CREATIVE HERITAGE GIFTS

Every birthday is important. But in some ways, an eighteenth birthday can be a Continental Divide event. Politically, a person can vote. Culturally, you are considered an adult. Financially, many find themselves in the work place or preparing educationally for an occupation.

That makes an eighteenth birthday a vital milestone spiritually as well. My sister, Dorothy Freerksen, has found a way to make that true in the lives of her grandchildren. One of the gifts she has given to each grandson and granddaughter  on that occasion has been a spiritual heritage gift.

Dorothy has prepared a history of the family as an encouragement for the new adult. The stories from both sides of the family tree record God’s work in the past and inspire future faithfulness to Him. For the guys, she focuses on the Allen and Freerksen grandfathers as well as their father Jim, who taught at Liberty Seminary for many years.

For the girls, the emphasis focuses on godly great-grandmothers as well as her own testimony. “I’ve always loved learning about our family history ever since I was a kid,” writes one of the grands. “It was cool to have that information written down as an inspiration and encouragement.“

Four of Dorothy and Jim’s grands have received their gifts; they have two more to go. What a great way to share what God has done and encourage grandchildren to continue that spiritual heritage.

 

 

Annual Thanksgiving Quiz

 

We have less than two weeks before Thanksgiving. It is time for the annual Bible Story Family Thanksgiving Quiz. Use this with your family before the big meal and they will have another reason to give thanks when you quit asking questions.

1.       Which Indian tribe joined the Pilgrims for their first Thanksgiving? (Wampanoag)

2.       Which Southern state adopted a Thanksgiving Day in 1855? (Virginia)

3.       Which President was the first to pardon a turkey? (Harry Truman)

4.       How many days did the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving last? (three)

5.       Which state raises and sells the most turkeys? (Minnesota)

6.       What do Koreans cook during Chuseok, their Thanksgiving? (Rice cakes)

7.       How many women attended the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving? (Five)

8.       The first ever Thanksgiving was held by the Pilgrims? True or False (False)

9.       All turkeys gobble? True or False (False, only males)

10.   President Calvin Coolidge received what animal as a Thanksgiving gift? (Raccoon)

11.   What meat is the most popular alternative to turkey onThanksgiving? (Ham)

12.   A female turkey is called a hen or a what? (Jenny)

13.   What company had extra turkeys and invented TV dinners? (Swanson)

14.   Only two men wrote about the 1621 Thanksgiving. Who were they? (Edward Winslow and William Bradford)

15.   How many days did it take the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic? (sixty-six)

16.   Who made the first Thanksgiving parade balloons? (Tony Sarg)

17.   Where can you go to find out why your turkey meal didn’t turn out the way you expected? (Butterball Turkey Talk-line)

18.   Why did President Roosevelt’s attempt to move Thanksgiving to earlier in order to give more time for Christmas shopping not work? (It angered football coaches)

19.   What is the percentage of white meat in a fifteen pound turkey? (70%)

20.   Jingle Bells was originally a Thanksgiving song, written to be used on what occasion? (A Boston Sunday School celebration)

Precious Memories

PRECIOUS MEMORIES

By Robert Allen

                Outside the weeks stampeded by like a Pony Express courier.  Inside, the moments resembled a Conestoga wagon creeping along with axle squeaking.  Seven weeks from diagnosis to demise.  Back in Minnesota, where somewhat ironically I was directing “Much Ado About Nothing,’ time ran on the Pony Express schedule.  In Montana, time slowed to the pace of plodding oxen.  The trips between the two time zones carried me to my boyhood home while simultaneously subjecting me to the jarring juxtaposition of a seemingly endless time travel, weightless time in a rapidly spinning universe.

            My brother David had been the first to notice, after some prompting from Cindy over her concerns.  Following Dad on a short jaunt into Billings, the inability of a careful driver to stay in his lane caused concern.  After all, the folks faced several scheduled weeks of travel, preaching in Prophecy Conferences from Montana to Ohio and back.  Crossing the white line on a four lane highway deserved an eye exam if nothing else.  The nothing else, upon examination, became a fast growing brain tumor.  The trip canceled, David informed my sisters and me of the results.

            Initially the evidence of growing pressure on the brain seemed almost light-hearted.  Night time trips to the bathroom involved concentration on motor skills.  Dad’s solution involved remembrance of language challenges he and Mom had enjoyed on a mission trip to the Far East.  English speakers with the inability to pronounce the “r” sound came to mind as his feet manipulated the familiar hallway.  “Left, light.  Left, light.  Left, light.”  Days in the armchair included memoirs written for Reader’s Digest.  Cursive which had always resembled a medical doctor’s writing more than a doctor of Divinity, declined rapidly into the unintelligible.  All the time Dad kept assuring Mom that the rapidly filling legal pads contained precious memories long forgotten from a childhood in Iowa.

            Far too soon for any of us, Hospice arrived to alert us to the signs of an unavoidable and rapidly impending death.  Visits to the hospital, complete with elevator rides where Dad asked strangers if they were ready to go “all the way to the top,” had produced a uniform prescription.  “Keep him comfortable at home and use meds to deal with the pain.”

            The nights were the hardest.  Mom would sit beside the hospital bed which had been placed in the living room and hold his hands or rub his increasingly cold feet.  Eventually Dorothy would be able to convince her to get some rest, restless but necessary.  After one of those difficult nights Mom shared through her tears that she had been able to release him, not to the inevitable, but to the will of a loving Father.  He had woken during the night and asked Dorothy to find Mom.  They shared

            On that last difficult evening we gathered around his bed, waiting for the arrival of Peggy from Indiana.  David planned to drive to the airport in Billings to meet her, but his best friend Glen insisted on making the trip for him.  We all knew the endless would soon be endless no longer.

            We sang. 

            “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

            And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”

            Dad’s favorite.

            We read.  Dorothy would open his Bible and hand it to me or to David, unable to trust her own voice. 

            “Behold, I show you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  At the last trump.”

            Mom held his hand.  They walked together the path of memory through years of western trails, eastern travel and heavenly service.  From time to time Dad would whisper something for one of us as well.  As I leaned closer to listen late that evening I could faintly hear him say, “Good shepherd.”

            During the coming spring Dad planned to lead his 30^th tour of the Bible Lands.  Recognizing the trip would be impossible, he had asked Carmen and me to lead it for him.  The company making preparations for the trip?  Good Shepherd.  I squeezed his hand to let him know I understood.

            We tried to keep his feet warm.  We continued to sing, and read and pray.  Mom held on tight.  And then, smiling through the pain, he took his Father’s hand and ended his earthly journey.  The axle squeaked no more.

            At Dad’s funeral more than thirty preachers joined in singing “This is the day that the Lord has made.”  I shared with one of them Dad’s last words to me, “Good Shepherd” and the plans for the upcoming trip.  But Lynn just shook his head. 

            “No, Bob.  Not the trip.  Not that Good Shepherd.  Your father had just met in person the Shepherd of his soul.”

            And you know?  I think he was right.

K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

By Bob Allen

Based on the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican – Luke 18:9-14

Characters

                        BethAnn                     A teenage girl

                        Roger                          A teenage boy

Summary:        Roger would love to ask Beth Ann for a date but he just can’t keep it simple.  Instead he tries all the conversational clichés and empty phrases he can think of which substitute for genuine discourse.  He talks to her the way many people talk to God, just saying prayers instead of really carrying on a conversation.

Costumes:       Roger and Beth Ann should both wear casual school clothes.

Setting:            A park bench in front of the high school.  Beth Ann is seated on the bench.  Roger enters and stands watching her.

Time:               The present. 

BETH ANN:   Hello?  Are you looking for someone?  Is there some way I could help you?

ROGER:         (Reads)  Thank you for the offer sweet

                        Thank you for the place to meet.

                        Thank you for the way you sing.

                        Thanks, Beth Ann, for everything.

BETH ANN:   Say what?

ROGER:         (Reading)  Thank you for the offer sweet…

BETH ANN:   I heard you the first time.  Are you for real? 

ROGER:         Beth Ann’s great.  Beth Ann’s good.

                        Welcome to the neighborhood.

BETH ANN:   What do you want?  What’s with the little poems?  If you have something to say, just say it to me.

ROGER:         Now I sit upon your bench;
I ask thee, Beth, my hand to clench.

BETH ANN:   Stop it!  Don’t treat me like I’m some escapee from “A Child’s Garden of Verses.”  Talk to me, not at me.

ROGER:         Beth Ann, who art on the park bench,

                        Boldly I speak thy name.

                        My time has come, for I’m not dumb,

                        Like others who’ve come before.

                        Give me this day my honest due,

                        I’m smarter than all those who’ve dated you.

                        I’ll lead you not to vexation

                        For mine is the position, the standing

                        And the fame which you deserve forever.

BETH ANN:   You can’t be serious.  Can’t you just say what you’re thinking instead of quoting someone else?

ROGER:         Now I come to state my case

                        I pray you, listen to my face.

                        I’ll just die if you don’t date me,

                        Please don’t tell me if you hate me.

BETH ANN:   Listen, buster.  If you want a date all you have to do is ask.  This is ridiculous.  Whoever taught you to talk to a girl like that?

ROGER:         (Reads)  Bless every boy in every place,

                        As you have blessed this bench with grace.

BETH ANN:   You’re crazy.  You’re absolutely crazy.

ROGER:         Beth Ann’s good, Beth Ann’s great.

                        She’d make a terrific date.

BETH ANN:   Forget it.  And let me give you a bit of advice.  No one else will listen to you if you talk that way either.

THE END

Good Friday?

EASTER FOR ALL AGES

GOOD FRIDAY?

By Bob Allen

A Reading for Four Voices from the Synoptic Gospels

1                      2                      3                      4

VOICE THREE:        What is so “good” about Good Friday?

VOICE FOUR:          Doesn’t it seem just a little strange to expect the entire world to                                          pause once every year to commemorate a Man’s death?

VOICE ONE:             On Good Friday, a corrupt king, the pawn of an oppressive army                                        of occupation, passed an unjust sentence on an innocent man.

VOICE TWO:                        On Good Friday, an easily swayed populace called for the                                                   crucifixion of a man they had welcomed with hosannas earlier in                                         the week.

VOICE THREE:        On Good Friday, an angry mob cursed and ridiculed a helpless                                            man as He struggled to carry His own cross through the streets of                                               Jerusalem.

VOICE FOUR:          On Good Friday, Roman soldiers sneered and jeered as they                                               mocked Him with a crown of thorns and a purple robe.

VOICE ONE:             On Good Friday, the bruised and broken body of the Son of God                                       was impaled on a rough-hewn cross.

VOICE TWO:                        The Bible never minimizes the events of that Friday.  It describes                                        them in all their vivid detail.  This was a literal, violent, bloody                                            death.

VOICE THREE:        Blood flowed when the soldier pierced his side.

VOICE FOUR:          The Roman centurion in charge officially certified his death to                                            Pilate.

VOICE ONE:             Jesus was embalmed and placed in a borrowed tomb.

VOICE TWO:                        There is no way to escape from the stark, ungarnished truth that the                                    church around the world commemorates a death.  Celebrates a                                            death.  Rejoices in a death.  And calls the date of that death—Good                             Friday.

VOICE THREE:        For three hours Christ had suffered in silence on the cross.  At                                             noon, darkness had settled over the entire land, as if nature herself                                      sought to shield in some small way the Son of God from                                                            those who mocked and reviled Him.  For three hours He was                                         afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth.  For three hours He bore                                         the pain of the cruel thorns and nails, the excruciating pain of                                              crucifixion.

VOICE FOUR:          But it was the pain that caused Him to break His silence.  He had                                        known before the world began that He would bear our sins in His                                       body on the tree.

VOICE ONE:             Christ had never known a time when He was not One with the                                            Father.  From eternity past the relationship within the Trinity had                                        been one of absolute and complete union.  At no time had their                                       perfect communion ever been broken.  Until now.  As the                                                      millstone of sin was hung around the neck of our Savior, He was                                          separated from the One He loved with a perfect love.  As the                                              darkness lifted from the earth, it settled on Him, and He cried in                                         the anguish of despair, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken                                    me?”

VOICE TWO:                        And the answer came back, echoing from the halls of eternity and                                       resounding on every page of the sacred writings, “To make you the                                     Hope of a sin-cursed world.”  And Christ was satisfied.

VOICE THREE:        What is so “good” about Good Friday?

VOICE FOUR:          The answer lies in the first Easter message ever heard by men.

VOICE ONE:             Very early on Sunday morning, three days after the Friday events,                                      an angel appeared to three women with that very first Easter                                        message.

VOICE TWO:                        (STAND)  He is risen!

VOICE THREE:        He!

VOICE FOUR:          This was a very personal triumph for Jesus Christ.  He is the reason                                     we celebrate.  He is the focus of Easter—not the cross or the tomb                                            or the lilies or the advent of spring.  Christ is the One who puts the                                          “good” into Good Friday.  None of the events of that day brought                                             hope or joy to anyone until they saw the risen Christ. 

VOICE ONE:             He is—

VOICE TWO:                        The triumph over death had already taken place.  It was a                                                    completed action and the results would continue on throughout                                           eternity.  Christ had conquered death in every possible way.  His                                           bodily resurrection showed His victory over physical death.  His                                             resurrection in holiness demonstrated His victory over sin.  It                                                 showed that death as a result of sin did not have an eternal claim                                        upon the soul.  His resurrection demonstrated the unlimited power                                      of God who holds the keys of hell and death.  Good Friday became                              “good” because Easter transformed defeat into victory.

VOICE  THREE:       (STAND)  He is risen!

VOICE FOUR:          This was a unique triumph for Jesus, the Son of God. Other men                                         had been resurrected, but only to die again.  He rose triumphant                                                 over death, and sin, and hell, and the grave.  It was a complete                                               vindication of His entire teaching and all of His claims to be one                                              with God.  Without the resurrection, the gospels would simply                                            record the life of a good man who was willing to die for what He                                       believed.  “He is risen” changed all of that.  He had promised to                                          rise on the third day—and in keeping that humanly impossible                                               promise He assured us that we can trust every other promise He                                               has made as well.

VOICE ONE:             (STAND)  We can trust Him when He says, “because I live, you                                         shall live also.”

VOICE TWO:                        We can trust Him when He says, “I will come again and receive                                          you unto Myself.”

VOICE THREE:        We can trust Him when He says, “He that cometh to Me I will in                                        no wise cast out.”

VOICE FOUR:          (STAND)  We can trust Him when He says, “Believe on the Lord                                       Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

VOICE ONE:             What’s so “good” about Good Friday?

VOICE TWO:                        Without Good Friday we would never have known Easter Sunday.

VOICE THREE:        Without death we would not have resurrection.

VOICE FOUR:          Without the cross we would not have the empty tomb.

VOICE ONE:             Without the sacrifice on Mount Calvary we would not have the                                           ascension from the Mount of Olives.

VOICE TWO:                        Yes, it is strange to celebrate death—until we realize that His death                                    made possible our life—eternal life.  It was a “good” Friday, after                                       all.