The Holy Land

I have had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Holy Land. In my visits I have gone through three different stages as to how I look at Israel. I imagine most who visit Israel do so as well.
The first is the deer in the headlights. When I was first in Israel, I felt like I was in a spiritual Disneyland. Here were the actual places so many Bible events took place. This was the Holy Land! This is where Jesus walked! God's people and God's capital city were here! I know I looked like a deer in the headlights.

The second reaction is getting to know modern day Israel. Unfortunately Israel today is as worldly and ungodly as my own country, the US. As a nation they still do not see, they still do not hear. Israel has a terrible drug problem. Tel Aviv is called the pink city of the middle east. It is the pornography, homosexual capital of the middle east. Even though through Yad Vashem Israel promotes the theme to never forget, never again. Israel has forgotten. It is happening again. Israel is doing it to themselves. Israel has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. Abortion has killed more innocent Jewish babies and children than the holocaust. I no longer look at Israel as a deer in the headlights.

The third reaction is to see how God is on the move. God is on the move in Israel. God has not forgotten His people Israel even though most of them have forgotten Him. Israel is one of the, if not the only nation on earth that has a growing, thriving, Christian population. Although still small (15,000 or more) it is a significant remnant and is increasing every day. Which follows Bible prophecy. When I realized all this I still was stumped. How could God bless or work with or reenter into a covenant relationship with Israel like the Bible teaches with Israel being so godless?
Then My pastor preached on Ezekiel 36.
God is going to step in to bless Israel and reenter into a covenant with Israel not because of their righteousness but because of His Name's sake.
Therefore, say to the house of  Israel, "Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord," declares the Lord God, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight." (verses 22, 23)

God is going to bless Israel and bring forth this final seven year period ushering in the Kingdom of His great Son Jesus Christ in spite of Israel's faithlessness. God will not be denied.

Israel is the Holy Land.

The Word of God is a Seed

I was sitting on a bench under a tree. A seed berry happened to fall out of the tree and landed right in front of me. It just barely caught my attention as it bounced into the grass. I thought about it for a second and then picked it up. It was very small. I turned around and looked at the tree it had fallen from. It was huge. I was amazed how large the tree was in comparison to how tiny its’ seeds were. How could such a large tree come from such a small seed? 

This reminded me of Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed: 

          “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, 
            which a man took and sowed in his field; and 
            this is smaller than all other seeds, but when 
            it is full grown, it is larger than the garden 
            plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds 
            of the air come and nest in its branches.”                                       
                                                                                                                 —Matthew 13:31, 32  

Then God put on my heart, “Consider the seed I have given you.” The Bible says the Word of God is a seed (Luke 8:11). The seed which He has given us is the Bible. At the time of Noah and the Flood, the Bible was only five chapters long. At the time of Abraham, eleven chapters. At the time of Moses, it had grown to be one book. At the time of King David, it was about ten books long. During Jesus’ day, the Bible had grown to be the whole Old Testament. Today we have not only the Old Testament, but the New Testament as well. We also have two thousand years of church history where the Holy Spirit has been moving and speaking the Word of God to us for centuries. So consider the seed we have today!  

Later back home I was walking through our garden looking at all the blooms which had come up because of the rain we had just had. I especially noticed the rain lilies and how they were blooming so profusely. It was like God reminded me of what He had just shared with me in the park and He spoke to my heart, “Consider again the seed which I have given you and it hasn’t rained yet.” 

    

           Therefore be patient, brethren, until the 
            coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for 
            the precious produce of the soil, being 
            patient about it, until it gets the early 
            and late rains. You too be patient; 
            strengthen your hearts, for the coming 
            of the Lord is near.               (James 5:7, 8)

This applies to the church both individually and corporately. At the appointed time the rains will come and God will cause His seed, His Spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Word of God to be birthed within us. It will grow to be a tree larger than all the other plants that have come before. It will be a greater harvest than the time of Noah, then the time of Abraham, then the time of David. Jesus Himself said we would do greater works than He did (John 14:12).    

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakuk 2:14).

Jesus is coming. The Kingdom of God is coming. His seed is about to bloom. We are about to be birthed. We will grow into a spiritual tree larger than all the other spiritual plants. We will fill the earth.  

         For the whole earth is groaning and travailing 
         with birth pangs for the manifestation of the 
         sons of God.              (Romans 8:19-22)

Be Still

   Sometimes just being in the presence of someone is all you can do:

    There was a generation gap between me and my dad, and between me and my father-in-law. We didn’t have much to say to each other because of our differences, but we soaked up each others’ presence and showed love to each other by just being with each other and working together.

    Being with someone who’s terminally ill or has suffered great tragedy. Just being with them, holding their hand, not trying to answer why or going off on some theological discourse as to the meaning behind their suffering. Not necessarily saying anything – shows great love. Really shows all the love that can possibly be given to them under such circumstances.

    When a parent tells a child, “Be seen but not heard. Don’t speak unless spoken to.” When we’re in the presence of someone greater and wiser than we, we must not come to speak, but to listen and to hear.          

   All these examples are applicable to our relationship with God.

        Guard your steps as you go to the House of 
        God and draw near to listen rather than to 
        offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not 
        know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in 
        word or impulsive in thought to bring up a 
        matter in the presence of God, for God is 
        in Heaven and you are on the earth; 

        therefore let your words be few.

                                        (Ecclesiastes 5:1, 2)

          Be still and know that I’m God. (Ps. 46:10)

   Sometimes I think what God wants most of all from us, is for us to just be quiet in His presence so He can be with us -- just to be with us. So He can lean into us like He leaned into John when He was being betrayed. 

   

   He just wants to be with us. He just wants to be in our presence.

   So I go walk with Him in silence. I imagine me leaning  into Him and He leaning into me. I be still. 

   I believe with all my heart this means the world to God.

Kindergarten Graduation / for Aunt Pat

     When I was a little boy in Kindergarten it seemed like I would be there forever. Being in Kindergarten was everything to me. It was my life. I had my teacher and my friends that made up what I was at that time. It was what defined me. I was a kindergartener.

     I remember how important it was to me to sit in a big chair. At the beginning of class we got to pick the chairs we would be sitting in for the day. It was a big deal. I didn’t want a small chair. Small chairs were for sissies.

     Now fifty years have come and gone. I don’t care if I’m sitting in a big chair anymore. I just want one that will support me. I don’t look back to the time I was in Kindergarten. I remember my teacher’s name and some of my fellow students’ names and a few things that took place during that time, but generally speaking that’s over. That’s ancient history. I will never go back. The only person from that time that I have communicated with is a former classmate that contacted me recently who I have not seen for over twenty years. He was very happy to find me and I was very happy to hear from him. Even though our lives have taken different paths we are still on the same page. We picked up from where we left off fifty years ago like no time had gone by at all. It was like we had never been apart these past fifty years.

     I was thinking about all this, this past weekend during my Uncle Junior’s funeral. I was imagining what he might be thinking about now that he was in a different place, a better place. What would he miss the most? Would it be something like me looking back at Kindergarten fifty years later?

     The things that were important in Kindergarten have lost their attraction to me except for one. My former classmate, (his name is Donny), is just as real and alive to me now as he was back then. In fact because fifty years of life’s experiences have gone by our friendship is all that much deeper. We don’t relate to one another as kindergarteners anymore but as mature adults who have lived out most of their lives.

     There are some who say when we go to Heaven we will not relate to each other in the same way. Some say we will not even recognize each other because we will be spirit beings, not earthly beings. I disagree. I believe whatever happens when we leave here we will know each other in a far superior way than we know each other now. The Bible teaches us that this earthly realm, this veil of tears, is wrapped up in spiritual darkness. We don’t see as clearly as we should. But it also teaches us that when we leave here we will enter into a realm of spiritual light, what we call Heaven. It’s my opinion we will relate to each other in a far clearer way than we do now. We will know each other much more intimately than we know each other now. When Jesus returned to see His disciples after He rose from the dead He told them He was not a spirit or a ghost. And he proved it to them. He told them to reach out their hands to touch His wounds. Then He ate lunch with them. It was if He had never left.

     I’m convinced when we leave here many things that are important to us now will lose their value. We won’t care what chair we sit in anymore. We will have something far more important. We will have each other. We will know each other. We will know each other in a much deeper and more complete way. We will pick up from where we left off like nothing had happened. We will pick up from where we left off in a much more intimate way, a fuller way, and a higher way. We will be with our Lord. We will be with our loved ones. We will be with Frank. You will be with Frank. We will be home.

     I love you Aunt Pat. It was an honor to be with you during this tough time. Love Mike

Did you read the owner's manuel?

    On this side of Heaven it appears that to seek God like He commands us to (to be holy as He is holy, to not sin like Him, to love as He loves, and to be perfect as He is perfect) is deemed by most to be certainly unattainable. But if we think it through, I think we’ll come up with a different conclusion.

     God is the one Who created us, not us. He is the designer of our heart, our spirit, our inner man. He knows what we can do and can’t do. He created us. He created us in His image ! We are designed to be like Him to begin with!

     If we buy a car don’t we look at the owner’s manual prepared by the automobile manufacturer to see how everything works? Aren’t the engineers and the technicians the ones who designed the cars we drive? Don’t we have faith in them to explain to us how to drive a car? Then why can’t we have faith in the Creator of the Universe to explain to us how we work, what we’re supposed to become and be used for?

     I believe it’s easier to live life in the way God commands and instructs us to live rather than to listen to anybody else, including ourselves. God is our creator, He is our designer. Whatever we have to go through in this life to be made perfect like Him is going to be an easier path to walk on than any other. That’s because this is what we were designed for. If we use a car in any way that is not according to the instruction manual the car won’t run properly or at best it will run poorly, less than full performance and what it is designed for. But if we follow the instructions the car makers give us the car will run at its peak performance and in the way it is designed to run.

     We think that to go through the necessary work and the sacrifice it will take to allow God to work His full will in us to arrive to that place of the fullness of God, being made perfect in His image, will be such a hard thing to accomplish that we would rather not even try. It’s too hard. It’s too much. It’s only for Bible people.

It’s certainly not for us.

     I believe exactly the opposite is true. I believe in the long run it will be harder to live life not according to God’s commands than according to God’s commands. Just as it is harder not to operate a car according to the carmaker’s instructions.

     I believe just like we think that now it is easier to coast through life and not to attain to God’s full design for us, on the other side (in Heaven) we will understand exactly the opposite. That if we had been obedient in this life and given God full place in our lives to do whatever necessary to accomplish His perfect will in our lives, we would have gotten through this life in a much easier manner and also reap the eternal rewards as well. I believe we will clearly understand this in Heaven.

     If we’re wise, we will understand this now and allow God to do His perfect work in our lives—now.

Lake Gogebic—a Real Live Time Machine

I look at the couch in the living room and see my dad teaching me how to tie my shoes for the first time.

Out the back door there’s Old Man Ketola (who was in his nineties) telling my dad (who was in his fifties) that he was just a youngster.

Suddenly I’m flying in the air, but my dad catches me. He had unexpectedly thrown me up as he was carrying me while we were taking a family walk to Sandy Beach.

There I am spilling water from the two buckets I’m carrying that I just filled from the old water pump to take down to the camp.

In the kitchen I watch in fascination as Bill Nylund rolls a cigarette while telling us in his woodsman's voice about his latest bird hunt.

Now we’re flying through the water as Mr. Bedner takes us out for a ride in a real speed boat.

I see myself sitting around the campfire at the Webers with all the kids in the neighborhood telling ghost stories. Silently my brother and his buddy Phil Wirtanen sneak up behind us letting out a scream, scaring us half to death.

I look out into the woods and see my mom and my sister and I berry picking. I hear a strange hum above my head and see a hummingbird for the first time.

Now it’s time to put out forest fires! I watch as Ralph Wirtanen and I build airplanes out of firewood and come to the rescue.

There’s Jane and I and Mark Ketola hiding on the front porch. We had just knocked on our neighbors’ door (who we didn’t like) and ran and hid. Mark was laughing so hard he gave us away. The neighbor demanded that we show ourselves and apologize for what we had done. My sister said, “Don’t get up! He won’t come get us!” I felt so guilty I got up and confessed that we had done it and that we were sorry. Now I was in trouble from both sides.

I see myself, my brother, and sister carving our names in the old wooden steps where our cousins, aunts, and uncles had been carving their names for over 20 years.

There we are rowing to Merriweather to hike up to Seabold’s gas station to buy a candy bar or some groceries for the cottage.

Ten years later I see myself looking out the window with my father at the Weber twins who were just becoming adults. I commented, “It doesn’t seem that long ago when they were just babies in their crib.”

My dad responded, “It doesn’t seem that long ago to me when their mother Janet was

a baby in her crib.”

That was over thirty years ago. Now new names are being carved in the old wooden steps.

Fast forward a couple decades and a new generation is at Lake Gogebic with their own experiences and making new memories.

There’s Aunt Leoma saving the sauna from burning down.

There’s the outhouses that were left behind for the new flushing toilets.

There’s Tom and Todd and Tim and Ted helping Grandpa Waldo pile wood and shovel gravel.

There they go swimming across the Lake.

There’s Amber angrily responding to her cousins who had just told her that Grandma Silberg was their grandma, too. Amber yelled, “She’s my grandma, not yours”.

There’s Max being slowly lowered into Lake Gogebic by Aunt Jane for the first time. Unbeknownst to his mother, who was looking away, Max was turning blue and was sucking in all the air from Ontonagon County from the impact of Lake Gogebic’s “balmy water temperature”. He was so cold he was unable to express his concern to his mother—or maybe Max was just speechless with delight.

There’s Adam in Grandpa Waldo’s arms waiting for the cuckoo clock to cuckoo.

New names are carved in the old wooden steps.

There’s grandpa taking a walk with his friends, the chickadees. 
There’s grandma making a couple of loaves of cardamom seed bread.

There’s grandpa riding in his red tractor.

But some things are timeless:

Like . . .

Rowing down the Merriweather River.

The Hoop and Holler

A trip to Sandy Beach

Climbing Alligator Eye

Climbing the Bluff

Not catching any fish.

Looking for night crawlers.

Taking a sauna.

Chopping wood.

Swedish pancake eating contests, pasties, and apple brown betty.

Lake Superior.

Smashing pennies on the railroad tracks.

Indian head signs.

Coyotes howling at night.

Trips to Bergland.
Trips to Ironwood.
St. Paul’s Lutheran church.

Suomi College.

Hot games.

Wolves howling at night.

The Keewenaw.
The Paavo Nurmi Marathon.

Grandma walking across the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day.

Flying squirrels at twilight.

Grandma Anna’s forget-me-nots

On and on and on . . .

There’s Catherine and Kelsey posing for Aunt Leoma with their first babies to be.

Now look:

There’s Hamilton Silberg (the first of a new generation) having the first Silberg art show on Lake Gogoebic.
All of a sudden there's a yard full of new Silberg kids: Hamilton, Truman, Hawthorne, Cameron, Conner, and Cassidy all hunting for quarters.

New names are carved in the old wooden steps.
There’s Tom II’s fire works on the fourth of July.

There goes a jet ski or two or three or four whizzing by with Silberg’s at the helms.

There we go on a boat ride around the lake with Ed and Mary Lou.

Now we’re having a pancake breakfast at the Collicks.

Now we’re playing croquet at the Berndts.

There’s grandma walking across the Mackinac Bridge.

There’s Amber swimming across the lake.

There’s Todd winning at Jeopardy.

There’s Jane winning at Jeopardy.

There goes Mary Lou to Watersmeet.

There’s Ed winning at Jeopardy.

There’s Jenny winning at Jeopardy.

There’s grandma walking across the Mackinac Bridge.

There’s Amber winning at Jeopardy.

There’s Mike and Leoma and Adam biking in the Tour da Lake.Whoops Aunt Leoma got kidnapped by the Berndts half way and they’re forcing her to drink champagne.

There’s Tucker winning at Jeopardy.

Now we’re in the car taking a trip to see the Paulding Lights.

There’s Ted and Heather and Trent on Plymouth Rock.

There’s Amber biking around the lake.

Time to put new names on the old wooden steps. Let’s see, Silbergs have been carving their names on these steps for almost 80 years now.

There’s grandma walking across the Mackinac Bridge.

Now it’s nighttime. I see a bunch of us sitting around the campfire. We’re looking for shooting stars or satellites passing by or even the Northern Lights. We’re solving the problems of the world with our neighbors, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends—just like Silbergs have been doing at Lake Gogebic for a hundred years.

Before you know it, another summer has come and gone. The leaves are falling. The geese are flying. Winter’s in the air. There goes grandma heading south. Tom and Tom II are closing up the cabins.

How quickly these days come and go. How quickly our friends and our neighbors and our families grow and move on and life changes. But somehow they stay with us. Somehow they remain in our hearts and become a part of us. The lake is always there. The cottage seems like it will always be there. Some things don’t seem to change. Some places are stuck in time. Must be a God thing.

So, if you’re visiting Lake Gogebic sometime in the future and you're awakened early on a cold morning in the old camp by some clanging around in the kitchen—go back to sleep, it’s just Grandpa Waldo putting a fire in the stove.

Head for Cover

     I happened to be watching a TV show where a judge was questioning the plaintiffs and the defendants over a dispute on family law. The judge quickly zeroed in on the plaintiffs and it became evident they were in the wrong and committed a very serious crime. You could see the judge getting more and more incensed at their actions and the pathetic arguments they were giving. I could almost feel the heat from the judge’s anger coming through the television. I felt uncomfortable.

      I remember a time I was in a grocery store with some buddies of mine when I was about ten years old. We decided to take some candy bars and stuff them in our pants just to see if we could get away with stealing them. As we were leaving the store my candy bar became loose and I was trying to keep it from falling on the floor. The manager of the store saw what was going on and he grabbed me and my friend. He made us call our mothers on the phone and he told them what we had done. I was so embarrassed I wanted to climb in a hole.

     What will it be like to stand before God in all His holiness and power and account for our lives? The Bible is clear that God will require this from everyone of us, even from us believers. It will be the most uncomfortable, embarrassing thing we will ever experience. Imagine the eyes of God piercing our hearts and bringing out every dark thought or sinful action we have ever committed. And unlike an earthly judge or a grocery store manager, God judges with perfect holiness, justice, and righteousness. His is not an earthly judgment with earthly consequences. His judgment is eternal. We will abide in His judgment forever. If it will be uncomfortable for us Christians to stand before God what will it be like for the ungodly? No wonder the reaction given by the unrighteous when Jesus appears in His glory:

              Then the kings of the earth and the great men and

              the commanders and the rich and the strong and

              every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves
              and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said

              to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and

              hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the

              throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

                                                                 Revelation 6:5, 6