Gabbatha
Sometimes journeys are measured in units
of distance, sometimes in units of time and finally some journeys are measured
by experiences. All three could be applied
to the title of this post. The word Gabbatha, however is only used one time and
in one place in the whole Bible. It refers to the place of judgment and where
the judgment was carried out.
‘When Pilate heard this,
he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge’s bench at the place known
as “The Stone Pavement.” In Aramaic this pavement is called “Gabbatha.”
As I drove a truck for most of my life,
which I learned to do in Vietnam while running away from God, it took on a
special meaning to me. To me it means we are judged by the path we walk every
day of our lives. You can find a couple versions of that story elsewhere on my
blog. My company name was G.I.F.T. Enterprises, The acronym is “Gabbatha
Interstate Freight Transportation” At least it was till I had a heart attack
died and had to quit trucking. Then it
became ‘God Is for Trusting” That happened thirteen years ago today. It seems every year about this time I go on a
nostalgia trip.
My wife goes to Texas to see her mom in
January and February which is usually not a bad decision but it left me taking
care of my twin four year old Great-Grand-Grand-daughters 10 hours a day and
five days a week. I was doing fine, till I got the flu earlier in the
week. Fortunately for me their mom took
a couple days off and gave me a couple days to recuperate. Suddenly I found myself with a lot of time on
my hands and decided to watch a movie and found the movie Forrest Gump just as
it was starting. My dog Forrest Gump, a Boston terrier, was my youngest
daughter’s dog before she passed away. You can find the story in one of my blog
posts. It is a real tear jerker and even though I cried with my daughter every
time we watched it I never realized it was almost the story of her life though
she left three boys, not one.
While watching I had an Epiphany. Suddenly
I realized that Jesus’s walk on the Pavement took all his life to get him to
that point, but he knew where he was going. Thank God my daughter had the faith
to make that journey trusting she was going to a better place. She fought a
brain tumor for seven years from 2003 to 2010.
When I had my heart attack in 2004 it gave us a lot of time to be
together. The Lord provided me time and a means to be there for her till she
went home. It says in Math 27:33 and Mk 15:22 they offered Jesus pain killers,
but he refused them. The pain and the suffering were why he was here.
The thought crossed my mind that
Gol’gotha, where they took Jesus to crucify him, was more than a place and very
symbolic. His cross pierced Gol’Gotha
(the skull) just as it should our minds so that we really grasp that dying is
not a onetime experience, but an ongoing event that is played out in the course
of our lives.
The turmoil and hate that has been generated
in America during this election cycle had totally baffled me till I started
looking at it. Many people who I know and who I consider good Christians are
ready to fight if anyone says anything against the new president.
All my life elections have been about
controlling spending and cutting or fixing the government, things that did not
even get a mention during this election cycle by any of the candidates. It was
Islamophobia and Immigration and none of the
views expressed during the cycle showed any Christian compassion for
those suffering around world, a large portion of which have been caused by American
actions to start with.
Another thing that has come up repeatedly
during the course of my life is taking or creation a national ID card. Christian American would beat that down every
time it came up as being a sign of the Mark of the Beast. I think the will of the people to stop such
an action may have been finally wiped out by the fear of terrorism. I pray not, but I definitely see things to
look out for.
The Bible also says a double minded man is
unstable in all his ways. I don’t think I need to mention where that might
apply. Proverbs 6 gives us another piece
of food for thought, reading the whole chapter may even be more insightful
16These six things
doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands
that shed innocent blood, 18An heart
that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among
brethren.
Hosea 4:6 makes the price of ignorance
clear. Notice he said my people. He did
not say the ignorant or the ungodly. He said His people would perish, time may be
running out to confirm that the knowledge you possess will actually save you.
My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will
also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast
forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7As they were increased, so they sinned
against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
At some point
God will become fed up with mankind and pour out his wrath on mankind. We may
be getting very near that point. I have heard several people say that we got
the President that God wanted us to have.
That may be true and probably is, but keep in mind that God put some
kings in place to lead Israel into judgment.
To me that is where I see this new President leading America. He has
done nothing but insult people and nations since he took office.
He says he is going to create jobs, but
his tactics may backfire. He has constantly insulted the country of
Mexico. I heard last night on the news
that Mexican politicians in retaliation are going to boycott American corn and
buy all of their corn from Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. That will definitely not be good for the
American economy. The President’s
business failures and short comings definitely indicate the possibility of a
major problem in the making.
Many countries are in the process of
dumping the dollar as their reserve currency. That is not good at all for
America. With all his insults to China they
could easily cut America off financially and quit buying American Treasury
bonds which at present time pay virtually nothing to those who have them. Such an event would collapse the American
economy in short order.
Considering all the chaos he has created in
just one month, it is hard to believe that America can survive four more years
of his Presidency. The scandals he is having in his administration could easily
lead to his impeachment, which may be the only hope for America.
So to those who say we got the President
God meant for us to have. We might search our heart and ask what God is trying
to tell us as a nation.
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