All posts by David Todd

goals

May Goals

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The 5th is a little late to be setting goals for the month, but this is the first chance I’ve had.

1. Complete and submit the article to Internet Genealogy. I’m well along with it right now, and I don’t see this as a problem.

2. Find 3 to 5 more places to submit “Mom’s Letter”. The research is done; I just have to make copies and stuff envelopes.

3. Blog 12 to 14 times.

4. Work on one appendix and one chapter note of the Harmony of the gospels.

5. Write one chapter in In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People.

6. Complete preparation for my two lesson Bible study, Good King, Bad King. It looks now that I won’t be teaching it in May, or any time soon. But I’ve done the research and development, and would like to have it ready on the shelf for some time in the future when I do teach it.

7. Write some closing notes to the Life on a Yo Yo Bible study, perhaps even some promotional items to make it a potentially publishable work, and decide what to do with it.

goals

The April Report

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The month began well, but as can be expected when vacation comes in that month, it did not end all that well.

1. Market “Mom’s Letter” to at least five markets. Some of the markets I’ve selected close to submissions in May, so I have to get that done this month. I accomplished this goal, sending “Mom’s Letter” to exactly five markets. Haven’t heard anything yet, of course.

2. Begin work on “It’s Over Over Here”, my article on Dad’s work with The Stars and Stripes during World War 2. Even if I don’t get the assignment from the magazine, I’d like to write the article. Did not do this. Too many other writing activities took precedence.

3. Complete the beta reading project I’ve committed to. I was doing good on this before my illness, and before tax diversion. I’m 2/3 of the way through this short, young adult novel. I can do this this month. Yes, I completed this. The project was interesting, reading and critiquing a novel whose target audience is teen age girls. Hopefully I did some good.

4. Write at least one chapter of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I outlined seven chapters last month; surely I can get one of those written. Nope, did not do this; it didn’t even come up on the radar.

5. Blog 12 to 14 times. This seems to be the thing that is easiest for me, so I’ll bump up my goal a little this month. Yes, I blogged 14 times.

6. Monitor five writing blogs/web sites. This is also easy, and I’m learning much from these sites. I also did this monitoring, something that’s easy to do a day at a time. I have some catching up to do from vacation.

7. Complete the political essay I started on the Baby Boomer generation, and post it to The Senescent Man blog. I’m almost halfway done with this. I completed this, and posted it in four segments at “The Senescent Man” blog. BTW, we three main contributors to “The Senescent Man” got together in real live last Tuesday in Cranston, RI, along with another man, all friends from college, some from high school, some from junior high, and some even from grade school.

8. Get back to writing, at least a little, on the notes and appendixes of the Harmony of the Gospels. I’d like to spend about an hour a week on this, which will give me continued progress by inches. I looked at this a little bit, but did not come even close to spending an hour a week on it. Last month I gave a copy of the work as it stands to my pastor, who told me he is enjoying it, and is anxious to see those appendixes.

Genealogy, research, travel

Random Road Trip Thoughts

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That’s random thoughts from a road trip, not thoughts on a random road trip, by the way. We returned yesterday after 3,700 plus miles, going to Oklahoma City (for grandson Ephraim’s first birthday party) by way of Rhode Island (for nephew Chris’ wedding). Here are some thoughts as I think of them.

– Arkansas has the most road kill per mile, by far. I say this even though only about 50 miles of the trip were in Arkansas.

– Gas prices are fairly equal from Oklahoma to New England. The lowest I saw was $1.779 per gallon around the Tulsa area. The most $2.099 in Rhode Island. That’s only an 18 percent difference. In 1990-91, when we made a couple of similar road trips between North Carolina and Arkansas, the price varied by more than 50 percent.

– Many New England towns are quaint and pleasant to drive through. The area between Worcester MA and Woonsocket RI is filled with towns such as Grafton, Upton, Uxbridge, Milford, and Sutton that have some type of central core (not so much a village green as a downtown, but different than the downtowns in the midwest) that is full of old buildings–churches, government offices, retail, residential–that are pleasant to drive by and observe. At several places I would have loved to have had the time to stop and wander around on foot.

– Rhode Island has the worst roads of any state we drove in. The Interstate highways were fine, but the roads a notch below that, the state highways, left much to be desires, and the city streets were generally awful.

– Pennsylvania may just be the most beautiful state in the nation. I know other states have higher mountains, more magnificent rivers, and mixtures of landscape and climate. But I love to drive I-80 across Pennsylvania. This is the Allegheny mountains much of the way, and pretty good sized hills for the rest. You don’t go through any towns or cities until the far eastern end, which we bypassed this time. Many times the road is on high bridges that tower above a river or stream below. Frequently the east-bound and west-bound lanes are on different grades, and you seem to be on a one way road. We took this in daylight both directions, and I enjoyed the 10 hours thoroughly.

– Judging by the truck traffic, the economic depression is not too deep. Except, the traffic is down on weekends and at nights compared to previous road trips I’ve taken. So while many trucks still transport their cargo on our Interstate highways, they are not pushing as hard as the did previously. Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong about being in a depression that will last approximately eight years. But I’m not throwing in the towel on that yet.

– It’s good to get off the Interstates some. We did so at Toledo, where we spent a night, and went on state highways to Fort Wayne. Aside from being confused by the place names (in rapid succession we passed through or saw signs for Waterville–also a Vermont town we know–Grand Rapids–Ohio, not Michigan–Texas, Florida, Antwerp, and three or four similar well-known places not expected in northwest Ohio), and besides fighting rain, we enjoyed the brief chance to drive at slower speeds and see a new part of the country up close. Even being slowed down to pass through the towns was not all that bad.

– The genealogy section in the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is all it is cracked up to be. What a fantastic collection! I planned to spend an hour there, doing the small bit of research needed for my article, and wound up spending nearly six hours, as Lynda had some work to do there for renewing her nursing license. Since I hadn’t planned for that much time I was not well prepared for it, but hopefully used it well to search for one elusive line of ancestors and find more information on one of my well-studied ones.

This post is long enough already. I’ll have more to day in another post or two.

Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Genealogy, Harmony of the gospels, Life On A YoYo

My article in good shape, other writing no so much

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I received the assignment to write the article for Internet Genealogy last Friday, April 17. In my query letter I included an outline of what I thought would be in the article, so I had a pretty good place from which to start.

I started the next night, but then didn’t work on it until Tuesday. My thoughts gelled a bit more yesterday, and the words began to flow. By the end of yesterday evening I was up to about 600 words, out of 1500 to 2000 for the article. I don’t think I’ll have any problem filling the words, as I still have much more to write. Cutting some words will be more likely.

However, I have not made a lot of progress on anything else. Last night our pastor came up to me before church and said he was enjoying my Harmony of the gospels, and wanted to know if I had anything more written on the appendixes. The version I gave him had one appendix, the only one written, so he could see the sorts of things I’m planning on doing for them. No, I said, nothing more yet; been working on other things. He seemed disappointed, and said he is anxious to see what I’m going to do with them. So I guess I need to get back to work on that.

Yesterday I submitted my short story, “Mom’s Letter,” to three magazines via snail mail. I hope to submit to three or four more today. All of these accept simultaneous submissions. So that item is done on this month’s to do list.

I have finished teaching Life On A Yo Yo in life group (my co-teacher will teach the last lesson this Sunday while I am gone), and it’s time to take my notes and write them up in a somewhat presentable fashion. This could then become a potential Bible study I could market and write.

Any real writing on my latest Bible study, “Good King, Bad King”, will have to wait for a couple of weeks at least.

On books, I’ve done nothing of late, except dream. I outlined the next seven chapters of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, but have not written any more on it. I don’t think I will for a while, while working on platform-building activities.

Will that platform building make a difference in being accepted by a royalty paying publisher? Who knows. The experts in the industry say so, and since I am not an expert I will have to rely on them. Time will tell.

Good King-Bad King, King Asa, Life Group lessons, Writing

Productive Days

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I have one more post to make on King Asa. At least I think I do. Right now I can’t find the notes on what the last post was to be about. But I need a break from that, so today I’ll just make a general progress-of-life type post.

Late last week and the weekend were productive days, for writing and for other things. I worked hard on my Good King, Bad King study for our Life Group. Right now it’s only two classes, on the life of King Asa, who is both the good and bad king. I’m going to teach it a couple of Sundays in May while we wait for our new quarterly study to arrive. This will be a good Bible study, and I plan someday to expand it into eight to ten lessons, maybe even more. However, the amount of research I did for this tells me this may have to wait until retirement.

Friday night Lynda got it in her head to try to find a couple of books we’ve never been able to find since we moved to Bella Vista from Bentonville in 2002. Our basement has lots of boxes, but very few we haven’t gone through. Friday evening we went through those, didn’t find the missing books, but found other things we had forgotten about. Some of it could easily be discarded, as it related to employment at places where we are not now employed. Other was simply mis-boxed, and could be easily taken to other, similar things. We found several boxes with not a whole lot in them. We consolidated some of this, the entire process concluding Saturday evening. The end result is our “stuff” stuffed in the basement is less than before, though we have much more similar work to do.

My genealogy work continues, and I’m trying to find a way to do a little bit at a time. Normally when I get the genealogy bug, it consumes me and I become a basket case. Not so at the moment. I am slowly going through the life of Peter Cheney, son of John Cheney of Newbury Massachusetts. He lived 1638-1696, and is Lynda’s gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather. My document of events in his life is up to five pages (with source footnotes), and I feel good about it.

Writing wise, I have posted six times about the life of King Asa of Judah, and three times at The Senescent Man blog about the Baby Boomers, and why I call them the Candy Store Generation. I have one more post to make in that series. Also this weekend I completed a sonnet, one that has been buzzing around in my head for a couple of years, which finally gelled Friday night and was finished by Saturday afternoon. This morning I posted it for critique at Absolute Write.

Reading wise, I kept up with my Bible reading, and with pleasure reading in the two books of letters, one Tolkien’s and one C.S. Lewis’. They are different style letters. The selected ones in the Tolkien book are mainly about his writing and publishing. The Lord of the Ring is heavily discussed. I’m at the point where he had just finished the book and is weighing two options for publishing. The CSL selected letters are on Christianity, letters to various Christian friends, or people considering Christianity. They are denser than Tolkien’s, and I find I have to have absolute silence to read and comprehend them. Tolkien’s I can read while the television is on.

The other big item is: I have my first freelancing writing assignment! Last Thursday I went to Barnes & Noble after work in search of a certain book I wanted to buy and give to someone. It was not available, though another, similar book was and I got that. Then I went to the magazine racks to look for a couple of mags to research and see if I can write articles for them. One of them, Internet Genealogy, I discovered at Borders in Overland Park last month. I read then it while drinking a large house blend, mainly for my love of the subject.

Then, last week it hit me that maybe I could write something for that mag. So I got a copy, read it in the coffee shop while drinking a large house blend, and took notes and began to think of what I could write about. The on-line database I’ve been using to research Peter Cheney is at a site that genealogical researchers might not expect, so that seemed a good place to start. Thursday night (actually Friday morning about 4 AM) I couldn’t sleep. Got up at 5 AM and drafted a query letter to Internet Genealogy proposing that article. I sent it via e-mail on my noon hour on Friday, went for my noon walk, came back to my desk and had a reply from the editor: yes, write the article.

This will be for pay–not huge pay, but certainly enough to make the work worthwhile. This will be for platform building–not a great platform, but something to show editors and agents. This will be to demonstrate that my writing is good enough to be published. We’ll see.

Good King-Bad King, King Asa, Life Group lessons

The Jerusalem Assembly: Good or Bad?

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The Bible records two major military issues for King Asa: first the invasion of a combined Cushite and Libyan army from the south, and later a threat from the sister nation Israel from the north. The first one drove Asa to prayer, as he knew his forces were outnumbered and they had no hope for victory if God did not intervene. The second drove Asa to form an alliance with Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, in so doing plundering his own temple and personal treasury. In other words, he either bribed Ben-Hadad or hired him to provide mercenaries.

In each case a prophet came to Asa. The first was Azariah, who gave Asa a message of hope and encouragement. The second was Hanani, who chastised Asa, told him he had chosen poorly, and advised that as a result God’s intentions had been thwarted. The second time Asa continued to behave badly, apparently to the end of his days. The first time, he instituted more religious reforms and called for an assembly of the nation in Jerusalem to renew their religious zeal.

The Jerusalem Assembly. Let’s see what the scripture has to say about it.

Then he [Asa] assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
…..They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. At that time they sacrificed to the LORD seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. They took an oath to the LORD with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side. 2nd Chronicles 15:9-15

On the surface, this sounds pretty good. They sought God wholeheartedly; they found Him. They did this with oaths and with loud acclamations. Wait, this is what troubles me, both the oaths and loud acclamations, the trumpets and horns and shouting. The enthusiasm of the moment may have caused many to be carried away and do things and make oaths that were not wholehearted–that and the threat that if they didn’t do so they would be put to death. What would you do if everyone was shouting and declaring oaths to God, with trumpets and horns blaring and saying anyone who didn’t take the oath would be put to death?

I’m sure many were sincere, but just as many were either caught up in the moment or afraid not to make the oath.

Throughout the history of the church, the whole business of enthusiasm has waxed and waned, been in favor and out of favor. During Wesley’s days it was generally frowned on. Get too enthusiastic and people wondered about you. During the 18th century revivals in America, it was embraced. Certainly some enthusiasm is good. I hope everyone who considers themselves a disciple of Jesus is enthusiastic about being so. But could a lot of enthusiasm cause one to lose his head, declare impossible oaths and promise things that cannot be delivered? I wonder.

The idea that anyone who did not follow I AM in the nation should be put to death is found in the Law of Moses. Today it seems harsh, little better than the jihads of radical Islam. If we dislike the Islamic practice of converting to Islam or be killed, how can we embrace the Israeli practice resulting from the Jerusalem assembly?

And what of its effects on Asa? It would appear he got carried away with his assembly. Everyone agreed with him, either wholeheartedly or not. When a king has no one to disagree with him, he will tend to get puffed up. Thus, twenty plus years later, when Hanani confronted his error, rather than humble himself, Asa threw the messenger in jail. This led to a downhill progression, where he oppressed his people and failed to seek I AM when he had a need.

Was the Jerusalem Assembly under Asa a good thing or a bad thing? All I know for sure is, before that assembly, Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and after that assembly he made bad choices and was chastised by God’s prophet. The enthusiasm of the great assembly vs. the quiet affirmation of a person in a one-on-one conversation with God. I like the former, but I think I like the latter better.

Good King-Bad King, King Asa, Life Group lessons

Another Prophet Confronts Asa

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As I said in yesterday’s post, King Asa, when faced with war with Israel, sought an alliance with the ungodly Aram rather than muster his own army. The result was that Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, attacked Israel from the north and the Israeli king backed off from his border with Judah and turned 180 to fight the country he had had a peace treaty with. Asa then took the occasion to build up his own defenses: “[He] issued an order to all Judah–no one was exempt–and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using there. With them King Asa built up Geba in Benjamin, and also Mizpah.” [1st Kings 15:22-24] Never mind that the Law of Moses allowed certain exemptions from service such as this. Asa said no one was exempt.

Then came Hanani the seer to see Asa. This is the second occasion recorded where a prophet came to give God’s word to Asa. Azariah did so after the Cushite war, encouraging Asa. Might Hanani be about ready to do the same thing? Nay:

Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war. 2nd Chronicles 16:7b-9

Wow! This prophet doesn’t mince words. Asa’s use of reversal of entangling alliances as a means to avoid war was a bad thing, not a good thing. That phrase “the king of Aram has escaped from your hand” is a curious addition. At the time when Israel threatened Judah, Judah was not at war with Aram. But Aram was aligned with Israel, and Israel was about, so it seemed, to war against Judah. Might this have dragged in Aram to assist their ally? If so, Judah would have found itself fighting both Israel and Aram.

But it seems that was God’s plan. The prophet said Aram had escaped from Judah. God was probably intending to deliver Judah from those two nations, expecting that Asa would cry out to Him. Unfortunately, Asa did not cry out to the LORD his God. He proceeded with his own best judgment, which turned out not very good.

But a man can make a mistake and recover from it, right? Doesn’t that happen again and again throughout the Bible. Yes, so let’s see what Asa’s response was.

Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.
…..…In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. 2nd Chronicles 16:10, 12

So it seems Asa did not repent. In fact he got worse. He imprisoned God’s messenger to him, then seems to have gone off the deep end, brutally oppressing people, and forgetting that I AM could help him in his illness.

A sad, sad story. Even though Asa did great things, won great military victories, instituted great religious reforms, had great personal piety, and was honored by the people at his death, Asa’s last days do not reflect what they could have and should have been.

What caused this? How does a man go from the pinnacle of success to the depths of bad behavior? I’m going to explore this in the next post.

Good King-Bad King, Life Group lessons

Asa responds to a threat from Israel

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In the thirty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign, neighboring Israel began to make threats. The king of Israel “went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.”

So, the wars with Israel that had plagued his father and grandfather finally reached Asa’s house.

We have a bit of trouble with the timeline here. The scriptures, both 1st Kings 15 and 2nd Chronicles 16, say Baasha was the king of Israel who fortified Ramah. However, 1st Kings 15:33 reads, “In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years.” So, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha had been dead for nine years! Something is obviously wrong. The commentaries I read suggest that the 36 years should be counted from the division of Judah and Israel. That would put this event half-way through Baasha’s reign. I have another possible solution: It wasn’t Baasha who was king then; it was Omri. He became king in the 31st year of Asa and reigned twelve years. Why would the two Bible books say Baasha when it was Omri? One was source for the other, and the writer of the first simply got it wrong, confused over his kings. Either the year is wrong, or the king is wrong. I suppose it is also possible that a copyist, very early in the history of the original document, may have written “36” when the original said “26”, and that error was perpetuated. We’ll never know.

All that is tangential to the story. The real story is how Asa faced this new threat, only four miles from Jerusalem:

Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.” 2nd Chronicles 16:2-3

Huh? Israel threatens by building a border fort and closing the border, probably as a precursor to renewed open war, and you go to Israel’s treaty partner for help, stripping the public and private wealth to do so? Something is wrong here. Gone are the days, twenty or so years previously, when faced with a graver threat from superior Cushite forces Asa prayed, “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.” God answered those prayers and gave Judah victory. Could not the similar crying out to God bring the same results now?

What motivated Asa to take this course of action? He was now about 55 years old, and had reigned 35 years. He had seen war before, both with the Cushites and probably some other border skirmishes with Israel, but most of his years he had been at peace with his neighbors. Had he lost his nerve for war, perhaps never really having it in the first place? Did he figure he could use worldly wealth to hire someone else to fight for him? In other words, did he buy off Aram because he could?

An interesting question in trying to figure out why a good king would take this route. Or would some people consider this a good move, a smart move by Asa? To save his army from fighting a war was a good thing, no? Perhaps, in twenty years of peace, Asa had disbanded most of his army and he would have to recruit, equip, and train them all over again. Perhaps he felt he didn’t have time for this, that the threat from Israel was more imminent.

Whatever his motives, Asa chose the route of entangling alliances to solve his military problem. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is nothing new in the Middle East. Here we see it employed in antiquity.

Tomorrow we’ll see what God’s prophet said to Asa about this, and how he reacted.

Good King-Bad King, Life Group lessons

The High Places in Judah

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After conducting religious reforms as a young man, after he defeated the Cushites and Libyans with God’s help, after the encouragement from Azariah the prophet, King Asa went back to his religious reforms. 2nd Chronicles has this to say about this second round of reforms.

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah…he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the LORD’s temple.
…..…King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life. He brought into the temple of God the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated. 2nd Chronicles 15:8, 16-18

Well, quite a bit of reform. Initially, as described in yesterday’s post, Asa had: expelled the male shrine prostitutes, got rid of the idols his fathers had made, removed the foreign altars, removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles, commanded Judah to seek the LORD. Now he goes about doing even more–except, he does not remove the high places.

This business of the high places is, I believe, a key to understanding Israel at this point. 2 Chronicles 14:5 says Asa removed the high places. 1 Kings 15:14 and 2nd Chronicles 15:17 say he did not. A careful reading of the text leads me to conclude that these are describing two very different events. At first, as a young man and a new king, Asa removed the high places. However, while he was busy with administering a country, building fortified cities, raising and training and equipping an army, and fighting the Cushites and Libyans, the Jews must have rebuilt the high places. So Asa, having been encouraged by Azariah, begins a second round of reforms. Idols–gone. Altar–repaired. Silver and gold–to the temple. Grandmother Maacah–deposed because she is a bad influence. Her Asherah pole–cut down, broken up, and burned. The high places–oh, not again! I just removed them (was it really a decade or two ago?).

This time he did not remove the high places. Why? He did it once. Why not again? What’s wrong with these Jews? They keep setting up alternate places of worship. Maybe they worship I AM there some of the time, but they also worship the other gods. I can’t keep up with it; I can’t keep removing them. And so Asa did not remove the high places this time around.

I don’t really find fault with Asa for this. Maybe I should, but I don’t. He should have removed them again, and again, and again, as many times at it took for Judah, Benjamin, and remnants of the other tribes to get the message. But he didn’t. Perhaps he thought there was enough worship of I AM going on at those places that they did some good. I don’t think he grew weary of well-doing. As I’ll write about in another post, the assembly he held in Jerusalem showed the extent of his zeal.

The high places exist today, not in Israel, but in America–places where we worship amiss, where we fall short of what I AM wants of us. As this post at The Path of Truth so well explains, the high places do exist. We tear them down and rebuild them, perhaps growing weary in well-doing. We need to keep removing them.