Up to your neck

Unless you have existed in a vacuum over the last few years you already know how much trouble many Americans are experiencing today. Loss of jobs, credit crunch, housing foreclosures and many other difficulties. Like the lady in the picture, I know many people who are "up to their neck in trouble". For some, their problems really are not their fault. But, others have brought misfortune upon themselves by just living way beyond their means. We probably could make one very long list of the foolish (sometimes downright stupid) things people do. Yet, even in the worst of circumstances, there is a way out--God's way. Here is an example of just such a person.

Luke 15:11-19 (WEB)
11) He said, “A certain man had two sons.
12) The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
13) Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
14) When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.
15) He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16) He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
17) But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!
18) I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
19) I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

OK, this son had problems; yet he did one very smart thing... he began to think about his situation. When he realized that even the hired servants had food, he decided to return to his father. Not JUST THAT, he realized what he had done wrong and that wrong was sinful.

Secondly, he did another smart thing... he acted upon his covictions.

Luke 15:20-24 (WEB)

20) “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21) The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22) “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23) Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
24) for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.

Self-assessment, when coupled with humility usually has very positive results. I can speak with experience on the last sentence and say that it is very true; I know, I have been there. So, if you are up to your neck in troubles, do what you can to make things right and leave the rest up to God. Besides, mud-baths are relaxing! Who knows, later on there may even be a party!!

The future looks bright

On the net, she likes to be called "God's Encourager"; I have never met her in person, but I can tell from her posts that she is a caring, loving person who is trying to follow God. Today, I received an e-mail from her and it wasn't good news; she has a mass in her lungs. If you have ever had bad news like this, then you know what a shock it can be! After reading her post, I thought of this passage....



Romans 8:28-39 (WEB)
28) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
29) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30) Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
31) What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32) He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
33) Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36) Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37) No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We think of our lives as very important, and to us they are. However, what are we in the great scheme of things? One of untold billions of people who have been blessed with the gift of life. With God there is meaning to life beyond just existence. God has a purpose for us and those who follow him believe this because the Bible tells us so. She may get better (preferred choice, of course) or she may not. Either way, she has faith in God and even though I really don't know a great deal about her, I trust that her faith with be rewarded with heaven someday. That's the thing about being a follower of God: whether the news is good or bad, the future looks bright!!!

After the "grasshoppers"

I have never met these people, but I like them already. Look at what they are doing; fishing in this little puddle! Notice that they just didn't throw their lines in the water, they bought a bucket for the fish they planned to catch. Optimism, pure and simple!! How easy it would have been to just ignore this place as un-fishable, but its obvious that they see things a little differently than most of us. When God sent the spies into the promised land to ascertain both its land and its people, most came back with the idea that although it was a wonderful place, Israel could never conquer it. Wrong! Who had brought Israel out of Egypt; who had provided for them and guided them? The God who had done these mighty works was certainly able to finish what he started. Most of the spies had considered themselves but grasshoppers compared to the mighty people of the land (Numbers 13:33) but not all. Here is the rest of the story....


Numbers 14:1-30 (WEB)

Numbers 14
1) All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2) All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3) Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”
4) They said one to another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6) Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:
7) and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
8) If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.
9) Only don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them.”
10) But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.
11) Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?
12) I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13) Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;
14) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15) Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,
16) ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’
17) Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,
18) ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’
19) Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20) Yahweh said, “I have pardoned according to your word:
21) but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;
22) because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;
23) surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:
24) but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.
25) Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
26) Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
27) “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
28) Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:
29) your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
30) surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

The congregation of Israel wanted to stone Moses and Aaron; can you believe it? Yahweh was exceeding angry over the situation and it was only because Moses interceded for the nation that they survived his wrath. Those who rebelled would never see the promised land; only Caleb and Joshua. After the "grasshoppers" were dealt with, those of faith were blessed. It has always been like that and always will be. On the way home this evening, I passed by a church not too far from my home and I saw this sign: Heaven is worth waiting for. How do you wait? Expectantly, through the eyes of faith, is my answer. Having said all this... I wonder how many fish the two in the picture will catch? No, wrong question... I wonder how many more buckets they will need?

ps. Today's post marks number 500; half way to my initial goal of 1000. I am amazed to have gotten this far, but with God anything is possible; even for someone like me.

A Rose by any other name

With a last name like Rose, I have grown very fond of Roses. When I give flowers to my wife, its not too hard to predict what kind they will be. Fresh flowers never do last too long, but I like to give them anyway, because red roses seem to say LOVE and that is one thing you can never give too much of. However, the roses in this picture are not something I would want my wife to have; frankly, I was repulsed by them. Can you imagine if she forgot to shave for a few months...YUK! This picture does bring up an interesting question: Should Christians have tattoo's? Here is a series of commands from the book of Leviticus that may shed some light on the subject.

Leviticus 19:23-37 (WEB)
23) “‘When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years shall they be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten.
24) But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, for giving praise to Yahweh.
25) In the fifth year you shall eat its fruit, that it may yield its increase to you. I am Yahweh your God.
26) “‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it; neither shall you use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
27) “‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard.
28) “‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
29) “‘Don’t profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.
30) “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.
31) “‘Don’t turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don’t seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God.
32) “‘You shall rise up before the gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
33) “‘If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34) The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
35) “‘You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.
36) You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37) “‘You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them. I am Yahweh.’”

For openers, we are not under the Mosaic covenant, so the direct command is not applicable. Consider however, the purpose behind these instructions. Israel was to be different than the nations of Canaan that they were to dispossess. Since we are under the system of Grace instead of LAW, can we do whatever we want and ignore the principles of the OLD TESTAMENT? I don't think so! Just because something isn't directly forbidden in the New Testament doesn't mean we should do it. For example, I don't see anywhere in the Scriptures that using Heroin is forbidden. If everyone around you is getting tattoo's should you get one too? Let your conscience be your guide, because each one of us answers individually to the God of Heaven for what we decide to do in this life. Yet when I saw this picture, the following came to mind: "A rose by any other name smells as sweet". Somehow, I don't think it is true for this lady.

Not far enough

I suppose there is a good reason to trim a tree like this, but I just don't see it. The tree will grow again and in winter snow and ice could wreck the lines. If its in Florida, come hurricane season, good luck. I see this sort of thing every day just South of Zephyrhills, Florida on route 301. I guess I am thick, but it just makes no sense to do this. After awhile though, it occurred to me that trimming a tree like this is akin to allowing sin in your life. Paul puts it this way in the book of Romans.

Rom 6:1-18 (WEB)
6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
6:3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
6:9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
6:10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
6:11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6:12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
6:13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
6:15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
6:16 Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.
6:18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Plainly put; if you are a Christian, don't allow sin in your life. Don't make a provision for it and if you discover it, change. Why? Because you are to be holy and this word means separated from sin. Don't just trim the tree of sin like the picture; do your best to eliminate the possibility of sinning. Trim where you can, remove the rest; you will be glad you did!

From "Hard Times" to Nursery rhymes

Remind you of anything?

I remember this little gem:

This little piggy went to market,

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef

and this little piggy had none,

AND THIS LITTLE PIGGY CRIED "WEE, WEE, WEE"

ALL THE WAY HOME!!

Just before I saw this picture, I saw another one that somehow just seemed to go with it.

And here is how it happens:

Ruth 4:9-22 (WEB)
9) Boaz said to the elders, and to all the people, “You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi.
10) Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day.”
11) All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.
12) Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which Yahweh shall give you of this young woman.”
13) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14) The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel.
15) He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”
16) Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it.
17) The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi;” and they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18) Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron,
19) and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab,
20) and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon,
21) and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed,
22) and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

Naomi had gone through "hard times": she lost both husband and sons and was alone in a strange land. But, she gained the love of Ruth and what a love it was!! You know, the kind that will endure anything, go anywhere, and keeps getting stronger. Ruth was the mother of Obed and this child had to be so very special to Naomi!! I can imagine Naomi singing the little piggy song to Obed and when he was older, he writing this little note to his grandma. OK, it wasn't in English and they didn't have "piggy" false nails, but there was love and that is the point of it all. God works things out so that true love wins no matter what the circumstances. Even in failure there is great victory IF THERE IS LOVE!! And, before you ask: No, I won't sing the piggy song in public; its reserved for my children when they were young and now for my grand-kids. However, I WILL (AND DO) sing my "Grandpa song" to whoever will listen; just ask me.

Breakthrough

It has taken quite a bit of adjustment to become a "Floridian". The warmer temperatures thins your blood out and now 70 degrees feels like 50 did a decade ago. Until I saw this picture I had almost forgotten how gray and dreary the sky can be in the winters of upstate New York. Yet, the rays of light in the picture give hope; hope of fairer skies. The Bible has a lot to say about hope, far more than I could ever begin to address in this blog. But consider just one man; Abraham.

Romans 4:1-25 (WEB)

Romans 4
1) What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
3) For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4) Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
5) But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
6) Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,
7) “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8) Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
9) Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10) How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11) He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
12) He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
13) For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14) For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.
15) For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
16) For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17) As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your seed be.”
19) Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20) Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
21) and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
22) Therefore it also was “reckoned to him for righteousness.”
23) Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
24) but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,
25) who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

Here was a man of faith. Put yourself in his position for a moment; 100 years old, a 90 year old wife and no child. God tells you that you are going to be father and you believe it; really believe it. Wow, what faith!! Yet Abraham was a mere man, subject to all the problems that we humans encounter, but being given a promise by God, HE GREW STRONGER! There may never be another man like Abraham, yet his life is an example to us all and his faith can be OUR FAITH. God in heaven, thank you for this man; because of him it is easier to trust in God and have hope. Reminds me of the old song "blue skies", but so far I haven't thought of how the water in the picture fits it. Hopefully, I will think of something; I promise.