“Is”
Mark, someone once said if you’re going to write, you should have a title, how about the word “is”, it became a somewhat important word, when our late President Bill Clinton asked the question what is, is. I will get back to the answer a little later, but first I would like to look back at what was in my life and how it relates to the word “is”.
Robert Wayne Rice showed up on planet Earth on April 10, 1942, and the world seemed to be in a mess, Pearl Harbor had happened December 1, 1941, and there was a lot of uncertainty both economically and politically, my mother and dad called me Bobby. I was too young to know or understand but I’m quite sure the America I showed up in was full of fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, not many years before we had fought the war to end all wars, and not many years had passed since America and Europe had gone through what was called the “Great Depression”. And once more the loss of business, wealth, homes, and land, may have left our parents with fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, but let me go back to my story.
Ten years later, or as I was reaching my tenth birthday in 1952 strange things were happening at school, we were talking about bomb shelters, and having lessons at school on how to get under our little wood desk in case of a bomb. The United States was in what was to be called the KOREAN CONFLICT, I was only ten, but I was somewhat confused, why would anyone want to bomb Oak Park Elementary school, why would they want to kill me, my friends, or the people of Corpus Christi, Texas. I did not know, and it caused confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, in my thinking, the good news was Mother told me not to fear that God would take care of us, I still trusted my mother so it was not so terrifying.
Ten years later I was twenty years of age, it was 1962 and the fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty were still in my world, now I seemed to understand them better. I was one year out of High School and soon to be going to boot camp. A guy named Nikita Kruschev was banging his shoe on the table at the United Nations, saying, “We will bury you”. On October 22, 1962, after reviewing newly acquired intelligence, President John F. Kennedy informed the world that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba, a mere 90 miles off the shores of Florida and I was wondering if I would have a future.
Ten years later I was the young age of thirty, it was 1972 the prime rate hit 10 percent, and America was in the middle of an oil embargo I was working for 3M Company selling copy machines and my daughter Natalie was almost three years old and I was not sure I could make it in that economy. It was also the year that Israeli athletes were taken as hostages during the Olympic games in Munich, September 5, 1972, and once more fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty were a big part of my worldview.
Ten years later I was forty, it was 1982 and we were experiencing a 17 percent interest rate. We had an oil crisis and we had high inflation and my world was changing and my old friend Fear was very close to me. If I could look into the future it would have been even gloomier. In 1983, the closing of my Division at 3M and the possibility of not being employed caused some uncertainty, fear, and confusion in our lives.
Ten years later and if you add the numbers I am 50 years old and the year is 1992, and it seems the United States is getting a big break; Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons. We have a jury acquitting four police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King, causing the 1992 Los Angeles riots and leading to 53 deaths and $1 billion in damage, we found a new enemy, and he lives among us. Bill Clinton defeats incumbent U.S. President George H.W. Bush and businessman H. Ross Perot. Yes, I am still having fear, and confusion, with a lot of uncertainty, what will this new President do and how will he act? He will always be known as the President who said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.
Ten years later and I am sixty and the year is 2002, the United States Dept. of Justice announced it will pursue a criminal investigation of Enron. We came to know that this large corporation had lied and stolen millions from their employees and American stockholders. In March the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: In eastern Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda began and in Houston, Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her 5 children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison. The US State Department releases a report naming 7 state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Also, the Congress of the United States passed a joint resolution, which explicitly authorizes the President to use the United States Armed Forces as he deems necessary and appropriate, against Iraq. My friend's fear and uncertainty are still standing on all condors and he is being very convincing.
It is now 2007 and I am 65 years of age, the Lord has blessed me with a great wife, and family both Jan and I have been given the gift of good health and the Lord has blessed us with many blessings. Our son-in-law, Byron, is a man who loves God and our daughter, and they have two boys, whom we love, John Mark and Zachary David. The war is still going on in Iraq and it seems to not be going well; that’s what the press is saying. Al Gore is telling us that we only have a few years left before man annihilates the world that God spoke into being. Many people are buying into global warming and it and the war are causing fear, uncertainty, and confusion.
My goal in writing this was to leave a record for my two grandsons, that life in this world is full of fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, unless you know what “is, is”. At the age of 27 years, I began a relationship with God Himself, and I hope you heard I began, in some small ways I can identify with a great name in the Bible, a guy called Moses. He got into a lot of trouble trying to help God out and in his attempt to help God he killed an Egyptian and had to flee Egypt and became a shepherd or a keeper of sheep. Then God spoke to him from a bush that was burning but it was not consumed, now a bush burning is no big deal but one that is burning and not consumed is worth seeing and that is what Moses did. We all know the story, but I bet you may not have seen the answer to Bill Clinton's “ is question, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.” God has told Moses to go back to Egypt and tell, not ask, but tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Let us pick up the story in Exodus 3: 13-14 “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, I am Who I am” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.” Do you see it, God is, is, there is no other. Dan Stone wrote in the book title, “The Rest of the Gospel” the following: “He told Moses to tell the Hebrews that “I AM” had sent him. God’s very name indicates the changeless, timeless, eternal, present-tense nature of His being, Jesus used the same language to refer to Himself: “I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). The writer to the Hebrews stated: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” God “is” the unseen, eternal, timeless, changeless One.
Never forget that Jesus, the changeless, timeless One became a seen and temporal man and as a man, Jesus experienced all that we experience but unlike us, He did not sin. He never forgot his identity, He being God, was holy, pure, and without sin. And this is the kicker, He also did not depend on anything or anyone but His Father, He drew all His power to live life from His Father in heaven and that is what each of us must do to live life in a world that is filled with fear, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty.
Bill Bright is one of my heroes and he makes this statement: “God is not “the man upstairs.” He is not a divine Santa Claus. He is not a cosmic policeman. He is the One who spoke, and a hundred billion galaxies were flung into space. To give you a little perspective, our planet Earth is like a grain of sand in our galaxy, and our galaxy is no more than a grain of sand in the vastness of all creation. The God who created it all is manifest in the person of Jesus Christ, for He “is the visible expression of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15, Phillips). He created it all, and the Scripture says He holds it all together by the word of His command.”
If the Scripture is true and I am staking my life now and the eternal life on one man, the God-man Jesus Christ. He has become my life, He is living in me and I am living in Him. John Mark and Zachary David, you do not have to worry about the things that our world fears, the Scripture states that Jesus Christ holds it all together. Our world has gone the way of the fool, and God has a lot to say about the fool. In Psalm 53:1 it is written; The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” In Proverbs 28:26 we read the following; Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
Never forget that “God Is”, and do not live in fear as I did for so many years, not knowing or believing this truth. “I have chosen you and not cast you off; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41: 9b-10).
With all my Love,
Granddad, Bob Bob
