Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie 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.

Dr. Ben, Dr. Ellie, and Michael Rowe Casey were back from Punxsutawney, PA.  Michael had gotten Arabella a goofy groundhog cap.  She liked it because it was warm and covered her ears.  Really, her anxiety was only for three days because he wasn’t there.  Now he was home, and all was righted, well, as right as two thirteen-year-olds could manage.

After my primping team got my hair straight, we emerged to see Arabella sitting in our little choir, head scrunched between her shoulders like someone had just dropped an ice cube down her back, but she was grinning and giggling.  She was warming up for what she might do to take over the class.

I asked, “And Arabella, what is on that fertile mind of yours today?”

“What?!” Arabella asked, “I don’t have anything on my mind.  Whatever would you be thinking?”

Emmett added, “Yeah, she went to the hospital this week to have a CT scan done.  They didn’t find anything!”

I gasped, “Arabella, I didn’t know you were sick.  That’s terrible.”

Arabella huffed, “No, Emmett is joking.  They do a CT scan of your head and they find nothing.  Like – no brain!”

After I snickered, “Emmett that was naughty, but it was pretty funny too.”

After everyone came in, with no further jokes from either Dalton, Joseph led us in prayer.

Emmett then led us, with his selected singers in a Gaither song, Jesus, What a Lovely Name.  Since it wasn’t that familiar to our group, we let Menzie, Arabella, Michael, Ben, and Samuel sing the tune.  Since the Caseys flew back the day after Groundhog Day, they had been practicing this song every evening this past week.  The class became enthralled by their harmony, no one joined in, even though Emmett had printed the words for everyone to sing along.

After the applause, Emmett said, “Okay, you heard the tune.  So this time, when we do it again, we would like for you to sing along.”  So, we tried to follow along the next time through.

Then, Samuel asked, “What attribute of God are we studying today, Aunt Jemima?”

I smiled, “We are still covering God’s Eternalness, but this time, we are looking at the Eternalness of Jesus.”

Arabella asked.  “Isn’t Jesus one of the persons of the Trinity?  So, if we covered that God is eternal last week, doesn’t that mean that all three persons are eternal?”

I snickered, “Well, you might think so, but some people can’t get over the fact that Jesus was born of Mary.  For us puny humans, that is our beginning, but like you said, The Godhead is Three in One.  They were all here from the beginning.  So, let’s get started with the verses we read last week.”

Kevin (Isaiah 57:15): “For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

I said, “And as B.B. pointed out last week, the lowly and contrite is at the far end of the scale from the high and exalted.  God is everywhere in between, and He lives forever.”

Joseline (Psalms 90:1-2): “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

And Jos added, “And like Sally Mae said last week, the term ‘all generations’ is the entirety of our known time on this earth, but the rest of these verses points to beyond that.  God was everlasting to everlasting.  So, everlasting past to everlasting future.  But something tells me that you are about to throw us a curveball.”

I waved a hand dramatically, “Me?  Curveball?  No, that’s Margie’s specialty.”

Dr.Ben (Genesis 1:1-2): ^“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Darrell said, “That was my verse last week, but I only read the first verse.  The curveball is that you read beyond that to include the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.  I guess that’s the Holy Spirit, right?”

I laughed, “Yes!  That ties the Holy Spirit in with Creation.  So, the Holy Spirit was there before Creation.  Now, for Jesus.”

Dr. Ellie (John 1:1-5): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Dr. Ellie, a.k.a. Home Wrecker, my boss the rest of the week, said, “So, John called Jesus ‘the Word’ here and when God spoke everything into existence in Genesis 1, Jesus, the Word, was right there, nothing made unless Jesus put His fingerprints on it.”

I winked, “Right, I like that fingerprint idea.  When we see the complexity of even a single cell organism, we see God’s fingerprints all over everything.  But Genesis 1:2 speaks of the Spirit.  John 1:1-5 speaks of Jesus.  The Trinity has always been the Trinity from the beginning.  But let’s go on…”

Blake (John 1:14): “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Blake asked, “But I am new to this Christian thing.  Jesus is this powerful dude who can create the universe and then a few thousand years later is back to being a fertilized egg inside Mary’s womb.  That sure sounds like if it is not the beginning, it’s a do-over.”

I snickered, “I like that, too, Blake.  But it’s not a do-over…”

Penny (Philippians 2:6-8): “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

Penny said, “There’s a lot here.  I’m like Blake.  I am new to all this.  Please, teacher, explain it.”

I snickered, “Wow!  Teacher!”

Jos laughed, “Okay, Stinker, teach us something then.  You threw a few curveballs.  Now send the money pitch down the center of the plate.”

I said, “You sound like you know something about softball or baseball.”

Jos smirked, “I read!  And Kevin likes having the game on in the background while we study.  I have no idea why.”

Kevin replied, “I have told you.  I want something mindless to drown out background noises, like Stormie crying on the other side of the hall.  With music, I tend to sing along.  With the news, they might accidentally say something thought provoking.  But a sports announcer explaining what you can clearly see on your own with your own eyes, how more mindless can that be?”

I thought that the athletes in the room might be offended by his remark, but the ones that laughed the hardest were Menzie, Sophie, and Margie, the three softball players in the class.

I sighed, “Okay then, to help Penny out a little.  God was the powerful dude Blake described.  He had everything and He lived in the highest heaven, but then He made Himself nothing to enter Mary’s womb.  He was not really nothing, but they had not invented microscopes yet.  Was he a single cell that entered Mary or was He a sperm that penetrated her egg?  Does that part matter?  To the Apostle Paul, that was close enough to ‘nothing’ to be nothing.  I heard, or I read, a comment from a theologian or maybe C.S. Lewis, since many argue that he was not a theologian, any who!  God created the heavens and the earth by just speaking them into existence.  He created our atmosphere on earth and every living plant and animal on earth.  Since he could do all that, going from a fully grown God, the likeness of which man was made, and then making Himself, the Son that is, to exist as a fertilized egg would be child’s play.  It is probably the most significant miracle, but compared to creating the universe from nothing?  If everything is possible with God, being a fully functioning God and then being an egg in Mary’s womb that divides, means that life is still living.  There is no new beginning.  I love Blake’s ‘do-over,’ but Jesus had no do-over.  He continued just in a different form.  Remember, God is a spirit.  Jesus took on flesh.  Let’s move on.”

Easy (Hebrews 2:14-18): “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Easy said, “So, Jesus can be seen, especially in the book of Hebrews, as our prophet, our priest, and our king.  He could not do that unless He was fully human and fully God.  Being half and half does not cut it.  It’s all or nothing.  Just like us when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it does not work unless it is all or nothing.”

I looked at my husband with a strange look.  He asked, “What?!”

I said, “What just happened?  My easygoing husband just became a holy roller.  Will we hear fire and brimstone next?”

He slumped his shoulders.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I wiped my forehead.  “And now we are back to the old Easy.  I love you, Sweetie.”  I blew him a kiss.

Georges (Galatians 4:4): “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,”

Georges said, “So, God the Father sent Jesus.  It doesn’t say that He spoke Jesus into Mary’s womb, but by some mechanism that happened, so that Jesus had no beginning when He became an embryo, or even a zygote.” Jochebed, who was much further along than a zygote in her womb, looked at her husband with wide-eyed amazement.  Georges shrugged, “Hey, my wife is pregnant with our child.  She runs the nursery.  She is a registered midwife.  I’ve been reading up on things.”

Jochebed smiled and said, “Et j’aime mon mari. Tu me surprends tous les jours.” They kissed.

I said, “Hey, you two!  Get a room!”

Darrell asked, “But what about at the point when Jesus died?”

Sophie (2 Corinthians 5:6-8): “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

Sophie said, “So, if our soul does not die when our body dies, Jesus continued on.”

I replied, “Exactly!  We should not fear death.  When our body breathes its last, that same moment, our eyes will open to the glory of God.  We will be present with Him.  So, Jesus always was, and He always will be.  And now when people ask you how could Jesus be fully grown in the beginning and then a baby, you have an answer.”

Blake said, “Yeah, we’ll tell them to come see you.”

I groaned, “Oh, brother!”

Lauren came over from the play area and patted Menzie on the knee, “Mommie!  The buses!”

I smiled, “As we have been doing, 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.”

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.

In Sunday school, I have had this argument about the birth and death of Jesus terminating any thought of eternalness many times, mostly by people saying they are Christians.  They get angry when you say that it was Jesus, in a Christophany who negotiated how many righteous in Sodom would be required to not destroy the city in Genesis 18, just as one example.  If Jesus created everything with His Father, He was not a zygote.

And here is Jesus, What a Lovely Name sung by the Gaither Vocal Band.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.