by J. Randal Matheny

Yeah, I know it's been a while. The new year started fast and furious for me, and I imagine for you, too. God in heaven must love a laugh, because he puts so many wonderful things for us to do in this world, that we can't even count them, much less do them. Pick and choose, and go at it!

I thought today as I wanted to get another UPLift word to you, what is the most encouraging thing I could say to you today?

The answer was not long in coming.

My challenge: how can I say it so it doesn't sound sappy? so it doesn't come across trite? so it doesn't fall on ears that have heard it all before?

I may not succeed at saying it, but I'm going to exert all my energies toward it. Here goes.

Back in 1970, Otis Gatewood, missionary to Iron Curtain countries, published the book, "There is a God in Heaven." To people under a godless communism, Otis set out to demonstrate the existence of God. First, though, he spent 111 pages on the nature of God.

Here's his explanation on the first page:

"... we shall not begin by giving evidence for God's existence, for that is a defensive approach. Such is the usual practice, but how can evidence be given for a God we do not comprehend? Evidence is essential, but it comes at the end, not at the beginning, and bears the nature of confirmation and not discovery. So, evidence in this book will be presented after the nature of God is understood."

In this plain text is the key, the very best word, the most encouraging word, I can share with you today.

There is a God in Heaven. This God can be known, his nature understood, even though his person and work is so far above and beyond our ability to grasp. His nature is wonderful. He is good, he is great, he is loving, he is forgiving, he is holy, he is just. He desires my companionship -- what in the world for, I can't imagine -- but he does, he created me for that, and he has fixed my botched-up life through the most extraordinary swap history ever recorded.

Every day, I need something to get me started, to hype me up, to excite me, to roll me out of bed. I like motivational quotes, self-help books, tear-jerking stories. But all these are ephemeral, their effects, temporal and brief.

Nothing can jerk up my head, lend sparkle to my eyes, and put bounce in my step, like the word I just mentioned, There is a God in Heaven.

As an addendum, I must say, REACT TO THAT! (Yes, I'm shouting.) This is no fiction, no epic movie whose effects slowly wear off after days, no humanly devised story to describe some man's view of our state.

This is the real thing. And it's better than anyone could ever make up. You will never tire of this truth, nor will it ever wear off, run down, or give out.

There is a God in Heaven, and he has sought you out.

Be encouraged today, then, and answer the call.

So here's a shot of The Snuggery after the architects got through fiddling with it. Nicer front, classier look, but the metal doors are flimsy. We've had problems with ours not shutting properly.

Close-up of the entry. These fellows are waiting for the architect to open. I share an entry with a music school on the right, there's a landing up above between us. Daughter Leila studies the flute there. Just so happens the couple who own the music school are our neighbors, live on the same street on the block below us (our street only has two blocks). The owner of the two buildings is the wife's father, and she grew up in the house on the left, as I understand.

I had my camera batteries charged and was ready to capture the new view of The Snuggery, but it rained most of the day, the afternoon straight through, so I wasn't able to catch a pic of it. Who knows ... maybe tomorrow?

This from my friend Mike Benson (and check my reaction at the end) --

KneEmail
"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow..." (Philippians 2:10).
Mike Benson, editor; Matt Gehlhausen, managing editor

THE LEADER OF the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was Sir Ernest Shackleton, a famous British explorer...

The expedition left South Georgia Island and sailed for Antarctica in December, 1914. While still 100 miles from the coast of Antarctica, the ship Endurance became locked in surface ice. For nine months the frozen ocean slowly dragged the vessel away from the continent, finally crushing and sinking it in November, 1915.

The group set out on foot to walk 400 miles across the ice, towing Endurances' three lifeboats and what they had salvaged from her. Traversing ice and water, they made it to barren, frozen Elephant Island, setting foot on soil for the first time in 497 days.

>From there, Shackleton and five others set out in a lifeboat for their original point of embarkation. The lifeboat took them 800 miles across the fiercest seas on planet earth -- the South Atlantic Ocean. Seventeen days later, almost a year and a half after leaving South Georgia Island originally, their tiny craft arrived. Shackleton and the others returned in a Chilean vessel to rescue the remainder of the crew from Elephant Island, not one of whom had perished.

The details of what these 28 souls endured during their odyssey are staggering. Living in frozen-stiff clothing which went unchanged for months. Frostbite. A diet of penguin and eventually their own sled dogs. Unrelenting sub-zero temperatures. And yet they endured. They persisted. They persevered.

THOUGHT: The Christian life is a journey of persistence--an adventure, even, because we do not know what each day will bring. Like the Shackleton expedition, it is an adventure filled with unexpected twists and turns. One minute you're making ground, basking in the warm glow of spiritual success, and the next you're watching your soul shatter as you fall back losing precious progress (David Jeremiah, "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back," The Persistent Christian Journey).

KneEmail #547: "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise" (Heb. 10:36).

Bible reading for 01.08.04: Genesis 22 - 24.

You can access more information about Ernest Shackleton and the Trans-Antarctic Expedition at http://www.south-pole.com/p0000098.htm

To Subscribe/Unsubscribe, visit us on the web at www.oakhillcoc.org Be a missionary! Forward KneEmail to a friend, loved one or co-worker today.

I wrote Mike and said:

Wow! Makes me shiver just reading about it.

And our little lives right where we are is the most exciting journey of all. Wrap Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Rocky I-XXVIII, and all the rest together, and they don't come close to the thrill of our faith walk with the Lord.

Eventually, this story will show up here. and you can go here to subscribe.

This is what the building looked like before some architects moved in below me. Shortly, I'll have a shot of it after they tinkered with the front. The Snuggery is located on the top at the back. (The second-floor door is mine, but not the window -- yet.) I'm trying to see if the architects will let me have the other half of the top floor. The owner offered it to me, and I told him I'd think about it. While I was stupidly delaying, he rented it out with the bottom floor. So back in here I do my writing, thinking, studying, and plotting.

Best I remember, I rented The Snuggery in December, 2001, but it was four to six months before I actually made it my principal daytime hangout.

Of course, it didn't earn the name Snuggery until after it had been thoroughly broken in. So the official nomenclature delayed until this very day, Thursday, 8 January 2004.

As far as the name goes, the Brits are to blame, according to M-W:

Main Entry: snug·gery
Pronunciation: 'sn&-g(&-)rE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ger·ies
Date: 1812
chiefly British : a snug cozy place; especially : a small room