Jeffrey C. Long

If you use bill-pay find out if your institution pays the bill themselves when you initiate it, or if a third-party does. 

We recently switched to Horizon Credit Union because Chase wouldn’t let me have additional savings accounts without charging. I get stung though. Chase immediately takes the money out of your account so your online balance shows exactly what you have left. Horizon uses a third party. So, the third party pays the bill, but then tries to get the money out of your account. I had the money when I initiated the bill to be paid. But the money didn’t go out. Then when they _did_ draw the money out of my account, I didn’t have enough, so I got a $27 fee. I hadn’t overdrafted, I didn’t have the funds to pay the bill. Then 2 days later I had the money, so it drew it without my knowledge. At that point, I wasn’t aware that I was now missing $75 and so two debit card transactions overdrafted costing me $27 each. 

To their credit, after a _lot_ of haggling, they refunded the fees. But if you are looking for a bank and use billpay, be sure and ask how they do it. My hunch is that bigger is better in this case. While we look with disdain upon the big banks, I think that they have better sources for handling transactions like this.

Buyer beware. 

Yes. Another Backup Lecture – Merlin Mann on 43folders:

I’m about half-way through the first draft of my ebook on new methods for backing up your computer. But this article is about the best you can get for the steps you need to take to assure you don’t lose your whole digital world. Give it a read and ask me questions in the comments. 

My son is hard at work in the fields and I’m the one taking pain relievers because of ergonomic issues related to writing. I know that farmers have accidents that require medical attention. But it’s interesting that checkers at grocery stores, information workers and writers have their own brand of injuries: repetitive stress. Problems like Tendinitis can actually lead to surgery. 15 years ago I had an L&I claim because I was doing so much computer work and piano playing on the job that I couldn’t use my right hand anymore. I seem to have solved my current problem by elevating my laptop with a book (Bible, no less) getting the USB keyboard from our bondi blue iMac in the garage, setting them to the right of my body, and putting my trackball on the chair next to me. I’m quite the site sitting in Starbucks.

“Be careful how you interpret life,” Erich Heller has advised – “it is that way.”  Marriages, teenage children, workplace security, and financial stability may be gradually eroding, but we will keep on believing what we want to, denying the changing reality around us. Same is true of faith, economy and diplomacy. 

Are We Losing Our Memory? How ever-changing technology is causing us to lose the visual record of our history.:

Rising over the battered surface of the moon, Earth loomed in a shimmering arc covered in a swirling skin of clouds.

The image, taken in 1966 by NASA’s robotic probe Lunar Orbiter 1, presented a stunning juxtaposition of planet and moon that no earthling had ever seen before.

It was dubbed the Picture of the Century. “The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” remembered Keith Cowing, who saw it as an 11-year-old and credited it with eventually luring him to work for NASA.

But in the mad rush of discovery, even the breathtaking can get mislaid.

NASA was so preoccupied with getting an astronaut to the moon ahead of the Soviets that little attention was paid to the mountains of scientific data that flowed back to Earth from its early space missions. The data, stored on miles of fragile tapes, grew into mountains that were packed up and sent to a government warehouse with crates of other stuff.

And so they eventually came to the attention of Nancy Evans, a no-nonsense woman with flaming red hair that fit her sometimes-impatient nature. She had been trained as a biologist, but within the sprawling space agency she had found her niche as an archivist.

Evans was at her desk in the 1970s when a clerk walked into her office, asking what he should do with a truck-sized heap of data tapes that had been released from storage.

“What do you usually do with things like that?” she asked.

“We usually destroy them,” he replied.

Wow. Slow news day. :

Cavs owner’s letter mocked for Comic Sans font – CNN.com

After years of writing at this location I am doing a complete overhaul of my web presence. Initially because people kept thinking that my name was Jeffrey Clong. But more recently, I have begun developing new websites that are targeted towards some new businesses I am starting. As I launch these new websites, I will announce them here. This site, jeffreyclong.com, will remain a legacy site indefinitely.

In the meantime, all of my action will be in social networks. My current writing is only available on Facebook, though that will change as I develop my new websites. If you wish to follow me, http://jeffreylong.net will redirect you to my Google Profile which includes links to my profile pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Thanks for visiting. I hope to see you soon in these other venues.

Jeff

We’ve all had times when we felt we were alone. The most dramatic memory for me is when I first went to 4-H camp. I don’t remember how old I was, but recalling my emotions while being there, I think I was too young to be away from my parents. Of course, I wasn’t alone. I had kids from my 4-H group in Ephrata with me. But I remember feeling very alone. Especially at night when the lights were out and I found myself lying there in a strange cabin away from my family.

However, within a few years, I started going to Tall Timber Presbyterian church camp. I didn’t feel the same loneliness. I don’t know if it was just because I was older, or because I was a more seasoned camper. But the most significant difference between the two camps was that at Tall Timber, I wasn’t alone spiritually. I was with other Christians. Doing Christian things.

It is part of God’s design that we should not live alone.

From Genesis to Revelation, Christianity is a social religion. God said “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

We need people. We are energized by our relationships. They give our life meaning. We realize that our life is not simply about us and our needs but it is about something bigger… life is about being in community. Sharing experiences in common.

As we continue the story of Elijah in 1Kings 19:13 we find Elijah feeling very alone.

As a consequence of his calling as a prophet Elijah felt very isolated. A prophet’s job is to call people to turn away from their indulgences back to serving Yahweh. Sometimes the prophet’s audience turns toward the message. But most often,  people turn away, leaving the prophet alone in the world.

If you have a Bible, turn to 1Kings 19:13

13 And Elijah pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.      Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Elijah said: “Look God, I am the only one left! Everyone has abandoned you and started worshiping Baal. They broke the altars erected to you and now they’ve killed the prophets. It’s just me now, and I’m

lonely.”

When I preach in August, I’m going to talk about depression and how one of the Bible’s stories about Elijah describes some God-ordained means for dealing with depression. But for now, we are going to focus on one aspect of depression which is isolation.. Isolation can be a symptom of depression.

Depressed people often start believing the lie that their friends don’t care about them. As a result, they purposely keep to themselves and eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy, all alone.

In Elijah’s depression he had come to believe that the entire nation had turned away from God. Under this faulty assumption he hid himself away in a cave. Away from the very people who could have supported him.

But more often then not, we are never as alone as we believe we are. While most had turned from God, there was still a remnant. And so one of the ways that God ministers to us in our loneliness is to open our eyes to see that we are actually not alone.

Picking it up at verse 15 we read “The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”

God told him “Look, Hazael, Jehu and Elisha… they are still faithful to me. And there are 7000 people out there whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. Not only that, I have someone special for you to meet. His name is Elisha and he is going to work alongside you. You will have the opportunity to mentor him so that when you are gone, there will be someone to carry on your work.

Today you might find yourself in the position I was at camp. Even though you are surrounded with people you still feel alone. Perhaps you wrestle with depression and isolate yourself away, making people prove their love for you by waiting for them to take the initiative.

You need to hear the words of God to Elijah. You aren’t alone. There is a community of believers here that are available to walk beside you in both the joys and trials that life brings you. We do not have to suffer in loneliness as Elijah did.

God collects His people into churches so that they can give each other mutual help, contribute each of their gifts, talents, and passions to produce a whole that is greater then the sum of its parts, and together benefit from a common reward.

Hebrews 10:25 instructs us to ”not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.

God says it is not enough to have your morning devotions at home alone. You need to meet regularly with other believers or else you will find yourself like Elijah thinking “I am all alone.” This might mean meeting Sunday morning in a church service like ours. But you actually don’t need to meet in the traditional matter that we do with a set order of worship and building. You might be meeting in a house with 10 other Christians in the middle of the week. It might even just be two or three gathered together. No matter what the setting, we need to not give up meeting together. We need to be around each other or else we will feel all alone as Christians.

But not only are there are Christians in Menno to support you, there are also Christians in Ritzville and Moses Lake. Grant and Adams County.

My life has been enriched this year by a very unique church situation. When we moved back to Moses Lake I knew I wanted my family to be in a church inside the city limits of Moses Lake so that we would be living with and ministering to our neighbors and coworkers. Eventually I found Journey church which meets in the Fairchild Cinema. But I also knew that I wanted my family to grow up knowing you all because you have become an adopted family for us. And I have chosen to be a Mennonite regardless of the denomination of the congregation we worship and minister in weekly. But then I was hired to play for the worship service of Living word Lutheran church.

What I have experienced from this is that there are opportunities for community, to minister, and to be ministered to by fellowshipping with a broader group of Christians then those that we worship with on Sunday morning.

It is also important for us to remember that the church is not our only recourse against loneliness. Psalm 68:6 says God sets the lonely in families. Whether your family is Christian or not, God has ordained the family to be a place of love. For most people there is unconditional love from mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. From our extended families of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. One of the hazards of living so far away from Deana’s and my families was that we didn’t have the immediate support available to us that we had when we lived in the same town. So when families are apart it is important to make use of the technology we have been blessed with, whether the phone, email, chat, or text. Brittany sends me pictures of my Grandson Luke on my cell phone. And I can video conference with Alexis on Skype.

Finally, while I’ve been talking about how we need to _seek out_ others to avoid the loneliness that crippled Elijah each of us needs to also be challenged to be that loving person that others can go to. Some people have found their experience of churches to be toxic. Church hasn’t been a safe place for them. They’ve felt judged or found it’s members at war with each other. For these people maybe you need to be just the second person of two or three gathered so that someone who believes the church is toxic can have a community of believers to meet with. To encourage that person. To pray with them. To share a meaningful passage of the Bible with them. To listen to them. To be ministered to by them. We need to not only go to church, we need to be the church for those with a negative experience with the church.

Other people have grown up in toxic families. Their parents area either distant or abusive. Their siblings are unsupportive. I believe that when Psalm 68 says “God sets the lonely in families” I believe it is also an invitation to us to be a family to those without one. For better or worse, our home has always been open to children and teens with troubles in their family. Sometimes it has meant them living with us for a short or extended time. The first time it was a teen whose mom had died of cancer. Later it was children of a neglectful mother. In other cases it has just been providing a loving place for them to hang out during the day. But God has continued to give us the opportunity to minister to those whose families are not there for them 100%.

So, to combat loneliness we need to be sure and take the time to gather with other Christians. Take the time to be with your family. And don’t isolate yourself to just your church or family. Take the time to _be_ the church for those without one and _be_ a family for those without.

There was a time when many of you can remember that being a Christian was as ordinary as being an American.  The foundation for our institutions was a Judeo-Christian belief in one God.  People knew that the Bible was the story of Israel and Jesus.  And our understandings of morality were based on the 10 commandments and the Golden Rule and other ethical standards found in the Bible.  

But as the prophet Bob Dylan said “The times they are a-chainging.”

While 95 percent of Americans say they believe in God or a universal force. Only 35% are classified as Born-again.” When conducting his surveys George Barna, an evangelical pollster used 2 criteria to classify respondents as born-again.

The 1st were people who said that they have an ongoing, personal commitment to Christ that is still important today. Second, they said that they believe they are going to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their savior. Only 35% of Americans hold these beliefs.

Worse is the number of Americans who are classified as Evangelical. To be classified as evangelical respondents must agree with the previous two statements about being born again plus six others: First, that religion is important in their lives; Second that God is an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator and ruler of the world; Third, that you cannot get to heaven just by doing good things; Fourth, that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; Fifth that Satan is a living force and not symbolic; And finally that Christians have a personal obligation to tell other people about their religious beliefs. Only 7 percent of American adults polled can be classified as “evangelical.”

That leaves 65% of Americans who are either non-religious or follow non-Christian beliefs. Even though they believe in God, more Americans claim “no church affiliation” then claim affiliation with any other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists.

And while all of this is disconcerting, the future is even more precarious. Additional research indicates that “40 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds” are already “outside the church” and only a small fraction of those currently within the church will remain

It’s important for us to understand that the America we live in today is very different from the one 60 years ago. 
This is the first of a series of 3 sermons that I have the priveledge to preach this summer about the prophet Elijah. Studying Elijah is worthwhile to us because he lived at a similar time. He ministered while Ahab was king of the northern kingdom, Israel.  According to 1Kings 16:30, Ahab and his infamous wife Jezebel “did evil n the sight of the LORD.” They led Israel in the worship of Baal, the Canaanite god of storms and fertility rather than Yahweh, the God of Israel.

However, the key difference between Elijah’s time and ours is that not only had his nation turned from Yahweh, it had become hostile to those who still served Him. Our country is not hostile to Christianity in the way that Israel was hostile to Elijah at this time.  It is safe for us to go to church.  We won’t be arrested for sharing our faith with someone.  We do not have to register with the authorities if we want to have a bible study in our home.  We can even speak out against our president without risking our life as Elijah did.  But as the statistics show, most of our neighbors do not worship Jesus.  In fact many of them worship other Gods. 

When Elijah found himself living in the country where God’s chosen people had turned their backs on Him, Elijah was not allowed to retreat into seclusion. Rather, God placed him in the home of a woman who worshipped Baal. God used Elijah to demonstrate to us that when our neighbors turns away from God, we cannot turn away them.

I want to share 3 skills we need to practice when God has placed us amongst people that are increasingly turning their back on Yahweh and Jesus.

First, we need to learn which people to treat with hostility and which people we should be hospitable to.

Second, we need the faith and vision to believe that God may miraculously provide for our neighbor’s needs so that we can use that provision as an opportunity to showcase God’s faithfulness.

And finally, when tragedy occurs in the lives of friends who are serving other gods, they will believe it is a sign of judgment because their god’s approval depends on their service to him. This is an opportunity for us to show them that the true God is a God of love and grace and that tragedy is simply a natural part of life rather then a sign of God’s judgment. 

When we first encounter Elijah in the Bible in 1Kings 17, he has hit the ground running.  The only biographical information we have is that he was a foreigner of Gilead.  But from that point on it is all action.  Offended for God and seemingly on his own authority Elijah decreed a drought as a national punishment for Ahab’s waywardness.  In Verse 1 Elijah said to Ahab “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” This was a rather bold move for Elijah because as far as we know, he hadn’t even been commissioned as a prophet. 

But it also put him in an awkward position. If there’s no water for the infidel, there’s also no water for the prophet. So in vv. 2-3, God provided for him by telling him “Get up, and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. 4 It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” But eventually the brook dried up and he had to move.  So verse 8 says “The word of Yahweh came to him, saying, 9 Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you. 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath which was a safe distance from Ahab. But rather then putting Elijah in country that served His God, Elijah found himself in a time and place where worship of Yahweh was foreign. In fact God placed him in a home where a woman who worshipped Baal took care of him.

So now we see the first skill that we need to learn to practice. We need to learn which people to treat with hostility and which people we should be hospitable to. The situation Elijah found himself contrasts these two types of people and demonstrates the appropriate way that each should be treated.

Ahab was a leader of Israel, a nation that had covenanted with God to serve Him and Him alone.  He not only chose to turn his back on the God with whom he had a covenant, but He led the nation in the same way.  But this woman grew up in a nation that never had a covenant with Yahweh.  She was a simple woman living out the beliefs that had been handed out to her.  It was appropriate to treat each of these differently because of what each needed.  Elijah was hostile to Ahab because he was leading the nation away from God.  But Elijah was hospitable to this woman because God was using his relationship with her to teach her about Yahweh’s faithfulness. 

We need to learn from Elijah that it is appropriate to speak out when leaders are suppressing the expression of faith in Yahweh and Jesus. When I went to the Filer Idaho High School graduation I was surprised they unabashedly began and ended it with a student led prayer.  At my graduation in 1986, we were not allowed to pray during the graduation because it was believed it violated the separation of church and state.  But 9 years later, in 1995 the secretary of education, under mandate of the President, provided legal guidelines to help school boards and administrators write policy about religious expression in schools. Rather then simply describe what was not allowed it went on to demonstrate what _was_ allowed.  It turns out that there are many religious things students can freely do without infringing on the rights of others.  And so, like Elijah, it is appropriate for us to stand up against leaders who try to suppress the public expression of faith in God and to support students within the guidelines given to them by the Secretary of Education.
 
On the other hand, we learn from Elijah that it is appropriate for us to be hospitable to those who worship either a different god or no god.  The worst thing that you can do to your friends who have a different faith is to be hostile to them.  All faiths understand what it is to be persecuted for what they believe.  And so being hostile to them puts them in a defensive position that reinforces their beliefs about us.  Elijah let this woman take care of him.  He lived with her in her home.  It was only through the years that he spent with her getting to know him and the God he served that she eventually was convinced about who Yahweh was.  In the same way we need to learn to be there for our friends who follow a different faith, letting them see God in us.  It may be years before they become convinced about who Jesus is, but if we are hostile to them we will only turn them away.

The second skill we need to develop is the faith and vision to believe that God may miraculously provide for our neighbor’s needs so that we can use that provision as an opportunity to showcase God’s faithfulness.

verse 10 says “and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. 12 She said, As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the jar: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.  13 Elijah said to her, Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said; but make me of it a little cake first, and bring it forth to me, and afterward make for you and for your son. 14 For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, The jar of meal shall not empty, neither shall the jar of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth. 15 She went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. 16 The jar of meal didn’t empty, neither did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by Elijah.

One of the opportunities that we have when we have close relationships with people of other faiths is to show them God’s faithfulness.  To be there to help them with any need that they may have.  The widow saw God’s faithfulness as day after day passed that the jar of meal did not empty nor the jar of oil fail.  

And yet, no matter how faithful God is, when tragedy comes it can lead people to think that God doesn’t love them.  They believe it is a sign of judgment because their god’s approval depends on their service to him. And so the final skill is that when tragedy occurs in the lives of friends who are serving other gods it is an opportunity for us to show them that the true God is a God of love and grace and that tragedy is simply a natural part of life rather then a sign of God’s judgment. 

17 It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18 She said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!

This widow believed that it was because of her sins that her son was killed. That when she allowed Elijah into her home God’s attention was suddenly focused on her and He became aware of her sins and judged her by killing her son.  When the worst happens, people’s most common reaction is to either believe that God is judging them or that God doesn’t care for them. Each of us knows the wickedness that is in us.  And so we fear that when a tragedy happens it must be that God is punishing us.  

Jesus addressed this belief in John chapter 6. when he passed by a man who was blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that it was in order that the works of God might be revealed in him.”

When this man was born blind it was not because of his parent’s sins.  It wasn’t because of his own sins.  And when the widow’s son died, it wasn’t because God was judging her for her sins. When tragedy happens to our friends, it is not a sign that God is judging them for their sins.  Elijah uniquely demonstrated this by bringing her son back to life.  

19 He said to her, Give me your son. He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the chamber, where he abode, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?   21 He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again. 22 Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, Behold, your son lives.

One of the hallmarks of other faiths is that you must work in order to follow their religion.  You have to do good deeds.  You have to live up to a certain standard of holiness.  And if you don’t then you will be under judgment.  I went to a seminar once on reaching out to people of another religion and it made the point that often you can’t reach out to these people until they are in their 40′s and 50′s because by that point, they are tired of living under the stress of these expectations.  They can’t do it.  They can’t be good enough.  And then when a tragedy happens, they think that it is a sign that God disapproves of them.  It is at this time that we can share with them God’s grace.  That Jesus came _because_ we weren’t good enough.  This can be hope to someone living under the expectations of another religion.  It was to this woman.  

This story of Elijah and the widow teaches us the importance of having relationships with people of other faiths.  Of reaching out to them.  Of demonstrating God’s faithfulness.  And of being there for them when the worst happens.  Take some time and think about friends that you might have who have different beliefs then you do and how you might learn from Elijah how to minister to them. 

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In the Winter 2000 issue of Whole Earth Magazine I came across an article about Long Now Foundation’s work to create a 10,000 year clock. (shown above)

The following comment in the article caught my eye. “Danny Hillis’s idea was that by slowing down the usual speedy movements of a clock, he hoped to slow us down and have us think about the long term. The purpose of a clock that runs for 10,000 years is to encourage us to create things that require 10,000 years to measure. A great civilization for instance.”

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