A WORKING MAN'S CROSS

The last time I saw Clint, a year and a half ago, was at the family farm - Bolton Ornamental Grass Farm - just south of Battle Creek, MI.  M66 to H road S and about 2 miles west.  Clint was working, running a front loader mixing dirt with cow manure to spread on his ornamental grasses. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Clint's funeral was yesterday at the North Athens Baptist Church. I believed that I had given myself enough time to get to Athene and to find the church. Driving south on M66 I began to wonder if Clint and Arlene would drive that far on a Sunday morning.  Athens is really not that large but there was no Baptist Church sign.  Getting through town in a couple of minutes, it was time to stop and ask for directions. I went into a small restaurant and asked the young lady if she knew the directions to North Athens Baptist Church? "Yes, it is north on M66 to M road S, then turn left." Thanks you, I still had time!

North on M66 - pasted N road S and the next sign I saw was L road S. I must have missed my turn.  Back down M66 and turned into M road S just in front of 2 or 3 other cars with 2 or 3 other cars in front of me.  This must be the right road!  Two miles later I see the spire of a white church.  As we neared the church we could see what must have been a couple of hundred cars and the hearse at North Athens Baptist Church.

I was dressed in my black suit, light blue shirt, dark blue tie and dress shoes and was completely over dressed.  I go to city funerals.

Clint and Arlene's church is a country church. A group or 200 plus people who gathered as a community of believers had come their building for Clint's funeral.  There were 3 generations of the Bolton's with their friends. Friends with whom they had lived their whole lives together. Clint and Arlene were married in the church with the white spire which was across the street, having been replaced by the new building several years ago.

Jonathan Bolton's remarks about his dad were incredible.  He told about the wooden cross which hung back of the pulpit. Jonathan called the cross, "A WORKING MAN'S CROSS"! It had been hewn from a tree on the family farm and had been put together by his grandfather and his dad. The cross has been hanging in the church for over 25 years now.  Four generations or more of the Bolton's have now worshipped under that cross, been part of that community of believer.  Clint's grandchildren know about this Jesus whom grandpa served since he became a disciple of Jesus as a 14 year old boy.

In the biography they called Clint an agriculturist but he was really a farmer. .Farmer Bolton@ was his email address  He was given the opportunity. to work with farmer and volunteers in over 25 nations. He was part of the Peace Corp in Cyprus and head of the Peace Corp in Sierra Leone West Africa. At the American University in Beirut, Lebanon Clint taught  Farm Mechanization.  It was at this school that he taught Jose Zaglul who is now the President of Earth University in Costa Rica.  This agricultural school has students from all over South and Central America and, when I was there, from 9 countries of Africa.

For the past 10 or 12 years Clint and Arlene have gone to be a part of Earth University and to serve Jose in any way that he needed. True to himself,  Clint was able to have a regular bible study with some of he students while he was on the campus.  And now, after 10 years, some of the African students have picked up the vision to carry on - they now have 38 students with whom they now keep in touch for encouragement and discipleship!

Clint was a quiet, gifted, humble and dedicated student, teacher and disciple of Jesus until he died last Sunday.  His community gathered yesterday.  They sang, they spoke of Clint, they spoke of his work but mostly they gathered because he and Arlene are part of Clint's family!

From the grave site the people came back to their home building to talk and to eat. This was no ham and scalloped potato dinner.  This was a family dinner from dozens of kitchens, family receipts, and  loving hands who made salads and pies and loaded the tables!  I entered the Fellowship Hall through a side door - a lady who was cutting a cake into squares was blocking my way, so I said to her, "You don't need to cut that cake, I'll just take it home as it is!" She had already heard that line so I  too late. Besides, there were strawberry pies, brownies, berry cobblers, etc. I could not have decided any way,.

Lee, Joe and Gordan, men from the Battle Creek group were at the funeral to honor Clint's life.They were also there as a part of the Gideons and as a part of a 25 year old fellowship with Clint and Arlene - to encourage and to continue this community centered in Jesus Christ - the person whom Clint had worshipped since he was a 14 year old boy.

Because of Clint I had been introduced to Earth University and Tillers International.. Interacting with students at Earth I now share something of Clint's dream and hopes that Jesus will open the door for someone to fill Clint's shoes. I'm not an agriculturalist, but I'd be willing to try --- especially in February and March.  Michigan winters don't need Wilma nor me and Costa Rica is far enough south ----- but more than that, the kids (students) at Earth are so open!                  

Idoltry - so easy

Please forgive the earlier Post, I hit the wrong button and don't quite know how to recover.  I'll send the whole and finished post a little later - after I recover from my digital, spelling and other woes!

 Recently a republished book by A.W. Tozier, The Pursuit of God -was given to each of us in our Tuesday morning group. First published in 1948 this book has become a classic i.e. challenging, deeply penetrating, gift for me and I hope for the others in our group.

In 1949 I first heard about Jesus, really heard, that is, and have believed in Jesus sense that evening in  LaJolla, California..  By now dozens of books, including the Bible, have shaped and reworked my thinking and my life. Tozer's many books have sat on my bookshelf for many years, The Pursuit of God  from at least 1980. My latest reading has again provided application challenges!

Chapter two titled, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing" provided the title for this blog. While leading discussions on the book of Genesis and re-encountering Abraham and Issac Tozer's insights into the impact of things and even people in our life is what has struck me.
"Our Lord referred to the tyranny of things when He said to His disciples", "If and man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall his lose his life: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find his life." (Matthew 16:2-25)

Copyright laws prevent me from copying the next 2 or 3 pages of the book but I can copy the verses in Genesis 22: 1-2. "Some time later God tested Abraham. God said to him, Abraham!  Here I am, Abraham replied.  Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Issac, whom you love , (my emphasis) and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice Isaac  there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."  Sacrifice "whom you love" !t of his little sister a few weeks ago and remembered what a 6 year old felt like at her funeral.   

  

Prayer Breakfast - Livonia,Mi Thursday A.M.

Thursday morning was the 40th annual Livonia PB. After all these year I have become a little jaded with another community breakfast.  We have had some truly great speakers and some who were "marginal' and one or two who could have stayed at home and let us eat our quiche in peace.  This was not one of those breakfast!  Yesterday General Charlie Duke was the speaker. Humble, articulate, candid and really well received!  "Charlie", as he prefers to be called, was the10th man to walk on the moon. He spent 72 + hours on the moon in 1972.

 He and his wife Doris have written a book titled Moon Walker.  A delightful conversational style of writing with candid details about what it take to become an astronaut and also how a marriage ultimate survived that quest.  Are all we American males the same - really? I'm beginning to think that we are! The book is a great read and Doris' story within the total story can give hope to any one of us.

I share this blog because I've been around the Prayer Breakfast world for quite a long time 1959 - 2014 - another one comes up next Tuesday and then another on May 21st here in Michigan and who knows how many more will there be around the country. I'm forced to believe that each of them will be great - but I know better.  Sometimes a "life of their own" just isn't that good and how many GREAT speakers are there ?.  It also seems that the truly great speakers now charge and arm and a leg to make an appearance. So I carry on dreaming and hoping that Jesus will be, in some way or another, the focus of each PB as Jesus was the gentle focus of the Livonia PB.  I was warmed and deep;y blessed by Charlie Duke and his book

A day and a time really worth while!

Easter Sunday - 2014

My first Easter -  like nothing else ... first sunrise service - first alleluia sung by a choir - first ALLELUIA sung by my own heart and mouth ---- so long ago now, 64 years, but more meaningful now than ever! To each of you who receive this blog or email - may Jesus bring you deep inner peace, no matter your external circumstances.

This morning my heart and thoughts have gone around the world thinking of those with whom we have "walked" in and through Jesus of Nazareth. So many faces from so many countries - over 50 for sure - each of us have sung Alleluia because there is no inner peace without Alleluia some place in our lives.

Jesus Christ has risen - Alleluia --- may the whole world come to know and accept - then there WILL be peace in every nation and among every nation.  When we lose Alleluia as the center of our life then we must find a substitute center - to quote Helmut Thielicke p 281 "...if he (a person) is no longer subject to God, then he is under the domination of his instincts, his opportunism, his ambition, his will to power. The day may come when he will stick to nothing if it seems opportune to him. For every one of us has some kind of lord, we are all driven by something - if not God, then an idol, if not from above, then from below."

EASTER SUNDAY  - Jesus Christ is risen today ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA

Thank you Jesus that "You Know What You Are Doing!"

Two gifted historians, theologians and good friends wrote a book titled - The Meaning of Jesus.  I found the book in a used book store autographed and dedicated, "For Cathy with all good wishes" Tom Wright, Marcus Borg - May '02  I would like to share the concluding paragraphs of Tom Wright's writing on the resurrection. (my editing - by replacing pronouns with proper nouns and the word "it" - the legacy of a college professor who would not allow us to use the word "it" - "No one knows how to use the word it properly!"

In his concluding paragraphs of chapter 7 "The Transforming Reality of the Bodily Resurrection" page 126 Dr. Wright wrote,
"The deepest meanings of the resurrection have to do with new creation.if the stories are metaphors for anything they are metaphors for the belief that God's new world had been brought to birth. When Jesus emerged, transformed, from the tomb on Easter morning, the event was heavy with symbolic significance, to which the evangelists drew attention, without wishing to detract from the historical nature of what they were talking about. The resurrection was the first day of God's new week, the moment of sunrise after the long night, the time of new meetings, new meals, of reconciliation and new commissioning. The resurrection was the beginning of the new creation.

"The resurrection was, therefore, the sign of hope for the future, not only for individuals but for the whole world....

"Because of this hope, the resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot through with great significance.  What is done to the glory of God in the present is genuinely building for God's future. Acts of justice and mercy, the creation of beauty and the celebration of truth, deeds of love and the creation of communities of kindness and forgiveness - these all matter and they mater forever.  Take away the resurrection, and these things are important for the present but irrelevant for the future and hence not at all that important after all even now. Enfolded in this vocation to build now, with gold, silver, and precious stones, the things that will last into God's new age, is the vocation to holiness: to the fully human life, reflecting the image of God, that is possible by the victory of Jesus on the Cross and that is energized by the Spirit of the risen Jesus present within communities and persons. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above"; get rid of all the dehumanizing behavior that destroys God's good creation and the creatures made in his image, all anger and lust, greed and pride." The resurrection thus opens the door to a new world: a new mode of life for the whole cosmos and all who will dwell in this new world here and hereafter."
 
Where any of us are in this world -  from any nation or with any worldview - the resurrection of Jesus brings hope for almost unheard of new beginning!  Which our world truly needs as do each of us.

HAPPY EASTER          

Beryl Markham --- West with the Night - page123

"The trail ran north to Molo; at night it ran straight to the stars. It ran up the side of the Mau Escarpment until at ten thousand feet it found the edge of the plateau and rested there, and some of the stars burned beneath its edge. In the morning the plateau was higher than the sun. Even the day climbed the trail to Molo.  I climbed it with all that I owned.

"I had two saddlebags, and Pegasus ( the name of her horse). The saddlebag held the pony's rug, his brush, a blacksmith's knife, six pounds of crushed oats, and a thermometer as a precaution against Horse Sickness.  For me the bags held pajamas, slacks, a shirt, toothbrush, and a comb. I NEVER OWNED LESS, NOR CAN I BE SURE THAT I EVER NEEDED MORE."  (my emphasis)

How to travel so light and need so little, today!  

 

 

Thoughts from the book WEST WITH THE NIGHT by Beryl Markham 1902-1986

About Beryl Markham, Ernest Hemingway wrote, "...I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could or would put pen to paper except tp write in her flyer's log book.  As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But {She} can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers."

For those of you who have ever dreamed of flying, I used to skip High School classes to take flying lessons - charging them to my Dad  until he found out - end of my flying career until years later ----- this is a great book to read!

Beryl who grew up in British East Africa on her fathers farm - a great part of her story. She later became a pilot and was the first person to fly east to west across the Atlantic, in 1936, thus the title of her book.  She was honored all around the world for that feat.
 
In her book she described that when the rains did not come to East Africa for three years her father lost his farm and business and moved to Peru to train race horse. Beryl at age of seventeen and several month went north to Molo East Africa to train race horses.  Their conversation about her move went something like any father would advice a teen age girl - in those days.

"Go to Molo,' said my father. 'There are stables at Molo that you could use.  Remember that you are still just a girl and do not expect too much --- there are a few owners here and there who will give you horses to train. "AFTER THAT, WORK AND HOPE. BUT NEVER HOPE MORE THAN YOU WORK" (my emphasis) In today's world, we only seem to tell our kids about "Hope and Change" without the advice of never hoping more than the work required. I hope my 17 year old grandson, who loves football and hopes to play for a college will work harder than his hopes! Will he do the work required ? My hope!   

This book is a great recreational read - especially if you love flying, early Africa, and wonderful accomplishments!