REFRESHED!

Finally! The day rolled by and I graduated yesterday from the University of Aberdeen. Full of pomp and ceremony conducted in a pompous and ceremonial edifice, the second largest granite building in the world—Marischal College of the University of Aberdeen. Needless to say, the whole affair was in Latin, with subtitles in English, of course! “By the authority which the most high and mighty Princes have in the fullest measure bestowed on this beneficient University, I make you Doctor of Philosophy, as a sign of which I place this cap upon your head and pray to God, supreme in goodness and power, that this act may be blessed and of good augury,” proclaimed the Chancellor of the University as he tapped me on the head. I was then gowned by one of the sacrists at the ceremony in the toga rubra, the scarlet robe of doctoral graduates of the University, and awarded my degree. The John Knox cap, the traditional headgear for Scottish doctors, was a bonus. And so there I was, walking down the stairs from the podium, diploma in hand. Done!

Despite all the ostentation and parade of ritual—an ancient one in place in Aberdeen from about the 15th century—no bar was placed on cheering, of which there was much, for every student. In my cheering party were dear friends from High Church Hilton where I used to attend, during my sojourn in this fair city. I wish everyone had friends like these! Full of love and concern, abundantly overflowing in support and goodwill, these and the others who came later to a celebratory shindig, made my days in Aberdeen go by quickly, those dull, dark, dreary, and damp days. Their prayers sustained me, their care warmed me, their kindnesses refreshed me, their benevolence energized me. Brothers and sisters in Christ, indeed! What Paul requested of Philemon, was fulfilled for me through and by them.

Yes, brother, let me benefit
from you in the Lord;
refresh my heart in Christ.
Philemon 1:20

I was benefited and refreshed in Christ. And not only by these: I would add the many from lands far away, including family and those in the churches I’ve been a part of, without whose tangible love, verbal encouragement, and solicitous acts, this, my latest endeavor to obtain an education, would not have been successful. To all of them—Thank you!

I thank my God
in all my remembrance of you,
always offering prayer
with joy in my every prayer
for you all,
in view of your participation ….
Philippians 1:3–5

God’s grace has been superabundant, his blessings manifold, his mercies overflowing. And much of that through my fellow-believers in Christ. Through them I have seen Christ, time and again, as they obeyed the commandment to …

… be imitators of God,
as beloved children.
Ephesians 5:1

For those who have so depicted Christ, for those who have so demonstrated godliness, for those who have so manifested the fruit of the Spirit, the reward will be great.

For God is not unjust
so as to forget your work
and the love
which you have shown
toward His name,
in having ministered
and in still ministering
to the saints.
Hebrews 6:10

May we all, wherever we might be, find children of God being the arms and bearing the heart of Christ to us in word and deed.

Whoever speaks,
is to do so as one
who is speaking
the utterances of God;
whoever serves
is to do so as one
who is serving
by the strength
which God supplies;
so that in all things
God may be glorified ….
1 Peter 4:11

Amen!

BRRRR!

Vienna, Austria. Or Wien, Österreich, as the natives call this place. Got here Friday. From the frying pan into the freezer, one might say. Going from Texas to Austria felt like that yesterday. It’s a wintry 32°F here. Frigid. As usual, my luggage, with my winter stuff, didn’t arrive till the day after I got here! And so here I am unprotected, for the most part, and all that unwelcome white stuff is lying around, messing up the place, turning gray and unappetizing, getting in your shoes, drenching your socks. You can keep the snowballs. Gimme heat! And sweat! The real macho stuff.

This cold isn’t for me. Sub-zero. Slushy and sleety. Before I knew it, winter had arrived, or, rather, I had arrived in winter. And no means at hand to tackle those dreadfully dreary degrees and dismal days.

In a discussion with His disciples in Matthew 24–25, Jesus warns them to watch out for dangerous times and frigid temperatures. Be prepared, he exhorted.

“Watch out ….
See that
you are not frightened ….”
Matthew 24:4–6

All kinds of things, He alerted them, will be on the horizon towards the last days, as time draws to its end, as days wrap up their incessant movements, as Jesus prepares to return. Watch out. But many will be misled and succumb to devices and stratagems of the evil one to draw people away from the knowledge of God.

“At that time
many will fall away
and will betray one another
and hate one another.”
Matthew 24:10

What a sad chapter in human history. And temperatures, figuratively at least, will plummet.

“Because lawlessness is increased,
most people's love will grow cold.”
Matthew 24:12

I’m struck that we are warned of our love dissipating. Not that our faith would flag or our hope evaporate. Instead, the lulling of love. But we have been warned. Believers who, placing their trust in Christ have become the children of God, are to be prepared and alert and unsurprised; the last days are upon us, this final phase of earth’s history is imminent.

“For this reason
you also must be ready;
for the Son of Man is coming
at an hour when
you do not think He will.”
Matthew 24:44

We are to be alert in doing what we are supposed to be doing. Will our love become frozen? Our care for each other clammy, and concern for our fellow-believers chilled? Our community ice-capped? The church a glacier? It is not without reason that the writer of Hebrews urges us to …

… consider how to stimulate
one another to love
and good deeds,
not forsaking
our own assembling together,
as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another;
and all the more as you see
the day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24–25

The end cometh. Watch out. Stay on the alert. Be prepared. Don’t be caught unawares. Let’s our love be warm, genuine, and fervent, unlike that of those whom Jesus described at the end of Matthew 25 with these incriminating accusations.

“I was hungry,
and you gave Me nothing
to eat;
I was thirsty,
and you gave Me nothing
to drink;
I was a stranger,
and you did not invite Me in;
naked, and you did not
clothe Me;
sick, and in prison,
and you did not visit Me. …
Truly I say to you,
to the extent that
you did not do it
to one of the least of these,
you did not do it to Me.”
Matthew 25:42–45

Stay away from the cold!

STANDARDS!

Overlooking the River Thames is the grand dame of time-keeping, The Royal Observatory in Greenwich. King Charles II commissioned the institution in 1675, creating the position of Astronomer Royal, and until the mid-fifties of this century, Greenwich Mean Time was based upon the time calculated at this observatory. The standard! The Royal Observatory was officially appointed as the bearer of the standard at the 1884 International Meridian Conference because most of the world’s charts and maps were already respecting Greenwich as the location of the Prime Meridian (longitude 0˚). The standard!

To help the rest of the world synchronize their watches and clocks to GMT, a “time ball” was installed in 1833; the globe still drops daily to pinpoint the exact instant that it turns 13:00 hours. The standard!

Advances in technology and the desire for a more stable and universal standard have led to the establishment of International Atomic Time (TAI, Temps Atomique International), a weighted average of the time kept by about 300 atomic clocks (mostly Cesium) in over 50 national laboratories across the world. We’ve got to have a standard! And the right one!

And that goes for more than time (or weight or length, for that matter). There are things in life that need precise definition, things more important than hours and kilos and miles. Things that have eternal value. The standard of measurement that discriminates between right and wrong, good and bad, holy and sinful.

There is only One. And He is God. And He doesn’t change. The standard of righteousness.

Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
Revelation 15:4

His is the standard God requires us to maintain!

Therefore you are to be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48

An absolute impossibility for sinners—you and I and all mankind.

There is none righteous,
not even one;
there is none who understands,
there is none
who seeks for God;
all have turned aside …;
there is none who does good,
there is not even one.
… for all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God.
Romans 3:10–12, 23

What an indictment!

But, Oh! the grace of God.

God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love
with which He loved us,
even when we were dead
in transgressions,
made us alive
together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved).
Ephesians 2:4–5

For the Lord Jesus Christ took our sins to the cross, becoming sin for us, that all who believe might be saved.

He made Him [Christ]
who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become
the righteousness of God
in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21

So that we might “have” the righteousness that God demanded! The Great Exchange. So that we might be …

… justified [declared righteous]
as a gift by His grace
through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:24

For the believer who has placed his/her trust in Christ as Savior, this exchange is complete. Standard met. Demand fulfilled. Salvation procured. Life assured. Praise God!

… thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57

And now, again, God calls us to live lives of holiness in response to the incredible and awesome salvation that He has achieved for us.

… like the Holy One
who called you,
be holy yourselves also
in all your behavior;
because it is written,
“You shall be holy,
for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:15–16

By His grace, in His strength, for His glory, we shall.

EIGHTY!

Dad turned 80 the other day. To celebrate the notable event were present his two children, daughter-in-law, his two grandkids, and several other relatives and well-wishers. We had a ball!

80! He’s proud of himself, too, for having beaten the Psalmist’s reckoning of human days.

As for the days of our life,
they contain seventy years,
or if due to strength,
eighty years.
Psalm 90:10

Yet, as Moses, who wrote the Psalm, continues, while we might make it to four score, those years on earth are fraught with the frailties and fragilities of sin—ours and everyone else’s. A full life of many years we may be given yet …

… their pride
is but labor and sorrow;
for soon it is gone
and we fly away.
Psalm 90:10

Labor and sorrow, my Dad has seen. God’s grace has brought this man through many tumults in life. He lost his wife, my mother, almost twenty-five years ago; not long afterwards, he had a heart attack; he also lost half of his lower jaw to cancer later, restricting him to a diet of overcooked and mushy foods.

But he’s still going strong. Walking his way through life … literally: at least five times a week, he’s out, by the dawn’s early light, getting his constitutional. A habit he has not neglected for more than a decade. And right now, he’s somewhere 36,000 feet in the air on his way to India for the next several months, in an attempt to escape winter and its pains.

And so, between the US and India, my father circumnavigates, spending a few months here and a few there, spacing out time between his loved ones, spreading good cheer wherever he goes.

Yet, as he often remarks, he’s ready to “go home”. The other day he mentioned how he was planning to convey, before long, all the good news of his family back “home” to his wife. He’s gearing up to go “home”—the REAL home.

Do return, O LORD;
how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
O satisfy us in the morning
with Your lovingkindness,
that we may sing for joy
and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:13–14

That morning is coming—soon and very soon. Until then, until the appearance of that Son in the sky, …

… teach us
to number our days,
that we may present to You
a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Taking care to spend our days wisely, for God’s glory, with everything we have.

Let the favor
of the Lord our God
be upon us;
and confirm for us
the work of our hands;
yes, confirm
the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17

The work of that 80-year-old’s hands, God has confirmed in the legacy he has left behind. As Moses prayed, so did my father, and God answered him.

Let Your work appear
to Your servants
and Your majesty
to their children.
Psalm 90:16

The generations he leaves behind continue to gaze awestruck at the majesty of his God as they discover this great One for themselves.

Lord, You have been
our dwelling place
in all generations.
Psalm 90:1

Never aging, never changing, while we, suffering the brutal impact of time, change and age.

Before the mountains were born
or You gave birth
to the earth and the world,
even from everlasting
to everlasting,
You are God.
Psalm 90:1–2

As we serve this great God in the brevity of our earthly days, may we, too, be wise with our time. May God be glorified in our lives!