Thankful, thankful

So much to tell you, but cannot figure out where to begin.

The light at the end of the tunnel. Better put, the Light at the end of the tunnel.

This has been a frightening and arduous journey but thank God - thank God! - we are seeing joy and peace reign in the Zockoll home as the Lord opens doors of tranquility, giving heart-depth relief from trials.

What a joy, what a joy.

This Thanksgiving season has a depth of meaning that no other Thanksgiving has had. I will share more of the details tomorrow and in the coming days.

Jesus is letting me see the reality of John 16:33 - true tharseo - truly being of good cheer.

Thank you, Lord.

The experiences of Job

The Zockoll household has been under many an adventure - some of them not so pleasant - since I have last written in this blog. The times have been trying, but I have learned how important they are to drawing me closer to Christ.

I mainly found out that God can show Himself to me better if I just get out of the way.

It's no news to you that we've had a pretty tough row to hoe in recent years. Jill's health, my work, our family ... we've all undergone some pretty nasty broadsides. Time and time again I cried out to God for relief from the oppression that seemed to come day after day without relief. In fact, I can remember in the midst of a day of a Social Security setbacks, a family crisis, and an injury to myself, I had to start laughing. I can recall telling Jill that it almost seemed funny, the way the things were piling on. The actual details are not important, but the lesson I wish to share is: God wanted us to draw closer to Him and depend on Him more.

And it has been happening with us. Day by day my realization of the awesomeness and overshadowing care grows. I am embarrassed by the foolhardy assumptions I've had. I agree with the Christian scholar who quoted Shakespeare: "Man, poor man, so ignorant in that which he knows best." I am amazed - being a Bible teacher, especially this year in teaching, OT Survey, psychology and Koine Greek - and how downright stupid i am in subjects I teach. The more I dig into the Bible the more I realize God's power and protection and leading to the right path.

And now I take a deep breath and answer the question: "Has it been - and is it still - worth the trouble you've been through, that God has become more real and more personal to you."

And I gulp right now and say - and I can hardly believe I am saying this - yes.

Zockoll update

The Zockoll household is readying for the fall in July, believe it or not. Peter will be going to Lee University here in Tennessee. Julianne will be heading to Grace Christian Academy into kindergarten - big step in her life! - and Jill will be a homeroom mother, assisting the teacher. I will be teaching Bible and Psychology in the Senior High while helping write articles for the Basketball Federation of America, 42nd Street Designs, OnDemand Web, Faith in Dreams movie studios and a number of other corporations.

Please pray for us as we take the next step in our lives as Peter heads to college and one more of our brood has stepped out into independent life. Tonight is his Dedication Night, with men of the church coming over and giving both a blessing and a charge for him.

Proverbs 3:5,6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."

agape love is beyond emotion

This one is always a challenge for me to wrap my mind around. 1 Corinthians 13:4 clearly states that the best kind of love - agape love, which is a determined, serious love – is a kind love. It’s a kindness that is interested in the good of others and is eager to make itself helpful or available for serving others. It is beyond emotion - it's a commitment.

This means that Christ was committed to loving me, no matter how bad I am and how unlovely I appear to be.

This means that he was (and is) determined in His decision, which nothing will sway.

This means that the example He sets is for me to follow - loving the unlovely or the unthankful or the indifferent or the rebellious. No matter what their reaction, this is the call for me as a Christian to do.

No matter what their circumstance - no matter what MY circumstance, this is what I am to do.

Bancroft

I took Julianne and Jill and we headed up past Kingsport where I spoke at Bancroft Bible Camp, a fine campground with a wonderful heritage, dedicated people and a true love for the Lord. Most of the children attending are on scholarship, to my understanding, and the staff gives each child loving and careful attention. The director is Keith Walsworth, and he has a powerful ministry at Bancroft.

I spoke on the holiness of God to the 80+ campers there, always feeling humbled that God would allow me to carry His Word. There were four little children who made decisions for Jesus. What a great time.

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"Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation." - Saint Augustine

C.S. Lewis quote: Jesus

"God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form...The perfect surrender and humiliation was undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man."

--The Case for Christianity

Preparing for the fall

I will be teaching at Grace Christian Academy in the fall. I signed the contract about a week ago. Most of my blog will deal with the experiences I have with students and the venture back into the ministry of working with teens once again. I will be continuing my writing career, of course, but the economic times make it necessary for me to have a regular income.

What a week it's been! My writing assignments have ranged from a biography to a payroll company's website to an interview with a basketball pro. It's been a busy week in the office. along with Julianne's graduation from pre-school (big time presentation: I got to visit during the "Dads and Donuts" morning!)

It's a tough row ahead in work but I am thankful we've been able to have assignments coming in. A good number of my friends are not having the same opportunities. This has been a very powerful learning experience for us all.

Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

- St. Augustine

Gifts

Due to my writing and teaching workload lately it has been more difficult to try to keep up on regular blogging, but I'll try my best. What a see-saw month in the Zockoll household. Numerous contracts with many hard-working companies slow to pay me due to the economy. They're trying their best, but it still makes it extremely hard on our finances. Nevertheless, we have been able to see the Lord reach into our home and care for us during these trying times. Jill has been a pillar of strength many times. Last week I grew increasingly frustrated over some long-overdue payments due to me, and she was a caring and patient friend, helping me talk it out and sharing with me.

That's an incredibly wonderful gift from God - to have a loving wife. She has been strong throughout this time, holding me up whenever things look bleak. I thank the Lord for Jill and what she has been able to do.

As for today, we celebrate Peter's birthday today - he's 18 years old! He'll get a special luncheon and some gifts, but Friday night is when we have the "official" party. It'll be paintball and some other crazy games with some of his close friends. Peter's coming up on some big decisions concerning his career and his education.Please pray for him.

Phlpns 1:10 - "so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be blameless until the day of Christ".

'blameless' ('aproskopos' from a = 'not' + proskópto = 'strike at', 'to trip', 'dash against as foot against a stone') literally means without stumbling or tripping. We are to be Christians that don't trip up people with our unholy ways. We leave the path clear so that they may find Christ.

1Thessalonians 4:9 ... "... for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another..."

The word 'love' here (agapao) means to love unconditionally and sacrificially as God Himself loves sinful men (John 3:16), the way He loves the Son (John 3:35, 15:9). It's more than an emotion - it's an act of the will. A powerful lesson for me as I work in the world.

I will be teaching all next week at Grace Christian Academy. I'll be touching on apologetics and talking about some awesome Koine Greek words. The writing assignments have been picking up in number, and that's good. The winter dearth was brutal on our finances. It was day-to-day dependence upon the Lord to give us our daily bread. The dependence is still there - it always will be - but the pressure has eased somewhat. One of my clients is owner on One-Txt, a magnificent texting capability company. Another is the president of a trade system in the region. Yet another is CEO of a web design company in Atlanta. All are good men, and have become good friends as well as trusted customers.

Little Julianne regales us with stories of preschool, treating us to new songs every day. Sometimes words get mixed up, but that just makes it more fun. I've captivated her with YouTube old commercials of my childhood days: the Crackerjack man, Maypo cereal, Crispy Critters, and Good n Plenty candy. She's fascinated.

Thank You, Lord

Ephesians 5:20 "always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God" ...'giving thanks' is eucháristos = being thankful, grateful - actually the obligation of being thankful to someone for a favor done (from eú = well + charízomai = to grant, give). Christian eucháristos comes from perfect submission to the will of God, knowing He is working all things together for good (Ro 8:28, 29).

Thank you, Lord, for the new writing assignments coming in.

Thank you for the spring weather that is bringing the family out of the cabin fever stage.

Thank you for the great Bible teaching we're getting at church.

Thank you for the chance to teach students at the Sunday night Bible study.

Thank you for Jill being so caring and loving.

Thank you for You.

Pilgrims' Chorus from Wagner's Tannhäuser

Once more with joy O my home I may meet
Once more ye fair, flowr'y meadows I greet
My Pilgrim's staff henceforth may rest
Since Heaven's sweet peace is within my breast.

The sinner's 'plaint on high was heard
On high was heard and answered by the Lord
The tears I laid before His shrine
Are turned to hope and joy divine.

O Lord eternal praise be Thine!

The blessed source of Thy mercy overflowing
On souls repetant seek Ye, all-knowing
Of hell and death, I have no fear
For thou my Lord are ever near

Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia! For evermore

words of an agnostic

Agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll's words in reflection on his life in a letter to his brother:

"I feel that we have passed the crown of the hill, and that the milestones are getting nearer and nearer each other, and now and then I catch glimpses of the great wall where the road ends. A little while ago, I pressed forward; now I hold back. In youth we woo the future and clasp her like a bride; in age we denounce her as a fair and beautiful liar and wonder at the ease with which we were duped. Pursuing that which eludes, gazing at that which fades, hoping for the impossible, regretting that which is, fearing that which must be, and with [nothing] worth having save the bliss of love. And in the red heart of this white flower there is this pang: 'It cannot last.'"

Our failure

When I came to North America, I found that most churches, pastors, seminaries, colleges, and parachurch agencies and agents were in the grip of this secular passion for successful expansion in a way I had not met in England. Church-growth theorists, evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and others all spoke as if: (1) numerical increase is what matters most, (2) numerical increase must come if our techniques and procedures are right, (3) numerical increase validates ministries as nothing else does, and (4) numerical increase must be everyone's main goal.

Four unhappy features marked the situation.

First, big and growing churches were viewed as far more significant than others.

Second, parachurch specialists (evangelists, college and seminary teachers with platform skills, medicine men with traveling seminars, convention-circuit riders, top people in youth movements, full-time authors and such) were venerated, while hard-working pastors were treated as near-nonentities.

Third, lively laymen and clergy were constantly being creamed off, or creaming themselves off, from the churches to run parachurch ministries, in which quicker results could be expected and where accountability was less stringent.

And fourth, many ministers of not-so-bouncy temperament were returning to secular employment in disillusionment and bitterness, having concluded that the pastoral life is a game not worth playing. . . Faithfulness, godliness, and loving service are the divine measure of real success in ministry

J.I. Packer, Christianity Today, August 12, 1988, p. 15.

Reflection

I think of all the achievements and honors that I was fortunate enough to receive in my lifetime and I can in all honesty say that it is so much codswallop.

Much like Solomon I feel that anything achieved in human effort is so brazenly cheap compared to the actual blessing-relationship with the Lord.

Human praise is overstocked. It's like the end-of-the-school-year awards banquet for teens I heard about. Over a hundred kids. Everyone got at least one trophy. The sheer abundance of awards cheapened the whole affair. There was so little value that the teens told me the trophies had no worth to them.

That's the way human glory is.

It's all so much cardboard.

Give me the true gold of God's friendship any day.

Theodicy - God and an Evil World

Another thought:

God might be allowing evil to continue in order to prove a point...

From the moment of Adam's rebellion against God, a new order of events began happening which continues to this day. That new order, through the effects of sin, altered the course of both man and creation. Both were affected by sin. Creation was no longer a paradise,(Gen. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:22) and people's very nature changed (Rom. 5:12;Eph. 2:3, Rom. 3:19-12) to go against God. Earth could never be confused with Heaven. There is no permanency of existence here on Earth - death is inevitable. There are no pain-free lives - everyone has a bull's eye on their back.

Why? We see that evil is a global force and it brings about suffering, reminding people that rebellion against God - from Adam's to ours - brings about pain, suffering and death.

The latest

This is the first time I've been able to have time to sit down and have a snatch of time to make an entry into the Journal. The last few weeks have been almost manic, to say the least. I've been out of speaking and teaching assignments almost daily, while taking on more writing assignments. The Christian Writer's Workshops went well, and the Zockoll Chronicles site (www.zockollchronicles.com) was bought out by Guzo International Spots Management for the purpose of announcing new tournaments and events as well as up-and-coming basketball players around the nation. I have taken on three new ghost-writing contracts along with daily web page maintenance.

Plus, I caught the flu for a second time, and this one took me to the brink of pneumonia. In fact, I'm still having a rough time - and it's been over a week ago that I caught it.

But the Lord has been especially manifest in His watchcare over the family. Peter will be finishing up his schoolwork at the Home Life Academy and is still getting details on his college choices and decisions. Jill is finishing up paperwork so that we might apply for assistance due to her fibro myalgia (tons of paperwork). Julianne is the five-year-old nurse and musician about the household, either singing to us or else making poultices to apply to our feet and knees, whether we need them or not.

I sincerely enjoy the calming words of Philippians 4:9:

"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

"God of Peace" = theos eirene... the God who brings tranquility and harmony

So many of us fight to bring peace into our lives and households on our own terms. It's good to know that the very Author of Peace invites us to open His Book and see how we can apply the very definition to our walk on Earth. And let me tell you, with all of the mania slamming into our lives day by day, I find it essential to sit with this Author and see what His definitions can do for me.

Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!

All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;

Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!

All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.

Let the Amen sound from His people again,

Gladly for aye we adore Him.

In all things, in every day, He is good and worthy of praise.

More on Theodicy

It's not an easy subject when we deal with the fact that we see suffering all through the world constantly. As Christians we believe God is capable of preventing evil, and God wants to rid the universe of evil. Right?

After all, we know God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and we know by His sovereignty He can do anything He wishes (Daniel 4:17-25).

Then why does God allow evil? If He has the power to prevent evil, and wants to prevent evil, why doesn't He do it?

As we dig deeper into this subject let's realize that we are talking about the ways and workings of God, not another human. This is God-thinking, not human-thinking, and at that point it immediately puts rationality into another plane.

Let me explain.

Let's put down some of the reasons that humans might suggest as alternatives:

1) God should have created the race of people that so that they could not sin. Realize, though, that free will just went out the window; people then become “programmed” and robotic - only able to do right. God could have created Adam and Eve with no response but only good, but then the relationship wold be wooden and unfeeling; there is no choice in the matter. In their innocence - in an incredibly positive environment, no less - they were given the ability to choose good or evil. This made it a special decision to react to to His love and rely on Him ... or go in the other direction... which they did.

And so do we. We make our decisions (not necessarily the consequences) and often the decision is selfish. However, the joy I see whenever a person comes to me and has decided to follow Christ is priceless. They've made a choice to embrace Him and He is responding in love to their decision. There is nothing robotic about it.

So, God forcing us to do good, or forcing us to love Him doesn't make sense.

More...

Theodicy

THEODICY - The branch of thoelogy that defends how a good and all-powerful God could create a world with suffering and evil in it.

This one is a monster issue, and it's going to take careful reading and explanation to address it. As you know, I don't believe in 'sound bite arguments' where someone throws down a huge issue and expects a one-sentence answer as they smugly walk out of the room. This isn't a sitcom; this is real life, so let's all be mature and deal with this in a truly studious manner.

Why does God allow suffering in the world? Why did He allow Haiti to undergo such a widespread tragedy? And what about the Holocaust for that matter? Genocide? Pandemics?

Let's take it bit by bit, piece by piece.

I quote N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England and author of Evil and the Justice of God. Wright was in a "blog debate" with an agnostic professor on beliefnet.com. You can find a good article about this on

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080424/theologians-why-does-god-allow-suffering/index.html

His answers included addressing the fact that the agnostic went into great detail about each tragedy.

“You spend a good deal of time in the book, and even in your brief posting, detailing some of these horrors, as though to remind readers of what (surely?) all intelligent people know already,” Wright responded.

“You’re not implying, are you, that people (like me, for instance) who still hold to Christian faith are somehow failing to notice these horrors, or to reflect soberly and deeply on them?”

Wright goes into the purpose of call of Abraham as given in the Scriptures. Wright explains that the call was when “God launches the long-range plan to rescue the world from its misery,” not just an individual invitation for Abraham to have a special connection to God.

“In other words, I read the story of Israel as a whole (not merely in its individual parts, which by themselves, taken out of that context, might be reduced to ‘Israel sinned; God punished them,’ etc.,) as the story of theodicy-in-practice: ‘this is the narrative through whose outworking the creator God will eventually put all things to rights,’” , also

pointing out that during Jesus’ walk on Earth it seems as if God was not in control then, either. The Jews had their own idea of how God would work with the Messiah: victory for Israel against her enemies and world power.

Allowing his son Jesus to be crucified did not fit what the Jews wanted.

“Near the heart of Jesus’ proclamation lies a striking redefinition of power itself, which looks as though it’s pointing in the direction of God’s ‘running of the world’ (if that’s the right phrase) in what you might call a deliberately, almost studiedly, self-abnegating way, running the world through an obedient, and ultimately suffering, human being, with that obedience, and especially that suffering, somehow instrumental in the whole process,” Wright contends.

“What ‘we would want God to do’ – to have God measure up to our standards of ‘how a proper, good and powerful God would be running the world!’ – seems to be the very thing that Jesus was calling into question.”

Manna - enough for one day

Exodus 16 relates the story of God' provision to the Israelites - they had left Egypt with no food or water, according to the Scriptures - of flat, wafer-like substance called manna (literally "what is it?") that lay on the ground every morning, a heaven-sent breakfast from God.

I find it most interesting, especially in today's economic climate, that the people were given just enough to make it through the day. No hoarding was allowed, except in preparation for the Sabbath. The day's sustenance was just enough to take you to the next morning.

Many of us who have been facing financial challenges can take heart in this. Full reliance on God is needed every day. Never shirking our duties, but at the same time putting our faith in His power and not our own, is the way that pleases Him and sustains us.

My writing assignments come in like manna. I know that they could end at any time and yet they flow in and give us just enough to continue on. It bolsters our faith and draws us closer to Him. Just as we saw the answer to prayer in John H. getting a long sought-after job after almost a year of no employment, we can see God guiding as we rely on Him.

Day by day. Just enough.