Making the Wire Cutter Usable

            I use malleable wire so much. Many years ago, Tom Rhoads, the Fairfax mechanic Dad used frequently, told me once he could tell a carpenter had tried to work on my car. He said, “They use baling wire and duct tape.”

The first few times I used the new roll of wire, I snipped the wire with some wire cutters stored in the fence repair equipment used by my brother-in-law. I mused; I need a small pair of wire cutters for the pickup cab toolbox (Dad’s old lunch box converted to a small toolbox).

I suddenly remembered a pair of wire cutters in horrible shape. I retrieved them from Dad’s large toolbox that “had taken on” water several months ago. I pulled them out of the watery depths of the old toolbox, thinking they would never be used again. They were rusted beyond movement. In fact, discarding them was my next step.

Maybe they could be reclaimed. My first step was getting recycled vinegar first used by Mother to clean her coffee maker. Then for several days, they soaked. Periodically, I fished them out of the vinegar. No change. After about five days, I thought It’s now or never. If they can’t be reclaimed, the rusty wire cutters must hit the bottom of the trash bag. 

The old pan with the vintage wire cutters soaking
just before I pulled them out. I regretted not
 snapping a photo prior to their immersion in the
 vinegar.

To my surprise, the handles moved some. I cleaned with some old rags. A brush seemed to be needed. I mentioned to Mother about her wire brush. Her reply, “Well, it is very rough.”

I responded, “Mother, that is what I must have if I get this rust off!” With that comment, my intense rubbing began on the rusty wire cutters. Soon they began to appear serviceable.

The cleaned wire cutters.

As I looked at the dark rust-colored vinegar liquid in the soaking pan, I thought of the Biblical word, “sanctification.” The renowned Bible teacher, Dr. David Jeremiah defined sanctification as “the process of growing in holiness – living every day in light of who we are in Christ.”

The process of sanctification begins with a person being born again. Receiving Christ as Savior and Lord, initiates sanctification (being set apart). Paul characterized our original state, in Ephesians 2, as children of wrath (verse 3), but verses 4-5 illuminate a gracious God who is unfathomable in His effort to reclaim us:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

Paul then, in Ephesians 4, has verse after verse that highlights the ongoing process of sanctification. In verses 17-20, …you should no longer walk…having your understanding darkened…giving over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ.

Paul illustrates clearly how sanctification looks in verses 21-32. Here are some "rubber-meets-the road" examples. Put away lying…speak truth. Be angry and do not sin. Do not give place to the devil. Steal no more…labor so you can give. No corrupt words from your mouth but… words … to impart grace to the hearers. Bitterness, wrath, evil speaking, malice … must be put away. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Now back to the little pair of unusable and rusty wire cutters only ready for discarding; Just as the vinegar cleaned the wire cutters, so yielding to the Holy Spirit converts our lives from corrupt thoughts, words, and behavior to impacting those we encounter with our kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. Most remarkable, our life-change emanates from a heart changed by His indwelling Spirit enabling us to daily walk with Him in obedience. Just as the vintage wire cutters are now back in service, may we walk daily with Him to continue in the service of our heavenly Father, daily encouraging others to submit to Him and experience usefulness in their lives.

Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. (Ephesians 5:1)

This wire brush helped remove some of the last 
stubborn spots of rust. I included this photo 
because sanctification sometimes brings "rough"
things into our lives., but the removal of  spiritual
rust and corrosion always increases our productivity
in His service.

Defeat, a Word to Never Use

           This week, Mother and I heard a Dottie Rambo song from decades ago. The phrase And defeat is one word I don’t use from the song, “Too Much to Gain to Lose” caught my ear. My search began on the shelves housing our music.

 When I realized we didn't have the printed music for it, I logged onto a site I discovered during our care of Dad. Within a couple of minutes, I had purchased and printed for Mother the Dottie Rambo song published in 1968. When we sang I played from my digital copy from my Kindle. We took turns singing the harmony.

                I mentioned to Mother how Dad would often respond adamantly, if a discouraging statement was voiced, “I don’t want to be defeated.” Many times, I heard him pray during trying times, “Lord, we want to be encouraged not discouraged.”

The Bible featured more than one hero of the faith who refused to admit defeat. That thought took me back to many years ago in a small room in the Masham Baptist Church. One of my first Sunday School teachers was Mrs. Mitchell. When Grandma sent her a card, it was addressed to Mrs. Herschell Mitchell. My sister, Angie, lovingly called her “Mrs. Bea" when she was her preschool Sunday School teacher.

Mrs. Bea Mtichell, as photographed 
when she taught Sunday School at the
Masham Baptist Church

                One of the intriguing Bible stories she turned to in her Bible in Genesis 26:12-30 featured Isaac, the child of promise born to Abraham and Sarah. After his marriage and birth of his twin boys, Isaac began to reap the blessings God promised. He lived in Canaan among the Philistines. They “stopped up” the wells his herdsmen used for watering Isaac’s herds and flocks. Mrs. Mitchell told her class of wee little ones how Isaac just moved to another spot, dug another well, and the quarrelsome herdsmen of Gerar stated emphatically, “The water is ours.” The scenario replayed itself with the troublesome neighbors. Finally, Isaac dug a fourth well, and no quarrel ensued. Isaac rejoiced in the peace and named the well Rehoboth, a name meaning “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

                Mrs. Mitchell’s lesson goal was teaching preschoolers how to get along with others in life. She wanted us to learn God’s way to avoid “defeat” in our relationships with others. Mrs. Mitchell was teaching us to never give up on making peace. Isaac refused to admit defeat in achieving peaceful existence with those around him. Isaac reacted in surprise when the contentious neighbors came to “make a covenant” with him because they observed, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you.” The victory brought by the Lord to Isaac showed the godly consequence of persisting in obedience, living in faith not in defeat. Even the combative people couldn't help but observe God's presence with His undefeated child, Isaac.

Defeat may follow on the heels of fear, weariness, anger, outright disgust, mental or emotional fatigue, or failure dogging one’s steps. These verses can spur us to continue in faithfulness despite not seeing the results we yearn to see.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Proverbs 24:16

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

                Isaac’s devotion to God empowered him to persist in pursuing peace instead of defeat with his contentious neighbors. Our commitment to Jesus makes us righteous. Paul wrote so eloquently in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

                Lord, thank You for who we are in Christ, the very righteousness of God. As we look to You each day for power and strength to not lose heart in defeat, may we anticipate the goodness of the Lord, knowing we will see Your plan unfold in triumph - a triumph only You can bring.

Note - As I finished this blog posting, I remembered the posting link below, In this posting on prayer, Mrs. Mitchell was the woman who lived near Victor School and saw the light from the all-night prayer meeting when she had to be up in the middle of the night. Her obituary on findagrave.com mentioned her being a charter member of the Masham Baptist Church. https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/06/one-of-most-unused-sources-of-power.html

The Wavering Water Flow

             One morning I filled the cats’ water containers as March winds blew furiously. After filling one of the containers, I carried and sat it near the cats eating their morning feeding while I left the water running from the hydrant. As I turned to return and shut off the hydrant, I noticed very little water had run into the repurposed coffee container positioned directly under the spout of the hydrant. The flow of the water from the hydrant was being blown furiously about by the south wind. Muddy water pooled just north of the little coffee container-turned-cat-water-bowl.

This photo was taken in May of last year
 but even that day the Oklahoma wind
was still "sweeping down the plain."

As I turned the hydrant off, the passage from James 1:5-6 came to my mind. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of sea driven and tossed by the wind.

These words inspired by the Holy Spirit were penned by James, the half-brother of Jesus. The Gospels mentioned his name but his belief in Jesus as the Son of God was not noted at all. The earliest book written by Paul characterized James as “a pillar” of the Jerusalem church. Only the resurrection of Jesus and His appearance to around 500 people transformed James from a skeptic to a believer in his mother’s son, Jesus the Messiah.

In the first section of the book of James, he admonished the “scattered” Jerusalem believers to ask for wisdom. A workable definition from Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts defined wisdom as “seeing and responding to life’s situations from God’s frame of reference.”

James indicated God will give liberally and ungrudgingly to all who ask. Then he gave the stipulation of asking in faith. When I saw the stream of water from the hydrant being blown, I thought of James comparing doubt to water (like a wave) being blown about or tossed by wind.

In a tense situation, fear spawns doubt. Even though it is hard to admit, we doubt God will give His wisdom and divine discernment at that time. Instead, leaning on one’s own understanding, which King Solomon condemns in Proverbs 3:5, becomes the default. Just as the wind blew the hydrant’s water stream off course, fear and failure to embrace wholeheartedly the faith of God skews our thinking about what is God's wise way, instead we make a decision in opposition to God’s frame of reference. Just as the water flow missed its mark and made a muddy mess, when our doubt replaces our surety of God’s faithfulness to grant us wisdom, we make a mess in our relationships, our interactions, and our life activity. 

We must intentionally build our faith as we study and meditate on God’s Word. Then our day-to-day obedience amid trials “strengthens our faith muscles” as our pastor’s wife, Caryn Tucker Brock says. 

Lord, as adversity and trouble come our way, may we withstand the spiritually destructive, gusty wind of doubt as our faith-strengthened muscles hold up the Shield of Faith and navigate our trials with Your godly wisdom directing us through this world.

The Selection of Grandpa's Name

             
My maternal grandfather, Calvin Callcayah Smith, was born on March 13, 1894, in eastern Oklahoma in the community of Hickory Grove, to Walter and Julia Steely Smith. His great-grandmother, Susannah Spainard Smith Miller, was born in Cherokee Nation East, in 1808. She walked the Cherokee Trail of Tears at the age of thirty with her two little boys, Cullicayah (the spelling used by Grandpa’s father) and Isaac. Susannah’s husband and father of her two sons is mentioned but not as a survivor of the arduous trip. She remarried soon after completing the forcible march to Indian Territory from her ancestral home. 

Tombstone of Susannah Spainard
Smith Miller who died in 1875. It is
told hers was the first burial in
 Hickory Grove Cemetery on the
land she gave for the cemetery. 
(Taken from findagrave.com)

My grandpa seldom spoke of his early days or his family history, a history linked with some of the most heartbreaking years of American History in the early 1800s. Walter Smith, Grandpa’s father, was born to Cul-la-ca (spelling on the 1851 Drennan Roll) and Rachel Kingfisher Smith. Both of his parents had been born in Cherokee Nation East, specifically Georgia. To learn more about them, go to the blog posting entitled It’s More Than the First Holiday of the Summer  https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2016/05/its-more-than-first-holiday-of-summer.html

Grandpa came from mixed ethnicity. His father descended from Cherokee parents. His father, Walter, a pure blood Cherokee, was fluent in Cherokee, Spanish, and English, yet according to Elizabeth Purcell Hammer, a much-loved cousin of my mother, Walter limited his use of the Cherokee language, his first language, out of respect for Julia, his wife with Scottish-Irish roots who only spoke English.

Julia Steely, Grandpa’s mother, had been born in Illinois. Her family transplanted to the Ozark Mountain region of Missouri. The family moved into the Cherokee Nation in 1872. One relative of Mother, mused, “Why did that white family relocate among the all those Cherokees?”

On a rare occasion, Grandpa shared a snippet of how he was named. He spoke quietly with little expression, “Ma wanted to name me “Elijah,” but Pa named me “Callcayah.” As a preteen, those names had no significance at all to me.

A few years ago, I viewed Great-grandpa Walter’s own handwriting on his application to the Guion Miller Roll, the roll with the most historical information for Cherokees and included the Dawes number accepted by the Cherokee Nation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to prove authenticity of degree of Cherokee blood. A distant relative working at the NEOSU research room in Tahlequah told me only one-third of the applications were dubbed valid. There I discovered his father was named “Cullicayah” or “Ga-la-ka-yah.” (Interestingly, Ruben Hopper, one of the few people I could talk to who knew my grandpa when he still lived in the Cherokee Nation, always called Grandpa “Cull” or “Cul-la-kay" when I visited him and Mrs. Hopper in their later years.)

Names often bring to mind character attributes of the individual. Grandpa’s paternal grandfather, Cullicayah, as a young boy provided courage and comfort for his widowed mother as they faced the hardships of the forced removal. His little brother observed and modeled his older brother's resiliency and unflinching determination throughout their harsh journey of the Trail of Tears. Cull as an adult fought and lost his life defending the Cherokee Nation and attempting to preserve the little farm on which he was raising his four children with his wife. In contrast, Grandpa’s maternal grandfather worked much of his adult life to defend and restore his reputation tarnished by allegations. He died before achieving that. His name was Elijah.

When reflecting on the naming of Grandpa 127 years ago, I thought how many times the importance of a name appears in the Bible. The name of Jesus came to the forefront of my mind. His compassion, mercy, loving kindness, and power over nature illustrate some of the attributes of the Savior, but nothing describes Him with such laser focus as His sacrificial love so willing to give His life for the sins of the world. No precious metals as silver or gold could redeem us but only the precious blood of Christ wrote Peter in 1 Peter 1:18-19.

What is the significance of the name of Jesus in our every day lives? One passage in the book of Acts leaped to my mind to answer that question. Less than two months after the resurrection of Jesus, when Peter and John proclaimed about Jesus in Jerusalem, they were arrested and put in custody. At their hearing, they were about to be released because of strong support among the people for Peter and John. The spokesmen for the Sanhedrin sternly commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.(Acts 4:18) Peter and John responded immediately to the ultimatum with these powerful words.

Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)

Upon their release from incarceration, the two apostles gathered with the believers of the Jerusalem church to pray. For what did they pray? They prayed for boldness to speak His word and power to work through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30) May their response and prayer be the daily guide for those of us who revere, honor, love, and have been saved by the name of Jesus.