August 12
Joy came home with a plastic snake.
Patti handed these out at our meeting telling us, "I was murmuring and complaining to the Lord today so I bought these snakes to remind me that I shouldn't be doing that." One-by-one the members present admitted murmuring today.
"And the people murmured against God and Moses: 'why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our souls loathe this worthless bread.' So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people; and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died." (Numbers 21:5-6)
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Guide Dog Training
August 11
West Hartford business center is a small version of a big downtown where Fidelco trainers walk their guide dogs through various situations.
I am behind a trainer and his new dog as they arrive at an intersection. A car arrives at the stop sign.. It is a standoff. I watch. Nobody moves.
Finally the trainer gives in and waves the driver on. The driver's mouth is moving as he passes by. I can only guess what words he uses to express his feelings. I shouldn't judge the driver who obviously is making a misjudgment of his own.
"Judge not that you be judged." (Matthew 7:1)
West Hartford business center is a small version of a big downtown where Fidelco trainers walk their guide dogs through various situations.
I am behind a trainer and his new dog as they arrive at an intersection. A car arrives at the stop sign.. It is a standoff. I watch. Nobody moves.
Finally the trainer gives in and waves the driver on. The driver's mouth is moving as he passes by. I can only guess what words he uses to express his feelings. I shouldn't judge the driver who obviously is making a misjudgment of his own.
"Judge not that you be judged." (Matthew 7:1)
Friday, August 10, 2012
First Date Disaster
August 10
It was a first date. I knew she was impressed as we unloaded the picnic basket and spread things out. The concert started and I got out the bottle of wine and real wine glasses. I even brought a corkscrew. I was feeling proud of myself.
I knelt and held the bottle with one hand and the corkscrew with the other. As I was cutting through the paper that covers the cork I slipped and the jagged corkscrew sliced up my arm. I bled profusely. I was not seriousley hurt but totally embarrassed.
We never dated again and I still have the scar on my arm reminding me:
“Pride goes before a destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
It was a first date. I knew she was impressed as we unloaded the picnic basket and spread things out. The concert started and I got out the bottle of wine and real wine glasses. I even brought a corkscrew. I was feeling proud of myself.
I knelt and held the bottle with one hand and the corkscrew with the other. As I was cutting through the paper that covers the cork I slipped and the jagged corkscrew sliced up my arm. I bled profusely. I was not seriousley hurt but totally embarrassed.
We never dated again and I still have the scar on my arm reminding me:
“Pride goes before a destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
Reunion of Souls
August 9
Signs pointed the way to my 60th high school reunion. I stood in the doorway, staring at old people. I wonder when we leave this world if there will be a reunion of souls that were in the same earthly class? Will the Heavenly reunion be just peers or will it include parents, mentors, teachers, bosses, children, and of course high school classmates?
Will I be bored? Will I be shocked? Will I be invited? I'll be happy just to be there.
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last. For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 20:16)
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Proverbs 32 Husband
August 6
To me Joy is a Proverbs 31 wife .She makes me her priority in all that she does.
She is a woman that fears the Lord and I praise her for all she does.
There should be directions for a Proverbs 32 husband. Come to think of it there are. Paul articulates them in his letter to the Ephesians.
“Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies .H e who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:25,28)
To me Joy is a Proverbs 31 wife .She makes me her priority in all that she does.
She is a woman that fears the Lord and I praise her for all she does.
There should be directions for a Proverbs 32 husband. Come to think of it there are. Paul articulates them in his letter to the Ephesians.
“Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies .H e who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:25,28)
Friday, August 3, 2012
Barred from Prison
August 3
Our prison services were suppose to start in February. I had April. I asked people to pray for me and they did. We never got into the Prison. The clearances hadn’t come through. We prayed for the men through the barbed wire fence.I was reassigned to December. A call in late November cancelled our group.
God didn't want me in that prison. Why? Wasn't I properly prepared? Wasn't my heart right? A year later I heard God’s reply, "You never asked Me. "It wasn’t His will that I go it was mine.
“For without Me you can do nothing.” (John 51:5)
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
A Pacific Island
August 2
We anchor our fishing boad off an unchartered tiny island in the pacific.
We paddle a skiff to a small beach and walk up a patch to some huts on stilts. Clothes hang on crude racks near two smoldering fires. A few chickens mill about but not a soul in sight. It is eerie. I feel we are being watched by whoever just left those fires.
Now I have an inkling how missionaries must feel going to a remote area to share the Gospel. Their faith must be bigger than their fears. Is mine?
“Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and know I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”(Matthew 28:19-20)
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