QUARANTINE BLOG # 335

February 28, 2021

Precious Name, Promise Keeper

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless’.  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17:1-5 – NKJV).

Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.  He was 86 years old when his son Ishmael was born of Hagar, the servant girl.  He has now waited almost 25 years for the fulfilment of God’s promise to give a son through Sarai.  Especially noteworthy, it had been 13 years since his last recorded word from God.  And what a word from God, this new expression is!

Now, I am going to tell you, as Paul Harvey used to say, more than I know.  In other words, I had to look this up (in the Hebrew Old Testament, specifically) and I am leaning on the knowledge of others.

As I said, what a word this is!  In the first three verses of Genesis 17, three different words are used to describe the One who is speaking.

First, “the Lord appeared to Abram.”  When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and Moses asked, “What is your name that I can tell the people who sent me” (Exodus 3:13) God replied, “‘I AM WHO I AM.’  And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14).  That is the first time God referred to himself by that name, and it means “I have always been.”  From that root comes the word “Lord” or Yahweh, the eternal God.

Second, “I am Almighty God.”  The Hebrew is El Shaddi, God Almighty.  The word occurs only 48 times in the Hebrew Bible, and is found in the passages that report God’s promises of fertility, land, and abundance, indicating that He, the Almighty, could fulfill His promises.  

Shaddi comes from a root word that means to pour out.  In other words, “I am that God who pours out blessings, who gives them richly, abundantly, continually.”

The Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek before the time of Jesus, translates Almighty with a Greek word that means, the “One who has His hand on everything.”

Third, “God talked with him.”  This time the word is Elohim, and it occurs more than 2,600 times in the Old Testament, designating the one true God.  Interestingly, it is a plural noun suggesting the Trinity.  It conveys the idea that God is the Creator (Genesis 5:1); the King (Psalms 47:7); the Judge (Psalms 50:6); the Lord (Psalms 86:12); and the Savior (Hosea 13:4).  His character is compassionate (Deuteronomy 4:31); gracious (Psalms 116:5); and faithful to His covenant (Deuteronomy 7:9).

As I said at the beginning, it has been 13 years since Abram has heard from God, and now when God breaks the silence, just the names that He uses would have been enough to stagger Abram to his knees or put him face down on the ground.  What a God!  What mercy!  What provision!  What blessing!  What a word!

That would be word enough, but the blessings of God are boundless.  A man for whom I worked almost 50 years ago had a unique way of describing God’s limitless mercy and blessings: “God’s blessings are full and running over, like a basket of strawberries with big ones on the top and on the bottom.”  By that homey illustration, he was conveying the same thing as Abram heard – God is an all-sufficient God.

But God is not finished with Abram.  God says, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.”  Your name shall no longer be “Exalted Father,” it shall be “Father of a Multitude.”

A few verses later on God is putting more big strawberries on the top and on the bottom of Abraham’s basket.  “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai [Princess] but Sarah [Mother of Nations] shall be her name.  And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”  

Maybe all of this is too much for a man who is one century old because the writer of Genesis says, “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’  Then God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him’” (Genesis 17:17, 19).

To demonstrate the faithfulness of His promise, God gives Abraham a covenant sign, a guarantee of His promise by ordering Abraham and every male in his household to be circumcised.  A few days later, perhaps still sore from the operation, Abraham is visited by the Lord and His two heavenly companions.  While Sarah is preparing a meal fit for Middle Eastern hospitality, God repeats His promise that the old couple is going to have a son.  This time Sarah is listening at the tent door.  When she hears the promise – which to be honest, is quite an outrageous promise because Sarah is past the age of childbearing – she laughs!  God hears her laugh, and asks, “Why did Sarah laugh?”  Sarah is afraid and she says, “I didn’t laugh,” but God says, “Yes, you did laugh.”  Reading those words I have paraphrased from Genesis 18, I don’t hear anger in God’s voice.  I hear a smile.  I hear laughter.  And getting the joke, if you will, God says, “Okay.  Name the boy Isaac.”  And all of you Hebrew scholars out there know that “Isaac” means “laughter.”

Frederick Buechner, in one of my all-time favorite books – autographed to me by the author, and the next time I read it through will be number 10 – Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, tells it best:

“The old woman’s name is Sarah, of course, and the old man’s name is Abraham, and they are laughing at the idea of a baby’s being born in the geriatric ward and Medicare’s picking up the tab.  They are laughing because the messenger not only seems to believe it but seems to expect them to believe it too.”

After the laughter has died down, God asks, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?  At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (18:14).  And when God returns the next year, He hears the sound of a 100 year old father bouncing his new born baby on his knee, and the joy of a 90 year old mother with a baby nursing at her breast.

And now we are back where we started.  God made a promise.  God kept His promise.  The God who has always been, the one true God, the All Sufficient God has kept His promise.  That is a God we can trust, no matter what our circumstance, no matter how strange or far away His promise seems to be!

Take two more minutes and listen to Michael Eldridge sing about that all sufficient grace in Haldor Lillenas’ beautiful hymn “Wonderful Grace of Jesus.”

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 334

February 27, 2021

To the Halls of Montezuma

The first major conquest by Spanish conquistadors in the New World was of the Aztecs in Mexico by Hernando Cortez.

After his first engagement in Mexico, a woman named Malinche who knew the language of the Aztecs, and understood the Mayan language became Cortez’s translator, mistress, and personal adviser.

The Aztec’s great king, Montezuma, sent messengers to open diplomatic negotiations. They offered the Spaniards gold, hoping they would be satisfied and go away. 

A surviving Aztec account records the reactions of Cortez’s officers: 

“When they were given these presents, the Spaniards burst into smiles. They picked up the gold and fingered it like monkeys. They lusted for gold. Their bodies swelled with greed and they hungered like pigs for that gold.”

The Florentine Codex, from the 16th century. The codex was carried to Spain by an unknown person where it was lost for almost three centuries.

Montezuma believed that Cortez might be the god Quetzalcoatl, returning to Mexico. He had departed eastward over the sea, saying that he would return. The fact that Cortez had come from the east seemed to confirm the theory.

Montezuma welcomed Cortez, but civility did not last long. A week after arriving in the capital city,  Tenochtitlan, Cortez arrested Montezuma, and made him a Spanish puppet. Too late Montezuma realized that the newcomers were only men, not gods. Cortez kept Montezuma hostage and demanded gold and other valuables. 

The  situation changed when Spanish soldiers from Cuba landed on the Mexican coast to arrest Cortez for disobeying orders. Leaving 120 of his men to maintain his hold on the Aztec capital, he raced for the coast. In a surprise attack, Cortez defeated the Spanish army, and, hearing of the wealth of the Aztecs, the soldiers deserted to his side.

During Cortez’s absence, his second in command, Pedro de Alvarado, committed mass murder. 

Aztec warriors retaliated. Cortez ordered Montezuma to persuade his people to disperse. By this time, Montezuma had no influence over his people. Since he was of no further use, Cortez executed the emperor.

This time Cortez had badly miscalculated. The Aztecs rebelled and more than 600 Spaniards died in the retreat. A number of those fleeing perished because they were weighted down with treasure, which they refused to leave behind.  

All the captured Spaniards were sacrificed on an Aztec altar. Stripped naked, they were forced to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms. They were then led to the altar, where Aztec priests held them down and cut out their beating hearts. Cortez escaped.

The steps of the Mesoamerican pyramids are all small and close together. The worshipper climbing to the altar must keep his eyes down to ascend the steps, thus when he approaches the altar, his head is bowed in a position of reverence.

The Aztecs hopes of restoring their society was short-lived. The Europeans had left behind an invisible army far more deadly than the one bearing crossbows and guns – smallpox. The disease spread with rapidly through a population lacking any natural resistance. Over the next several years there were frequent outbreaks. The first one killed 80% of the local population. The second killed 50% of the initial survivors.

This colorized picture is of a contemporary painting which shows the effects of small pox.

Subjugation of the Incas

The conquerors did not realize that the Incas, an empire even larger than the Aztec,  existed. If superimposed on a map of Europe, the Inca empire would have stretch from Spain to the Russian steppes. The Inca population was 20 million; Spain’s about 6 million. In only a few years the Spanish decimated the Inca population.

The key conquistador in this adventure was Francisco Pizarro. Sailing with Balboa, Pizarro was among the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean. He settled in Panama and swiftly acquired wealth and high social position.

Local natives told about a wealthy southern kingdom near a river called the Peru. In 1524 Pizarro and a partner, Diego de Almagoro, mounted an expedition consisting of about 80 men. Bad weather, lack of food, and wounds acquired in skirmishes with the natives forced the adventurers to return to Panama.

Regrouped, Pizarro finally reached the Inca city of Tumbes, an outpost on the fringes of the kingdom, but it was clear that he would need more men and equipment to conquer that realm. So he left two of his men behind to learn the local language, returned to Panama, and then sailed to Spain to get more financial backers, and the blessings of the Spanish king, Charles V.

The Spaniards arrived back in Tumbes in April 1532. To his surprise, Pizarro found the place in ruins, the result of a civil war between two rivals for the Inca royal throne. Smallpox had struck the realm, killing 60% of the Incas, including the Inca ruler Wayna Capac. His sons, Atahuallpa and Huascar, fought each other for supremacy.

When Pizarro met Atahuallpa he declared that he was the ambassador of a great king from across the sea who desired friendship with the Incas. No sooner was this nicety spoken when a Spanish friar named Vicente stepped forward and arrogantly demanded that the Incas renounce their gods and bow to the Christian God.

The friar “told Atahuallpa that he ... should adore the cross and believe in the Gospel of God and not worship anything else, all the rest was mere mockery.”

The Inca ruler asked Vicente who had told him this. The friar answered his holy book, the Bible. Atahuallpa said: “Give me the book, so that it will tell me.” He began to look through the Bible’s pages and said, “Why doesn’t it tell me? The book doesn’t talk to me!” And dropped the Bible on the ground. Vicente screamed for the conquistadors to open fire and 2,000 Incas were slain in the massacre. The Spaniards also took 5,000 Incas captive, including Atahuallpa and members of his family.

The Spaniards demanded that their prisoners give them gold. Atahuallpa believed that if he supplied the intruders with gold, they would be satisfied and go away. He ordered his people to gather large amounts of gold. Much of it came from Inca temples. Pizarro’s men melted down the gold and recast it into bars.

Even these enormous sums of treasure and supplies were not enough for the invaders. Plunging headlong into the vast unknown territories lying east of the Andes, they unknowingly set in motion one of history’s greatest voyages of adventure.

Next week, the search for El Dorado.

👉  The Testing Time

“And immediately the Spirit thrust him into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, and all the time he was being tested by Satan.  The wild beasts were his companions, and the angels were helping him” (Mark 1:12-13).

As soon as Jesus came up out the waters of baptism the Holy Spirit descended on him, God the Father spoke to him, and immediately after that Jesus faced a time of severe testing.

In this life it is impossible to escape the assault of temptation; but one thing is sure – temptations are not sent to us to make us fall; they are sent to strengthen our minds and hearts and souls.  They are meant to be tests from which we emerge better warriors of God.

One thing stands out here in such a vivid way that we must not miss it.  It was the Holy Spirit who thrust Jesus out into the wilderness for the testing time.  The very Spirit who came upon him at his baptism now drove him out for his test.  The word Mark uses indicates Jesus was led into the testing time not by a gentle nudge, but by a forceful, almost violent maneuver.  It is possible to miss the significance of that – if we hesitate to move at the urging of the Lord during difficult times, we are in good company.  Jesus hesitated, but the Holy Spirit who drove him out, went with him.

After the third and final temptation – for that time – Matthew records: “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him” (4:11).  Mark says, “The angels were helping him.”  There are always divine reinforcements in the hour of trial.  Jesus was not left to fight his battle alone – and neither are we.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 333

February 26, 2021

Today is our regularly end of the month feature about “this day in history.”

On February 1, 1884, the first portion of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, was published.  Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million English words.  The first edition took over 40 years to complete – at over 400,000 words and phrases in 10 volumes.  Today’s version, the second edition, comprises 21,728 pages in 20 volumes. 

On February 2, 1943, the last German troops in the Soviet city of Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army, ending one of the pivotal battles of World War II.   On August 23, 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the Sixth Army to take Stalingrad, an obstacle to Nazi control of the  Caucasian oil wells.  On November 19, 1942, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive which the German command gravely underestimated.  Total Axis casualties are believed to have been more than 800,000 dead, wounded, missing, or captured.  Soviet forces are estimated to have suffered 1,100,000 casualties, and approximately 40,000 civilians died.

On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft Luna 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms. After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower, deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth. 

In Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861, delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana convened to establish the Confederate States of America.  On December 20, South Carolina seceded, and within 6 weeks, 5 more states had followed.  By April 9, 1865, 620,00 soldiers from both sides were dead.

African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home on June 12, 1963, while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple’s three small children were inside.  Over 30 years later, on February 5, 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the murder.

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow landed at JFK Airport, and “Beatlemania” arrived.  It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, who had just scored their first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”  Two days later the Fab Four performed their hit live on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Shirley Temple Black, a child star of the 1930s, died on February 10, 2014, at age 85.  The plucky, curly-haired performer sang, danced and acted in dozens of films, and as an adult, gave up making movies and served as a U.S. diplomat.  With America in the midst of the Great Depression, Temple’s sunny optimism lifted the spirits of movie audiences and helped make her the nation’s top box-office draw.  President Franklin Roosevelt once proclaimed, “As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.”

Whitney Houston, one of the world’s top-selling singers from the mid-1980s to late 1990s, was found dead in her bathtub on February 11, 2012.  The 48-year-old pop diva, known for her soaring voice and beauty, won a total of six Grammy Awards and 22 American Music Awards, more than any other female performer.  “I Will Always Love You,” written and originally recorded by Dolly Parton, has been acclaimed by critics as Houston’s “signature song.”

“The audience packed a house that could have been sold out at twice the size,” wrote New York Times critic Olin Downes on February 13, 1924.  A young man named George Gershwin, then known only as a composer of Broadway songs, seated himself at the piano to accompany the orchestra in the performance of a brand new piece of his own composition, called “Rhapsody in Blue.”  Gershwin pieced “Rhapsody In Blue” together in 5 weeks, leaving his own piano part to be improvised during the world premiere.  It is regarded as one of the most important American musical works of the 20th century.

Austrian ski racer Hermann Maier made one of the most dramatic crashes in skiing history when he catapulted 30 feet in the air, landed on his helmet and rammed through two safety fences at an estimated 80 miles per hour on February 13, 1998. Amazingly, Maier suffered just minor injuries and walked away from the crash. Several days later, he won gold medals in the giant slalom and super-G events.

Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, all marriages and engagements were banned in Rome. A priest named Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.  When Valentine’s actions were discovered he was arrested, condemned to be beaten to death with clubs, and to have his head cut off.  The sentence was carried out on February 14, 270.

English archaeologist Howard Carter was convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb in the Valley of the Kings – that of the little known Tutankhamen.  Carter searched for five years without success. Then in November 1922, Carter’s team found steps hidden in the debris near the entrance of another tomb. It was virtually intact with its treasures untouched after more than 3,000 years.  On February 16, 1923,  Carter opened the door to the last chamber.  Inside lay a sarcophagus with three coffins nested inside one another. The last coffin, made of solid gold, contained the mummified body of King Tut.

On February 17, 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle came off the assembly line, and broke a world car production record held by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T.  In 1933, Adolf Hitler charged Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche with designing the Volkswagen, or “people’s car.”  In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., where the initial reception was tepid, but a 1959 advertising campaign won over consumers, and VW became the top-selling auto import in the U.S.  After more than 60 years and over 21 million vehicles produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003.

On February 18, 1885, Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a sequel to his earlier book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  The new novel focused on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the antebellum South.  Shortly after its release, Huckleberry Finn was banned by a Concord, Massachusetts, library which called it “tawdry, coarse, and ignorant.”  In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African American groups for being racist in its portrayal of Black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery.  No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature: “There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.  The barren Pacific island was guarded by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing raids against Japan, only 660 miles away.  The capture of Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island and bastion of the Japanese defense, took four more days and many more casualties.  War photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the iconic moment when Marines raised the American flag. 

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn was launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.  Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov.

In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeated the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team in the “Miracle on Ice.”  The setting was the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.  On February 22, 1980, the Soviet squad, previously regarded as the finest in the world, fell to the youthful American team 4-3.  Two days later, the Americans defeated Finland 4-2 to clinch the gold medal.

On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocked the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. Clay predicted victory, boasting that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

The first and last Grammy for Best Disco Recording was awarded on February 27, 1980, to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”  A seldom mentioned disco footnote is the July 12, 1979, Disco Demolition Night at the Chicago White Sox’s Comiskey Park.  In between games of a double header, a crate of disco records was blown up at second base, fans stormed the field which was so damaged that the second game couldn’t be played, and the Sox forfeited to the Detroit Tigers.

On February 29, 1940, Gone with the Wind was honored with eight Oscars by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  The most momentous award that night went to Hattie McDaniel for her portrayal of “Mammy,” a housemaid and former slave.  McDaniel, who won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, was the first African American actress or actor ever to be honored with an Oscar.

**   The Day of Decision

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan; and as soon as he came up out of the water he saw the heavens being riven asunder and the Spirit coming down upon him, as a dove might come down; and there came a voice from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; I am well pleased with you.’” (Mark 1:9-11 – Barclay)

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, meant for those who were sorry for their sins and who wished to express their determination to have done with them.  What did such a baptism have to do with Jesus, the sinless one? 

To every man there comes the unreturning decisive moment.  As Shakespeare saw it: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their lives is bound in shallows and in miseries” (Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3).  For Jesus his baptism was that moment of decision.  For thirty years he had stayed in Nazareth.  Faithfully he had done his day’s work and discharged his duties to his home.  Conscious that there was a coming time for him to go out, he saw the emergence of John as God’s sign.

At that time the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove might descend.  The simile is not chosen by accident. The dove is the symbol of gentleness.  Both Matthew and Luke tell us of the preaching of John – a message of the axe laid to the root of the tree, of the terrible sifting, of the consuming fire.  But from the very beginning the preaching of Jesus is a message of love and grace.

For you and I, that moment of high tide, that unreturning decisive moment, is when we respond to that love and grace, and say an eternal “Yes” to God the Son.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 332

February 25, 2021

For all of you math students who want to check your answer to yesterday’s math problem which stumped Peppermint Patty, the answer is: 13 dimes and 7 quarters.  Raise your hand if you got the correct answer.  One-half point if you followed the proper procedure but your solution doesn’t match.

👉  Continuing where we left off yesterday, let’s look today at another individual from the old West – a black cowboy – and Monday black cowgirl Mary Fields, and Tuesday, the town of Nicodemus, Kansas.

Bill Pickett was one of the most famous African American cowpokes.  He learned cowboying as a ranch hand in Texas and eventually used his skills to star in Wild West shows and even performed for British royalty.

Pickett was also the subject of a 1922 silent western film, The Bull-Dogger (the poster above is from that film).  Filmmaker Richard Norman was impressed not only with Pickett’s skills, but also with his ability to please the crowds.  Inspired by the Black cowboy’s journey to fame, Norman directed a film about the rodeo legend.  Named after the rodeo trick Pickett became known for, the film depicts Pickett on horseback, lassoing and wrestling a steer. 

Pickett grew up in Texas in the 1880’s, the child of former slaves, to become nationally famous as the star of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

Pickett was associated with such western figures as Tom Mix and Will Rogers, and earned a reputation as an all around cowboy of legendary abilities.  His greatest claim to fame is as the originator of steer wrestling, the only rodeo event to the traced to one individual.  In spite of a life of incredible physical daring – afoot and unarmed he once took on an enraged fighting bull in a Mexico City arena – he lived to age sixty, and died with his boots on.  In recognition of his many achievements Pickett was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1971, the first black cowboy to be so honored.

👉  I really like the following comic:

👉  And one from 9 Chickweed Lane:

👉  And Calvin and Hobbes:

👉  Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis by U.S. regulators Wednesday that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration’s scientists confirmed that overall the vaccine is about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, and about 85% effective against the most serious illness.  The agency also said J&J’s shot – one that could help speed vaccinations by requiring just one dose instead of two – is safe to use.

While the overall effectiveness data may suggest the J&J candidate isn’t quite as strong as the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna options, all of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible.  It wouldn’t be surprising if one dose turns out to be a little weaker than two doses and policymakers will decide if that’s an acceptable trade-off to get more people vaccinated faster.

👉  China says its Tianwen-1 spacecraft has entered a temporary parking orbit around Mars in anticipation of landing a rover on the red planet in the coming months.  The China National Space Administration said the spacecraft executed a maneuver to adjust its orbit early Wednesday morning and will remain in the new orbit for the next three months before attempting to land.  During that time, it will be mapping the surface of Mars and using its cameras and other sensors to collect further data, particularly about its prospective landing site.  It is getting crowded on Mars.

👉  Have Thine Own Way, Lord

“Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:4-5 – NKJV)

I used to tell the folks at Macedonia UMC that there were some dangerous hymns, and cautioned against them being selected for the morning’s worship service.  Those hymns, while beautiful melodies, were very demanding on the singer – not the singer’s vocal range, but the singer’s devotional life.

For instance, “Have Thine Own Way Lord.”  Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way.  Thou art the potter I am the clay.  Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still.  What if the vessel God wishes to make us into is contrary than the one we want to be?  Can you still sing it?

Or, “I Surrender All”  All to Jesus I surrender; all to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.  I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all.  What if there is some part of our life that we want to control?  Can you still sing it?

David’s requests of the Lord – that he be shown God’s ways, taught His paths, and led in His truth are requests that can only be made by a heart yielded to the Lord.  It is a “Not my will, but Thine be done” prayer.

If you can’t say, “Have thine own way, Lord,” or “All to Jesus, I surrender,” then commit as much as you know about yourself to as much as you know about Jesus.  Surrender takes a starting place.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 331

February 24, 2021

Today, by request, we begin with Peppermint Patty, and a math problem:

At breakfast yesterday morning the wife of my youth handed me a scrap of paper and said, “Here is the answer to the math problem.”  I thought she meant the Calvin strip in a recent blog with a math poem, but she was referring to yesterday’s edition of Peanuts.

So your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to solve the above problem and put the answer in the comments below.  As always should you or any of your math team be determined to have submitted the wrong answer, the QB will disavow any knowledge of your action.

👉  After checking out yesterday’s Bermuda weather rock, the Bro sent me another weather rock picture.  Be sure to check out the last line.

👉  If your initial definition of a cowboy (or a “cowpoke”) is a gun-slinging, rugged fellow on horseback, then you’re not alone!  Over the past century, cowboys have taken on a mythic status.  When Americans developed a taste for beef in the late 1800s, cattle ranchers hired cowboys to guide the animals to railroad depots, and the cattle were then shipped across the country.  

The concept of the cowboy eventually came to symbolize much more than cattle herding.  A romantic hero portrayed in books, movies, and songs, they’ve become a symbol of the American West.  There is a bit more to the history of the cowboy than skilled marksmanship and cattle wrangling.  And many cowboys were Black.

Cattle herding in the western states became a way to escape the racial discrimination of the South.  Many Black cowboys and cowgirls, such as Nat Love, Bose Ikard and Mary Fields, had once been slaves. 

After emancipation, many African American men and women sought a new life out west.  They established a number of all-Black towns, including Nicodemus in Kansas.  Some of these men and women worked as cowpokes.  While not totally free from racial discrimination, many did well in this profession and were respected for their skills.  Working as a cowboy or cowgirl was a way to earn decent wages without a great deal of oversight from white employers, and fellow white cowboys were usually friendly with their Black coworkers.

In the 1860s, white cowboys Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving partnered to herd Texas Longhorns across the state of Texas.  Hiring a group of 18 cowboys, including Black cowpoke Bose Ikard, Goodnight and Loving forged a trail from Fort Belknap, Texas to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.  While the trail is named in honor of Goodnight and Loving, Ikard performed the important work of tracking and wrangling cattle across the several hundred mile trail.  Ikard also protected Goodnight’s valuables, and he often carried thousands of dollars in cash that he kept safe from bandits and raiding parties.

Cowboying could be profitable, but it was also dangerous.  One section of the trail was particularly unpleasant; the men had to cross approximately 100 miles of desert relying on whatever food and water they had with them (Charles Goodnight is  credited with inventing the chuckwagon).  Ikard retired after a few years, purchased his own ranch and raised a family in Parker County, Texas.

“The Goodnight-Loving Trail” is a song by Utah Phillips about the cattle trail of the same name.

Tomorrow another Black cowboy story.

👉  In recent weeks, COVID-19 deaths have fallen from more than 4,000 reported on some days in January to an average of fewer than 1,900 per day.  But the death toll has topped 500,000.  That is greater than the population of Miami or Kansas City, Missouri.  It is roughly equal to the number of Americans killed in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.  It is akin to a 9/11 every day for nearly six months.

By late last fall, 54 percent of Americans reported knowing someone who had died of COVID-19 or had been hospitalized with it, according to a Pew Research Center poll.  Deaths have nearly doubled since then.  In some places, the seriousness of the threat was slow to sink in.

When a beloved professor at a community college in Petoskey, Michigan, died last spring, residents mourned, but many remained doubtful of the threat’s severity, Mayor John Murphy said.  That changed over the summer after a local family hosted a party in a barn. Of the 50 who attended, 33 became infected. Three died.

“I think at a distance people felt ‘This isn’t going to get me,’” Murphy said.  “But over time, the attitude has totally changed from ‘Not me.  Not our area.  I’m not old enough,’ to where it became the real deal.”

Concerning the following picture, no comment:

👉 All In

“To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me” (Psalm 25:1-2 – NKJV).

It’s an old story about a man in simpler times, flying on an airplane for the first time.  The fellow was very unsophisticated, and had never even seen a plane before boarding for his first flight.  All went well, and at the end of the flight he was met by a friend who asked him how it was.  “Well,” he said, “I suppose it was all right, but I held onto the arms of the seat and never put my full weight on the thing.”

We laugh at the simplicity, the naivety of that non-frequent flier.  Once you’re on board you are all on board.  And while that may seem comical, how many times do we, as Christians, not put our full weight on the Lord God Almighty?  We are like another traveler who, in desperation, asked God for relief from his situation.  When it all worked out, he looked up towards heaven and said, “It’s okay, God.  I can take it from here.”

Neither of these two fanciful examples measure up to David’s statement.  His is an expressive figure of speech that speaks of full surrender, total submission, and expectant waiting upon God that David directed toward the Lord.  It was as if David held his soul in outstretched hands up to heaven saying, “Here I am LORD, completely surrendered unto you.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “When the storm winds are out, the Lord’s vessels put about and make for their well remembered harbor of refuge.  What a mercy that the Lord will condescend to hear our cries in time of trouble, although we may have almost forgotten him in our hours of fancied prosperity.”

When telling God, “I trust in you,” God demands that this trust be exclusive.  Alexander Maclaren said, “All in all or not at all is the requirement of true devotion.” 

If you’ve been holding back, don’t you think it’s time to go all in.

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QUARANTINE BLOG # 330

February 23, 2021

The QB leads off today with a sad story, which we knew was coming, but sad nonetheless.  Friday’s show marked the last Jeopardy! appearance by guest host Ken Jennings, the first replacement since the death of longtime moderator Alex Trebek.  “That’s a wrap on my six weeks of @Jeopardy guest hosting,” Jennings wrote in a tweet.  “Thanks for watching, thanks for your patience with a tough learning curve…and, as always, thank you Alex.”

The all-time Jeopardy! champion was the first of several guest hosts to take over the quiz show while a permanent replacement is sought.  This week’s guest host is Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards, to be followed by journalist and author Katie Couric, Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, 60 Minutes Correspondent Bill Whitaker, actress and neuroscientist/actress Mayim Bialik, Dr. Oz, NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Here are reasons (and I know you have not forgotten them) why Ken Jennings should be the permanent host.  He set the record for longest winning streak in the game’s history.  His 74 consecutive wins earned him $2.52 million.  He won the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time tournament in 2020.

In 1976, the first space shuttle orbiter was scheduled to be named Constitution, instead when the craft rolled out on September 15, 1976, it was named Enterprise.  President Gerald R. Ford had received thousands of letters from Star Trek fans (representing, as he was told, millions of people enthusiastic about America’s space program, and therefore millions of voters) asking that the first shuttle be named after the flag ship of the United Federation of Planets.  I don’t know if will work a second time, but here is the link to write to the producers of Jeopardy!   I have.

Jeopardy! fan Craig Cocca posted the following Tweet:

Who is Ken Jennings?

👉  Speaking of Star Trek:

👉  More distressing news.   The once respected Mouse House, a.k.a Disney Productions, has slapped a warning label on its streaming release of the children’s classic The Muppet Show, warning of “offensive content.”

Five seasons of the show started streaming on Disney+ on Friday. Prior to each viewing, a disclaimer warns of the dangers that lay ahead.

The Muppets was once celebrated for its depictions Native American, Middle Eastern, and Asian people.  But there are some moments that haven’t survived the change in attitudes since they first aired, and the PC Police have taken over.

👉  The Google doodle at the top of the search page yesterday did not celebrate George Washington, whose birthday was February 22, but instead celebrated  Zitkála-Šá (Lakota Sioux for “Red Bird)” who was born February 22, 1876.  She was also known by her missionary-given and later married name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.  She was a writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and political activist of American Indian descent.  She wrote several works chronicling her struggles with cultural identity and the pull between the majority culture she was educated within and her Dakota culture into which she was born and raised.  Her later books were among the first works to bring traditional Native American stories to a widespread white English-speaking readership, and she has been noted as one of the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century.  Through her activism, Zitkála-Šá was able to make crucial changes to education, health care, and legal standing for Native American people and the preservation of Indian culture.

👉  With all of the rough weather our nation has been experiencing, and with so many people relying upon prognosticators who give you their weather predictions in terms of a percentage of success, the QB has decided that a more reliable – rephrase that – a reliable method – of prediction is needed.  You are hereby referred to the Bermuda Weather Stone.  Be sure to read the sign.

👉  Jesus Paid It All

“Christ also suffered. He died once for the sins of all us guilty sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God” (1 Peter 3:18 – TLB).

In my daily Bible readings, I have worked through Exodus – with lists of commandments, and now the book of Leviticus – with lists of sacrifices.

Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying,  “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock – of the herd and of the flock” (Leviticus 1:1-2).  The call to bring a burnt offering for sins begins with generalities and then moves into the specific.  It progresses from the herd, to the fold, to birds, to grain.  Throats are to be cut.  Necks are to be wrung.  Grain is to be baked in an oven.  There are sin offerings, peace offerings, remedies for unintentional sins, remedies for intentional sins.  If you’ve been to Leviticus, you know that Moses, through the word of God, covers every eventuality.  

For most of us, these are difficult books to read because of the detail and the complexity of God’s directions to Israel.  I read them with a grateful heart because I know what Peter said in his first letter: “Christ died once for all the sins of all of us guilty sinners!”  There is no longer any sacrifice or atonement that can please God other than what Jesus provided at the cross.  Even our own suffering won’t pay for our sins.  The price has already been paid.

Charles Spurgeon preached, “It is almost as if the apostle said, ‘You have none of you suffered when compared with him; or, at least, he was the Arch-Sufferer, the Prince of sufferers, the Emperor of the realm of agony, Lord Paramount in sorrow . . . You know a little about grief, but you do not know much.  The hem of grief’s garment is all you ever touch, but Christ wore it as his daily robe.  We do but sip of the cup he drank to its bitterest dregs.  We feel just a little of the warmth of Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace; but he dwelt in the very midst of the fire.”

And to that I say, “Thank you, Jesus!” and “Hallelujah!”  My sins – your sins – have been paid for, the Innocent dying for the guilty.  Well did Elvina M. Hall say, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain.  He washed it white as snow.”

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