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.

I had such a crowd in the “green room’.  The ‘green room’ is Aunt Pink and Aunt Gwen’s restroom outside the den where the Sunday school class was now held.  B.B. was working with my hair.  Arabella was working on a new comedy routine.  And Missy MacDougall, Mamma Missy to many of us, wanted to know what I thought about the new listing of God’s Attributes.  I told her that it came at a perfect time.  It was a fresh way of looking at what God does and who God is and we only had three more weeks of our present series.

It seemed that everyone was back.  We had a packed house.

Even though we almost had standing room only, I was a bit disappointed that our three young meteorologists did not come.  Then again, we did not invite them directly.  We just talked about it since we all attend when we can.  But I did have two visitors.  Since the Lothrop kids moved in with Dr. Kildare, they wanted to continue with the class.  So, Dr. Kildare and Mags were in attendance.

Pastor Joseph was in a very thankful mood when he opened us in prayer.  Everything on the storm chase went well, but I think that he and Mary were looking for something else to be thankful for.  No hints from them, just my intuition.

Emmett had a few more volunteers.  It was turning into a choir, but he carried his guitar.  Darrell had his guitar.  And Mike Lothrop had a guitar.

I asked, “Mike, I did not know you could play the guitar.”

Mike turned to Emmett, “Emmett, is this a guitar?”

Emmett said, “Don’t worry, Mike.  You will be great.”

Mike shrugged, “I didn’t want to look foolish or anything.”

Then Darrel strummed his guitar.  Emmett picked his guitar.  And Mike slapped his open hand against the body of his guitar, like a drum.

The lead was sung by Sally Mae, Arabella, Menzie and Carla.  At alto, there was Brooke, Mercedes, and Mags Lothrop.  At tenor, Michael, Mike Lothrop, Samuel, and Emmett.  Dr. Ben and Darrell sang baritone.  And then Dr. Kildare and Goober sang bass.  The song was You Love Me Completely.

Emmett added, “Do you have to ask, Aunt Jemima?”

I asked, “No.  That was lovely.”

Samuel said, “Aunt Jemima, what Attribute of God are we studying today?”

I laughed, “Samuel, we are studying God’s Love.  We only have two topics left: God’s Holiness, and God’s Perfection.  But I think we will use the topics that the MacDougalls found on the internet next.  But I want to go through a lot of Bible verses today.”

Easy (Deuteronomy 31:8) “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’”

Easy said, “This says a lot about God’s love, but it does not mention the word.”

I snickered, “Yeah, I have a few of those sprinkled in.  We have studied roughly twenty attributes of God, but a lot of them relate to how God love’s us.  Some relate to each other in that God is all powerful, all knowing, and He is everywhere in everything.  So, to understand how we can live our lives differently because we know God better, we need to especially think about how these other attributes point to the love of God.  So, what about your verse?”

Easy said, “Okay.  God goes before us.  He has foreknowledge and He knows everything.  Thus, in going before us, he might smooth out a rough patch or He might create a rough patch because we need rough things in our life to strengthen us.  But then God goes with us, so that we are never alone.  He will never forsake us or saying that differently, He is faithful.  And He is a God that we can trust.  That is the key in believing in Jesus.  We don’t just believe Jesus lived, died for our sins, and rose again.  We believe and trust that He is still loving us and working for our good.”

I said, “Can I say something?  That’s silly, I am supposed to be the teacher, but a lot of people at school stop me and ask how there can be a good God when He created everything and there is so much pain, suffering and evil in the world.  Well, I have been thinking, and maybe my Dad, the good reverend at the First-Third Metho-Presby church will tell you that I am all wet, but God is all sufficient.  He did not need us or the world.  He had the angels, but then He had so much love to give, He wanted to feel that love returned by someone who wanted to love Him.  The angels are higher than us because they do not sin, but for us, God gave us free will.  With free will, we could choose to do good or do something that God did not want us to do.  God knew, sooner or later that mankind would choose the wrong thing.  So, then God already had a plan that when that happened, Jesus would come to earth and sacrifice Himself for all those who would believe.  His death was effective for all, but not all would believe.  That is the point.  God wanted us to want Him.  So, at the center of it all, we have the Love of God.”

Arabella asked, “Do you want me to get a pitcher of water from the kitchen, Aunt Jemima?”

I asked, “Why would you do that?”

Arabella giggled, “You said that your Dad might think you were all wet.  Since he isn’t here, I was going to volunteer.”

I groaned.  “Don’t you dare think of it, Fireball!”

Brooke asked, “But why give us the choice of being bad?”

I smiled, “If we did not have the choice, we would not really be loving, would we?  We can only love when we have the choice of not loving and we choose the loving option.  God created us so that there would be all kinds of distractions on this earth, but we would choose Him anyway.  He simply wanted us to want Him.  Wouldn’t you, if you created someone?”

“Like Stormie, you mean?”  Brooke asked.

I nodded, “That works, to a certain extent.  I will love her till the day I die, even if she does not love me.  But it would hurt me deeply if she did not love me.  So, being a parent is a hard thing to do.”

Arabella (Psalm 136:1) “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.”

Arabella said, “This is that psalm where ‘His love endure forever’ is every other line.  But to follow what you said to do, this talks about God’s goodness.  And what you just said about why God made us, He wants us to say, ‘Thank you.’  Is that right?”

I smiled, “Very good, Belle.”

Arabella said, “I pay attention occasionally.  You got to keep the teacher off guard.”

I tried to keep a straight face, but I had to laugh.

Dr. Ben (Deuteronomy 7:9) “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”

Angus laughed, “I had that verse right before you left.”

Dr. Ben smiled, “Yes, we were discussing faithfulness.  God is holy, so He cannot lie, which means He cannot fail to complete a promise.  Thus, His faithfulness is within His nature, but it also shows His love for us.  But because He is holy, He wants us to follow His commandments.”

Dr. Ellie (Jeremiah 31:3) “The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

Dr. Ellie said, “When God loves us when we were sinners, He should love us when we get cleaned up a bit.  And God is kind.”

Joseph (Isaiah 49:15) “’Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

Joseph smiled, “This gets back to your conversation about loving Stormie.  And while we might think it beyond comprehension for a mother to forget a child, that could happen.  But God is faithful as well as loving.  And tying in what my parttime professor said, God shows Mercy and Grace along with His unfailing love.”

B.B. (Psalm 145:17-19) “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.”

Mary said, “This includes a lot.  God is righteous.  God is faithful.  God is near each who call upon Him.  God is Truth.  And God is the giver of good gifts to those who fear Him, and when we call out, He saves us.”

Michael Rowe Casey asked, “Is that like what you did when you saw me drowning in the river?”

Mary smiled, “I reacted to my training, Michael, and you were not drowning, not yet, but you were exhausted, and you could not hold on any longer.  But, yes, you called out and God heard that, and God made sure that I had the right training to save you from getting drowned.  That was me reacting, but God knew I would be there on the riverbank that day, and He knew I needed to be trained in doing what I did.  God is in control, even when humans do the right thing.”

There was a hush for a few seconds.

I said, “I have one more, is Grannie Fannie here?”

Grannie Fannie snickered, “You know I am right behind you, Jemima”

Grannie Fannie (Zephaniah 3:17) “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.’”

Grannie Fannie said, “There will come a day when we no longer have a sin nature.  There will no longer be a reason for a rebuke.  But even God’s corrections and test of faith and discipline, all of that is because He loves us.”

Lauren ran up to Menzie and Samuel, “Mommie!  Daddy!  The buses!  The bus driver is here.”  Then she ran to Grannie Fannie and hugged her.

I smiled, “As we have been doing, let’s end with the Mizpah benediction.  Everyone, bow your heads in prayer.  “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.’” (Genesis 31:49b)

Brooke came over and picked up Stormie’s carrier and went with me to the bus.  She looked into the carrier, “Hi, Stormie, it’s me, Aunt Brooke.”

And Stormie returned her usual smile and a little laugh.

Credits

I am now starting to use the David E. Fessenden study guides for The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes. Again, no quotations, just some Scriptures that keep the flow going.  But I will admit that I did a search on the topic and found most of the verses that I used this time.

Here are Winner and Huly Ray Asidor singing You Love Me Completely.  If you did not get the pre-song conversation, Winner is using his guitar like a drum.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.