A LONELY TIME OF YEAR FOR SOME

  The Christmas/New Year season can be lonely for people who “go down memory lane.”

A minister friend told me this: the word “nostalgia” comes from two Greek words that combined mean “the pain of the return.”

“Nostalgia” is “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations,” sources say.

Three days before Christmas 2021, I visited my lung doctor’s office in the Prisma Health Greer Memorial Hospital complex for a yearly checkin. A lady ushered me into a room I recognized as the room my late wife, Carol, and I waited in many times while she battled pulmonary hypertension and was Dr. Armin Meyer’s patient. 

Memories flooded my mind. Carol and I lived for almost 30 years in North Carolina. In Dec. 2012 a blood clot rose from Carol’s leg and burst in her lungs, causing pulmonary hypertension (that made her heart work hard to pump blood through her lungs). We moved back to the Greenville, SC, area on Jan. 10, 2018. Right after Christmas 2018, Dr. Meyer told Carol her “time had come.” After a few days at the Upstate Community Hospice House, Landrum, SC, Carol died on Jan. 11, 2019 (one year and a day after we moved from NC to SC).

That history flashed through my mind as I sat … with Christmas only days away.

“The holidays magnify feelings of anxiety, depression, and family discord that make holiday gatherings hard,” someone said. 

Stress can rise in December, caused by lack of money, shopping decisions and deadlines, strained family relations, pressures to please family and friends, and the media blitz of families enjoying holiday get-togethers.

Writer Ray Williams says, “Some get depressed because Christmas appears to be a trigger to engage in excessive self-reflection and rumination about the inadequacies of life (and a ‘victim’ mentality) in comparison with other people who seem to have more and do more.”

Christmas comes with expectations of perfect, happy families. And we remember loved ones who are not with us any longer. For many, this year marks their first Christmas without a certain loved one.

Some people feel anxious or depressed around winter holidays due to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), sometimes referred to as seasonal depression. 

Many folk have experienced loss of a friend or loved one to COVID-19. That disease puts a damper on our getting together with friends and family, where there are possible tensions about COVID vaccinations — strife between the vaxxed and the unvaxxed.

Jesus is still our hope — during any time of the year! Let’s rely on Jesus, no matter what trouble comes. 

Here are some verses to encourage us as we enter the new year of 2022:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV).

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). 

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

DETAILS OF JESUS' BIRTH

  Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and returned to Nazareth. Joseph was distressed that his engaged wife was pregnant. He didn’t know about the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary or the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.   

He planned to break his engagement to Mary in a quiet way — didn’t want her to suffer public disgrace and wanted to avoid embarrassment for himself. 

As a just Jewish man, Joseph could have followed the Mosaic Law on adultery. God himself authored the Mosaic Law. Here is what justice requires for adultery, according to the Law: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10).   

If Joseph did not act according to the Law, we might consider him merciful, but not just, sources say. 

(In the case of rape, under the Mosaic Law, the woman would go free, but the man who did it should die.)
 
THE DREAM (Matthew 1:20-23)
 
“But while he [Joseph] thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.’

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.’”
 
THE MARRIAGE  
 
“The marriage was quietly solemnized according to the laws of the Jewish religion, and Joseph meekly accepted the task which Divine Providence assigned to him as the protector of Mary, and the foster-father of her Divine Child,” writes the Rev. Charles P. Roney, D.D., author of Beautiful Bible Stories. 

“And [Joseph] knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.”

Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, but that wasn’t where Jesus was to be born. 

Augustus Caesar, the Roman Emperor who ruled most of the known world at that time, helped bring about God’s will because he wanted all his subjects enrolled and taxed.

“She [Mary] and her betrothed, Joseph, were members of a conquered people group, forced to travel about 90 miles to be counted for the census of the conquering empire so that it might know just how many people it had available to tax,” sources say. 

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child” (Luke 2).
 
THE BIRTH
 
“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

“Though it flies in the face of Christmas tradition, the truth of the matter is that Mary and Joseph probably stayed with family in Bethlehem,” according to biblestudytools.com. “The Bible never says Jesus was born in a stable; it simply says he was placed in a manger: ‘She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them’ (Luke 2:7).

“Note that there was no “guest room” available for them; Mary and Joseph probably stayed on the crowded ground floor of a relative’s house, writes Tim Chaffey for Answers in Genesis. The idea of a fruitless search for an inn comes from a translation of the Greek word for guest room getting turned into ‘inn’ in some English Bibles. (Not to worry; you can still have cute animals in your nativity scene. Small animals were often brought inside the house during the night in the first century. This is probably where the manger came from.)” (from biblestudytools.com).

Whatever the details, the Bible says that in the city of David there was born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Dr. Roney writes, “Hidden from the eyes of a thoughtless and wicked world, possessed of a dual inheritance of royalty, and destined to receive a name that has no equal in heaven or earth, the Son of God made his silent entrance into the world.”

APPLAUSE IN CHURCH?

  Sources say applause began in 6th century BC when lawmaker Kleisthénes of Athens made it so that audiences would have to clap in approval of their leader, since there were too many people to meet individually. Through this came the “applause,” the unified voices of people in the form of clapping together in admiration.

“Miss Manners,” Judith Martin, said in 1994 that applause should not be given in church. 

“All this [applause] is because the only public event anybody recognizes anymore is entertainment,” Miss Manners said. “Having forgotten church manners, people are substituting those that would be proper for a performance. This drives Miss Manners wild. Hard as it may be to imagine, musicians in church are supposed to play or sing for the glory of God, not the pleasure of the congregation (whom people increasingly slip and call ‘the audience’).”

Robert Brown, a Facebook friend of mine, wrote recently, “As a child and much younger adult, I do not remember applause in church after someone sang or played an instrument. Has my memory changed or has applause become much more the norm?”

Here are some responses to his post:

One man said, “It [applause] is praising the servant instead of The Master. My God-fearing grandmother called it ‘Blasphemy.’”

A lady said, “It may be just our age, but I was taught that you do not applaud in church as it is a reverent place of worship.”

Another lady said, “There are times when applause is appropriate and times when it is not. If the applause is an outward sign that someone was touched by a performance, I have no problem with it.”

Martha wrote, “I wonder … has worship in music become a performance? Has applause become agreement that we want this [the performance] to be pleasing to God? Sometimes your heart is so full and happy, you can’t help but applaud.

“Applause is becoming the norm,” a lady said. “When I joined the worship team at my former church, I remember feeling very strange when hearing applause in the church. That feeling never fully went away.”

Kevin wrote, “Let the waves clap their hands … let the hills sing out in praise. … Applause is a 21st Century “Amen,” as long as the object of our worship (and applause) is the LORD!”  

“Applause is not appropriate in church,” Kathleen said. “I was taught quiet reverent respect in His house of quiet worship.”

Someone posted, “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph” (Psalm 47:1).

Bonnie wrote, “No applause at our church during a service. And I like it that way. Applause is not reverent, in my opinion … just my opinion, mind you.”

Sally said, “I grew up with reverence in church, but as I get older, I like the freedom of praising God in raising my hands, applauding if warranted. When I think of what the Bible says of Heaven being a place of great praise, with every instrument used, some of us might be surprised how God interprets worship.”  

“I didn’t grow up with church applause, and hearing it now makes me think ‘performance,’ and I cringe a little, “Kathy said. “The next thing I expect to hear is ‘Let’s give it up for God,’ as if He’s a celebrity of sorts and being called to the stage. Let the clappers clap; only they and God know the heart of their applause. I’ll be saying my amens and smiling because that’s me.”

Rick wrote, “When worship became a production to satisfy the masses, it changed. Worship was supposed to be quiet reflection (dignified by cultural norms), not cause for joy and celebration.”

Folk once thought it irreverent to applaud after hymns were sung or played in church. Listeners may have said “amen” after a song but did not applaud.  

Applause is now accepted as an act of worship — like saying “amen” with one’s hands. Applause may indicate approval of a performance more than approval of a message, but that’s a complication we’ll have to live with. Applauding in church is here to stay. Should “the rocks” Jesus referred to have to “cry out”?

'PICTURING' JESUS: WHAT DID HE LOOK LIKE?

 A copy of what a painter named Sallman may have thought Jesus looked like hung in our home when I was a child in the 1950s. My family attended Gum Springs Pentecostal-Holiness Church, Taylors, SC, where Sunday school illustrations also showed Jesus as fair-skinned.

Warner E. Sallman’s (1892–1968) “Head of Christ,” created in1940, depicts “a gentle Jesus with blue eyes turned heavenward and dark blond hair cascading over his shoulders in waves,” Emily McFarlan says.

Sallman’s “Head of Christ,” called the “best-known American artwork of the 20th century,” became an image of a “white Jesus” that influenced generations. 

A backlash to Sallman’s painting began during the civil rights movement that gained speed in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.

What did Jesus look like? What color was he?

The late Dr. E.V. Hill (1933-2003), a former pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, became a leader in the civil rights movement and was honored by Time magazine as one of the seven most outstanding preachers in the United States died at age 69 in 2019.

Dr. Hill, a black pastor, was asked if he thought Jesus was Caucasian as depicted in paintings. This was his reply:

“I don’t know anything about a white Jesus ... I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don’t know what color He is. He was born in the brown Middle East; He fled to black Africa; and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe. So, I don't know what color He is.

“I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, you'll get up with color on your mind. Go back again — and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at His greatness and His power — His power to save!”

The Bible gives no physical description of Jesus, but he was a Jew, born of a Jewish mother. His friends were Jews; he worshipped in synagogues. The New Testament names his younger brothers: James, Joses, Simon, and Jude (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55, John 7:3, Acts 1:13, 1 Corinthians 9:5).

According to Wikipedia, art of the first centuries showed Jesus with a short beard. The long-haired, bearded depiction of Jesus that emerged in fourth century A.D. was influenced by imagined images of Greek and Roman gods, especially the Greek god Zeus, sources say. By the 1800s, theories that Jesus was non-Semitic (not Jewish) were being developed, with writers suggesting he was white, black, Indian, or some other race. The average Jew from Judea, at the time Jesus was born, likely would have had dark brown to black hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. Judean men of Jesus’ time averaged about 5 feet-5 inches in height. Jesus likely had short hair and a beard, in accordance with Jewish practices of the time, scholars say.

If you wonder about Jesus’ physical appearance, consider “Some Children See Him,” a song by Wihla Hutson (1901-2002). She wrote the lyrics and Alfred S. Burt penned the music in 1951:

      SOME CHILDREN SEE HIM

Some children see Him lily white,


The baby Jesus born this night.


Some children see Him lily white,


With tresses soft and fair.


Some children see Him bronzed and brown,


The Lord of heav'n to earth come down.


Some children see Him bronzed and brown,


With dark and heavy hair.



 

Some children see Him almond-eyed,


This Savior whom we kneel beside.


Some children see Him almond-eyed,


With skin of yellow hue.


Some children see Him dark as they,


Sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray.


Some children see him dark as they,


And, ah! they love Him, too!



 

The children in each different place


Will see the baby Jesus' face
Like theirs, 

but bright with heavenly grace,


And filled with holy light.


O lay aside each earthly thing


And with thy heart as offering,


Come worship now the infant King.

'Tis love that's born tonight!

VISITING AUNT FRANCES IN ASSISTED-LIVING

   My Uncle Fred and Aunt Frances Crain are pictured when they were fairly young. 

  My Aunt Frances, 94, born in 1927, lives at Spring Park, an assisted-living place in Travelers Rest, SC.

When my late wife, Carol, and I moved from Southern Pines, NC, to Taylors, SC, in Jan. 2018, Aunt Frances Hawkins Crain and her husband, Uncle Fred E. Crain, already lived at Spring Park. They’d left their Silver Ridge subdivision in Greer, SC, where they lived for years, because of Aunt’s Alzheimer’s. They had no children.

Uncle Fred (my late father’s only sibling) chose to live in the memory-care wing because he figured that if he died, Aunt would be adjusted to the memory-care hall and could live on there by herself without having to be transferred into memory-care and enduring stressful readjustment. He could have chosen to live in the regular wing with Aunt because he could have looked after her there, but he chose the memory-care area. He later said he wished he had chosen to live in the regular wing because he was lonely in the memory-care wing, surrounded by dementia-affected residents, some hugging and “caring for” children’s babydolls.  

In November 2021, I drove to see Aunt on a Friday morning and phoned from the memory-care wing door to the front desk in regular-care. Two days earlier, I arranged a 10:30 appointment — something needed because of COVID-19. 

“Hello, Spring Park. May I help you?” a young lady said. 

“Hi. I’m here for my appointment to see Aunt Frances Crain. I’m her nephew, Steve Crain,” I said. 

I donned my mask and waited for a young lady aide who opened the door. I signed in between the outside door and the locked door to the memory-care wing.  

“She’s in the sitting area,” the young woman said. “I’ll get her for you.”

The central sitting area is down the hall from Aunt’s room (404). It’s where residents sit and watch TV or sleep in chairs or wheelchairs. The dining area is next to that living room-like area, so many residents congregate there to wait before mealtime.  

The aide unlocked Aunt’s door, went for her, and wheeled her down the hallway to her room, where I waited. 

Aunt, weighing less than a hundred pounds and wearing a dark-colored sweater, seemed a little groggy. I wasn’t sure she recognized me as she didn’t say my name or return a greeting. I took my guitar from its case and sang hymns. She warmed to the music and said, “That’s good, Steve.” She mouthed the words to a song or two.

Suddenly, we heard a loud on-going sound — “Gw-ack, gw-ack, gw-ack … !”

The sound was no siren or bell, but a loud electronic “gw-ack.” I walked to the door of  Aunt’s room. A light flashed from the hallway ceiling, and the sound continued, loud enough that I wanted to put my hands over my ears. An attendant down the hall said, “It’s a fire drill. We’ll have to take her outside.”

I cased my guitar and left it as I wheeled Aunt to the hallway. A young attendant, dressed in white, headed toward us. “I’ve got her,” I said. He nodded. 

I wheeled Aunt past the gathering area and dining tables to a windowed side of the building, through a door to an outside patio. The morning was chilly but sunny. I looked about, noticing that most residents were small and in wheelchairs. There were no more than 25 residents, plus some attendants. 

Ms. Peterson sat near us. Her husband once owned Peterson Lumber Company in Travelers Rest. Ms. Peterson eats at Aunt’s table at almost every meal. Residents congregate in usual places, like people do in church pews in a sanctuary. Ms. Peterson said to me, “How are you?” 

“Doing fine,” I said, thinking that Ms. Peterson’s mind was probably in better shape than Aunt Frances’ because she right-away recognized me. 

“There’s your friend,” I said to Aunt. She looked and smiled at her friend but said nothing. An attendant said we should stay outside till the fire department came and looked around the building. Soon, I heard a siren in the distance. 

In a while, we moved back inside, and I returned Aunt to her room. I sang and talked. As I played one song, Aunt said, “My husband plays a guitar.” 

I realized that, during a short time, perhaps seconds, she thought Uncle Fred was alive. And I wondered if she didn’t realize that I, Steve, was there, in her room, playing my guitar for her. 

I soon prayed with her and let her attendant know she could return to the gathering place. One attendant told me that sometimes Aunt will be in the hallway and ask her, “Where’s Fred.”

Driving away, I wondered whether it would be better that my body wore out before my mind or my mind wore out before my body. It appears the latter has happened to Aunt Frances. 

GIVING THANKS ALONG THE WAY

 “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the LORD”  (Psalm 116:17).

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Here are the words to a much-loved chorus, Give Thanks, by Don Moen:

  “Give thanks with a grateful heart.
  “Give thanks to the Holy One.
  “Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son.
  “And now let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
  “Let the poor say, ‘I am rich,’
  “Because of what the Lord has done for us.
  “Give thanks.”

“Being grateful” is defined as being “warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful.”

The Rev. Dan Carr, a pastor I met while living 28 years in N.C., recently wrote about Jewish people traveling to the Temple in Jerusalem during Old Testament times. The following material is borrowed from the writings of Dan Carr:

“Families, especially the men, made the trip three times a year from all parts of the nation,” Carr says. “They prepared food for the trip and slept on the ground along the way. From the north, some traveled over 200 miles one-way, and many from all over traveled over 100 miles one-way.”

Some of the Psalms are called “ascension” Psalms because they were sung by pilgrims as they climbed upward on their way to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

“The giving of thanks to Jehovah was a vital part of their journeying worship as well as when they reached the Temple,” he says. “They brought offerings to the Temple and one of the offerings was ‘thanksgiving’ … The Psalms gave structure to their thanksgiving. Some of our hymns today do the same thing as the Jewish Psalms.”

Carr says the fall trip occurred around October and three feasts were observed: The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and The Feast of Tabernacles. 

There were seven memorial days Jews practiced after settling in the Promised Land. The Feast of Passover began on the night they left Egypt. The Feast of Tabernacles reminded them of how their forefathers lived in tents and hovels made of branches.  

Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal, authors of The Feasts of the Lord, say, “The three fall feasts portray events to be associated with Christ’s second coming. The Feast of Trumpets depicts the Rapture of the Church. The Day of Atonement points to a great host of people, Jews and Gentiles, who will be saved when the Messiah Himself will tabernacle among men, wipe away every tear, and bring in the utopian age or ‘golden age’ of which men have dreamed since time immemorial.”

Carr says that when Jesus visited with the woman at the well, he told her that God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth and that God seeks such to worship Him. 

“Getting saved involves much more than eternity in Heaven,” Carr says. “It’s the entry gate into a continual fellowship or communion with God.  Thanksgiving is always a great part of communion with God because He is our creator, redeemer, and provider, and we acknowledge those things.”

The Bible is full of references to humble people giving thanks to God, Carr says. “Those who truly know God understand that in Him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28) and have no trouble understanding the essential practice of thanksgiving and worship of the living God.

When we stray away from our daily fellowship with God, our hearts are cold and calloused, and we know it; no one has to tell us, Carr says, adding, “Praying comes hard. There’s nothing that will warm a cold heart like beginning to thank God for His blessings. Thank Him for everything you can think of because He made it all. After we remind ourselves of all the things He has already done for us, it’s not so hard to pray for other things we may need.” 

YOUNG PEOPLE NEED THE BIBLE TO BUILD CHARACTER

 “In the last several years, Americans have been sensing that something is seriously wrong with the current crop of young people,” Annie Holmquist, editor of Intellectual Takeout, wrote in 2017.

Young people are likely to have the most education credentials any generation has ever received, are technically-savvy, and have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, Holmquist said.

“But in spite of these factors, today’s students seem to exhibit a character that is high in sensitivity and low in knowledge,” she said. “Why are our students turning out like this?”

Camille Paglia, a Democrat, feminist, and college professor, believes the problem started in the earliest stages of education in America’s public schools.
  “I’ve been teaching now for 46 years as a classroom teacher, and I have felt the slow devolution of the quality of public school education in the classroom,” she says.

Paglia notes that teachers at elite institutions are unable to see this decline in knowledge because their students often come from private schools and wealthy homes, which presumably still retain some elements of rigorous education. The great majority of students, however, can be described in the following way.

“What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history – of any kind! … No world geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange juice and milk, and you can turn on the water and the hot water comes out. They have no sense whatever of the destruction, of the great civilizations that rose and fell, and so on – and how arrogant people get when they’re in a comfortable civilization. They now have been taught to look around them to see defects in America – which is the freest country in the history of the world – and to feel that somehow America is the source of all evil in the universe, and it’s because they’ve never been exposed to the actual evil of the history of humanity. They know nothing!”  

Paglia continues, “There’s one exception to this, however. Even while today’s students have not been taught knowledge, they have also been taught not to bully a person on the basis of their race, class, gender, or any other trait. On the surface, that seems like a good thing.”

But Paglia implies that such a lesson (against bullying) gives students a high level of sensitivity and a stilted view of the world and its problems. She fears students are pushing their country toward a situation similar to that of ancient Rome in its last days.

John Adams (1735-1826) said that the failure to teach truth, combined with the dumbing down of education and the embrace of Epicurean pleasures and teachings is one of the things most likely to bring “punishment” to America.

“The Bible is the history book of the universe,” says “Answers in Genesis.” If we teach young people about the accounts, wisdom, and salvation recorded in the Bible, they will learn about life. 

Youth Leader Chris Cherry says, “We don’t teach the Bible for head knowledge — it’s not a textbook. … We teach the Bible because it is one of the core pieces that awakens youth (and all folks, for that matter) to the presence of God in the world.”

Mark Yaconelli says, “Our first task as youth ministers is to be with young people just as Jesus was with people. … We are also called, like Jesus, to be teachers.”

The quality of public school education has declined, as far as teaching Bible truths. Patrick Henry said, “The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.” Parents, pastors, and youth leaders, please teach the Bible to young people!

HOW ABOUT THEM APPLES?

 

  Apple season made me hungry in the 1990s. I then often worked in Ellijay, Georgia, on carpet-dyeing projects at “Courier” (part of Blue Ridge Carpet Mills that closed in 2011). While in Ellijay, I bought tasty apples and fried apple pies.

This year celebrates the 50th year of the Georgia Apple Festival (Oct. 9-10 and 16-17, 2021). 

Most Georgia apples are grown in the north Georgia mountains. Ellijay, in Gilmer County, is the state’s apple capital. Its apple season can extend from July through December. An estimated 360,000 apple-bearing trees grow in Georgia, sources say. 

I like Fuji apples. Granny Smiths are too tart for me.

“I wouldn’t want to be eating Granny Smiths just to be eating them,” Barbara, my wife, says. “They make good pies, though.”  

In 1900, there were about 14,000 varieties of apples in the U.S. “By the late 1990s, U.S. commercial orchards grew fewer than 100 apple varieties,” Eric J. Wallace notes. About 11,000 varieties of apples have become extinct, he says. 

As people become less attached to the natural world, their sensitivity to God can suffer. 

St. Paul said that the natural world reveals to us that God exists. Paul wrote, “For the invisible things of him [God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20 KJV).The English Standard Version (ESV) translates that this way:

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

Psalm 19:1-3 (ESV) says that God is seen in his created world:

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.”

The Greenville News is delivered to our house. Barbara recently said she “saw” me in the “funny papers” (the comic strips). Shoe is a strip about a crew of newspaper folk depicted as birds. Professor Cosmo Fishhawk is an osprey who wears glasses and sports a tuft of white hair on the back of his head. He sits at his computer and writes for a newspaper, the Treetops Tattler.  

In one strip, Cosmo grows tired of working at his computer and says he needs to get away from “the screen” for a while. In the next panel, you see him sitting in front of his TV. Barbara has seen me do the same thing — go from the computer screen to the TV screen. 

Ms. Tish Harrison Warren, writing in Christianity Today, says, “I spend my days talking to colleagues on screens. I eat food that appears magically on my table with hands never dirtied in planting or harvesting. … For many of us, bodies seem hardly necessary.”

As we move away from the wonderful natural world that God created (Genesis 1-3), we become less aware of the evidence for God’s existence. 

Scott Turpin wrote about Bertrand Russell, the famous English atheist philosopher. When asked what he would say after death if God asked why he had not believed in him, Russell said, “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence.”

“While Russell believed he could charge God with not providing enough evidence for his existence, this goes against the apostle Paul’s argument that human beings already know God exists through his revelation in creation, so no one has an excuse,” Turpin says. “This includes all people living in all places and all times.”

Turpin says that idolatry (whatever replaces God) is the result of suppressing God’s general revelation in creation, but it is only God’s special revelation through the Gospel that turns people from idolatry to trust in the living and true God.”    

“ … [O]ur gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. … and … you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:5-9).

IS POSITIVE THINKING BIBLICAL?

   Steve Crain is pictured as he worked in the early 2000s at Gulistan Carpet, a now-closed carpet Aberdeen, NC, carpet manufacturing company. He wrote columns often published then in "The Pilot," a Southern Pines, NC, newspaper.

  To me, my dad appeared to be a negative thinker. Did his U.S. 84th Infantry duty in Germany during World War II make him that way? Mom said he was different after he returned in 1945.

Dad’s mother, a tall, thin lady, seemed sad and worried. She played a brown F-hole “B and J Serenader” guitar that I still have. She sang about hardship and lonesomeness as she strummed “Times Have Changed in Renfro Valley.”   

“Negative people center their focus on things they can’t control,” sources say. “They ruminate over past conversations, beat themselves up on past mistakes, and allow their fear of the future to stop them in their tracks today.”

Studies show that personality traits can shift over time, and personality changes affect how we see the world. I’ve benefited from Bible input over the years, and my melancholy tendencies have given way to a more positive outlook.

Depression is known to run in families, suggesting that genetic factors contribute to the risk of developing this disease. But research into the genetics of depression is in its early stages, and little is known for certain about the genetic basis of the disease.

About 25 percent of your positive expectations, or dispositional optimism, comes from your genes, sources say, adding, “At least half comes from your life experiences.”
 
  “THE NEGATIVITY BIAS”

The negativity bias, according to psychologists, is a tendency to have greater sensitivity to negative events than to positive events. Some researchers say that negative events “weigh” close to three times more than positive events.

According to researchers, a previously known gene variant can cause individuals to perceive emotional events — especially negative ones —more vividly than others. A study by a University of British Columbia researcher finds that some people are genetically predisposed to see the world darkly.

“Jesus does want His believers to find joy and to stay focused on positive thoughts — heavenly ones based on eternity,” Sophia Bricker writes. “He wants his followers not to worry, but to instead stay focused on and seek the Kingdom of God.”

Some people tell us just to “think positive.” But that response can involve avoiding reality. 

“When we tell ourselves to ‘think positive’ and to push negative or difficult emotions aside, it won’t work; it doesn’t work,” says psychologist Susan Davis.
 
  IS the POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING BIBLICAL?  

“There are many people, Christians included, who believe that positive thinking has the power to change their lives,” Bricker says. “Visualizing their successful lives, such people practice positive thinking believing that they will become richer, more successful, and healthier.”

Bricker says there is nothing wrong with optimism or looking on the bright side, but the philosophy that asserts there is inherent (in itself) power in positive thinking is not Biblical.

“Using positive thinking exercises, practices, or mantras as a magical or powerful force cannot change a person or anything in their life,” Bricker says. “Placing one’s hope or trust in anything other than the Lord is idolatry and clearly condemned in Scripture. For Bible-believing, faithful Christians, using positive thinking as a magnetic force to bring about change or success in life is not an option.”

People who trust in positive thinking need to realize that true happiness and change only comes through Jesus Christ, not the power of positive thoughts, Bricker says.

The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (known as “the father of positive thinking”) wrote the book “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Published in Oct. 1952, it and was on the New York Times’ best-sellers list for 186 weeks. He seemed to try to mesh positive thinking with Christianity. 

Ms. Oprah Winfrey credits “positive thinking” and “the law of attraction” to some of her success. “The law of attraction (LOA) is the belief that the universe creates and provides for you that which your thoughts are focused on.” That is not a Christian concept.

Positive thinking has value. It’s good therapy that helps some people look on the brighter side. But some folk believe in positive thinking as their go-to “religion” and don’t believe in the God of the Bible.   

Those who don’t accept Christ will not enter heaven, no matter how positive they seem on earth, according to the Bible. 

I draw positive strength from Jude, verses 20-21: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

And here’s a comforting verse for those of us who battle negativity: “Cast all your care upon him [Jesus]; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Should We Study Genealogy?

“Genealogy” is defined as the “line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor.”

My wife, Barbara, traced her family tree. Her mother hailed from an Adair family in Rutherford, NC. Her father, Mr. Walter Springfield, descended from a family traced to Mrs. Dicey Langston, a Revolutionary War heroine. She married Mr. Thomas Springfield, a patriot leader, on Jan. 9, 1783. 

Family history research is the second-most popular hobby in the U.S., after gardening, according to a 2017 article. 

“Genealogy received a boost in the late 1970s with the television broadcast of Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley,” sources say.

But there was a downside to that surge. 

“The irony of the watershed cultural moment surrounding ‘Roots’ was that a book about slavery and the African diaspora became a catalyst for a largely white ethnic revival,” wrote Ms. Honor Sachs in Dec. 2019. “As the nation embraced a new passion for genealogy, the narratives of African American experiences embedded in slavery were eclipsed by a new obsession with the white ethnic European immigrant.”

Renewed interest in genealogy perhaps enhanced potential for racial tensions. 

In the 1960s, the Mormon Church, which espouses “baptism of the dead” and encourages its members to research unbaptized ancestors, opened many branch genealogical libraries. In the 1970s, these libraries began receiving more and more non-Mormon patrons.

By the 1990s, digital technology made possible record-accessing online.

Many have taken AncestryDNA tests to discover distant cousins and genetic ethnic mix. 

“Ancestry.com has become a huge success, boasting millions of subscribers,” says Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D. “The fact is, if you go back far enough, each one of us has a shared ancestor with every other person on earth. … One thing that Ancestry.com won’t often tell you is that the genealogy you discover may not be accurate anyway. Inferences have to be made when you are dealing with records that are hundreds of years old. There are many surnames and first names that are quite common. There is no way to be sure that the ‘Jacob Carter’ that turns up in one record is the same ‘Jacob Carter’ that shows up in another from 15 years later, even in the same general area.”

Dr. Lents continues: 

“A problem with putting so much stock in our genealogy is that this over-emphasizes genetic relationships over social and cultural history (or at least attempts to). We draw our identity from our experiences and we are deeply imprinted by the cultural themes of our society and the parents that raised us, regardless of where we got our chromosomes. Family ties are about shared culture, not genes.”

Dr. Lents wonders: 

“I ask, ‘What is the point of researching our precise ancestry at all?’ The answer seems to be that a connection to our recent ancestors is what compels us to study our genealogy. It is their stories that fascinate us, not their genetic stock.”

Someone said, “In an age where many are looking to connect to something bigger than themselves — to have a deeper understanding of themselves and where they came from — it makes sense that genealogy would have grown more popular over the past few decades.”

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

“The Bible does not condemn all genealogy per se,” one writer says. “But it rejects the use of genealogy to ‘prove’ one’s righteousness.”

Genealogies help us follow priestly and royal lines through Israel’s story.

“Paul teaches us that the priesthood has its origins in the High Priesthood of Christ after the Order of Melchizedek,” sources say.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke delineate Jesus’ ancestry. Paul indicates that the Aaronic priesthood was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:9 (KJV) tells us, “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.” 

During Early Church times, some teachers took pride in proving they were Abraham’s direct descendants.

“It [Titus 3:9] means don’t think you are something special because of who your family is and, in reverse, don’t think that just because you were not born into a good family that God doesn't love you as much,” Mark Hamric says. “It is saying that Christ has made you a joint heir with him, which is far better than any earthly genealogy.”
 

Ms. Miriam Jones Celebrates Birthday: 108 Years

 

Ms. Miriam Jones is pictured here. She recently celebrated her birthday at age 108.
 

An e-mail from Ms. Dede Hamlin came to me, saying, “Hello Everyone. It's that time of year again. Time to celebrate an extra special friend, Miriam Jones, 108! Can you believe it?”

I met now-108-year-old Ms. Miriam Jones in 1989 at Sandhills Assembly of God (AG), Southern Pines, NC. She was, as I recall, the lady who phoned AG headquarters and asked about starting that church.   

“Sandhills Assembly began in the mid-1970s with a handful of people from various denominational backgrounds who had begun to experience Charismatic worship and teaching, along with manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” the Rev. Bryan Rainbow wrote in 2008, while serving as the church’s pastor.

The group gathered in house meetings and then at a Holiday Inn for Sunday morning services before inquiring about founding a church. 

In Oct. 1976, the group was recognized as an NC AG district-affiliated church. On Sept. 25, 1977, the Rev. David Hicks became the church’s first pastor. They built a church house on 6.5 acres on Hwy. 1 in Moore County, NC.

I interviewed Miriam Jones when she was 86 years old:  

“My parents read the Bible regularly and lived as Christians but never had devotions and prayed with us,” said Miriam, who was born Miriam Kennedy Sloan in Wilson, NC, in 1913. “Father ((W. J. Sloan) was a Missionary Baptist who read the New Testament in the original Greek, and Mother (Mary Long) was a Primitive Baptist.” 

Her father was a school principal; her mother taught piano and directed chorus.

“My sister and I were taught the discipline of memorizing one Bible verse each Sunday before we could see the funny papers,” she recalled, referring to the Charlotte Observer comic section. “I was adventuresome and had many peach-tree switchings for disobedience, but I felt their loving concern. I was taught to be careful of my diet. Father bought the first book on diet by Mr. J.H. Kellogg. We had wheat boiled in water for breakfast. It was hard to chew, but sugared- and creamed-up, it was good.”

Miriam, preparing to teach, graduated from The Women’s College of UNC (now UNC Greensboro) and enrolled in Columbia Univ. in New York during the Depression. She met her husband-to-be before he enrolled in Columbia Medical School.

“We were mostly unchurched,” she said, adding that her exposure to Darwin’s theory of evolution in college took her away from Christ, even though after her husband became a doctor, they sometimes took their four children to a Baptist church.

Miriam says they lived in Nyack, NY, when she began Bible study and read the Bible through several times before she “accepted Christ.” While attending an Episcopal church in New Rochelle, she participated in a responsive reading of the Ten Commandments. The recitation ended with this group response: “Incline my heart to obey this law.” She was touched when she said those words and was moved to greater Christian service.  

Through the Rev. Harold Bredesen’s influence she experienced a “baptism in the Holy Spirit” and began attending White Plains AG in White Plains, NY.  

Her husband built a retirement home in Pinehurst, NC, in 1972, but before the home’s completion said he “wanted space” and had lost interest in their 35-year marriage. “I told him it wasn’t right for us to divorce,” Miriam said. “A woman feels totally unattractive and unacceptable at a time like that.”     

In the mid-1970s, Miriam, whose four children were grown, moved to the Sandhills alone. “The Lord helped me through many a trying time with too many coincidences not to see his hand,” she said.  

To celebrate Miriam’s 108 years, a daughter set Sat., Aug. 28, 2021, as party day. At 2:30 p.m., a car-parade of family and friends planned to motor past Ms. Miriam’s assisted-living facility in Raleigh, NC. The party was to begin inside at 3:00.    

“It’s difficult to talk to her sometimes now, due to hearing and cognitive issues,” Dede wrote. “Ms. Miriam is very lonely. If you remember our loving, outgoing, full-of-life Miriam —  she's depressed now. I called one day … She said she had been weeping because she’s so lonely and is so far from her friends that she loves so dearly. …Her family visits her often. She has a dear lady that stays with her maybe 5 hours each day for 4 days a week. But she misses her friends.”  

Miriam often talks by phone with Ms. Wren Roberts, 94, who attended Sandhills Assembly, has dementia, and lives with her daughter, Linda Sealy, in Summerville, SC.   

Dede says, “Linda helps Ms. Wren call Ms. Miriam almost every day. They may not know who each other is, or remember that they talked, but in their spirits, they know they’re dear friends.”

A HOARDING HEART?

 My wife, Barbara, and I watch Hoarders on TV. Her interest in the show caused me to joke that she may have hoarding tendencies. But she’s a collector, not a hoarder — at least for now! 

My late wife, Carol, who died in January 2019, grew up in Pennsylvania. Her father and mother divorced when she was two, and Carol lived with her mom who moved often and owned little. An elementary school teacher, Carol kept our house organized, but she collected things, especially items reminding her of her maternal grandparents. 

Our home was neat but filled with stuff and doodads. Carol’s bears went into a closed-off bedroom after our beagle began tearing out their eyes. I called Carol’s home office her hoarder’s room. It contained boxes of clippings, letters, books, etc. She sent letters she called “envelope hugs” and needed things to fill those, she said. I made a photo of her office and joked about sending it “Dr. Phil” to see if he’d feature her on his show.

Hoarding, a progressive disorder, involves difficulty in parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them, sources say. It’s described as “excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value.”

Historically thought of as a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), evidence suggests that hoarding might be more closely associated with symptoms of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sources say. Some people are naturally neat, but many with ADHD are messy most of the time.

Does hoarding disorder run in families? 

“Yes, hoarding disorder is more common among people who have a family member who has hoarding disorder,” according to the internet. “The cause of hoarding disorder remains unknown. Genetics is likely only one part of why hoarding disorder affects a particular individual; environment plays a role as well.”

Barbara helped get my Taylors house ready to sell. I gave away stuff in order to move to her house after we married. I took too many things with me, especially books and papers. 

Most of us aren’t material hoarders but are burdened with mental/spiritual baggage. I have a hoarding disorder of the heart and seem to need to constantly regroup, trying to get into a better place to “do the Lord’s will.” Things that may be unimportant, in eternity, are on my to-do list — often listed above spiritual matters.

Jesus said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

James wrote, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” James 4:17).

Jim, a hoarder we watched on TV, said, “I intend to do it, therefore I have done it.”

Because Jim intended to get rid of items, he counted it as done. He played mind-games, but the garbage meant for disposal remained, and more stuff soon lay on top of that. In time, his house looked and smelled like a rat-infested garbage dump. We intend to do things, but often that’s as far as things go. 

We may have perfectionist attitudes about “the Lord’s work” so we put if off, hoping we can do it perfectly — someday. We want to get other tasks out of the way before we tackle God’s work. Fearing failure, we sometimes postpone holy opportunities. 

“Spiritual procrastination is a feeling of desperately wanting to do God’s instruction or assignment, but not getting started,” someone said.

Someone suggested this prayer for procrastinators: “Lord, I know that I can accomplish this task, but I know it will go so much better with you lifting me up and guiding me through it. I know I can do all things through you, so I come to you to help me through this desire to keep putting things off. I ask for strength and guidance."

Hoarding disorder is marked by three major characteristics: difficulty letting go of material possessions; excessive or compulsive acquisition of new items; and disorganization and an inability to prevent clutter.

Are we mental-and-spiritual hoarders? Do we need to get rid of some mind-and-heart clutter?      

Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).          

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

     Please read this to learn about religious freedom.  

Maybe you’ve wondered about the United States’ founding fathers: 

Were they Christians?  

“On the surface, most Founders appear to have been orthodox (or ‘right-believing’) Christians. Most were baptized, listed on church rolls, married to practicing Christians, and frequent or at least sporadic attenders of services of Christian worship,” according to sources.

What were their values? 

“Our founding Fathers enshrined freedom, limited government, and individual responsibility in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” sources say.

What is a “constitution”?

A constitution is “the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it.” Our Constitution established a “federal, representative, democratic republic.”Three parts:

The U.S. Constitution has three parts: the Preamble, seven articles, and amendments. The Preamble, or introduction introduces the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution, and why it was needed.How was the U.S. born?

In 1776, in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain. General George Washington led the new “United States” and won the Revolutionary War. He became the first president.

What are America’s core beliefs?

America was founded on the idea that all people are created equal and have rights, such as liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom of assembly.

“The American political culture centers on a set of core ideals — liberty, equality, and self-government — that serve as the people’s common bond,” sources say.

Amendments? 

Amendments are sometimes made to the U.S. Constitution. As of July 2021, we have 27 amendments that protect the rights of Americans.The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights.

Here is the first amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from promoting one religion over others and restricting an individual’s religious practices. 

The Establishment Clause:    

The “Establishment Clause” part of the first amendment prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion. That means it is illegal for the government to promote theocracy or promote a specific religion by using government taxes.

(A theocracy is a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god.) 

The Establishment Clause of the first amendment keeps us from having an official government-sponsored religion in the U.S. Our government may not give financial support to any religion or promote a religion.

The Free Exercise Clause:

The “Free Exercise Clause” part of the first amendment protects citizens’ right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of a “public morals” or a “compelling” governmental interest.

This clause prohibits government interference with religious belief and, within limits, religious practice.

“In many states, however, the level of protection for free-exercise claims is uncertain,” sources say.    

Chief Justice Morrison Waite (1816-1888) said, “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may [interfere] with practices.” Waite went on to state that to permit someone to use religious belief as an excuse to ignore legal requirements would “in effect … permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.”

WHY ATTEND CHURCH?

A man sent a letter to a newspaper, complaining that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.

 

“I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I’ve heard something like 3,000 sermons. For the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them, so, I think I'm wasting my time, and pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons.”

 

That caused controversy, and the editor printed pro-and-con letters until someone wrote this:

 

“I've been married for 30 years. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.

 

“But I do know this…They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

 

I worked four years as a part-time religion reporter for The Pilot, a newspaper in Southern Pines, NC, where my late wife, Carol, and I lived for about 28 years. While on that job, I visited some houses of worship.

 

In one church I visited, a pastor preached on Sunday morning and served communion. After the pastor said the last amen, an elderly man standing near me smiled at a lady and said, “Right on time – 12 o’clock.”

 

The Rev. Bailey Smith, former Southern Baptist Convention president, said, “Many churches are just country clubs with steeples on top.”

 

Select a church that preaches the Gospel and commit to that church if you feel you fit there. A person can live a Christian life in isolation, but that’s not normal. “You can cross the ocean in a rowboat, but it’s a lot easier to cross on a big ship with a bunch of people,” someone said.

 

Someone else said, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your brothers and sisters.”

 

“Any idea of enjoying salvation or being a Christian in isolation is foreign to New Testament writings,” someone stated.

 

St. Paul pictures the church as a body (I Corinthians 12). There is a universal Church made up of all believers, but we’re asked to belong to a local church and build up (edify) one another in that group. We are urged to confess our sins and pray for each other when we meet.

At church meetings, we should hear the Word of God preached, experience the friendship of Christians, and foster some accountability to brothers and sisters.

 

Believers should speak the truth in love and exhort each other to uphold Scriptural standards. Peer influence in church should be positive and seasoned with grace, someone said.

 

Church can be a gathering of thousands or a few people helping each other grow in Christ. Jesus says, “For where two or three gather together in my name, there am I in their midst” (Matthew 18:20).

 

We should not forsake assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another; “and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).

 

Someone said the Bible records no examples of anyone who was right with God but also stood alone and did not spend time with other believers.

 

When I wrote years ago on this subject, the late Father Tom Parsons, a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam but then pastor of Christ Church Anglican, Southern Pines, NC, wrote, “Steve, I believe the problem you discuss is due to an incomplete understanding of what the Church is. Paul, for one, believed it to be the Body of Christ on earth, and the Church, East and West, confessed this for over fifteen hundred years. … Only God knows what He will do in His prevenient grace, but Scripture, two thousand years of tradition, and our God-given reason should lead us to the covenanted way of salvation in Christ through the authority and office of His Church. To go it alone is a risky business!”

Steven Riley Sturm: A Good Friend Passes On

A good buddy left this old world. Barbara and I attended a memorial service at Hampton Park Baptist Church, Greenville, SC, on Wed., June 9, 2021, for the Rev. Steven Riley Sturm (pictured here), a friend of mine since at least 1969.  

Steve, born in 1943, “passed from life to Life” on June 5. A quote from Steve’s obituary reads, “The only thing he wanted said about him was that he was ‘rotten to the core.’ A sinner saved by grace [in his late teen years] in the back of Riley’s Paint Store in Shinnston, West Virginia, who continued to be overwhelmed by the love and mercy of God for nearly sixty years following.”  

Steve and Sherry were married for 58 years. Sherry’s maiden name was Riley, the same as Steve’s middle name, and she was his high school sweetheart. He called her his “front street girl” because she lived in town on the second floor of her late father’s funeral home and he lived on a dairy farm. Sherry’s father died when she was young. Her widowed mother taught music in the local high school Steve and Sherry attended. Sherry has an older brother and sister. Steve’s two brothers have passed on.

Steve served in the Army under two Presidents in White House Communications before becoming a “Bible major” at Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC, and working part-time as a wallpaper hanger.

Here’s how we met: Carol, my late wife, and I were dating and working as first-year public school teachers for Greenville County, SC. Carol met Sherry — both worked as elementary school teachers —  and introduced me to her and Steve and their little daughter, Kelly. Carol and I often broke up, and she’d go to the Sturm’s house to talk about our troubles. One time, Steve, in his West Virginia farm-boy way, said to Carol, “Why don’t y’all just get married and annihilate each other.”    

The Sturms attended our wedding the next year (August 1970) at Bethany Baptist Church, Travelers Rest, SC, after I’d completed Army basic training.

We visited the Sturms when Steve pastored Shinns Run Baptist Church, Shinnston, West Virginia. Carol and Sherry often corresponded. Years later the Sturms moved back to Greenville, SC, and stayed in our home for several weeks (until their house was ready). They have four children: Kelly, John Michael, Steven, and Karla. 

In Greenville, Sherry worked as a teacher; Steve worked at delivering parts for a company and served as one of the leaders at Hampton Park Baptist Church. In 1988, my family located in NC as I followed the “textile trail” by working in carpet manufacturing. 

Once, Sherry came with their youngest, Karla, to stay overnight with us in Southern Pines, NC, That night, Carol, groaned with nausea. “You better get her to the hospital,” Sherry told me, as she recognized gall bladder trouble. She visited Carol in the hospital after surgery.   

Steve and Sherry visited us several times in NC. John Fawcett wrote this song, published in 1782, “Blest be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”

Before Carol and I moved back to Greenville County, SC, on Jan. 10, 2018, Steve visited Steven, his son, in Raleigh. After their visit, Steven drove Steve to our house, and Steve drove my extra car to Greenville. Steve and his daughter, Karla (a nurse), painted about half the interior of the Taylors, SC, house we purchased. Steve hooked up our washer.

He and Sherry, who have four grandchildren, visited us as Carol suffered from pulmonary hypertension. They served their church by visiting the elderly, and Steve played his guitar at prayer meetings. They spoke at Carol’s funeral (Jan. 15, 2019) and visited me at my home after Carol passed. Steve would bring his guitar when he came by himself to my Taylors home, and we’d play together, sing hymns, and talk about the Lord.

One day, I called Steve, and he told me about his sudden cancer diagnosis. “I’m at the front of the line for the Glory Train,” he said. About two weeks later, he called and asked to borrow the music stand we’d shared when we sang together at my house before COVID-19 stopped our visits. He wanted to sing as long as he could and thought the stand might help. Barbara (my wife as of June 14, 2020) and I took the stand to his house and sat with Steve and Sherry on their patio for Barbara’s first and our last precious visit with him. In the printed program for Steve’s memorial service, his children wrote, “Dad continued to lead us in worship over the five weeks of his illness … All the hymns about Grace have brought us comfort.”   

Steve’s obituary said about him: “Mountaineer, and recipient of the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe award. Dairy farmer who hated getting up early. Loved and was loved by many good ‘hound dogs.’ Veteran of the US Army. Graduated with honors from Bob Jones University, undergraduate and Master’s Degree. Hunter, fisherman, photographer, map collector, expert wallpaper hanger. Musician and vocalist until his final breath. Dedicated scholar. Avid reader. Voracious Learner. Great pontificator. Lifelong student and teacher of the Scriptures. ‘Pastor Sturm.’ Counselor, encourager, and friend to many.”

LAY ASIDE HATRED AND SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

  Pastor Raymond D. Burrows hosted a recent Tuesday 10 a.m. Bible study at Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, on a rain-soaked day.

He said that if all the rain in a cloud fell at one time, the landscape below that cloud would be devastated.  

“But God sends down the rain in drops,” Pastor said.
  “Have you heard of a Judas tree?” Ms. Linda Trammell asked. “It’s supposed to be the tree that Judas hung himself on.”

The Judas tree (“cercis siliquastrum”) blooms with purple flowers. Its common name comes from a legend that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from this type tree after he betrayed Jesus. 

Pastor read 1 Peter 1:25: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 

The Apostle Peter addressed his letter to “the strangers scattered” in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia (all three locations are in Turkey), Asia, and and Bithynia (northwest of Asia Minor).  

Pastor noted that books of the Bible were written without chapter or verse references.  

Chapter divisions of the Bible were developed around 1227 by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi named Nathan in 1448. Robert Estienne, also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into numbered verses, in 1555. 

Pastor read 1 Peter 2:1-2: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.” 

“He’s talking about Christ-followers,” Pastor said. “‘Malice’ means ‘hatred of any description.’”  

He referred to the word “guile” in that verse. “Guile” means “craft; cunning; deceit; usually in a bad sense.” 

Jesus saw Nathanael and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (John 1:47). 

“God, by inspiration, would never instruct us on doing something that’s impossible,” Pastor said, indicating that, with God’s help, we can purge malice (hatred) and guile (deceit) from our hearts. 

Pastor recalled that when he lived in Joanna, SC, a man told him, “I’m never going to church because there are too many hypocrites there.”  

“As far as I know, he never did go,” Pastor said.

Pastor told of a woman who always said nice things about people. A friend asked if she could say anything nice about a man they knew who was a scoundrel. The lady replied, “Well, he’s got a nice whistle.” 

Pastor said he admires the scholarship and brilliance of the Rev. Pat Hayes, who sometimes preaches at Faith Temple Church.  

“His family was educated,” Pastor said. “He went to a Roman Catholic school. My dad was a farmer … Be glad about the person God made you [to be].” 

He read 1 Peter 2:3: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” 

“Explore the Scriptures,” Pastor said. “Growth is produced by Scripture. Take on the person of Christ. St. Paul chastised the Corinthians because they had not been growing.”  

We need interactions with God through the Word and through prayer, Pastor said.   

“The other day, I fired up my chainsaw and was thinking as I was out there, cutting, ‘Lord, I love you,’” he said. 

He addressed attendees: “You are among God’s finest people. And the Lord put me here with you. The Lord is gracious, my friends.” 

He read 1 Peter 2:6: “ … Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.” 

“Christ is the foundational stone,” Pastor said. “The bricks became part of the structure. The strength of one brick is tied to the other bricks. …They are resting on that foundational stone.”  

Pastor told of a man who came to Faith Temple and asked, “Am I welcome here?” The fellow told Pastor Burrows that he had visited a church where a church leader took him aside and said, “Your kind is not welcome here.” Pastor said he assured the man he was welcome at Faith Temple.  

He referred to the Pharisee and the publican. 

Jesus told this parable (Luke 18:9-14) to some folk who boasted about their own goodness and despised others:  

A Pharisee (a strict keeper of Jewish laws) and a publican (a despised tax collector) prayed in the temple. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not a sinner, especially like the tax collector he saw standing there. He said he never cheated, did not commit adultery, and he fasted twice a week and gave God a tenth of all he possessed.

The corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and was ashamed to lift his eyes toward heaven. In sorrow, he beat on his chest and prayed, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”   

Jesus said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [forgiven] rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”