We keep hearing that God is good, He would never do bad things, God is love and only love. Well, God IS love, but He is also sovereign over every single thing in the universe. He purposes evil for His plan and His glory and our good. He purposes it. He doesn’t just wipe up the mess that splashes on us or Him, He purposes it.

Reconciling God’s sovereignty even in evil is a difficult concept, but one that if pursued and appealed to the Spirit for understanding, makes all the difference. A few resources to get you on your way include reading Psalm 105 for a start. God He also turned the hearts of Egyptians to hate his people, and caused them to deal craftily with his servants. God did those things and more. On purpose.

Secondly, here is a great sermon on the subject,

“Genesis 20: How Does Sin Relate to God’s Sovereign Plan?”

Finally, here is a good article on the topic by Mike Riccardi.

Suffering Well: Recognizing the Enemy

Quite simply, a Bible-believing Christian has no choice but to admit that God sovereignly and actively brings about the evil events described in Lamentations. But if our understanding of God’s absolute sovereignty leads us to conclude that He is morally culpable, blameworthy, or in any way unrighteous, we’re wrong. The Scripture writers never seek to save God from His sovereignty in evil and sinful events, yet they also never attribute evil to Him directly.

God is orderly. He has a plan. (John Bunyan’s Order and Causes of Salvation & Damnation)

[By Elizabeth Prata]

Yesterday I started looking at salt. I shared about salt cod, the process of drying and salting cod for preservation purposes. We looked at Matthew 5:13, the verse where New Testament saints are told to be the salt of the earth.

Salt is mentioned in the Bible several other times, and some of those times are in the Old Testament referring to the Covenant of Salt. Did you know there was a covenant of salt? It isn’t really explained, just mentioned. Here are the two times the covenant is spoken of in the Old Testament-

You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2:13).

All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you.(Numbers 18:19)

Another interesting OT mention is that God gave the kingdom to David through a covenant of salt.

Ought you not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? (2 Chronicles 13:5).

Salt will even again be required as part of the offerings in the Millennial Temple of Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 43:24).

Because salt is so stable, salt indicates perpetuity. Salt preserves. Salt cures the thing upon which it is thrown. Due to its unalterable nature, salt is the opposite of leaven (yeast). Here is my main point for part 2: Salt is an Old Testament picture looking toward God’s New Testament promise.

The absence of a handful of salt shall render a sacrifice unacceptable—and the presence of it shall be absolutely necessary to its being received by Him. ~Spurgeon.

Clarke Commentary On Leviticus 2:13–

It was called the salt of the covenant of God, because as salt is incorruptible, so was the covenant made with Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs, relative to the redemption of the world by the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ. … So essentially necessary is salt that without it human life cannot be preserved.

Without salt, the world putrefies. Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary says,

The remedy for this, says our Lord here, is the active presence of His disciples among their fellows. The character and principles of Christians, brought into close contact with it, are designed to arrest the festering corruption of humanity and season its insipidity.

But how, it may be asked, are Christians to do this office for their fellow men, if their righteousness only exasperate them, and recoil, in every form of persecution, upon themselves? The answer is: That is but the first and partial effect of their Christianity upon the world: though the great proportion would dislike and reject the truth, a small but noble band would receive and hold it fast; and in the struggle that would ensue, one and another even of the opposing party would come over to His ranks, and at length the Gospel would carry all before it.

Turning to the New Testament, Commenter Matthew Henry says of the salt covenant in relation to the NT verse of Christians being the salt of the earth,

Ye are the salt of the earth. This would encourage and support them under their sufferings, that, though they should be treated with contempt, yet they should really be blessings to the world, and the more so for their suffering thus. The prophets, who went before them, were the salt of the land of Canaan; but the apostles were the salt of the whole earth, for they must go into all the world to preach the gospel. It was a discouragement to them that they were so few and so weak.

What could they do in so large a province as the whole earth? Nothing, if they were to work by force of arms and dint of sword; but, being to work silent as salt, one handful of that salt would diffuse its savour far and wide; would go a great way, and work insensibly and irresistibly as leaven, ch. 13:33. The doctrine of the gospel is as salt; it is penetrating, quick, and powerful (Heb. 4:12); it reaches the heart (Acts 2:37). It is cleansing, it is relishing, and preserves from putrefaction.

Now Christ’s disciples having themselves learned the doctrine of the gospel, and being employed to teach it to others, were as salt. Note, Christians, and especially ministers, are the salt of the earth.

Old Testament pictures are New Testament promises. The two are related. When God had Moses lift up the brazen snake on the pole in the OT, it was a picture of the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross. When we see water gushing from the rock, the Rock is Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4) and He is the water of Life. The Israelites ate bread in the wilderness, Jesus is the Bread of Life. You see what I mean when I say OT pictures point forward to NT promises.

My personal interpretation of the covenant of salt is that it points forward to the everlasting salting of the earth with God’s people for His glory.

Salting cod as I showed in part 1 was an important historical method to preserve food for future use. Salt was the main agent used the world over to agent to slow the decay of meat and other foods so that they could be preserved for a longer period. By now of course you see the relation of the OT Covenant of Salt and the NT believers being salt of the earth. Salt is a powerful metaphor of what God has done and is doing. In the New Testament, the references to us Christians being salt of the earth refer to those Christians who obey God and do his will, can act as a preservative of the human race by slowing down the moral and spiritual decay of the world.

The doctrine of the gospel is as salt; it is penetrating, quick, and powerful (Heb. 4:12).
~Matthew Henry

One way we do this is through our speech:

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6)

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. (Mark 9:50).

We lose our saltiness when we deny the Spirit, refuse to repent, sin, backslide, stay out of the word, etc. The more Godly character is in us, the more we can act as a preservative in the world. Aren’t you glad there were Godly characters around you before you were saved, and thus you were preserved from moral and spiritual decay? The LORD used salt to purify the waters when he had Elisha the Prophet throw salt into the spring. (2 Kings 2:21). The salt didn’t actually heal the waters. It was a symbolic act, just as we believers are salt and God sprinkles us among the people as His healing, preserving agent against the corruption and decay of the world.

We’re salt. Go out and preserve as many as possible.

Source

Part 1 here

You can’t have lived in New England and not know about salt cod. Salt Cod as a dish has become an inextricable part of the history of the region. Salt Cod is part of the history of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Jamaica in fact, every nation that touches the Atlantic owes its due to salt cod.

Salt cod, they say, started with the Vikings in the 9th century who dried it, and the Basques took it a step further and started drying and salting their cod in the 11th. Cod is a working fish. It’s the draft horse of the sea, not an Arabian. Cod isn’t the fish of stories and it’s not the fish of legends. It is no mighty Moby-Dick nor is it a magnificently free fighter such as Hemingway’s marlin in The Old Man and the Sea. It’s dinner, but one that sustained generations of seamen through the centuries and by virtue of all its virtues, has become the national dish of nations.

Cod contains 18% protein which rises to 80% after drying and salting. Fat doesn’t preserve well and cod is very lean, making it a good candidate for preservation before refrigeration. In these days it remains on the menu at fish markets and is traditionally bought salted and then soaked in a successive series of fresh water bowls to remove the salt and reconstitute the fleshliness of the fish.

Source

A little history of this fishy-not-fishy process-

The production of salt cod dates back at least 500 years, to the time of the European discoveries of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. When explorer Jacques Cartier discovered the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in what is now Canada and claimed it for France, he noted the presence of a thousand Basque boats fishing for cod.

Salt cod formed a vital item of international commerce between the New World and the Old, and formed one leg of the so-called triangular trade. Thus it spread around the Atlantic and became a traditional ingredient not only in Northern European cuisine, but also in Mediterranean, West African, Caribbean, and Brazilian cuisines.

The drying of food is the world’s oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. Traditionally, salt cod was dried only by the wind and the sun, hanging on wooden scaffolding or lying on clean cliffs or rocks near the seaside.

Drying preserves many nutrients, and the process of salting and drying codfish is said to make it tastier. Salting became economically feasible during the 17th century, when cheap salt from southern Europe became available to the maritime nations of northern Europe. The method was cheap and the work could be done by the fisherman or his family. Wikipedia

Drying of cod in 19th century Iceland. Source Wikipedia

Salted cod is famous. But it wouldn’t have happened without salt. Salt is an essential human ingredient. It always has been.

Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 8,000 years ago, when people living in Romania were boiling spring water to extract the salts; a salt-works in China has been found which dates to approximately the same period. Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and the Egyptians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara in camel caravans. The scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over salt and use it to raise tax revenues. Source

There are different kinds of salt, each with various properties.

A few of the kinds of salt: Celtic salt, Kosher salt, Sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, Refined salt. Source

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. (Matthew 5:13)

Salt is a very stable compound and retains its flavor for long periods when stored dry.

The Commenter said of Matthew 5:13,

Ye are the salt of the earth—to preserve it from corruption, to season its insipidity, to freshen and sweeten it. The value of salt for these purposes is abundantly referred to by classical writers as well as in Scripture; and hence its symbolical significance in the religious offerings as well of those without as of those within the pale of revealed religion. In Scripture, mankind, under the unrestrained workings of their own evil nature, are represented as entirely corrupt.

Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, pp. 19–20).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to salt. There is much more to be said of salt, much more. For example, did you know that salt was such an important commodity and fairly difficult to obtain, that Roman soldiers were paid in salt? And that the very word “salary” comes from that? (Salarii). And “worth his weight in salt” also comes from that? Mark Kurlansky’s book Salt is a treasure trove of information regarding salt.

Salt is in the Bible, not the least is the verse that is quoted above. Christians are to BE salt (and light). And in the Old Testament there was a salt covenant. Not much is explained regarding this particular covenant, but I suspect that there is a connection between the OT salt covenant and the NT Christian being salt. We’ll explore that more next time.

Salt part 2 here

Marriage is hard. It takes a lot of work, denial of self, service to the spouse, and submission. Having Jesus at the center is necessary for success and even then, some Christian marriages still fail. Without Christ, I am not sure how any marriage survives! Here is a heartfelt, true story about marriage from someone who knows. May you be encouraged as I was by this sweet testimony.

THIS STORY IS TRUE! Like most young couples, this couple was sure that they loved each other. They did not really need the one pre-marriage counseling session– but it was required. So, there they sat before an aged pastor who had long ago performed the wedding of the parents of the young lady.

Wedding day– It was a beautiful wedding in a large church’s chapel. Every pew was filled. The weather was hot. The wedding went off without a hitch. BUT HIDDEN BENEATH were serious seeds of destruction. Troubles began soon. They mushroomed; but were still hidden from public view. However, in less than a year, all the emotions of love were deeply dead.

To the couple a son was born– at which time her parents came. And somehow the sadness and hurt was seeping out. For before her parents left to journey several states back to their home, they looked the young father in the eye and said, “It all depends on you!” While not totally correct; but they were right more than they knew. They were met with stonewall silence.

A few months would pass and the young family flew back to the city where they got married. They visited with her family; the young husband later journeyed to another state to visit his family; and then back to their far away home, to work, and school. Just a few days later, as he arrived home at the usual 2-3 am from work– a letter had been left. He opened it. His wife said, “It’s over! My dad will be out on Friday to get my belongings.”

The young man, alone in their apartment, raged with anger; and then wept like a baby; and then, he awakened upstairs friends and showed them the letter– the neighbors were shocked. No one knew. The couple had been very good at hiding.

BACK DOWNSTAIRS in the apartment, the young man became overwhelmed with one conviction: He had vowed, “…until death do us part!” He had not a clue of how or if the marriage could ever be healed. He knew one thing– by the authority of God’s Word, he had to try. Thus, he got in his car and drove across several states to get to her parent’s home.

The journey was instigated and empowered by one reality: THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD. He was BOUND by the Word of God to try to salvage their hopeless marriage.

[Note: Looking back, it was especially right that he, the husband, should humble himself and initiate reconciliation!]

SOME MIRACLES TAKE A LOT OF TIME! This one did. But slowly this husband and wife began to learn the ways of God for marriage. It takes a heap of God’s kind of forgiveness and a heap of God’s kind of sacrificial love to heal a broken marriage, to re-kindle love, to restore love, to take love to higher heights.

YOU KNOW WHAT– sometimes that young man, now much older, wishes that his marriage to his wife was more ‘STORY BOOK’… all wonderful and sweet from day one until the end.

NEVERTHELESS, he is exceedingly grateful for the GRACE OF GOD in healing the broken hearts of he and his dear wife. Grief lingers for the hurt and sorrow caused– nevertheless, GOD’S GRACE is greater than all our sin!

TODAY, HE IS FEELING SUPER BLESSED THAT God ‘ruled and over ruled’… that God gave him a beautiful and wonderful bride, completer, and companion. YES, SOME MIRACLES just take more time!

On May 27, 1967, Cynthia Anne Baker became my wife, Cindy Bell! I AM TRULY A VERY BLESSED man to have been given such a treasure! I love you, Cindy! WOW! 49 YEARS
TODAY! LET’S DO 31 MORE! With those years added on, I will only be 102… and by then, you will only be….. ….. much younger! — James Bell

REJOICING IN AN “AMAZING-GRACE-BOOK!” MARRIAGE! 5/27/1967-5/27/2016.

An unfortunate incident occurred today at the Cincinnati Zoo. A three-year-old little boy, intent on splashing in the water, slipped from his parents’ view, crawled under bushes, through wiring, and slid down 15 feet into the moat in the Gorilla Enclosure. Inside were several gorillas, the alpha Gorilla being a 450 pound Silverback named Harambe. Harambe immediately rushed to the boy, dragged him roughly through the moat to the other side, and stood over the boy. Being the technological age, the event was captured on cellphone video and photographed.

The entire event lasted about 10 minutes, with the eventual decision by the Zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team to shoot the gorilla dead in order to save the boy.

While onlookers interpreted the scene where Harambe stood over the boy as protective, and it could have been that the gorilla was initially attempting to protect the boy, there is a level of stress that animals raised in captivity can never escape. The gorilla was increasingly becoming agitated as the onlookers screamed and crowded the gorilla’s eye view. He could easily have drowned the boy or severely injured him at any point. Silverback gorillas are not particularly aggressive but they are unpredictable and the gorilla’s stress of being in captivity compounded with an unusual intruder, and screaming throngs, could have easily resulted in a death or injury at any moment. The boy was dragged through the water twice and up a steep hill once, he is lucky the gorilla didn’t dislocate the boy’s shoulder or leg.

Zookeepers initially attempted to give Harambe a species call to go back into the enclosure, but only the females responded. Harambe did not and his stress level increased at that point. He dragged the boy up the hill through vegetation and away from keepers and the screaming crowds. The decision was made to shoot the gorilla dead.

Here are a few headlines from the last hour. You can see they are heavily skewed toward the animal.

• Harambe’s rights were violated long before his tragic death
• Gorilla Experts Weigh In: Did Harambe Have To Die?
• Extended video of Harambe shows gorilla holding the boy’s hand
• #justice for Harambe
• After death of gorilla, petitioners seek ‘justice for Harambe’
• 78K and counting sign ‘Harambe’s Law’ in light of gorilla’s death
• We’d make the same decision, say zookeepers.

I have just a few thoughts on the incident.

Trust. When you take your children to the zoo, you are entering into a relationship of implicit trust. You’ve trusted that the Zookeepers have competently cared for the animals. You would not take your kids to see deranged, skeletal animals who have been abused. No, you trust that the animals are prime of their species and you and your children will learn something about them through your visit. You also trust that the Zoo has developed enclosures adequate to keep the animals in and most reasonable people out. (I say reasonable because someone with intent will always breach an enclosure.)

Therefore then, after ten minutes of assessing the situation and implementing less drastic strategies, the Zoo Response team made the decision to shoot the animal. We must trust their decision. When we walk around the zoo, we don’t spend our time second guessing the animal care, and we don’t second guess the enclosures, and we should not second guess the Zookeepers’ ability to assess and decide. They have a specially trained response team designed to handle situations like these. We are not animal behaviorists, gorilla specialists, or even zookeepers. We are ignorant. So we should trust the experts in this case.

Judgment. Animal rights activists immediately sided with the gorilla, charging the parents with negligence and blaming them for the death of the gorilla. This is also not our business. In 2016 (if you are reading this in future months and years) is a time when everyone is an expert and everyone judges and everyone is outraged over something or other. All the time. The boy had wanted to swim with the gorilla, and had told his mother he wanted to. His mother of course said absolutely not. It is sin in us that makes us defy authority. In a matter of seconds he slipped out and was down in the enclosure. Every parent, relative, teacher, caregiver knows how fast children can be, especially when they have their mind set on something. They run into the road, they wander into the woods, they fall down wells, they pet the doggie, they put the bean up their nose, they do these things and usually there is no harm done. They’re yanked back from the road, the dog turns out the be friendly, the well wasn’t deep, they’re found in the woods before dark, they sneeze out the bean. Usually these things happen in private and are swiftly resolved with no harm done. This time, it happened in public in front of judgmental throngs videotaping it and calling for charges to be made against the parents. This is a case where truly, the phrase ‘don’t judge’ can be said appropriately.

Human rights. People these days want justice for animals, zoos to be closed down, captivity to stop. Harambe was a particularly magnificent animal. Truly. Today’s secular world automatically denies the human his rights (like, to live safely in a womb) and puts a primary emphasis on the animal- even if it’s a jellyfish or cockroach, instead of a human. This was somebody’s son, a human being, and that takes precedence over a gorilla. Sorry. God said man has dominion over the earth and all the animals. (Genesis 2:15). The animals were actually given to us as food and to make beasts of burden and to use as we wish.

Of course, I’m not advocating heartless shepherding of God’s creatures. I’m saying that humans are made in the image of God. Animals are not. If it comes down to a choice between the animal and the human, we save the one who is made in God’s image. (Genesis 1:26-27). It is a strange world where onlookers make petitions and screech for justice for the gorilla, are the same kind of people screeching to maintain their “right” to kill babies in the womb. To the ignorant (Ps 73:22), animals deserve to live over a precious son of two parents.

The Zoo. I applaud the zoo for their decision. He had been nurtured and raised in captivity for 17 years. He had been fed and protected to the best of the keepers’ ability. They had a relationship with this animal. They had a program for this gorilla. They had intended to breed Harambe, and since he had just turned 17 years old he was about to come into his breeding time. The Zoo instantly set all that aside on behalf of the implicit contract I mentioned above. When we attend a zoo we trust that they have developed it in a way that protects us from harm, and I am sure they feel strongly about the value of human lives that enter there. While on their property, we are in their care. The Zoo is no doubt mourning the loss of a magnificent animal, an animal ‘friend’, and the now lost years put into the breeding program. They are no doubt grieving over the death of their animal and with him, their hopes to make an impact for endangered lowland gorillas.

The Bible. Genesis 1:26 says we have dominion over all animals. After the Flood, He reaffirmed our rule over the animal kingdom in Genesis 9:2, making one change. He put the fear and dread of man into animals, and into our hand they are thus delivered. It’s pretty clear. Harambe the Silverback Gorilla had to die.

Conclusion:
1. The Zoo made the right decision. Not because I have inside knowledge, but because I trust the Zoo to be able to assess the situation and in their animal behavioral knowledge, make a correct decision.
2. Human life is more precious than animal life, because God made humans in His image.
3. Rushing to stupid judgment based on facts we don’t know is common these days. Christian, be prudent.

In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. (Proverbs 13:16)

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. (Proverbs 14:15)

Postscript: This is said with no snark and no sarcasm, but be it known that after the Rapture, one of the wrathful judgments God will send to the earth during the Tribulation will include killing a quarter of the earth’s population through four specific judgments- one of them being death by beasts. (Revelation 6:8). Let’s see where the ‘hashtag justice for Harambe’, PETA, and animal rights enthusiasts are when wild animals suddenly lose their dread and fear of humans and begin killing humans wholesale. They won’t be leaving roses at gorilla memorials then, I would surmise.

When people come to me needing encouragement, I often refer to Hebrews 2:18,

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

And to Hebrews 4:15.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Barnes Notes explains Hebrews 2:18,

The Saviour was subjected to both these in as severe a form as was ever presented to people. His sufferings surpassed all others; and the temptations of Satan (see Matthew 4) were presented in the most alluring form in which he could exhibit them. Being “proved” or “tried” in both these respects, he showed that he had a strength of virtue which could bear all that could ever occur to seduce him from attachment to God; and at the same time to make him a perfect model for those who should be tried in the same manner.
He is able to succour … – This does not mean that he would not have had “power” to assist others if he had not gone through these sufferings, but that he is now qualified to sympathize with them from the fact that he has endured like trials.

Barnes Notes explains Hebrews 4:15,

Our High Priest is not cold and unfeeling. That is, we have one who is abundantly qualified to sympathize with us in our afflictions, and to whom, therefore, we may look for aid and support in trials. Had we a high priest who was cold and heartless; who simply performed the external duties of his office without entering into the sympathies of those who came to seek for pardon; who had never experienced any trials, and who felt himself above those who sought his aid, we should necessarily feel disheartened in attempting to overcome our sins, and to live to God. His coldness would repel us; his stateliness would awe us; his distance and reserve would keep us away, and perhaps render us indifferent to all desire to be saved. But tenderness and sympathy attract those who are feeble, and kindness does more than anything else to encourage those who have to encounter difficulties and dangers

In practical terms, Jesus has experienced everything we might feel in our own life. He has experienced temptation, malevolence, malice, ill will, murderous intent, suspicion, fury, hatred, contempt, disgust, resentment, distrust, bitterness, unfriendliness, dislike. Jesus was acquainted with grief, sorrow, suffering, He has been humiliated, despised, mocked, abandoned, rejected, persecuted. He has even been executed.

There is nothing we go through on this earth that Jesus as High Priest cannot pray for in intercession with which He has not already experienced and therefore empathizes to the highest degree. You have a loving Father in heaven who is all-powerful, ready to care for you in ways that are for your good and His glory. Be encouraged He is alive, at the right hand of the Father, attuned to your woes and sympathizes with you in perfect empathy.

What a God we have!

Sister, do not focus on the darkness of this world, but instead keep looking at the horizon for the Bright and Morning star. (Revelation 22:16). During the long dark night, the appearance of the morning star means daybreak is imminent. In the old proverb, the darkest hour is the lowest ebb of the nightly cycle.

There is a fine line between watching the times and focusing on the times (or worse, dwelling on the times.) I understand this as a Christian who has been given discernment as a precious gift from the Spirit, a gift for which I am eternally grateful. In Dr Barhnouse’s sermon this morning (listened to on Expositor.FM) he had urged us to focus on the horizon. This made me think of the time I spent living on a sailboat.

I am witness to the darkness before the dawn myself. I lived on a sailboat with my husband for two years, making sea journeys overnight offshore through day and night and a day and a night. Standing watch through the night, being out in the weather, alone on the sea, makes one desperately appreciate the light. The 3:00am watch is dark, cold, and seemingly endless. When one glimpses the first glimmer of a change from blackest coal sky to indigo then blue then the pink and golds of sunrise, the heart lifts and one feels that one has emerged from an endless tunnel in which one’s very soul had been swallowed.

First cup of coffee after dawn watch’s first light

I always become seasick on the boat whenever I was down below, and usually became seasick when in the cockpit, unless I was looking at the horizon. The smallest rolling yaw, the minutest pitching swell would set my stomach to churning. The only solution was to keep my eyes on the steady horizon. Staring at the waves was a sure way to become ill. This is because, according to LiveScience,

Although it might seem that looking at something steady would make the ship’s movement all the more noticeable, it helped to focus on a distant, steady point on the horizon while at sea, the researchers found. … Stoffregen suspects that the horizon provides a helpful point of reference, allowing people to sense the difference between their body’s natural motion and the motion of the ship.

Gazing at the horizon steadies the gaze and helps the seasick-afflicted maintain equilibrium. Continual staring at the wicked world, and the wicked are like the sea which cannot rest, (Isaiah 57:20) will only serve to disrupt your equilibrium.

We discernment bloggers watch the events of the world as did the men of Issachar, understanding the times and knowing what to do (1 Chronicles 12:32), which is to urge all men to repent and be salt and light as Gospel sharers in the dark world. Our job is to be about the Light, not the dark. Watching the tumultuous sea for too long will darken the gaze and upset the stomach, metaphorically, if not actually! Watching the horizon for the Light of Christ who will appear is the antidote for the churning stomach of the times.

During the night watch (or any watch) we’d continually scan the horizon to stay on course, to watch for obstacles that would sink us, and to look for land. Land was home, safe harbor, and rest. If you watch for Jesus, keep looking to Him, and stay on His course, you will not be upset by the world’s events nor will your eyes stay in the dark but see the Light continually. Since it is SO dark before the dawn, therefore when the Bright Glory of Jesus appears to rapture us home, His Light will be magnified and heightened in brightness untold!!

Praise the Lord that the darkness has not overcome the Light (John 1:5). Praise the Lord that He is the Light.

Jesus is the Light and the darkness has not overcome it. No matter how tumultuous the sea, the Light is always there, shining steadily.