Conversations with Random People -21 #T

We spent a good portion of Monday afternoon on the third floor of a courthouse in a neighboring county.  We were there is support of an acquaintance who was to appear before the court.  The floor was paved in a tessellated octogon/triangle pattern, the overhead skylight a geometric wonder.

As our crew gathered in the hallway, so did others, people with whom we were not acquainted.  The saddest part of the day was watching a parade of young people, some probably not yet out of their teens, passing by in shackles, escorted by a sheriff's deputy and headed to a courtroom.

A gentleman with our group, sixty-ish, unassuming, and garbed in gray shirt and gray dockers introduced himself to me and stated that he was a jail chaplain.  Conversations went on in clusters in the hallway, various people came and went.  I, tired of standing, sat on a nearby chair and simply observed.  People-watching is a fine pastime.  After awhile I noted the chaplain standing to one side contemplating whatever pictures were moving in his head, so l went over to him and

Just to satisfy my curiosity, tell me, what circumstances led to your chaplaincy?

 If I told you, you wouldn't believe it, so I'll tell you anyhow.

Say on; you have further piqued my curiosity.

Ten years ago I was one of these people.  I have done time.  Then in 2009 I met the Lord Jesus Christ and He transformed my life.  I committed myself to follow God's will in all things.  Then one day he spoke to me and said, I want you to start a jail ministry.  I replied, Unhuh.  I don't want to be a minister.  And the Lord said, I don't care what you want.  You will be a minister.  So I started calling at the jail, meeting with those who wanted to talk seriously about their lives and circumstances.  After a time, the sheriff's department called and asked for my clothing sizes.  Oh, no, I said, you are not going to knit me one of those orange suits.  No, we are going to give you a uniform fitting to your position as official chaplain and you will then be granted free passage in the jail at all hours.  So I am a chaplain.

Wow.  That is an amazing story,  God will open doors for those who will obey His calling.

Indeed, he said.  And there is more.  Just a year ago the Lord told me he wanted me to be the pastor of a local church, an old but dying church in the community. (He named the church.)  Oh, no, Lord, not me.  I don't want to be a pastor.  And God said, I don't care what you want.

Seems, I said, the Lord gets His way with you in spite of what you want.

Truth, he said.  There is no bargaining with God.  It is His way or no way.  At any rate, when I took the church they were down to about fifteen souls in attendance.  Less than twelve months later, we are running fifty-five and growing a bit week-by-week.

Another example, I said, of the Lord's faithfulness.  Keep the faith and carry on!

We spoke of many other things, and the wait was not yet over.

More amazing perhaps than the floor or the ceiling is the staircase:

God Will Allow a King

And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 

 --I Samuel 8:5-7

 Sunday last I posted this scripture along with the admonition to study the Word.

From the time of Israel's release from bondage in Egypt and their subsequent occupation of the Promised Land up to the time of this account the people, unlike the nations around them, had existed without a king over them.  They had relied on a series of judges, men and women of God, prophets to communicate with God and with the people to maintain leadership and justice in the land.

Samuel's predecessor, Eli, was Israel's thirteenth judge and dispensed justice until the day a messenger brought the news that the military had suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Philistines and the Philistines had taken The Ark of the Covenant.  Eli, at age ninety-eight and extremely corpulent heard this horrifying news, fell from his seat, broke his neck and died.

Now Samuel, Eli's protege, assumed the role of Israel's leader. He has served in his capacity as judge for forty years and is now himself an elderly man.  He places his sons, Abiah and Joel, in positions of judgeship.  But they are faithless and open their palms, ruling not justly but corruptly.  The people start their plaint,  "Give us a king that we might be even as other nations."

Samuel, distraught, lays this case before the Lord.  God now tells Samuel that the people are not rebelling against Samuel but against God Himself.  Further he says, Let them have what they want and here is what they will get.  For the detailed account of the Lord's word, read verses 11-18 of this chapter.

God's guidelines for living are clear and adequate.  Is it possible that we sometimes, like the Israelites of old, pester Him for something until He gives us what we want to our detriment?

Jewel Heist and Unheist

The Star of India was given to the American Museum of Natural History by J.P. Morgan in 1900. The gem safely resided there until October 29, 1964. Soon after that night it found a new place of residence in a public locker in a bus station in Miami, Florida.  

The bad men who effected this transfer of locale had unlocked a bathroom window in the museum during public hours, thereby assuring themselves an avenue of ingress and escape. That night they completed the job, making off with this star sapphire the weight of which was over 563 carats. They also took the Midnight Star, the DeLong Star Ruby and the Eagle diamond.*

Subsequently, Jack Murphy, Roger Clark, and Allan Kuhn were indicted for the theft.

Fast forward to Miami in early January, 1965. A group of New York City detectives brought Kuhn to Miami in an effort to locate the swag. According to reporter Milt Sosin in the Miami News of January 8, “All day Wednesday and early Thursday, the assistant D.A. and the detectives, with Kuhn in tow, raced around Miami, Miami Beach, and North Dade in their quest.”

Apparently the group checked into a motel and eventually received an anonymous call specifying the location of the jewels. The informant told them where the key was hidden. Early on the morning of January 8, the group rushed to the sites specified and did, indeed, find the booty, with the exception of the DeLong Star Ruby, which was later recovered, and the Eagle Diamond which has never been found.

The crooks got three years.

*According to Wikipedia, the only one of these gems that had an alarm device was the Star of India.  The battery was dead.

Sources:

1.  Wikipedia

2.   Miami News, January 8, 1965