Gold, Onyx and Bdellium

Genesis chapter two

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. ² By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

⁴ This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. ⁵ Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ⁶ But a ^[d]mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole ^[e]surface of the ground. ⁷ Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living ^[f]being. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. ⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ Now a river ^[g]flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four ^[h]rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon; it ^[i]flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon; it ^[j]flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is ^[k]Tigris; it ^[l]flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the ^[m]Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not ^[n]eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper ^[o]suitable for him.” ¹⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the ^[p]sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the ^[q]sky, and to every beast of the field, but for ^[r]Adam there was not found a helper ^[s]suitable for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. ²² The Lord God ^[t]fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. ²³ The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
^[u]She shall be called ^[v]Woman,
Because ^[w]she was taken out of ^[x]Man.”

²⁴ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Gold, onyx and bdellium      

Why are these three things in this story? God is going to put the first man in a Garden to keep it, and for what does he need gold, onyx and bdellium?

We look back and think primitive, camping, eked out sweat-of-the brow living once they are fallen and cast out of the Garden.  What would they do with gold, onyx and bdellium?

For beauty? For pretty? Did Eve need babbles? Being way too practical, she needs help, a babysitter. What good is gold to a mom?

Three things. Three elements. When you google gold, you can watch docudramas of how our planet did not come with nor form gold on its own.  Gold was sprinkled on the earth from space.  For eons.  Veins of it tend to collect in riverbeds.  Scattered over the planet. And when you google onyx—is it a coincidence that it comes in flesh colors?  Black, and brown, caramel, tan and white? A stone born in lava. Volcanoes. Used in Egypt as bowls, jewelry, a hard-quartz family stone. And google bdellium—a resin, from a scrubby, thorny bush found in India, Saudia Arabia, Turkey? An aromatic resin used in incense, smoke, prayer. 

Three things: gold, onyx, bdellium

God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

G for gold, O for onyx, bd—Gob or God

What is God foreshadowing? King, rock, resin from a thorny bush.  That someday our king would come to this rock and take our place and be impaled with a thorn of crowns in our place? It is finished.

The one continent of Genesis would split and the plates push apart, and while we can still spot the Tigris and Euphrates, the places of onyx and bdellium ride on and under the crust that becomes India, Turkey, Saudia Arabia and the other two rivers?

What is God telling us in chapter 2? Before the fall, before the first marriage, before the first test, a beautiful place was prepared and set in motion.  Restored as the stage for this play and all eyes are on this place.  God used to come there each evening and walk with Adam and Eve.  We are not told how long. We are not told if it was for weeks, months, years.  What did they talk about? What did God teach them?  God was WITH them.  In the cool of the evening, the Bible says.  A perfect world, perfect garden, perfect creation with all they needed: air, perfect temperature, weather, time—day and night, work and rest, food and trees for beauty. 

Gold and onyx and bdellium.  Let us pause there and wonder. Let us not rush. The fall is coming. Before the fall, marriage---for this reason, we leave and cleave.  Before parents, before mothers in law, and fathers in law, before meddling aunts, uncles, God declares marriage sacred. Special. An institution. Man created in the image of God.

A little glimpse of heaven or Have you ever?

February 10, 2014

Have you ever been shut in with icy weather, the cupboards getting more and more bare?  Have you ever looked again at the want list and thought, is it worth getting on icy roads for more envelopes? And your desire to not wreck your car outweighs your desire to get everything on your grocery list? (And your Mother is coming to stay overnight if weather permits?)

Have you ever enjoyed a new author and felt so blessed that God is answering questions you have had with these books?  Have you ever wanted to buy a dozen more and share them with your pastor, close friends and relatives? 

Have you ever marveled how God used your love of Veggie Tales to make you curious about Phil Vischer to listen to his podcasts, read his book, and meet other fascinating authors? 

And have you ever needed to get to a very special wedding shower for your youngest son’s bride where you are nervous about being a mother-in-law, let alone meeting new people, and wondering who all will show up, and yet getting to see relatives you have not seen in years…promising to come if weather permits, and you don’t know what to wear or what present to take, and the shower is like a family reunion, a glimpse of heaven, where we get to eat good food, sit around and chat and catch up on everyone’s news---see pictures of grandbabies, and watch the Bride open presents???  And your own Mother steals the show presenting a blanket it took her a year to knit, and you are so happy for her, and everyone claps, and you wish you had a picture of her smiling---because she is not even a widow for a year now… 

Have you ever??

And then, have you ever finished the books, and know you need to re-read them because you were in a hurry the first time, and want to put into practice…and you sing in your car repenting the ways you have lived above/under/for/from God instead of WITH God, and you notice at Sunday School, when your husband is teaching the story of Peter saying “where are You, Jesus going?” and how he would die for Jesus, and Jesus says the rooster is going to crow (and you go to Red Robin for lunch which looks like a rooster) and you wonder if Peter’s problem is living FOR God instead of WITH God…

And with your new glasses of seeing how different Bible characters were guilty of above/under/for/from God instead of WITH God, you remember John 1:1---(‘cause your husband is teaching that book in Sunday School, so it is still fresh in your mind) but where else does it say “with God” in the Bible, so you do a word search in Biblegateway dot com, but forget to put the quote marks and discover there are 797 instances of the words with and God appearing in the same verses---but not always linked, but you look down the list and Genesis 1:11 God said let the earth sprout vegetation…fruit trees…with seed (is the concept for the first use) and Genesis 4:5 Adam had relations WITH his wife again…God has appointed…

And so you remember to put the quote marks in so that the word search grabs only verses where “with God” appears and you are astounded that only 32 results start looking like the heroes list of Hebrews 12.  And you get goosebumps, and read down through the list:

Genesis 5:22,24  Enoch (uh-oh…should I warn Skye Jethani? You think, and resist the urge to go onto facebook and talk to Phil and Skye because you are suppose to be doing a personal Bible Study in the early morning and learning what it means to be WITH GOD not with Phil and Skye. 

Back to our list:

Genesis 5:22, 24  Enoch

Genesis 6:9  Noah

Genesis 32:28  Jacob

Exodus 24:1  in the wilderness, the people affirm their covenant with God

Numbers 23:27 Balak says to Balaam: perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them from here. (and we know how that story goes!)

I Samuel 14:45  the people are protesting Saul:  must Jonathan die …as the Lord lives…for he has worked with God this day.

2 Samuel 23:5 in David’s last song: my house so with God

2 Chronicles 32:21 Neco king of Egypt tells Josiah to stop interfering with God…and it says, Neco spoke words from the mouth of God!  Yikes.

Ezra 10:1  reconciliation with God—confess marrying foreign wives and put away… while Ezra is praying and weeping

Job 13:3  But I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to argue with God. (Job is speaking to his friends, and I think friends needs quotation marks)

Job 16:21  O that a man might plead with God as a man with his neighbor! (the chapter where Job says friends are sorry comforters)

Job 25:4 How then can a man be just with God or how can he be clean who is born of woman? (Bildad)

Job 34:9 (Elihu is speaking—best read the whole chapter yourself to get the jest)

Psalm 7:10  my shield is with God who saves the upright in heart

Hosea 12:3  In the womb he took his brother by the heel and in his maturity he contended with God. (so Jacob gets a double mention)

Matthew 19:26  Jesus said to them, looking at them, with people this is impossible but with God all things are possible

Mark 10:27 ditto

Luke 1:30  Gabriel said to Mary for you have found favor with God

Luke 1:37  For nothing will be impossible with God.

Luke 2:52  Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men

Luke 18:27  ditto of Matthew and Mark

John 1:1  The Word was with God

John 1:2  He was in the beginning with God

John 5:18  making Himself equal with God (is why they murdered Him)

And you can’t wait to share them with your husband, your best friend.

And post this on your blog.

And tell Suzanne.  And Mary.  And Nancy. 

And Laura K---as you remember a question she had about some verses that Skye Jethani answers…

And Dear Heavenly Father,

 I tremble---as I write this.  You have been so patient and gracious to me.  Thank you for the books, thank you for answering my recent questions, and thank you for answers to some problem verses.  I have wasted so much of my life in fear and anger.  Thank you for listening to me sing in the car, and cry, and as I sit here now--- You have given me a life of luxury, a warm house, a computer to type upon, a faithful husband who goes to work and is so generous with his money, his time, his person, to pray with me, and love me, and help me in so many intimate and personal ways, thank you for my husband.  Thank you for my Mother.  Please give her wisdom, insight, courage to do the next thing You would have her do in Your perfect timing.  Please help her grieve, and help us know what to say, how to help without being mean or irritating or condescending.  We overwhelm her with too much advice.  There are too many of us with big mouths.  Thank you for all you are giving her with these new stories and victories—like buying her car. Wow. Thank You for going ahead of her.  Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.  And thank you for Ben installing the new light fixture in the bathroom and outing me for not being very careful with the checklist.  And thank you for the upcoming wedding---please help us all behave and not ruin it for Tiffany with our big mouths.  I pray that it all goes smoothly so that they will be blessed with a good memory to look back on their whole married lives… Thank you for all the Mrs. Williamsons that came to the shower, and cousins, and Ozzie, and Suzanne.  Please heal the grandbabies of their ear infections, coughs, fevers, and Andy’s leg, and Amber’s cough. 

Please help me live WITH You, not above/under/for/from nor mad at You.  In Jesus Name. Amen.

Have you ever?  I have.  With God.  God and me.  Not so fast, remember I am journaling selfishly here to help jog my memory, and look back to see the answered prayers.  I have an ulterior motive.  And It is not living with God to write about it and list stuff.  Please go read Skye Jethani’s books:  WITH  and FUTUREVILLE.

Have you ever?  What are the odds?  God is so Good. 

Adventures with our new Toyota

Warning: this will be boring.  I write here selfishly, for me.  I have this desire to get it out of my head. Write it down. Type it up. whatever. and online journaling is one avenue. I am afraid to reveal too much. But, I have a desire to vomit it up somewhere.  Husband is busy at work. He doesn't want to hear it.  He has no time.

But, to help me remember.

Fun with numbers.  odometer numbers.  If only the odometer also recorded whereall we went to help jog my memory.  I find it sad when I can't remember what we did last year for Ground Hog's Day, or Valentine's Day, for example.  And having just visited with the toddler grandsons, the grands, I want to remember the sweet moments with them.  Conversations with a three year old.  No time for buttons with an almost two year old.

But, lets back up to December.  We saw a need.  Our middle son was needing a second car.  And I could tell that Bob wanted to help them find a good, reliable car.  And the thought occurred to me, that our 2007 Toyota minivan, with 90,000 was a good, reliable used car.  The dealerships would insult us with an offer for what it was/is truly worth.  We might have kept it forever, but the seatbelts stabbed me.  It was so painful on long trips.  I had been going round and round with the dealership about this issue, but was brushed off.

But, buy a new car? oh. my. so expensive. And Bob liked the idea.  And Bob has limited time, but he worked so hard making spreadsheets, putting me in all kinds of cars to see what fit.  (not commie cars, however.  not a cadillac, as caddies are GM, hence, commie cars---that government bailout thing)  Even as Bob's Dad would never buy or consider a Toyota---that WW2/Japan war---we have our standards.

I do have a bucket list---nothing big. I'd like to sit in a limo, and a hummer.  And if not in this life, I can wait until heaven home.  Not that we will need hummers nor limos in heaven...  but that is another story.

Bob found such a deal. He likes to shop online. Less drama.  Salesmen on showroom floors are so pushy, shady, snake oil salesmen.  I want to forget the huge, threatening, arrogant a-hole that blocked our path onto a showroom floor.  he bragged that they were the best.  yeah, well, I used to bring our 2007 there for service, but I am gonna think twice, nay three times before doing that again...just because of one guy.  It was a rainy day... who did we want to see, he asked.  sorry. we are here to see cars, not form relationships.

I can think of a thousand witty comebacks AFTER.  I so wish I had handled sassy salesmen with humor.  Life is too short.

Bob researched cars, dealerships, warranties, maintenance, financing, you, name it, he had it charted out.
One Saturday, he had sent out invitations for bids, and oh. my. the phone started ringing off the wall.  The salesmen were DESPERATE to get us IN their showrooms.  They kept calling and calling.  Bob only dwelt with the ones that ANSWERED his questions online.  He called a few for clarification, but once you do that, they have your number, and will call and call and call.   Game over.  (they are still calling)

We gifted the 2007 at Christmas time because it was a convenient time for us and them.  We depended on our not-so-dependable 1997 plymouth.  This workhorse needed retiring, but it was still running.  It somehow passed inspection---and leaked fluids, so every few days, sometimes once or twice a week, fluids must be added.  checked.  in cold.  in sleet. in dark of night...  and we laughed as we wondered if this was the day the car would die.  Was this the day the transmission would fall out?  or a major belt break??  Sometimes it would lurch---a reminder not to stray too far.  Hard for me to drive, as I no longer fit in it.  Shocks are gone, and windows need resealed...so driving around, you think a window is open.  But, it gets Bob to the train station.  Worth only $1000.00 because it runs, but worth it to us because it is a second car.  But, now I doubt I should leave Bob alone with it.  What if he was stranded at the train station?  What if I was gone overnight, and that was the night he had to take a cab to work or home??  We had a plan.  If the car died, we planned on renting until we found the best deal.   Call me worst case scenerio mom.  I refused to be stranded at the chiropractor or store.  So, I stayed home.  Bob offered to let me drive him to the station...but only if I were desperate.  I did not invision anything I needed that bad.  Most things can be shopped online.  Hello, Tazo tea people??  Some things are "in-store" only but, Bob would help me shop in the evening.

We made it almost a month on our one iffy car.  I wanted to be ready to walk out of dealerships.  Bob got some downright insulting bids, mixed messages---we wondered if the dealership managers were trying to be purposely mean to their salesman?  were some salesmen promising the moon just to try and get the deal?  When one said it would be easy to fix the front seat belt---I got hopes up, and wondered why this same dealership had been so difficult for six years with me??  Why couldn't they trade out or shorten the seatbelt receptacle on our old 2007??

We did not need fancy.  We specifically looked for one without a center console.  Salesmen kept stuffing us into fancy, high end, cars with consoles.  But, we noticed some fleet ready vans without consoles on our own.  We were not allowed to sit in those.  Those were already sold.  Already promised.  But, we knew they existed.

Bob found two 2013s---from last year's line, but stripped down.  We wondered about their history.  The bisque only had 13 miles on it.  tempting.  If we ever have trouble with the one we got, we can say, we should have gotten "the bisque".  But, we chose the white one with a light gray interior.  Only 57 miles on it.  my age!  81 when we got home.  round trip to the chiro is 49 miles.

I was so nervous picking up a brand new car.  Like a new slate.  Like a new canvas.  No dings or nicks.

The drive home---the first time I drove it, was in the DARK, and scary enough, but there was a truck ahead of me that lost a couch or mattress from a futon or something...if I had been 30 seconds faster....yikes.  Bob was ahead of me, swerved to miss it...and I was singing---praying aloud, please, Lord, drive with me.

The wind could catch the door on the 2007 and wack whatever it was parked next to...and I need lots of room to get in and out, because I am fat. obese.  huge.  yes. I. am. fat.  gross.  And I am picky about where I park so I don't ding doors.  or poles when gassing the car.  or rocks, curbs.   It drives me nuts when Bob parks too close to another car when there are empty spots farther away.  I need the exercise.  Let us park out by ourselves so that we do not inconvenience anyone with my slowness.

Now we have put the first thousand miles on it.  Our youngest grandson was in the hospital for 3 days, and we drove over to visit him, now on the mend, home. safe. and back to playing and driving his mother nuts.

We have tried many routes the six hour distance to the grands.  Our son prefers the freeway route, and while it does have more eating establishment choices, and gets you there quicker, the last 40 miles require a two lane through the forest, in the dark. no shoulders. no room for error.  I HATE that stretch.  I would rather go out of my way and stay on a better road.  We came home a more southern route to avoid the ice and snow front coming down from the northwest.  I really like 190.  wowo.  good shoulders.  THREE Walmarts.  So, anything you needs, there is a Walmart.  We were in a hurry to get home ahead of the storm, and we made it fine.  Only saw one pickup spun out.  Should have come home 360 not 820.  820 in Fort Worth was just a little too far into the stormfront.

A Walmart on a route is more comforting to me than a Seven-Eleven.   We stopped at Bucky's.  I don't get it.  crowded.  small stalls.  yucky.   Good food at Texas Burger.  We made it home in time for the halftime of the Superbowl.  Had to turn off the lyrics---why are we celebrating hurting women?  Give it up? I don't think so.

It was hard to find the superbowl on the radio...but we knew the Seattle Seahawks were winning.  Wasn't it 22 to zero at halftime?  43-8 by the end, right?

the superbowl ads were released a little ahead now.  So, i had seen some of them.

Went to take a bath, and low and behold, our electrician son had installed a fancy new light fixture in the bathroom.   He likes to surprise us.  I kept wondering if he had been by, as I saw a few things out of place.  thought maybe I was losing my mind---did not remember leaving a dishrag there...and what was that on the floor??  a piece of metal?? like a acorn hat?  I cleaned the potty before I left---did I strip the screw heads off when I cleaned the potty??  that is when I lifted my head and noticed the new light fixture.  oh. my.

we called to thank our son, and he said they were leaving the rodeo---so new worry---they were where the icy overpasses...

Women keep silent?

First Corinthians 14

14:30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.

14:31-33 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

14:34 The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.

14:35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.

14:36 Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only?

14:37,38 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment, but if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

14:39 Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.

14:40 But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.

(chapter 15 goes on to define the gospel: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…how He appeared to five hundred at one time..some of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this)

Context is important.  I was dismayed to see 14:34 pulled out by itself recently on the internet. It is a verse that angry Christian men and women like to throw back up in our faces.  It is one even the non-believers bother to memorize for the same purpose.  It is a hard verse. Yet, I have to believe, I have to trust that God the Holy Spirit allowed it for a reason. Preachers like to hop, skip and jump over it, and since it is couched in a chapter about spiritual gifts that most think have “ceased”, it is rare to find a preacher to wade into these shark infested verses. (sharks being the women’s “liberation” movement and hypersensitivity of our own arrogance as women. Even God warned Eve: your desire will be to rule over your husband.) 

So, remember that the whole chapter deals with keeping order and peace in our church assemblies.  Paul wanted Christians to remember that we are to be a draw, pleasing, always alert to the needs of the unsaved who are invited or who venture into our midst.  We are not to be stumbling blocks.  We are not to use our freedom to trip another believer or unbeliever. We are not to be a distraction from the Gospel:  Jesus Christ came as He promised in God’s perfect time and plan, and died for our sins on the cross, and was buried, but rose again three days later just like He promised He would. Jesus appeared to the women first, then His disciples, and then over 500 people at one time for forty days…before He ascended into heaven.  Jesus gave us clear, concise directions and purpose.  He wants us to spread this Gospel, this Good News, to ever corner of the world.  Even to the Jews and the Greeks, and the Gentiles…That God loved them so much that He sent His uniquely born Son, born of a virgin for this very purpose: to die on the cross in our place.  But, He did not stay dead.  He is alive now, seated at the right Hand of God the Father, praying for us, and waiting for the day God the Father has planned for Him to come back, rule and reign, just as He promised.  Angels repeated this as He ascended.  God preserved His Word, His Book, the Bible, down through the ages in order to offer each one this free gift of eternal salvation.  We believe what He promised.  Those in the Old Testament looked for the Promised One, and those of us this side of the cross look back and see God’s perfect plan, the fulfilled promises, and more promises yet to be fulfilled.  God does not force Himself on us.  Jesus did all the work of salvation so that we can believe and put our trust in His work.  We cannot save ourselves.  It is the work of God the Father who planned it, God the Son who created the world and was willing  to come down and live among us for 33 years and go to the cross, and the Holy Spirit who empowers  Jesus while on earth as our example, and now endwells us so that we can do His work to spread this Gospel, this good news.

Today, I’d like to ponder the hard words Paul writes in first Corinthians 14:34.  That is the purpose of this blog post.  For myself, selfishly, and to order my thoughts in preparation for the instructions of verse 35, to ask my husband at home.  Thankful, I have a husband to ask, and that God empowers him.  My prayer is for the women who do not have a Godly husband to ask.  Please do not be bitter.  God will provide.  Whenever I have a question, God answers in a sermon within just weeks or months.  I tremble when I then hear it, as I know God is answering me.  God cares about our questions, and knows our prickly frame…how we are easily insulted, and beset with pride.  I will never forget studying a passage, even writing a little song, about the woman with the alabaster jar of expensive perfume oil who anointed Jesus’ feet—how bold, how amazingly brave she was.  I studied it from every angle, and then God sent a preacher from England to our little church and he preached on it.  I about jumped out of my seat. 

Many of the most awesome sermons, like the one Jesus gave on the road to Emaus, are not recorded. In my opinion, this is because God wants us to dig it out ourselves.  Last week in John, my husband who is also our Sunday School teacher taught the passage where Jesus stands up and preaches in the Temple in Jerusalem.  John dwells on how the Temple religious crowd plot to kill Jesus.  Jesus’ brothers and the disciples are more amazed that Jesus came to this feast of Tabernacles, because He had told them to go ahead. And Jesus slips in an out of the crowd in a miraculous way.  But, did not one take notes?  What did Jesus preach?  God the Son is standing in the Temple in Jerusalem preaching---and no one thought to record it?  Was Jesus quoting Scriptures they already knew and thus, did not seem strange to their ears??  People often say, if only God would audibly speak aloud---then, I would listen?!   Ha.  Jesus Himself spoke from the Temple in Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles (a picture of His future kingdom) and no one recorded what He said! 

Back to First Corinthians---Remember, Paul is writing to a church in Corinth.  They have been doing  it wrong.  The folks in Corinth have been doing church wrong.  Paul is correcting their behavior, and instructing them in how to worship.  Assembling together as a family, as an assembly is commanded, but it does not come naturally, and we are all at different stages of maturity, from baby believers, and literal babies to the old gray haired sages and feeble, and then there is the sin problem.  Some of us women do not like to hear “shut up”.  “Sit down and be quiet”.   Our pride gets in the way.  Why go?  Work in the nursery, help out with the children’s ministry, visit the sick, feed the hungry, but don’t use your brain?!  Is that what Paul is saying?  And what is this “JUST AS THE LAW ALSO SAYS”.  Whoa.  Paul is indicating that the behavior of women in the church, in the Body of Christ, in the new Church Age is still under THE LAW that Jesus gave Moses. 

This is an opportunity to go back---go back to the Old Testament, given for our instruction, and look again at any passage dealing with women.  God invented man and God invented women.  God created man first, from the dust of the ground, God fashioned a body for that first man.  Look again at Genesis chapters 1 and 2.  Remember, we are on a quest for what God says about women and women’s roles and God’s purpose for women.  We are on a quest to see without the baggage of our pride, our pre-conceived ideas, the lies spoken even there in the Garden by the enemy using the voice of a snake… 

Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God 

I believe God existed and planned His creation, and was doing just fine without us.  God does not need us.  We need Him.  God created the most marvelous universe and set it in motion.  God created angels first, and recorded their story---the part we need to know, later in the Bible.  But, first, there was God.  God the Father, the planner, and God the Son, the Creator, and God the Holy Spirit.  Three Persons, One God sharing attributes and character in perfect harmony and happiness and we call it The Trinity.  God invented time.  God is eternal, outside, before, and beyond time.  God speaks the universe into existence.  Maybe it was the big bang.  And in a tantalizingly, fun way, God recorded all the clues we needed in words---again, God’s creation, how it happened.  Billions of years ago.  God created the heavens and the earth. 

I believe there is a huge gap between verses one and two.  Look at 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

Chapter 2 goes into more detail, telescoping down on a restoration of the earth in seven days.  Why did the earth need restored?  Go back to Genesis 1: 1 and 2: 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the (frozen) waters.

Did God create the earth formless and void and locked in ice?  I don’t think so.  The earth is a little blue marble set in the universe just so…in perfect position, unique among the planets.  The rocks tell us of upheavels, layers, shifts, and continents and oceans moved about.  Even in the genealogies here in Genesis, (Gen 10:25) mentions a time when the earth was divided.  Earthquakes? Continent shifts? Peleg lives after the tower of Babel. (Gen. 11:18)

The sun and moon are not positioned until Day 4, yet the Holy Spirit moves, warms, unlocks the earth and prepares it for man.  Restoration in 6 days just makes more sense.  Human history, going back to Adam is only 6,000 years.  (5773 to be exact) but the earth and universe proclaim themselves to be much older, or to be made to look old.  Take your pick.  It makes sense to me, that God created the heavens and earth, angels---and that those angels had their history.  They saw an earth of dinosaurs, a swampy earth created and packed down for billions of years to make that rich oil and gas that we now mine beneath the surface.   Angels saw a rebellion.  Satan convinced a third of them to follow him.  God judged Satan, cast him out of heaven.  Maybe cast him out and onto the earth.  There was a trial, and Satan appealed with “how can a loving God cast His own creatures into Hell?”  So, God locked the earth in ice.  Restored it in six days, and we are the answer to that appeal.  We demonstrate how a loving God can create, save, and then make it possible for the puny humans without wings to rule over angels someday.  God sets in motion from the dust of the ground, puny creatures---fragile in angel’s eyes, yet those first men lived a thousand years on the restored earth.  Not until after the flood, not until Noah did the age of man start to decrease to the eighty or so years people live today.  Before the flood, diet was different. Vegetarian. Climate and maybe ultraviolet did not age them so quickly.  God created His best in man.  Adam lived over a thousand years.  The first ten generations to Noah, did not father children until they were hundreds of years old.  And we have recorded in the Bible, every possible type of government, farm, travel, as history is played out.  Wickedness started early, but God had a plan.  And even though satan would seek to defeat each generation, kill the promised one, thwart and deceive mankind, God’s theme, God’s promise---from Adam and Even in the Garden, to Noah, to Abraham to Moses---God kept His promises.  God was at work to seek and save those who desired to know their Creator.  Whenever a spark of wonder was found, God revealed Himself to that person no matter what no matter where---rich or poor, on an island or in a city…God has been faithfully working, protecting, revealing His perfect plan in the war that is the angelic conflict.  Maybe we, the believers…from Adam and Eve to now, maybe we replace those third satan pulled to his side.  And in the future, satan and his third will be thrown in the lake of fire for final judgment.  The Bible says it is a day coming. 

So, in the beginning, God.  God created the heavens and the earth.  (the angels were created, lived their history, and satan and one-third rebelled. God sentenced them to the Lake of fire.)  The earth was formless and void. Locked in ice for a time.  The dinosaurs died.  Oil and gas reserved were formed for our future use.  Between creation, the swampy time of the dinosaurs, it could have been millions of years.  How long does it take for swamps to make oil?  How long does it take for gas pockets to form beneath the rocks?  Did satan and the fallen angels play and party here for a time?  Not much evidence of theirs is left if they did.  We don’t know.  They battle even today between heaven and earth.  Unseen to us, unless silly folks play with the Halloween variety.  And demon possession was problem back in Jesus’ days on the earth.  Jesus threw out demons.  Jesus freed people enslaved by demons who had taken over their bodies.  The demons gave them strength, but they also did stupid stuff like cut themselves---even as the demon possessed do in our time.  Every time you turn on the tv or look at movies in the theaters, there is no escaping the nightmares that are demon possession.  Everything evil and mean and base and scary and terrible is from the dark side of satan and his demons. 

God created the heavens and the earth, and restored our planet to sustain human life.  With just the right mix of oxygen, with marvelously exsquisit cells, blood, eyes, OH, we are so SO blessed with marvelous bodies.  A little lower than the angels indeed!  We do not have wings to fly.  Yes, we are fragile, we break, we get sick.  But, God created out of the elements here---out of the dust of the ground, Adam, and breathed into him life.  Physical life, spiritual, mental, emotional---it is so amazing how that first perfect man was made. 

Genesis 1: 26-31 “God said: Let us (three members of the trinity. Plural) Let us make man in Our Image, according to Our likeness, and let them---mankind, rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.  God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. …then God said: Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you….”

We are there, ladies! Female. God thought of us, planned us, created us when He created that first man.  Yes, Adam was first.  Because God desired to show Adam his need for us.  Man is not to take the woman for granted.  God created and instituted something so special---free will, and the ability to choose, and learn, and hear, observe and see—God created that first man with a full vocabulary, brain, mind, spirit, the ability to see and hear and talk with God!   God created man.  Gave him breath and lungs to breath the air here.  Food.  A beautiful planet, but we telescope down now to a special Garden.  A special stage where God will reveal to the man the animals---creeping things and birds, but how they are different.  They do not have a soul.  They are given instincts to reproduce, eat, etc., but they are different from man.  This parade of zoo animals is brought to Adam to name.  We don’t know if they took days, weeks, months, even years.   God lets Adam figure it out:  Genesis 2:19-20  “…..but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

A HELPER SUITABLE

Go back to Genesis 2:18  (after the commandment to cultivate and keep the Garden, vs 15,  and after the commandment in verse 16 and 17 to eat freely EXCEPT from the one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the warning---“the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”   After these verses, verse 18 says:  Then the Lord God said, “it is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 

God says He is going to make someone very special for Adam.  A helper suitable.  But, first , God forms out of the ground, animals and parades them before Adam for him to observe and name.   God says He is going to make something special for Adam, but first does something else.  Don’t you just love God’s sense of humor?  That same theme---creating the heaven and the earth, and letting angelic history take its course, all the while, He had us in mind!   All the while, He knew ahead of time that satan would be created the most beautiful, but fall. And take a third with Him.  This is not a surprise to God.  God was not caught off guard.  The same theme…God sees, and proclaims, not good for man to be alone.  Adam, man, like our husband---created with a need for us to complete and help and complement.   And when God puts Adam to sleep---Genesis 2:21 and took one of Adam’s ribs and fashioned  into  a woman the rib…from Adam’s side.  Forever Adam is missing a part…and in the marvelously complex parts we don’t even know yet---how a woman, that first woman, was formed from a rib sharing the same blood type? Yet made so beautiful, so exquisite, the Adam proclaims loudly: (when he first sees her)  Genesis 2:23  “Bone  of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.

Verse 24 continues with the curious:  For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Before there were fathers and mothers, before families---God is declaring the sacred, God’s invention, of free will, the individual, then the couple---of ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN leaving and joining together to make something so powerful, so sacred, Marriage.  Leave and cleave.  Oh, this is rich, as I am an old grannie now, and see how important it is to leave and cleave.  Choose wisely.   Two of my sons have picked their mates, gotten married, started their own families…an this verse warns the mother-in-law in me to back off.  Respect them.  My sons will always be my babies…but they are one with their wives now.  One man and one woman.  Marriage is under attack today.  Because the enemy seeks to undo God’s perfect design.  Marriage came BEFORE the fall.  Before sin.  God instituted marriage, families, nations…to keep civilization going despite the unseen forces that would seek to destroy us because the enemy has heard God make promises…promises that God cannot fulfill if there are no humans to come back to.  Satan went after the promised one throughout the Old Testament.  What makes you think he has changed?  Satan and his enemy forces seek to destroy mankind from within or without.  We are at war.  We are in a war whether we like it or not.  We have entered the stage that is history in the final acts of this play.  Best to find out what went on in Acts one and two…so God graciously preserved them in the Bible for us to read and know.  If each dispensation is an act in the play of history, I believe we are in the Church Age.  Jesus comes back and after the tribulation period of seven years establishes His Kingdom in a millinial reign of one thousand years.  After that, the Bible says one more rebellion, then new heavens and new earth.  We will live with God forever and ever.  This time, these acts in the play of history are but a drop in the bucket of eternity. 

So, as women, we need to understand our place in history.  Our place in God’s design.  Our role as helper suitable, and mother to sons who grow up to be husbands and fathers themselves someday. 

One flesh.  Helper suitable.  What do they mean?  Created, invented before the fall---and we must understand the fall and how it changed everything.  Yet, God preserved His design, of marriage and family and then nation respecting other nations, so that civilization could continue.  When nations or people groups set aside God’s design and ignore God’s plan, the consequences are sin, death, evil, slavery, and there is no excuse.  God established laws and had Moses write them down, and gave them to a stubborn and stiff necked people, and showed us down through the ages what happens when His laws are obeyed, and when His laws are ignored.  We have no excuse.  As women, we are responsible to know the Bible.  Know what happened.  Know the Laws that protected nations.  And know that each of us as individuals are responsible for teaching our children.  Each generation stands on its own, and each individual will give an account to God for what we were given.  God gives us a family to be born into, and God keeps us alive to hear the Gospel, and make a decision.  If we reject Him, it is often a hard life.  Full of sorrow and sin and fear and violence.  If we trust Him, sin is still a daily problem that we need Him to help us battle within ourselves, and within our children, and within our cities and nation.  But, He has promised to be with us, to help us, to guide and He gives us a purpose a mission…

Remember---you were created in God’s image!  You are not an accident nor are you descended from monkeys.  Evolution and abortion are attacks on the individual and marriage institutions.  See them as they are.  Understand the fall.  God loves you and wants the best for you. 

 

 

Tell your sons a story to help them understand recent events when they ask

Once upon a time, a young man grew tall. His Daddy was six foot four, and he could not wait to be taller than his Dad.   At six foot, two, and 17 years old, some called him, “Slim”.  It was a nickname.  Slim.  Slim loved sports.  He could play football or basketball.  He wore glasses, but they broke, and besides, some silly girl and his friends were calling him four-eyes, and one cute girl said he looked better without them.  Why bug his stepmom? Dad was busy driving trucks, and while it was hard to see the whiteboard/blackboard, Dad’s girlfriend was not going to take him to get his eyes checked.  One night in February, it was raining, but Slim got the munchies.  He heard that mixing skittles with Arizona tea and cough syrup made a sipping opiate, but drugs are bad.  Marijuana gave him the munchies.  Slim enjoyed chatting on the phone with his friend from his old school, in his old neighborhood, Rachel. Rachel did not do marijuana, but she did not judge his twice a week smokes.  Sometimes they’d chat all day on the phone about school, family drama, birthday parties and stuff.  No, there was no way he was going to ask Dad’s girlfriend to take him to the mall for glasses.  He did not want to hear the lecture about being careful. Eyeglasses break.  So, he called his Dad and asked to go to the store.  If only he had his own car, his own wheels.  But, a car, car insurance, gas all cost money.  Dad already forked it over for the new white track shoes, and his Mom said it was a race keeping him in jeans as he was growing so fast.  Slim cut through a neighborhood and noticed this dude in a truck watching him. Creepy.  Since Slim couldn’t see clearly at long distances, he hid and waited for the dude to get closer.  The creepy guy got out of his truck and came towards Slim.  Still chatting with Rachel, she wondered if the creepy guy was a rapist.  And Rachel dared him to punch the guy in the nose.  Slim didn’t want this creepy guy to follow him home because he was home alone with his Dad’s girlfriend’s son.  So, he waited until the creepy guy got closer and jumped him. Slim knocked the creepy guy down, and started punching him and the creepy guy started yelling!  “help!” And when his shirt slid up, Slim saw the gun.  But the creepy guy shot up through Slim’s chest and Slim said, “you got me” and fell back.  The creepy dude was able to roll free.  Come to find out, the creepy guy had called police.  The creepy guy was Mr. Z, who thought Slim might be a robber, as Slim was wearing a black hoodie, and slinking around the houses where some burglaries had occurred.  Mr. Z cooperated with police, and was handcuffed and taken in for questioning.  And his head wounds, and broken nose photographed, and treated.  The next day, Mr. Z did a walk through with police and a cameraman and explained what he saw and experienced.  Mr. Z was a crime watch captain for his neighborhood.  He was not on duty that night, but on his way to Target he noticed Slim in the black hoodie and called it in to police as he had been trained to do.  He was waiting for the police to arrive, and checking for a street name and address house number, when Slim jumped him.  Slim punched him in the nose, and sat on his chest and repeatedly banged his head into the sidewalk and Mr. Z thought Slim was going to kill him.  He did not know Slim.  He had never seen him before that night.  What if he blacked out and Slim found the gun in his holster? Where was that phone in his jacket pocket?  Surely, the police would be here soon?  When his shirt and jacket slid up as he tried to get out from under and away from Slim, Mr. Z was afraid Slim had seen the gun, and so he grabbed it first.  Mr. Z did not realize he had fired it until Slim fell back and rolled off him.  Mr. Z got up and hollered some more for help.

That dark, rainy night in February, it took hours for the police to take notes, for the coriner to come, and the witnesses to give their accounts.  Flashing lights and police tape and reports were taken until 2am.  Rachel found out two days later that when the phone call ended at 7:17pm, that her friend had died.  Slim’s Dad did not miss Slim as he assumed Slim was at a friend’s house.  J

Tell our sons that story.  For want of eyeglasses…

Did you notice that in telling the story, not once did I mention anyone’s race.  It was dark, light rain, and the neighborhood robberies and home invasions had been committed by black “youths” and Mr. Z was concerned that the black-hooded tall person he saw might be one of the perps.  But, he merely observed and reported, as neighborhood watch persons are trained to do all over the country.  Call in suspicious people, try to get a description, direction which way they are headed, but stay in your vehicle.  Slim was tall, in a black hoodie, walking in the dark in the rain, through a neighborhood which had been recently burglarized. 

Make the story you tell your sons about the eyeglasses, and how neglect happens sometimes in broken homes, the need of compassion, help…of even a pencil or food if a fellow student comes from a home of high drama.  Make it about what a child CAN do:  never make fun of someone who needs glasses, food, or help with homework.  Bring an extra pencil to share.  Lift up.  If someone is being a bully, tell an adult.  Encourage.  And use this opportunity to give your sons permission to defend himself and his sisters.

In a speech on March 22, 1964, MLK said: “We must learn to live as brothers or perish together as fools.”  His niece, Alveda King wrote 7-18-13:  “Every human being is part of the one single human race. We are one blood. One race.  We are created with a dream inside, and when we are allowed to be born and to live out our God ordained lives, we have a chance to be great.”

Journaling

First, this most unusual weather.  To have a low sit upon us from the northeast in July giving us rain, gentle, soft, sweet rain ALL day and night and Day again...a miracle.  In July. In Texas--where most summers we see no rain until Sept./Oct.  Wow.  Windows open.  I walked around during and after my birthday saying, "wow".  Again yesterday.  and today.  "wow."  You have my attention, God.  Wow!  Blessing rain.  no wind.  no thunder nor lightning.  Just gentle, sweet rain.  I want to sit out in it.

Thank you, Lord.  We neither earn nor deserve it.  You know we need it.  And I hope it helps dampen the anger and protests.

Now, the political.  I am a news junkie.  I poke and prod the internets looking for conservative news: the truth.  I think we have been played.  The mainstream media stirred up the emotions and anger and are partly to blame for the rioting.  And skittles and Arizona tea and robitusson makes a sipping opiate.  It was not just a young boy buying candy.  Trayvon Martin was a druggie. a thug. a punk. He towered six foot two inches.  He was in shape, but it was just a matter of time, as the drugs made him angry and he slunk around burglarizing houses.  He was kicked out of school because of a third violation with stolen property, jewelry missing from local houses, in his backpack.  His parents received a huge settlement suing the housing association.  Supposidly, his mother is a church going, Bible verse quoting, praying lady.  Surely, she knows her son.  She had to endure weeks of listening to the shots, the pictures, the stories, testimonies...she even testified.  She mourns for her baby.  Did she pay for his cell phone?  minutes?  Did he ever steal from her?  Pawn her jewelry? 

Would one relative, one honest person please come forward and say the truth?  Trayvon was punk.  He was going to hurt someone.  It was just a matter of time.  he texted and facebook chatted and spoke with friends about getting a gun.  He was a ticking time bomb.  But, no. 

As parents we are cowards.  Our baby.  Our reputation.  Our family story.  We are too afraid to admit that our children are SINNERS.  we are all capable of murder.  And we all desire self-defense. 

What of George Zimmerman?  He co-operated with police!  He had a judge for a father.  He knew the rules.  He tried to comply.  He tried to be a law abiding citizen.  he tried to be a man protecting his neighborhood from robberies.  His life was taken from him 17 months ago when after the night he defended himself, after trayvon tried to pound his head into the concrete, after the gun went off in his hands and after George was able to roll Trayvon off of his chest, he helped the police.  He answered all their questions.  He had his hands cuffed.  he was CLEARED.  He even did re-enactment walk throughs with cameras recording.  (should have been filmed at NIGHT, however, to be correct, as in daylight, things look different.)  all those videos and interviews were used against him during the trial.  the trial that the media and liberal progressive politically "correct" mob insisted upon.  And they were not going to be satisfied with manslaughter, either.  the threats on the family, the jurors...

Imagine being in your fifties, minding your own business, not bothering with news or newspapers.  Busy taking care of your own families, work, grandchildren, pets... hearing about some "young boy" being shot...but not bothering to research it.  Well, you get called onto a jury.  six women.  peers.   They get to sit through the trial.  Listen to all the evidence.  See the grieving parents, and family, and hostile witnesses.   Lawyers rant and rave and act and do their performance.   And these six ladies had to sit there and take it.  They had to become familiar with the new lingo, the legal terms, the strict times, sequestered...not allowed to talk about the case until it is dumped in their laps.  And the whole world waits for their verdict.

the whole world...except for my own children...too busy to pay attention as they have children, road trips, relatives to visit, sites to see... and yet they want the guns for self-defense...you'd think they'd be curious how this case went down.  But, no.  and I am still in shock.  As the country melted down with riots, where were my children???  wearing black hoodies in one of the cities.  that  night.  I. kid. you. not.   I guess I should be glad they were not wearing sheets to a kkk rally.  But, seriously?  black hoodies in a downtown where stores were being looted, windows smashed?? 

Saturday night...we are watching the Texas Ranger game on TV.  we are only allowed to WATCH the baseball game on Friday nights on channel 21 or 27.  but, for some odd reason, getting ready for the all-stars break, Fox 4 generously showed the game.  on a Saturday night.  we marveled at the Detroit crowd---NO black people in the stands in any of the games...neither Friday night nor Saturday.   I have heard bad stuff about Detroit.  How come only white people attend the games in a stadium downtown Detroit??  Don't the black people and muslim people of Detroit like baseball?  And they refused to show our black manager.  They kept showing Mattox, not Wash.  strange.  prejudice cameramen???  WTF?

So, I check twitter after the game, and the jury said, NOT GUILTY.  I find the live lawyers blathering and patting themselves on the back.  They should have shut up.  The Florida prosecutor that blocked evidence and fired whistleblowers was blathering on and on...someone should have cut her mike.  yikes.  now is not the time for celebration.  was she out of her mind?  or just loving her fifteen minutes of fame?

George Zimmerman's brother, Robert junior, spoke eloquently.  Revealed how their family had been homeless, on the run. persecuted, silenced.  Unable to respond and were on their own.  Their brother tried to defend himself, and their lives were forever changed that night in February. the 26th of Feb.

Did you know George has been on a curfew for 17 months?  wearing an ankle monitor?  hated by the press, and all who believed the lies?  Yikes.  His mother was born in Peru. 

Irony---a Zimmerman is buried at Arlington. 

Is George Zimmerman safe?  Will his marriage survive?  Where can he live and breathe free?  What can he do?  Write a book?  The Department of Justice is threatening to come after him.  Angry black mobs have sworn to murder him.   He desired to become a policeman someday.   He feels betrayed by a country, a media, a government, and has been unable to defend himself except through paid lawyers.  His father has had to hire lawyers.  The other side outspent them by how much??  I'd like to know.  If your son defends himself and shoots a person...no matter what color, should we get an insurance policy just for this?  So that we can afford the lawyers, the hotels, the life put on hold?

On the spiritual side:  did Trayvon's church going momma take him to church?  did he hear the gospel?  will we meet him in heaven?    and Martin L. King's daughter---she is all for nonviolence, but she just wants a boy like trayvon to be able to go about his business...buy his candy and walk home on a rainy February night in a neighborhood that has been suffering break=ins.... 

When are we going to talk about the black on black murders in Chicago??  When are we going to talk about the black abortions??  broken homes? 

apathy.  ignore the news, and you get to be on a jury.  stay current, and your children will wear black hoodies in a downtown city where riots are breaking out.    what a country.

Wednesday, July 17  More thoughts on the trial. verdict.

Again, what I'd like to ask Trayvon:  did your momma take you to church? any of your step moms?  Did you hear the gospel?  Let us assume you did.  Knew your need of a Savior, and are now in heaven.  What would you like to warn your friends?  future boys your age?

1. eyeglasses.  I saw you wearing them during a formal occasion---one of your Dad's weddings?  But, other pictures do not show them.  Did you have lasik? contacts?  or did your glasses get broken playing sports or rough housing around?  Were you too embarrassed to admit it?  Boys are rough on glasses.  And being sent to three or four stepmoms/girlfriends houses, did any of them notice your need?  Is that why you acted up in school?  any reading problems?  Counselors and teachers need to be alert and aware of students who for want of eyeglasses...  But, in this looks-is-everything culture, all it took was some stupid girl making fun of your or your friends calling your four-eyes for you to be too embarrasses to wear them? 

2. drugs? Did you take drugs? autopsy showed brain damage and liver damage.  Who paid for the drugs, cell phone, minutes chatting all day with your friends? 

3. Did no one warn you that slinking around in the dark in a dark hoodie was dangerous?  Sure, we'd all like to roam about, but in a neighborhood plagued with robberies, was that such a good idea?

4. Were you a ticking time bomb?  Talking guns and drugs and immoral behavior with your friends? What were your plans?  What kind of music, video games, movies did you enjoy? 

5. We don't get a do over.  But, I sure wish parents, teachers, pastors would use your life to redeem others.  Too, too many are murdering each other in Chicago.  Innocents are being caught in the crossfire.  I heard Rachel J. say she "doesn't do def" but someday, we will all die.  What is our legacy? 

6. since you were six foot two inches...why not basketball? did you enjoy football?  back to the eyeglasses question.