Do you ever watch a television show where all the characters are smart, witty and always have the perfect comeback? Discouraging, isn't it? If you are like me, you think of some really great thing to say about thirty minutes after it’s too late. It’s encouraging is to see those smart witty actors interviewed on a talk show. It is then we discover they are not the quick-witted, literate models of linguistic talent portrayed in the show. Instead we find out they are like the rest of us. They just have good writers.

That's what I need. I need a good writer to prepare clever lines for me so I too can look brilliant in every situation. But life doesn't work that way. I think Jesus' disciples must have worried about how they were going to manage when He was gone. That must be why He said to them in Luke 12:11-12 not to worry about it. He promised, "When they bring you into the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what we ought to say."

That's encouraging. But it doesn't help with the day-to-day interactions. Perhaps my problem is I want to look witty so I can outshine everyone else. Maybe if I were willing to let others look good I wouldn't need to find that perfect remark. Romans 12:10 says, "Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle." Instead of waiting for the other person to take a breath so I can interrupt, I need to just smile and say something nice instead of something witty.

While passing by the recreation room in a nursing home I was about knocked over by the volume of the recreation director literally yelling, "N-17." Looking in I saw a collection of old ladies playing Bingo. There weren't any old men. This wasn’t because old men are not interested in Bingo. There aren't any old men. We, men, just don't last long enough, at least most of us. There are a few stalwarts but for the most part we check out sooner than our wives. Just then I was assaulted once again with a very loud "C-19."

It's a good thing God communicates to us in a still small voice that is heard internally or very few people over 75 would ever hear Him. I think God likes old people. He didn't call Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt until he was 80. In addition, Moses' brother Aaron, the high priest, wasn't any spring chicken. However, we must mention that John the disciple was a teenager when he started following Jesus. God obviously has no real age preferences. He will take us when He can get us.

Lest this information be a cause of putting off committing your life to Christ please don't delay thinking you can enjoy the world now and become a Christian later. Being a Christian is the abundant life. Why wallow about in a second-class life when you can start a first-class life right now?

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 That’s because the moment we make Jesus the Lord of our lives we cross over from death to life. We have been handed a brand new passport with a new birth date.

The New England Patriots did not really win their football game Sunday afternoon as much as the Chargers lost the game. Sometimes you are given a gift. I was amused by a student this morning who came up to me with a big smile as he said, “We won.” We? Strange I had not noticed him on the field during the game. I wondered which pass he caught or which field goal he kicked. But I didn’t say anything like that to him. His smile was too big. He was so very happy. I could not say anything to take away his joy.

As he walked down the hall I thought about heaven and eternal life. We win. We? If I take a good look at my life I would have to say that I certainly haven’t contributed anything to this victory. I was not in Gethsemane. I wasn’t nailed to a cross. And yet when I think of it I smile. That is unless I actually think about the gruesome nature of the cross. It is the fruit that makes me smile. I hope it is as big as my student’s smile. I should be so happy. I should be way more happy. I am not talking about a game. I am talking about eternity, an eternity of endless growth and development.

How interesting it is that Paul says in Romans that we are more than conquerors in Christ. It’s all vicarious. Vicariously my student won Sunday afternoon. Vicariously we win an infinite amount of Sunday afternoons. Sunday afternoons without end. I like the sound of that. Because for us to have an infinite number of Sundays we need an infinite amount of Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sabbaths. How grand!

In preparation for an accrediting visit for our college we have to locate and report on the whereabouts and successes of our graduates. No one in our department knew the whereabouts of one of last year’s psychology graduates. We started pulling out all the stops to find him. We asked in classes from other students. We did computer searches. We finally found him. He is working in our college library. Our psychology department is in the library basement. His desk is immediately above mine on the first floor. During the day he sits about five feet above me. He was lost! We didn’t know where he was!

His proximity to me reminds me of students who tell me they have no or little contact with God. They go about their daily routines sealed in their own little cocoons not aware that God is so very near. And unlike our student who was not trying to get our attention, God, who is self-revealing, has been trying to get those students attention. This week He has painted the sugar maples on campus with luscious reds and yellows. He has wafted 70 degree zephyrs through their hair. He has whispered to them via lectures from Christian professors and yet they don’t perceive His wooing.

In Romans 1 Paul mentions that we are without excuse because the invisible characteristics of God are evident in the visible things He has provided us. In the Psalms there is a wonderful verse that says, “Though I ascend to the heavens thou are there. Though I make my bed in Hell thou art there.” Psalm 139. How is it that someone can be so close and yet so far away? It’s amazing!

If it has been a while since you have read Psalm 103 I would like to recommend it for your devotion today. Read it slowly. This has to be one of the richest lists of blessings we can find anywhere. Allow me to list some of them.

Verse 2 – Forget not His benefits. In order to not forget, one has to know them. We receive so many benefits every day that we don’t even know about. How often does our angel intervene to protect us?

Verse 3 – He heals our diseases. Ah, I wish that were always true. How often have we had loved ones die an early death. This must be referring to our resurrected bodies spoken of in I Corinthians 15.

Verse 4 – He redeems us from eternal destruction. He crowns us with mercy and loving kindness.

Verse 5 – He fills our mouths with good things. He renews our youth like eagles. I’m not sure what that means. But it’s a nice sounding metaphor.

Verse 6 – He executes judgment for the oppressed. Obviously this happens in heaven because a lot of good people get bad deals.

Verses 7 through 10 – He is merciful and slow to anger and doesn’t pay us what our sins have earned.

Verse 11 – His mercy is as high as heaven is above earth. Wow.

Verse 12 - He puts our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. Glad it doesn’t say north from south since they meet at the poles.

It is obvious the psalmist didn’t write this as a theological treatise but as a song for us to enjoy and to fill our days with happiness as we contemplate how fortunate we are to have such a loving God.

When I was little Sunday afternoons were my “Dad time.” If it wasn’t raining we took our dog and headed for the forests and mountains of central Pennsylvania. If it was raining we headed for the movies. I loved it when we went to see westerns. The heroes never lost their hats during a brawl and could always get up, shake their head, and be okay after getting hit on the head with the handle of a six-shooter. I loved how they could jump out of the second story of a hotel and land on the saddle of their horses that came just to the right spot after hearing the heroes whistle. I was certain I could never be as wonderful as they were but I wanted to meet them. So after one such adventure I asked my Dad if he could show me the way to Texas. With a big smile he told me that just as soon as I could drive a car he would tell me how to get there. That was good enough for me. I was as good as there. If my Dad told me he would tell me the way I was totally confident I would get there someday.

It was no accident that the early church was called The Way. Jesus told them, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father except by me.” John 14:6. Just as surely as I believed my father would show me the way to Texas I believe Jesus IS the way to His Father’s house, a house filled with many rooms; a room for you and a room for me. With great confidence we can count on not only being there but according to the promise in Revelation 3 we will sit with Him on His throne. Awesome!

One of my students from Jamaica cannot pronounce my name. As hard as she tries she can’t get her tongue between her teeth at the necessary instant. When we are born we can learn any language and any sound but as the years wane so does our ability to form sounds. In Judges 12 there is a fascinating story where Jephthath required people to say the word Shibboleth in order to cross the Jordan. The men who could not make the sh sound were slaughtered, a gruesome story. I promise not to slay my student because she cannot get my name right.

Obviously passwords are not something new. Yet in this twenty-first century we live in an age of passwords. I have so many different passwords for so many different computer accounts I have to keep a file of them that requires a password to open. I was wondering today, if there were a password, what password God might require to enter heaven’s gates. I don’t think there is one but if there was I think I have come up with the perfect password. “Thank you.”

“Thank you” is what we say when we receive a gift. Since eternal life is a gift what could be more appropriate? Our entire life is a stream of gifts. We began with the gift of birth. We certainly didn’t have anything to do with that. It continues on and on. Each day right now I am so thankful I live in New England. It is mid-October and everywhere I look I have to say, “Thank you” for the stunning beauty. Each time I eat I say, “Thank you.” My list could go on and on. Yes, I think “Thank you” is the perfect password for heaven.

In one of my psych classes today we confronted the issue of our human tendency not to accept blame even in the face of our failures. Noble Adam was quick to blame both God and Eve for his failure. “The woman, you gave me, she made me do it.” Last evening our phone rang at 11:30 pm. It was someone from our college who had dialed our number instead of the number he wanted. The number he wanted was one line below our number on his card. Upon realizing he had the wrong person he immediately blamed the person who printed the card by saying they had the numbers inverted. They did not. The error was his but being human he immediately blamed someone else. He never did apologize for calling at that hour. Aren’t people wonderful? Aren’t you happy to be one?

Actually I am happy to be a human. Not only are we the top of the food chain but we are amazing creatures, who for no cause of our own, are loved by our Creator. When He finished making us He said, “That’s very good.” What is astonishing about Him is not only doesn’t He blame others for His mistakes (He doesn’t make any.) He accepts responsibilities for ours. Notice I didn’t say He accepted the blame for our sins. What I did say is He accepted the responsibility for our sins. There is a huge difference. He can’t be blamed other than that He gave us free choice. It is how we use that free choice that was and is the problem.

But He did accept responsibility. He did it on the cross. He paid for our sins and by grace we get a brand new start every day until we no longer need one.

Last Thursday evening my wife and I went for supper at a place that features local musicians. When we entered there was a small group performing that included a female singer. She had a terrific voice but was a bit difficult to watch. Her facial expressions looked like she was in pain but what came out of her mouth was anything but painful. I noticed an old guy sitting in a back corner by himself. I wondered if he came in just to be somewhere. He looked scruffy and I completely misjudged him. When it was time for the next group of musicians to take front and center the scruffy old guy worked his way to the piano. Oh, my. It was beyond amazing. With not a single piece of written music, for the next thirty minutes he dazzled us with music that came from deep inside. It just flowed out. So much for thinking he was just some old guy in the corner. I kid you not. I would have remortgaged my house to pay someone to teach me to do what he was doing.

It is no wonder that Jesus told us not to judge other people. We really don’t have the abilities to make good judgments about others. So often we make assessments using the wrong indicators. I know the Bible says by their fruits we will know them. But, rarely do we spend the necessary time needed to be good fruit inspectors. We make snap judgments based on the flimsiest of details.

I didn’t shave today and have gray stubble that makes me look like a cheap version of Freddy the Freeloader. I really wouldn’t want someone evaluating me on such scratchy evidence.

A few Christmases ago my sister gave me a really nice comfortable sweater. I truly like it and wear it on these cool autumn days. Yesterday in one of my morning undergrad classes one of my students made reference to my ugly sweater. I really didn’t take umbrage to his uncouth remark. I like the sweater and that is all that counts. I wouldn’t even mention it now except for what happened last evening at a graduate class. One of the men in the class said, “Wow, nice sweater. Where can I get one? It looks extremely comfortable.” So, if anyone ever wondered about the taste of undergrads now we know. They have none!

Beauty indeed is in the eye of the beholder. If we ever doubt that just get out one of our high school yearbooks and look at our hairstyles. We thought we were looking good. Oh, dear.

But, it’s true. Fashion, culture, love or hate very much dictates to us our definition of beauty. Not one of us has the exact same taste. That’s good. If we all had the same taste in spouses only two people could be happily married. The rest of us would have to settle. No one wants to settle. Each of us wants the best. And so wonder of wonder someone out there actually thinks we are looking fine.

God thinks we look fine. First of all, we are made in His image. Secondly, He loves us and tells us to call Him Father. Fathers think their kids are terrific. There is no question that we are the apple of His eye. It’s because He has an amazing ability to see what we will become and that will really be beautiful.

Zophar the Naamathite had grown tired of Job’s complaints and broke his silence by saying, “Can thou by searching find out God?” Since the beginning of time man has been in search of God and all we came up with is pitiful reflections of ourselves. We came up with gods filled with petty jealousies, short tempers and hunger for appeasement. None of which were what God is really like. All the truth we knew about God was what He chose to tell us about Himself. He is a self-revealing being, who in His own time chooses to give us glimpses. Until Jesus came glimpses were all we had. We were looking through a glass darkly. Then Bethlehem happened. It was so revolutionary angels sang to announce the wonder. God came to us. He walked with us, ate with us, slept with us and told us the truth about Himself. He is a loving Father who is anxious to give us good gifts.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, ... Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person …” Hebrews 1. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” John 14.

This is totally awesome. If you want to know what God is like study the life of Jesus. Does God get angry? Apparently so. More than once Jesus grew angry, but only when He saw the powerful taking advantage of the weak. Power is given to us for service. Never is it to be used to harm someone. We will never find God by searching for Him. But we will see Him if we only ask.

I’m sitting here looking at the current issue of Popular Mechanics. The cover “grab your attention headline” is 20 Bold Ideas that will change the world; quake-proof buildings, cheap solar power, finding water on the moon, curing cancer with laser, cars that drive themselves. Technology is changing our world so rapidly I’m afraid to buy anything lest it be antiqued before I get it home. There is no doubt this is the most interesting ever time to be alive. I don’t want to get any older not because I’m afraid of dying. Jesus has taken that fear away. I don’t want to die because I don’t want to miss what’s coming next.

If the afternoon judge programs on TV are a valid sample of our general population, I hope not but fear they are, then something becomes extremely clear. All the wonders of technology aren’t doing a thing to change human nature. We are still as bright and stupid, noble and selfish, nice and vicious as we have ever been. We can read Bible stories and understand them because the people then were the same as people now. It doesn’t matter if a man rides one horse or drives in a car powered by 400 horses it is still the same man. It’s exciting to be human but there are times it is very discouraging. While the trapped Chilean miners are nobly arguing about who gets to be the last man up the tube their relatives on the surface are fighting about who gets the financial benefits that are being offered to the families.

Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God became one of us? Sometimes I think God is a bit crazy. Crazy with love for us.

I received a telephone call today from an office that said I owed them money. When I told the lady I had sent the check I sounded like the old “the check is in the mail” story. But I had and I could tell her the date and the check number. “Oh,” she said, “I’ll keep looking.” Upon disconnecting I thought this is an old routine that Satan loves to use on us. The price for our salvation was paid, but he tries to discourage us by telling us it wasn’t and if it was it isn’t valid for us. We are just too bad. Or because we grew up knowing the Gospel our indiscretions are worse than other people’s because we knew better. We need to claim the promises and inform him that the price for our sins was indeed paid. The check is not in the mail. It has been cashed.

When we get to thinking we are just too bad we need to remember Hebrews 7:25. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” I enjoy rewording that to say “to the guttermost.” The meaning is the same. As uncomfortable as it might make us we have to adjust to the idea that Hitler could be our next door neighbor in heaven. I agree that it is most improbable, but we don’t know what his frame of mind was when he died. That is totally between him and God and God is full of grace and is in the business of saving people. It even seems distasteful to me to even think it. But perhaps there are people who think it distasteful that I should be saved.

One of the very first sets of books I ever read was Bedtime Stories by Uncle Arthur Maxwell; five books filled with character building stories for little people. When I was learning to read my father sold those books door to door. Well, that was what he was supposed to do but he was the principal of an elementary school and instead of going door to door he got his colleagues to put them in their school libraries. Never did I dream in a thousand years that as an adult one of our best friends would be Arthur Maxwell’s son. Today the stories are very outdated but the moral lessons are eternal. Good morals never go out of date; only the cultural details change with time.

This afternoon my sister went to a u-pick apple orchard and was laughing at people trying to get just one or two more apples to balance on top of the baskets they purchased to fill. Inevitably the balanced apples tumbled to the ground before they got to their cars. When she told me about it I immediately remembered one of Uncle Arthur Maxwell’s stories about their family sitting around the table and one of the boys always made sure he got the biggest pie or apple or whatever, just so it was the biggest. Then one day the biggest pie was hollow and the biggest apple had a bad center.

It is part of our nature to want to get the biggest and the most but so often in life the biggest isn’t the best. True happiness in life comes from service to others. Real happiness comes from helping others get the best. Life’s greatest rewards are the fruit of unselfishness and from putting apples in another’s basket.
______________

I witnessed a tiny piece of history today. I heard a lot of banging in my workspace which is in the basement of our college library. I found students carrying microfiche machines to the dumpster. It is the end of an era. For decades we have used microfiche machines to retrieve data from old newspapers and other documents. Now that everything is digitized and on computers microfiche machines are merely dust collectors. They have gone the way of typewriters, of which some of my college students have never used!

Recently I had a student try to convince me that God’s law had become a dust collector and only had historical value. His logic went something like this. Because Jesus died on the cross and we are now saved by grace the law lost its purpose. He was partially correct. Jesus did die for us and we are saved by grace. And while the purpose of the law was often misconstrued by some as a means of salvation, the real purpose of the law has been eternal. It is a fence. It protects us from the fruit of stupid behavior. If I lie about someone I am setting myself up for lies to be told about me or a libel suit. Each of the commandments protects us from disastrous reprisals by others plus the deterioration of our own characters.

The very idea that God’s law is a dust collector and a relic from the past displays a tremendous lack of understanding. God’s law is based on the two principles that are the ultimate standard for daily living. A prescription for happiness is to enjoy the gift of salvation while keeping God’s law. If you do you will never be sorry.

Today was a sleepy day in New England. It rained most of the day and the temp never went above the mid fifties. As hard as I tried I couldn’t keep my students awake. They settled into their chairs and within a few minutes their eyelids were settled. I tried almost everything. To begin class I read a fabulous passage from Romans. Only half of them seemed aware of my presence. I walked over and called some by name. They roused for a few minutes but soon were back in dreamland. There was a temptation to be miffed except for the fact that just yesterday I was in a faculty meeting and was in the same stupored condition.

Jesus had a similar problem with His disciples that horrible night in the garden. But He did acknowledge their human nature. Sometimes we just can’t stay awake. He understands His sleeping church. We can take comfort that He never condemned the ten young women for sleeping while waiting for the groom to come to the wedding. It is not natural to stay in a state of excitement constantly waiting for anything, let alone something we have been told for decades is at the door.

Perhaps the best thing is not to hype ourselves up every time there is an earthquake or some other horror. The best thing is not to be event watching or studying someone’s fabricated time chart but instead establish a living, breathing, eating, walking, talking, and sleeping relationship with Jesus that is so real it doesn’t matter when He returns. Our goal should be to be so involved with Jesus that going to heaven will merely be a change of address.

It has been said that habits are the brain’s private secretary. Habits enable us to accomplish a lot of work with very little mental effort. Habits drive the car for us. They play the piano for us. They do all kinds of things once they are a part of our mental makeup. What is interesting about learned behaviors is we do them very smoothly when we are not thinking about them. However, if one should ask us to talk our way through a familiar task we often falter. Thinking about it and verbalizing moves the task to a higher level of thought that isn’t use to doing the task. A lower state of consciousness is the tasker.

What kind of people would we be if kindness, courtesy, generosity and genuine concern for other’s feelings became habits? While we would most likely not win any Miss Congeniality Award we certainly would have a fairly stress free life because most people respond in kind. Philippians 2:5 comes to mind, “Let this mind be in you that was in Jesus.” I believe Jesus had a lot of good habits. It was natural for Him to have compassion on the crowds and on individuals. Wouldn’t it be grand if our first impulse in stressful situations was something habitually good?

Of course we can also develop bad habits. They too come easy upon impulse. I’m not sure we have to learn these. They seem to be part of our nature, at least mine. I shouldn’t make assumptions about your nature. It just seems like being selfish comes easy and I have to work at being unselfish. Perhaps this is what Paul was talking about in Romans when he said he did the things he didn’t want to do.

In one of the texts I use in my Philosophy of Education class is the following sentence. “As a means of intellectual training, the Bible is more effective than any other book, or all other books combined.” Last week I mentioned Will Durant’s list of 100 books we need to read and how ignorant I felt having only read eight of them. So I must say this sentence jumped off the page at me. How could it be? Durant’s list contained the works of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Whitman, Thoreau and Emerson. How could it possibly be that the Bible is not only better than any one of them but all of them combined?

Granted Moses was a brilliantly educated man. Solomon was given the gift of wisdom. Paul was extremely well learned. But Peter and John had minimal schooling. Most of the Old Testament prophets were simple men. Then of course the answer came. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” II Peter 1:21. While God did not whisper words in their ears He did inspire them with ideas. Each wrote out of the culture and background that made them who they were, yet, they were filled with insights that God wanted so much to share with us.

When we spend time studying Scripture we are not reading the masterful sentences of Shakespeare or the philosophies of the ancient Greeks. We are instead feeding our minds from the fountainhead of all truth. The very same Spirit that attended the writers of Scripture attends us. When we struggle with a passage He is there to infuse our minds with knowledge far beyond that of mortal men, no matter how brilliant they were.

It’s October and it’s time to get the firewood in the garage. Today has been a beautiful day of sawing, splitting and stacking. I really enjoy it. There is something primal about putting up wood for winter. While it is not nearly as efficient as getting the basement fuel oil tanks filled it is so much more satisfying. It makes me feel tied to my ancestors. I guess now I need to go out and shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving. Yuk!

I have gotten to a part of my woodpile that has been there for three years. I would have used it sooner but two winters ago we had a terrific ice storm that brought down so much wood I left the woodpile for another year. Some of the wood has rusted and gotten soft. It will not last long in the woodstove. As I was looking at the deterioration I thought of I Peter 1. It’s an absolutely fabulous passage. Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, . .” There is no rust and no rot.

In the paraphrase The Message it reads, “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, . .” Peter knew what he was talking about. He knew Jesus so very well and he knew that since he had seen Jesus he had seen the Father. Jesus told him so and Peter had no doubts. Regarding this he wrote, “This is no cunningly devised fable. We saw it with our own eyes.”

I am very depressed tonight. I am looking at a list compiled by the great historian and philosopher Will Durant. It is a list of the one hundred books we should read to be well educated. I have only read eight of them. I have ninety-two to go. He maintains if we read them at the rate of just an hour a day in four years we will have an education equal to that of any doctor in the land. Four years? I don’t think so. He apparently read faster than I do. Some of the books on his list would take me an hour a page. So I am only eight percent educated.

Fortunately the Bible is on his list. That is really sixty-six books. So I can make my percentage look better by saying I have read those sixty-six plus eight which equals seventy-four books out of one hundred and sixty-five. That makes me almost 45% educated. While that might make me feel better it really is fudging.

I am intrigued that J. H. Kellogg’s The New Dietetics is on his list. So the old man did something more than make cornflakes. Kellogg’s book is not one of my eight. There is so much to learn. I am amused by a few of my students who seem to think they know everything and ever so arrogantly they act like we have nothing to teach them. I have to say I feel more and more ignorant every day.

I used to think eternal life was a really great idea and it was terrific for God to give it to us. Now I realize it is so much more than that. It is a necessity. These eighty years just aren’t enough; especially when it will take me four hundred years to read Durant’s one hundred books.