“Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11
My
8 and 5 year old grandsons were over yesterday, and because it was hot, they
ended up in the pool. A favorite game of ours is my throwing pennies into the
water and their diving down to get them. After I ran out of pennies, it was
time to introduce them to something new. What happened next was a good lesson
for anybody who wants a more abundant life!
I
challenged the oldest to dive down to the bottom and stay there. Because he had
a tendency to float to the top, I stood on him to keep him underwater. Over a
minute later, he still wasn’t struggling. But I let him loose and he came up
laughing saying, “that was cool!” His younger brother then hollered, “do that
to me too grampa!” So I held BOTH of them underwater… while their mom laughed
and videoed the scene!
“Horrible!”
or “Child abuse!” some might say. But attempted murder is probably more like
it! What I DIDN’T say was what made all the difference. Because floating above
them was a scuba tank with 2 regulators supplying air to them! Though
underwater, they were breathing just fine! And LOVING IT! What under normal
circumstances would be considered horrific, had just become a great time!
Unless
one is a fish, breathing and underwater do NOT go together. When Jesus told
Nicodemus that to enter Heaven one had to be ‘Born Again,’ His words were
shocking! They still are! People who haven’t exercised Faith in Christ have the
tendency to drown in the sea of common sense, rather than trusting in the
Savior. Jesus is just trying to get them under… to show them the life that is
greater!
My
grandsons are smart. They know staying underwater too long can be a serious
problem. They SAW the contraption with the hoses floating in the water, but my
trying to explain the scientific and practical applications of scuba was NOT
going to get them down and keep them down. What they needed to do was what they
did! They TRUSTED me… then gave it a try! Just like Jesus asks us to do!
Faith
requires action. That means that I can be told over and over that God is good
and that His ways are better and more joyful than what I am used to. But until
I do more than just , and be willing to dive under and be held by Him, I will
NEVER experience the REAL life He promises me. But FIRST, I must be willing to
die to my own old way of seeing and doing things! I’ve tried and… Jesus
Works!
Have
YOU exercised faith in Jesus Christ and been Born Again? If so… how’s it
going?
“Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.” Isaiah 1:16
I
have a couple of older cars, which is what I prefer. It’s not like I wouldn’t
LOVE a new car for both my bride and myself, it’s just that the cost for new
does not justify the benefits. So we keep our 18+ year old cars going. To do
that requires me to have a mechanic… and I do! I am blessed because my
mechanic is ALSO my friend and a fellow Believer! Lately, he’s been making a
suggestion!
When
I last took my truck to him, I had run out of electrical tape to cover the
flashing indicator dashboard lights. He repaired the problem and then did an
inspection on my vehicle because, like I said, he is also my friend. When I
picked it up, he said, “we need to get this back in soon… your back brakes need
to be replaced!” My response was, “O.K.!” But my thought was, “Pshaw!!!!”
Look…
my brakes have been working fine! I have not had even 1 incident when I pushed
on the brake pedal and my truck didn’t stop. But… we made an appointment to get
my truck to him last week… then I completely forgot! Still, I can tell you that
I haven’t had even ONE close call with any braking issues! BUT, like I said,
he’s my friend, so I guess I’ll humor him and get my truck to him this Friday.
I
have learned that maintenance is such an inconvenience! It takes time, effort
and determination to keep things in good working order. Me being me, I don’t
like wasting time on things I don’t see as THAT big a problem. Reading the Old
Testament Prophets lately, I see that Israel had the same issue! Their attitude
was, ‘why bother cleaning up when we’re having so much fun in the mud?’
As
I look around at America, I no longer have to look OUT THERE to hear a news
story that indicates a ‘stopping problem!’ Just looking around my own little
community, I see lives that are completely out of whack and headed for
disaster! As evil becomes more acceptable and normal, I am reminded that
STOPPING… will soon become an impossibility! A crash is certain!
Reading
the Word is ALWAYS inconvenient to me. It is obvious that ‘I’ am NOT Israel…
and that ‘I’ alone am not America! When I read the Word it is easy for me to
tape over the dashboard lights that indicate that ‘I’ have any problems.
Sometimes, it takes more than a little nudge by my friend ‘The Holy Spirit’ to
help me see that “I” do indeed… have a ‘Stopping Problem!’ And it’s Shop Time!
This devotional popped up in my email and, if you have been listening to me over the last several months, mirrors my own heart. America is in a heap of trouble and heading for the cliff! WE are ‘The Called’… the ones who have been given the responsibility to be light and salt to our world. That means we are to DO something! There are voices out there saying the same things. Here is a perfectly eloquent example.
Find a Storm to Stir You
Article by Marshall Segal Staff writer, desiringGod.org
Complacency
falls softly, even pleasantly, on a sleeping soul. It’s the secret to its
appeal and power over us. The complacent crave comfort, quiet, ease — an inner
life resembling a calm lake just after sunset. The birds have fled, the fish
descended, the other animals have hidden themselves away for the night. Even
the water stops to rest. Serene. Peaceful. Undisturbed.
Complacent people may still do a lot of things — just not what
matters most, what requires more of us. Few of us, of course, think of ourselves
as complacent. Life is “full” and “hard” and often overwhelming. But underneath
there’s an eerie stillness — not the stillness of peace and security and joy,
but of a spiritual stagnancy. Like a child in a car seat during rush hour, the
harried rhythms of life slowly lull our souls to sleep.
The Bible stays closed for days at a time. Prayers are quicker
and less frequent. We keep one eye on our email, our texts, our feed.
Conversations linger near the surface and feel inconvenient. Excuses multiply for
missing church. Needs around us go unnoticed. We go to sleep and wake up
anxious and distracted, and we’re not sure why. The spiritual seas within us go
from restless to sluggish to dormant.
Unless, of course, God lovingly sends a storm to awaken us:
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. . . .
Provoking Good
The pastoral charge in Hebrews 10:24–25 can easily become so familiar
that it’s no longer provocative. The storm it describes can begin to sound more
and more like a gentle breeze.
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The Greek for “stir up” means “to provoke” or “to agitate.” The same word is used just one other time in the New Testament, and it’s used (surprisingly) to describe the “sharp disagreement” that arose between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark (Acts 15:39). There’s a kind of sharpness in the imagery. Shake one another, unsettle one another, upset one another — with a holy interruption — until love spills over and good works spring to life.
Why reach for such strong language to describe ordinary life together in the church? Because, like any good preacher, the writer of Hebrews knows how easy it is for any of us to settle into lives of little love and few good works. He knows how deeply and regularly we need brotherly storms to keep our souls alert and alive to God.
First Step in Good Stirring
How do we send these brotherly storms in love? The first step in
stirring one another up may be so obvious we miss it. It comes in the next
verse: “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of
some. . . .” The first step in stirring up one another is simply to see one another face to face — to consistently
gather in the same place with the explicit purpose of enjoying and obeying
Jesus.
Many of us tasted the painful absence
of this over the last couple of years during lockdowns and social distancing.
We tried hard to bridge the gap with technology, but we all felt its
inadequacy. One of the many good lessons God was teaching us amid all the
confusion, tension, loss, and heartache was that we need to be stirred, we need
more than Zoom calls and livestreams, we need to meet. God has given presence a soul-stirring power that texts and
screens cannot replace.
And yet some, then and now, neglect the gift and necessity of presence. Why had some made a habit of avoiding the gathering? The excuses may have been many and varied, but they likely shared a common root: some unrepentant sin (next verse, Hebrews 10:26). They knew deep down that sin went to church to die, and so they found ways to stay away from church. Maybe it was secret sexual sin. Maybe it was bitterness over past hurt. Maybe it was envy over another’s marriage, or children, or home, or success. Maybe it was an idol of me-time. First, they had a bad morning and missed worship once. Then a couple times in a month. Then most of the summer. Over time, absence was no longer an anomaly, but the norm. A habit.
The storms we all need only come when we each keep investing what it costs to meet. Week after week, we need to be awakened. We need to be reminded that God exists. We need to be reminded that he really came in the flesh, died a sinless death in our place, and three days later broke out of the grave. We need to be reminded that all the burdens and responsibilities that feel so heavy and demanding are small and light next to our coming reward. We need to be reminded that sin will ruin us. We need to be shaken free from the sleepy spiritual fog that so easily sets in. In other words, we really need to meet.
Love Prepared for Us
When we stir one another up to love and good works, we join God
in something he has been conceiving over centuries. We’re being used by God to
enact a plan he outlined before the world was born. “We are his workmanship,”
the apostle Paul writes, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Any good work we do today is a good
work that God himself has prepared for us.
“God chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4).
And he knew precisely what shapes and colors that holiness would take. He knew
and planned the details of our love, our patience, our kindness, our generosity
and hospitality. The good steps we take, with his help, are steps he placed in
front of us. Before God poured the Pacific Ocean, he had planned ways for us to
step in and sacrifice ourselves for others. Before God laid out the sunflower
fields in Italy, he had planted needs that we would uncover and meet. Before he
formed the Himalayas or carved out the Grand Canyon, he had prepared fruitful
conversations for us to have, even this week.
And we get to help one another walk into those good works, works written out for us, specifically for us, before we knew what one was. In fact, our stirring others up into this Christ-like love is one of the many good works God prepared for us beforehand.
Consider One Another
Perhaps the most overlooked dimension of the command to stir one
another up, however, is how personal it is: “Let us consider how to
stir up one another to love and good works.” Literally, “one another” is the
object of the verb consider: “Let us consider one another . . .”
Provoking one another well begins with studying one another well. It means
paying close enough attention to know each other’s particular abilities and plans,
temptations and fears, challenges and opportunities. These are the kinds of
questions we might regularly ask as we consider one another:
What strengths or abilities has God given you?
What specific callings has he placed on your life?
What other needs has God put around you?
Who, in particular, has he called you to love? And who do you struggle to love?
What are areas you excel in where I could affirm grace in you?
What are areas you struggle in where I could come alongside and encourage you?
What fears keep you from taking good risks and making sacrifices in love?
How might God use me to help you carry out the good works he’s planned for you?
Often, just asking good questions is enough to spark the right
kind of awareness, selflessness, creativity, and love. And asked consistently
enough by people who love us and know us well, they can serve as something of a
spiritual alarm clock, calling us out of cycles of sleepiness.
So, who stirs your heart out of the soothing calm of complacency? Whose friendship awakens the right kind of conviction, ambition, and joy? And who might need you to be that loving storm for them?
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
It
seemed like it just crept up overnight! One day my swimming pool was crystal
clear. The next… not so much! I WILLED myself to NOT believe what I was seeing.
But the pool’s pretty blue surface had been overcome with the greeny yellowy
film of algae!!!!! Having lived here for 32 years, it was not the first time
either! And I KNEW it was ALL MY FAULT!
Algae
in my pool has happened MANY times… usually about this time of year. The water
had been cool due to the chill of winter. But now that the sun’s heat was
shining summer’s glow, the pool temperature was warming. Cooler temperatures
mean it doesn’t take as many chemicals to keep algae at bay. But unless I am
vigilant, it doesn’t take long for the tide to turn and algae to bloom!
When
I got to the pool store to buy some pool shock and algaecide, I was the one
shocked! A bottle that used to cost $16 was now $38! Chlorine tablets had
increased in price more than 2.5 times from what I used to pay! But unless I
wanted to let my pool become a swamp… I had no choice. So I paid and left. But
not before having a little conversation with the clerk!
I
asked the man behind the counter if he was aware of what was going on in our
School Board. He was not! When I briefed him on the horrors of evil being
pressed upon our children with the LGBTQ agenda, he said, “I don’t have any
children.” When I asked him if he cared about what kids are being taught, he
again reminded me, “I don’t have any children.” then added, “so I don’t care!”
When
I got home I got started. Letting Algae get a grip on my pool takes money, time
and WORK to get rid of. Just like with sin and evil! And God is NOT going to
lend me a hand to get rid of it since… it is MY fault that it’s there in the first
place!! Lack of watchfulness, effort and spending resources allowed evil in
NATURALLY! Now God may give me directions to clean it… but it’s gonna cost ME!
I
have a tendency to go over the top when faced with an issue. I threw in more
chemicals than the man told me I might need, since he’d already proven he
wasn’t that wise. And now I am going to watch what is going on in my pool even
MORE CAREFULLY. And now that a MAJOR election for School Board members is
coming up August 23rd, I’m going to work EXTRA hard to get rid of
the evil!
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37
BIG
SALE! That is what the mailed flier indicated anyway. MASS SAVINGS!!! O.K.,
they had my attention. On the surface, it looked like stopping there would save
me some money on items I regularly use. Then I saw their advertisement for
paper towels…
Wherever
there is money, there is math. Because I don’t have a math brain, it takes me a
little longer for things to add up! But with this advertisement, it appeared
there was a whole new category of mathematics I was unaware of. One
manufacturer says that 6=9! Another says 6=12! Still another says that 6=8…
which magically turns into 10 on the new packaging! And I am confused!
Paper
Towels have always been a source of ire for me because what started as convenience has
turned into GOLD for some mathematically minded paper pushers! The downside is that no matter how it’s computed, grabbing a paper
towel to wipe up a spill is EXPENSIVE! Just last night at church when coffee
was spilled. I went to get the mop, another guy grabbed $12 worth of paper towels!!!! We should have
grabbed a rag! Go figure!
The
Bible has a lot to say about things of value. But I have learned that ‘God
Math’ is kind of like paper towel math… because it’s in a whole new category of
its own. For example, God promises that you actually GET MORE when you GIVE IT
AWAY! And when it comes to His spilling out His love for me… God’s math is off
the charts!
“NO!”
is the first word of today’s Bible verse. Which actually begs the question… No
WHAT? Looking back, the question on the table is simply, “can ANYTHING separate
me from the love of God in Christ Jesus?” It is good to know that when God says
“NO!” He means it! But after He answers His own question, He does a fancy dance
with the ‘value’ of His love that sounds more like a paper towel commercial!
Romans
8 is the BIG ROLL of security for the Believer in Jesus Christ. It goes on to
say that we are not just conquerors because we trust in Him… He says we are
MORE than conquerors! Now I don’t know how a conqueror can be or do more than
conquer, but God said it and I believe Him. So while the world tries to tell me
that less is more, God says, ‘don’t buy it… MORE is MORE!’ I love His math!
So
here’s a question… does God’s love add up for you?
“The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.” Luke 18:34
“Ya wanna play a game?” Katie hollered
from the other room. Thinking about it, I realized it was too late to go out
somewhere, yet too early to go to bed. So I said, “Sure, what game do you want
to play?” The questions only made the rabbit hole go deeper. “How about that
new one you just bought on sale last week?” she called out. And just like that…
we entered ‘Wonderland.’
We had been walking through an
‘everything for $5’ store and I saw nothing of interest. That was until I hit a
shelf labeled ‘Clearance – 50% off!’ Suddenly I was intrigued! Being frugal and
with my attention piqued, a game just kind of jumped out at me. Imagining the
hours of fun I would have with my bride, playing a game we got half off at a $5
store, we bought it! Now it was time to play!
Everything was going well as she
unwrapped the package. That changed when she started reading the directions.
Becoming confused, she handed them to me and said, “here… YOU figure this out!”
After trying for several minutes, I did the 2022 thing and asked google for a
video! After watching it for 10 minutes, our wide-eyed gazes locked in
confusion. She put everything back in the box!
I’ve always felt sorry for the
Disciples. Those poor guys had no clue what was going on most of the time! But
their sense of wonder at the miracle working, story telling, wise man named Jesus kept
them following Him around anyway! They never really even got a glimpse of the
big picture until He was gone! But by then, they were so far ‘in’ there was no
turning back! Sometimes I feel like that!
With this world sinning and spinning out
of control, it gets harder to make sense of it all. Trying to read God’s
instruction manual often makes me even more confused, feeling like those very
first Disciples in today’s Bible verse. I mean, things shouldn’t be this hard…
right? Then it hit me! Falling for a bargain, I thought I was getting some fun!
But God NEVER said this life would be FUN!
In the end, Katie said, “it would have
been easier to just get a deck of cards and play ‘War’ with you!” It was then I
realized… that is EXACTLY what we are doing! Are you keeping your eyes on The
Master? Or are you looking for something else? Because Jesus doesn’t bargain!
“My Word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.” Isaiah 55:11
For
28 years I had the honor of selling signs to churches all over America. When
LED signs became affordable, I was even more excited, because those signs had
the ability to provide more than 1 or 2 Bible messages to a community. My
greatest joy was teaching Pastors how to “PUT THE WORD OF GOD ON IT!” Well…
that was the idea anyway!
Being
a preacher’s kid afforded many opportunities to see for myself the Truth of
today’s verse. Simply reading and allowing it to work is the greatest power
available to mankind! So I hammered that ministry potential home to interested
Church representatives, and many got excited and bought one. But even after
providing them with thousands of free messages to use, after a short time, most
would revert to something like… “Worship 11:00am.”
My
dad founded the church I now pastor and bought one of our manual changeable
signs… which meant work, because I insisted he put up 2 different messages a
week. When he passed away, I got his job! Changing the sign manually took about
45 minutes. Finally, we were able to purchase an LED sign of our own. Now each
week, making up new messages takes me at least an hour!
Technology
doesn’t always make things easier, since adding pictures and color takes time.
But the effect is powerful! I love watching the Word develop, and then finally
see it on the sign. Last week, my newer computer wouldn’t send the messages to
the sign! Calling my friend, we discovered there is a reason the sign won’t
work! We have a connection problem! But we’re working on it!
If
you look up ‘church signs’ in your browser, you will see God’s disappointment
in real time. Due to work or inconvenience, VERY few church signs proclaim
God’s Word. Most tell of upcoming events that require one COME IN to receive.
But the Word of God has NO such requirement! To receive God’s blessing, one
simply needs to READ IT to be connected to The Master of the Universe!
Are
YOU reading and connecting with His Word daily? If not.. are you working
on it?
The LGBT+ movement has been added to the Roe v Wade Supreme Court battle looming upon the horizon. ALL which brings war against Children! These concepts and implementations have been invented and developed by adults… and are waged by adults… against Children. Children lacking the ability to even conceive of these ideas! Will YOU mourn and fight and wail and find God’s will for your part to stand up for His Children? Reading Jerimiah, Lamentations and Ezekial, the Israelites failed to stand up for theirs… and God brought judgement. How easy it would be for me to ignore what God has laid upon my heart to find ‘Happy Thoughts’ of joy and encouragement. How easy for you to not have to think about it and simply move on? I truly believe the ‘Time for Weeping’ is upon Christ’s Church. Will she weep, mourn, seek, stand up and fight for God’s plans for His Families and Children?
Her time
had come, unexpectedly. The morning through the lattice shone with a bright and
soft melancholy. In her arms, her second son. The fruit of the night’s long and
anguished labor. Gentle tears fall; the child has her eyes.
A former life pressed in upon her.
Leah, her sister, Leah. The feud between them over Jacob — for his love and for
his offspring — had availed neither. So much of her married life, she now realized,
glowed with envy — she wanted more than Jacob’s heart and eye. She wanted his
heirs (Genesis 30:1). She remembered her desperate cry to her
husband, a lifetime ago now, “Give me children, or I shall die!”
Even at the birth of her first son, Rachel already began to look
for another: “And she called his name Joseph [literally, “May he add”], saying
‘May the Lord add to me another son!’” And now, she held him — for the first
and last time. The midwife aimed to comfort her with the fulfillment, “Do not
fear, for you have another son” — consolation to a dying mother.
How many such golden mornings would
this son grow to know without her? How many grandchildren would her wilting
arms never hold? As her soul made ready for its unwilling exodus, tears
showered the plant just sprouted. She sighs a name, “Ben-oni, son of my
sorrow.”
Jacob sat beside his great love,
grief gripping him by the throat, yet managing to say, “He shall be called,
‘Benjamin, son of my right hand.’” Son of my right hand,
as though to say, “As you depart, my Rachel, my dove, this son — this life you
brought forth from death — shall be in favor at my side. He shall be closer to
me than a shadow; as close as your memory. This, the last token between us on
earth, I will cherish.”
And with that, Rachel departed from the world and was buried on the way to Bethlehem.
A Ghost, Crying
It moves the soul to imagine a mother saying hello and goodbye
to her child in the same moment. We can see her with our imagination, gazing
around longingly at loved ones, her eyes resting upon her son with a look to
bring water from the hardest heart. Ben-oni, Ben-oni.
And it moves us to hear the other two mentions of this mother’s
tears in Scripture. As the blood of Abel continues to speak, Rachel too
continues to cry.
In the first incident, Israel has fallen bloodily to Babylon.
Amid the stunning note of hope given in Jeremiah 31, we hear her:
Thus says the Lord,
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15)
Near the place of Rachel’s tomb, her voice cries out at the
devastation of Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes. The Lord speaks
poetically, resurrecting Rachel, as it were, to picture her as an Israelite
mother weeping without remedy for her slain and exiled children.
In response, Yahweh comforts her, “There is hope for your future, and your children shall come back to their own country.” He will relent of his judgment, and depicts himself as a Father to Israel, saying, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? . . . I will surely have mercy on him” (Jeremiah 31:16–20). In other words, he shall be called “Benjamin” — a son at my right hand.
She Refuses to Be Comforted
Hundreds
of years later, her consolation is again disturbed.
Herod has done the unthinkable.
Furious at the wise men for not divulging the location of baby Jesus, “he sent
and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were
two years old or under” (Matthew 2:16). The dragon devoured many to ravage the
one.
Matthew writes of the infanticide,
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,
As the brutes went door to door, Rachel again raised her anguished cry. These tears did not signal exile, but extermination. She does not die with her healthy child in her arms — bequeathing her son with a hope and a future — she watches, as baby boy after baby boy is ripped from his mother’s arms and done away with. She weeps, and refuses to be comforted, because they are no more. weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:17–18)
Do We Weep with Her?
Because they are no more.
There is a discomforting calm in
these words: The deed is done; the violence spent. The water is again calm over
the sunken ship. The dreadful stillness; an unholy hush. Little giggles, gone.
Creaking floors cease playing the music of pattering footsteps. They are no more.
“Because they are no more.”
What a
word to echo through the empty corridors of the world today — and in the United
States alone, a child misplaced every minute. Though not ancient Israel, I hear
Rachel, from a forgotten corner of the world, weeping. If a pitiless society
will not mourn for the missing, she will. If we live too busy to mind the
brutality, she isn’t.
Day after day, she mourns as a mother bereft of more children.
As one after another is stolen from behind fortress walls, she begets tears
without number. Final punctuations fall; biographies end. Nothing left to read,
nothing more to say. Towns and cities and even nations full of people — gone —
“Ben-oni.”
She looks out from the lattice, daylight rests upon her with a bright and terrible melancholy. How many have never lived to see this dawn? Will we not weep with her — because they are no more?
Greg Morse is a staff writer for desiringGod.org and graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Abigail, live in St. Paul with their son and daughter.
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 2 Peter 1:2
LOOK!!!!!
THERE IT IS! I SEE IT! Katie was so excited that I had to be happy for her. She
has had a love of space and rocket ships for years. It was Space Station
season, and for the last 3 nights I had to pause the TV show so she could ‘go
see it!’ Maybe! I say maybe because there were lots of factors involved, some of
which she had no control.
We
have seen the space station many times over the years. The most impressive was
a couple years ago at the top of a mountain in the clear night sky, With no
light pollution, and with cell phone in hand, we knew precisely where and when it was
going to appear, as well as the angle of flight. Her enthusiasm exited me as
well, and I will never forget it. But last night… eh!
There
is an App on her phone that allows her to look up into the skies and see what
is what. It provides every bit of information necessary to see the space
station pass by in the night. But it can’t do anything about obstacles… like trees,
buildings or clouds. All of which can block the sighting. But even if it can’t
be seen, she KNOWS that it is there.
Staring
into the night sky, not seeing a dog-gone thing, I was happy for her joy and
excitement. But had to admit… I was bored out of my mind! I just didn’t share
her enthusiasm. Unfortunately I DID share THAT information with her. And it
made her sad.
Have
you ever cared about something SO much that you wanted to share it with the
world? Only to find out that the attitude of many is… eh? And when you try to
explain, give details and point it out for a better view, it was dismissed with
a yawn for lack of interest? Yea… I have too. But then, So has God!
The
Knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the pursuit of Him, brings me Grace and Peace…
AND JOY! Pursuing Him through the Word is often the greatest treasure I can
find. But then, there are times when the clouds of life, or other obstacles,
seem to get in the way and I miss it entirely. I KNOW He’s there. But I just
can’t see Him. And it makes me sad. But according to The Word… He is set to
show up again… SOON… If I just keep my eyes open and on His Word!
