Enter into the Rest in These Troubling Times

This passage from Phillipians 4:7 is beautiful, but, as well I want you to consider verse 8...

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Rest Homes

Resting in What?

There was a time, back in the day, when nursing homes were called "rest" homes; indicating that it was a place for old folks, who had come to a point in life where they needed nothing more than rest...probably 24/7. Nothing has changed much, aside from the name. These bodies that we live in start to show signs of wear, over time, at varying degrees, depending on how we take care of them or not. The famous excercise guru, Jack LaLane(I think he is 91) is still excercising, but he admits that he hates to exercise; he only does it to maintain his body. Our bodies do get old and break, and along with that, our spirits get weary, and some of us break down spiritutally and emotionally. Getting away from life's problems in one way or another, can renew our energy, restore our spirits, and even change our attitudes. Vacations are great for this, but all of us can't take a vacation on a whim, or sometimes, we can never take one. Where is the relief? Where is the help? Where is the rest?

I DARE NOT TRUST THE SWEETEST FRAME, BUT WHOLLY LEAN ON JESUS NAME

ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK I STAND, ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND,

ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND.

Hebrews 4:3 KJV
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said , As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 4:4 KJV
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Hebrews 4:5 KJV
And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Hebrews 4:8 KJV
For if Jesus had given them rest , then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Hebrews 4:9 KJV
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Hebrews 4:10 KJV
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:11 KJV
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

As you read this, our world as we know it is on a fast track to self-destruction, and as Christians, our ONLY hope is in the peace of God that passes all understanding. As Paul said,

2 Timothy 1:12 KJV
For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed : for I know whom I have believed , and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

So do I care who is the president? You can count on it! Do I worry if it's not the one that I think it should be? No, well sometimes, but I shouldn't! Am I concerned if the economy is in the toilet? No, for all of the money in all of the world is God's...he is just allowing us to make a mess of it for now.

I can rest in the peace of knowing, just like Daniel and the three Hebrew children that God will take care of me, even if someone kills me and even if they try to eat me alive! They will find out that I am like a carp, or a skunk. NOT FIT TO EAT! haha

For those of you from the north, NOT FIT TO EAT(a southern term) means inedible!

Hebrews 13:5 KJV
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have : for he hath said , I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that I may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will NOT fear what man shall do unto me.

I will be editing this writing more in coming days, but until then I want everyone who reads this to think about a couple of things.

• In the old testament, the people cried out to God to give them a king; they wanted a king; they somehow thought that God was insufficient to meet their needs, or guide them...but God gave the people what they wanted...his name was Saul! Saul was a disastor, and God knew this...God allowed demons to enter into Saul; you know the rest of the story, right down to the end of Saul's life, who committed suicide by falling on his own sword. In effect, it was not about the people or Saul, it was about all of the events that would lead to God's man being king...David, who was called(even with his flaws), a man after God's own heart.



• If we will be a people after God's own heart, we cannot go wrong, and it won't really matter who is the president, for all of this is truly in God's hand, and God is never asleep at the switch.




• In a huge way, this nation has turned its back on God, time and time again; God, being God cannot allow these things to go unanswered. The time may have come! He promises, however, to take care of His own, US!




• Let not your heart be troubled! Enter in to the rest, knowing that Jesus gave us a very simple command....two words.............FEAR NOT!


• The word says in Proverbs 23:7 Whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, so IS he. Remember... Phillipians 4:8 tells us to think on these things! What are we thinking about???

Learning to Swim

There are many true stories that I could tell about my late father, Hatley Wiseman, if I could simply remember them all. Sometimes, things from our childhood return to us, and it is fun to recall them. The other day, I was thinking about how I learned to swim, and maybe some of you will remember how you learned, but my experience was, at least interesting.

The family down the street from us had a swimming pool, and I was invited to their house one summer day to take a plunge. They asked me if I knew how to swim, and I told them"Oh yeah, sure I know how to swim."...knowing all along that I could not swim much better than a rock. That's exactly what happened, as one of the neighbor's son had to drag my limp, water-logged body out of the deep end, after I sank like a lead weight. Thankfully, I did not drown, but I think that I swallowed about a gallon of water.

The next week, my Daddy paid for me to have swimming lessons at the local recreation dept. I did really well, learning how to float; how to do the dog paddle, and a few other things, all in the shallow end. But then the day came to go off the diving board in the deep end. As I approached the end of the diving board, I froze in fear; I could not jump. One of the instructors tried to coax me off, and ended up peeling me off the board like fly paper, and they had to extract me from the water, as I could not swim. After they dragged me out, I looked over at the gate of the pool, and there stood my dad. All the way home in the car, he scolded me about how he had wasted his money on lessons for me, and that he just could not understand my fear. I was embarrassed and humiliated, and I was very sad that I had let my dad down, and after all of that, I still could not swim...very sad.

For some reason, Daddy took this on as a challenge, partly, because he did not want me to drown, and he also did not like failure; he wanted the best for me, like he always wanted for all of his kids. Ironically, our family loved the water; we had a ski boat, and a place on the lake, and I wanted to learn how to water ski, but I knew that Daddy wanted me to learn to swim first.

So the next time we went on a trip to the lake, my dad announced to me. "You are going to learn to swim!!!" I said, "Oh yeah, right?" Daddy said confidently, "Oh yeah, you can count on it"

I awaited the moment with trepidation, for I did not know what his method be. Well , sometime in the middle of the day on the day that I learned to swim, we went down to the boat dock, and my father jumped into the water, and gave me a demonstration on how to swim. I watched, and enjoyed his demo, but I did not enjoy the next part, because he climbed out of the lake, walked over to me, and literally threw me into the deep water, I came up, spitting, flailing, and screaming that I could NOT swim. He yelled at me, and said, " I taught you what to do, now swim...swim! I am not going to jump and help you...swim!" I had a decision to make...sink or swim. Well, I guess that I must have made the right one, because I am here to write this story.

The fact is, that when I tried the techniques that my dad had taught me, which really were simple, I swam for the rest of the day like a fish, and every day for the rest of the summer; I was one happy camper.

As I was reminiscing this event in my life recently, I was comparing it to our Heavenly Father, how he has given us everything that we need to know for life, and He even throws us into the lake at times, so that we must depend on Him; He loves it when we call on Him, for God loves us, and even when we think that He might let us sink, He won't let that happen, when we trust Him, and guess what He knows all along that we can depend on Him, just like my Earthly father knew that he could save me from drowning, but he also knew that I could swim.

This story is dedicated to my good friends Ann&Hank Clark. Ann has been thrown in the deep end, but don't worry Ann, God has you in His Hand!

The Four Chaplains

I recently read about these brave men, and I want to share the story with you here...

THE STORY

ALEXANDER D. GOODE	GEORGE L. FOX	CLARK V. POLING	JOHN P. WASHINGTON
Click on images above to read bio

THE SAGA OF THE FOUR CHAPLAINS

It was the evening of Feb. 2, 1943, and the U.S.A.T. Dorchester was crowded to capacity, carrying 902 service men, merchant seamen and civilian workers.

Once a luxury coastal liner, the 5,649-ton vessel had been converted into an Army transport ship. The Dorchester, one of three ships in the SG-19 convoy, was moving steadily across the icy waters from Newfoundland toward an American base in Greenland. SG-19 was escorted by Coast Guard Cutters Tampa, Escanaba and Comanche.

Hans J. Danielsen, the ship's captain, was concerned and cautious. Earlier the Tampa had detected a submarine with its sonar. Danielsen knew he was in dangerous waters even before he got the alarming information. German U-boats were constantly prowling these vital sea lanes, and several ships had already been blasted and sunk. The Dorchester was now only 150 miles from its destination, but the captain ordered the men to sleep in their clothing and keep life jackets on. Many soldiers sleeping deep in the ship's hold disregarded the order because of the engine's heat. Others ignored it because the life jackets were uncomfortable. On Feb. 3, at 12:55 a.m., a periscope broke the chilly Atlantic waters. Through the cross hairs, an officer aboard the German submarine U-223 spotted the Dorchester. The U-223 approached the convoy on the surface, and after identifying and targeting the ship, he gave orders to fire the torpedoes, a fan of three were fired. The one that hit was decisive--and deadly--striking the starboard side, amid ship, far below the water line. Danielsen, alerted that the Dorchester was taking water rapidly and sinking, gave the order to abandon ship. In less than 20 minutes, the Dorchester would slip beneath the Atlantic's icy waters.

Tragically, the hit had knocked out power and radio contact with the three escort ships. The CGC Comanche, however, saw the flash of the explosion. It responded and then rescued 97 survivors. The CGC Escanaba circled the Dorchester, rescuing an additional 132 survivors. The third cutter, CGC Tampa, continued on, escorting the remaining two ships
.
Aboard the Dorchester, panic and chaos had set in. The blast had killed scores of men, and many more were seriously wounded. Others, stunned by the explosion were groping in the darkness. Those sleeping without clothing rushed topside where they were confronted first by a blast of icy Arctic air and then by the knowledge that death awaited.

Men jumped from the ship into lifeboats, over-crowding them to the point of capsizing, according to eyewitnesses. Other rafts, tossed into the Atlantic, drifted away before soldiers could get in them.

Through the pandemonium, according to those present, four Army chaplains brought hope in despair and light in darkness. Those chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed.

Quickly and quietly, the four chaplains spread out among the soldiers. There they tried to calm the frightened, tend the wounded and guide the disoriented toward safety.

"Witnesses of that terrible night remember hearing the four men offer prayers for the dying and encouragement for those who would live," says Wyatt R. Fox, son of Reverend Fox.

One witness, Private William B. Bednar, found himself floating in oil-smeared water surrounded by dead bodies and debris. "I could hear men crying, pleading, praying," Bednar recalls. "I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage. Their voices were the only thing that kept me going."

Another sailor, Petty Officer John J. Mahoney, tried to reenter his cabin but Rabbi Goode stopped him. Mahoney, concerned about the cold Arctic air, explained he had forgotten his gloves.

"Never mind," Goode responded. "I have two pairs." The rabbi then gave the petty officer his own gloves. In retrospect, Mahoney realized that Rabbi Goode was not conveniently carrying two pairs of gloves, and that the rabbi had decided not to leave the Dorchester.

By this time, most of the men were topside, and the chaplains opened a storage locker and began distributing life jackets. It was then that Engineer Grady Clark witnessed an astonishing sight. When there were no more lifejackets in the storage room, the chaplains removed theirs and gave them to four frightened young men. "It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven," said John Ladd, another survivor who saw the chaplains' selfless act.

Ladd's response is understandable. The altruistic action of the four chaplains constitutes one of the purest spiritual and ethical acts a person can make. When giving their life jackets, Rabbi Goode did not call out for a Jew; Father Washington did not call out for a Catholic; nor did the Reverends Fox and Poling call out for a Protestant. They simply gave their life jackets to the next man in line.

As the ship went down, survivors in nearby rafts could see the four chaplains--arms linked and braced against the slanting deck. Their voices could also be heard offering prayers.

Of the 902 men aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, 672 died, leaving 230 survivors. When the news reached American shores, the nation was stunned by the magnitude of the tragedy and heroic conduct of the four chaplains.

The Book of Remembrance [Names of most of those who perished]

"Valor is a gift," Carl Sandburg once said. "Those having it never know for sure whether they have it until the test comes."
That night Reverend Fox, Rabbi Goode, Reverend Poling and Father Washington passed life's ultimate test. In doing so, they became an enduring example of extraordinary faith, courage and selflessness.

The Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart were awarded posthumously December 19, 1944, to the next of kin by Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, Commanding General of the Army Service Forces, in a ceremony at the post chapel at Fort Myer, VA.

A one-time only posthumous Special Medal for Heroism was authorized by Congress and awarded by the President Eisenhower on January 18, 1961. Congress attempted to confer the Medal of Honor but was blocked by the stringent requirements that required heroism performed under fire. The special medal was intended to have the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor.

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