Losing the Cloud

In the comic strip, Lil Abner, by Al Capp, one character, Joe Btfsplk, always walked around with a rain cloud over his head. He was jinxed and the jinx extended to everyone with whom he came in contact. In the Charles Schulz cartoon, Peanuts, a character by the name of Pig Pen walked around with a dust cloud over his head.

In my lifetime, I have often thought, due to my trials and tribulations, perhaps I was jinxed in some way; I have known others who felt the same way. Thank God, I learned long ago to become detached from my misfortunes in knowing that God is boss and all I have to do is trust Him. (Romans 8:28) The apostle Peter teaches us that trials and tribulations are more important than gold. (1 Peter 1:7) We know we are His when we endure the trials and tribulations of this life.

I was asked several times to speak at a large Quaker church. The pastor shared with me several times in visiting with me that he had learned to “rest in the Lord” to find time for consultation with the Creator of the Universe. He told me he went down into a wooded area of a member's large farm and landholdings, to a creek bed, where he was isolated from the noise, hurry and crowds of the world. These are the chief weapons of the Devil in keeping us from communing with God: noises, crowds and hurry. The problem in most of our lives is that we are over-committed and under-connected...we might as well face the fact....the pace of most lives is a “killer of the soul”.

Unexpected, this relatively young, Quaker preacher died. I was asked to participate at his funeral – a large gathering of grieving family and friends. Much to my surprise, he had made arrangements to be buried at his favorite reunion God-spot – the place where he so enjoyed his communion with God. The funeral director told me later that he had never had such a mess on his hands trying to carry a casket through bushes; with family and friends getting lost in the swamp. His body was taken out of the casket and put directly into the earth, as he had directed. (He was not a Muslim, but this is a Muslim practice, even King Hussein of Jordan was buried in this manner – shown on television.) To each his own, but I felt his family deserved a better committal.

I have nothing but love for the Quaker church. One of the oldest Quaker churches in this state was in the community in which I was reared – the one attended by the family of Governor Charles Brantley Aycock. My folks were in church somewhere every Sunday and we often visited this church where we knew everyone, even though we were Baptists. The most remarkable memory of the Quaker service is their quiet time, and to this day, even though it has been seventy years, I can still hear the pendulum of the large wall-clock ticking on the wall, as those Quakers communed in the Spirit of God until the Spirit moved several of them to get up and testify. This was faith and grace, love for God in purity.

These folks, like my folks, knew about Sabbath rest – worship in spirit and truth. They would have come near jumping off a building than go to a shopping center or athletic event on Sunday. The Lord's day was a holy day, not a holiday. Our fore-mothers cooked food on Saturday so there was as little work as necessary on Sunday. Of course we knew that the farm animals must be fed and watered, the cow must be milked, but thank God, there was a time in this country when God's people knew how to honor God on His day.

Most people today are “numb” to relationships. Perhaps this is the reason that 50% of all marriages end in divorce – the reason most children have little respect for the religion of their parents – 50% of all girls have sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) – 37% of all children are born to single mothers – 95% of the prison population are young men and one third of all children, world-wide, go to bed hungry. The American home, and indeed the homes around the world, have just become “service stations” --- a place for changing clothes and grabbing a bite to eat.

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made the statement last week that “we have an epidemic of corruption in the world” – that each country has “become fragmented by corruption” (particularly the countries of Africa). Globally, and particularly in this country, it has become a natural thing for people to steal from their own people. There seems to be no hesitation about stealing in stores, stealing on the job, or looting after disasters, and the atheist points fingers at the Christians. What would our nation and our world be like if there were no Christian principles which do, in many ways, limit such satanic acts? The hypocrisy of Christians is just easy to identify – no one expects better from the non-Christian.

The infidel points to the prophet Jonah as a fallacy in the Christian faith – they laugh at the big fish which God prepared – they laugh that a man could survive three days in the belly of a fish or that a prophet, after being sufficiently indoctrinated by God, would go from the Sea of Galilee many miles inland to the city of Nineveh (familiar to most of you in today's Iraq as Mosul), where a complete revival took place. (A city of 120,000 with no pre-revival activity or ministerial group, just one reluctant prophet with a message.) But, Jesus believed the story. Jesus referred to the story and I will take the Word of Jesus for God's method of removing Jonah's cloud.

Learn to use your time wisely. You, like everyone else has 86,400 seconds in your day. John and Charles Wesley's (founders of the Methodist church) mother had 19 children and she had time for each of them. Pray the prayer found in Colossians 1:9-20 each day and you will have a bountiful life – it will chase your clouds away!

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light... (Colossians 1:9-20)