Novena of Gratitude

Novena of Gratitude

            God's frame of reference never changes. "For I [am] the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).

            This writer has traveled the world with honesty, with prayer, sought understanding in many places, it all can be brought right back to the first days in the history of man, God's frame of reference, his rights, rights cover every action of man. "Don't touch that tree." We can not have it all.

            Study all the literature in the world, you will never find a more beautiful, dynamic, omnipresent story than that of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11).  It was not the first morning that the prodigal father had stood on the front porch straining his eyes, wishing intently to see signs of someone approaching the "home place." When he saw him, there was no doubt in his mind who he was...neighbor, hired man, etc. Father's recognize their sons. The old man had probably not run for a long time but, I believe, deep inside, even when he was dividing his goods, he knew that the wayward son would return...they usually do.

            Once away from the chores and drudgery which make up life at a home, "this young man about town, thought he would be Mr. Goodbar. (Movie-"Looking for Mr. Goodbar") When hard time came, and they usually do sooner or later, and this Jewish boy was put to work in a hog pen, he found he did not have a taste for hog slop. A normal male, he thought about the good vittles on his father's table, how well his father's servants were fed. He practiced his novena of repentance all the way home, NOT NEEDED.

            Christianity is not complicated, just tough. Everything in the Christian frame of reference can be sized up-summed up with the hog pen. Our blessed Lord came to deliver-redeem us from the hog pen. Today's world, too many young people learn to love the hog pen...foolishness, stupidity, wastefulness. They learn to like the stench of the hog pen. They learn to like the slop of the hog pen....decadent music-polluted food-an attitude of not caring about anything.

            Farm boys know the degradation of hogs. Hogs don't care about anything and, some people after being delivered-redeemed from the hog pen, return "...the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:11).  How could anyone who truly has known forgiveness of sin, the happiness that comes with redemption, the joy of salvation, ever return to the old life of sin and rejection? But, they do, the world is so attractive. Satan lures-snares with everything he knows is our weakness. Nothing gives Satan more satisfaction than a fallen preacher, a fallen woman, or church people who are just playing games with God.

            In spite of the older brother's attitude, and we can all well understand his attitude, surely the prodigal son never lost his gratitude for having a home and father for which to return. He may have known some of his father's faith and decency but most who have been lifted from debauchery usually have a testimony of faith and delivery of their own. The forms and rituals of today's church are not the issue. We need church standards, denominational practices. The church is the bride of Christ and we hesitate to criticize the bride but, we need to ask the question often: "If every member of my church were just like me, what kind of church would my church be?"

            As a young boy, home coming and other services at our family church, I never could understand how many who live far away, returning, would start crying as soon as they heard the music in the church. With all the flaws of the church, its members, conditions beyond the walls of the church, there was a holiness there for which we ever bowed in gratitude.

            So it is with our home place, we had hard times and good times but all times became important as we gave gratitude for what we took away from there. The descendants of the children of Israel who had left Egypt, on the other side of the Red Sea, and certainly across the Jordan, in the promise land, could never have a true appreciation of what their ancestors had gone though. With every generation, they became less and less impressed with the sufferings of slavery, trials in the wilderness. Only once did the walls of a city fall because they marched around it (Jericho). Over and over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob rebelled and broke the laws given to Moses by which they were supposed to live. They were slow learners.

            My only sister said to me recently, "I wonder if your two grandchildren have any idea of what you went through to get your education, your lifetime of blindness?  How you worked at night for eight years to go to school during the day? Abused during the long hot summers selling Bibles door to door to people who do not even want a Bible?" So it is with all of us, especially those past 50 years of age. Younger generations will never know a world without want, need, technology. Most have never known hunger, what is it to save and work for anything. Most young people have never seen a wood burning cook stove, an outside wash pot for doing laundry, an outhouse toilet facility. One young man working for me did not know about 33 and 45 rpm records, "What are those things?" God in his infinite mercy has a way of equalizing, civilizing everything and everyone. The time may come when younger generations will return to the preservation practices with food, etc. on which our forbearers depended. They may learn about seed, that meats and vegetables do not grow in the grocery store. Above all, young people may learn that the only cure for their character flaws is a return to faithfulness and gratitude that made their ancestors great and has given them the DNA plus standards that have never failed. One may question God's ownership, God's rights but when all is said and done, after you have read all the books, his immortal principals are the only absolutes that have stood the test of time.