Bethlehem: 'House of Bread'

“Sleigh bells ring! Are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening…”

Those lyrics greeted me as I entered the Subway sandwich shop in Aberdeen, N.C., around 5:20 p.m. on a recent Wednesday in December.

Music continued over the Subway sound system: “A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.”

I thought about a prediction of “ice by tomorrow morning” for the N.C. Sandhills. Our sandy soil grows tall pines, but ice and pines don’t mix well. Ice can lay limbs across power lines.

The song went on, “In the meadow, we can build a snowman….”

I don’t want to build a snowman, I thought. I need to be able to drive to work, tomorrow.

Waiting to order a “foot-long tuna with Monterey Cheddar bread” to share at home with Carol, I watched a young Subway employee put a tray of doughy loaves into a tall “oven” featuring a see-through front. She closed the oven door and set a timer.

When ice or snow is predicted, many folk run to grocery stores for milk and bread. Whatever the weather, bread can usually satisfy human hunger.

“Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and frequently additional ingredients,” according to Wikipedia. “Doughs are usually baked…It may be leavened or unleavened…Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods…and is referred to colloquially as the ‘Staff of Life.’”

Writer Don Mears says, “Whether made from wheat, rye, barley, millet, rice or even potato flour, it (bread) has been the basic diet of common people. Bread has been synonymous with food for ordinary working people of many cultures. As the common food of the average Israelite, it featured frequently in the spiritual consciousness and the ceremonial and sacrificial worship of ancient Israel.”

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town in Israel. Years before Jesus’ birth, Micah said prophetically, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 NIV).

In the Hebrew language, “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.”

God caused Joseph and Mary to journey to Bethlehem; Jesus was born there and fulfilled Micah’s prophecy.

We read in Luke 2:1-7: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”

The “Bread of Life” was born in a stable in a small town whose name means “house of bread.”

Jesus later fed a large crowd with five loaves and two fish. Many from that group found him the next day, and he told them, “You are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26).

They said, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (John 6:30, 31).

"Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever'" (John 6:32, 33, 58).

During this Christmas season, let’s remember these words from the old hymn "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”: “Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; feed me till I want no more.”

Christmas at Denny's

I took a day off from work on Friday, Dec. 10, 2010, and Carol and I left our home in Southern Pines, N.C., to drive to Raleigh. Suzanne, 32, the younger of our two daughters, was scheduled for surgery around midday.

We motored 75 miles up Hwy 1, turned left on Wake Forest Road and took a quick right into Duke Raleigh Hospital. I dropped off Carol at the Surgery/Registration door and left our Buick in a cold 3-story parking garage.

I joined Suzanne, Chad and Carol, sitting in an expansive lobby, which was not crowded. A large, beautiful Christmas tree decorated with oversized ornaments sat 30 feet from us. Suzanne held a “beeper” – the kind some restaurants use to let you know when a table is available.

One night, over a year ago, a pipe in Suzanne’s public school third-grade classroom leaked water onto her tiled floor. The next morning, she slipped on the wet floor and injured her left hip.

One doctor thought her pain came from a strain in her back and recommended exercises that aggravated her injury. After struggles with Workman’s Comp (workers compensation), Suzanne won approval to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, described as “the best way to see the inside the human body without cutting it open.” That procedure revealed she had a torn labrum in her hip. The labrum, as I understand, is a fibrous cartilage around the edge of a bone inside a joint. Dr. David Jones said he thought he could repair Suzanne’s damaged cartilage. He persuaded Workman’s Comp that she needed an operation.

We waited a long time in the hospital lobby. After a while, I put my hand on Suzanne’s shoulder and prayed for her. Her beeper soon vibrated and lit up. Time to go.

She walked alone to a “prep room,” a cubicle with a plastic curtain. We soon joined her – three loved ones huddled around a young lady lying on a hospital bed. A nurse anesthetist told us about the general anesthesia Suzanne would receive. Each of us gave Suzanne a kiss and returned to the lobby. (Later, after her operation, Suzanne emailed this message to Carol: “I thought of the song “I Will Rest in you” that you wrote, Mom, as I fell asleep for surgery. It was comforting.”)

Chad and I brought lunches from the hospital cafeteria to share with Carol in the waiting area. Afterward, a tall, thin, lonely-looking man we’d seen earlier walked past us. Carol asked him, “Do have a family member having surgery here?”

“My girlfriend is here to get an operation to tighten a muscle in her eye,” he said.

The 34-year-old man hailed from Fayetteville, N.C., and had close-cropped black hair. He seated himself to Carol’s left – two empty seats stood between him and her; I sat to Carol’s right. The man said he nearly lost his foot in an accident and “got on drugs” from taking medication for pain. He said he was 14 when his father returned home and surprised a robber. The intruder killed the father with the father’s “own gun.” The man said he got a girl pregnant when he was 15. Though her parents wanted her to abort the child, the girl birthed her baby.

“She’s 17 now,” he said of his daughter. “I see her.” He said he wanted to do right by that daughter and by another 6-year-old daughter he fathered.

“That’s good you want to stay in their lives,” Carol said. “I was 19 when I arranged to meet my father for the first time.”

Carol brought Christ into the conversation.

“I know what you’re talking about,” the man said. “I was saved when I was younger.”

“God wants your faith to be real in your life, now,” Carol told him. He gave her his name and address; she plans to send him an “envelope hug.”

Dr. Jones walked to the lobby and said he felt Suzanne’s surgery went well. Chad spent time with her in the recovery room, and she came to the lobby around 4:30 p.m., as I retrieved our car. Chad and a pale and weakened Suzanne headed to their Raleigh home.

Carol and I drove to a nearby Denny’s before beginning our trek to Southern Pines. The restaurant was tastefully decorated with red ribbons and greenery. Someone had wrapped its many framed pictures to appear as gifts. We heard Christmas music playing over a sound system. Carol ordered a breakfast meal. I got a turkey club sandwich. I used my cell phone to text-message these words to Suzanne: “I’m thanking God for your successful surgery.”

Sitting at a table in Denny’s, I felt the Spirit of Christmas.

A Table and a Thankful Heart

The day before Thanksgiving, my wife, Carol, spent time at the Harris-Teeter grocery store in Aberdeen, N.C., and The Fresh Market in nearby Pinehurst.

She purchased three pies: pecan, pumpkin and apple. She also bought four 29-oz. cans of Margaret Holmes-brand “Greer Peaches, Southern Freestone” (distributed by McCall Farms, Effingham, S.C.) and some flour.

My late mother showed Carol how to make an easy peach cobbler. Our younger daughter, Suzanne – she and her husband, Chad, teach in elementary schools – always liked that dessert and asked Carol to bring one to their home in Raleigh, N.C., for Thanksgiving. This year, our older daughter, Janelle, observed Thanksgiving at home in Taylors, S.C., with her husband, Terry.

Carol rose early on our recent overcast Thanksgiving Thursday, poured four cans of peaches and other ingredients into a large flat pan and cooked cobbler. By 10:00, I’d loaded pies, cobbler and Daisy, our 8-year-old beagle into our Buick. In the car, I prayed for protection and a good day before Carol drove us away from Southern Pines. Just enough mist was falling to need windshield wipers, and at the first stop sign, I hopped out and took a few pine needles from under one blade. We motored 75 miles to the Chad and Suzanne's rental house in downtown Raleigh, a city with a 2010-estimated population of over 394,000.

Chad’s grandparents, Don and Lois, flew on Wednesday from Chandler, Arizona, where they retired 10 years ago. Chad met them at the Raleigh airport and had them in his home by 1:00 a.m., Thursday morning. Don, 83, and Lois, 80 slept on a “blow-up bed” near Chad’s dining room table.

As a teenager, Chad and his younger brother, Jared, lived with their mother, Barbara, who now lives in Wichita, Kansas. They often visited their father, Rod, and his wife, Kathleen, in Kansas City, Mo., and spent many summers with Don and Lois in Herington, Kansas (population 2,563 in 2000). His grandfather owned an appliance business and he let Chad work for him.

Carol and I arrived before noon, and Daisy greeted her old friend Lucy, Chad and Suzanne’s long-legged Plott Hound. Suzanne had bought our meal from Whole Foods, a “natural and organic” store. We saw turkey, dressing and gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni, rolls and cranberry sauce. We added our pies and cobbler.

Don and I sat in the living room and talked before eating. Don said he was a good high school shop student, learned about electricity and worked at an appliance store that sold Maytag washing machines before he served with the U.S. Army in Korea. There, he helped service motors and helped make roads during the conflict that began in 1950 after North Korea invaded South Korea and brought on a “police action” against the aggressors.

Paul, a Christian probably in his late forties, arrived to eat. He worked at a factory in California until it closed. He lost a home and moved to N.C. when a friend offered to help him find work. He ended up in a Wilmington, N.C., homeless shelter. Somewhere along the way he had a heart attack and has applied to receive “disability.” He helps with a Raleigh house for homeless men.

We gathered around a large wooden table, and Chad prayed. After our feast, Suzanne asked that each person give thanks for something. Chad began, mentioning his grandparents and his father, who made it through brain surgery last year. Don said he was thankful for his wife, Lois, who sat across from him. She said she was glad they were able to take care of each other during their retirement.

Paul’s turn came, and he said, “Well, I’m glad to be here.” Most of us smiled, realizing his heart attack could have taken him “out of here.” He then mentioned other things he was thankful for. Sitting beside Paul, I was next in line. I thought about recent times I’d whined to God about aches, pains, difficulties and situations. Carol and I had arrived at our daughter’s house in a car – not on a motor scooter such as Paul uses to get around. I’m older than Paul and have had no heart attack or lost my job. We haven’t lost our home. Humbled by Paul’s presence and thankfulness, I, with a new sense of gratefulness, voiced my thanks to God for Jesus and my wife and family.

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart…” (Psalm 111:1).

The Persecuted Church Needs Our Prayers

Christians around the world will remember their brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith this Sunday, November 14, as part of a global day set aside to pray for their fellow believers, according to the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN).

“Christian pastors are often imprisoned in countries hostile to the faith,” CBN states. “This affects not only the church congregations, but also the families of these leaders.”

The global prayer day movement began in 1996 though efforts of the World Evangelical Fellowship with the help of various denominations and faith-based groups. Today, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) mobilizes churches on behalf of millions of persecuted Christians worldwide.

With a core of 7,000 participating churches, the IDOP has grown to become the largest prayer day event of its kind in the world. This year, churches will pray and also discuss ways to help suffering Christians.

“Why should you pray this Sunday, or perhaps daily for persecuted Christians?” asks Gary Lane, CBN News Senior International Reporter. “Why not? They need and covet your prayers. Think about it. Here are just a few of the Christian persecution headlines CBN News brought you in just the past three weeks”:

--A Pakistani Christian is sentenced to death for telling Muslim co-workers that Jesus died for their sins…

--58 Christians are killed in Iraq as Islamic militants attack their church…Less than two weeks later, grieving Christians are killed by bomb attacks targeting their Baghdad homes…

--Eight months after his release from a North Korean prison, American missionary Robert Park – for the first time – speaks about the suffering and torture he endured at the hands of his captors…

--The People's Republic of China prohibits 200 house church leaders from attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town South Africa. Conference organizers fear computer hackers from the PRC were responsible for shutting down their website for the first five days of the gathering….

“If anyone tells you that militant Muslims and communists are becoming more tolerant of Christians, don't believe them,” Lane says. “As I travel the world to meet with suffering believers and listen to their testimonies, I can tell you persecution is not lessening, it's intensifying. Why? I don’t know for sure. Perhaps it’s because Christians are doing a better job of sharing the gospel these days. Maybe it’s because television and the Internet are helping to bring Jesus to many societies previously closed to other beliefs and faiths.”

Lane says Christians around the world – perhaps 200 million or more – will pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters this Sunday.

“Believers in America and most Western countries know very little of the fires of persecution,” says Katherine Britton, News and Culture Editor of Crosswalk.com. “But our lack of experience doesn't have to be a lack of empathy. In Galatians 6:2, Paul tells the church to “carry each other’s burdens” to keep each other from stumbling…I think those of us who don’t endure life-threatening persecution can still partner with the persecuted church in this way. If we pray for believers we’ve never met…chances are we'll never know the impact those prayers have. And yet we can enter into their suffering in a small way when we pray for them.”

James tells us “the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective,” indicating that God uses prayers offered through Christ in ways we can’t imagine, Britton says. “And when we don’t know how to pray for other believers? God takes care of that hesitation as well in Romans 8:26: ‘…The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’”

Saint Paul asked for prayer so that “utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak,” Ephesians 6:18-20).

Pray often for the many Christians who are being persecuted.

Grace Writers

After David Pratt, the “small groups pastor” at our church, encouraged me – and my wife, Carol, and our daughter, Suzanne, prodded me – I decided to start a church “writers group.”

I majored in art education and minored in English in college but didn’t write much until I was 50 years old and began submitting articles and letters to the editor of our local newspaper, “The Pilot” of Southern Pines, N.C. I next worked for almost four years, in the early 2000s, as a part-time religion reporter for “The Pilot.“

A few years ago, I attended a writers’ workshop led by Marlene Bagnull, a Christian author. She used this verse as a theme: “And the Lord said to me, ‘Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others’” (Habakkuk 2:2).

In her book, “Write His Answer,” Bagnull says, “I believe God is calling us to write his answer. It’s time to boldly step out in faith and to write the words that need to be written – powerful words, winsome words, anointed words that will come only by allowing him to speak to our own hearts.”

Bagnull says she once gave the Lord excuses as to why she might not succeed in writing to honor him. She says she felt God answered her with these words: “Write out of your life experiences. Make yourself transparent and vulnerable so others can see what I have done, and am doing, in your life.” She adds, “I began to write about my life as a wife and mother…I sensed the most difficult things for me to share could be the very words someone else needed to read.”

I recently helped launch Grace Writers Group for our church, Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. The church holds two Sunday morning services and often sees over 1200 people attend those combined services. On two Sundays, Pastor Pratt let me host a recruiting table that stood alongside nearly 60 other small-group tables. About 11 people signed up for our group.

Six people gathered for our first meeting on September 15, 2010. (We meet on Wednesdays from 7:00-8:30 p.m.) Linda Martin, a lady in her fifties, wrote about our first class, saying, “I started the class on writing last night (Wednesday). Who would have thought I would be in a writing class – me, the person who’s been told many times to ‘write my story’ over the years and who has resisted each time…I have a hunch Steve’s gotten into more than he’s bargained for.”

I was not sure what I had “bargained for,” but I have been blessed by powerful writings produced by group members.

George Hunt, 77, is an Air Force veteran and a member of our group. He worked 30 years for Hughes Aircraft and now serves as the director of the Moore County (N.C.) Veterans Office. He touched hearts when he read to our group a writing called “A Day I Won’t Forget.” Here is his story, which is appropriate for Veterans Day (November 11):

“It was a hot July morning in 1944, and my father was in the Army somewhere in France. I was ten years old. My two younger brothers and I had decided to go swimming with our cousins in the creek near our Grandpa’s. We were having a great time splashing and playing in the water.

“Around noontime, I heard a car coming down the dirt road from the direction of Pinehurst, N.C. It was very unusual, with gas rationing, to see a car that far out in the country. Then I saw the TAXI sign on the side of the car, and my heart dropped, for a TAXI meant a death notice from the government, and there were only two houses on our road.

“I called the others and ran for home, hoping and praying that it wasn’t for our house. But when I got home, the driver had already delivered the telegram, which turned out to be about my father. All it said was he had been seriously wounded in France. That was all we knew for several months. No one knew if he was alive or dead. My mother went to the Red Cross to try and get some word, and they were unable to find out anything for us. Finally, a letter came from my father from a hospital in England. He was on his way home. What a great day that was. After months of no news, Dad was coming home.”

You will find more Grace Writers Group stories at www.gracewritersgroup.blogspot.com.

The Reformation and Grace

A young Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther posted 95 “theses,” or statements, on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.

Pastor Dave Tietz of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Taylor, Texas, says, “At the time, Martin Luther had no idea what drastic changes this simple act would bring upon the church, but posting those 95 Theses began a chain reaction that resulted in the events we know today as the Protestant Reformation.”

Tietz says the Arts and Entertainment Network’s choices for the most influential people of the past millennium includes these men: Guttenberg, for his invention of the movable-type printing press that made books readily available and affordable for the first time; Isaac Newton for his work in science, physics, and astronomy; and Martin Luther, who brought religion and education to the common people and is credited for laying the foundation of democracy.

Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses was the culmination of a long, personal struggle that fermented in Luther's soul and spirit for several years, Tietz says, adding, “Martin Luther grew up in a day and age when the church pictured God as an angry, vindictive God, a God of wrath and punishment who watched over us, anxiously waiting for us to make a mistake so that God could then punish us with eternal suffering in hell. The church taught people to fear God in the worst sense of the word. And the church used that fear to control the people, to get them to submit to church and obey all the teachings and rules of the church. And the church used that fear to amass tremendous wealth and power for the Pope in Rome and for the Roman Catholic Church, which was the only church in Europe at the time.” (Tietz says the Catholic Church of Luther's day, and the Catholic Church today are very different. “When I talk about the Church of Luther's day, I am in no way comparing it to the Roman Catholic Church of today,” he says.)

Tietz relates, “As a young man, Luther decided early on that he did not want to spend all of eternity in hell and suffering, so he set out to make himself right and pleasing before God. He left a promising future in law school, took on the disciplines of becoming an Augustinian monk, continued his schooling and was ordained as a priest in the Church.”

Luther earned a Ph.D. in Bible and Theology and became a professor at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, one of the then-new and upcoming schools of the Church.

“But through all of this, Luther did not find what he wanted the most...peace with God and a sense of assurance and rest for his troubled spirit,” Tietz says. “No matter how hard he strived to do everything that a Christian was supposed to do, he realized he was still a sinner. And since God punishes sinners, he was taught, he could only see himself as condemned before God…I suppose Luther was simply more honest with himself than most of us are today. We tend to belittle and minimize our sins, as if they make no difference to God…Luther saw his sin for what it really was – that which separated him from God.”

One day, as Luther prepared lectures on Paul’s letter to the Romans, he read Romans 3, a passage he had surely read many times.

“But this time as he read it, his eyes were opened, the light came on!” Tietz says. “As Luther describes it, ‘It was as though the gates of heaven were opened to me!’”

Here are excerpts from Romans 3:19-28: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…(But repentant and believing sinners are) justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

“Can it be any clearer that that?” Tietz asks. “And yet today there are many, many Christians in Lutheran Churches and in all kinds of other churches who believe Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised him from death...but still continue to doubt, to wonder if they really are saved, who think that their salvation still depends on how good they are and how closely they obey the law and live by all the rules…God desires very deeply that we stay close to God and live lives of honesty, integrity, and obedience to God’s will. But how we live doesn’t save us. Jesus Christ saves us! That’s the Gospel…We are saved by the grace of God through faith and trust in Jesus Christ.”

Should a Christian Vote?

If Jesus walked the earth in bodily form, today, and was a U.S. citizen, would he vote in the upcoming elections?

I believe he would.

I heard recently that an estimated 65 million adult Evangelicals live in the U.S., but only 35 million of them are registered to vote. And of those Evangelicals who are registered, only half will likely turn out to vote in the November elections.

Jesus’ “real kingdom” is “not of this world,” but those who believe in him ought to help improve America by voting and participating in a government that’s still, as far as I know, “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Jesus preached that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” and he promoted (and still promotes) good stewardship, which means taking care of talents, wealth and privileges we possess. Participating in government by voting is a privilege Jesus never got to enjoy during the time between his birth in Bethlehem and his crucifixion at Calvary.

Jesus spoke powerfully about a person’s relationship to government when critics asked him about paying taxes to Rome.

“Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?” some disciples of the Pharisees asked Jesus (pardon my paraphrasing).

“You hypocrites!” Jesus said. He asked them to show him some money.

“Whose image and signature is on this coin?” Jesus asked.

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Then pay Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give God what belongs to God,” Jesus said (Matthew 22:21).

Some pastors say that direct-from-Jesus command indicates people desiring to follow God should also attempt to be good citizens by participating in the privileges and obligations of government. Could we be shirking part of our God-endorsed duties by staying away from voting booths?

Asked about the ethics of voting, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said, “Part of being a citizen in a society like ours, where we have the privilege of voting, is the responsibility to exercise that privilege. To not do so is to sort of forego that part of what it means to be in a free society, and I think it would be unfortunate.”
Some religious folk may believe voting in an election is a “worldly” activity. An old gospel song contains these words: “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through….”

We’re all “just passing through,” but we shouldn’t neglect our temporal tasks and duties, while we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Remember the Good Samaritan? Jesus told this story: Robbers beat a traveler, stripped him and left him for dead. A priest saw the injured man but passed by on the other side of the road. Then a Levite passed by on the other side. Levites were reportedly dedicated to God. Maybe the Levite in this story had religious things to do and could spare no time to help a bloody mess-of-a-man lying on the side of a road.

“But a certain traveling Samaritan came upon the wounded man,” Jesus said, “and when he saw him, he felt compassion.”

(Samaritans were mostly despised and considered “low class” by priests and Levites.)

The Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, “put him on his own beast,” carried him to an inn, took care of him and left money with the innkeeper for the man’s further care.

Our American culture is being beaten and bloodied by secular humanism, atheism, socialism and “do your own thing”-ism. Proponents of such philosophies ignore God’s Word as they march toward destruction. Some say God is already judging America.

Let’s not long for the sweet-by-and-by and refuse to deal with, as someone called it, “the nasty now and now.” Let’s feel compassion for our country and help bind up its wounds.

I believe Jesus would vote in our elections if he walked among us, today, in his earthly body, and was a U.S. citizen. I believe he would vote for candidates who support Christian values. I believe we should, too.

Shoplifting at Walmart

Magalene works at the carpet manufacturing company where I work. She says her daughter, 24, is employed at Walmart and sees people try to shoplift. Magalene’s story about wickedness at Walmart goes like this:

“My daughter was checking receipts as people went out the door,” Magalene says, “and a girl she knew came up with a computer in a buggy. My daughter asked for her receipt, and the girl said the clerk didn’t give her one. My daughter said, ‘I have to see a receipt.’ Come to find out, the girl was trying to steal that computer.”

Magalene says she warned her daughter about a family who once attended the church Magalene attends, saying, “If you see any of them in your store, you watch ’em, ’cause they steal.”

Magalene says Walmart has surveillance cameras inside and outside.

“A man and a little boy came into the store and went separate ways,” she says. “The boy got liquid dishwashing detergent and began sloshing it down an aisle. The man came and slid down on that detergent. He was lying there saying he was going to sue the store. They found out on the video that him and that boy came in together.”

She says one Walmart cashier pushed a buggy holding a flat-screen TV through an employee entrance at the rear of the store. Somebody was waiting outside to run with that TV. Weeks later, Magalene’s daughter saw that cashier leave the store in police handcuffs.

“One woman faked an asthma attack, so another woman could try to get out the door with some goods,” Magalene says. “And my daughter says people try to bring things back to the store for refunds, and some of that stuff looks like it is 15 years old, and some of it didn’t even come from Walmart. One woman said she was going to sue the store if they didn’t take back the things she brought in.”

Professional shoplifters and Walmart’s own employees reportedly inflict the greatest shoplifting damage to Walmart.

We may become incensed that sticky-fingered folk ignore the commandment “Thou shalt not steal.” Their crimes are evident, but could some of us, at times, be thieves of a different sort?

“For most of us, the idea of one man stealing from another man is offensive to the point of being repulsive,” says writer Paul Meacham, Jr. “But, to steal from God, how could anyone do such a thing? Yet, that is exactly the charge God leveled against Israel through the prophet Malachi.”

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me” (Malachi 3:8).

“They had robbed God by not bringing the offerings and sacrifices He required,” Meacham says. “Can a man steal from God today? Certainly. When one withholds from God what is rightfully His, he is guilty of robbing God.”

Meacham says a man “robs God” when he doesn’t give God some of his income and also robs God when he gives God his sorrow but not his service. God requires more of us than just to trust Him in times of sorrow, Meacham says, adding, “Everyone can honor God with faithful, respectful service. Such is required by God and is a sign of our freedom from sin.”

Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

A person robs God when he gives God his fear but not his faithfulness, Meacham says. “If we turn to God to help us overcome our fear and fail to serve Him faithfully, we are robbing God of that which is rightfully His,” he notes.

If I try to shoplift at Walmart, I may get caught and taken away in handcuffs. If I attempt to get a “five-finger discount” on merchandise at Wally-World, my arrest may become public knowledge. Robbing God of money and of my service and faithfulness may not result in immediate consequences. He usually doesn’t set off an alarm or dispatch law enforcement officers to throw me to the ground and cuff me. No, God gives me freedom to choose blessing or cursing.

“Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:9-10).

Judgment at New River

Summers ago when my daughters and I rafted on the New River near Beckley, West Virginia, I mentally criticized one of our guides for something he said. Days later, I realized we were sort of “in the same boat.”

My wife isn’t an outdoor person, so when our two daughters took breaks from college and high school one summer, I arranged for three-fourths of our family to try white-water rafting in West Virginia.

The three of us drove to a Beckley motel, rose early the next day and rode a bus from a ticket-buying station to the river. We donned life vests and helmets and met two other adventurers (a young man and his wife) who manned the center of our inflatable craft. Two young male guides rode the raft’s rear, and I sat behind my daughters, who planted themselves in the raft’s bow.

We paddled peacefully after entering that old and deep river at a still-water section. I admired mountain scenery and noticed railroad tracks laid along steep banks.

Numerous folksingers have crooned “I’m riding that New River train.” Those words come from “New River Train,” a song that originated, I understand, in The New River Gorge region, which produced lots of coal through the early 1900s.

Before encountering rocky, white water rapids, we enjoyed tranquil passage and listened to our main guide, a dark-haired West Virginia native, recite river facts.
During a silence, I observed a Whitetail doe pause perhaps a hundred yards ahead and to our right, enter the river and begin swimming across.

“How beautiful,” I thought. Words from one of my favorite worship choruses came to mind: “As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee…” (Psalm 42:1).

I felt the doe’s entry into our idyllic scene provided icing on the cake for our near-Garden of Eden experience. Her timely appearance added flourish to an already-special display of God’s panorama. I felt thankful to be with my daughters and awed by the river and mountains.

“Look at the deer,” someone said.

From the back of the raft, our main guide, speaking in his best macho-drawl, said, “That’d sure look good in my freezer.”

“Crude!” I thought, wondering how anyone could see a lovely doe swimming a picturesque river framed by take-your-breath-away mountains and think only of appetite. How could he view such a creature and think first of his belly? His bull-in-a-China shop, caveman commentary offended me. I said nothing but judged him to be a man who mostly lived life on a physical level.

For days after our excursion, I thought about our guide’s distasteful reaction. Then, as I reveled in self-righteousness, this thought—like a heaven-born bubble ascending from the murky bottom of a deep subconscious river—floated to the surface of my mind: “How many times have you looked at person of the opposite sex and had less than spiritual thoughts?”

My puffed-up, highly inflated raft of self-righteousness struck upon the rock of that question and—swoosh!—lost all air.

This analogy hit me: a deer crosses a river, and a hunter says, “That’d look good in my freezer”; a graceful lady crosses a street, and some man muses….”

I’d fallen into the trap of thinking myself more spiritual than our deer-hunting guide, when I hadn’t shared his temptation. I hadn’t looked at that deer as dinner. I wasn’t a hunter. However, I have faced various temptations involving anger, strife, intemperance, lust and idolatry, and my initial responses to thoughts concerning “works of the flesh” haven’t always been good.

Someone said, “Temptation, unlike opportunity, doesn’t knock - it tries to kick the door in.”

No one has to search long in the trash heap of his own fallen nature to find something that puts him on a level playing field with the rest of mankind.

I believe God constantly attempts to show each of us our personal, burdensome sins - not to condemn us, but to show us we need to confess our sins and find relief by accepting his offer of forgiveness through Christ.

I believe there’s hope for the crudest of sinners. And for would-be super-sojourners, who try to think mystical thoughts while navigating life’s deep rivers, who desire to hold high “the light” and help other travelers, there is also hope - because God can even forgive self-righteousness that tends, at times, to rise in religious hearts.

The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity

Writer Brett McCracken says many pastors and leaders are concerned about young people leaving American churches, never to return.

On August 13, 2010, a McCracken article about “wannabe cool Christianity” was published in the “Opinion Journal” of “The Wall Street Journal.” His book “Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide” was published in August 2010.

McCracken writes, “As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.”

He says statistics show an exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70 percent of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

McCracken says the plan to keep youth in church “has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant.”

“As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called ‘the emerging church’ – a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement,” he says. “Perhaps because it was too ‘let's rethink everything’ radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it – to rehabilitate Christianity’s image and make it ‘cool’ – remains.”

McCracken says “Wannabe cool” Christianity can manifest itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an “iCampus.” Other churches encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during services. But one of the most popular methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking, McCracken says.

Dan Burrell of Lake Lure, N.C., writes about “cool churches” on his danburrell.com blog: “Having just moved, I am looking for a new church…Sadly, I ended up in such a church today. I knew I was in trouble when the opening song was – I kid you not – ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’ I almost left…this type of church has become exactly what they claim to hate in the church of their ‘fathers.’ It is extremely cliché, focused on a single generation, lost in a world of their own creation and mistakenly thinking that they are somehow relevant…The last church I attended…had a wonderful grasp on multi-cultural and multi-generational ministry with blended worship, a wide range of dress styles…creative outreaches, etc....but the ONE THING on which there was zero compromise was the clear, expositional preaching of the Scripture…Sadly, churches such as that are difficult to find and often drowned out by those on the far fight and far left who keep telling us that the other is out of touch or simply wrong.”

In the book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes, “The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God. And the further irony is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”

If evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken, McCracken says, adding, “As a twenty-something, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real. If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched – and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.”

Little Stuffed Bear

It’s a Saturday morning here in Southern Pines, N.C., and I’m typing this article while sitting in my workroom.

At the table in our nearby kitchen sit three ladies: my wife, Carol; Barbra Eschmann; and Linda Martin. Barb and Linda go to Grace Church in Southern Pines, the church Carol and I attend. Carol and Barb are retired, and Linda works part-time as a secretary at our church.

Carol is conducting an “envelope hugs” workshop, giving the ladies ideas about reaching out with the love of Christ to people through writing letters and cards. Carol calls the things she sends through the U.S. Mail “Envelope Hugs.”

Carol is sharing quotes and giving Barb and Linda some samples from her stash of stationery. She’s encouraging the ladies to write to friends and to strangers they may meet, hear about or read about. She’s telling them about people she’s written to and recounting stories about folk who responded to her outreach. She’s letting them know everyone won’t respond, and that they should not let that discourage them. The idea is to reach out, to sort of “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it (it will return) after many days” (Ecclesiastes 11:1). “The Message Bible” interprets that verse as “Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.”

A few minutes ago, I walked to the kitchen, poured some diet lemonade and snatched a cookie from those Carol bought for the ladies. I saw Barb holding my “teddy bear.” Carol had shown it to the ladies and told them about its background. The little “play purty,” as my Grandmother Lillian (“Ma Crain”) called such things, isn’t really a teddy bear. He’s only five inches tall, including his ears, and he’s flat, with just enough stuffing to make him three-dimensional. He’s made of teal-colored cloth, and stitchery indicates his eyes, nose and mouth. He’s stained and soiled, but he’s still smiling.

I often rode as a child with my paternal grandparents on their Saturday “milk and butter” delivery route into Greenville, S.C. Pa, who worked as a carpenter, and Ma, who never worked at a “public job,” owned one cow at a time and sold fresh milk and butter to about five or six customers in the “big city.” Two elderly sisters on our route lived together in a small white house. They gave me the little stuffed bear when I was around five years old. He somehow survived 58 years, and Carol keeps him sitting in a tiny rocking chair in our kitchen. I can still “see” the two elderly ladies who gave me that bear.

Barb asked to borrow my bear so she could make a pattern. She said she wants to cut, sew and stuff some bears to send through the mail. She said he’s flat enough to send in an envelope. Carol and Linda thought that was a great idea.

Strange, I thought, how two gray-haired ladies who usually wore their hair in buns and were often attired in simple print dresses could reach down through the years with a little act of kindness. Perhaps the story may be told this way: Two elderly ladies give a small stuffed bear to a boy who visits them with his grandparents. The boy plays with the bear and often, throughout his lifetime, remembers the ladies and their smiles. During the boy’s autumn years, a white-haired lady visits his home to hear his wife talk about sending letters of encouragement. The visiting lady sees the little bear and decides to make a pattern of him, so she can send bears to brighten lives.

Strange, how kindness has a way of multiplying. Strange, that concept of “casting your bread upon the waters.”

One of my favorite Bible verses is “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20). I think of that verse when I see letters Carol sends. She often lays her letters and cards in a blue chair in our living room, and I take them to our mailbox before I leave for work. God sent Jesus, the Word made flesh, to heal us from the penalty of sin, and as we use our words to present Jesus’ words, we become agents of healing, too. We become, in the words of an old song, “His hands extended.”

It’s Saturday morning, and Carol, Barbra and Linda are having a great time talking about ways to reach out to people through “envelope hugs.” They seem ready to “cast their bread upon the waters” – and Barb may even cast a few stuffed bears upon those “waters.”

Owing and Not Knowing

After dining recently at the Southern Thymes Café in downtown Greer, S.C., I did a bad thing, and Uncle Fred had to “make things right.”

My wife, Carol, did not travel with me, so I drove alone from our home in Southern Pines, N.C., on Saturday, July 17, 2010, and stayed in Greer at the home of my Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred Crain. I spoke the next day at Faith Temple Church of Taylors, S.C. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Raymond D. Burrows, said to me, “Take your liberty,” as he introduced me as a guest speaker. I grew up attending Faith Temple. Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred are charter members there.

Carol and I have two children, Janelle and Suzanne. Janelle, our older daughter, and her husband live in Taylors. She attended the Sunday service with us and prepared to travel with me to N.C. on Monday for a visit. I needed to return to work at Gulistan Carpet on Tuesday.

On Monday, Aunt, Uncle, Janelle and I enjoyed lunch at the Southern Thymes Café. I ordered country-fried steak, “tater salad,” turnip greens and peach cobbler. Good eatin’. Our waitress placed two “guest tickets” on our table. I grabbed them and argued with Uncle Fred.

“Give me them,” he said.

“No, I’m paying,” I said. “You paid Saturday.”

I stuck the tickets in my shirt pocket, laid down a $6.00 tip, finished eating and snapped some photos. On the way out, I saw friends and talked for a few minutes. Standing on the sidewalk in front of the café, I made more pictures.

Janelle and I stopped at a convenience store in McAdenville, N.C., near Charlotte. I entered the store and noticed something in my shirt pocket. I pulled out two “guest tickets.”

“Oh, no!” I thought. I showed Janelle the tickets and asked, “Would you mind paying these?”

She looked at the tickets, and her mouth dropped open.
“Woo-eee!” she said.

I called Uncle Fred. He said he had noticed our waitress standing at the cash register as we left the café, but he thought I had paid. He went the next day and paid the nearly $24.00 owed. He apologized to the waitress who served us. She told him, “At least there are some honest people.”

I had driven from Greer to McAdenville and was unaware of my guilt that whole time.

Perhaps you are a person who is unaware of an unpaid bill you owe. That bill is the “sin debt.” Perhaps you go day to day, thinking you are okay, believing your good deeds outweigh bad deeds you have done. Maybe you compare yourself to others, and, in your estimation, come out “looking pretty good.” That kind of thinking is based on the idea that people get to heaven because of “good deeds.” That kind of thinking is wrong, according to the Bible. There is a debt you owe, a debt you cannot pay.

The Bible lays out the story of man’s predicament. Because of “original sin,” no one can enter heaven. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Sin” is defined as “missing the mark.” What mark? God’s “mark,” or target, is complete holiness. He is holy, and nothing unholy can find a home in heaven. We humans have missed God’s target or “mark” – and we were born unaware of that fact. We were born with “original sin.” Original Sin is the genetic defect we all inherited from Adam and Eve. Through this defect, we inherited death – both physical and spiritual – and were separated from God. Through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (he paid our sin-debt), we have the avenue by which to conquer the genetic “sin and death” defect and be reconnected eternally to God.

“For the wages (the payoff) of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life…He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are walking around with a “sin-debt ticket in your pocket.” Perhaps you were unaware you owed such an incredible debt. Today, ask Jesus take care of it for you. He will.

Hilda the Encourager

Hilda Gerald, who died in Pinehurst, N.C., at age 94 in 1990, had a reputation – one that is now carved in stone.

Some of Hilda’s friends and family felt she had not been given a proper headstone when she passed on, so ten years after her death, they purchased one, had it installed and gathered at her gravesite in West End, N.C., to honor her.

Carved on her tombstone are these words: “Hilda S. Gerald, Encourager of Missionaries.” Along with the names of Hilda and her late husband, Jack Gerald, a horse trainer who died in 1976, the stone features a special design on its right side – six cascading mailing envelopes.

“Hilda came to our church, Sandhills Assembly (in Southern Pines, N.C.) about 1978 when she was 82,” says Miriam Jones of Pinehurst (Miriam was born in 1914.) “Hilda began a ministry of encouraging our missionaries all over the world.”

Jones says Hilda, who was born in Sweden in 1896, asked her daughter, Inge Marra of Brooklyn, N.Y., to design a special birthday card – one Hilda could send to each member of Assembly of God missionary families.

Kay Beard, former secretary at Sandhills Assembly, estimates that white-haired Hilda sent 200 cards each month.

“She was quaint and had such joy,” Beard says. “Many missionaries communicated their sadness at her passing.”

“The stamps for these cards and letters were too much for her budget,” Jones says, “so she sold her crafts and advertised her need wherever appropriate. She always wanted beautiful stamps.”

Jones says a young man who moved away from the Sandhills once returned to visit Hilda and introduced her to a fellow traveling with him.

“As usual, Hilda mentioned her ministry of writing to missionaries,” Jones says. “She told them her next purchase of stamps would cost $24.25. As the men left, they each gave her $10. Hilda received the gifts with thanks and held out her hand, saying with her Swedish accent, ‘And four dollars and 25 cents, please.’”

Jones laughs, adding, “She got it!”

Jones says when Hilda “fasted,” she did not stop eating because of a heart condition, but she would “fast” her knitting, crocheting and craft-making – activities she automatically busied herself with when there was a quiet moment.

Hilda’s father was a Swede who married an Englishwoman.

“He was a ‘tailor to gentlemen,’” says Jones, recalling Hilda’s stories about her younger years. “Hilda said she wanted a doll when she was about four years old. She made one, and when her father saw it, he told her mother, ‘That one will get along all right. No need to worry about her.’”

Jones recalls Hilda, who worked many yeas as a chef, saying she became a Christian at a Salvation Army meeting before she married “Dave” and came to America at age 17.

Hilda and her sister, Vera Jacobson, who predeceased Hilda, would walk two miles to Garner’s Lake to swim, says Evelyn Garrison of Pinehurst.

“They must have been in their eighties,” Garrison says. “Hilda kept trim and had an appealing glow. She renewed her license at 85 and drove her old blue Malibu.”

Garrison says Hilda used crayons and watercolors to decorate the cards she sent to missionaries, and when she lacked money for stamps, she’d say, “Oh, they’ll come. I’ll get it. God will provide.”

“She was not one who cared for material things,” Garrison says. “She often quoted Jeremiah 33:3: ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’

“We who knew her saw her simple lifestyle and saw the abundant life that came from her faith in God. She was a fountain of inspiration for all of us.”

Now “Hilda Gerald, Encourager of Missionaries” is engraved on her tombstone, and on the right side of that stone are six carved images of envelopes, designed so they overlap each other and cascade downward, as if falling from a mailbag.

“No matter what circumstances life may present, we all have unique experiences, abilities, and God-given talents,” says writer Steve Brunkhorst. “We can discover ways to reach others who desperately need messages of encouragement and strength.”

America and God - Gloom or 'Not to Worry'?

Before and during recent July 4 Independence Day celebrations, I heard many people express concerns about what lies ahead for America.

Elaine Huttenstine of Greer, S.C., wrote the following prayer and e-mailed it to me on July 2, 2010:

“Dear Heavenly Father, We come to You in the precious name of Jesus, thanking You and praising You for America and all the blessings You have poured out on us as a nation. We thank You for our forefathers who looked to You for guidance; who established this nation on principles found in Your Holy Word. Forgive us for straying so far away from You. We have become prideful, acting as if we have made this country great. We have forgotten that we are nothing without You. We deserve punishment, but we beg for Your mercy. Please hear our prayer, forgive our sins, and heal our land. In the name of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Tempe Brown, a Christian speaker-writer who lives in Greenville, S.C., recently posted this message on “Facebook”:

“Even though many in our nation have turned their backs on God, this nation is still under His grace. We have been Jesus to the world. We have fed the hungry; we’ve drilled wells for clean water, sent doctors to heal the sick, sent the gospel around the world and shed our blood so that others can be free. We’ve loved our enemies and have tried to bring peace wherever we’ve gone. I’m weary of hearing that this nation is doomed. We have sown enough blood, gospel and God’s love to reap a harvest greater than that! I’m proud to be an American and pray that those in office will not bring her down.”

Dr. Charles Stanley of “in Touch Ministries” says the U.S. now provides 85 percent of the financial support for Christian missionary work done throughout the world. Yet, we sense a “slip-sliding away” going on in U.S. culture, and we pray for Christian revival.

Dr. Stanley posted this article titled “A Nation Gone Astray – Isaiah 59” on July 5, 2010:

“The principle of sowing and reaping applies not only to individuals but also to nations. A country that ignores or rejects God and His Word will suffer the consequences…Though Israel had once honored the Lord, it went astray during the days of the prophet Isaiah and suffered the dire results….

“When a nation begins ignoring biblical commands and principles, truth becomes relative as false philosophies and “liberated thinking” take root. Leaders tend to consider themselves advanced and intellectual, but in reality, if they are separated from God, their thinking is foolish and their understanding darkened (Eph. 4:17-18).

“A society always behaves according to its belief system, so the inevitable result of skewed thinking is sin. Once sin becomes acceptable in the eyes of the people, sensuality and self-gratification dominate as restraint is lifted. The baser nature of man emerges in the form of immorality, greed, and violence. Injustice reaches its peak when laws permit the killing of the most helpless and innocent of all its citizens – unborn children. Even if the majority of citizens disapprove of the injustice and immorality, unless they act, that nation will continue its downward spiral into depravity.

“Our ultimate hope, of course, is in our coming King who will reign on earth with righteousness and justice. But the church must still awaken to its responsibility to be salt and light in a depraved world. Each generation is called to be alert and active during its appointed time on this earth.”

The Rev. Randy Thornton recently provided these age-group statistics for Bible-believers in the U.S.: Of “Builders” (people born between 1927 and 1945), 65 percent identify as Bible-believing Christians. Of “Boomers” (born 1946-1964), 35 percent identify as believers. Of “Busters” (born 1965-1983), 16 percent identify. Of “Bridgers” (born 1984-present), only four percent identify as Bible-believing Christians.

“If current trends hold true, only four percent of the millennial generation will be evangelical,” Thornton said. “Eighty-five percent of people who come to Christ make that decision before the age of 20...I believe there is something going to happen that will open the door of the Gospel in an unprecedented way…God has called us to our cities and our communities.”

“Then said I unto them, ‘Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach’” (Nehemiah 2:17).