Happy New Year

This year is coming to a close and memories flood the corridors of my mind. So many events, so many exciting experiences. So many blessings, all of them undeserved. One is humbled by the watch care of the Providence. As long as the health is holding one should never complain. The visit to Loma Linda,the Family and friends. Heather's graduation, a gala performance, enjoyable reunion. Exciting news that Jessica is studying to become an archaeologist at La Sierra University. Then in August the delightful trip with Joe and Co. to the ASI meetings. Visit to the Mammoth Caves, then St. Louis, then home. Two weeks later I was on my way to Poland, for 5 weeks. The visit to Poland was a mixed bag of blessings and disappointments. I went looking for a hot weather and found cold and rain. Thanks to Joe and his hospitality I survived. Often he would take me to his club for supper, and meetings with some very interesting friends of his. Joe has a lovely 'flat' according to the Britts, and it is super nice and comfy. Friday nights were the weekly highlights since Joe took me to the Synagogue for supper, singing, prayers and socializing. I miss those Friday evenings. Every Sabbath I managed to preach in some church, and my only message was Evangelize now and do not wait till the time when you will only have regrets. This is still a sore point with me. Almost 20 years of 'freedom' and the evangelistic work continuing to be almost non existing. At least in Stalinist era situation, the 'workers' worked !!! By 'work' is meant evangelism' The brethren from the Division will have to answer soon, before God, for holding back the evangelistic opportunities in Poland. Almost every other country in Europe availed herself of massive evangelistic efforts [free !!]except Poland. I managed some delightful tennis with Tado in Cieszyn, visited my cousins in Jedrzejow, ate dinner with my oldest [in terms of friendship] friend Olek Sosin and his family...the beautiful Olenka and her 3 'boys.' Olek saved my skin by loaning me a winter coat and I survive the cold days. The interesting times included our Friday night suppers at Andrew's, notably on my birthday [70th] anniversary. Mrs. Maciuszko, the wife of Prof. Maciuszko from CHAT, baked or made a super super tasty cake....and we celebrated in style. I managed to get an official visit with prof.zw. Z, and Doctor M Łykos. That spells 'family' and the food and time spent was delightful and delicious. The Family that I enjoyed most were the Lazars, Friends for the last 12 years. The food? the Poles have a saying : 'niebo w gębie' thanks to Mamuska's cooking. Peter, a friend closer to my 'age' in interests and superb English speaker and scholar, and the Prymas of Polish Adventist Church Paweł. In Podkowa, the place of our seminary, pleasant times included dinners with the Rector Koziróg and his lovely daughter, pro-Rector dr.dr.Tarasiuk and Family, and the pro-Rector dr. W. Polok, and a visit with dr. Igor Baron. We celebrated 60 anniversary of dr. and mrs. Dabrowski's wedding at their new home. Then home sweet home, to my Wife and Family. Now my days are filled with delightful memories, tennis games, visits from friends from Poland and a reunion of our young friends from the days when Andrew was a student at Southern. This much for a brief outline of the year. I will share also other interests and details of my life a bit later. Happy New Year to all my Friends.

The Season of Emotions

Happy Season to you all.

What makes me different from animals is the image of God given to man by God at the time of creation. That 'image' in my view of life and life's setting, consists in the 'intellect' and in the emotions. I am a "true Jew", that is I subscribe to the faith of Abraham our Father on the human side. My Messiah was, is, and always will be a Jew in the same sense. Like Saul of Tarsus wrote, Jesus of Nazareth was the son of David according to the 'flesh' and a son of God 'by the resurrection from the dead'. I have accepted Moses and his writings and all the prophets, I have accepted Jesus, the Jew, as the Messiah, and consequently also the so called New Testament. I accept any thing and anyone that agrees with Moses. This is the intellectual part of my life and an intellectual decision. Now the question comes concerning the 'emotions' of life. Broadly speaking the emotions bring out the 'inner soul'. When the emotions are engaged in any relationship, we speak of 'being in love'. Certain people evoke in us a response of emotions and then we 'love them'. Some people engage our intellect and they appear interesting, charming, mysterious, challenging....but what is needed to complete the relationship is the emotion of 'love'. The awakening of love emotions can be accomplished by words, actions, appearance etc... and then we 'love' the scenes of nature, the sounds of nature, the appearance of nature. To 'love' means to decide on a relationship with another person, in which relationship we live for that other person. The Bible tells us that we should do all things 'for God's sake' out of love for Him. Then comes the question how do we maintain the emotional charge of love day by day, year by year? First of all by 'hearing'. We hear stories about God from our parents and then teachers and then preachers and then...others. Then, by seeing! We read for ourselves the messages from God in the book called the Bible. This is the place where God speaks directly to us, reveals Himself to us and enters into a 'relationship'. The statement: 'we love Him, because He first loved us' is a true picture of God's relationship to us. Then comes the 'need' to respond. Love is a two way street. It is a reciprocal relationship. Binding two people for ever. How do I reveal my emotions to God? We 'recount' back to God all the things we learned (the characteristics of God), by our words and actions. When king David wanted to express his love for God he sang 'psalms'. The ancient way to memorize events and ideas was to put them in a form of a poem and then sing it. I too express my emotions by singing...all sorts of songs...but to remember their tunes they must be melodious and not like the modern excuse for songs. That is why I can take the SDA church hymnal and go through it page by page and 'sing my heart out'. Those that have a melodious tune...I memorized, those that are 'the work of art', I skip. This brings me to the so called X-mas Season. Sure it is pagan in origin, no question there. Sure Jesus was not born in...December...but that is not the point . The point and value of Xmas Season is that it is the occasion to sing 'love songs' about Jesus, God and their work for our salvation. We are so busy all through the year that we have little time to 'really sing' about God and Jesus. Now we have 'an excuse' to do so, and I love to do it. The cheap, third rate 'entertainment' that is practiced in some of our churches, in the form of modern so called songs and dramatic presentations, and dancing, clapping and other things, miss my soul and make me feel that I have wasted at least an hour of my life in there. But songs, by the whole congregation, like the "We have this Hope", The Old rugged Cross, Lift up the Trumpet, etc...make me feel that I have been worshiping my God in the congregation of the saints. I was blessed with a mother that used to sing everyday all day long. The evening before her death, she played piano in a nursing home till 10 pm, she was 94 years of age! When I need to revive my emotional ties to God...I sing. I sing my heart out to God. It does not matter that my voice is not what it used to be and my hearing needs...a hearing aid. So what, I sing to my God, and He understand the intentions of my mind ( heart). So my friends, readers, sing, sing, sing...even if it is during the paganized Xmas Season.

To quote the Preacher: Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days come of which you will say 'I have no pleasure in them'.

I still enjoy my days...when I sing.

Ben Marshak

A short tribute to my brother Ben who lives in Sydney Australia.


DZIEŃ URODZIN


Czołem biję przed mym Bratem w dzień urodzin, dzień radości,
Za wpływ jego na me życie, za pomocne wychowanie,
Za braterską silną rękę, za wyrwanie mnie z nicości,

Co miesiąca mi posyłał środki na konieczne rzeczy
Często radził, i zachęcał, swym przykładem pokazywał
Boża siła nas buduje a grzech tylko nas niweczy.

Oddał miejsce swe na UW, żebym ja mógł tam studiować
I pomagał gdym sie uczył stawiać pierwsze kroki wiedzy
Zawsze będę jemu wdzięcznym, nie przestanę go miłować.

Zawsze będzie moim wzorem, życia mego bohaterem
On zachęcał mnie do Greki, Hebrajskiego i Historii
Bez pomocy i zachęty mego Brata...byłbym zerem

W jego miejsce pojechałem też do Newbold by studiować
A on stał sie profesorem w Seminarioum, tym w Podkowie
Aby nowe młode kadry, dla kościoła przygotować.

Nikt nie wierzył, że przeżyje lat czterdzieści pięć następnych
Wychowując swoje dzieci na dalekich ‘antypodach’
Zawsze blizki dla przyjaciół , a dla wrogów...niedostępny.

Dzisiaj życie swe umila, żyjąc w Sydney z Piękną żoną
Nas odwiedza raz w dwa lata, aby dzielić się radością
Wieczne życie ma za darmo, a doczesność...zasłużoną.

Przyjmij pokłon aż do ziemi, a na ręce przyjm całusa
Ja wysyłam hen do nieba modły o Twe dobre zdrowie.
Sercem jestem zawsze z tobą, chociaż żyję w kraju USA.