S.T.O.P.

[Paul Wasilkoff] A number of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go back to visit the family farm in the Ozarks and to spend some time with my grandparents, our three boys, Corrine and I took the boys. They got to visit with great-grandpa and great-grandma, and visit with some cousins that they had not seen for quite a while. It was nice to relax in the Ozarks.  The hills there are rolling.  They call them the Ozark Mountains and I thought they were until we had the opportunity to live in B.C. for a while and go back and visit.  They were no longer mountains.  They were nice hills, but they are beautiful and it was nice to sit, relax, talk. 

We spent a number of hours on the front porch enjoying just sitting, visiting, reminiscing. It was nice to be back on that porch because I remember when I had been the age of my eldest son, going back and visiting.  We were dropping off my great grandpa at the very same location.  He ran across the lawn, jumped up onto the porch and went over to the little chin-up bar.  He was old enough but he was not allowed to drive.  I think the family had finally taken away his keys, but he was still young enough at heart to run across the lawn, jump up on to the porch, grab that chin-up bar and then skin the cat.  I can remember being impressed seeing him do that and I remember the adults in the car were horrified that he would make such a risky maneuver but he executed it flawlessly and then disappeared inside the house. 

It was neat to be back there; to have that kind of family history, and to talk about what had been.  I enjoyed talking to my grandfather and finding out what life was like in those days and on previous occasions I had learned that the house where we were staying was a house that he was familiar with before he had moved into this location, after taking care of great-grandpa.   He had walked past that very same location on his way to school and on his way back from school. I’m not sure which of those trips he would walk more enthusiastically – I would imagine on the way home from school, but nonetheless he would make that trip.  On the way past that gravel road, it was different then, the tops of the mountains weren’t covered with trees. They were bald – hence the name Baldknobbers if you’ve ever been to the Feast in Branson.  They call them Baldknobbers because the top of the mountains used to not have vegetation, just rock.  That’s the way it was when he was a kid. No longer, but we could hear stories of him as he would travel that road into the town hamlet, Village of Romance. That’s what it was called.  It was very popular around February.  The post office there would be very busy as cards were sent to significant others to have that postmark from Romance. At one time they had a tomato cannery in this little village, right along the creek there was a gristmill there at one time, the school was there and when my grandfather went to that school there were 80 some odd children that would go to that one room schoolhouse.  By the time my mother got to be of age to go to school, there were 5 less – not very many – less than 10 and shortly thereafter closed.  I’m sure there’s no relation to who had just gone to that school to its closure.  It was simply due to people moving away, and I asked, “What happened in the time period?”  People just moved away, the farms dried up, the communities dried up and in the course of our stay there, this past time, we took a number of back roads to get to various locations. 

We went out to eat one night and we traveled the back roads to the various old towns that used to be there.  And the towns are there or at least the markers are still there.  This is the town of Willhoight, or at least what used to be Willhoight. or Noble, or Romance.  What is there now?  You can see the general store, where it used to be; the post office, where it used to be, the school where it used to be but it’s just a shell of what was there.  And even those back roads, if you get lost or stranded, it might be a while before you find someone who would know where they are and where you need to go and give you directions. It’s not like it used to be.  It reminded me of a passage in Jeremiah.  Turn with me please to the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah 6:16 – not an enviable job Jeremiah and the other prophets who were patriots for their nation having to deliver these kind of messages to the people, but this is what God assigned them and this is what they did.

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord……This is a message given by Jeremiah, but it’s not Jeremiah’s message.  He identifies that…..Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.  But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

So, what I’d like to do for the time remaining this afternoon is to review this passage and discuss about how it applies to western nations today.  We’ll review this passage and discuss how it applies to western nations today.  So the first clause I’d like to look at is “Stand”.  Stand at the crossroads and specifically we’ll look at the word stand.  So stand in the crossroads and look.  Stand, or some translations may say, “Stop”.  Survival guides will talk about strategies if you do get lost or you do get stranded in the wilderness, meaning outside the city limits, you know – in the bush or someplace wild.  What to do; what must be done to increase your chances of survival in those situations.  They have an acronym.  It’s a 4 letter acronym – S.T.O.P 

The first letter is S and it stands for, believe it or not, stop, which I find terribly confusing.  Stop, the first letter is S – stands for stop.  If you find yourself lost the experts say the first thing to do is to stop.  In other words, don’t get lost.  If you don’t know where you are, stop.  If you’re digging a hole and the hole is too deep, stop digging. Same principle – stop.  Then the next letter – T – is think.  It’s very easy when becoming lost to become emotional and to understand I am lost here.  I don’t like being lost.  Here must be lost so I must get away from here and I’ll no longer be lost.  Well, that’s our emotions kicking in.  Somehow if we run around in circles we’ll become unlost.  Usually it’s the opposite,  we become more lost.  Think, don’t let the emotions take over but think.  Where am I?  How long will it be before someone notices that I’m missing?  Do they know where I am, or where I’m supposed to be?   How long will it take before they send out a search party?  Think.

O is observe.  This is an important one because it will help identify what the most immediate needs are.  Is it getting dark?  Is there a storm on the horizon?  Am I hurt?  Will I be thirsty soon or hungry?  Will I miss my DVR  show?  Observe is good because it helps with the last -  P.

P is plan.  Plan.  Now that you’ve observed, what do I need to do now?  How am I going to accomplish it?  I’m hungry – what can I do?  Do I have any rations with me?  Water?  Where is the closest source of water? 

So, S.T.O.P and in this case stand at the crossroads.  This implies that as a nation, at some point a nation will come to realize – we’re lost.  We’re not going where we thought we were going.  We’re certainly not where we need to be.  What do we do now?  God says stand. 

There was a couple of years ago, maybe you came across this, a story of Albert and Rita Chretien.  They were from BC and they were traveling to Las Vegas for a trade show.  They decided to take their van, it was a passenger van, and they were using GPS to get to Las Vegas.  And if you have ever used GPS as your means of navigation, you know it’s always right.  For these folks actually, it turned out to be deadly because the route took them over a mountain pass that was good most of the time in the summer, and it was definitely fall towards winter at this time, for a proper vehicle.  Maybe a four by four, they had a van.  And they got further and further away from civilization.  The road got more and more narrow, the terrain more and more rugged and finally, they got stuck up to their back axle in mud.  They couldn’t move.  They couldn’t go forwards, they couldn’t go back, temperature starts to drop – they’re in the high plains and at some point after a couple of days, the husband decided to leave with the gas can.  He took the GPS with him, with the battery and was headed for town, some six miles away.  He never made it.  The battery ran out on the GPS, a snow storm came in, and he succumbed to the elements.  She thought she was going to similarly expire.  She had a note written down for her family as to what they were trying to do.  Her name, the address, the fact that they had run out of electricity on their vehicle, the husband went for gas on this date and hasn’t returned.  Thankfully, she was found by some hunters and was taken in to the hospital.  She did recover; she was right on the envelope of surviving, but she did make it.  Her husband didn’t.  He was just a few miles off course, but enough that he didn’t make it.  His GPS failed him.  And in fact you may have heard the term, ‘death by GPS’ because they work pretty well, but they’re not infallible.  In fact, the news report had tried to navigate in southern California, in the city and the directions took them through a gated community.  The problem is – the gate was permanently closed, but that was where they were supposed to go through the gate. 

So, S.T.O.P., or stand at the crossroads.  The key term here – crossroads.  Turn with me please to the book of Isaiah, who was similarly tasked with sending a warning message.  Ultimately it was bad news, Isaiah 2, the heading here in this Bible is “The Future House of God”.  Isaiah chapter 2 and here we’ll start reading in verse 1.  We’ll read verses 1-3.

Isaiah 2:1-3 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains,

And shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Crossroads, other translations talk about ways, and here we hear about the ways that will be taught in the end.  There are many crossroads.  We had an opportunity not too long ago, to attend a service that was hosted by a church.  And it was amazing to us the ideas that were expressed.  Some ideas were biblical in nature and other ideas expressed were very much humanistic.  And this is in the context of church.  The church’s beliefs, I found out afterwards, identified the Book as inspired writing.  “The Bible was inspired, however, we don’t believe it’s literally the word of God”, which makes you wonder how exactly Timothy was inspired to say that Scripture is inspired.  But it’s not literally the word of God.  And so as a result, the choices available are innumerable.  There are so many things that could be believed in, so many things that make people feel good.  About themselves, about their neighbors, we should all live in peace, we should coexist – which works until you have some parties that cannot tolerate the existence of others.  How do you coexist with that?   It’s a good question.

We were speaking to another neighbor who, very kind person, very giving, a good neighbor to have and expressing how, “You know, I don’t know that anyone really understands why we’re here; what our purpose is.  We just I guess do the best we can and be nice to other people.” Now how we define nice to other people, well that might float depending on our mood day to day. Right?  Since there are no absolutes, none the less what are we to do?  And they went on to share a story from their history that a patriarch in the family had lost the wife and he was a widower.  They were coming out of a restaurant, maybe it was her favorite restaurant, I’m fuzzy in the details – bear with me, I’m getting to the point.  A child found something on the ground, picked it up and showed it to the adults and got terribly excited.  It was a penny, the year on it was 1922.  The year of the patriarch and clearly this was a sign that grandma had sent something from heaven, a penny from heaven. Why they don’t send higher denomination coins I don’t know;  they’d be more useful, we can’t use pennies any more here.  A penny and that was significant because they were in heaven thinking about the whole family and how warming that was to them.  Now, it’s nice that they felt nice about it.  Is that something that necessarily would have resonated with many back in the day when grandpa was walking to school?  I don’t think so.

There was a time on this continent that we had a baseline.  Everybody went to church on Sunday, we may not all have agreed on everything the preacher said but at least as a society, what was taught had a similar baseline.  There was more trust then, than there is now because everyone was expected to have a certain level of behavior, or at least a certain type of behavior.  Not everything was right obviously, there were significant wrongs.  But at least there was a common baseline.  Not so anymore.  As a nation some politicians eagerly, gleefully declare, trumpet that we’re no longer a Christian nation.  And the media gives each other a high five, and we’re happy that we’re no longer a Christian nation, at least that’s how it’s portrayed in certain political circles.  And that is true and if we’re not, what are we?  It would certainly seem that we are at a crossroads, societally. Stand at the crossroads and do what? Stand at the crossroads and look, or view depending on your translation.  Let’s turn to the book of Joshua.  Joshua 2 – the heading in my Bible here is ‘Rahab hides the spies’.

Joshua 2:1 Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying, “Go, view the land especially Jericho.”

They were on a reconnaissance mission, and he sent them to go check out the land.  Cross the river, pay the toll, I don’t know what was there and to view the land – especially Jericho.  What were they to look for?  Were they just to get a tourist map of the town, find out where the best falafel hut is and what the combo meal pricing would be?  What were they there for?  How detail oriented were they to be? It’s the same word – stand at the crossroads and look.  View the land; it’s the same word.  How studious were they supposed to be and what were they supposed to look for?  A casual glance or were they to bring back a very detailed report, strengths, weaknesses, benefits, threats – what were they supposed to look for?  It’s the same word.  The warning that is given to Jerusalem at the time and the same warning that is applicable to Western nations today.  Look at these crossroads.  Where do the go?  What is the end result of these crossroads?  Do we not have history books to tell us where some of these go?  Look!

I enjoy reading Louie L’Amour novels and over the years I’ve gone through most of them and enjoyed almost all of them.  Some I found very good. There’s one or two I don’t care for at all.  But there is a theme that comes up time and again, and he talked about it in his autobiography.  Let me read an excerpt from his autobiography. He’s talking about stories, “They’re out there by the thousands, wonderful stories.  Many have never gotten into histories or history books, although occasionally told by local newspapers or in privately printed booklets.  Stories of wagon train massacres, of buried treasure, gun battles, cattle round-ups, border bandit raids, no matter where you go – east, west, north and south, there are stories.  People are forever asking me where I get my ideas.  One only has to listen, to look, and to live with awareness.  As I have said in several of my stories, all men look but so few can see.  It’s all there waiting patiently for any passerby.”  

So, God’s message through Jeremiah was to look, to view.  Not a casual glance, but a study.  So the second phrase that I’d like to look at: Ask for the ancient paths, and the key word here is ancient.  Let’s turn to the book of  Proverbs.  Proverbs 22 and we’ll read verse 28.  It says:

Proverbs 22:8  Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.

What ancient landmarks would that have been?  Property rights?  Boundaries?  Markers that say, “Do not pass”?  Commentaries will talk about what is meant here also referring back to the Sinai Covenant.  The book of Deuteronomy for example.  Do not remove the ancient landmark, do not remove the ancient way of life, do not remove the ancient boundaries that society used to live by, perhaps.  Same word for ancient.  The ancient paths, ancient landmarks and it’s hard in our society to really appreciate ancientness.  We had an opportunity a week ago and we visited the Claremont County Antique Machinist Union Collective.  I can’t remember exactly the club, but it’s a group of individuals and they’re dedicated to preserving old machinery.  The tractors still had bell-bottoms you know which ones I’m talking about.  Some of them were actually steam operated.  Big wide tires; balers that were self-propelled and it was really interesting to see the technology that existed.  Some of those guys were geniuses to come up with those pieces of equipment, entirely mechanically run.  No little servo motors, no circuit boards, all mechanical.  And it’s fascinating to me to see what they were able to achieve with that. 

But in our society, western nations, how much is ancient glorified?  Not so much I would argue.  Each year there has to be new shoes.  Running shoes change from year to year; so much you have to have a new one every year because the human bodies need, it changes from December last year to December this year.  You have to have a new shoe.  The old technology is obsolete; your body has changed so much.  Or vans, vehicles, did they change from year to year?  You have to get the new model year because it’s so much better than the one that we sold you last year.  That was a piece of junk.  This one is tremendous.  You’ll never need another one if you buy this year’s model until….. mid-year next year and we’ll start pushing the subsequent year – because it has to be new. 

Our clothes, even our gadgets, I think I’m starting to get into the “fuddy duddy” range of life.  I see the guys in my office getting a new phone every Wednesday it seems.  I’ve had this almost a year and I’m getting comfortable with it.  I know where everything is, I know where the power button is, it works.  I don’t need a new one because it’ll take me forever to figure it out.  But that’s what is pushed, isn’t it?  The new year, the new device, the new gadget.  Where is our society’s focus on ancient has been?  But that’s not the emphasis that God has, He says, “Ask for the ancient paths, and ask where the good way is.”  Ask where the good way is. 

Have you ever watched Antiques Roadshow?  Yes, no, okay.  It’s a show about antiques for those of you haven’t seen it and you’re missing out.  There are treasures that people bring out of the attic; they take it to these shows and have it evaluated by antique specialists, scholars and they will identify what it is and more importantly, how much it’s worth.  Or is it the other way around?   Both, o.k.  Whatever the case sometimes people have treasures  that they have been using as a soap dish, this is a Ming Dynasty plate, you can't have that.  You must have this insured first of all and I would say at auction this would go for and this particular number.  But there are times when someone brings in an item that they have treasured for generations. " This is an authentic (fill in the blank) worth so much I'm sure I just want you to validate this for me."  They'll look at it and look at the people and have to give them bad news.  "Yes, this is old, but I'm afraid to tell you it's an old fake."  "It's not fake, it's been in my family for generations."  "I understand it's been in your family for generations, however, counterfeits have been around a long time and this is an old counterfeit."

My son and I belong to the Cincinnati Numismatic Association, that's coin nerds.  We meet once a month and there's a gentleman in our club who is renowned across the U.S. and probably internationally for his knowledge on engraving, stamps and paper money.  In one of the meetings, someone bought in an old U.S. banknote.  It was tattered, torn, it looked very impressive and people were ooing and aaing over it.  The dates were early 1800, I can't remember exactly what it was until Gene took a look at it and said, "Oh yes, it's a fake."  It blew my mind, how do you know this is a fake just by looking at it?  It's old, it's got to be legit.  No, not just old, but fakes are out there.  So it's not enough just to ask, it's important to ask where the good way is.  Let's take a look at Job, chapter 22.  This section is entitled Eliphaz Accuses Job of Wickedness.  Poor Job, just choose any part of Job and you'll find someone gaining on Job.  The question was asked:

Job 22:15  Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod?

There are old ways, there are old ways which good men have trod.  There's a hymn talking about that, The Battle Hymn of the Republic where the saints have trod.  Here the question was asked, or will you walk the ancient way where wicked have trod?  So its not just good enough to walk in any old ancient path.  There are certainly intolerable elements of western nations history that need not ever be repeated.  So not everything in the past is good, quite the opposite.  Let's take a look,  just for reference you can jot down look  in the book of Acts, the way.  There are five times that appear so I'll leave that up to you to examine.  It was mentioned in our sermonette today.  Matthew 7 is a good passage that links to this concept.  But let's take a look instead of John 14 where the good way is.  What does the bible say about the good way?  Thomas puts himself in the spotlight.

John 14: 5  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going and how can we know the way? "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

There is a town in Vermont called Derby Line.  Has anyone heard of that town?  It's a neat town.  It's on the border of Quebec.  I learned about this place, not too fancy, on my own, but by watching a television show "How the states got their shapes."  Has anybody heard of that show?  I think it ran only one season.  It was a fascinating show if you're a map nerd like me.  I enjoyed it thoroughly because it talked about the history to why some U.S. states are oddly shaped; why this ones curved at the top, why this one has a pan handle, what were the political reasons for it.  In the state of Missouri where I'm from, Missouri has a little boot heel that extends into Arkansas.  He talks about how it was that a politician was born in Arkansas and reckoned that Missouri was going to be more important than Arkansas so he petitioned congress and those of political power to redraw the map so he could have been born in Missouri and not Arkansas.  That is how that boot heel was manifest.  He talked about this particular town, Derby Line.  It was founded in the late 1700's, they were searching through the woods, they didn't have GPS which may or may not have been a bad thing since they may have gotten more lost with it.  They're carving a line through the wilderness and missed the parallel.  They in fact found the town in Canada.  Derby Line was found actually in Canada.  It wasn't so much later, in about 50 years later a treaty was established to recognize, o.k., we'll fudge the line right here, yes you can have that, this will be Vermont, the rest will be for Quebec, that's o.k.  The town itself has the border running entirely through it.  In fact there is a library in the middle of the town, half of which sits in Canada, half of the library is in the United States.  There's a tape, black tape, running or was it white tape, some color tape runs down the middle of the floor showing the border and you can cross back and forth as many times as you want.  However, there are only two doors.  One door is from Canada, the other door is from the United States.  So it doesn't matter how many times you cross that border going in from one section to the other, you must leave through the same door that you arrived in.  That's the main rule.  The town is like that, there are streets that run entirely on the border, in the driveway. United States cars will be parked, when they come out of the driveway, into the street, they're then in Canada and must therefore report to the closest border crossing to tell them that they've crossed the border.  It was only up to 9/11 that people would freely cross the street and grab a newspaper, take it across to Aunt Mabel in Canada and they'd go across to Uncle Charles house for desert in the United States, it wasn't a problem, but not now with enforced 9/11 security world, the border has been cut off and people have learned the hard way that you must report to customs and immigration each time you cross into the other territory.  You get a knock on the door and have a conversation with someone in a suit who speaks very sternly, you cannot do that.  So now when you go into that library you cannot cross the border, you can see the other country right through that door, out that window, but you can't get there.  There's one way, Christ is the way.  Ask what the good way is?  Walk in it.  Walk in it.  Let's turn to the book of I Samuel.

I Samuel 17: 12-14  It is the time of war.  Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse and who had eight sons.  And the man was old,.....In case you don't know what old means..... advanced in years, in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle.  The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.  David was the youngest.  And the three oldest followed Saul......Followed.  They were dedicated to be in the army, to engage in the fight, defense such as it was.  How did they follow him?  Were they close to him?  Did they march approximately the same route that he would take within ear shot, within arms length, how did they follow Saul?  It's the same word, walk in it or follow the way.  How closely did they follow?

I had my grandfather retell a story when we were there last just a couple months ago, of a time in the closing part of World War 11.  The Captain asked, He was in the U.S. Army, the 103rd Cactus division. He was in the reconnaissance troop in the Calvary.  When he signed up, he said I like horses.  They said, perfect we'll put you in the Calvary which meant jeeps.  It's the logic of the army apparently.  So he was in reconnaissance and the Captain of the unit asked the Sergeant, ordered the Sergeant, to recruit two volunteers to follow the road down to the German village to find and secure a house and report back.  So they had a staging area.  The Sergeant, my grandfather had many good things to say about the Sergeant.  The Sergeant, rather than assign volunteers to this job said no, I'll be one volunteer, I need one more volunteer to go with me.  My grandfather appreciated that and said hey, since he's willing to put his neck on the line, I will too.  He could have easily ordered two volunteers as well.  So through these words, they traversed down the road to the bottom.  Before the town was the field.  In the field were mines.  Now I think they were anti-personnel mines, they were anti-ping mines.  They knew about it in advance, they were warned there's a mine field between you and the town so walk carefully and they did.  They were usually visible, they were on the surface and so they were able to walk very carefully between the mines, make it to the village, find a house, burst in to the front door with both their machine guns ready - nothing.  The house was empty.  So the Sergeant said I'll tell you what.  I'll stay here, you go back and let the Captain know where we are, that we're safe and we'll fulfill our orders.  He started to make his way back and by this time it was getting dark. Thankfully it was still light enough to see where those mines were located in that field to make it back to his unit.  They thought when he returned he was actually a spy and no amount of convincing would let him go free to make it back to his unit.  But he did make it back.  How carefully did he follow the trail through the mine field.  Very carefully.  This is not a casual stroll through the field.  This was walking through a mine field and he followed very carefully the safe route through that field.  A matter being asked or admonished here; walk, follow in it, not near it, not close to it, not beside it, but in it.

I have a confession to make.  I love walking in the woods, I enjoy it.  We used to hike in the woods in B.C. when we lived there and hunt or at least walk in the woods while we were hunting.  I don't know if we ever got anything but it was fun to be in the woods and to smell the trees, smell the forest, see the critters.  I'll even do this at lunchtime from time to time.  I put on my hiking shoes and walk the trails.  There are some marked trails to the woods.  Those trails are nice but I keep wanting to know what's beyond the little ridge that I can't see from this trail and see what's on the other side or to see what's past the ravine and so I walk on the game trail, not on the walking trail but on the game trail.  This can be hazardous.  If there's a problem, whose going to be on that trail?  Most deer don't have first aid kits and will not be able to help a hapless hiker who has injured an ankle.

But walk in it, the good way and what will be the result of this?  You will find rest for your souls and you will find rest for your souls.  The implication here is up until this point in time you cannot truly say that you have rest for your souls.  Can you find something unless you first lose it?  I know there are times when we loose our glasses and can't find them anywhere in the house which is frustrating because you can't find your glasses to find them and you discover they're on your forehead.  You can't find something unless it's first been lost.  Let's turn to the book of Luke.  

Luke 15:8-10 The Parable of the Lost Coin.  Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses just one coin, does not light a lamp.....she's lost something and she's willing to spend resources to find it.  Here she's burning oil.....sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? " And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me for I have found the piece which I lost!'  "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents." 

It reminds me of the story of the lost pocket watch.  Do you know this story?  Back in the olden days, there are ice houses which will be filled in the winter time with blocks of ice from lakes or ponds or maybe rivers and those blocks of ice will be put onto carts or sleds and will be taken to the ice house which is maybe shorter than the average building, well insulated on the sides and then layers of these blocks will be put in, maybe a canvas would be put on top and sawdust will be packed down from the local saw mill.  Then another layer of blocks tightly packed together until it was full and then they would be used for refrigeration. This goes back way before Face Book was invented.  Then in the summertime those blocks would be retrieved so that items could be kept cool to put in the ice box.  You could make ice cream, not on a summer as this, since we've had the longest spring ever.  Other summers, ice cream would be far more refreshing, but that is what would be done.  In was in the summertime when this story takes place when workmen are emptying the ice house because blocks are being sold to the community when one of the workmen looks distraught, very worried.  Pretty soon a little boy watching this scene sees other workmen who were also loosing their usual jovialness (they're not as happy).  He wonders way, what is going on that suddenly the mood has changed from work to concern.  Finally lunch arrived and clearly one of the individuals is far more worried, far more downcast than the others.  The boy asked them, what happened?  He said, sometime during today I lost my pocket watch.  Now this was a time before we had four time pieces on us at all occasions.  Pocket watches were important connections to history.  They were inherited, past down from generation to generation, not cheap and he had lost his and he was upset. The watch that his Dad had given him, that his Grandfather gave to his Dad is missing.  He said I looked and we all looked through the sawdust, we raked and shoveled but we could not find the watch anywhere.  The poor guy was so upset he wasn't interested in eating even his lunch as hard as he had worked.  So the little boy nodded with some understanding.  Before long, they were distracted under the tree eating their lunch and the boy disappeared into the ice house and closes the door.  Two minutes later, he comes out with the pocket watch.  The man asked, how did you find it, you're just one little kid (implied, not smart) and here we are four fine grown men and we looked on our hands and knees, we raked and we couldn't find it anywhere.  How did you find it?  He said it was simple, I'll show you.  So they followed him.  He opens the door and said, see that spot right there, nice and clear.  I laid down there after I closed the door and I put my hands on my chest, I closed my eyes  and I laid very still and was very quiet and pretty soon I could hear it ticking.  Tick, tick, tick. So I knew where it was and I found it and here it is.

How can you find something unless it's been lost?  That is where God is telling poor Jeremiah, told Jerusalem, and He's telling western nations today, you will find something if you find the good way and walk in it.  You will find what?  Rest for your souls.  You'll find rest for your souls.  Let's turn to the book of Matthew.

Matthew 11:28 - 30  I can't help it whenever I read verses like this, I hear music.  "Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in Heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Rest for your soul.  Well who needs that?  All the western nations have that, right?  Rest for your souls.  When we go away for a long weekend, who bothers locking their doors?  Or at night time, who bothers punching in the alarm code?  Who locks their vehicle when you go shopping for groceries, even for 5 minutes?  Do we have rest for our souls?  How many of us would be working today, busy just like the rest of the week, if it wasn't for the Sabbath?  What a blessing it is to have a day of rest so we can cease that customary work, that customary hustle and bustle, although some mornings are more hustle and bustle than others.  But the rest of the day is a rest for our physical bodies and for our souls.  How about passwords?  How many passwords do we have these days?  Pin numbers for our cards, for our bank cards, our credit cards, for face book account, for our e-mail, one for Gmail, one for Outlook.com.   You get tired of all those passwords, you can have a password safe where you can store all of this.  You can keep track of the web site, your user name, your password and it can all be saved and encrypted and kept secure.  Then you have to have another password to open it up.  Do we have rest?  Is this working for us?  We've lost rest for our souls.  But you said we will not walk in it.  We will not walk in it. 

In the United States it was in the 60's when they evicted school prayer from being allowed or encouraged.  I remember when I was a kid we would recite the Lord's prayer.  I'm not that old, but back then in my day we recited the Lord's prayer before every school day.  That was on the books that it was permitted.  Was it in the early 90's that it was tossed out in Ontario?  I can't remember what the law was but it's no longer the case.  We no longer have school prayer and I think we even had the Gideon people hand out the little red bible.  Did you get yours?  My Dad showed me his when he was in school.  I got mine.  Do you think that would be permitted these days?  A bible!  What are you trying to do, make kids nice, get that out of here!  Bring in some video games, that will solve it.  There is talk, even in the United States of changing the currency on all coinage, no matter, pennies, nickels, quarters, half dollars, dollars that says "In God We Trust."  It's also on the printed currency.  There is a movement to get rid of that, it's offensive. I'm not a Christian, I'm an atheist, I don't want that on my money.  It begs the question, why don't you use your credit card or check?  Put whatever you want on there.  But no, we've got to make everybody not use currency that says "In God We Trust."  It's been on there since 1860's on coins.  No, we've got to get rid of it.  In the 50's One Nation Under God was added to the Pledge of Allegiance.  There's talk of that being removed as well.  So suddenly, and not so suddenly, as a nation or as a group of nations in western society we say we will not walk in it.  What a tragedy.  It did not work well for Jerusalem, for Judah, for Israel and it will not work well for the United States, Canada, for the United Kingdom and other western nations, it will not turn out well.  Thankfully, that's not the end of the story, is it? Let's take a look at the book of Micah.

Micah 4:1-4  Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths."  For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.  But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

It seems to be a time to look forward to when people once again can have the opportunity to have their own space, to have their own plot of land, to have it long enough and security in time of liberation where they can plant, plant and grow and harvest.  What a time that will be like again.  I can imagine that at that time farms will once again be profitable, communities will again flourish where they once withered and roads that connect like the road to Romance will again be busy with people engaged in sustainable life styles once more.  But more importantly the roads that link these communities together will lead to another place.  Let's read about that.

Isaiah 35:8-10  A highway shall be there and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.  The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.  Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there.  But the redeemed shall walk there.  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads.  They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.