Sunday, November 8th, 2020. 12:30 PM.
Revised Edition: The Man Without a Clue
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” -Colossians 3:17 ESV.
He may have been related to Columbo, the detective;
He wasn’t sure about anything.
He used to watch that show; and he wondered if, maybe, Columbo was a long-lost brother or something.
They seemed to have some things in common:
Like unrecallable memories of folks he missed but couldn’t remember them – like forget-me-nots.
He couldn’t forget them; and yet, he couldn’t remember them, either.
He wasn’t sure . . . he couldn’t figure things out.
It all seemed like a vast mystery to him – like: The Wonder of You
Maybe he was mesmerized
Maybe he had been so abused as a child that he couldn’t think right.
Sometimes, he imagined that his mother used to throw him into his crib after changing his diaper in madness; so that his soft little skull got banged against the wooden railings of the crib. And who knows what that did to his brain and to his mind and to his heart and soul and spirit? If it happened at all; he didn’t know.
He remembered his mom saying this: “Dog in the manger!” And, “If I wasn’t afraid of going to jail, I’d kill all of you!” And his mom wrote in his baby book that when he was 3 years old, he said – according to his mom: I’m going to kill all of you and put you in the cemetery. And he wondered if, maybe, that is what she would say to him while changing his diaper. And, maybe, that is where a three-year-old got such words into his memory at such an early age. He didn’t know.
Elvis Presley – The Wonder of You (Official Video Starring Kate Moss)
He used to watch Mystery Woman, too.
She was also a mystery to him.
Everything was mysterious to him.
When he was young, he used to read The Hardy Boys Stories
Sometimes, it occurred to him when he finished one of those Hardy Boys books, that he could hardly remember the plot – what the story was all about; but, he understood that he had enjoyed going with them, Frank and Joe Hardy and Chet Morton and Tony Prito and Biff Hooper and Phil Cohen and Jerry Gilroy; and their girlfriends, Iola Morton and vivacious Callie Shaw on their adventures along Bayport’s waterfront and out on The Sleuth in Barmet Bay – just to be with them all and listen in on their conversations from the comfort of his own room and sitting in an easy chair all by himself. He had to use his dictionary to find out what vivacious meant. He imagined it meant shapely; but, it didn’t – it meant “Full of animation and spirit; lively” -The American Heritage College Dictionary.
After studying the Bible, he understood there’s a difference between natural and spiritual.
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” -1 Corinthians 2:14-16. ESV Study Bible.
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. As was the man of the dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” -1 Corinthians 15:42-49. ESV Study Bible. [2008].
Are You Born Again?
Then, he moved on up to the East Side – East London, maybe – where Sherlock Holmes lived on Baker
Street with his assistant and friend, Dr. Watson.
Holmes wasn’t anything like Columbo – he wasn’t forgetful; but, then Holmes lived on the other side of the Big Pond – the Atlantic Ocean, I mean – where The Titanic happened one cold April night that became a legend in Space-Time-Earth History, in the annuls of Love and Wonder and Courage and the Mysteries of Eternity . . .
Titanic – Hymn To The Sea
Titanic Best Soundtrack
He also liked the simple sketches in those books. Their simplicity evoked his imagination; I mean that there was so little detail that his imagination just liked to fill in the blanks — like seeds that his imagination could sprout.
Elvis Presley – (You’re The) Devil In Disguise (Official Animated Video)
The Temptations- Just My Imagination lyrics
The Temptations – My Girl (lyrics)
It is Well with My Soul • T4G Live [Official Lyric Video]
God’s Way of Salvation (John 3:16)
Sweet Beulah Land – Squire Parsons
My mom’s name is Beulah. She departed on August 15th, 2018. She was 88. I’ve come to think that 8 is my number. I was born at 8:23 AM; started school in 1958; live on the 8th floor; moved here in 2008; the young lady who shared the gospel with me by letters . . . her family license plate number was HM 8. I imagined that HM stood for “Her Majesty.” We were corresponding by letters in 1978. I flew [in a plane] to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in early April 1978 to visit her where she was attending a seminary studying theology. I prayed with her in a field as we were walking one early April afternoon that beautiful Spring of 1978 — confessing that I’m a sinner and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and thus began believing in Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior that day. There is something in the Bible book Isaiah that includes the name Beulah. Isaiah 62:4.
According to the “Biblical Cyclopedic Index” of The Open Bible [1975] Beulah means married.
“No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bride groom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”
Isaiah 62
Just noticed that today is November 8th, 2020.
August, the month my mom departed, is the 8th month. And my dad was born in August.
The 8th book of the Bible is Ruth
In the introduction to Ruth in the NIV Study Bible [1984] is this:
“Theme and Theology”
“The importance of faithful love in human relationships among God’s kingdom people is powerfully underscored. The author focuses on Ruth’s unswerving and selfless devotion to desolate Naomi(1:16-17; 2:11-12; 3:10; 4:15) and on Boaz’s kindness to these two widows (chs. 2-4). He presents striking examples of lives that embody in their daily affairs the self-giving love that fulfills God’s law (Lev 19:18; cf. Romans 13:10). Such love also reflects God’s love, in a marvelous joining of human and divine actions (compare 2:12 with 3:9). In God’s benevolence such lives are blessed and are made a blessing.
“It may seem surprising that one who reflects God’s love so clearly is a Moabitess (see map, p. 366). Yet her complete loyalty to the Israelite family into which she has been received by marriage and her total devotion to her desolate mother-in-law mark her as a true daughter of Israel and a worthy ancestress of David. She strikingly exemplifies the truth that participation in the coming kingdom of God is decided, not by blood and birth, but by the conformity of one’s life to the will of God through the “obedience that comes from faith” (Ro 1:5). Her place in the ancestry of David signifies that all nations will be represented in the kingdom of David’s greater Son.” P. 364. NIV Study Bible [1984].
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