See and Believing

Seeing and Believing and Bye Bye Facebook

On Friday I had the second of two LASEK eye surgeries. That “e” in LASEK isn’t a typo. Rather, it is a different procedure than LASIK and one that, after study, I concluded was certainly the better of the two. Now I am on my third day of life-without-glasses (OK, I had about 2400 of these days between birth and when I first dawned spectacles. But that was so long ago as to hardly be memorable.)

Though the procedure went great and the outcome will be wonderful, I am having a painful allergic reaction to one of the post-surgical drips. So I will see the doc (Frank Teed) in a few hours and he will figure out what to do about that. I highly recommend that doctor, by the way, to anyone considering eye surgery.

Amazing Facts has authorized the Prewitts to secure housing here in Arkansas and so we are housing hunting and selling lots of our personal books and items. Have sold about 400 books from my personal library in the last ten days. My students have good taste – books by the pioneers, by Ellen White, on church history, have gone faster than others.

Last evening I was talking to Pastor Dwayne Lemon (by phone) regarding the Trumpets and Woes of Revelation when… someone knocked on my door. I yelled “come in!” and they did… three boys and a box with a “duck” that “couldn’t fly” that they were trying to “help.” It jumped out of its box and I dismissed the boys and said we (the Prewitts) would take care of it. Heidi tried to coax it to waddle onto an absorbent mat. “Duck” did not cooperate and began pecking at the shoe Heidi was using to coax it. I told pastor Dwayne that we would talk more later.

First, out with the bird book. This was a pied grebe. It dives, swims, sinks…and rarely flies. It probably needs quite a stretch of water to get airborn (other grebes do) and so when it was discovered by my students on land gathering nesting material…it was, umm, a sitting duck.

I picked up the grebe (those pokes don’t really hurt) after Heidi had filled our tub with cool water, and I placed the bird where it could navigate more gracefully. We invited the boys to come back over and see how healthy their bird was. (Our bathtub has two wall mirrors above it that meet in the corner…making an interesting effect for the duck when she (I think it was a she) looked at the mirror and suddenly saw a flock of grebes. (But grebes are solitary birds…) She went back into the tub.

When we had had our fill of watching her dive and swim under water and preen, etc., I carried her down to a local pond and set her free. Watching boys expected to see her scurry away…but she just saw there in the water. At night it is not safe for such birds to move much. They can’t see and the things that eat them…can. So they generally stay sensibly still.

We would do well, also, to learn from the birds. When we are in times of darkness we would do well to not make big decisions, big changes. Look for the light and wait for the Lord to resolve perplexities before shipwrecking your faith in the shallow water of your understanding.

Today I give a test on the Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God. It is one of the most important tests I give in Revelation class. And as a test, it is directly related to the test that is coming. I think that the chapter on this topic in the book Deeper (1045 copies sold so far, for those who care) is one of the most important. The test will be a hard one…there is more info on this topic in scripture than most people think.

And later today…I leave facebook permanently. I have so many loose ends to tie up there! 400 facebook emails await my reply. And probably 395 of them will wait forever. But it is for the good.

And earlier today I have worship for the academy. I would love to recruit them to our summer canvassing program in Wichita, Kansas…but it is now full.

Pray that God will prosper our efforts to secure a home and to plan our future work. It is daunting. And pray for “Enkhtevan” in Mongolia and for Jacob elsewhere. They need it and would appreciate it. Our work is to believe that the Lord Jesus can handle our case and make us to be like Him and that He can even “heal our backslidings.”

Jeremiah 3:22  Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

Be faithful,

Eugene