Please, Break Into My Car

Our church in Portland was involved in an evangelism campaign in Portland to reach the lost.  Over the phone, I contacted a man who was interested, a black Muslim.  To follow up, I prearranged a visit to his house.  Wow, a black Muslim!  How do I prepare for what to say to him when I meet him?  I studied the basic theology, about Isaac and Ishmael, and I had some previous knowledge I learned in school about the Nation of Islam.  

At the time I was to meet him, one evening, I parked my car across the street from his house.  In the car, I prayed for our encounter.  Then, I left the car to go up to his house.  We greeted each other on his porch.  I started to talk about Theology but he was not interested in that.  He already knew the Bible.  What he was interested in was how God works miracles.  I felt sort of sorry that I could not point to a lot of miracles, but I told him about how God changed my life.  I had been in trouble when I was younger but since I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I didn’t do that anymore.  He was impressed by that, but that was all I had.  

I went back to my car, but realized I could not get in.  I had locked my keys in the car.  I asked someone and they said I needed a wire hanger to get into the wing window of my 1968 Falcon. I prayed for a solution to my predicament. After looking on the ground for some sort of wire around the neighborhood, and in the Fred Meyer store [“Did you find what you need?”, No.] I went back to my car.  What else could I do?  Who else could I ask for a hanger but the one person I knew in this neighborhood.  

While I did not want him to see me as representative of a stupid Christian who does dumb things like lock themselves out of their car, I had a need to get home.  I went back up to his porch, knocked, and told him about my problem.  He said he could help me, his room mate had done some time in jail, and could do it.  With skill, the job was done and we were happy.  Then, he quoted that “verse”, “God works in mysterious ways”.  Yes, he realized he witnessed the miracle he wanted to see.

Isn’t it odd that Christians, who are suppose to be serving others, actually connect more easily with nonbelievers when they ask them for help?  Conventional thinking is that Christians have all the answers that the world needs.  God is great, and Christians would appear weak to ask help from nonbelievers.  However, Jesus showed in John 4 that asking for water from a half pagan (?) woman was OK.  Jesus had the living water, but he still asked her for a drink.  

Would Jesus agree with the statement, “Jesus is all you need”?  Or is there a purpose for needs we have in this world? While our ultimate need is the Living Water (or Jesus), we are still in the world, and interact with the world.  God, in His sovereignty, allows us to need specific things from others.  Such humility aids us in connecting to the lost.  Both believers and nonbelievers have needs - like water, and those needs open the door to meeting the inner needs.

 Truth (and Advertising)

Vegan steak sauce?

Do we always trust advertising?  Are product labels deceiving?  Is it good to be skeptical to what salespeople say?  In our world, it is normal to emphasize the pros and minimize the cons.   However, this sometimes conflicts with consumer expectations.  While the Market corrects this and inferior products drop out of distribution, it takes time to do this.  In web sites such as Yelp, consumers have a say, to either get back at a company, or to warn fellow consumers of deficient products or services - And to promote the exceptional and excellent ones.

When I was a young kid, our family traveled to Rockaway, Oregon and rented a house there.  One day, I remembered arguing with a boy who ‘set up shop’ outside on the main street (Hwy 101) selling plain old rocks.  These were like rounded river rocks, but very ordinary.  But he said the price, and I couldn’t believe it.  These were not agates like in the shops beside him.  He was not convinced that his rocks were really cheap, so I went on. 

Another time, I remember my mom had a frozen pie to serve but she had to let it thaw first.  On the box, it said “ready to serve”, but it really wasn’t.  So, I became so concerned about other people would buy the pie, thinking that they could eat it when they came home from the store, and be disappointed when they found they had to let it thaw over night.  So, I wrote to the pie company, a major pie manufacturer such as Mrs. Smith’s Pies.  I got a reply back, and the company representative liked my suggestion to change the ‘ready to serve’ on the box to ‘thaw and serve’.  You see, ‘ready to serve’ might have been an industry term, understood by manufacturers, it did not translate well to consumers.

These two incidents illustrate my inclinations growing up.  Before making a major purchase, I want to check out the different shops, the different models, the reviews and the ratings.  I like to read up on current issues.  I realize that like with sales, in politics, people can also spin and leave out some facts.  One can change a story by playing with numbers.  

Critical thinking is important.  It is come by living through being disappointed by things that were bought, even being ripped-off by scam artists. I want to warn others so as to avoid these negative experiences.  But sometimes, my warnings are taken as the negative.  So, like with the boy with the rocks, I move on. 

It is my love for others that motivates me to warn others.  But such thinking needs to be balanced with praise for the excellent.  As Phil 4:8 says, the mind needs to be exercised to think on the positive things.  And this is written by Paul who also wrote of many negative experiences that he had.  It seems Paul realizes he needs to balance his thought life with the positive realities.  

When reading the Bible, I am free to think and question how things fit together.  I believe there are no contradictions.  There are logical explanations that resolve some difficulties, but there are others that only God knows the answer. On the other hand, there are a multitude of things to thank and praise God for.

Did your ancestors have slaves? 

 https://www.glennbeck.com/joe-bidens-family-owned-slaves?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

I was curious about the 'Robinette' in VP Joe Biden's middle name. My great great grandmother is Lucinda (Robinette) Hall who was born in Kentucky, moved to Missouri, and then to Oregon in 1847. So, after researching it with online info, I found out that I am the 6th cousin of the Vice President. Our common ancestor is George Nathan Robinette who was born in 1718. Glenn Beck did an article on Joe's ancestry, and it showed that Joe's ancestors had slaves. I guess what Glenn's aim was to show that those particular people who support Joe AND who support the cancel culture, well - there's a problem.

So, I did the research on my Hall/Robinette line to find out if the same thing happens with my line. I find no slaves with the Thomas and Lucinda (Robinette) Hall family or Lucinda's parents, Joseph and Nancy (Barker) Robinette in 1840 Lafayette Co., MO and 1830 Boone Co., MO. Many of their neighbors in Missouri had slaves, but they did not. Lucinda's grandparents, John and Rebecca Robinette, did have slaves in 1820 and 1810 in Kentucky (Clark and Bourbon Co., respectively). The younger generations did not follow this particular tradition of the older generation.

 [Ancestry made a mistake in the 1840 Lafayette Co., MO census by having slaves for Joseph Robinette. I figured the count was off. The backside of the census image has the slaves, but there were no slaves there for Joseph’s family. One can count the free people on the front and the slaves on the back to come up with the correct total, and that is a check against the error from Ancestry]. 

 Some traditions are good, but some are bad and need to be broken. However, history can still be in a museum, enough to remind us of the past. Unfortunately, in Portland, Antifa (or whoever) not only took down the statues but also broke into the nearby Oregon Historical Museum where I had done some of my research. I suppose someone will capture this incident so that those in the future can learn this lesson from history. Fortunately, a quilt created by several African American women was rescued. 

Perhaps someone can do further research to find out when Biden’s Maryland Robinette ancestors stopped having slaves. While my ancestor, John Robinette, did have slaves, his children and grand children did not. Those who leave the bad traditions to the past are progressives. Those who deny that progression are Marxists. 

Me - Dave Davis 

Edward Davis b. 1916 OR 

Chester Davis b. 1870 OR 

Missouri Hall b. 1849 OR 

Lucinda (Robinette) Hall b. 1812 KY 

Joseph Robinette b. 1783 VA 

John Robinette b. 1755 

George Nathan Robinette b. 1718 

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. b. 1942 

Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. b. 1915 MD 

Joseph Harry Biden b. 1893 MD 

George Hamilton Robinette b. 1844 MD 

Moses Johnson Robinette b. 1819 MD 

Jesse Robinette b. 1776 MD 

Capt. George Robinette b. 1750 

George Nathan Robinette b. 1718

The Neighborhood

A Light In the Wilderness by author Jane Kirkpatrick (Revell, 2014) is a historical novel with its main focus on the character, Letitia, a freed slave. Letitia was a slave on the Bowman plantation in Kentucky. William and Sarah (Kindred) Bowman had freed her, and eventually their other slaves. In Missouri, Letitia was there with the Bowmans. She was a friend of the family. The book mentions Letitia’s interactions with Sarah Bowman and her daughter, Artmesia. Letitia had met an Irishman, David Carson whom she loved. In 1844, the Bowmans traveled on to Oregon, leaving Letitia behind. One year later, in 1845, Davey Carson and Letitia (now married) go to Oregon.

In Oregon, they settle on a land claim in the Soap Creek Valley in Benton County Oregon. David Carson is able to claim only 320 acres, not the usual 640 acres for a couple, because Letitia is black. Also, somewhere along the way to Oregon, Letitia’s papers are lost which authenticated her freed state. Greenberry Smith, a neighbor, becomes her nemesis when he challenges her freed state. Things turn ugly, only to be later turned into court battles in which Letitia becomes victor.

Greenberry Smith was a fellow neighbor in both Missouri and in Oregon who traveled with their wagon train. He had been a slave patroller, looking out for runaway slaves. Another neighbor traveling with the Carsons was Nancy Hawkins. On the trip, her husband died in an Indian attack, and she later remarried in Oregon to another neighbor, Thomas Reed. Nancy is a very caring friend and neighbor for Letitia, in Missouri and in Oregon.

Here is a picture of the neighborhood as pictured in the 1850 census in Benton County, Oregon:

The Windbreaker: George Washington Bush, Black Pioneer of the Northwest by Iris White Heikell (Baker, 1980) tells of another story of a black pioneer, this one focusing on George Washington Bush. George was born a freeman, a son of a wealthy black man and an Irish woman. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a mountaineer. In 1844, a wagon train including George Washington Bush and family, and his white neighbors traveled in 1844 from Missouri to Oregon. This group included William and Sarah (Kindred) Bowman and family, Sarah’s parents, David and Talitha Kindred, and Sarah’s sister’s family, Michael and Elizabeth (Kindred) Simmons, and family! And others.

Upon arriving in Oregon, this wagon party was greeted by news that the Provisional Government of Oregon voted to exclude blacks from living in Oregon. This ruling was partly anti-slavery, but it was also anti-black. John McLoughlin of the Hudson’s Bay Company advised the company that George could settle north of the Columbia River, which was beyond Oregon law. All of the families but the Bowmans went north to settle. The Bowmans settled in Polk County, Oregon. Shortly after 1852, William Bowman died. Later in 1852, Sarah Bowman remarried a widower, David Davis. The 1860 census shows a blended family of Davis and Bowman children, plus two daughters, Mary and Hannah Davis.



While Iris Heikell, in her book, shows Sarah as sympathetic towards Geoege Bush’s plight and unfair treatment, Jane Kirkpatrick shows Sarah as open to interracial friendship but opposed to interracial marriage. Sarah’s daughter, Talitha, married David Davis’ business friend, James O’Neal, one of those men who were in the Provisional Oregon government. Artemesia, another of Sarah’s daughters, is mentioned early in Kirkpatrick’s book. She is not found in Oregon, but she was living up where her maternal grandparents were in the future Washington territory.

My book, Our Davis Pioneer Ancestors, has Sarah living with her blended family in 1860:
Sarah in Our Davis Pioneer Ancestors
Greenberry Smith, the antagonist in Kirkpatrick’s book, was also an antagonist in my book. He is pictured as a ‘banker’ who loaned out money to the local settlers. He got even more wealthy after he took their land after his neighbors defaulted on their loans.Greenberry Smith in Our Davis Pioneer Ancestors

God Is So Great - Can we Understand Him?

Though we believers are commanded to love the Lord with all our mind, God is so great, there is a limit to how much we can understand.

A. W. Tozer:
God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.
A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p. 68

Tozer quote

All verses (NASB)

Deut 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Matt 22:37
And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

Job 5:9
Who does great and unsearchable things, Wonders without number.

Job 26:36
“Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; The number of His years is unsearchable.

Ps 145:3
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, And His greatness is unsearchable.

Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Psalm 139:6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

1 Corintians 2:10-13
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Ephesians 3:18-19
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Job 37:5
“God thunders with His voice wondrously, Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.

Ernie Haase:
If I could understand everything that He was doing, that wouldn’t be a God I would want to serve.
[Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, FaceBook, April 17, 2020, 7:30m, accessed May 19, 2020]

Tim Tebow:
If we can understand everything about the God we serve, what kind of god would that be?
(Tim Tebow, A. J. Gregory: Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity In the Midst of Life’s Storms; Crown, 2018, p. 42)

Dwight Lyman Moody:
If everybody could understand everything the Bible said, it wouldn't be God's book ...
(Dwight Lyman Moody: The New Sermons of Dwight Moody, 1880, p. 190, Google Books, accessed May 19, 2020)

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17
When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

[Imagine, the one man who had been gifted with the greatest wisdom finds out there is a limit to his knowledge, even after much work and thought].

Different Cultures Are Glorifying To God

Rev 7:9 (NIV) After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Culture is not the result of sin; culture, though, is influenced by sin.

In Genesis 11, is the story of the Tower of Babel. The people in ancient history had united behind building a tower that could reach the heavens. However, God caused them to speak different languages, thus, giving them reason to separate. Their unity was based on seeking a god in their own way. God, instead confused them by making them speak in several new languages. This caused the people to separate and spread out over the earth.

The people, by concentrating their occupation of the earth in one spot, Babel, were disobeying God’s command to Noah:

Genesis 9:1 (NIV)
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

By spreading out, peoples would naturally become different from other peoples. Gradually, people would speak with different accents, then languages. Foods, crafts, design, art and music would be different. God desired mankind to spread out, and, as a by product, to have diverse cultures.

God, as a designer, works with a diverse creation yet united in commonality (DNA, golden mean proportions). There are different kinds of trees, fruit, climates, and rocks. So, different cultures and languages are not wrong. However, sin has influenced people and cultures. Arts and music, philosophies, and governments have been influenced by God-less or man-only perspectives.

In the end, in Revelation, sin-less nations, different cultures, all worship the one God. The sinful part of those differences have been eliminated, leaving the differences that are glorifying to God.

Is “All I Need Is Jesus” True?

Hillsong United:

“All I need is You

All I need is You Lord

Is You Lord”

Heritage Singers:

“Jesus is all I need 

Jesus is all I need 

I need no other friend 

I need no other one 

Jesus is all I need”

I am well aware of the poetic use of hyperbole, exaggerating in order to make a point. We see Jesus using this in the Bible when he declares we must hate our parents (Luke 14:26), or cutting off ones hands to prevent sinning (Matt 5:30).  These can be explained better elsewhere.  So, a song such as “He is everything to me” can make sense, in the spirit of that ‘bigger than life’ saying.

However, it is not necessarily true that God is everything.  That is another worldview, not Christianity.  Hindu, I believe, sees God or god as all encompassing.  In Christianity, God is Creator of all creation, but He is not created but is self existing, and set apart - holy.

A. J. Swoboda, in his book, The Dusty Ones, is quite outspoken about the use of the phrase.

“Only a perverted form of Christianity would say that all one needs is God and nothing else. Nobody actually believes that nor is it even close to being true.  I could have God but no food and I would die. Such a theology departs entirely from the life of Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus himself modeled the life of needing. As Christians, in this time and place we have been provided a kind of script. The script, whether we are aware of it or not, is one of complete self-completion and needlessness. Again we may or may not be conscious of it but we all need but we all read from this script.

“This conception of faith - of being people without needs - raises a bunch a perfectly legitimate questions. Is faith really about self-fulfillment? Is Christianity about making people who don’t need others? If so, isn’t this different from the way Jesus lived his own life?

“A disciple must learn the lesson that God isn’t primarily in the wants business.  Hopefully, reexamining the life of Jesus - a life marked by real needs - will help the age old belief that all we need is God retreat into the obscurity it so deserves”.

from The Dusty Ones, A. J. Swoboda, Baker Books, 2016, pp 116-117

As an amateur songwriter, I am concerned about the words I use, and whether they are biblically true.  I look to other Songwriters and their songs for examples.  Gloria Gaither is one of the top Christian Songwriters.  Here is how she explains what she thinks about this familiar phrase.

“When I was young we would sing “Jesus is All I Need.” I never really like that song much. I argued In my mind whenever we sang it, Well, I, for one, need a lot more. I need someone to love me. I need a warm body, a friendly face, someone to talk to at breakfast, and, more than that, someone who will talk back. I need quiet walks on the beach and a good cup of coffee with a friend to whom I don’t have to explain myself.

“How shallow I was.  Over the years I have come to notice that in the Gospel accounts, whenever someone had a need, Jesus answered with the ancient God words: “I AM.” And life is teaching me why Jesus answered with the words “I AM”. 

“I can hear his disciples. Around the campfire on the Sea of Galilee, they’re singing the chorus, “Jesus Is All That I Need,” and Peter says—-in his typical blurt-it-out fashion—-“Well, that’s all well and good, but I for one need some supper!” And Jesus answers simply but with a certain finality, “I AM the bread.”

“There is the woman at the well. As she lifts to the surface the heavy bucket brimming with sweet water, she thinks, How lovely to have this deep well that has survived all the generations. I may be an outcast, but it least I have this well. I need this water. Suddenly the stranger who has just Asked for a drink says, “If only you knew, you’d ask Me for a drink. This well is temporary, but I AM the Water that never runs dry, and I quench thirsts that no water can satisfy.”

from page 55 and 56 of Something Beautiful by Gloria Gaither, FaithWords, 2007

Not only is Jesus the Bread of Life to Peter, or is He giving Living Water to that woman at the well, but Gloria also mentions that He is the Resurrection and the Life to Martha, “I AM” the Way to Thomas, and “I AM” the King and the Truth to Pilate.

However, if given enough thought, I believe that Jesus is saying that the need for Him and God, in general, is paramount but not the only needs we have.  It’s like the diagrams for evangelism that show a circle with God’s throne in the center, and all the other needs within the circle, but to the sides.  I think the “I AM” statements referred by Gloria Gaither mean instead that God is the LORD of our needs.  While our need for God is big, we also have other needs.  God does supply our needs, as He promised, but these are in addition to our basic need for Him.

In certain areas of the world, it might not be as needy as in other areas.  We must not diminish people, whose needs seem to be more, by dismissing their physical needs by saying, ‘God is all you need’.  Yes, we are His hands and feet, and He can use us to meet others needs.  The incarnate Jesus had real needs, and He also supplied His disciples with fried fish for example.  Jesus never said He was our only need.  But those who know Him, know Him as Lord.

Here are some other articles:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-is-the-i-only-need-jesus-declaration-christian/

http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/commonsensechristianity/2014/02/jesus-isnt-all-you-need-hes-all-youve-got.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/2008/fall/37.8.html