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.

Menzie, B.B. and I did not spend much time in the lady’s room.  I had done a decent job on my own hair.  That should have given me confidence, but somehow, I did not feel so powerful today.  God is omnipotent, and since He is within us, we can do great things for His glory and within His will.  This Sunday school class was growing, so I felt confident this was God’s will.  Maybe it was my shaky faith.

I came out to see that we had a full house.  I could not tell at first glance if anyone was missing.  And there she was in the back corner, almost hiding.  Pink Lady, my auntie, was sitting in on the class.  I nearly turned around to let someone else teach.  Joseph was my go-to if I was out of town.  He was almost a seminary graduate.  I was a girl that was not ready to be twenty-one and considered an adult.  Then again, I was a mother of a stormy two-month-old, named Stormie.  I had Stormie in the carrier, and she looked up at me and smiled.  I prayed, “Okay, Lord, if Stormie thinks I can do it, and I have you to take over my mouth and say the right thing if I screw up, how can I fail?”

I asked, “Do we have any visitors here?  I want you to feel welcome if we do.”

Arabella laughed, “I don’t know of any visitors.  Do you see any visitors, Michael?”

Michael breathed in a deep breath, and then only said, “Nope.”

I shook my head, “I don’t see Joseph here.  Do we have a pink-haired person who can lead us in prayer?”

Pink Lady huffed, “You knew I was back here hiding all along.  So, de niece is here, where is de nephew?”

At that, the door opened to the entry way.  Easter Yeggs, my hubby, and Joseph Jones, B.B.’s hubby, came in the door carrying bags of cookies and handing them to everyone.  The bakers at Mabel’s old house were the bakery’s cookie experts.  I noticed that all the cookies had T.A.N.Y. piped on the cookie.

I asked, “Do we have anyone named Tany in the class?”

Pink said, “No, the Super Bowl was last week, and this is going to be Mabel’s tradition until Tracy ever makes it to the Super Bowl.  T.A.N.Y. stands for ‘There’s Always Next Year.’  So, everyone, enjoy the cookies.  They’re on the house.”

With Joseph in the room, he led us in prayer.

Emmett then led us, with his selected singers in a Gaither song, He Touched Me.  The boys must have been listening to the Gaither Vocal Band recordings.  Dr. Ben did his usual baritone thing, but Emmett and Samuel belted out the tenor.  Michael sang the melody, along with Arabella, while Menzie switched to alto, since she has more range.

I even applauded.  “Not only are you singing more energetically, your harmony is great.

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

I smiled, “We are covering God’s Omnipotence.”

Arabella asked.  “Mr. Dictionary, please.”

Easy looked perplexed, “Arabella usually uses more words than that.”  She giggled.  “Okay, I think Stinker brought this up before, but anything starting with ‘omni’ means ‘all, with no limitation.’  You could say ‘to an infinite amount.’  So, then you add ‘potent’ and some people say that one fragrance or another is potent, meaning that the fragrance is strong.  So, God’s omnipotence is that God has unlimited power and strength.”

I snickered, “And as we start reading these Bible verses, look for the word ‘almighty’.”

Arabella giggled, “Okey Dokey, Aunt Jemima.”

Blake (Genesis 17:1): “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.”

Blake said, “Okay, I see the word almighty, but if Abram is a man like us, why does God ask him to walk blameless?”

I asked, “Have you ever done anything that the court system in Tracy would blame you with and you might go to jail?”

Blake shrugged, “Yeah.”

I sighed, “Bad question.  Since you have become a Christian, is there anything you have done that might send you to jail?”

Blake said, “No, but I still sin.”

I smiled, “Blameless, in the right context is that we live a life as sinless as possible, but when dealing with others, we are focused on showing them love so much that no one would blame us.  Blameless is not sinless, but it is looking blameless around others so that we can shine the Light that is within us.  We cannot be blameless on our own, only when we trust God.”

Arabella giggled, “Can I blame you, Aunt Jemima?  You just defined ‘blameless.’  That’s Mr. Dictionary’s job.”

I faked a tear.  “Oh, dear, I apologize.  Will you forgive me?”

Arabella laughed, “Yeah, next Bible verse!”

I asked, “And who is teaching the class?”  Arabella scrunched her head between her shoulders and giggled.

Penny (Matthew 19:26): “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

Penny said, “This does not say ‘almighty’, but it says that God can do the impossible.  So, when Blake works out with the weights, he can lift a lot of weight.  But there is a limit of what he can do.  God has no limit.  Is that right?”

I nodded, “That summarizes this verse very well, Penny.  Thank you.”

Georges (Luke 1:37): ^“For no word from God will ever fail.””

Georges rubbed his chin.  “Hmmm.  I am seeing a connection here.  In the Creation story, God spoke everything into existence.  That is pretty mighty in my thinking.  So, when God speaks, it is going to happen without fail.”

I said, “It’s a good thing that the class has a detective when we need to detect something.”

Mama Jochebed (Revelation 19:6): “Et j’entendis comme une voix d’une foule nombreuse, comme un bruit de grosses eaux, et comme un bruit de forts tonnerres, disant: Alléluia! Car le Seigneur notre Dieu tout puissant est entré dans son règne.”  That is the Louis Segond.  Now for your vulgar English language in the NIV. “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
    For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”

No one said anything, but Pink Lady smiled and shook her head.

Jochebed said, “I suppose the great multitude are angels.  And there are a lot of angels.  And they all say God is almighty.  One angel you may argue with at your own peril, but a multitude.  You are not brave to argue with that many angels.  You would be crazy.”

I winked, “I am sure you are right.”

Sally Mae (Psalm 62:11): “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: “Power belongs to you, God,”

Sally Mae said, “So, whatever power is in the world, God owns it.  And He only let’s some people use it?”

I snickered, “I guess you could say that.  The other half of those two things is that we are rewarded according to what we have done.  But we have been looking up Bible verses since this study began.  I want to quote a verse.  ‘For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ (2 Peter 1:21)  So, the Holy Spirit guided the prophets and the writers of the Bible to speak the truth about God.  We can rely on the Bible to be truthful.”

Angus (Hebrews 1:3): “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

Angus said, “Here we have the Son of God using His powerful word, like the Father used in Creation.  So, I suppose whatever person of the Trinity, they are equally powerful.”

I nodded, “I would think so.”  I looked around the room.  “I have two verses instead of one for the last reading.  Who to choose.  Such a hard decision.”

Blaise said, “She’s going to pick me.  Aunt Pink, she picks on me for the long readings.”

Margie said, “Blaise, she picks on you because she likes to hear you whine, and she knows you will do a good job.  Aunt Jemima, if you have not figured it out.  Blaise and I are still going on perfect scores for the third year of high school, but he gets there by simply knowing more than anyone else.  I get there by understanding what the teacher wants us to learn.  It works the same way in the lab.  He goes in ten directions to solve the problem.  I take the right one.”

There were a mix of laughs and groans around the room.  “Ouch!” I said, “Margie, to mend the relationship, you may want to apologize.”  Margie only giggled and kissed Blaise on the cheek.  “And Blaise, Sweetie, if you knew what was coming, you could have volunteered and you would have come off more noble.”

Blaise (Matthew 11:16-17): “’To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: ‘“We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.” ‘ ”

Blaise asked, “So, what does that have to do with God being powerful?”

Easy said, “Nothing, Bro, that verse is about us.  In all these weeks of looking at the attributes of God, have we seen those attributes in display as we go about our daily tasks, or have we been like children playing in the marketplace?  When God provided a tune to dance to, did we dance?  If God provided a dirge, would we mourn?  In a way, Jesus is telling the people of that time and us in our time that we need to notice God.  He is powerful, and we miss out on that power because we do not notice.”

I said, “I love it when my Hubbie concludes the lesson.  Besides, I sense our bus alarm will come over soon.  She does not want to be late to her Sunday school class.”

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)

Pink Lady came over after everyone filed out of the room.  “My sweet niece, the Stinker, I loved this class.  You have a strange dynamic with some of the class.  Most people do not offer a comment in hopes that Arabella will say something silly.  Is Arabella still having girl talks with Dr. Ellie?”  I nodded, and Aunt Pink smiled. “Blaise was put down by Margie and I think that is growth on her part.  I will talk to Joseph about it, to get his reaction, not to have him betray a counselling trust.  But Blaise can be a pill, too smart for his own good and too young to be in high school with a girlfriend that is both popular and athletic.  They are making it work, though.  But my heart has been warmed by the love in the room.  I am glad they were not ill at ease due to my presence.  Scrambled and I would enjoy coming, but we do not want to change the chemistry you have with the class.  Keep up the good work, dear.”

She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead.

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.

Some of this feels familiar in that I think my wife and I discussed something similar.

And here is He Touched Me sung by the Gaither Vocal Band.  This must have been between 2009-2014.  The band consisted of Michael English, David Phelps, Wes Hampton, Mark Lowry, and Bill Gaither.  But since this song became popular about the time that I became a Christian, I get goosebumps each time I hear it.  And two Gaither songs, two weeks in a row…  Did someone get Emmett a Gaither Song Book for Christmas?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.