Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
Date Unknown
History is a story, a living story being told by the Creator. It is a story of wretchedness interrupted by scenes of deliverance, rebellion chased away by the failure of wrong, the resolution of dissonances, a certain prevailing of the Creator as He proceeds across the stage to relentless victory over evil, gathering a train of hopeless, hapless, helpless whose hearts are thrilled to find Him whom their souls so long had sought.
But it is more than a story. It is a play, not merely words assembled to offer for entertainment, but an opportunity offered to disappointed little people who could make no sense otherwise. The Actor Himself comes upon the scene, taking the lead part, yet behind the scenes, obscure, yet evident to those who are distressed, in debt, disenchanted, giving them hope to stand against their odds. The faces change from scene to scene, yet they are the same from age to age in which the Actor brings them surely along to a determined destination.
The Hard Fought Battle
A friend forwarded me the following words from Chapter 9 of A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God. Those who knew Stan Julin will recognize him as one of the few who gained some measure of victory in the battle described below. Those who knew him well knew that the victory was not attained without a hard fight:
The hearts fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honour from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest…Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humour and learns to say, ‘Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.
Note Card: Nobody Has Yet Studied History
Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
[Blog Author's Note: People think that, in the resurrection, this life will seem only a distant, faded, and irrelevant memory. Below, my dad offers his own unique opinion on this topic. As with many things, time will tell who was right, the consensus or my father.]
March, 2000
I'll tell you one thing: Nobody has ever yet studied history as it will be studied after the resurrection. It will be fascinating to uncover the cover-ups, blow away the smoke screens, uncover the evidence, clear the innocent, vindicate the righteous, call the witnesses (who were there, after all), continue the archaeology with vigor, be able to know the Bible better than ever, and re-rewrite history. And how many millions of personal stories are there to be told?
[Blog Author's Note: People think that, in the resurrection, this life will seem only a distant, faded, and irrelevant memory. Below, my dad offers his own unique opinion on this topic. As with many things, time will tell who was right, the consensus or my father.]
March, 2000
I'll tell you one thing: Nobody has ever yet studied history as it will be studied after the resurrection. It will be fascinating to uncover the cover-ups, blow away the smoke screens, uncover the evidence, clear the innocent, vindicate the righteous, call the witnesses (who were there, after all), continue the archaeology with vigor, be able to know the Bible better than ever, and re-rewrite history. And how many millions of personal stories are there to be told?
Note Card: The Pharisee's Struggle
Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
February 13, 2006
It strikes me, sitting here in Chick-fil-A, that what Paul says in Galatians is the very same reasoning that Paul agonized over after he was saved and slugging away as he rearranged his mind in Arabia to accept and make room for salvation by grace rather than by works. Since men must understand this, God provided the issues to be laid out for us by Paul, who received it from Jesus directly. We benefit from Paul's struggle and from the inspiration by the Holy Spirit, resulting in ink through the pen to the page.
February 13, 2006
It strikes me, sitting here in Chick-fil-A, that what Paul says in Galatians is the very same reasoning that Paul agonized over after he was saved and slugging away as he rearranged his mind in Arabia to accept and make room for salvation by grace rather than by works. Since men must understand this, God provided the issues to be laid out for us by Paul, who received it from Jesus directly. We benefit from Paul's struggle and from the inspiration by the Holy Spirit, resulting in ink through the pen to the page.
Note Card: That, Sir, Is Good Enough For Me
Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
[Blog Author's Note: Some of my father's note cards amaze me with the number of references he makes to scriptures from all over the Bible. This one seems to take the prize. I think I found and linked all or most of them.]
May 17, 2006
If God does things now in part, in the form of a story, to creatures of dust and of fragile frame, with promise of greater later, swearing Himself as security, written with pen in a book, infusing the words with the power of His own Spirit, then what shall be the times when His words come to pass?
[Blog Author's Note: Some of my father's note cards amaze me with the number of references he makes to scriptures from all over the Bible. This one seems to take the prize. I think I found and linked all or most of them.]
May 17, 2006
If God does things now in part, in the form of a story, to creatures of dust and of fragile frame, with promise of greater later, swearing Himself as security, written with pen in a book, infusing the words with the power of His own Spirit, then what shall be the times when His words come to pass?
Note Card: The Morning Star
Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
[Blog Author's Note: The following note card, is remarkable, not for its phrasing, but for the depth of thought necessary to find this connection between Revelation 22:16 and 1 Thessalonians 5.]
June 27, 2000
The Greek word for morning (in bright and morning star) is ὀρθρινός, which means also and perhaps usually, early. For those who think the time will be afar, He will come sooner than expected. For those who look for [Him] with hope and expectancy, He will surely come without delay. For those who dispair, the star visibly shows the beginning of a clear day, a welcome signal. Those who see the brightness, know that His strong and faithful purposes have never slackened. Those who see Him bright and early, know that He has important things to do. Those in the night may realize that the star is there for someone else to see. Those asleep do not know whether there is a star there for someone to see. Those asleep do not know whether there is a star and do not care, for they have no hope, no sight but distorted dreams, nothing important to do and no good reason to do it, for to them there is no night, no day, no time, no opportunity; those that sleep, sleep in the night and are drunken in the night. Peace and safety...all things continue as they were.
But we, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should catch us as a thief. You are all children of light and children of day; let us watch, etc.
[Blog Author's Note: The following note card, is remarkable, not for its phrasing, but for the depth of thought necessary to find this connection between Revelation 22:16 and 1 Thessalonians 5.]
June 27, 2000
The Greek word for morning (in bright and morning star) is ὀρθρινός, which means also and perhaps usually, early. For those who think the time will be afar, He will come sooner than expected. For those who look for [Him] with hope and expectancy, He will surely come without delay. For those who dispair, the star visibly shows the beginning of a clear day, a welcome signal. Those who see the brightness, know that His strong and faithful purposes have never slackened. Those who see Him bright and early, know that He has important things to do. Those in the night may realize that the star is there for someone else to see. Those asleep do not know whether there is a star there for someone to see. Those asleep do not know whether there is a star and do not care, for they have no hope, no sight but distorted dreams, nothing important to do and no good reason to do it, for to them there is no night, no day, no time, no opportunity; those that sleep, sleep in the night and are drunken in the night. Peace and safety...all things continue as they were.
But we, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should catch us as a thief. You are all children of light and children of day; let us watch, etc.
Note Card: Slightly Used and Greatly Reduced In Price
Written on a 4x6 note card by Stan Julin.
[Blog Author's Note: In the note card that follows, my father contemplates the nature of his existence before Christ. From other notes on the same card, it is evident that, in writing this, he was planning his thoughts for an upcoming Rescue Mission sermon.]
I could tell about various people who helped me as a youth:
- Mr. Thomas, the hardware store owner,
- Mrs. Blake who saw me when a thief (though she did not see me seeing her, so that I was able to cover my tracks),
- Roger, the junk man, and Vernon, his brother, (I was sneaky both in thievery and in lying, skilled at deceit and selfishness.),
- Mrs. Barnett, who successfully engaged me to learn English better,
- Mrs. Champnany [Blog Author's Note: "Champnany" is my best guess at my father's handwriting.] , whose grapes I stole and which left me with a discomforted conscience,
- An unknown man who rebuked me for arrogance and who must have thought of himself as failing in rebuke (But he was successful; I remember his words half a century later.),
- Numerous people who had to endure me but were a help simply because they were a long-term and collective soundboard, eventually magnifying my vibrations to my own conscience-in-retrospect,
- My mother, who caught me in my deceit and chastened me sore,
- Larry, who caught me stealing strawberries.
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