Paradise

On Friday, Evangelist Thomas Engle asked how many have heard sermons on Hell. Then he said he was going to share thoughts about Paradise or Heaven. Every religion from Islam to Hinduism, to Buddhism, all have a higher plane to which their followers aspire or work toward. Mankind’s hearts and souls are hardwired to seek that place. They instinctively seek a place that is better than the world as it is in their lives.

In Christianity, it is called Heaven and is described in great detail, Revelation 21 as described by the Apostle John. He was given a special insight and a “private tour” so those who accept Christ as Savior will have knowledge of what waits for them beyond the veil of death.

We were fortunate to have the music director Doyle Robertson work with our Church’s choir for special music each night of the services. He and his wife also taught special classes for the younger children while we enjoyed the messages.

Because his schedule allowed, he and his wife stayed through Sunday evening, directing the choir. A special bonus was Doyle shared a message Sunday evening on how to praise God and what types of music was actually worshipping God.

God didn’t accept every sacrifice that was offered. Look at Cain and Abel. God rejected Cain’s gift of grain, because it was not the offering to God demanded. There was also Nadab and Abihu who were the sons of Aaron in the priestly lineage. They chose to offer incense on a “strange” fire and God rejected their offering by consuming them in fire.

True Reporting/ Fake News

The character that Thomas Engle spoke about was Isaiah and his vision of the condition of the land of Israel in his life. Israel was the apple of God’s eye and they chose to rebel against God and against his leading. Isaiah saw that his land had become evil and forsaken the LORD, provoking Him to anger and gone backward. They were a people of putrefying sores without any soundness. Israel had become a desolate country in national crisis.

God began to withhold water and bread from them, stinting in harvest and rain. Isaiah saw that mature, prudent male leadership was on the decline and that children would be princes to rule over them. Children had control over their parents and a person will force his neighbor to take care of him with a lack of responsibility. There was a lack of respect for the elder generation, little respect for authority, and a lack of reverence and respect for God.

Isaiah saw that the leaders’ teachings were causing the people to err and stray from the path. Isaiah said, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” He goes on to describe being wise in one’s own eyes, those who drink strong drink, and they take away righteousness having rotten roots.

Isaiah was seeing his country for what it had become and warning them of the impending wrath of God. What about America today? Are we seeing the same circumstances today? Are our leaders prudent? Are our children taking control of us, shunning the wisdom of the older generation? Are many people still living off their parents or forcing those who work to support their idleness?

There is definitely a lack of respect for our heritage, for the Constitution, and a lack of reverence for God. There is a lack of respect for life as well with abortions and murders. Is America in a national crisis? Is America beginning to taste God’s wrath? Will we see the error of our ways before it is too late?

Caleb: A Man That Wholly Followed God

I usually only write a post every other day, but because of Evangelist Thomas Engle’s sharing of biblical characters, I am posting so I don’t shortchange any of the men and the messages about them. Our Wednesday night lesson was on Caleb, one of the original twelve spies sent by Moses to evaluate the promised land of milk and honey. When the spies came back, they reported that it was indeed a fertile land, so fertile that one bunch of grapes was so heavy it took two men to carry it. They also reported that there were walled cities and giants in the land. The ten were focused on the problems they saw and not on the promises God made to them.

They infected the Hebrew children with an attitude of discouragement to the point they wanted to return to Egypt also saying it would have been better if God had allowed them to die in the wilderness. God gave in to their wishes and the rebellious people died in the wilderness from the forty years of wandering. Estimates say there were 600,000 men at that time and only Joshua and Caleb lived to enter the Promised Land.

Caleb took God at his word and wanted to “saddle up’” go in, and take the land. He was focused entirely on the promises of God and not on the problems of the land, the giants and walled cities. In our lives today, focusing on the problems, no matter how large they may seem instead of God’s promises, allow defeat into our lives and not lives of triumph. If we stay focused and seek God, we can gain victory.

Another point brother Engle said, just as in Caleb’s time, when we avoid the conflicts of sin, we pass those problems along to our children and grandchildren. It becomes a battle of morality left for their generation. Sin never lessens. It only grows if not dealt with, only more firmly entrenched..

But God Meant It Unto Good

Each night thus far, Evangelist Thomas Engle has shared a different character from the Bible and how their story parallels the present and much of our lives today. Last evening he shared his insight on the man named Joseph. Joseph didn’t come from a perfect family. It was a dysfunctional one. His father Jacob had two wives and children from several. Joseph was one child that Jacob cared for more than the others because he was the child from the woman he loved.

Because he was the apple of Jacob’s love, his brothers hated him to the point they planned to murder him, but instead, sold him to be a slave. Joseph ended up in Egypt as a slave to an important man. This captain prospered and raised Joseph over everything in his house. The wife of the captain falsely accused Joseph of assaulting her and Joseph was thrown into jail.

Even in prison, God didn’t abandon Joseph. God was preparing him for hard times ahead. Prisons then weren’t like today, but were dark, dirty, damp places, but even here, Joseph’s character remained strong and his uprightness remained unchanged.

The Pharaoh heard of Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams and brought him from the jail, eventually placing him over his entire kingdom. A seven year famine followed seven years of plenty. Joseph gathered from the plenty and saved it for the lean times.

Joseph’s brothers came to buy grain, not knowing with whom they were dealing. Joseph could have been vengeful, but he recognized God’s hand in it all. Later in life Joseph said, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, and brought to pass this day to save much people alive.”

Dynamic Dou Plus One

Yesterday Mt. Zion Community Church began its week of revival services. We are blessed to have Doyle Robertson as song leader and choir director and his wife who accompanies on her keyboard. He masterfully prepares our hearts and souls for the messages presented by Evangelist Thomas Engle.

Doyle has a unique way of drawing out a readiness to worship God and stir souls to hear the message. He was a music director for the Bill Rice Camp in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I can remember him from one year our church took our youth there for summer Christian camp week.

Thomas Engle is our speaker for the week and he is a marvelous speaker, bringing new views on Bible characters, sharing and showing that these men were much like you and me. He shared insights of their strengths and weaknesses and their position with God.

Sunday morning, he explained Jacob was a trickster and one who ran from his problems and how Jacob had a personal experience with God in Bethel. He knew the God of Abraham and Isaac, but it took another twenty years of running before his heart was changed and decided to follow God’s leading. It took another confrontation with God to get Jacob’s attention. He wrestled with God until God drew him near, touched him and made Jacob lame, preventing him from running away when problems occurred. Now, God could use him. The message was that many of us know God, but have been doing our own thing and not following God’s will in our lives.

Sunday evening Evangelist Engle shared the story of Job. He was a righteous man, but had a hard heart. It took the trials and troubles to bring Job to the point that he understood God more deeply and that his heart was softened.

There are services throughout the week and next Sunday morning. The Mt. Zion congregation welcomes you every evening at 7 pm. Please come to hear the messages. You are sure you will be challenged and blessed.

Emotional

Yesterday, I was in charge of the writers meeting in a side room of the Mt. Pleasant Public Library. I was in a hurry and ran off tips for better writing to share with the fellow writers. I snatched them off the printer and left the house. I needed to pick up my Granddaughter Hannah after school and watch her until her mom got off work. As I’m sitting, waiting out a rain storm, I begin to read the print out. Oh, no. It was something I’d read or had shared with me before. I thought it might have been for our group. There was no time to go back, search the internet for another topic.

It stopped storming and I was able to take Hannah home without drowning. Hannah was talking about the storm. One of her classmates tried to explain the thunder as “someone bowling in heaven.” First she asked, what is bowling, then she asked if her grandmother Cindy was bowling in heaven. I had to explain that God made the thunder and that there were no bowling lanes in heaven.

I was fortunate that none of the fellow writers had heard the tips and that was a pleasant surprise. Several of our writers shared their creations. As I read mine, I noticed it needed much more work, too much repetition, my biggest fault.

We were all impressed when a young woman who occasionally attended the meetings shared several very emotional pieces of prose. With deep felt sentiment, she described the trials that she has been having. The entire reading was intense and to a person, the other writers told her the trials had made her a much better writer. The hardship endured had poured through into her writing. I was glad that her writing was so much improved, yet my heart went out to her for her problems. Sometimes an artist doesn’t have to be like Van Gogh and cut off an ear to suffer for art.

Discovering Dad

I spent another Tuesday evening at the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society located in Stahlstown, Pennsylvania across Route 711. The Society is in the Cook Township Community Center. The speaker for the evening was Mr. Bruce Shirey. His talk was more of a slide show, sharing multiple photographs of the Pennsylvania Turnpike from several different time periods and the highway was built. He received the slides when the museum discarded them. There was a question and answer time after the presentation was finished. Many of the people in the audience either recalled the views on the slides or had relatives that collected tolls, surveyed the proposed routes, or held other positions. It was a give and take session where the audience learned much and Mr. Shirey gained new facts about the pay to drive road, Route 76.

There were stories of the bridges, the difference of exchanges then and now, and occurrences that happened on the pike. I shared the story of my dad driving hid 12 cylinder Lincoln to Shamokin, Pennsylvania to sell it, but the man said it had a cracked block. My dad was so upset, he told us he had the rear end sliding around the curves and the toll taker said to him, “I’ll just sit on this ticket for a bit or the police will be coming to your door.”

As is my norm, I arrived early and was looking over the displays. Hanging on the wall was a school photo of the students from Longwood School 1935 - 1936. I remembered my dad telling us that he went to school there. I looked closer and what to my surprise, there was someone who looked as though it might be him. The president of the society pulled it from the wall and on the reverse were the names. Yes, it was my father, Edson Carl Beck. He was standing in the back row, third from the right. Our family didn’t have photos of him as a kid. The society was generous and made a copy for me. Thank you all.