some parts of the Bible are slow-go, especially the prophets and Old Testament genealogies. (I just trudged through Leviticus. Besides the big lessons of “purity” and “sacrifice,” I wondered how the priests laundered their blood-stained garments!) Read for understanding, for blessing, for heart-stirring. “Study Bibles” help. So do time-honored survey books like Henrietta Mears' The Bible and What It's All About. Slow down if needed. But find the jewels, the things that “speak to me.” God-lessons.

Just don't let it gather dust.

(1) Genesis 2:7, 3:19; (2) Matt. 10:14, Acts 13:51; (3) Joshua 7:6, Job 2:12, Lamentations 2:10, Ezekiel 27:30, Revelation 18:19.

A YEAR-WORTHY WORD

Once again I have attached the word for a character quality to the bottom of my computer screen as a reminder of a personal, spiritual goal. While I have tried in past years (and decades) to focus on being gentle in times of stress and personal attacks, it just felt “right” to again have that reminder of a godly trait.

So, “gentle.” The verse I hang on it is Philippians 4:5 (NIV): “Let your gentleness be known to all.” In the original Greek, what's rendered “gentleness” in the NIV-English translation is epieikes. It has these shades of meaning: forbearance, moderation, sweet reasonableness, willingness to give up one's own way.

Knowing the circumstances under which Philippians was written helps deepen the impact of “gentleness.” The apostle Paul had founded this church (in a city located between today's Greece and the Black Sea) during his second missionary journey about AD 50. He baptized a few believers there, revisiting the congregation twice within the next few years. Then he was arrested and imprisoned in Rome. Despite his dire circumstances, he kept that church close to his pastor's heart. The letter remembered their love and help to him. But he was also worried about false teachers contaminating their faith with heresies. He probably knew how easily divisions reared their heads in young fellowships.

Putting the historical setting on Philippians helps me apply its truths to everyday life. Like the First Century believers, we're just as vulnerable to pride and stubbornness. That's true in church life as well as our private lives (which, of course, spill over into church life). Interestingly, Paul's admonition to seek “gentleness” (v. 5) came right after his plea to two church women, Euodia and Syntyche, to try to get along. We're not told what their rift was about, but it bothered Paul enough to add it to his letter of admonitions.

I've endured situations where people who claim the name of Christ could slip into the shoes of Euodia and Syntyche. Somehow, what we call “the flesh” (typically unbelief, pride and stubbornness) erode what could be healthy, nurturing relationships. My mental picture of this is a spoiled child (or adult), arms crossed, mouth pouty, declaring, “I'll do it my way and leave me alone!” Typically, “my way” is not “Christ's way.”

Unable to deal with this in person, Paul asked someone in the congregation to help these women return to a peaceful, Christ-focused relationship. I sometimes wonder what the end of that story was. Whatever it was, the lesson for me continues: practice gentleness. Even when criticized and demeaned unfairly, be gentle. Pray for that person. Let God be at work.

A 2-for-1 LIFE HINT

Take a life hint from a cook's hack.....

I used to buy a little bottle of dried onion flakes for my kitchen spice cabinet. Per ounce, it was unreasonably pricey. But why keep a half-sliced onion in the refrigerator for weeks at a time when you just need a shake or two (or five)? Then I hit on a solution as close as my blender, which had enjoyed an easy life whipping up milkshakes. Why not make “onion-shakes”? Just chop that tear-inducing onion a bit, drop into the blender, add some water, and push the button. Then, divvy the onion slurry into recipe-size chunks, frozen in cupcake papers.

Okay, cooking lesson over. (Do you plan to try that?)

But what about when life makes us cry—when we feel so wounded, so alone, so overwhelmed that our emotions pour out of our tear glands? I cried—a lot—when my parents died six months apart when I was 31 and still single. And when 45 years later my husband died. And...and...

Loss is hard. But loss shapes us in one of two ways. We become bitter. Or better.

One of my former pastors often addressed the truth that being a Christian didn't mean a free ticket to Happyland. Those who aspire to a godly life, to be significant instruments in God's hand, must learn to trust God in hard times. To be “cut down to size.” To back that up, my pastor often emphasized this memorable quote from A.W. Tozer: “It's doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply” (from chapter 39 of Tozer's book, Root of the Righteous).

In other words, hardship under God's oversight teaches the humility and trust essential to be a useful instrument in God's hand. We can remain a big old onion, and eventually rot away. But to be used, we need to let life's “cutting” experiences—the tear-producers—re-purpose us in a good way. God's way. And then to let Him use us as “spiritual seasoning” to the world we live in.

WHITER THAN SNOW

 

A rain-snow mix has been pouring all day as I write this blog. Our landscape, recently dull brown and rust with fall and winter's chill, is now softly white-sculptured by millions of snowflakes. Pretty to look at, a chore to shovel—but I got out there and cleared the driveway and sidewalks. While doing so, the “snow event” got me thinking about the hymn with the line, “whiter than snow.”

Yes, it snows in the Holy Land. More on that later. The hymn connects with the adultery of King David. Though lauded as a warrior and leader, but he also had a sin problem. He lusted after the wife of one of his faithful soldiers. Their tryst resulted in a pregnancy. Seeking to cover it up, David had her soldier-husband placed at high risk in a battle to conveniently have him killed. Then he took the new widow home to add to his wife collection.

David's sin found him out, and he was chastised by one of the prophets. That's the back story of Psalm 51, where David comes off his throne of pride and confesses his sin. In repenting, he asked God to spiritually wash him and make him “whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). On this side of Christ's bloody death on the cross, we understand the red-to-white analogy. The cross (red)—confessing our sins (black) and accepting God's forgiveness—is the only way to turn black to white, sin to “forgiven.”

As an aside, when David wrote, “Purge me with hyssop” (Psalm 51:7), he was referencing the Leviticus 14:1-8 ceremony using hyssop (a mint plant) and running water to cleanse a leper: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

The prophet Isaiah, in the same way, preached about sin and confession as he reached out to wayward Israelites: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)

If your idea of Israel is a warm, arid land, visit this site with lots of Holy Land snow photos: snow in israel - Search Images .Then consider the snowiest cities in the U.S. snowiest place in usa - Search Images 

But this isn't a blog about snow. It's about a little-known man—occupation “postal clerk” in Philadelphia (and later in Washington D.C.) in the mid 1800s—who connected winter's white with scripture's memorable description of forgiven sin. James Nicholson (1828-1876) immigrated from Ireland and was active in Philadelphia's Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church for about twenty years. At church, he led singing and did evangelistic work.

His poem about sin and snow came to the attention of musician William J. Kirkpatrick, who attended the same church. Their combined efforts in matching words and tune would give us the enduring hymn that begins, “Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole” and includes the chorus, “Whiter than snow...”

That hymn, and another by Nicholson (“There's a Beautiful Land on High”) were included in Ira Sankey's 1878 “Sacred Songs and Solos.” Containing about 200 tunes written or arranged by Sankey, it was translated into many languages, with worldwide sales exceeding 50 million. Truly, God can accomplish extraordinary things through faithful, ordinary people. And no doubt Nicholson would have considered himself very “ordinary”--just an Irish immigrant, post office worker, who studied and wrote about birds and forensic (crime-scene) medicine--and wrote a memorable hymn.

Be reminded of the hymn's message through this You-tube video:

Bing Videos

ENDINGS

The cliched cartoons portraying December 31 through January 1st usually picture two figures. One's the bent-over, long-bearded old guy slumping off with his curved-blade scythe. The other: a pert, diapered infant toddling into the drawing. “All of life's a circle”--lyrics to a pop group's hit--come to my mind....until I'm reminded of how scripture pictures the transitions of life. It's not about an “old guy” going off life's stage. It's about the eternal One who formed us, purposed us, and has marked the day when “now” will become our “eternity”--“which” eternity being our choice.

I shake my head over how a midnight alcohol-fueled hoopla around a clock in New York City gets such big coverage. Instead of parties, a reconsideration of purpose should propel us into a new year. E.M. Bounds, author, attorney and minister (1835-1913) considered these issues, too. In Heaven: a Place, a City, a Home (Revell, 1921, p. 125) he wrote:

Heaven ought to draw and engage us. Heaven ought to so fill our hearts and hands, our manner, and our conversation, our character and our features, that all would see that we are foreigners, strangers to this world...Heaven is our native land and home to us, and death to us is not the dying hour, but the birth hour.

I rediscovered this Bounds quote in a book by a grieving father, Levi Lusko, Through the Eyes of a Lion (W Publishing Group, 2015, p. 171). Lusko, whose daughter died in childhood, wrote of life's brevity: “Far better than living in denial about the fact that our lives will end is facing up to it and living in light of it. The only people who are truly ready to live are those who are prepared to die.”

Lusko also reminded readers that Heaven isn't just about “getting through the gates” through faith in Jesus Christ. What happens in Heaven is connected to what happened on earth. He quoted 19^th century missionary-to-India and author Amy Carmichael: “We will have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, and only a few hours before sunset in which to win them.”

Half a century ago, “All of Life's a Circle” topped pop music charts. Perhaps that's true in why we call birth to death a “cycle of life.” But God's perspective is linear, not cyclical: birth to eternity—with two choices for the route. One ignores God or just gives Him lip service. The other is eternally purposed.