Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

• 2 Timothy 2:23

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

• Philippians 2:9-11

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
    every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

• Romans 14:10-12

“Turn to me and be saved,
    all you ends of the earth;
    for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
    my mouth has uttered in all integrity
    a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
    by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
    are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
    will come to him and be put to shame.
But all the descendants of Israel
    will find deliverance in the Lord
    and will make their boast in him.

• Isaiah 45:22-25

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

• John 10:25-30

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

• John 14:5-7

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.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs told me a dream she had several years ago, and how the dream had become the last naughty movie that she was ever in.  In trying to interpret the dream, it all seemed to point toward her new life as a Christian and the day when she can put on a wedding ring and live a normal life.

This week, she was in a horrible mood.  I had come up the stairs after she had a little Bible study with some eighty-year-old ladies.  One lady was the driver for the other one.

I knocked on her door after the other ladies left.  It was Babs first attempt at having a Bible study.  I wanted to know how it went.  She barely had the energy to say that I could come in.  She was weeping.

Babs asked, “How can you be a Christian when you do not believe in Christ?”

I shrugged, “You need to give me more than that.”

Babs said, “Mildred said that she believed in God, but, and this is the way she put it, ‘I’m just not sure about this Jesus character.’  As if Jesus was some added character in a ‘B’ movie, someone added to the story because the producer insisted on casting his no-good cousin who couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag.”

The question was out there.  I apologize now before asking it, but any inquiring mind…  You know, “Did you ever have any of those characters in your films?”

The tears stopped for a second and then she stared at me.  “Come to think of it, we had a few.  Whether they were adequate, clumsy, or downright rotten, you could work your way around the scene.  The films I was in might have lines to deliver, but that was just a set up for the action that followed.  Maybe we got all the duds from the real movie industry.  But Harold, Jesus as an added character that makes no sense in the overall theme?  Come on!  The only thing that makes any sense is Jesus.  He ties everything together because He is the central character from ‘In the Beginning’ to living happily ever after.”

I shrugged, “But Babs, part of the problem was that you had Mildred, the dreadful, in the class in the first place.  She and her husband, Damon, or maybe it was Demon and they changed it when they joined our church… They are the poster children for being messed up.  Who else did you have?”

“Two did not show up.  Lovie drove Mildred over.  It was just the three of us.  Mildred wants to continue the classes, but she does nothing but argue about how everything in the New Testament is unbelievable.  Lovie is so sweet, but she is so sweet she would never go against anything Mildred ever says.  I’m thinking the two that did not show up had heard Mildred was coming.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I served on a committee with Damon.  He was a Marine in the Korean Conflict.  He called himself a Christian, but he did not believe anything in the New Testament.  He definitely did not believe Jesus ever existed.  His idea about the Bible was that it was written by men, and men can make mistakes.  The idea of the Holy Spirit inspiring them to write the very Words of God was totally lost on him.”

With tears rolling down her face, she said, “But Lovie and Mildred volunteer for every social activity in the church.  They work in the kitchen.  They sell tickets if it is not a free event.  I thought this would be a fun way to get to know each other.  It ended up with Mildred telling me the way it had to be, as if she told God what to think.”

I nodded, “We can prepare a little, but all we can prepare is what God says in the Bible.  As soon as we quote something, that is when they will counter that the human element got that bit of Scripture wrong.  This is definitely a case like Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:23.  We should avoid a foolish argument and this couple Mildred and Damon think they have the deck stacked against any other viewpoint.  They snipe at you for everything that disagrees with their viewpoint, and when you show Scripture against their viewpoint, they say that is where the Bible is wrong or it was improperly translated.  And then they have you going from one source to the next to the next.  Is the Bible correct?  Is the Bible commentary correct?  Were the translators correct?  But as for you and me, not worrying about crazy town, we know that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.”

Babs smiled, “Yes, it says that in Philippians 2.”

I shook my head, “Not exactly.  Philippians says that every knee should bow.  In Romans 14, it says every knee will bow, but the wording is slightly different.  Both are quoting Isaiah 45, but then in the Old Testament, they never use the name Jesus, which would be Yeshua, closely related to the name Joshua, both meaning Yahweh is salvation or Yahweh saves.  I had a friend who had banners on the side of his car that said Jesus saves, but to translate Jesus, that would be Yahweh saves saves.”

Babs asked, “But Jesus identifies that He and the Father are one, doesn’t He?”

I nodded, “In John 10, Jesus talks about being the gate to the sheep pen.  This bit of teaching has two I AM statements.  Jesus says, “I AM the gate.” This means that when we enter, we are His.  And His sheep know His voice.  So, Mildred and her husband would still be confused.  But then Jesus says, “I AM the Good Shepherd.”  So Jesus is the gate to the sheep pen and the shepherd.  He has us covered either way, but we must recognize and accept Jesus.  And that bit of teaching ends with Jesus saying that He and the Father are one.  And you know what Jesus says in John 14 about who can get to the Father.”

Babs smiled, “Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one gets to the Father except through Him.  So, again, by rejecting Jesus, they are rejecting salvation itself.  Harold, I was crying and praying before you came upstairs.  I asked why they would not listen, and I heard a voice that said, ‘They did not listen to my Son either.’  But, Harold, it still hurts.”

I put my arms around her and said, “I know, Babs, I know.  Now, how is the wedding gown coming along?”

Babs smiled, “I meet the designer in a couple of days, coming to visit Gwen Quinn over at Lily the Pink.  We talked about having a normal dating experience, but this is far from normal.  We live in the same house.  We don’t have parents setting curfews.  And who ever heard the boyfriend telling the girlfriend to buy the dress before he proposes?”

I squeezed her a little tighter.  “All in good time, Babs.  I am thinking a Winter wedding.  January and February are two of the least liked months for a wedding.  Less competition.  Actually right now is now the second busiest wedding season behind Autumn.  People like Autumn weddings suddenly.  We are even going to one at Lily the Pink.  A female police officer that we have met casually is marrying a doctoral candidate in Naomi Yeggs’ department, and her best friend is marrying the desk sergeant where the detectives’ precinct is.  The desk sergeant is marrying that nice female coach at Central Baptist who has her girls act as runners for the FHAT dinners.  She is the one who sent us the invite.  If you do not have something that is autumn colors, we can shop for that.  Just as long as I do not see the wedding gown.  But January to March gives me a window.  We don’t need to send out many invitations.  I think you are planning about half the people you know in the wedding party.”

Babs scrunched her nose and giggled, “How about a wedding on 17 March?  You can wear a green tuxedo and carry a pot of gold.”

I groaned, “Babs, I am not just Dutch.  I am Friesian.  And I am not made out of money.  A pot of golden what?!”

She just giggled, but the pain from her argument with Mildred was on the back burner, at least for a while.

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 chose this argument because my wife had it with two older ladies.  The one I called Mildred preceded my wife in death and the sweet one who tried to stay out of the argument is having dementia issues and in a nursing home on the far side of the Pittsburgh area.  And my wife was the driver for both of them.  And on the way home, she pulled off the highway to cry.  That’s when she had her little conversation with God.  Actually, the name that I used for the one staying out of the argument is the name of someone who had gone to our church many years ago.  Some thought she never joined, so when she stopped coming, they had no contact information.  I miss her.  She always had a smile, and she always wore the nicest hats, women’s hats, dress hat, with matching outfits.  People may have thought her to be terribly out of place sitting down the pew from a guy in a sports shirt and jeans, but I admired her personal dress code.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.