Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
    be pleasing in your sight,
    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

• Psalm 19:14

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

• Mark 13:32

Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
    if you would only listen to me, Israel!
You shall have no foreign god among you;
    you shall not worship any god other than me.
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
“But my people would not listen to me;
    Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
    to follow their own devices.
“If my people would only listen to me,
    if Israel would only follow my ways,
how quickly I would subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes!
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
    and their punishment would last forever.
But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
    with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

• Psalm 81:8-16

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’  She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs led a little Bible study following John’s Gospel from the cross to the empty tomb and then to the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  But afterwards, we were invited to a fish fry on the beach.  We talked about Jesus with several of the locals and a little over half wanted to be baptized.  As one of them had said, “we have a whole ocean…”

After my sales calls the next day in South San Francisco, near the airport, I picked her up at the hotel and took her to Fisherman’s Wharf.  We could have much cheaper seafood, but it wasn’t at Fisherman’s Wharf.  I was thinking of a place just south of Pacifica, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific – maybe tomorrow night.

Babs was looking into my eyes with admiration.  “You were splendid last night.”

I joked, “Be careful how you say that.  We just talked to some people about Jesus.  Someone might think I took you to bed.”

Babs blushed.  Yes, by this point she blushed easily.  How an animated ‘other living’ could blush was beyond me.  “Harold, you know I meant your Bible verse recall.  We explained the Gospel easily and several of them accepted Jesus.  But I wonder why not all.  I have tried to do the same thing you did at the hotel today, but I failed miserably all day.”

I shook my head, “No, Babs.  I doubt if you failed.  But the Holy Spirit was upon us last night.  I have heard many pastors pray just before the sermon along the lines of Psalm 19:14.  For the Holy Spirit’s work to be done, we have to be willing to speak to someone else.  Thus, the words of our mouth need to be what the Holy Spirit guides us to say, but also the meditations of our hearts need to be tuned into the Holy Spirit’s wavelength.  If the Holy Spirit has not been working on the listener for some time, maybe for weeks before hand, then what we say falls on deaf ears.”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “Weeks before?  We were working our way from the Gulf Coast to here.  How could the Holy Spirit be working on their hearts before we were even in the same state?”

I chuckled, “The Holy Spirit knew we would be there, or at least someone would be there.  Remember, we were not in the perfect spot.  They guided us to the fire and the fish.  And I am not sure which persons of the Trinity knows such things.  The Father does, but Jesus admitted that He and the angels did not know when Jesus would return at the end times.  But does that mean that the Holy Spirit knew we would be there, and He prepared the hearts of those people on the beach?”

Babs said, “1. 2. 3.”  And we both sang, “I don’t know.”

I chuckled, “We have not done that in a while.  It felt good.”

Then Babs asked, “So, what do we do?  Just wait around until another miracle happens?”

I smiled, “No, we listen to God.  We study His Word.  And we keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

Babs smiled, “Can we look back on what a wonderful night it was last night?”

I shrugged, “If we did that, we might miss the wonderful night we will have next week, next month, whenever.  Jesus says in Mark 13:32 that even He does not know the day or the hour, but the next verse is a command.  Be alert.”

Babs pushed out her chest, as if it was not already out there enough.  She saluted and said, “Yes, Sir!”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

I don’t think we ate on Fisherman’s wharf.  We walked through Chinatown instead, but my wife and I did have a wonderful meal south of Pacifica, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean from atop a cliff.

And we should never be looking back at a time when the Holy Spirit was at work.  That memory should bolster us and keep us riveted on the next time.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.