God's Substitute Teachers--by Linden Malki

My dad used to say that he'd never met someone he couldn't learn something from.

One day when I was a kid, my cousin and I saw our grandmother sitting on her sofa reading her Bible.  "You haven't read that yet, Grandma?" we asked. Her reply is one I've never forgotten, and learned something very important: "Yes, I've read it several times, and I find something new every time I read it."  The idea that you can--and should--read it over and over again was eye-opening for me, and I have found her answer totally true.

When my uncle, a longtime China missionary, was arrested and imprisoned in China for almost five years, they originally confiscated his Bible. He managed to convince them to return it, and it was almost the only reading material he had for those years. I found out years later that in this small prison in a small town in western China, there were two Englishmen who had been arrested in Tibet when the Chinese overran it.  One was another missionary, and one was a radio operator and also a Christian.  The three of them  were not allowed to see each other, but they were able to keep track of each other to a limited extent. The two Englishmen both wrote books about their experiences, and they heard enough to realize that they were all three believers, and they all survived with their minds and faith intact, thanks to their own knowledge of God and knowing that they were not alone.

It is good for us to know that there are others around us who also trust in God and have strengths that are both like ours but each different in our own ways. My first boss was an Episcopalian, a well-read and well-traveled daughter of an Army officer who had grown up in a variety of interesting places. She had gotten to know me from my being a good patron of a neighborhood library as a child, and she gave me good recommendations for books to read. She also got me a job as a page in that library when I was 15, and there was enough downtime in this small branch library that we had many interesting conversations. I went back and worked there a couple of summers when I was home from college, and part of the next year after graduation when I was figuring out where I was going next. She played a part in what did happen: she was interested in sea travel by freighter--many freight liners have 10 or 12 passenger accommodations, and on her recommendation my dad and I booked passage from New York to Beirut, to meet up with the missionary brother who was retiring from teaching college in Taiwan, and was going home the long way around. The plan was to meet up with my aunt and uncle in Beirut, spend part of the summer in Lebanon and what was then the Jordanian West Bank, and then travel on through Europe. What happened was that on the freighter was a young Lebanese man from San Bernardino, whose mom was taking him back to Lebanon to find him a nice Lebanese Christian girl.  Those two weeks on the freighter totally changed my life--God does amazing things--for which I am eternally thankful.

Accentuate the Positive--by Linden Malki

This morning we received word that my daughter-in-law's grandmother had a serious fall and is not expected to survive. My DIL took off immediately for Seattle, and my son David is still going to host our family Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  In addition to prayers for the family, it is even more important that we get together to be thankful to God for what He does in our lives, even when bad things happen. We cannot expect to never have tough times, but we can realize that God is there with us, giving us the reminder that the difficult times help us appreciate the good things, and can teach us important things that we might not learn otherwise.

We have been reading this week the story of Jesus healing ten lepers, only one of whom came back to give thanks. The point is also made that he was a Samaritan, who had been in conflict with the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. The Samaritans were remnants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who had been conquered by the Assyrians in the 700BC's, who moved many of the original inhabitants out and others from other areas of their empire in, to break their ties with their past. They still had the earliest writings of the Israelite tradition, but worshipped at Mt Gerazim near their own capital city, associated with Joshua's final home. What I find interesting is that most Jews hated the Samaritans, and went out of their way to avoid Samaria in their travels, but Jesus went through Samaria occasionally and had a heart for their salvation as well as the Jews. After Jesus' resurrection and return to Heaven, the Judean authorities tried to wipe out the message of Jesus' followers--who took refuge in Samaria, where they were welcomed and appreciated.

Are we aware of opportunities to express gratitude, first to God (which helps keep our brain straight) and then to our families, in so far as they have appreciated and loved us, and taught us right from wrong. Do we recognize the best of  what friends and neighbors,  employers and co-workers, and even strangers have done for us--and what we have learned good lessons from even the evils that we have been exposed to? Jesus was subjected to the worst of what collusion between his own people and their occupying enemies could do to him, and yet he turned it around to the greatest victory for his followers--even though two thousand years of bad and good having been done in His name. He is the one who can keep us on the path toward the final victory, when we get the answers to all our questions--if the answers are even significant in His presence.

Why Worry?--by Linden Malki

Why do we worry?  Usually, because we can't control the future. How does worry help? Actually, it doesn't. It just gives the illusion that we are accomplishing something useful. Jesus points this out when he asks, "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"  It's very easy to worry; easier than doing something about whatever you worry about. So what happens when you don't worry?

Some people don't worry because they think they have no power over what happens. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, and sometimes we don't know which is true.  Sometimes we don't want to know, because we don't want to take any responsibility, figuring that what we don't know we can't be blamed for. Of course, there are always those who blame somebody else for everything, even when they are the ones who are responsible. 

It's easy for someone to say "Don't worry about it!"  Unfortunately, most often that really means that you should worry--and find out what's going on, and go from there as necessary. Worry can be useful--but only long enough for you to figure out what is really  going on and what you can realistically do about it.

We are told that we are supposed to not worry. Jesus went on to point out that  those who do not know God worry about all sorts of things, but that "your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own." (Matthew 6:25-34)  

This doesn't mean to simply sit back and let everything wash over us.  It does mean that we have access to more power than we realize; that we can know a God who does know what tomorrow has for us.  We're not supposed to be irresponsible and stupid, but we are supposed to be open to the unexpected. I was blessed by learning fairly young the truth St Paul learned :"All things work together for good for them who love God and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)  This doesn't mean that everything that happens will be good--what I learned is that all things that He allows to happen will work together for good, but it doesn't mean than any of the things are good in themselves. 

In the long run, we are to have faith in the One who is faithful, who will take care of us, often in amazing and unexpected ways. It will not always be easy; it may not be what we think we want, but we will be given strength as we need it  (usually not until the moment we actually do need it; He doesn't work on our schedule).  And we will be taken care of at the end, when we will finally learn what was really going on and see the amazing pattern to it all.

The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon!--by Linden Malki

I am always amazed at how recognizable the characters in Scriptures are--people haven't changed in 4000 years.  Gideon is one of the distinctly interesting characters.  When we first see him, the political situation is ugly, but we are told that it is due to the disobedience of the Israelites. One thing we should know by now is that living according to the directions we have been given is more successful than not. In this case, the nasty neighbors they faced were the Midianites--who were shirttail cousins, descendents of Abraham by Keturah, the third woman in his life. We are told that before he died, Abraham left the possessions to Isaac;  his six later sons got  no inheritance, but he "gave them gifts and sent them away to the east country."  It doesn't say anything else about Abraham's relationship or responsibility for the other sons. If Abraham made any effort to teach them about God, it apparently made no impact.  The dominant one (possibly the main ones in a tribal federation) was Midian.  We see them first as traders, associated with Ishmaelites (also cousins) whose trading included slaves, including Joseph. We do not know if these traders knew that Joseph was Isaac's grandson, or if they cared.

The next time we see the Midianites is when Moses is fleeing Egypt, after his murder of an Egyptian overseer becomes known.  Moses encounters a subtribe of Midianites,  near the Gulf of Aquaba, whose leader was Jethro, also described as a priest.  I've long wondered if Jethro had somehow encountered the knowledge of Israel's God; possibly through Moses. We don't see any disapproval of Jethro in the narratives of his relationship with Moses; we see approval of his wisdom, and the mention of a "burnt offering to God", and a meal with Aaron and the Israelite elders.

 

We see a Midianite woman with an Israelite man in the tabernacle, who were executed with one spear thrust.  Moses is told to attack the Midianites, who had been deceptive and a bad influence on the Israelites. The pagan prophet Balaam had advised the Midianites and other pagan tribes to use their women to seduce the Israelites into pagan worship (which was heavy on fertility rites and sexual behavior). The memory of this influence extended to the letter to the church at Pergamos in Revelation 2, who is warned about the "doctrine of Balaam , who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel ... "

The Midianites came back later, during the period of the Judges, apparently as raiding nomads and camel herders.  They were used also as punishment for the idolatry that the Israelites were flirting with.  Again, copying evil is not healthy.  We see an unlikely hero in an Israelite--Gideon.  He is determined to save his crops, to the point of threshing his grain in a winepress to keep it away from

the raiders. God calls him, and despite his lack of confidence, gives him a test: take down his father's idols and turn them into an altar for a burnt offering for God. Then in turnabout, Gideon gives God a test: a fleece that stayed wet on dry ground, and then dry on wet ground overnight. God gives Gideon instructions on how to drive out the Midians, and the land had peace for 40 years.

Looking at the family of Abraham, there is something we have to learn: What we do has consequences.  Abraham had one son that carried on the promise given by God. He had a son by doing it himself (with the connivance of his wife and her maid), which became a rival of the promised son; a rivalry which still exists today and affects millions of people. And then there were the six sons of a third woman, who apparently were not taught about God. These sons, as well as those of Abraham's nephew Lot, who should also have learned from Abraham, were snares and trouble for the Israelites for centuries.  We each have one life on this earth, but we each also have legacies, for good or for evil.  Will those who know us, and may pass on their memory of us, be blessed or damaged by our legacies?