Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, has decided that now that I am not off having adventures by chasing storms, warning people about the storm that is coming, and helping the people who are devastated by them, I should write about my Sunday School Class.  She wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

Menzie helped with my hair since my husband, Easy, was on his last storm chase before the baby comes, and then he is off for at least two weeks after.  We are pseudo employees of the Storm Chasing Channel, since we are still undergrads.  B.B. is with him along with Home Wrecker and some freshmen.  They would be back tomorrow.  They needed to get home for the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

I looked around the room.  I could not see Blaise, but Margie was giggling.

I kept looking.  I asked, “Now where is Blaise?  I have something for him to do. …  Hmm.”

From beyond Margie, I heard a high-pitched fake voice, “I think he went to the bathroom.”

I nodded, “Okay, we can wait.”

Blaise emerged from the nap room.  “Okay!  I’ll read the long one.”

I shook my head, “Nope, I just needed to take attendance.”  Everyone laughed.

I led us in prayer.  Emmett had his baritone, Dr. Ben Casey, back from storm chasing.  He chose The Love of God is greater far.  At least the hymn was only about a hundred years old.

I started with an explanation.  “When we went through God’s Love, we were looking primarily at the Old Testament to show that God’s Love was evident from the very beginning, but we did not look at the character of God as being the very definition of love.  We did not plumb the depths.”

Michael asked, “I have heard that expression.  What does it mean?”

I smiled, “Great question.  Do we have any takers on answering it?”

Kevin raised his hand.  He said, “A good way to explain it is to look at the old steamboats that went up and down the Mississippi River.  When they would be approaching a sandbar or coming up to a dock, they would drop a plumb line over the side.  A plumb line has a heavy weight on the end so that the river current won’t affect it.  That way they knew whether the river depth was safe to travel.  The line had markings on it.  A fathom was six feet.  Because the boat was heavy it sank into the water.  They could only guarantee safe passage, if the water depth was two fathoms, but they had an old way of saying two.  One of these young men who watched the line go down was a young man named Samuel Langhorne Clemens.  They would call out the marks on the string.  Everyone gave a sigh of relief when the young man yelled something that meant that the plumb line had sunk past the marking for two fathoms deep and it was safe to keep going.  When the young man, Sam Clemens became a newspaper writer, he remembered how that call made people feel safe, “Mark Twain!”

I smiled, “Thank you, Kevin.  You gave a science lesson, a history lesson, and defined the term.  That was great.  Now, for the first Scripture, could you read the first Scripture?”

Kevin (1 John 4:7-21): Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

“Thank you, Kevin,” I said. “We are commanded to love, but where does the love come from?”

Arabella said, “From God?”

I replied, “Were you asking or saying it?”

Arabella tried to shrink.  “I guess I was saying it.”

I smiled, “Good because you are right.  And someone else, how did God show that love?”

Darrell said, “He sent His Son.”

I nodded, “Right!  So, if we do not have love for our brother and sister, do we really have God’s love in our hearts?”

A few people said “No.”

Emmett gave Arabella a side hug, and Sophie got up and walked across to her brother, Blaise.  She said, “Love you, Bro.”

I sighed, “That’s so sweet.  We are making progress.”

Sophie looked at me and snarled, “I will have you know that I tell my brother that I love him once each month.  I am a little off schedule, but if I say that twice in a month’s time, he gets conceited.”

Blaise stood up and kissed Sophie on the cheek. “I love you too, Sis.”

They both sighed and nearly said, “Glad that’s over until next month” at the same time.

Jochebed (1 Corinthians 13, the entire chapter, in French)

Jochebed said, “But Georges and I are the only ones who speak French.  No one will understand.”

I shrugged, “It is so beautiful in English.  I just want to know what it sounds like in the ‘language of love.’”

Everyone smiled and several cheered her on.

Jochebed (1 Corinthians 13, Louis Segond): “Quand je parlerais les langues des hommes et des anges, si je n’ai pas la charité, je suis un airain qui résonne, ou une cymbale qui retentit.
Et quand j’aurais le don de prophétie, la science de tous les mystères et toute la connaissance, quand j’aurais même toute la foi jusqu’à transporter des montagnes, si je n’ai pas la charité, je ne suis rien.
Et quand je distribuerais tous mes biens pour la nourriture des pauvres, quand je livrerais même mon corps pour être brûlé, si je n’ai pas la charité, cela ne me sert de rien.
La charité est patiente, elle est pleine de bonté; la charité n’est point envieuse; la charité ne se vante point, elle ne s’enfle point d’orgueil,
elle ne fait rien de malhonnête, elle ne cherche point son intérêt, elle ne s’irrite point, elle ne soupçonne point le mal,
elle ne se réjouit point de l’injustice, mais elle se réjouit de la vérité;
elle excuse tout, elle croit tout, elle espère tout, elle supporte tout.
La charité ne périt jamais. Les prophéties prendront fin, les langues cesseront, la connaissance disparaîtra.
Car nous connaissons en partie, et nous prophétisons en partie,
mais quand ce qui est parfait sera venu, ce qui est partiel disparaîtra.
Lorsque j’étais enfant, je parlais comme un enfant, je pensais comme un enfant, je raisonnais comme un enfant; lorsque je suis devenu homme, j’ai fait disparaître ce qui était de l’enfant.
Aujourd’hui nous voyons au moyen d’un miroir, d’une manière obscure, mais alors nous verrons face à face; aujourd’hui je connais en partie, mais alors je connaîtrai comme j’ai été connu.
Maintenant donc ces trois choses demeurent: la foi, l’espérance, la charité; mais la plus grande de ces choses, c’est la charité.”

The ladies in the room acted like they were swooning.

Jochebed (1 Corinthians 13): “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

I smiled, “Thank you for getting my heart racing, and thanks for the translation into English, too.  But this is saying how God loves us and how we should love with God’s love inside us, but do we?”

Sophie grumbled, “I had a hard time kissing my idiot brother on the forehead and saying a few nice words.  Isn’t this one of those unreachable goals?”

I asked, “Emmett, you seem to love your sisters.  You just heard your girlfriend say that she thinks the definition of love in first Corinthians 13 is an unreachable goal.  How do you respond?”

Emmett said, “I don’t know if it is unreachable or not, but if we don’t try, we will never get close.  I look at my parents and Sophie’s parents.  They have had a long time to give and take.  They trust each other.  They protect each other.  They persevere next to each other.  Love never fails, but we do.  Sophie, I will always love you.  But I will make mistakes.  Our biggest mistake though is not trying to live up to this chapter in the Bible.  And not just between the two of us, but with our families, friends, and others that we meet.”

Joseline (a.k.a. Amazon) was fanning herself, “Wow!  That was better than Jochebed reading the chapter in French.  Just add the right mood lighting and on one knee with a ring in his hand…  Perfect!”

Zuzka (1 John 4:18): “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

I nodded, “God has commanded us to love one another.  With faith, God gives us the power and the desire to love one another.  So, why would we have any fear in obeying God’s commandment to love?  That is it for this week.  Let’s end with our benediction.  Everyone bow your heads in prayer.  ‘“‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”’” (Numbers 6:24-26)

And everyone said, “Amen.”

I said, “I will send the Bible references for next time, but we will move on to God’s omnipresence.”

Arabella asked, “What’s that?”

I rolled my eyes.  “God is everywhere, kiddo!”

Credits

I am using suggested Bible verses from The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes.  My two volumes have a Study Guide by David E. Fessenden, which is designed for each chapter of Tozer’s book.  I may review those chapters to keep Stinker from straying too much, but the nature of her class is that the class tends to stray anyway.  I am not using Rev. Tozer’s comments directly.  “God is Love” is the last attribute in the second volume.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.