Three-fold seduction

The evil one attacked Eve in Genesis 3 on all three fronts: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. ...and where was Adam? ...off naming the animals when he shoulda been protecting his vulnerable, weaker, undiscerning wife from the devil?  "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh) and that it was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (boastful pride of life), she took from its fruit and ate."   Which one are we going to sock in the kisser when you get to Heaven? Eve or Adam? Neither? Both?

Life on my Kansas farm was brutal. Neither my dad nor my brothers protected me from the harshness. It never even occurred to them that I needed it.  It took me years to figure out why I seem so able to take care of myself. I had to. I think Ted Stone liked that about me, but he also took for granted that I was strong so he was often absent when I needed him to keep men, especially, from knocking me around emotionally and spiritually.  Let me cut him some slack about something you may not know:  In the pastorate there aren't many slots of time when somebody isn't screaming or whimpering about something. Ted spent a lot of time putting out brush fires. So did I. I'm not doin' that anymore. If it's a full-blown firebell-clangin' blaze I might show up, but then again, I might not. 

Yesterday little children and adults were murdered in Connecticut. ...and the world is asking, "If there is a God, where was He when those people needed Him"? Translated, this means: "How can God be a good God and let something so terrible happen?" Isn't that always the question Satan plants in the minds of human beings?  "And the serpent said to the woman, 'You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' "  Deception is Satan's specialty.  He says to his minions: "Let's put doubt in the minds of people about the perfect righteousness of God. Come on! It'll be fun!"

I was 84 yesterday. It's not a big deal! Anything worth accomplishing has been because of the galvinizing, powerful, mighty love of my Immanuel. Paul said, "...for it is the LOVE of Christ that compels me." ...Paul, the thug, the man who murdered his own relatives to protect his status in the Sanhedrin, his institution of choice.  When I see Christian men and women murdering their own brothers and sisters in Christ, ranking their position in the institution as more important than love, gratefulness and loyalty to their colleagues, I get mad. I either fight or fly. Right now  I'm between "being angry and sinning not",  so you would be smart to leave me alone for awhile until my what- I think- is -righteous- anger simmers down.

Tomorrow morning I will join a freshly formed group of believers who are discovering an entire new level of God's perfect love for them.  My teenage dynamo partner, Cheyenne, is bringing several kids who aren't Christians yet and I don't want to miss that action. There will be a simple worship service, prayer for each other, and a lovely message from God's Word. Simple. I like simple.

 ...few words about "worship":  Some of the purist worship I ever heard was in a pasture in front of a church in Kenya, East Africa, where five hundred or so singing people formed a circle.  The men and boys  held a steady "hmmmmmmmmm"  on the bass line and the women and children sang in four or five parts above them ... with no instruments. It was bone chilling! When Ted and I lived in Houston, on Sunday nights sometimes we would drive miles to "The Barn" where the people sang a cappella, lifting the bloomin' roof nearly off!  Well, I am ready for Heaven's roof-liftin' music. ...but there are a few more people I think are about to discover the total, clean, mighty and powerful love of our Immanuel, so I probably will stick around for awhile longer.

As a brand new Christian I read a poem by Amy Carmichael, humble missionary,  about daisy chains. A ring of Christians were clustered in a circle, weaving daisy chains to put around one another's necks while in the background thousands of people were plummeting over the nearby cliff, screaming for someone to save them. Oh, dear Jesus, help me hear and heed their screams.

                             HYMN OF THE WEEK;  OH, THE DEEP, DEEP LOVE OF JESUS

O, the deep, deep love of Jesus; vast, unmeasured boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!

Love, Jo