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.

B.B. said that my hair was fine, so we skipped 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.

There was a little buzz in the room.  There had been a brawl at the Snazzy Taz, and Sophie and her crew did a great job in keeping it from becoming a riot.  And a few of the people in the class were there.  Mercedes Lothrop, Mary Jo, Irusya, Rosie, and Tammie are all part of a dance troupe called the Pinkettes.  And Menzie and Samuel danced a jitterbug.  Of course, the large crowd was there to hear Menzie sing, and Emmett play the sax.  They each have their following.

Sophie walked over to catch me before we started.

“Jemi,” Sophie said, “I think I messed up the other night.  My father won’t let me call him ‘Daddy’ anymore.”

I asked, “What did you do?  Is it related to what happened at the Snazzy Taz?”

Sophie shrugged, “The aftermath.  There were other things going on and they wanted to know if there was a witness.  There was not, at least not one that would testify, but it was early the next morning when we got ready to go home, and I ran into Emmett’s arms instead of Daddy.”

I sighed, “My folks are hugging and kissing on my brothers because they know the empty nest is approaching.  You calling your father Daddy let him hold onto the idea that you were Daddy’s little girl, and you made your choice to get solace from your boyfriend.  You are not Daddy’s little girl anymore.  Once that hurt is lessened a little, he might ease up a bit.  Give him some time to heal from the shock.”

Sophie moaned, “But part of it was his fault.  He did not want to lead me as a witness nor have the courts think there was a conflict of interest.  I wanted him to hold my hand, reassure me, but he stayed behind the mirror.  I will probably do the same thing if it happens to me, but it did not feel good at the time.”

I snickered, “Maybe you both need some time to heal.”

Joseph led us in prayer, including a concern that Penny Williams was seeing the doctor about a concern with her pregnancy.  That’s all she knew.

Emmett was back on the keyboard.  Darrell had his guitar.  Mike Lothrop had his guitar that he uses like a bongo drum.  But Mags Lothrop Kildare shocked everyone by producing a cello.  With all the stares, she said that she had learned as a child, but then she used the cello when she was in drug and alcohol therapy.  It became her way of coping and expressing herself, that is until she found Jesus, but she still enjoyed playing.  Odd, she had never enjoyed it as a child.

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 Holy, Holy, Holy.

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 Holiness.  God’s Holiness is a lot like God’s Perfection which is our topic next week.  But if we do not have a lot to add, we can review next week.  And I think I will start with you.”

Samuel (Exodus 15:11) “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

Samuel said, “When we are in God’s presence, this might make more sense.  For one thing, any other thing that claims to be a god is a false god, so there is none like God.  But the majestic is something that is intriguing.  The visions of the prophets are something that we just do not see in this world.  But you have to understand what holiness means to get any grasp of ‘majestic in holiness.’  He is beyond anything that we can be.  All of His attributes use words like all, everywhere.  They are all inclusive.  But then God is awesome, and God does not just sit there.  He performs miracles, even if they are tiny things, just to let us know He is there.”

I smiled, “That was very good, Samuel.”

Samuel replied, “Menzie and I haven’t spent all our time dancing.  We like digging into these verses that you e-mail us to read before class.”

I said, “And I am so pleased that everyone does that.  Most Sunday school classes don’t prepare.”

Arabella asked, “Like you, Aunt Jemima?”

I laughed, “Hush, Belle.  I was hoping it wouldn’t show.”

Arabella giggled, and she shrunk her head between her shoulders.

Irusya (Job 15:15-16) “If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt, who drink up evil like water!”

Irusya said, “This defines holiness a little.  God is not like us corruptible humans.  He is perfect.  It is not in His nature to be bad.  And these verses speak of how God would hurt His holiness if unholiness was allowed in heaven.”

I smiled, “Very good, Irusya.  Did you and Elroy study that together?”  Irusya nodded eagerly.

Elroy (Job 25:5-6) “If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—a human being, who is only a worm!’ ”

Elroy laughed, “I do not claim to be a maggot or a worm, but Irusya and I live in a Hobbit Hole.  The new house is approaching completion, and we may move in before it is complete.”

Dr. Ben asked, “Why would you do that?”

Elroy said, “We have some special guests coming to stay with us.  A couple of large dogs.”

Irusya added, “Think small horse. Two small horse.  Maybe three if Rhoda does well.”

Zuzka asked, “Are you calling Rota a dog?”

Irusya sighed, “We have three dogs coming from school once they complete training.  They not family dogs, highly trained assassin dogs.”

Elroy snickered, “They talk to each other about eating the mailman.  I do not think any of them have done that though.  But Irusya is just warning you that they are territorial and protective of family.  When they arrive, the Levy’s, the Niblicks, and Sophie and Blaise, your family, extended family to include Emmett and Margie, will have a well-controlled family welcoming session.  But Zuzka, Rota is still Rota, but the dog, Rhoda, is a full-bred Rhodesian Ridgeback.  She is the smallest of the three dogs, and she has not responded to the training as well.  She is a loose cannon at the moment and with Baffy, Gigi, and Andrew around, we cannot afford loose cannons.”

Mike Lothrop said, “You said they told you that they have eaten a mailman.  You are getting talking dogs?”

Irusya laughed, “It Elroy’s idea.  They wear collars and then we program what they say.  We have artificial intelligence that is learning what they say and creating personality traits for each dog.  If bad guys come to wrong house, they not know what is real and what is AI.  That way, we hope to control situations until humans can get there.  And Sophie, we have police and fire family welcoming party also.  They protect family.  They corner anyone they do not know until we get there.”

I asked, “Blaise, Sophie, be sure to invite Easy. Stormie, and me.  We want no accidents.”

Darrell (Psalm 22:3) “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.”

Darrell said, “This says nothing about what holiness is, but it says that God is holy.  It also says that Israel praises God.  We know they did not always praise God.  And we do not praise Him as much as we should.  But maybe the use of Holy One is important in that He is the only one that is Holy.  Does that make sense?”

I turned to Joseph and gave him a questioning look.  Joseph said, “We already have the Scripture that God is above all other gods.  And that brings those other gods down to the level of being something that a sinner made, made a flawed human being.  And holiness is something we cannot achieve on this earth and only in the next life by the blood of Jesus. So, that might not be what David meant, but it fits.”

Menzie (Proverbs 9:10) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Menzie smiled, “We have the Holy One again.  And we have the fear of the Lord.  If we have not talked about it in this class, I have heard about it in sermons or somewhere.  Maybe my handsome dance partner told me.  But fearing God could mean abject terror.  That might apply to someone who does not believe in God, but then if you do not believe in God, why would you be afraid of Him.  Kinda like those atheists that are angry with a God that they do not believe in.  Those that don’t believe seem to be irony or contradiction impaired.  But anyway, the believer is still supposed to fear God.  But it is like when Dorothy and her friends go into the presence of the great Oz, in that old, old movie.  They were scared out of their wits because they thought they were seeing some powerful wizard.  Just think what it will be like when we get to Heaven.  We will be thinking we should have paid better attention to God here on earth.  I think we will get weak in the knees and fall flat on our faces.  But that is not terror.  That’s realizing how wonderful and powerful and everything else that our God is, the God that loves us and counts all the hair on our heads.”

Joseph nodded, “I think that was a great way to put it, Menzie.  But who is this handsome dance partner of yours?”

Menzie laughed, “Samuel Farquharson, of course, he and I performed in front of a real audience at the Snazzy Taz the other night, before the fight started.  Samuel had me doing backflips and spins, and he dipped me a few times.  It was great.  Bea and Bro think we should enter competitions.  And we weren’t the only ones dancing, the Pinkettes are made up of five people in our class here plus Rota and Stasya.”

Zuzka said, “I wanted to be the tall one in the middle, but I was pregnant with Kully at the time they started their practices.  It looks like fun.”

I snickered, “And from what I heard that they practice here in the building.  You need to get out of your office occasionally.  But the Pinkettes are Stasya, Rota, Irusya, Rosie, Mary Jo, Tammie, and Mercedes, Mercy for short.”

Joseph said, “I had heard Bea recruiting and Mary was interested, but as you say, I stay in my office all day.  I should definitely watch the show.”

Irusya laughed, “Don’t worry.  Bea and Bro had a half dozen cameras and they were going to splice together some good commercials for their dance studio.”

I smiled, “And B.B. and I want to take classes, but maybe next year.”

Blaise (Isaiah 6:3) “And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’”

Blaise said, “I was curious about this verse.  It is a group of angels singing it in Isaiah and then in Revelation 4:8 it says, ‘Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” ’ What follows ‘Holy, holy, holy’ is different.  But that emphasizes what heaven will be like.  We will praise God forever for only He is Holy.”

I said, “I have no more Scripture, but is Grannie Fannie here?”

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

I asked, “Grannie Fannie, could you lead us in our benediction, a new one?”

Grannie Fannie (Romans 15:13) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

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, “This may be our new way of ending the class, if Grannie Fannie keeps coming in.”

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.

Since Sophie went on the Grannie Fannie bus, she came up to me.  “What do you call my father?”

I smiled, “Dad.  Try it out.  You can get used to it.  Then, once the healing is done, you can use Daddy when you just want a hug.  I don’t think he will mind.”

Credits

I realized that I did not use the Rev. Tozer verses the last time I talked about God’s Holiness, so I used the Scriptures for that chapter in 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.

Here are Shane & Shane singing a medley of Holy, Holy, Holy (We Bow before Thee).

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.