Righteous and Devout

Devout

She kept a perfect home in many regards. Entering their home welcomes you with food and drink and engaging conversation. Every Sunday they entered the church just a few minutes late enough to be noticed. She was friends with the area Mom’s and knew what was going on. She had a keen eye for shopping and gave from her heart when the feeling was genuine. Every door in her home was open except one, the one to her bedroom. On top of the bed in the master bedroom sat all the laundry of the household forever piled in a heap 3 feet tall. She slept on the couch he slept on the floor until he was obliged to sleep outside in the R.V.

His engineering business was thriving so he hired on some help a man from his church. The project went well and there was a good payday when the project came to completion, good payday except for the man who had been hired to help complete the project. He was never fully compensated for his hours worked. No amount of intervention or reason ever overcame the division, there would be no payment the reasons were many and everyone decided to look the other way. The debt was never paid. But on most Sunday they were present in church, they were devout in their attendance and involvement.

Righteous

She worked for 30 years with under-privileged children. The daughter of privilege, it never got out of her mind how her neighborhood could be so comfortable in their wealth and privilege when just down the road three miles there was a whole other world. The conversation in the world of her youth revolved around demanding parents and which college you would go to. In her vocational world the conversations ran around survival, eviction and whether or not there would be food. Completing high school was a luxury most could not comprehend, college simply was not on the agenda, it was only a rare option for those with special promise shown significant attention by teachers who could guide a few through the process. Many fell out along the way, for one reason or another, fathers and mothers who deserted, unplanned pregnancies, and uncertain jobs. She gave her life to help these kids, but there was still an emptiness in her soul at the end of the day, something was missing. Going to church seemed to make some of that connection, but it had been so many years, and why did these people not care about the poor like the Jesus in the Bible?

Righteous and Devout

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

LK 2:29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.

LK 2:30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,

LK 2:31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people,

LK 2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."

Simeon is described as Righteous and Devout. He was clear about his allegiance to God and his service to others. Choosing devotion without righteousness is as empty as righteousness without devotion. Neither satisfies the deep longing designed into the soul of every person by God. Watching those who are devout to religion without being righteous is a distraction that entices many to wander from the delight that is only found in devotion to God. Delighting in religion is a poor mistress for knowing God deeply in a community of people who are dedicated to following Jesus Christ in every part of their life and practice. Most of us lean toward one or the other as a natural outworking of our gifts and biases, but God does the most amazing things when both are present.

What About You?

What is your deepest struggle, Devotion or Righteousness?

How do you define those in your life?

Who is helping you on the way?

[JC]

Who Knew? Christmas Miracles of the Present Time

Not so long ago during the bustling Christmas season (you know...the one with the dead economy), my husband and I pulled up to a pump at the Monster Club Store behind another car who was finishing up his business. However, we chose not to pull up to the vacated pump space. Next thing I hear a couple of well-modulated signals from a giant ruby-red Ford Clubcab with a young woman driving. She pulled carefully past us and backed up into the vacated spot. She had sounded her z's because I was sitting with my door wide open and I am sure she was concerned about something disastrous happening to our car.

From behind the driver's side a tall, strawberry blond young woman stepped out, emptied a child's fast food drink, and returned it to the cab. Then with a look that indicated she had just about had enough of the kids for the day, she earnestly began instructing the little passengers about what was going to happen if they "DIDN'T CALM DOWN!" Never mind they each had an individual video screen dropped down for their amusement.

She began pumping her gas, leaning against the truck, trying to relax her very tired body. As I watched her I began thinking she looked like she was with child again. When she started massaging her neck and temples, I diagnosed (from a distance) she had a whizbang headache on top of everything else.

As I was just the passenger in our car, I had the opportunity to reflect on when our three were little, and what craziness ensued in the waning days of the "Season". (Sort of explained to me while our yearly bottle of brandy suddenly began getting less full. Hmmmmm?!?!?)

I shot up a serious prayer for blessings on her with enough energy to ge through the season. I could really relate. Aha! I had an idea! I had just loaded up on a supply of APC's Christmas CD's entitled "The Gift." We had begun to slowly drive away from the pump and I said to Jeff, "Here, please take this CD, and run it back to her. She looks like she could use it." After returning from the good deed, he said at first she was befuddled and asked, "Why me? Why did you give it to me?"

Jeff replied, "First of all, because my wife told me to. She said you looked like you had a long day, were really tired, and had a headache to boot, and with children caught up in the pre-Christmas excitement. This CD has some really good Christmas music with might help you get home in one piece."

She stopped for a moment to consider it all, smiled a big smile, then said, "Thank you, Merry Christmas."

On leaving the parking lot, we were in the left turn lane, and she was in the right turn lane. She caught my eye, mouthed a "thank you", and with a radiant smile she and her crewe were gone off to the east.

Wow! What a rush of feeling I had. I have never done anything like this before, but this was so cool! I was truly blessed. Sharing my faith with a total stranger, and being around to see some of the difference it made. I feel so jazzed I am ready to do it again. Of course, it won't take too long to go through my current supply of CD's. However, if they all work this well, we may have to make more!

You know, this experience makes me wonder if Mary ever had days like these. [Submitted by Amazing Grace Lowry, dutifully typed by JS]

Mac vs. PC

Well, this story about upgrading problems for the new Apple OS hits very close to home with many PC users.

Apple has acknowledged an issue encountered by some Leopard users trying to install the company's latest update released Monday.

In a support document posted to its site, Apple described an issue in which a Mac would hang on a "Configuring installation" window when trying to install Mac OS X 10.5.6. That was apparently the result of an incomplete update getting seeded into the Software Update process, and Mac OS X will freak out if it tries to install a partially downloaded update.

Apple recommends that if you encounter this problem, or have already, that you force Software Update to quit, remove the partial update from your library, and re-download the update. If you chose to download the standalone update from Apple's site rather than the combo update, you might also have had this problem; when in doubt, choose the combo update option.

If you've had a separate problem in trying to install the update, check out our sister site MacFixIt for tips and troubleshooting guidelines.

I just love technology, how about you?

Global Warming? Heh!

Yup, the world keeps getting warmer and warmer, doesn't it? Global warming? Yeah.

Growing up in the frigid regions of the upper Midwest, I recall that in the 1970's, there were mass predictions of a global ice age. Whatever.

Snow in SoCal this week. Temperatures into the 20's at night. Temperatures in the Midwest were mostly at zero degrees this morning.

The top picture shows snow at Pinon Hills in the high desert area north and east of Los Angeles.

The picture at the left shows snow in Palmdale today.







The picture to the left shows snow in the mountains outside Palmdale this morning.






This is SoCal we are talking about here, land of orange groves, 365 sunshine, and perpetual 72 degrees. This is not supposed to be SoCold.

Still, we know this will pass soon. Not so with Minot, North Dakota, whose HIGHT temperature was -4 degrees, and whose low temperature was -11 degrees. You know it is cold when the thermometer does not break past zero!

Shepherds

Illegal

Lying under a blanket in the park he could not help but notice the cold, he would prefer a home or an apartment, even a room but most of what he makes is sent home to his wife and children and right now the one meal he has a day is all he can afford with work being so scarce. Sleeping in the park is not always safe but most of the time he is unnoticed.

Being unnoticed is something you get used to. If you don’t want the immigration folks to see you, blending in is a good thing. In fact the only time he is ever noticed is when something is missing. It seems those without get blamed a lot for what goes missing even if they had nothing to do with it. Once on a work site he saw the supervisor take something, and later the owner wanted to know what had happened. Of course all the hardworking underpaid workers, like him were blamed. “I guess it goes with being called ‘illegal’, but why should working hard be illegal. Those who were born in this country and are lazy they should be illegal, not us, we want to work.

Shepherds

2000 years ago migrant sheep herders were out in the fields and when God was ready to announce the birth of His Son he did not go to Jerusalem to the big cathedral temple that was the center of the faith. He did not go to the powerful influencers of the town and society. He did not appear before the governor or the King. He came to the migrant shepherds that most people over looked, the ones on the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder the ones that no one saw, the ones who were considered to dirty to come into the temple.

Good News

God sent Angels to the least and lowest to tell the greatest news ever told that God would take the form of a baby and live right with us, we would see God in a body and would learn up close what God was about. How He loves us, and wants to walk with us and has a rhythm and purpose in mind for us that is so much bigger than anything we ever imagined and it is right there for the asking. No down payment no earning this love. It is free to us and costly to God. A Merry and Joyous Christmas to you. [JC]

Luke 2:8-20 (New International Version)

The Shepherds and the Angels

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Since my teenage years were spent in the San Francisco Bay Area, I became a reluctant fan of the San Francisco Chronicle. I loved the Sporting Green, the sports section which was always colored, well, green!

I must admit that I still go to the Chronicle website daily to check up on the teams I root for, and for whom no disappointment is too great.

So tonight I am trolling through an article on my Cal Golden Bears, who are perched to break my heart in the post-season again. And my eye caught an article by Bob Thomas of the AP. The AP is the most virulently anti-Christian new agency out there, in my not so humble opinion, and this article does nothing to dissuade me.

It is an article about Betty Page, a "cultural icon" who was a centerfold in Playboy on 1955, and who seemed to do nothing more than pose in scant clothing as a young woman. This line caught my eye:

Page mysteriously disappeared from the public eye for decades, during which time she battled mental illness and became a born-again Christian.

Hmm, battling mental illness leads one to become a born-again Christian. No media bias there! Can you imagine the outcry if the phrase was, "she battled mental illness and became a Muslim"?

Or how about, "she battled mental illness and came out as a lesbian"?

Well, those seem to be protected groups these days, so let's go after the Christians.

She seems to have lived a profligate life in her younger years, with multiple husbands. Later came "home", joined a church, went to Bible school, worked for Billy Graham, wanted to do mission work. Her father molested Betty and her two sisters when they were growing up, and he eventually went to prison. Not the sort of home life one would want, but it makes sense that she would flaunt her sexuality as a young adult.

Interesting juxtaposition, though. She is a cultural icon of the sexual revolution, and the victim of molestation at home. And yet, the "cause" for her mental illness is being a born-again Christian? Puh-lease! Maybe, just maybe, her Christian faith helped her cope with her past, and her future.

May she rest in peace.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Every year on Christmas Day my family sings The Twelve Days of Christmas. We each take one of the days, and when our turn comes we sing with confidence, albeit slightly out of tune. My niece, Megan, snaps up the 5 Golden Rings. No one bothers any more to appeal for that day! It is hers for all eternity.

As much as I enjoy that silly song, I would rather talk about its hidden meaning.

Long ago in England, when Catholics were prohibited from practicing their faith, the song was a catechetical device for teaching children the basics of their faith.

It might be fun to try to work out what each of the gifts represented. I was able to crack the code on some, but others escaped me!

The true love is a reference to God. I got that one!

But I had to do some research to figure out most of them, although I think most people could figure that the 10 lords a’ leaping are the 10 commandments. It would take too long to unpack them all here, but I refer you to a website for the rest. I can’t resist just one more- my favorite. The 5 Golden Rings! This represents the first 5 books of the Bible- the Jewish Torah. I wonder what Megan would think about that!

Check it out! http://www.appleseeds.org/12_days-christmas.htm

[HW]

Remembering India

A nice interview by Hugh Hewitt of Christopher Hitchens entitled, "Christopher Hitchens warns Americans and American media not to forget our ally in India"

The horrifying events of the last week cast renewed light on the dangers of global jihadism. From the interview:

HH: Let me ask you, you bring up Kashmir, I have asked Kaplan and I have asked Frantz, what do you think is the solution in Kashmir?

CH: Well, I would, I would quite strongly suggest to people reading Salman Rushdie on this subject, especially his most recent novel. He is of Kashmiri origin, and like a lot of Kashmiris, wishes that there could be an autonomous Kashmir, whose neither necessarily part of India or Pakistan. It’s a victim of the terrible partition of India in 1947-48. One of the worst decisions ever made by any government, in this case, the British, was to allow India to be partitioned on confessional lines. They thought it would stop the fighting, instead of which it’s led to three subsequent wars, another partition of Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh, genocidal partition, the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a rogue state, and many other woes, and still no peace in Kashmir. Kashmir for the Kashmiris is one solution. The only solution that cannot be allowed is the forcible removal from the Indian federation of Kashmir by Pakistan subversion and of others. If that happened, there’d be bloodshed in the sub-Continent that would make Rwanda look completely negligible.

HH: Wow.

CH: And this is what the Islamists are trying to bring about. That is their dream, and they showed us their dream nightmare in just a dress rehearsal for it in Bombay this week.

HH: I quote from your Slate piece of two days ago. “The Jewish disciples of Rabbi Schneerson may be relatively recent arrivals, but there have been Baghdad Jews in Bombay since records were kept, and Jews in India since before Christ, and not until this week has a Jewish place in India been attacked for its own sake, so to speak.” That’s really quite remarkable, and it also tells us about the nature of the enemy.

CH: It’s a terrible, terrible thing. There’s a very moving story in the New York Times this morning about the Bombay Jewish community that most people didn’t know, I think, until this happened, existed. It’s a very antique, very noble community that’s contributed a huge amount to the life of the city, and it is a remarkable fact about India that despite Hindu-Muslim strife, and all kinds of other sectarian horror shows, there has never been a pogrom in Indian history against its Jewish minority. Not once, not ever. We could say that with safety. And of course it can still be said no Indian spontaneously, no Indian or Bombay citizen has ever done such a dastardly thing. But the jihadists won’t rest until they can import that idea into India, too. And if you wanted to summarize the whole thing in one sentence, I suppose that would show how the word evil is the only one one can decently use.

Wow!

And this column a few days ago from Dennis Prager on the attack in India of a Jewish Chabad House. If the issue is freedom for Cashmere, why attack Jews in India? What do they have to do with anything?

With all the Pakistani Islamists hatred of Hindus, they did not attack one Hindu temple in Indias major city.

With all their hatred of Christian infidels, the terrorists did not seek out one of the 700,000 Christians in Mumbai.

To reinforce my point, imagine a Basque separatist terrorist organization attacking Madrid. Would the terrorists take time out to murder all those in the Madrid Chabad House? The idea is ludicrous. But no one seems to find it odd that that Pakistani Muslim terrorists who hate India and want it to give up control of Indian Kashmir would send two of its 10 terrorists to kill perhaps the only rabbi in Mumbai. As Newsweek reported during the siege, Given that Orthodox Jews were being held at gunpoint by mujahideen (sic), it seemed unlikely there would be survivors. Newsweek, like just about everyone else, simply assumes Islamists will murder Jews whenever and wherever possible.

As president-elect Obama prepares to take office in January, I will pray that he have wisdom and strength to assist India, and try to help bringing peace to this growing part of the globe. May he, and we, understand what we are up against.