Stumped!

This is my son-in-law, Mike. Normally, he is doing something, so this picture is quite unusual! Lately, with a broken hand, he has had a lot of time to think; but I couldn't help but wonder what he was so engrossed about. He never seems to have to think about anything much, as he always knows his mind on everything. Some things will make anyone stop and ponder awhile and the following events would make anybody stop and reflect.


Acts 12:7-17 (WEB)
7) And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, and woke him up, saying, “Stand up quickly!” His chains fell off from his hands.
8) The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” He did so. He said to him, “Put on your cloak, and follow me.”
9) And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision.
10) When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out, and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
11) When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
12) Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
13) When Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer.
14) When she recognized Peter’s voice, she didn’t open the gate for joy, but ran in, and reported that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
15) They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.”
16) But Peter continued knocking. When they had opened, they saw him, and were amazed.
17) But he, beckoning to them with his hand to be silent, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. He said, “Tell these things to James, and to the brothers.” Then he departed, and went to another place.

Herod was not someone you wanted to have angry with you. If you were imprisoned, you probably would never come out alive (remember John the Baptist). But God delivered Peter from certain death and while he was going to the house of Mary, he thought about what this meant. Can you really blame him? I would be a bit preoccupied myself. Then the business with Rhoda (which I always thought was funny) and finally the testimony to James and the brothers. The book of Acts tells of the practices of the Apostles of Jesus, but in this unusual situation we are given insight into what Peter was thinking. I can imagine Peter's thoughts coming back to the events of the day just before he fell asleep that night, can't you? When God acts in your life, sit back and think about it; you just might get to know God a little better. As for Mike, well, he is concentrating so hard, he looks like he just can't figure things out. You might say:He is stumped!

Out of the black night

Have you ever seen a really BLACK NIGHT? Not the kind we get in central Florida, where there is always a glow on the horizon, but one that is so black that you can't see your hand three inches from your face. Quite a few years ago, I saw such a night and what an experience it was! We were staying with my in-laws, at their camp in Newcomb, N.Y.. Newcomb is situated just a short drive from the Canadian border and is nestled in the Aridoniack mountains and is it ever remote! About three a.m. we heard a noise, followed by a loud crack; my father-in-law had just killed a bear about two feet from the door of his trailer. The kids cried and everyone was unsettled until morning. Not a night I am likely to forget! It was so dark, you could almost feel the darkness and when that sun came up we were all very happy! Naturally, this verse from the Bible came to mind.


John 8:12 (WEB)
12) Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose in Life? What will happen to me when I finally die? Questions that we all ask ourselves at one time or another and I suppose there are as many answers as there are people, but one thing I know. Jesus gives the best answers to all these. With him, you don't have to bumble and fumble through life; he gives direction and a solid foundation to build upon. For me, its like seeing the sun rise after the darkest night you can possibly imagine. I have put many sunsets on the blog, but today as I look at this sunrise, I see light from yet another perspective and I LIKE IT!! Maybe I will watch more sunrises from now on and think of Jesus when I do. Who knows, maybe you might even watch one with me?

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!