tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47896321514893290042024-03-12T23:08:27.131-05:00Thoughts and Musingsrevruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-78922775761115106142023-05-06T12:06:00.000-05:002023-05-06T12:06:21.865-05:00One is the Loneliest Number<p> <span style="font-family: arial;"><u>One is the Loneliest Number</u></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span></sup></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two people are better
off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the
other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></sup>Likewise, two people lying
close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? <sup><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></sup>A person standing alone
can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three
are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (New Living Translation)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><i>(I
usually like to post a verse from the ESV or RSV (old) translation on these,
but I felt like the NLT said this a little more directly.)</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Hey,
everybody! Sorry for the long drought between posts, but times have been
extremely busy over the last couple of years with massive amounts of random
stuff getting in the way. I’ve missed you on line (all two or three of you) and
am ready to share some random thoughts and musings once again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Have
any of you tried to do a hair braid? I used to try to braid my wife’s hair,
when it was longer, before a softball game. She will be the first to tell you,
and I agree, that I suck at braiding hair. Three handfuls of hair should not be
possible with only two hands! Yet, it seems to be done all the time. When her
hair was braided, it stayed out of her way, and let her play without that
distraction. Somehow, all those loose hairs came together and stayed put. (at
least when I didn’t do it)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">As
the world is emerging from Covid hibernation, people are getting back out and
experiencing being with other people again. Going to concerts, movies, church,
work, even just shopping, is a chance for freedom and getting out of the house.
Here’s my problem though. I’ve always been a bit of an introvert. I LIKE being
at home. When I was working, shopping, worshiping and even leading worship from
home, I was in my element. Mask, so what? It just let me, when I had to,
preserve a little seclusion. Only reveal what I had too. It felt….comfortable.
Safe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Now,
I was never totally alone, because my wife was there with me. I’m pretty sure
she liked when I got out, so she could have some time herself! But being alone
has its problems. If everything is going well, it’s fine. When everything is
going bonkers, you’re shouldering all that weight on your own. And it can be
massive.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Our
natural state, mine included, is actually in communion. In communion with God,
and in communion with each other. Even in God, Whose image we are made in,
there is communion within Himself…Father, Son and Holy Spirit….Three in One.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">So,
why do I hesitate? Partially because my sarcastic attitude reaches out to
myself most often. I feel like if I’m around people long enough, they will find
out I’m a fraud, not worthy, not good enough. Music? I fake my way through so
much, it’s like a new song by the time I’m done. A thirty plus year journey of
working in Accounting Departments? I flunked Basic College Math in college.
Christian? Let’s just say when Paul said “I do that which I would not do”, I
totally get it.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">So,
it’s easier to hide. Be the anonymous Facebook voyeur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even posting a blog is a little out of my
comfort zone. But I am called to sing songs God has given me. Called to speak
in public, when He presents an opportunity. To share, to the best of my
understanding, the Word He gives my heart to share.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some
community is easier than others. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Good friends that I know see my faults, and
care anyway. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Churches whose purpose is to save the world around them, not
pronounce judgement. (C. S. Lewis expounded “Mere Christianity”. That is, not </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Christianity and” whatever popular cause or concern. Christianity and Social
Justice, Christianity and Crime, Christianity and Nationalism. All good, but
when the cause overtakes the Christianity, then both are lost.) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My sweet Camp
Bluebird, where the bond is love of each other, in spite of all differences.
Maybe even because of.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We
must commune together, it is only right. We must also be willing to accept, and
love each other. See their faults, true, but as Thomas Merton said, see beyond
that to the God inside them. Love them. Just as He loves us, His created, and He
in us as well.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We
are one in the Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We
are one in the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We
are one in the Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">We
are one in the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">And
we pray that all unity will one day be restored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">And
they’ll know we are Christians by our love. By our Love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Yes,
they’ll know we are Christians by our love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Amen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><u></u></span><p></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-55624459470941092522021-09-02T14:30:00.001-05:002021-09-02T14:30:25.324-05:00Return To Your First Love<span style="font-family: arial;"><i>This blog is taken from a sermon I gave at New Beginnings Fellowship back on 8/22/2021. I've edited a little to make it more readable. I write a lot better than I speak!</i></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Good Morning, New Beginnings! New Beginnings-wow. That seems to me even more appropriate now. With Dan Shapley's moving on to the new ministry he's been called to, our church is at a time of new beginnings. We get to see where we are and where we want to be, or more truthfully, where God wants us to be.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">My first thoughts to today were to look at the letters to the seven churches mentioned in Revelation, to see if there was anything there that might point the way. And like a lot of Revelation, it was a bit confusing! But here's the basic breakdown:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Ephesus: </b>pros-good works, tested and rooted out false apostles, enduring patiently</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> cons-abandoned your first love</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Pergamum:</b> pros-holding fast even in Satan's home</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> cons-followed the ways of Nicolaitans</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Thyatira:</b> pros-good works, love, faith, service and patient endurance</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> cons-listened to Jezebels false prophets</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A couple of the churches came out pretty well:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Smyrna:</b> "You will have tribulation, but remain faithful and gain a crown of life"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Philadelphia:</b>- good works, held fast, kept His word and not denied His name</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And then:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Sardis: </b>You have works, but are dead not alive</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Laodicea: </b>You are neither hot nor cold. You are like warm and I will spit you out of my mouth.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Wow. Trust me, you do not want to get into a spitting contest with God. You WILL lose.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So, what can we take away from this? Does New Beginnings want to be a church of good works? That sounds wonderful, and was praised in most of these churches, but most of the churches with good works were also still found lacking. The trouble with good woks is we often can lose sight of Who we are doing these for. We can begin to believe that We are contributing to another person, when we as a church are supposed to be reaching out to show God's love to the world, not our own. By the way, did you know Satan loves good works? He loves anything that can keep you so busy, you don't have time for God.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But doesn't the book of James say "Faith without works is dead?" Yes, but he is saying that good works come out of your faith. Good works in themselves cannot produce Faith. First Corinthians mentions we can have all sorts of good works and gifts, but without love, we'd be just so much noise. Think Buddy Rich on a cymbal rampage!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Are we then to follow strict rules and laws to achieve holiness? Aren't we supposed to be Holy as He is Holy? Yes, we are, but there are problems with this approach too. First off, we can never achieve holiness through the law. Paul says in Romans that law is there to point out our sinfulness, to show that no one can reach God's level of holiness. ALL have sinned and ALL fall short of the Glory of God. Second, we forget that these laws are for us, and try to force them on others, when we can't follow them ourselves. Remember don't try to remove the mite from your brother's eye, without first taking the log out of your own? As to righteousness, Christ said no one was better than the Pharisees, and you know how that ended up. So, if we are to be Holy as He is Holy, it has to come from something or someone other that what we can produce ourselves.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Back to the churches. Several times, it is mentioned they have abandoned their first love and need to return. So, what does that mean exactly? Does it mean returning to that euphoria of when we first come to Christ? I don't think so. Not everyone experiences Christ in the same way. Some have an overwhelming sense of peace, some a joyful excitement. Charles Wesley experienced a "warming of the heart". I myself felt as if my heat had God's hand on it, and turned it around in side of me. like night to day. With some it's not even a single moment, but a gradual acceptance. So, to return to our first love, we have to go deeper than ourselves, deeper than something we can produce.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I John 4:10 says <b>"In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."</b> (Looked up the word - Jesus was the atonement, He came to pay the price for our sins. It's as if someone were found guilty of a crime, and received their sentence, but someone else served that sentence. Our sentence from sin was death, and His death paid that price for us)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So if we are to return to our first love, it goes beyond us, and into the one whose total, complete and passionate love was FIRST there for us. Why do we need to be based in God's love for us? It seems simple but is so often forgotten. The next verse in I John says <b>"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."</b> Does that mean just other Christians? Nope. Check out the next verse. <b>"No one has ever seen God, if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us."</b> We are here to share God's love with the world. Not just with good works, because good works without God's love, is just trying to look good in front of others. Look what we did! Not just with righteous lows, because following laws of God without God's love is just oppression, of ourselves AND others, and Jesus came to set us free.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So how does New Beginnings return to its first love? By understanding love is not based on us, but on God. Not having God as a part of us, but us being wholly inside of God. When we return to our first love, we are not returning to an emotion, but to a person. A living person, the total embodiment of that first love, Jesus.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">John 1:1 <b>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Colossians 1:18 <b>He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">1 John 1:1-3 <b>That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of LIfe - the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and made manifest unto us - THAT which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed OUR fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our JOY may be complete.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So, what will be our "New Beginnings"? It must come through prayer, through listening to God above, not what we just want to hear, and it must come through His Love.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>So Faith, Hope and Love abide, these three. But the greatest of these - is Love.</b></span></div>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-83805777795162082682021-05-09T12:00:00.001-05:002021-05-09T12:00:00.176-05:00Who's your Moma?<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Happy Mother’s Day! Sorry, that just doesn’t sound right to
me. I almost never say “Mother”-too pretentious. Mom is only slightly better,
but in my head, it’s stretched out and whiney- “Mommmmmm!” No, as a true Son of
the South, the word for the woman who gave me life is “Moma”. Yep, as is “If
Moma said it, that’s all you need to say.” And the phrase that strikes fear
into the heart of every man and boy, “If Moma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><i>Proverbs 31:27-29<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><i>She looks well to the ways of her household and does not
eat the bread of idleness. Her Children rise up and call her blessed; her
husband also praises her; “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass
them all.”</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s a pretty awesome scripture but have any of you read
that full chapter? It’s a listing of the attributes that call this woman
blessed. It reads like about 5 job descriptions all rolled into one big, huge
job. That is a pretty difficult model to live up to, so I’m thinking we should
look to other models to see what we should be looking for “blessed”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let’s start at the beginning:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Eve: Moma “Ground Zero” – let’s see, gave her husband some
bad fruit, kids squabbled and competed against each other. One actually killed
the other. But to be fair, no one had ever been a Moma before – no Dr. Spock or
What to expect when you’re expecting-not even a Moma to call and ask, “WHAT IS
GOING ON??!!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sarah (Abraham’s wife): Lied to the King of Egypt about
being married, laughed when God said she would have a child, drove her maid out
to the dessert to die out of jealousy-ok, maybe not her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rebecca (Isaac’s wife): helper her son Jacob trick his
brother out of his birthright, then helped him trick Isaac into giving his blessing-got
Jacob sent out to the country to get a wife to let things cool down. Jacob
married…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rachel: who when they were coming back home, stole from her
father’s house and when the father’s men came to search her tent, covered it
all up, gut under the blanket, and said they couldn’t come in because she was “in
a womanly way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ok, striking out here. Let’s get out of the Patriarchs:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bathsheba: wife of David, man after God’s own heart, right?
Moma to wise King Solomon-hmm, affair, pregnant, David had husband killed,
child out of wed lock died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ok, New Testament. Let’s look at the main Moma of all,
Mary. I mean that’s perfection, right? Blessed above all women and all that?
God Himself chose her to carry and nurture His Son-Yet…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Jesus was 12, they did go a full day’s journey before
realizing He wasn’t with them. I mean left at the store is one thing, but they
didn’t find him for another 3 days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Another time-The wedding at Cana is considered Jesus first miracle
and marked a change in His ministry as He began to let people know who He
really was. So, what happened? In John, chapter 2:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The family was at a wedding feast, and due to either poor preparation
or REALLY thirsty guests, they ran out of wine. Major faux paus there. So, Mary
goes to Jesus and tells Him “They have no wine.”. Jesus says “What has that got
to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” What does Mary do? Tells the servants
“Go do whatever my son tells you.” Now Jesus is kind of roped into it, cause a
good boy does what Moma says, right? Honor your father and mother? So, first miracle,
water into wine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Interestingly enough, some people think this may have
started His ministry earlier than He intended. In Matthew, there’s the story of
Jesus casting out demons from a wild man. The demons actually have enough guts
to ask Jesus “Are you casting us out BEFORE THE APPOINTED TIME?” so they asked
to be cast into a heard of pigs instead, which did NOT sit well with the
townspeople. So typical, they have a man cured of his madness, and they’re
worried about livestock. Course there’s also the fact that these good Jewish townsfolk
had a herd of pigs, but that’s another story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You can look all through scripture to find the perfect
wife, Moma, woman, or man for that matter, and other than Jesus, they just are
not there. Truth is God has a history of using people that have been broken,
used or hurt. It is in that brokenness that His strength shows through. So how
did these women, and others in the Bible get to be women that could be called
blessed?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They knew that ultimately; God was in control. Eve, with
all her troubles and heartache, never lost sight of the promise God made, that
salvation would come through her descendants; In cursing the serpent, God said the serpent's destruction would be through Her Offspring. Even after the death of Abel,
she believed and trusted God’s purpose. She knew God would make a way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mary never lost sight of that either. God chose to do something
with her that by nature was impossible, she knows what the people would think
of her, but in spite to the fact that there was no way this promise could be
fulfilled, God made a way. Even when the wise men told her” A sword would pierce
her own heart also” she believed. Even when she saw Jesus hanging from the cross
and telling John to take her as his own mother, she knows God would make a way.
And three days later, what a way He made.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You don’t have to be the perfect “Leave it to Beaver” mom,
pearls and heels ready, multi-tasking better than the best CEO. You do the best
you can, you put it all in God’s hands, and you trust God enough to leave it
there. I remember a preacher once telling me “In prayer we leave our problems
at the feet of Jesus. Trouble is we tend to pick them back up on the way out”.
Trust that the Lord will do as He said. Trust that God will make a way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Course, I’m not just talking mothers now. All of us tend to
try to make things happen on our own, and the trouble with that is we, on our own,
will always fail. That’s because we try to fit our plans into God’s will, and
not His plans into ours. God will make a way, usually in spite of what we do!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, here’s to all the “Mothers”, the Mommmmms, the Mama’s-We
love you, we appreciate all you do, and we place you in the light of God’s
love. And for every moment of doubt, don’t worry. God will make a way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-3373960652493363322021-03-31T16:18:00.000-05:002021-03-31T16:18:16.000-05:00Passover<p> <span style="font-family: arial;">Passover began last Saturday, and is ending this Saturday. It is possibly the Holiest of traditions in Judaism, if any one thing can be more holy than another. It is also one of the strongest links between Christianity and Judaism. When Jesus sat with His disciples for a "Last Supper", it was a Seder meal. Both meals are commanded to be observed. The Seder annually, the Last Supper "as oft as ye shall...". Both meals are meals of remembrance. the Seder for remembrance of God's deliverance from slavery, the Last Supper in remembrance of the One who broke the bonds of sin and death to which we were enslaved. It has occurred to me (this IS Thoughts & Musings, after all) that we have other connections to this meal and Holy Week as well. Holy week being that time between Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and His Easter Resurrection. If I'm wrong, it will not cause any great chasm in the faith, I just found them interesting.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Sunday - Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Shouts of "Hosanna in the highest!" "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" These rang out as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. During the Seder meal, just at sunset, the matriarch of the family will rise, light he candle and say "Blessed are you, our God, Creator of time and space, who enriches our lives with holiness, commanding us to kindle the (Shabbat and)holiday light." This or a variation of, is done before each Holy Feast. Thus thru the woman, who would carry the seed of salvation, God enters.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Monday - Cleansing of the Temple. Jesus enters and sees the money changers and charlatans and all those who would use the House of God for their own power and profit, making it unclean. He puts cords together to make a whip, and chases them out, saying "My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." During preparation for the Seder, a house must be cleaned of all leaven. Not a even a mouse sized scrap is to be left. Traditionally, the leaven is collected the day before the Seder, taken outside, and burned. This way, the house is cleansed, and God can enter in.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Maundy Thursday - Probably our strongest connection, but in this let me put in two parts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Bread - "This is my body which is broken for you." During the Seder, there are three Matzot (unleavened bread) separated from each other by cloths or napkins. On of these is broken, and hidden (called the afikomen) which the children will then spread out to find during the meal. The child that does find it brings it back to the patriarch of the family, and the negotiations to turn it over begin! Once a price is agreed on, the patriarch redeems the hostage afikomen and the broken Matzot is made whole again.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Wine - "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." In the Seder, four cups of wine are consumed, each for a representation of God's deliverance. "I will bring out." "I will deliver." "I will redeem" "I will take" (Exodus 6:6-7) But scripture says the cup Jesus took was after the supper. A fifth cup of wine is poured and untouched during a Seder, that is the cup of Elijah. It is left untouched in honor of the prophet, who according to tradition, would arrive as an unknown guest to announce Messiah. Some believe, myself included, it was THIS cup he raised and said "This is my blood."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">These are just a few, but I think you see what I'm saying. A pastor years ago told me that the Old and New Testaments are not two books, but one. Everything in the Old Testament points to and is fulfilled in Jesus, and all that Jesus was, is and is to come, shines a greater understanding of all before. God took His time sending us His son, so that the world could better understand Him, like children first learning discipline to growing into the knowledge of how to do right on their own. He is still waiting on returning to us, so that not a soul that CAN be saved will be lost.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Seder tradition now ends with the words "Next year, in Jerusalem!" I would add "Next year, in the New Jerusalem!" Even so, come Lord Jesus!</span></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-51687678015812691822021-03-15T07:49:00.002-05:002023-05-03T15:21:34.911-05:00Lent - Hope, Peace, Joy, Love<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">285 Days until Christmas! As slow as 2020r was, you’d
think it was already here. We’ve had at least 3 seasons in the last month –
Winter, Spring, and Monsoon. CS Lewis said “because man enjoys a change out of
the routine, god created seasons, and because man liked consistency, He put
them in the same order every year.” I don’t thing Middle Tennessee got that
memo.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So, what season is it now? We’ve gone thru that fat baby
with the arrows season. Pollen season is up us. St. Patrick’s day is almost
here. Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, even FOOTBALL Season! Already had Fat
Tuesday, although every day is Fat Tuesday for me. Ah yes, it’s the season of
LENT! (no not lint, like your belly button, LENT.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So, what is Lent? Lent, compared to Advent, is often
treated like the ugly, drunk step-cousin at a family reunion. You know, the
type you have to invite, but you sit him way back in the corner, and far away
from the bourbon balls. Advent is joyful anticipation, Lent like fearful
suspense. Advent like “God’s gift to us”, Lent like “You gonna get it!”. Advent
is all neat and organized with candles and trees and greenery, and lent is
messy, bloody. And we don’t like to think about that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But Advent and Lent are not step-cousins, they’re more like
identical twins. Advent prepares us for the revelation of God’s Gift to Mankind
by Jesus birth, and Lent prepares us for it’s true realization by His
suffering, death and glorious resurrection!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So how do we prepare in Lent? Tradition says to deny yourself
during that 40 days, so we tend to look at lent more like a punishment. But
that sacrifice is only good if it leads you to contemplate His coming glory of
Easter. So, I’d like to suggest a slightly different way to look at Lent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Advent is all neat and divided up into separate weeks, each
contemplating a different aspect of Jesus birth – Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
Let’s look at Lent with each of these not through a manger, but through a
cross. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Hope: 2 Corinthians 1: 9-10 – “Indeed, we felt
we had received this sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on
ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly
peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set up our hope, that He will
deliver us again.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We tend to look at the cross as a sad event in the Easter
story, and truthfully, it should tear your heart in two the suffering that
Jesus went through. But that cross is not a symbol of despair, but HOPE. It is
a symbol of death, but that death was for the death of our sins, so that we
might LIVE in Jesus Christ. Our hope, our only hope, is through that cross. To
take it up not as a punishment, but as His Salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Peace: Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious
about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So what’s so peaceful about a cross? Granted nothing from
outward appearance. But that’s the point. This peace doesn’t come because of
the circumstances around you, it comes in spite of the circumstances around
you. The first part of these two verses says that peace comes by prayer and
supplication, but the cross is HOW we are allowed to pray at all. The cross is
our doorway into the Throne Room of God. The cross allows us to petition Him
face to face. The cross was instrumental in the peace of our Salvation. Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Joy: Psalm 30:5 “Weeping may tarry for the
night, but joy comes with the morning.”</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Joy. Wow. That’s a hard concept when thinking about a
cross. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when praying to the Father, Jesus stress
was so great the He even sweat drops of blood. Some would even bring up that
from the cross, Jesus cried “My God, my God, why have you forgotten me?” He was
in terrible anguish and pain. But was this a cry of abandonment? Follow me down
this rabbit hole for a moment. If I sing “Amazing Grace”, then stop, what’s the
next thing you think? “How sweet the sound”, right? Songs have a way of doing
that, especially very familiar songs. You hear one line, and the rest comes to
mind. Now we go a little further, and we also know that the book of Psalms is a
collection of songs and poetry often used in the synagogue for worship. In
those Psalms, I’d like to bring up Psalm 22. The first verse of Psalm 22 is “My
God, my God, why have you forgotten me?” Naturally, that song would come to the
hearer’s mind. What are some of the other verses?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Verse 8</b> – “He trust in the Lord, let Him Deliver Him.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke 23: 38 “He saved others: let him save himself.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Verse 14</b> – “I am poured out like water, all my bones are
out of joint.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">John 19: 34 “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with
a spear and at once there came out blood and water.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Verse 18</b>: “They divide my garments amongst them. For my
clothing they cast lots.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke 23: 34 “And they cast lots to divide his garments”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And later in verses 27 & 28? “All the ends of the earth
shall remember and turn to the LORD and all the families of the nations shall
worship before you, for kingship belongs to the LORD and He rules over the
nations.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This Psalm is and was then considered a prophecy of the
coming Messiah. It was written around 1000 BC, well before crucifixion was a
thing, yet it described it accurately. This psalm was well known to the crowd
around Jesus cross. So when Jesus shouted “My God, my God, why have you
forgotten me”, what do you think was the first thing to come to the crowd’s
mind? This wasn’t a cry of agony, but a song of VICTORY! This was a laugh in
the face of Satan. This was Jesus saying, you thought you had me, but this cross
is how I win! This was JOY! Joy because of a cross! “Weeping may tarry through
the night, but Joy comes in the morning.” Or like the old saying goes, “It’s
Friday night, but Sunday’s coming!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Love – John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,
that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life.”</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God so loved the world. In spite of all mankind had done,
in spite of man willfully turning from Him and taking on sin, God willfully
took on the sacrifice of blood to bring us back. The cross was the only option.
Adam knew the effect of sin was death, and only a perfect sacrifice, His
perfect sacrifice, could remove that sin. God so loved the world. So perfectly,
so deeply, so desperately loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
From the Christmas miracle of God becoming flesh, fully human and fully God, to
the Easter miracle of death, burial, and resurrection victory, God so loved the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Now that may cause some to see the cross as an endpoint. A
line in the sand, an ultimatum even. “Ok, I’ve done my part. I’m not doing any
more. You’re either with me or against me.” Look at the attitude of a lot of
Christians, and you know what I’m talking about. But that’s not what the cross
represents. Look at the very next verse in John, verse 17:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The cross is not a line in the sand, not an ultimatum, it’s
an open door. It’s God saying, I’ve removed all the barriers, come home. Some
people will misuse this verse to say there is no Hell. A loving God wouldn’t
send someone to Hell after all that. Hear me out, that is not what this verse
is saying. Now I’m gonna give you the other side of the coin. Make no mistake,
there is a Hell. But it’s not God’s will to send you there. God’s gift was for
all sin, everyone’s sin. Cause guess what? Everyone has, and everyone will sin.
In the book of Romans, Paul says “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory
of God.” And there’s no sliding scale on sin, either. A Man who beats his wife
and kids and me flipping off somebody in traffic are equally sinners in the
eyes of God. And God equally loves us and equally gave Himself for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So why is there a Hell? Because the love of the cross is an
open gift, to either take or refuse. God loves His creation of mankind so much,
that He wants all to accept Him, that not one would be lost. He loves His
creation so much, that He allows us the choice to say yes or no to Him, and
respects the decision we make. Even though His heart breaks when we do not
accept His offer. God so loves the world, that He doesn’t control us, He
doesn’t force us, He opens the door with the cross and asks us to come in,
return to Him. “Amazing Love, how can it be, that Thou my God should die for
me?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. These are the things that I would
ask you to consider for Lent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. These are given to us by His
glorious cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope, Pease, Joy,
Love. Choice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Have you chosen? What will you choose? Eternal life or
Eternal Death? Heaven or Hell? It is your free will to choose. The cross has
opened the door. Will you go in?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-9797133186667321992021-01-10T12:00:00.001-06:002021-01-10T12:00:11.978-06:00Peace beyond understanding<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">When I first “re-found” Jesus in 1979, I had a chance to go
to a Spiritual Learning Camp called CFO. It was really quite a experience.
Amazingly gracious people, strong in the Lord, putting up with all us Newbies,
who thought we knew it all. Anyway, one of the spiritual exercises was to try and use
whatever talent you had create something to express and share Christ. (craft,
poem, etc.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well, I wasn’t sure what to do, I’ve never been very craft
oriented, other than eating glue at a young age. Was a little afraid of poetry, because my spelling was awful. So I decided to try and write
a song. It was one of the first times I had attempted songwriting, and I’d never tried to write a “Christian” song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But try I did. It borrowed rather shamelessly
from Ronnie Milsap songs of the late 1970s, but I made it through. Part of the chorus
went:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Is the Lord at the top of your life, what a blessing it is
to believe,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That if we give to Him our everything, there’s so much more
to receive.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">I think it is safe to say, I’m glad I kept trying to get better
with songwriting after that! But that song is still special to me because it
reminds me of what it felt like to be brand new in my Christian walk. The joy.
The feeling for being loved so much it was overwhelming at times. And most of
all, the peace. All of these things seemed to completely envelop me, and I
walked in them, even though none of the circumstances around me had changed, the
Father God, Savior Son, and Guiding Spirit were now protecting me, they were my
shield and my trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have to say, I had a great deal of trouble finding what I
felt God would want me to say today. We were all so ready for 2020 to be gone,
even as it ended with a Christmas Day bombing on Second Avenue. More colorful
expressions have been created for this past year than I can ever remember. And
before we get the final “See ‘ya” out of the way, our nation’s Capital building
is sieged. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there is a joint
session of both House and Senate. Not by enemy nation, but by Americans! I was
shocked, then I was mad, then I was enraged. More so than I have been in quite
a long time, and I’ve got a pretty good temper when it gets loose. Where is the
peace now?! Where is my shield?! WHERE IS GOD?!?!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">My wife, smart woman that she is, left me stew for a bit. (By
the way, you don’t know how lucky and blessed I am to have as patient a woman
as Barbara by my side. She can wait until after my outbursts and still stays by me.)
then I remembered my prayer book. The Book of Common Prayer. This was given to
me by a friend that has known me bad and good since 1978. And as far as I know,
still hasn’t told some of the things he knows about me. I digress. In the
prayer book is this prayer for our country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our
heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people
mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable
industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and
confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties,
and fashion in one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many
kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of Wisdom those to whom in thy Name
we entrust the authority of Government, that there may be justice and peace at
home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise
among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity, fill our hearts with
thankfulness; and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail.
All which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And there it was, ”in the day of trouble, suffer not our
trust in thee to fail.” Our joy is in Him. Our hope is in Him. Our PEACE is in
Him. I’ve forgotten so often that fist love. It was time to let Him speak. I
want you to read out loud the verses below. Out loud. Not because its fun to
control people like that (ok, maybe a little 😊) but because there is no greater power than
God’s word when spoken aloud.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Isaiah 26: 3<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">You will keep in perfect <b>peace</b></span></span><span style="color: black;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">those
whose minds are steadfast,</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">because
they trust in you.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Psalm 4:8<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">In <b>peace</b> I will lie down and sleep,</span></span><span style="color: black;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">for you
alone, </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">,</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">make me
dwell in safety.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Psalm 85:8<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">I will listen to what God the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;"> says;</span></span><span style="color: black;"><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">he
promises <b>peace</b> to his people, his faithful servants</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Isaiah 9:6-7<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Peace</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Of the greatness of his government and </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">peace</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> there will be no end.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Isaiah 26:3<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">You will keep in perfect </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">peace</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> those whose minds are steadfast, because
they trust in you</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;">Isaiah 55:12</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">You will go out in joy and be led forth in </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">peace</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Philippians</b></span><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> 4:7<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">And the </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">peace</b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And from our Lord: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">John 16:33<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background: white; color: red; font-weight: bold;">“I have told you these things, so that in me you
may have </span><span style="color: red;"><b><i><u>PEACE</u></i>. In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”</b></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Overcome this world. Overcome this world! Dear church, we are
in this world, but not OF this world. Our peace cannot come from <b><u>anything</u></b>
this world can give. Our <b>Joy</b> is in Him, our <b>Hope</b> is in Him, our <b>PEACE
</b>is in Him - alone. He came from a throne to a manger, and became flesh and
blood, and only a power that great can take us and free us from this world,
Only a power that great can grant us a peace so amazing that it goes beyond
understanding. The circumstances don’t change, but His <b>PEACE</b> changes us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Maybe you don’t know that peace. Maybe you’ve never been
embraced by that love. Open your heart to Him. Come to Him as a little child.
Simply trust, and give Him, like the song said, your everything. There’s so
much more to receive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><br /><p></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-46697197263541016342021-01-06T07:36:00.000-06:002021-01-06T07:36:01.379-06:00The Tree Wise Dudes - an Epiphany repost<p> <span style="font-family: arial;">From a few years ago, but worthy still...the scene is one night in Babylon...</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Melchior - Gentlemen, thank you for coming! But why are there just two of you?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">Caspar - Because no one else would give up a good night's sleep to listen to your ravings, Melchior.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">Balthazar - And why are we here in the middle of the night, instead of our soft warm beds?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">M - Look to the sky...over there...and tell me what you see.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">B - Sooo Dramatic!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">C - OK, I'll bite. Sky, stars. Same as at the beginning of time, same until time's end. Again, why are we here, Melchior?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">M - Look to that one star, the bright one.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">B - So, it's bright. It's just the north star. No, wait, that's the eastern sky. Then maybe a planet or sun we hadn't noticed?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">C - You could have told us this in the morning. Why now to tell us of a star?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">M - Because it is not A star, it is THE star.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">C - (pause) The one from the Jewish prophecies.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">M - The same.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">B - How are you sure?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">M - I've been watching the sky since this star appeared. It did not move into place, it appeared. And since then, as the other lights have moved and danced across the sky, THIS star took a different path, straight and true. And for the last week, has not moved at all. This is the place. We follow the star, we find the KING!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">All of this is conjecture, of course. What we know from scripture is that men came from the east, sidetracked to King Herod's palace, found Jesus, gave gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and after a warning dream, dodged Herod on the return trip. (Which did not make Herod a happy boy.) Everything else is tradition and supposition. That these men were not Jewish is probable, but they may have had servants who were, thus their knowledge of the prophecy of a Messiah/King.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus is not a God of just Jews, or just Christians, but is a God of all. John 3:16 says "God so loved THE WORLD.". He was not here for just a subset of society. We are not seen by God as the classes and groups we have placed ourselves and others in. Our only two classifications are "All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." and "Those who are born of water & spirit.". Remember, too, that being part of the latter doesn't exclude you from the former! Treat all as God's creation. Love all as your bother/sister. Seek God, and offer the gift of yourself. And try not to let Herod catch you!</span></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-39415531531298704292020-11-30T07:20:00.000-06:002020-11-30T07:20:21.665-06:00Advent Week 1 2020 "A New Hope"<p> <span style="font-family: arial;">Ed. Note - When I wrote these words, I was unaware of the death this weekend of David Prowse, the man behind the mask of Darth Vader. RIP David, may the force be with you.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;">“</b><span style="font-size: medium;">A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” (Cue John Williams fanfare)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How many remember when they first saw those
words explode on the screen? Episode 4, “A New Hope.” Of course, after nine
films, multiple tv series and spin off films, that hope seems a long, long
time ago and very far, far away, some would even say disappeared after Jar-Jar Binks. But hope always found a way to come
through.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With today being the Advent Sunday for hope, I
want to tell you another story using one of my favorite Christmas verses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away…<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span class="text"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">a
great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.</span></i></span><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> <span class="text"><sup>2 </sup>She was
pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.</span> <span class="text"><sup>3 </sup>And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a
great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his
heads seven diadems.</span> <span class="text"><sup>4 </sup>His
tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the
earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so
that when she bore her child he might devour it.</span> (Rev. 12)</span></i></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How many have a red dragon in their Nativity? We think of Christmas as nice and pretty with Ruben’s
angels flying around and sanitized straw on the floor. But Jesus didn’t come
into a world all perfect. He came into a world at war with Him, a war we caused, and He meant to take it back. He came in like a covert agent, in the
form of a child, to become the hope for mankind that had no hope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To see why, we go
back to the beginning. God created the earth, the plants, the animals, then
Adam and Eve, and called them all good. Satan tried to throw a coup in Heaven,
and was thrown to the earth with 1/3 of the angels who rebelled with him. Needless to say, not a
happy camper. From that point on, Satan was out to destroy God’s creation, and
win the war he started.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, with the
help of Adam, Satan did just that, and was given dominion over all the earth,
and all it’s inhabitants. Just as all seemed hopeless, God intervened. God
told Adam and Eve that through them a Savior would be born that would destroy
the serpent, and restore God’s Kingdom. (Genesis 3:15, God actually directed this comment towards the serpent) After that, Satan’s purpose was to make
sure that Savior never came. For 5,000 some odd years, almost as long as the
Star Wars saga, the world kept hoping, then loosing hope, the hoping again.
Even when the world flooded, God provided a way for hope to endure. Even when
Israel was enslaved in Egypt, God provided a way. In spite of invasions, and
wars, and evil kings, and false prophets, God ALWAYS provided a way. And when
that child was born in Bethlehem, the most unlikely hope was made flesh. And
Satan was furious. And scared. His sole purpose then became to kill the child,
the man, that could be his destruction. But God always has a way, and even
death wasn’t enough to stop the hope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s face it,
2020 has not been the most encouraging of years. There’s not a lot we can trust
in, much less that creates hope. So if God always finds a way, where is our
hope? We can’t trust in governments, because governments can fall. We can’t
trust in mankind, because mankind is frail. Even David wondered, but he also
knew the answer. Psalm 121 says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><b>I lift up my eyes
to the hills. From Where comes my help? My help comes from the LORD.”</b></span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And it is from
there our help still comes. But an even bigger question is WHY would God be the
hope we are looking for? It is because he loves us. In spite of the
disappointment, in spite of the outright betrayal, He loves us so much that He
sent His only Son to repair the relationship we destroyed. And after Jesus gave
His life, he STILL continues to love us. He didn’t just say “OK, I’ve done my
part, you’re on your own.” He STILL continues to be our hope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are still in a
world at war. Hope seems almost non-existent. But if we can’t find hope, we’re
not looking in the right place. Our hope is in the LORD, and God will ALWAYS
make a way, even through a pandemic. Question is, are you willing to drop your hope in other ways, to
trust and leave your problems with Him? We have to trust Him, Believe in Him,
even when all around seems lost. Because He is above and beyond all others, and
God WILL make a way. He alone is our hope. He sent Jesus into the world to be
our hope. Will you put YOUR hope and trust in Him?</span></span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><p></p>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-49622506894445669072020-04-11T09:56:00.000-05:002020-04-11T09:56:27.710-05:00Who Are We To Be?<b><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Matt. 24:35, Mk. 13:31, Luke 21:33</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his Easter message to the United Methodist Church, Bishop Kenneth Carter, Jr. said <b><i>"Easter is the moment where who we are, what we believe and what we do becomes clear".</i></b> I think that holds very true this Easter, because with the worldwide pandemic, those things are in flux more so than in the past. We are stripped of the things that we use to fill our time, and must contend with those things that are essential. Better said, must <i><b>face</b></i> those things that are essential. Often, the things that we use to fill our time are those that allow us to not consider things directly around us. With more people working from home, internet connections have often gone down, forcing us to have (gasp!) conversations. With congregations not being able to gather for coffee, donuts and gossip in person, services have gone online, causing us to rethink what worship actually is and should be.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what do we do once this crisis is over? Do we go back to our lives as they were, or do we strive to a new normal? Humankind has been given a unique opportunity to reinvent itself into the people they have always had the vision to be. To become a nobler, kinder, gentler people, not hindered by the reality of the world. You know, "I'd love to be that way, or think that way, or do better things, but you can't do that in the real world," Well guess what? The real world is no longer a hindrance, and how we react now is what the new world can change into, at least for us individually.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what is our "essential" to use as a foundation? I Corinthians 13: 8-10 gives us some help.<b> "Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away, as for tongues, they will cease, as for knowledge, it will pass away."</b> The verse above takes it even further.<span style="color: red;"><b> "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."</b></span><span style="color: black;"> </span> This verse is repeated, in the same context, in 3 of the 4 gospels. We are in a time now where we can truly transform by going back to what will not pass away.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And transformation IS what Jesus is all about. He transformed from God to man to live among us. He transformed from unblemished to taking on the sins of the world. He transformed from life to death to Life Everlasting. And his transformation was not just for himself. He is just the first of all who would follow him. Romans 6:4-5 says<b> "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."</b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, now that we are down to essentials, who are we to be?</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></b><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b></b><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-40253681269604381562020-04-03T14:46:00.000-05:002020-04-03T16:18:15.286-05:00Fly like an Eagle<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The high untrespassed sanctity of space</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-John Gillespie Magee, Jr., </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">WWII Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-Isaiah 40:31</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For those of you who can remember when television didn't broadcast 24/7, you may remember a sign off from the 1960's. It featured a single jet airplane, soaring through the sky, with majestic music in the background to a reading by William Conrad of the poem "High Flight". It was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in a letter home to his parents in 1941, just months before a tragic mid-air collision took his life. Whenever I could stay up late enough to watch it, it always touched me somehow. It suggested that we could go beyond the cares of earth, and rise to something greater, to be something greater. The full version can be seen on YouTube. I would suggest you check it out.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But then there is an old saying "How can I soar with the eagles when I'm stuck down here with the turkeys?" (And we all know turkey's can't fly - WKRP in Cincinnati taught us that if nothing else!) It's so easy to get lost in the circumstances around us, that we forget our souls have wings that were meant to fly. The only way to counter that is to not look at, but BEYOND our circumstances. If life truly is a journey, then the only time we get stuck is when we fail to move. And we fail to move when our vision is no longer on our goal, which is Christ. We may each have a different path, because we are each individuals, but the end of each journey is still Jesus. So, I challenge you (and me) to change our focus from around us to ahead of us. From under the circumstances to beyond them. From our own hopelessness to the author of hope. Then, we can fly. Then we can put out our hand, and touch the face of God.</span></div>
revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-42962320017986909822020-03-26T16:27:00.000-05:002020-03-26T16:27:36.963-05:00Anchor Down<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither-whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Psalm 1:1-4</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>First off, about the title. No, not talking about Vanderbilt here. (Although I AM a fan, much to the chagrin of many in my family. If any of you family members need to know what chagrin means, just let me know *snicker*.)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm thinking rather of an actual anchor, used to hold a ship in place, regardless of the tempest around it. We have had some rather extreme situations put upon the world in the last few weeks, and it's easy to be swept up in the chaos. (But hording toilet paper?? Really?? Come on!)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The trouble in going with the chaos is that once you give in to it, it will carry you wherever it wants to, spinning round and round like a whirlpool and sucking you down, everything moving so fast there's nothing to grab hold of. We need to drop anchor, and not be tossed by the waves around us.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So what do we anchor ourselves to? Obviously, not anything of the world. By this, I mean money, power, ego, politics, absolutely nothing that is man created or man perpetuated is immune form the turmoil in our world, not now, never before, and will not be after. All these things are temporary and have no real substance. (All is vanity-Ecclesiastes) (Heaven and Earth shall pass away - Mark 13:31)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So what do we hold on to?The rest of that verse in Mark gives the answer: "but my words shall not pass away". Is this just referring to what Jesus spoke? No, not just this, because Jesus IS the living, breathing Word of God. He is eternal, He is steadfast. He is our rock and mighty fortress. If we hold on to Him, though life be whirling like a tornado around us, we can make it through. Psalm 91 has been popping up a lot lately in response to this crises, and I've gone to it often myself in times of trouble. I would suggest, when life seems out of hand to anchor down and pray this Psalm for yourself and those around you. You may be surprised at the peace there is in giving God control, and putting yourself in His hands. They are strong enough to hold you and gentle enough to love you.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>As a last note, I listened to a little bit of Don Finto's message last Sunday from Belmont Fellowship. He said there is bad news and good news. The bad news is, there are bad things happening around us. The good news is, there are also GOOD things happening around us! And God lets those grow together, until He separates the wheat from the weeds. (Matthew 13:30) So hold on, there is also goodness out there.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Also- Go 'Dores!</b></span>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-27590700701245004282020-03-21T16:54:00.000-05:002020-03-21T16:54:12.588-05:00Peace In the Midst of the Storm<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">I </span>have<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> said these things to you, that in me you may </span>have<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> peace. In the world you will </span>have<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span>tribulation<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. But take heart; I </span>have<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> overcome the world.”<span style="color: black;"> John 16:33 (ESV)</span></span></b></span></span><br />
<i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span class="text Ps-23-4" id="en-ESV-14240" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Even though I <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14240H" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.62em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></sup>walk through the valley of <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14240I" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.62em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></sup>the shadow of death,<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></sup></span><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">I will <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14240J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.62em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></sup>fear no evil,</span></span><br style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">for <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14240K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.62em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></sup>you are with me; </span><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">your <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14240L" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14240L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.62em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></sup>rod and your staff, </span></span><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-23-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (ESV)</span></span></b></span><br />
<i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 (ESV)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What a year the last couple of weeks have been! The Sunday after the tornado, my wife and I went walking around our Little League park, and watched so many children and their coaches practicing and running and throwing and hitting and laughing. One field even had adult men and women training to be umpires. Training. To. Be. Umpires. Who knew that was even a thing?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A week later, those fields are deserted. Seasons suspended. What a tornado couldn't do, a pandemic has. It's like we've been thrown into a giant Jumanji game. People working from home, or as I like to put it "Working from houses to antagonize their spouses"! Everyone knows someone or three that has either contracted or been exposed to COVID-19. And places of worship, normally a haven of peace in a time of turmoil, are suspending meetings in order to stem the spread of the virus.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What are we to do? The verses above offer some guidance, but seem to stop short of God taking the problem away. "you <i>will </i>have tribulation", "<i>through</i> the valley of the shadow", "<i>surpasses</i> understanding". In all of this, God is not the author of pain and suffering, but promises to be there with us <i>through</i> the suffering. Remember Job? It wasn't God who sent the troubles, but rather watched and waited with Job as he came through to the other side of those troubles. So we know that God is always there, ready to take our hand and lead us through as soon as we ask. (Which Job didn't by the way. Just sayin'.)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Even so, it is very easy to feel isolated and alone. How do we reach out? This is where social media, so much of a isolating presence in modern society, can actually become useful for something other than cat videos. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pastors, do you have access to a phone with video? Live stream your worship service, however downsized it my be. Continue to share the Word and Heart of God. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><b></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Church members, does your church have a Facebook or Twitter account? Use it to connect with each other, encourage each other, pray for each other, share each other's needs and sorrows and joys. We could actually become more like a "family" of God than we ever have been, and not just spectators. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><b></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A.W Tozier once said, "Worshipers never leave church...we carry our sanctuary wherever we go." There is also a hymn in the United Methodist hymnal that goes "I am the Church. You are the Church. We are the Church together. All of God's people, all around the world, yes, we're the Church together." Now is the time to show it.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><b></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you have been quarantined (self or otherwise) then another verse may apply.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><b></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 (ESV)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><b></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In our busy life, we often go non-stop until we drop. Now is the time to rest. Now is the time to relax in Him. Take the time to read, listen to music, study, pray. Or as a friend of mine once said, "Sometimes, you have to just sit and watch the cobwebs grow."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In all things, God promises to make good come from the bad. We can't see it because we don't have the view God has. We can only see darkness and sorrow. But joy comes in the morning. Amen. Even so, come quickly. Amen.</b></span>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-78768059720040775482020-02-25T11:04:00.001-06:002020-02-26T13:41:16.999-06:0002/25/1960<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">February 25, 1960. A huge snowstorm has Nashville covered,
and the city pretty much shut down. The top 20 playlist has everything from
Percy Faith and Mark Denning to Dinah Washington, Marv Johnson and Lloyd Price.
JFK took office just a month ago. At 6:18 am, Frances Mills has a baby boy,
kicking and screaming with a mop top of red hair. (Me, not her.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A lot has
changed since then. Snow hardly ever falls, but we do get slush. The Top 20
playlist is so homogenized every song sounds the same. We lost JFK before he
even finished office, and Vietnam went into high gear. As for me, I don’t kick
and scream so much as stand and groan. And the hair? Definitely not red, and unless you count my back,
not nearly as much as before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Things change. It is the way of life. CS Lewis remarked
that we are made for both stability and change. God shows us change by the
seasons of the year, but stability in that they follow in the same order. (In
Tennessee, that is sped up somewhat from yearly to weekly!) To not change would
be to not grow. To not change would be to not live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our Christian life is the same way. We start at the
beginning as children, learning from and leaning on Jesus for our every need.
As we start to take our own steps, growing in our faith and knowledge, we begin to stand separate from, but still with, Him. Our problems begin (and this is a
universal problem with us) when we think we have reached completion, and can
hold our own with God. We no longer feel we have to grow or learn, and think we know
everything we ever need to know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Children of God, we will NEVER reach that point. We are
of Adam’s seed, and we will always fall short of God’s glory. We will always
need to rely on His guidance, not ours. Our mission is not to judge others who
do not match the qualities we think we have achieved, but have not in reality.
Our mission is to love others, faults and all, just as He loves us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet there is, just like the seasons, stability in our lives
as well, and that stability is in God alone. His love is never ending. His Peace passes
understanding. He is steadfast, faithful and true. All love comes from Him. He
is love, He is goodness and He is light. If our goal is to grow into His likeness, then our
path is to love. Love others, all others, as He loves us. To do less is to deny
the truth of God’s love. To judge others, is to pass that same judgement on to
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We must continue to grow in knowledge and love, and
continue to depend on our Savior as little children. The older we get, the more
we need to remember the child in all of us, and others. Love, grow, forgive.
Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-38734047382531726572019-09-23T16:27:00.000-05:002019-09-23T16:27:57.825-05:00The Other Side of the Coin<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Galatians 5:16-17</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to tell you about one of the greatest literary villains of all time. Once a champion of good, but tormented and twisted into a thing of evil. Harvey "Two-Face" Dent. Raised by an abusive, alcoholic father, who would toss his lucky two-headed coin to determine whether to punish or spare his young son. In spite of the background, Harvey grew up to be a fine upstanding young man, eventually becoming District Attorney of Gotham City, prosecuting evil criminals in the courts, working closely with both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. During the trial of a Mob Boss, acid was flung at him in the courtroom, burning the left side of his face, creating such torment that the evil nature his father had instilled in him finally found voice. From that point on, both evil and good struggled within him, often to the point that he would flip his father's coin (one side scratched off) to determine yes or no, right or wrong, life or death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pretty awesome for a comic book, right? But unlike Jekyll/Hyde (which inspired Bob Kane's creation) the torment was continual. Mr. Hyde would be there sometimes, Dr. Jekyll others. Two Face was both at all times. Both sides in continual battle for the soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the same with us. Evil and Good constantly at war within each of us. Each of us capable of saintly charity or satanic vice. And we must choose between them, but no coin can decide this outcome. The Spirit of God is always there, always waiting on our choice, but so often we don't choose Him. We fall. We fail. You would assume that would be our end. Yet over and over God's grace is greater than our sin. Relentlessly He continues to pursue us, fight for us, waiting to be our choice. It is a continual struggle. Daily, hourly, sometimes minute by minute, we must choose to follow Him. Yet even when we don't...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"I will never leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD." Romans 8:38-39</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And one of the best...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:20-23</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The struggle is real. Life or Death in the balance. Heads or Tails.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have only to choose.</span></div>
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revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-91044830969316432172019-09-12T16:25:00.000-05:002019-09-12T16:25:56.329-05:00Love and Obsession<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> I listen to a
lot of audio books on my commute from and to work – I mean a lot! About 21/2
hours a day is spent going back and forth, and these books lead me to some
semblance of sanity. Which is helpful since I have so little to begin
with…sanity, that is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> My current
travel companion is by writer Patti Callahan, “Becoming Mrs. Lewis”. It is a
novelized account of Joy Davidman and her friendship, then love, to writer C.
S. Lewis. As I near the end of the book, and the cancer that takes her life, it
is becoming bittersweet, in a “Love Story, Lifetime Movie” kind of way.
Nevertheless, an excellent book I recommend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> There is a
scene in the book where she and Lewis are going over ideas for the book to
become “When We Have Faces”, Lewis’ take on the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche.
At one point, discussing why it was tragic, Lewis said “When love becomes a
god, it becomes a devil.” The idea being that any love to obsession turns from
love to possession and corrupts the soul. Think of it this way. All that exists
in this world God created and called “good”. It has never stopped being so. The
overindulgence of those things taken or done in the wrong way leads to
obsession and addiction. That love, given the highest place in our heart which
should be God’s, has instead become a devil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> The bible is
full of references to this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><i><b>“You cannot be a slave of two masters”</b></i> (MT. 6:24) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><b><i>“If you love the world you cannot love the Father” </i></b>(1 Jn. 2:15) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><b><i>“Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also”</i></b> (Mt. 6:21) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> and of course the BIG
ONE<b><i> </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><b><i>“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” </i></b>(Deut. 5:6). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> The jist of it is, true love to God requires total sacrifice, but total sacrifice to anyone or
anything other than God cannot co-exist with Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> Total sacrifice
to anything other than God becomes a confinement. A slavish obsession to more
and more rules and regulations trying to please, until we cannot move for fear
of rebuke, or scorn, or worst, a withdrawal of love. So, are we to all be
celibate, self-flagellating little monkeys in a cage, released only to show our
failures and punished by a harsh task master? NOT IN THE LEAST!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> Total surrender
to God becomes freedom and release from slavery. Rather than forced servitude,
we have joyful obedience coming from God’s love rather than our failure. Since
it comes from God’s love and is carried out by God’s strength, then we are free
to give ourselves to others fully, because we are NEVER without His Love. “I
will never leave you or forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5) It’s the ultimate covering of
protection. We cannot run so far, fall so deep, or hide so well, that God does
not always see us. And always love us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> So guard your
heart, my friends. Be guided by God’s love in you. Even in hurt and pain, which
comes to all, you are loved. Remember, He also totally sacrificed for you. He
is “all in”, just for you. Rest in His love, His freedom, His Joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> I think my next
book will be “When We Have Faces”. Probably not an audio book, though. C.S.
Lewis can be deep sometimes, and I’d probably crash trying to use a highlighter
on the car stereo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-75153177259144657522019-08-14T14:37:00.001-05:002019-08-26T13:18:28.459-05:00Depth of Mercy - Charles Wesley, 1740<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I have this odd thing I do (well, one of many, but never mind that), I enjoy reading old hymnals. I love to gather the wisdom of the musicians and lyricists as they try to give tone and rhythm and understanding to the life of Christ and the life IN Christ. I ran across this Charles Wesley lyric just today, and thought this a beautiful picture of us in Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u><i><b>Depth of Mercy</b></i></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear, me the chief of sinners, spare?</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him to His face, would not hearken to His calls, grieved Him by a thousand falls.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>I my Master have denied, I afresh have crucified, oft profaned His hallowed name, put Him to an open shame.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>There for me the Savior stands, shows His wounds and spreads His hands. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Now incline me to repent, let me now my sins lament, now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> It is incredible to me, and yet I am as guilty and more, that we can be the recipients of such mercy and grace, and still act the way we do. I can speak only for myself, but I know the darkness that I see in me. It is there, covered only by a thin layer of whitewash. And even with what I see, I know that God knows the depths of my sin even better than I do. How I can stand at even the mention of His name is beyond my comprehension. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And yet, even knowing me as He alone can, there is mercy and grace even greater than all my sin, than all the sins of all the world from the beginning of time till eternity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Read those last two lines of the song again. Romans states this fact of grace abounding over and over, just for the asking. There is nothing that can separate us from God's love. He is always there, never leaving or forsaking</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, even now at our sides. We need only to look and see and believe. As to the sin no more, no one save Jesus Himself ever achieved that. That is why it is so amazing that WHEN we fall (as we will) His grace is still sufficient and more. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still. Praise His Holy Name.</span><br />
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revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-80612235338741908342019-08-08T10:54:00.000-05:002019-08-08T10:54:06.283-05:00The Bride<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Author’s
note: I experienced two events in the last couple of weeks. One was watching on
web cam a Koinonia Reunion Concert on Facebook, honoring the recent historical
marker placed on 16<sup>th</sup> Avenue. Koinonia was an incredible place,
whose sole purpose was to bring God’s light and love into the world. The very
next day while coming back to my car in a store parking lot, I saw a glossy
paged magazine printed by the Tony Alamo Foundation placed under the windshield
wiper. Just seeing again the name of this vile false prophet made me sick to my
stomach, and sick that our current world situation even allows his kind of
hatred to crawl out from under the rocks, even after his death. The dichotomy
of these two events has prompted the post below. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As to
the directness of its language, I recall being told when much younger in the
Lord that I had the soul of a prophet…and about as much tact. (They were always
getting thrown into pits, dungeons, lion’s dens and the like. Never invited to
the best dinner parties.) That being said, read on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MDM<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lamentations is one very sad book. The prophet Jeremiah
pours out his soul for Jerusalem, for her loss. It is the mother of all broken-hearted
sobs. Spilling out of him like a soap opera actor on steroids. All is
desolation. And then, out of nowhere it seems, in chapter 3 he says…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>“But
this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.”</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lamentations
3:21-23 (ESV)</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The church today, at least in America, is under tremendous
turmoil. It is a turmoil of her own making. The Bride of Christ has become
soiled, deflowered. She has become a prostitute in the hopes and dreams of
power. She has traded in her robe and veil for clubs and guns and signs and swastikas.
Such vile hatred spews from the mouths of God’s children, in all forms of media.
They are no longer the love of Christ on this earth, but seek to be an avenging
angel, not for the freedom of salvation, but to enslave others in chains. Dear
Church, Jesus does not need an avenger. We are strictly forbidden from being
so. Romans 12:19 says…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Beloved,
never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written
’Vengeance is mine, I</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will
repay says the Lord’”</i> (also Deut. 32:35) (ESV)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And further in verse 20…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To the contrary, if
your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”
(ESV)</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When is the last Facebook post you saw recommending that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Read Lamentations through. It was not only for that day and
time, but will be for us soon. Even now we see it at the door. But there is an
answer. Just as in Lamentations, there is a hope. It won’t come from left or
right or party or government or laws, but from Jesus, the Beloved, the
Bridegroom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>“If my
people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive
their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Note a couple of things. This has nothing to do with
changing a government, or laws, or even about anyone other than ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“If <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">my people</b>…humble
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">themselves</b>…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">pray</b>…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">seek my face</b>…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">turn</b>...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">THEN…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I</b> will
hear…will <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">forgive</b>…and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">heal</b>”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (Emphasis mine)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We, the Bride, must become <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">humble</b>, lose the arrogance that seems to be so prevalent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Pray</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, not
at but <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">for</b> others, and ask
forgiveness for ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seek
His face</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, for when looking at Him, no thoughts of control and hate
and fear can abide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Turn</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">,
don’t just say fine words to God then spew filth and hate at your brother and
sister. Walk the walk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then, and only then, is there hope. It is up to you, Bride.
Return to your Beloved and be clean again. Only you can. There is no other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-4413442586137345042019-03-29T11:43:00.000-05:002019-03-29T11:43:14.964-05:00Repost...But one of mine!In honor of opening week of one of my favorite sports!<br />
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<a href="https://thoughtsandmusings-mark.blogspot.com/2014/06/my-first-day-of-baseball.html"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">My First Day of Baseball</span></a> <br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For as long as I can remember, I’ve never been able to outdo my brother. He’s always been able to “one up” me in anything I’ve attempted. Don’t get me wrong, I love my big brother. It’s just that I wanted to be as good as he was, and never quite seemed to get there.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was born first. (Older by 11 years.) He made better grades in High School. (Without ever bringing home a book.) He played in the High School band, and was STILL popular. (My popularity extended only to playing for others in talent shows, then dissolving into the forgotten, faceless crowd.) </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But most of all, my brother excelled at sports. Any sport. Any time. Always ready. And his favorite was BASEBALL.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could hit, he could catch, he could throw better than anyone else I knew. Sandlot, High School, Church Team, College, it didn’t matter. This was his “best of the best” sport. And I wanted to be just like him.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when a chance came to try out for a youth league BASEBALL team, I knew I had to do it. I went over all the reasons with my mom and dad, over and over, to get them to let me try. I was old enough, I said. I got good enough grades, I said. I could still do my chores around the house, I said. And my crowning argument? You let Gary, I said.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally succumbing to my near flawless debating technique (Gary was a little better.), it was agreed that I would attend the tryouts. And best of all, Gary would take me there. I don’t even remember the ride down, I was so excited. Not only was I going to play BASEBALL (I knew the tryouts were in the bag.) but I was going to show Gary I could do something that he could do and he would be so proud of me never mind 11 years we would be close just like brothers should be never mind he started college when I started first grade we were brothers and he could finally be proud!</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we got there, Gary pulled his car into a dirt parking spot facing the field, near home plate. Awesome, I thought, he’ll be able to see me. He’ll see me make the team. I jumped out, glove in hand, and ran to the dugout to the nearest adult I could find, and told him I wanted to try out for the team.</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it happens, we had gotten there after the tryouts had started, and they had already done some fielding, so he sent me to grab a bat, and try my hitting. That was fine with me; my fielding wasn’t my best ability. I had this unfortunate habit of reacting just a bit slow, so I caught about an equal number of balls with my face as my glove. But I </strong></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">was much better with hitting. This was my time, I would show them right here. I’d hit that ball so far, they’d have to take me. And it would all happen right in front of Gary.<o:p></o:p></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: x-small;"></span><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had always been a scrawny kid, so they must have felt they needed to take it easy on me. For whatever reason, that first pitch was the most beautiful pitch my young years had ever seen. (Or have seen since.) I still picture that moment in my head in slow motion, my form reaching a level of perfection it had never risen to before, feeling the power of connection, then seeing the ball fly from the bat. I had a hit! To my mind it was the greatest hit in the history of youth league BASEBALL tryouts. Soaring out, making it almost all the way to the outfield. And Gary had seen it.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><strong> </strong> <strong> </strong></span><strong>After a second’s hesitation, to bask in my history making moment, I began to run for all I was worth. As I rounded third, I saw that my soon-to-be team mate’s joy was equal to my own. Even though I put my all into running, I could still see from the corner of my eyes them laughing and cheering me on. I was not only going to be on the team, I would be its star. Oh, life was good!<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I rounded second, it seemed the joyous enthusiasm of my team continued to increase. Some were so happy with my talent; they were even rolling in the grass, unable to speak, for the joy of obtaining their new team leader. I would be a gracious leader as well, always offering to help those not as capable as myself. I looked towards the car for Gary, but I couldn’t see him. Could he have walked off, without seeing my greatest triumph? No matter, over my years in school, college, then the pros, he would have plenty of opportunity to see me shine.<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I rounded first, it began to strike me as odd that no one had made an attempt to get the ball, now resting comfortably in the grass next to the nearly comatose shortstop. Had I so overwhelmed them, they had given up even trying? No, no, this was too much. I would have to remember to hold back my considerable talent, so that no one would feel they didn’t measure up. And where was Gary? I can’t believe he didn’t see this adulation for his little brother.<o:p></o:p></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my feet finally reached that sacred diamond of whitened rubber, several realizations hit me at once. First, that the joy around me seemed excessive, even for such a glorious hit. Second, that I could see Gary, or at least his head, actually just the top of his head, from behind his steering wheel. Third, as the coach was approaching me, I was suddenly less confident if the order of bases was supposed to be 3<sup>rd</sup>, 2<sup>nd</sup>, 1<sup>st</sup>, home…or 1<sup>st</sup>, 2<sup>nd</sup>, 3<sup>rd</sup>, home. The coach, catching his breath between words, confirmed the correct order.</strong></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went over to the dugout, picked up my glove, and walked with the gait of a man being led to his execution to my brother’s car. I opened the passenger door, slunk inside and, very quietly, we went home. I went in my room, put away my glove, and didn’t pick it up again.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, that’s not actually right. There’s something about BASEBALL that keeps drawing a person in. Maybe it’s the fact that anyone can play, yet no one ever completely masters it. It is a game where the entire team becomes a band of brothers, fighting together for the win, yet can be determined by one bat, one pitch, one catch. Ruthlessly fair, it is 9 innings of true competition, to which you give your all, you have no other choice, and would have it no other way. You see, my brother was right about something else too. BASEBALL is the best.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-59139600473433219572019-03-27T20:07:00.001-05:002019-03-27T20:07:50.319-05:00Sharing a blog from Sherry<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A few years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the then pastor of the church I grew up in, St. John's United Methodist Church. <i>Sherry Cothran Woolsey</i> welcomed myself and our group X-ALT!, and is a dear friend, excellent singer/songwriter, insightful pastor, and as will be seen, awesome blogger as well. I've asked her permission to re post her most recent blog, and you can see much more on her website at <i>http://www.sherrycothran.com</i>. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Songs of Bible Women & Why They Change the World</span></span><br />
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When we think about the Bible, we don’t often think of the beauty and power of songs, especially by women. They aren’t sung loudly over edgy guitar riffs or punctuated by trance inducing beats. They’re not delivered to us via Youtube by stylish singers in trendy clothes. But if we go searching for them, we find that songs are a big deal in the Bible, and though they may not make it to the top 40 Billboard charts, they are some of the most powerful tools we have for claiming a new world order. One in which the hungry are fed, the weak are made strong, the oppressed are set free and the lion lies down with the lamb. A world in which swords are turned into plow shares. </div>
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<strong style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 100%; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If I were to get a hook out of the songs of Hannah, Deborah and Mary it would be this: God has done the impossible again, should we be surprised? </strong></div>
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Though there are nearly two hundred songs in the Bible, some of the most powerful ones are created by these three women.</div>
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What makes them so special? </div>
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They teach us how to sing our faith into existence by envisioning God’s action in a song, it’s classically known as praise. But the word itself is deceiving. It brings to mind joy, beauty, ease or happiness. But their songs of praise tell us a different story. Praise is hard. That’s what makes it so powerful. These women do the gritty, scrappy, world ordering work of praise in their songs, and it’s what makes them world changing. </div>
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Praise is hard because it must be uttered over and against
evidence that points to the contrary. It’s much easier to believe the evidence
that the world is a horrible place than to speak the good news that it is not. </div>
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To praise God in a world in which violent hate crimes seem to rule the daily news, where children become targets just for attending school, where women are sold every day into sex trafficking, even in our own backyard, is a radical act. But that’s exactly what faith is, praising God in adverse conditions. This is how the world is changed. Channeling the love of God over and against the reality in which we live. That’s exactly why it’s crucial. Because praise not only heals us, it heals the world, too. </div>
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The women of the Bible who sang God’s powerful and healing
love into the world weren’t the product of warm, fuzzy, comfortable societies.
They were scrappy and lived in a culture that often held them to a rigid
standard of having to negotiate life as the property of men. They also lived in
a time in which a woman’s worth was often measured by her ability to bear a
male child, remain a virgin until married and be submissive to male authority. </div>
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But the three women whose songs changed the world, Hannah,
Deborah and Mary, colored outside of these lines. Not because they were seeking
attention for themselves but because God asked them to, they simply responded
to a calling from on high. </div>
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Hannah, Deborah and Mary were not only prophets, but women who overcame cultural adversity to channel God’s miraculous power into flesh and bones, into peace and love. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges+5&version=MSG" style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6c6f70; font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deborah’s song</a> tells of an impossible victory that she commands with her vision, grit and military prowess as the right arm of God on earth. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+samuel+2%3A1-10&version=MSG" style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6c6f70; font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hannah’s song</a> claims God’s miraculous power to do the impossible through a woman that the world had given up on. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1%3A46-55&version=MSG" style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6c6f70; font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mary’s song</a> creates a new world order in which God’s love is Sovran. </div>
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</span><br />
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Through their songs love is made possible in the world through the odd combination that women carry so well -vulnerability and strength. </div>
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</span><br />
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The songs of women are special, because they are uttered from hearts that know of sacrifice and oppression, hearts that are well acquainted with sorrow and the impossible. Hearts that have experienced the pain of rejection. Women who didn’t settle for being the victims of an unfair system, who didn’t believe the victim narrative but rose up out of it through God’s strength to share the truthfulness of God’s mighty power with the world. </div>
<span style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br />
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They also teach us that we can’t do important work alone, we need others to be our best selves. In a culture in which we can easily feel isolated, lonely and without nurturing love, we need to remember that their songs were not sung alone. If they had been, the outcomes could have been very different. Deborah could have gone into battle without enough of the manpower she needed. Mary could have been abandoned by her family and friends and had to face giving birth alone. Hannah would have had no sacred vessel into which she could dedicate God’s gift to her. But because they sang their songs in communities that believed in them, and believed that their words were from God, the outcome was miraculous, every time. </div>
<span style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</span><br />
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God has done the impossible through the songs of women, should we be surprised? </div>
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</span><br />
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Check out some of my modern interpretations of the radical stories of the hidden women of the Bible <a href="https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/sherrycothran" style="-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 0px; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6c6f70; font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: invert; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">here. </a></div>
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</span><br />
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May God add a blessing to your reading of this blog. </div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></span>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-5556002896033017912018-12-27T19:41:00.004-06:002018-12-27T19:41:57.288-06:00One Last Gift To Open....
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With apologies to
Nikos Kazantzakis…</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Brush Script MT"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The Last Temptation of Santa Claus</span></u><span style="font-family: "Brush Script MT"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">by
Mark D. Mills</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick blinked. He
stared at the contract in front to him. He blinked again.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>He couldn’t believe the amount of money he
was being offered, all just to use his name, or a variation of it, anyway. The
figure was more than Nick had seen in his lifetime, and after a life of
self-imposed poverty, of giving away so much, this money could do so much good.
He looked up at the smiling man seated across the desk from him. Three piece
suit, perfect hair, perfect smile, perfect teeth. Maybe too perfect.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“So, let me
understand you” Nick started, “your giving me all this just to use my name? No
other involvement at all?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“That’s right.”
The man said. The man was Thomas R. Uley, and he headed up the largest global
toy conglomerate in existence. Almost any toy that was conceived, created or
sold at some point came through him. He took a big cigar from his desk and lit
it up, breathing in deep until it was smoking to his satisfaction. “That’s
right” Thomas continued. “We handle all the merchandising, marketing, logistics
and delivery. You might have to make a couple of personal appearances a year,
but what you can’t make, we’ll have people in place to represent you. You see,
we’re not buying you, per se, but what you stand for. Toys, glorious toys,
giving a sense of prosperity to every child, happiness to every girl and boy,
and all to be associated with your good name. And if we make some tiny profit,
well that just a reward for all that good will.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick shook his
head. “But that’s not what I stand for. I stand for giving, not indulgence. I
stand for emptying yourself for others, not profiting off their need. This just
doesn’t seem right somehow, Mr. Uley.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Mr. Uley smiled
even wider. “I know you don’t understand just now, but trust me, this is how
the system works. You have to do things sometimes to achieve the desired end.
You DO want children to be happy on Christmas Day, don’t you? Now, you can do that
worldwide, all in one night. Just sign the contract, and it’s done.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick hesitated.
“I don’t know…” he started.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Thomas leaned
across the desk, and looked at Nick directly in his eyes. “Nick, Nick” he said
softly. “I understand your concerns, and they will be addressed. But for now,
think of the good you can do. So much more than ever possible. This is really
for the best, and just waiting on you.” Thomas picked up a pen, and handed it
to Nick. “Just waiting on you.” he repeated.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick took a deep
breath, signed the contract, and closed his eyes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>When he opened
them again, the scene had changed. He was seeing many things at once, all
different but somehow connected.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick focused on
a scene to the right, and as he moved, seemed to step into it. He found himself
on a busy sidewalk, hundreds of people around him, pushing and shoving. Buildings
on either side of him rose up to unbelievable heights, so high that Nick had to
strain to see the tops. Someone yelled “Hey, move it bud!” Someone else “Must
be some kinda retard.” “Freak, more like it”. Nick did not like the way this
conversation was going, so he moved over to the side, into a doorway.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>After a minute
to compose himself, Nick started looking at details around him. People were
carrying multiple packages, each one large enough for several people to receive
gifts, yet the faces had no trace of joy. Determination, yes, frustration, yes,
even anger. But no joy. How could you give so much, and not have your heart
overflow? Something must be wrong.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick heard
bells. Knowing that town criers rang bells to announce news, he followed the
sound, in hope of some answers. When he saw the source, he stopped up short.
Nick saw a man in a red, fur lined suit beside a kettle, asking people for
money. He looked like a sophisticated beggar. The suit kept bothering Nick. It
seemed familiar. Of course! It was his clerical robes, although it was a very
poor copy. Cartoonish, even. This beggar was supposed to be him! Mr. Uley said
there would be stand-ins, but nothing like this. Nick moved on quickly, holding
back the urge to punch this heretic right in his jolly round belly. Just a few
blocks later, another imposter on the sidewalk! This was just too much. He
willed himself out of that scene (although he still wasn’t sure how) and into
the next one.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>As the scene
around him came into focus, Nick found himself in a family home on Christmas
morning, and the scene was absolute chaos. One child was tearing into packages
in a frenzy, paper flying everywhere. No sooner than one package would be
opened, he would go to the next, ignoring the previous gift. And there were so
many! Surely many children must live here, but no, only one. In a flash, all
the packages were open. Then the child started to cry. Then started to scream
at his harried parents. Apparently, after all that, it wasn’t enough! Wasn’t
enough? There were enough presents for ten children, and this child wanted
more! Whispering a prayer for his parents, he moved to another scene.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick came into
another house, another family, another child. Unlike his previous view, there
was no abundance. This child was sitting at a kitchen table, a glass of water
in her hands. Her mother was moving around the kitchen, trying hard to spread
what little she had for her child to eat. It had been two days since her own
last meal. “Mom, was I a bad girl this year?” </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“No, hon” the
mom said, “You were a very good girl all year long.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Then why didn’t
Santa bring any presents? Doesn’t he like me?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The mom choked
up a little. “No, he loves you very much. He’s just poor like the rest of us.
Maybe he’ll make it up next year.” To herself, the mom said “Please, next
year.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick’s blood was
boiling by this point. In a world with so much abundance, how could there be
such want? He signed on for goodwill for all, not just some. It was time to
straighten this out.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Hi willed
himself into the office of Thomas R. Uley. “Well, Nick, what a surprise! I didn’t
expect to see you again. What can I do for you?” he said, perfect smile in
place.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“You can release
me from that contract, that’s what you can do for me” fumed Nick. “Instead of
goodwill, there is greed. Instead of care, there is desperate want. I don’t
stand for any of this, and I will NOT stand for any of this.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Nick, Nick”
that familiar soothing voice came back. “Nick, this is far too complicated for
you to understand. That’s just business. Let us take care of things.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“But you’re not taking
care of things, that’s just the problem.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Let us decide
what is right or wrong then.” Thomas rose, and his smile lessened just
slightly. “Nick, we control what the world thinks, and does, and we do it
through money. Those who have keep, those who don’t are not worth our time.
You’ve been paid for your part, we have everything else. Now get out before I
call security.” Thomas sat back down, pulled out a cigar from his desk, and
turned around.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nick’s head
started spinning. He felt totally helpless. He closed his eyes and screamed,
“NOOOOOOOOOO!”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The old bishop
opened his eyes. He was back in his bed, in his own room, drenched in sweat,
hands still clenched in tension. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself,
and realized it was just a dream. He knew that people already recognized him as
a gift giver. He knew that people’s hearts are easily turned from giving to
others to receiving for themselves. But as long as people remembered why they
give, remembered the Child whose birth, death and resurrection gave the
greatest gift of all, it would be alright.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Nicklaus closed
his eyes, and slept.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Merry Christmas everyone, and I'll see you in the new year!</span>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-63764170174235299482018-10-03T06:33:00.004-05:002019-03-29T11:24:26.831-05:00Silence - a poem<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Silence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A pause between words.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A rest between notes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A reprieve while the noise of life goes on.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Silence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The punctuation of life stories.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The time taken to step aside.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The healing between wars of life.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Silence. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Not empty and void, but rich and fertile.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Absorbing the noise around, and giving it time
to be heard.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Life is experienced in noise, but understood…</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">In Silence.</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-33555338332533001292018-09-26T18:47:00.000-05:002018-09-26T18:47:00.486-05:00Sacred Silence
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<sup><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> </span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span>.” And behold, the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span> passed by, and a great and strong
wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span>, but the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span> was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake,
but the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span> was not in the
earthquake. <sup> </sup>And after the earthquake a fire, but the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span> was not in the fire. And after the
fire the sound of a low whisper. – </span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">1 Kings 19:11-12 (ESV)</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Hello Darkness my old friend, I’ve come
to talk with you again. Because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I
was sleeping. And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within
the sounds of silence. – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Paul Simon</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“I come to the garden alone, while the dew
is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the son of God
discloses. And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His
own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” - </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">C. Austin Miles</span></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> I’ve just returned from a
wonderful time at Camp Bluebird, a twice a year camp for cancer survivors, and
the gathering place of some of my dearest friends. There are quite a few
activities at camp to keep our pandemonium to a minimum, and on Friday
afternoon, I attended a Journaling Workshop. One of the prompts given us had to
do with silence, and this prompted the following line from me – “Life is
experienced in noise, but understood in silence”. (I know, sometimes I get so
deep even I don’t get it!) In this case though, the saying rang true for me,
and especially true here at camp. Life is messy, and loud, and exhausting, and
confusing, and frustrating, but there for one weekend is peace, silence of
life’s distractions, rest. And even if understanding may not be there, the
ability to deal with life is a little better at least.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> There is rest in silence.
God speaks to us in the silence. He waits for us to push aside the noise and
clutter, to rest and listen. He set aside the Sabbath, not because His ego
needed it, but to give us the rest He knew WE needed. He begs us to rest. In
Matthew 11:28 <span style="color: red; margin: 0px;">“Come to me all ye who are weary and
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> For a lot of us, silence
can be scary. We run from it, trying to avoid dealing with the issues around
us, or in us. Truth is, the only way there is healing from the noise around is
by going into the silence. We have to stop, rest, and let God speak. In the
Quaker tradition, the common practice is to sit in a circle, and rather than
having a speaker, to wait until God calls someone to speak. This would put a
LOT of pastors out of business. The way I grew up, if there was silence in the Worship Service for
more than 5 seconds, somebody forgot something!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> I would encourage you to
try this simple exercise. Take some time to be in the silence, away from the
noise of the day. Just find a nice, quiet spot, with no distractions, rest and
let God speak. Even if you don’t hear Him, rest in knowing He is there. Rest in
knowing He loves you completely, eternally. For some this may be difficult,
often myself included. Let me give you a scripture, a prompt if you will, to
help. Take Psalm 121:1-2.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help
come? My help comes from the <span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin: 0px;">Lord</span>,
who made heaven and earth.”</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> Now don’t just keep repeating it
over and over, that’s work not rest. Let the words into your heart and dwell on
them. Healing will come. Amen</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-528080326104423032018-09-18T06:07:00.002-05:002018-09-18T06:07:20.299-05:00The Book of Naomi
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Merry Christmas! What, too soon? Oh, well…</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I’m going to tell you a story. It’s told in the Book of
Ruth, but I really think it should be called the Book of Naomi. We don’t often
think about her, but she is the one central to this story. She begins it, influences
it all the way through, and ends it. So why is Naomi so important? We’ll get to
that. Let’s begin.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">There was a famine in Judah, so Elemelech and his wife
Naomi, travel to Moab with their two sons – Mahlan and Chilion. The Bible
doesn’t specify how long they were there, but at some point, Elemelech dies,
their sons take wives, Ruth and Orpah (NOT Oprah!), then the sons die as well,
without having children. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">As it will, life got very tough on these three widows, and Naomi
heard the famine was now over in Judah. She decided to return to Judah, but
told her daughter-in-laws to stay, since their families were both from Moab.
Orpah cried, and begged, and cried again, but eventually hugs and kisses were
passed all around, and she went back to her parent’s home. Ruth, however would
not leave Naomi’s side, telling her “Where you go, I’m going. Where you stay,
I’ll stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” Pretty strong
words. So the two travel back to their home. Bethlehem, in Judea.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Once there, Ruth decides to help her mother-in-law out by
going to work and harvest in the fields. There was a Jewish law that land
owners had to leave a portion of their fields available for immigrants, widows
and orphans, so that they could fend for themselves. One of the fields Ruth
worked in was owned by Boaz, who just happened to be a kinsman of Elemelech.
When Boaz sees her, and find’s out she’s kin, he tells her don’t harvest
anywhere else, just there. Go with his servant girls, and harvest with them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This is where Naomi gets involved again.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>(Just like a mother-in-law, right?) Ruth
comes back and tells Naomi what happened. Naomi, knowing Boaz is a kinsman,
tells Ruth to listen to Boaz, and he’ll take care of her. In the meantime, Boas
has told his men to leave her alone. Not only that, but to make sure and leave
extra where it would be easy to gather.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Ruth comes home the next day with even more that the first
day. She was even allowed to eat with Boaz and his workers, and bring home a
doggie bag for Naomi. At this point, Naomi knows there’s an attraction between
Boaz and Ruth. So she tells Ruth, “Ok, tomorrow night, after he’s eaten and
made merry (read drunk), go to where he’s sleeping, uncover his feet, and lay
down there. When he wakes up, you just do whatever he tells you to do.” She may
have been thinking a little “Bow-chica-wow-wow” would occur, since Lot’s
daughters did the same thing to him to have a child. (Genesis 19: 30-38) Ruth
though wasn’t quite of the same thought. More like Beyoncé’ “Betta put a ring
on it”!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Being the type of man her was, Boaz thought the same way,
because of how honorable Ruth had acted. He proposed to her, and as kinsman
would redeem her, and the line of Elemelech would be restored. Here’s where a
wrinkle came in.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">You see, in Jewish law, if a man died and left no
offspring, it was up to the next of kin to step in for the deceased and forward
the lineage, so to speak.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>(Deut. 25:5-6)
The trouble was, Boaz was NOT the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">next</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> of kin, so he didn’t have the right to
propose. That belonged to another man in the village. So he arranged to meet
the close kin the next day in the marketplace. (I love this next part!)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So, they meet up at Starbucks or someplace like the next
day and Boaz says “Hey cuz! You remember Elemelech, right? Well, I found out
about a parcel of land of his, but since you’re closer kin, I wanted to offer
it to you first.” Well, the cuz says sure, I’ll take the land. The Boaz
suddenly remembers “Oh, by the way, you also have to marry Ruth, his
daughter-in-law, and have a child with her.” (Imagine dead silence here.) Well,
cousin had kids of his own, and that would have interfered with their own
inheritance, so he said “No thanks, cuz, all yours!” Now that’s the way to do a
deal!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">That’s pretty much it. Boaz marries Ruth, they have a son,
Obed, Naomi gets a grandbaby, and all ends happily ever after.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So why is Naomi so important? Because of that baby boy. At
the end of the story, Boaz and Ruth give Obed over to Naomi to nurse and raise.
You know she loved that! It got to where the women of the village would say
“Naomi has a son!” How many of you grandmothers have been accused of the same
thing?? Come on, now.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Well, Obed stayed in Bethlehem and eventually had a son,
Jessie. Jessie grew up and had several fine sons and daughters, including one
shepherd boy, David. You begin to see the line here? David had sons, they had
sons, and so on, and so on, until one upstanding son, Joseph, became the
earthly father to Jesus. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Here’s where Naomi comes in. Remember that law of “kinship
redeemer” in Deuteronomy? By that law, Obed became legally the offspring of
Elemelech, as his own sons had died without issue. This established Obed as a
citizen of Bethlehem, and a full member of the tribe of Judah. (Remember, Ruth
was from Moab, and would not have had that distinction.)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So, when we say Christ was from Bethlehem - that was Naomi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So when we say Christ was of the tribe of Judah - that was
Naomi.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">When the line is drawn from God to Adam to Abraham to David
to Christ – that was Naomi. The lineage of the promise of God for the savior of
mankind was secured by – Naomi. Not bad for the mother-in-law in the story.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So Naomi, I want to give you the recognition you deserve.
You’re welcome.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Oh, and…Merry Christmas.</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-1821345292542054132018-06-08T06:29:00.000-05:002018-06-08T06:29:34.169-05:00Colorectal Ditties
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This past Sunday, June 3<sup>rd</sup>, was cancer
survivor day. I am happy to be a 10 year survivor of colorectal cancer myself.
Being a survivor though is not without its own set of experiences. Often the
price of living, is living with a brand new “normal”, one that others don’t
see. For those times though, even when things are going really tough, I like to
try and laugh at the experience. Not because it is funny in itself, but because
to laugh at something takes away its power over you. Other than love, there is
no greater power that humans can wield.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">In that vein, the following little ditties are for those
like myself that are rectally challenged. I give the artist’s names first, not
so much to hear the tune, but to apologize to them for what I did to it!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Gene
Autry)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Back to the bathroom again, white porcelain is my friend.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Don’t know when it will come, when it does I have to run</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Back to the bathroom again.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Ray
Stevens)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Oh yes, they call it the Streak. I feel a wet spot on my
seat.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">When I remove my underwear, see the lines showing there,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I know that something has seeped.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Statler
Brothers)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Counting flowers on the wall, while I’m sitting in the
stall.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Playing Solitaire till one, on a Galaxy Samsung.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Downloading Stranger Things and watching Season Two</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Now don’t tell me, I’ve nothing to do.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Tennessee
Ernie Ford)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">You dump Sixteen Tons, what do you get? A butt that’s
sore and a seat that’s wet.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">You think that it’s over, you get up to go,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Then another load comes and she’s ready to blow!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Johnny
Cash/Sons of the Pioneers)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I see the toilet paper roll, it’s down to just one sheet.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">And all the backup paper rolls are just beyond my reach.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I should have changed it out but I just didn’t take the
time.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So I’ll sit here till my legs go numb, and I can’t feel
my behind.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Yippie-Ky-Yay! Yippie-Ky-Yo!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Where is my be-hind??</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Have a laugh today!</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4789632151489329004.post-90807934935168334272018-05-23T21:25:00.000-05:002018-05-23T21:25:13.866-05:00Amens<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of you know that I occasionally will write a poem or a short story. The stories range from somewhat funny to horror (I call it taking the demons out for a stroll) or everything in between. This one falls under the unusual category, much like me! Please enjoy.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Amens
by Mark D. Mills</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John stood in the doorway of 317 Lockwood Street. He
hesitated, took a deep, if nervous breath, and knocked. He stood there for a
few seconds, wondering if he might get a pass on this one, then he heard sounds
coming from inside. The door opened, and the smell of B.O., early morning beer
and cigarette smoke hit John immediately, exploding on him in waves. Before
John stood a huge bulk of a man; hair unkempt, face unshaven, and shirtless.
The hair on his body, however, more than compensated for any immodesty. Being
the type of man to use words frugally (if at all), he simply glared down at
John and grunted out “What?” </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Um, yes…” said John. “My name is John Till, and I have a
matter to discuss with Mrs. Mary Collen if I may. Is she in, please?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The human barricade obviously didn’t think much of John,
and less of his request. “What you want with Mary? I’m her husband, you can
deal with me.” Even as he said this, John heard the implied threat. Still, he
had a job to do.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“This is rather personal sir, just concerning Mrs.
Collen. I’m here to make amends.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Amens? What are you, some kinda preacher?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“No sir, not at all. Making amends is to try and make
right something you’ve done in your past. At the very least, to apologize. May
I see her, please?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The Bulk seemed to be considering it. John thought it was
more exertion than he had put out for a while. Finally, the Bulk said, “Sure,
preacher, come in. But don’t try anything, or I’ll break you like a twig.” John
had no doubt he could keep that threat. “Mary, some guy to see you! Get out
here, now!”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">From the kitchen stepped a young women carrying a small
child on her hip. While still young, she was aged well beyond her years. She
looked confusedly at John, then at her husband, not knowing who John was at
all. The bulk was walking out of the room. “And hurry up, it’s almost lunch
time.” No need to imply the threat this time, it was understood.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Well, come on in here, Mr….?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“John Till. No reason you should know that, Mary. I’m
afraid I’ve startled you, though, and that is not my intent.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary was more confused than ever. “Ok…well, come on into
the living room and we’ll sit down. Oh, can I get you something to drink, Mr.
Till?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“John, please. And a glass of sweet tea would be just
fine, thank you.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary set the child in his bouncy chair by the couch, and
went into the kitchen for the tea. John looked at the child and smiled. “I hope
this helps you, little one. Maybe this will break the chain.” </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary came back into the living room, and sat the tea in
front of John. “Well, I don’t know what you want with me, but I’ll tell you
right now if you’re selling something, we’re not buying so don’t waste your
time.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John smiled. He’d heard this same line now several times,
and it never lost its sense of irony. “I’m not selling anything, Mary. You
might say I’m giving instead. You see, I’m here to make amends for something I
did that’s impacted your life. Ask forgiveness, and try to make it right.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“I’m sorry,Mr….uh, John…I don’t know you, so I don’t know
what you could have done that matters to me.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John took a sip of his tea. There was never a problem he
ever had that sweet iced tea couldn’t calm him down, and help him think. It was
his elixir.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“What I did, Mary, was years ago. You see, I’m much older
than I look. What happened was to your father-in-law, not the man you know, but
your husband Charlie’s biological father.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary started. “How would you know him? He died years ago,
when Charlie was just 13.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Yes, committed suicide, actually. And it was my actions
that drove him to it. We were in business together, until I grew to where I
thought I couldn’t trust him. Truth is, I grew greedy, and I didn’t trust
anyone. I got him kicked out of the company, and took over his assets. He was
always a bit mean spirited, but it became more and more so, until he couldn’t
even live with himself. That was the reason for his suicide, but it didn’t
happen before he transferred his anger with me on the world, and especially,
Charlie.” </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“I know you felt pity for Charlie when you met him, and
eventually even loved him. But Charlie’s hurts were not yours to heal, and his
actions he must deal with on his own as well. The reason I’m here is because
Charlie’s actions toward you are a result of his father’s actions toward him,
and those actions are a direct result of my doing. My first question is…can you
forgive me?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary sat stunned. She would love to think this guy was
just nuts, but he had so much detail that it frightened her a little. Best to
get him out as quick as possible. “Sure, OK, I forgive you if that’s what you
need. Now I really got to get to Charlie’s lunch.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John smiled again. “That’s only half the equation to
amending, Mary. Now I need to do something to make that wrong into a right. I
know that you worry for yourself, but even more so for your child. Am I correct
in saying that money is what keeps you here?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This was starting to get a little too personal for Mary.
“First off, that’s none of your business. Second off, you can look around here
and tell there isn’t any money. So unless you’ve got a check there in your
pocket, I think you better leave.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John stood up. Everything was going as expected, and he
didn’t need to be here much longer. “Mary, I don’t have a check, but I believe
I have something better.” He pulled a piece of paper from his pants pocket. “The
top number there is of a personal account I have set up in the Cayman’s, and
the bottom number is a direct line to the bank’s director. He knows to be
expecting your call. As soon as you do, that money will be transferred to a
separate account in your name, to do with as you wish. If you do not call
within 7 days of today’s date, it will be divided between several charities
that have been chosen beforehand. Again, you may do as you wish, but I believe
you would choose a better life for you and your child than my actions have
caused so far.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mary stood and took the paper. This can’t be true, and
yet, she wanted it to be. Mary asked “If I did call, how much are we looking at
here? One Thousand? Fifteen Hundred?”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John started heading back to the front door. “I’m not
really sure anymore. It has grown some since I set it up. I believe the last
time I checked it was in the region of 8 figures, but it may have increased.
Good day, Mary, and thank you for accepting my amends.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John took a look back as he exited onto the front porch.
She was still staring at the paper when John heard Charlie shout “Mary, where’s
my lunch?” She looked back at the paper, stuffed it into her pants pocket, and
went to the kitchen. “Coming, Charlie!”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">She would call. John could feel it. And she and the child
would break the cycle that had drawn them down for so long. Now there was just
one stop left, and this was the hardest one of all.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John went to almost the edge of town, to an old,
overgrown field. There had once been a fence surrounding the property, but it
had long since fallen into disrepair, now with big gaping spaces allowing
access to anyone or anything. John stepped gingerly over the fence, and walked
to the middle of the field, stopping by a large willow tree. He had always
loved willows. They were so beautiful, but also so sad. Kind of like himself.
So many things were going through his mind. There were so many wrongs, there
was so much unkindness, so much hate. All without reason. But the hate was gone
now. The wrongs had been set right. There was only one thing left, and that was
here. John choked up just a little, and whispered “I forgive you.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The part of the field where John ended up was quite
secluded, but if someone had been watching, they would have been surprised. The
wind, very calm all day, began to softly move the branches on the willow tree. Next,
the man (or was it a shadow) that had been standing there seemed to change
shape, as if blowing back and forth with the wind. Then, the sun must have come
in from behind a cloud, because there was now nothing there beneath the tree
but a simple stone that read:</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">John
Till</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">1948-2010</span></div>
</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />revruns1http://www.blogger.com/profile/12748526202555636391noreply@blogger.com0