My New Mohawk Haircut

My day is brightening, praise the Lord! After 8 days in the hospital and a new haircut I am ready to go. I didn’t really need the haircut and normally I would only go to the barbershop for the haircut. But I guess the doctor felt he could cut into my head and see what he was looking for a little better if he cut off some of my hair. So now I have a new look. It is my first MOHAWK haircut. Well, really it is half a Mohawk. I kind of hate going out in public because someone may try to imitate my new look. It would probably look better if they had cut both sides, but I guess they only wanted to probe in the side of my head where the pain was. Maybe you are wondering what my diagnosis is – well so am I. I think my doctors are still wondering too. Their best GUESS is “probably not temporal arteritus, possibly an orbital venous inflammation. But we are still waiting on some of the lab cultures to mature. The course of medication is the same for both.” Anyway, I am going home and getting back to work. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes. I’m headed home with my new haircut!

Harping on Mercy

WHEN 7/11 IS NOT ENOUGH.
Many of today’s praise songs say nothing many times over. Some have called them seven – eleven songs because of their few words and endless repetitions. But in Psalms 136 the Psalmist finds occasion when 7 / 11 is not enough and he harps on the MERCY of God 26 times in this one Psalm. I guess we would have to call this a six – twenty-six song.

In verses 1-3 He begins by harping the chords of Who God is. He is the triune God of mercy. He makes use of the triplet of names: “Jehovah”, “the God of gods”, “the Lord of lords.” Then he begins to harp in verses 4-9 about what God is able to do and what He has done in creation. In the verses 10-22 he harps of God’s redemption of Israel, His works of providence in their behalf, helping them in calamities and His Grace in general toward all flesh. He concludes his harping with the reminder that this is the God from heaven Who is worthy of our praise and thanks “for his mercy endureth forever.” “When all else is changing within and around, In God and his mercy no change can be found.”

So some repetitions are not in vain. When there is a great spiritual elegancy such as can be found in this Psalm and when there is a special reason such as showing the immutable and everlasting mercies of God it is not in vain, nor do we waste our breath by harping more and more upon the wonders of God and His mercy which endureth forever. It certainly is the sweetest stanza that a man can sing. Repetitive thanks are the least that we can offer, and we ought to offer these with frequency for He is Good. Sing it again, “for his mercy endureth forever”. As for me, I am still harping …

CHALLENGING THE DARKNESS

Here is a missionary 5 feet tall, balding head, thick beard, broad shoulders and crooked legs. His overall appearance is not attractive or dignified. When he spoke it was evident he lacked polish and was somewhat rude of speech. By his own testimony he admitted that he was weak and fearful in his work. It was very apparent he was ailing physically, his body groaned under the demands they had been under.

Reviewing his missionary record shows he has served over 30 years, but he had never stayed in any one place very long. Not only had he often moved from city to city, but he had changed countries several times too. The excuses for such moves included many crisis, quick decisions and sporadic outburst of violence accompanied by several jail terms.

He said he wanted to continue his missionary career and seemed very determined and stubbornly revealed his future plans even though he was warned of the obvious dangers.

Would you support such a man? Would you encourage him to go? If you would not, you would have been making a terrible mistake. It was said of this missionary that, “in him Christ possessed an instrument of His kingdom. Other missionaries have opened a continent to the gospel, Paul opened a world.” Yes, without the Apostle Paul it is debatable if Christianity would have ever become universal. The life and work of this most extraordinary missionary is the proof that God knows where to find the man He needs and will use the man who yields his all without conforming to the pressures of peers and traditions.

Where are the “sent ones” in the twenty-first century who would emulate this great Apostle? Are there enough missionaries? Have they opened enough fields? Have they won enough converts? Have they planted enough churches? The answer is obvious. With a world population of more than 6 billion souls, a reawakening of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, not to mention the continuance of Roman Catholicism and the constant onslaught of socialism, fascism and totalitarianism, our world faces a more solemn evangelistic problem daily. This is not the time to be bound by traditions in our missionary endeavors. Jesus plainly taught that tradition would make the Word of God of none effect. (Mark 7:13) We are called upon to examine more closely our 21st century methods in the light of Paul’s 1st century methods. Men of God, whatever your place of service in this world, push forward to “challenge the darkness” in the same persistent manner in which Paul of Tarsus opened a world to the Gospel. Let not tradition, fear of men or fear of failure bind you. “THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT BOUND”. (2 Tim 2:9)