Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Blessed are you, Israel!
    Who is like you,
    a people saved by the Lord?
He is your shield and helper
    and your glorious sword.
Your enemies will cower before you,
    and you will tread on their heights.”

• Deuteronomy 33:29

On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.

• Numbers 33:50-53

Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

• I Kings 14:22-23

Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.

• 2 Kings 16:2-4

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

• 2 Corinthians 10:5

The Boilerplate

My wife took a Bible Study in 2011.  (There was a note in the study guide that identified September 2 and that the study was being held on Friday mornings, or I might not have ever figured out what year.)  My wife had become a Christian in 2000. She greatly respected the pastor’s wife who was also a pastor.  The pastor’s wife spent time as the interim associate pastor, and this Bible study might have been during that time.

My wife passed away in March 2023, and I found this study guide as I was cleaning up.  It is a Beth Moore study guide.  Most of the questions are close-ended, mostly fill-in-the-blank.  But my wife was eager to learn.  She wrote her thoughts in the margins, sometimes encouraged to do so by Beth Moore.  I will use her comments as I did once before, calling this a “with a little help” series in that my wife contributes.  There is more to follow in that she wrote Scriptures and prayers in a notebook.  Probably what she found in her personal Bible study, giving her encouragement through the long illness that took her life.

So, instead of writing about a topic at random, I am going to write on my wife’s comments in the Study Guide.  It may follow the study guide topics, but it may not.

Discussion on this topic

What do you think is the difference in casual thoughts and captivating thoughts?

“Casual thoughts are fleeting and captivating thoughts won’t let you become free, a form of idolatry.”

• My wife’s response

In reading this, I get an insight into the changes my wife had.  She never spoke to me about it.  I suppose, she wanted to prevent a casual thought from becoming captivating.

Can you think of a situation when you were betrayed and the casual thought could become captivating?

“My sister-in-law spreading hateful things to her family about me.  I found this out because 2 of her family came to me and told me so.”

• My wife’s response

And as a result, my wife and I were virtually eliminated from the will, and the sister-in-law inherited the lion share of everything.

Can you think of a situation when a physical attraction became a captivating thought?

“Attracted to someone you idolize them in everything.”

• My wife’s response

I doubt if that was me, but the only competition that I had with her when we were married about seven years (the “itch” timeframe), she became obsessed for some time with Rick Springfield.  She admitted decades later that I aged better.

Can you think of any captive thoughts that you recognize as a captor but you water them and care for them?

“Health, family.”

• My wife’s response

My wife was so ingrained into the Asian culture and the immigrant culture that she was extremely captivated by family.  Family for her was more important than breathing.  And although she had not seen any of the hardships regarding her health, she knew enough about her conditions at the time of this Bible study to know what was coming, but at the time she both knew she could do nothing about those issues and she knew she could do no good for those issues by worrying – but she did.

In reading Numbers 33:50-53 and 1 Kings 14:22-23, what is meant by “high places”?

“Evil worshipping of other gods and idols.”

• My wife’s response

And in adding 2 Kings 16:2-4, what else?

“Human sacrifice.”

• My wife’s response

And why have we failed in dealing with our high places?

“We haven’t dealt with it and truly given it up to the Lord.  Children see us as examples and therefore forget about what the real truth is.  (We’ve failed them as examples.)”

• My wife’s response

My wife bracketed this following quote from Beth Moore.  She made no comment.

“I’ll never forget realizing that a person I felt I couldn’t forgive had become an idol to me through my unforgiveness.  Humanly speaking, I didn’t even like the person, yet Satan seized my imaginations until the whole situation stole my focus and therefore became idolatrous to me.”

• Beth Moore, Breaking Free

Was my wife still thinking about the sister-in-law or was she thinking about my mother who maneuvered everything so that the sister-in-law got everything, and we got some loose change when my mother died.  The money is not the important thing, but we had no home of our own.  And my mother hung onto life long enough to do as much damage to us as she could.  My mother had been ill for a long time.  Everyone expected her to be the first to go, but…

My wife found a way to forgive them.  When we were struggling to make ends meet, she would say that she would rather eat bread and water to get by than to live next door to someone who was “crazy” and always had a loaded shotgun.

That had become her way of forgiving.  My mother had done us a favor by leaving us in poverty hundreds of miles from family.  And about the time that she did this Bible study, I had gotten out of debt the hard way, paying everything off rather than a debt relief lawsuit.  I now stay well within my means unless I drive to Tennessee to see the grandchildren, and within a month or two I am back to the normal level in our meager assets.

We should never rely on earthly friends and family.  Their betrayal may lead to captivating thoughts, holding us captive, stealing our Joy.  But we can rely on God.  And my wife had made that her resolution.

We talked a lot, but some of the things that she shared were in riddles, and over a year and a half after her passing, I am just now unravelling some of the mystery.  But I am sure God was working in her life and now she is with God in Paradise.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory