LORD, IT'S HARD TO BE HUMBLE

                                                                Lord, it's Hard to be Humble

Stuart McKinlay: I bet no-one’s humbler than me.

Neil McKinlay: Out of modesty I didn’t want to admit it, but think that I may be a wee bit humbler than you.

Stuart McKinlay: No, I must insist, I am the very Uriah Heep of cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to my own "'umbleness".

Neil McKinlay: your attempted condescensions only serve to convincingly substantiate and authenticate to me my own predilections towards self-deprecating deferentialness. However, to un-ostentatiously illustrate to you my magnanimity, I shall deign to ascribe to you your preferred and avidly sought after status of most humble man.

Stuart McKinlay: Quite right, yet one has no call to be “ever so ‘umble”, who can out-Dickens Dickens and the ungreat me at the same moment, which means, on the other ‘and, you oxymoronically take pride of place as the ‘umblest. I’ve quite lost the plot.

Neil McKinlay: Plot? What plot? The plot Dickens? ‘Umble, ‘umbler, and what I’m blest at being, ‘umblest.

Stuart McKinlay: There ye go, excelling again, first in ‘umbleness. And now in paranoia: “Plot? What plot?” And I like that: “The plot Dickens”. Which shows you also excel unhumbly in 18th-19th century English literature: only you would know the pun was then the height of wit.

Neil McKinlay: The pun was then the height of wit? Yes, my literary geniusnesses on 18th-19th century English literature’s characteristics, customs, and conventions perhaps more appertain to serendipitous happenstance than any conscious command and comprehension of the aforementioned on my part. But, then again, maybe I’m trying much too hard to be ‘umble. Verily, humility is as hard to grasp as the soiled hand of a Dickensian street urchin.

Stuart McKinlay: Quite so. The plot sickens. And you will, of course recall in Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian, your fellow expert on the period, a pun takes the biscuit…

Neil McKinlay: The lesser of two weevils? With all humility, I think I got and have now caught the pun bug.

Stuart McKinlay: Ye see, you win again: A frank and fool admission.

Neil McKinlay: Yes, my foolproof humility is full-proof. No pun appended! Hey, I see what you did there by saying the following about me, “you also excel unhumbly in 18th-19th century English literature: only you would know the pun was then the height of wit.” Your cunning plan and covert attempt to surreptitiously (and split infinitively) impute to me knowledge that only you (not I) possess has been sprung. Thus, in light of this ascertainment, in all humility, I must admit defeat and concede to you all the honour of my admission of your being more humble than I. Do not let this conceding concession on my part go to your head. I merely disclose it to you for your personal reflection towards your greater edification.

Stuart McKinlay: Most perceptive: Lord, it's hard to be humble But I'm doing the best that I can…

SENSES

                                                                            Senses

When someone comes to their senses, they have had a change of mind about something that was wrong or foolish. The Prodigal Son parable illustrates this where it says of him, ‘But when he came to himself…’ Luke 15:17a. He had blown his inheritance in a debauched lifestyle that would put many profligate rock stars to shame. But he came to his senses, and returned to his father in the deepest of humility, asking to be reinstated to his household, not as a son but a servant.

The Bible says that, because we are fallen in Adam, we need to come to our senses and return to our heavenly Father. It puts it like this, ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect’ Romans 12:2. The Prodigal was conforming to this world when he was living away from his father’s house. Had he not come to his senses, he would have passed away with it: ‘And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever’ 1 John 2:17.

What is wrong with us that we each need to come to our senses regarding our relationship with God? It’s because we each have a fallen nature, what theologians refer to as original sin. Though related to what Adam did in the garden, original sin means that you and I are not operating ourselves according to the Manufacturer’s instructions. We are conforming to this world and not to the perfect will of God. What happened to us? ‘Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned’ Romans 5:12.

Adam lost his mind by going against the perfect will of God and siding with Satan against Him. Thus, because he wanted to live his life his own way not God’s, he blew his promised inheritance, and instead became a debauched profligate. Thus, he, and all after him, dine with demons. But God in His grace wasn’t done with Adam and Eve. He came and rescued them, promising them a Saviour from their own seed, One who would come to crush the serpent’s head. And He clothed them. (Gen. 3:15; 21). Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden to live among what their disobedience to God had brought mankind, sin, misery, and death. Enter the Seed of the Woman.

‘Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid’ Mark 5:15. Adam made a deal with the Devil. And here was a man commonly known as the Demoniac having to deal with the results of that. He’s possessed by a legion of the Devil’s host. The Demoniac had been living among mankind’s sin, misery, and death. ‘He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain’ Mark 5:3. But he came to his senses when Jesus rescued him, even becoming a preacher of the gospel! ‘As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.’ Mark 5:18-20.

Are you sitting and clothed and in your right mind as you read this? Or do you still have to come to your senses? Call on Jesus today!

WINDSWEPT & INTERESTING

Billy Connolly Windswept & Interesting: My Autobiography (Review)

Two Roads, London, 2021, (Hardcover) 392 pages.

My wife bought me this book as a wee surprise. Pure dead brilliant so it is - paradoxically! Now, if you ordered a fish supper with two pickles from the Ubiquitous Chip, you’d know exactly what you were getting. Same with this book. What I mean is this: If all its sexual references, profanity, and blasphemy were to be edited, then much of the book would be like trying to read one of those redacted FBI documents. Each page would resemble a Queens Park Rangers’ jersey, horizontal black and white stripes.

On the upside, Billy doesn’t do sexual innuendo. The downside is that he doesn’t leave any of that sex stuff to your imagination. Billy’s “inhibiter” is broken. It’s like a comedian form of Tourette syndrome. “Much later, I discovered that blurting out whatever was on my mind could make people laugh. It’s what I’ve done as a comedian since the beginning… But as a boy, not having a filter often got me in trouble.” p. 94. Aye his tics are really funny and often very insightful.

When we were wee, when reading a book, we would just miss out any big words we didn’t understand. Some people just say “wheelbarrow” whenever a big word exposes their vocabulary as limited. Having an “inhibitor” that usually works, I heard myself saying “wheelbarrow” often with all the !@1#*! etc., but hoping that this noisy flush as it were would not drown out too much of the toilet humour. Billy Connolly is too funny to let pernickety (wheelbarrow?) tastes spoil a good meal. Just leave the Brussel sprouts to one side if you don’t like them.

Billy is a master of observation, of both human nature and nature nature. He describes what he sees how he sees it, from skydiving to scuba diving. This autobiography takes you from his troubled and horrendous upbringing in Glasgow to the four corners of the globe, (to use a mixed metaphor).

His formative years at school, where he was inoculated against the gospel, are filled with dark humour. The story of his home life is worse than Dickensian. The book is full of self-psychoanalysis with some help here and there from his wife, Pamela.

Billy has put Glasgow on the map. He is a great ambassador for Scotland. He is a legend by his own design!      

REMEMBERING REV PROF DR FRANCIS NIGEL LEE

It’s been ten years since Dr Francis Nigel Lee, my old college professor, died of Motor Neurons Disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and went to be with the Lord.

The following are a couple of emails I sent to Nordskog Publishing Inc. regarding Dr Lee’s rapidly deterioration health.

I post them in Dr Lee’s memory…

Hi,

I spent over an hour with Dr Lee this morning (21 September 2011). I informed him that you all were praying for him, which he appreciates. He entered the room (where Dr Lee’s wife had sat me down) with a shuffling gait and in quiet and slightly slurry tones wished me a good morning. He has trouble speaking and it tires him.

He had tears in his eyes, probably on account of and in response to the tears that had begun welling up in my eyes, as he told me (upon my asking) about his present condition and its dreadful prognosis. Two years! He has been seen by the head specialist in this field in Australasia.

I tried to be upbeat and thanked him for guiding me along the rock-solid path of Calvinism and the Reformed Faith. We spoke of the good times during my college years. We had a laugh. I reminded him of the time he used to (to the consternation of a couple of the students!) bring a nun (habit and all!) along to hear him whenever he preached at the college chapel. Little things like this spoke volumes to me as he taught me (by word and by example) how to handle the Sword of the Spirit.

Yes, he remains strong in the Lord and with his wife Nellie is trusting Him – come what may.

Another minister and his wife (who I know) showed up about twenty minutes or so after I had arrived. He was Dr Lee’s minister till a couple of years or so ago – before he (the minister) moved on. We ended our time together with the minister praying. He covered everything I would have prayed for.  

Also, Dr Lee has difficulty getting heavy books off shelves etc. So, he is grateful for the help he is getting with the citation references for his upcoming e-book “Certain Victory.” Certain Victory! The Biblical View of the Future - Nordskog Publishing He seems to regard his “Early Genesis” as his magnum opus and would love to see it published.

Neil.

Hi,

I visited Dr Lee this morning (26 October 2011). It had been just over a month since my last one. His condition has deteriorated. He was in bed, though he does manage (with help) to rise and have breakfast and also sit for a spell at his computer by, with, and through which he communicates best.

His wife, Nellie, manhandled him so that he could face me, then she left us alone in the bedroom. He is receiving therapy for it, but his speech was very difficult for me to understand. His throat, he says, feels very dry.

We talked for about fifteen minutes, with me doing most of it. I remarked about the repair job that he had just recently done to his front path. I commented on the spider and her web that she had spun across the garden path to his door. I reminded him that he used talk fondly of the (this?) spider and her web when he taught us at theological college. He used the critter to illustrate industriousness and (Brucian) perseverance.

We talked about his medical condition which he says will progressively worsen. I was talking to Nellie afterwards and she said that they were getting a wheelchair for Dr Lee, but were having trouble knowing which type to get as Dr Lee’s condition seems to be worsening so rapidly.

Before I prayed for Dr Lee I mentioned that Jerry (Nordskog) was reminiscing in an email to me about the two different times Dr Lee was speaking in California at functions Jerry was involved with. I told him that the “Nordskog Publishing Team” was praying for him and that Judge Roy Moore was praying for him, as were (my brother) Fearghas and many others. At this point he moved his arms slightly above his head and with tears he said, “I am not worthy!” at which point I told him (with tears streaming down my cheeks) that he had impacted for good so many thousands of lives, myself being one – that his Christian material was disseminating all over the Internet.

I thanked him for his Christian diligence, his faithfulness, and all his hard work. I told him that I loved him in the Lord. I prayed for him, thanking God for His grace, mercy, and compassion shown towards sinners such as us in our Master, Jesus Christ, and for the gifts that He has given Dr Lee. I focussed on the New Heavens and New Earth and our future resurrection, our new bodies and our Saviour dwelling bodily in our midst on the New Earth – the time of no more tears, nor pain, nor sorrow, nor death. When I was finished Dr Lee insisted that he would pray for me. I understood him to be thanking God for me and asking Him to bless me.

Before leaving I spoke to Nellie. I asked her how she was coping. She was upbeat and glorified God. I departed and had a good solid manly cry in the privacy of my car on the thirty minute drive home.

What a great yet humble man God has given us in Dr Lee!

Neil  

THE SILVER DARLINGS (Review)

 Neil M. Gunn, The Silver Darlings, Faber & Faber, London, (First published 1941), reprinted 1989, 584 pages.

“What are you reading?” asked the nurse as I was recovering from the anesthetic. “The Silver Darlings”, I said as I held up the book’s cover. “That’s what these fish are. It was written in 1941 but is set in the early 1800s, during the Highland Clearances.” “Is it good?” “Yes, it’s brilliant!” She wanted to copy down the book’s details.

Hearing my Scottish accent, another inquisitive nurse joined our company. I told them that, though it was written in English, it uses a Gaelic idiom, and therefore may be difficult for the uninitiated to understand. “Do you speak Gaelic?” I hit them with a line or two but confessed that I had forgotten more than I ever learned.

Idiom? E.g., “Why on earth was Roddie smooring the fire if he was expecting company?” p. 216. (Lallans, smooring; Gaelic, smaladh.) “There’s a dirty bit of sea running, and it’s worse it’ll be before it’s better.” p. 532.

The heart of the book is about a woman and her son, Catrine and Finn. Hardship. Heartache. Happiness. It is written in beautiful prose, in which even the mundane becomes intriguing, amidst the mores and scruples of a culture baptized with the burn water of biblical truth. It is full of emotion as deep as the ocean from which the silver darlings are drawn.  

There is tension and resolution throughout. Catrine has to adjust to the reality of her boy becoming a man. And will the man in her life remain missing or reappear in a different form? “For some unaccountable reason she had actually looked forward to being alone, to being all by herself, as if the essence of some long-forgotten pleasure might arise and surround her, like the scent of honeysuckle in the air.” p. 465.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism is chiseled into stony and fleshy hearts alike. Revival. Indeed, Scripture and Gaelicisms hang in the air like sweet-smelling peat smoke. It is highly descriptive without the tedium, recording life full measure in the crofts and on the sea. Joy and sorrow, romance, and adventure, the story, like a road, wends its way from highlands to islands. There are premonitions, prayer meetings, and pub brawls in which death and the dead, life and the living intertwine in an endless Celtic knot, without beginning or end. So the story goes.

The Highland Clearances (Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal) filled boats to the Americas and the antipodes with desperate refugees. However, the same also filled towns and boats on the coasts in search of the lucrative herring, the silver darlings. The names of some of the boats are: White Heather, Seafoam, Iolaire, (no, a different one!), Sulaire, and, Gannet, (likewise, a different one, not the Sulaire). “The sound their oars made travelled a long distance, they heard the silence going farther and farther away.” p. 529. 

The characters remain in character throughout, rugged manly men and strong feminine women.

(As an aside, having lived for ten years in East Kildonan, Winnipeg in the 80s, I am sure I would have come in contact with descendants of some of those Gaels who lost their homes and sailed to Canada. Kildonan, in Winnipeg, got its name from the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland, Scotland where many of the early settlers came from.)

CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORD

 Words are important. It’s not untrue to say that words are cameos of God! Even the letters used to form words, like the encoded letters of our DNA, are important. As damaged strands of DNA can lead to deformity, so garbled spelling or choosing the wrong word can lead to misunderstanding.

            Which of all the so called ‘holy books’ is the true or right Word of God? Jesus calls the Christian Bible ‘the truth’ (John 17:17). Therein God is revealed as the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit (John 1:1-3, 14; Acts 5:3-4; 1 John 5:7 KJV). Therefore God is three distinct Persons, but only one God (Genesis 1:1-3, 26; Deuteronomy 6:4).

By saying to His Father, ‘Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth’ Jesus (the Word) was asking God to set apart His people (i.e., Christians from non-Christians), by use of the Bible which is the written Word of God. Thus there are those who believe that all (sixty-six books) of the Bible is truth and there are those who choose to believe only portions or even none at all. But true Christians are people of the Book.

Since it was God who wrote the Bible using men we can be sure that His Spirit ensured that every word chosen is pure (2 Timothy 3:16). We see an example of choosing the right word in Scripture, ‘The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true’ Ecclesiastes 12:10. I love the Bible (to quote the Westminster Confession of Faith) for ‘the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God).’

As a calm lake reflects a mountain, so truth mirrors God. Therefore, God can be seen in the right use of words. How so? Because when used properly as God intended they convey truth! What God has written is upright and true. We see God revealed in His Word. Jesus says of the Scriptures, ‘These are the Scriptures that testify about Me’ John 5:39b. He is the eternal Word, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” John 1:1 &14a.

He is God’s final or last word to mankind, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” Hebrews 1:1-2a.

God has chosen His Word carefully, and, like our DNA Jesus, the Word, is the building block of life, ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who puts his trust in Him will never be put to shame’ 1 Peter 2:6. Indeed, Jesus is the alphabet of life. He says, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end’ Revelation 22:13.

Before any collection of strung-together words finds its way to being published it must go through the editor. Before anyone finds his or her way to God they must go through the Alpha and the Omega, the Word, who is Jesus. For He says, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ John 14:6.

We ought to choose our words carefully because Jesus says, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” Matthew 12:36-37.

I’m thankful that Jesus makes all my careless thoughts, words, and deeds letter perfect! I encourage everyone to choose the right Word: Jesus.

ANGELS & DEMONS

 

I read Dan Brown’s novel ‘Angels & Demons’ hoping to learn two things: How to write a bestselling novel and what he had to say about angels and demons. I may have learned a little about the former from him but very little about the latter! Mind you, Brown is out to entertain not educate. Angels and demons: what are they? Well, Materialists tell us not to bother looking because they don’t exist. But according to the Bible they are very much in existence. So what should I believe? Books that tell me nothing about these things or the Book that tells me everything I need to know? The Word of God is proof enough to me for the existence of angels and demons. If you want more proof than that then you’ll have to take it up with the triune God!

            Angels are spirit-beings mentioned early in the Bible. When God ejected Adam and Eve from the Garden ‘He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life’ Genesis 3:24. Cherubim are a type of angel. The ejection from the Garden was the result of Eve being deceived by a talking serpent and Adam covenanting with him, i.e., Satan. Satan is a fallen angel.

Notice that God is able to cast out Satan. The Lord, speaking of the exalted position of the King of Tyre, likens that king to Satan, ‘You were in Eden, the garden of God … you were the anointed cherub who covers … you sinned … therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God’ Ezekiel 28:13-16. Again, ‘So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to earth, and his angels were cast out with him’ Revelation 12:9. And notice the authority that God has over Satan and his demons, ‘And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day’ Jude 1:6.

Demons are angels who were cast out of heaven along with Satan. All were created good, but some, perhaps a third, like Adam in the Garden joined Satan in his rebellion against God. And just as they were ejected from Heaven, so Adam was ejected from the Garden. Heaven and the Garden are intimately connected. Adam was to tend and keep (or guard) the Garden. Therefore Adam, like Satan the covering cherub, was supposed to cover the Garden against intruders (such as Satan!)

The new Adam, the God-man Jesus Christ, demonstrated His divinity by casting out demons. A legion of them asked His permission to enter a herd of pigs! Demons indwelling a herd of swine helps us to understand how Satan was able to speak through a serpent.

The good news is that Jesus is the Seed of the woman that was coming to crush the serpent’s head as promised in Genesis 3:15. By His cross and resurrection He has tied up the strongman and is now plundering his house, i.e., He is setting the captives free by the proclamation of His Gospel.

Angels? ‘Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?’ Hebrews 1:14. Dear reader, may you be an inheritor of salvation and have angels as friends