Update:
Saturday, I stayed home, and did a
number of chores including working on my Sunday message and the PowerPoint that
goes with it (More about that later). Jim
and Jane Jefferies came over for a visit.
It went well until Jim and I started to exchange jokes—then suddenly
Jane was ready to leave! I’ll share one
of Jim’s originals. I really loved
it. This is an exchange between Luke
Skywalker and Darth Vader before Christmas.
Jim added the classic Vader breathing sounds too.
Vader: Luke, I know what Santa got you
for Christmas!
Skywalker: How, Father?
Did you use the Force?
Vader:
No, Son! I felt your presents!!
Skywalker: Noooo!!!!
Sunday morning I got up and did last
minute work on my message. I had a
printed copy of my draft that I scribbled notes on and ideas for
improvement. I then rewrote the message
and spent about 45 minutes making a simple PowerPoint for this shorter
message. I saved all of it on a USB
drive to take with me to church. My ride
came and picked me up and dropped me off at church about an hour before the
service. After he left, I realized that
I had left the USB drive at home still plugged into my computer. Aargh!
The house was locked and there wasn’t anybody at church who could spare
the time to run go get the drive.
Fortunately I had brought my scribbled up draft notes with me. I quickly did a rough and tumble remake of my
PowerPoint and then preached from the scribbled-up notes. I think it went well despite the
setbacks. I have often found that when
things go wrong—I cry out to God for assistance—and things work out better than
when I think I’ve got it all nailed down.
I am not advocating not being prepared so you can rely upon the Lord;
but when you put forth your best and it comes up short, those cries of
desperation often lead to the most powerful preaching that I have done. It is ALWAYS about God and not about me and
my rad preaching skills. Sometimes it is
good to have a very tangible reminder of it.
I have found that when I think that I have struck out and in the midst
of it I pray, “God, bless this mess. I
tried but it’s not good, so if anything good is going to come from this—You’ll
have to do it.” It is on those days that
I have the most people honestly tell me how much the message meant to them and
how God spoke to them through it. Go
God!
What a lopsided Super Bowl!!! I wanted the Sea Hawks to win. But I found myself rooting for the Broncos
because they were so far behind. Those
guys couldn’t get it together. I liked
the Doritos commercials and found that I liked a few of the sappier ones too. The one about the hometown welcome for a
returning soldier was great. Every
service member deserves that kind of welcome when returning home. Thank you, Veterans!
Monday morning I’m headed into Physical
Therapy to make certain I am doing the right exercises to prepare me for
walking. I’ve already done my stretching
exercises this morning. I’ll do my
weights after we get home this afternoon.
I’ve got an appointment with my Family doctor early this afternoon. I
think a big item in that visit will be to look over my blood glucose readings
and make necessary adjustments to my diabetes therapy. Karen
and I will try to get our shopping done between doctor appointments so we can
head home right afterwards. We’ll see
how that works.
Thought
for the Day:
What happens when we face insurmountable
obstacles in our lives? What do you
attempt to do? Go around? Go over?
Give up? Go a different direction?
I know that personally my first reaction
is frustration. I am aggravated and
upset by the inconvenience. All of my
planning and effort has gone to waste. I
don’t like setbacks and delays. I tend
to take it personally.
It is rather easy to get one of those “the
whole world is against me” kind of attitudes isn’t it? It can migrate into a “pity poor me party”
which can lead to total capitulation. We
give up! Now maybe we’ve tried
everything humanly possible to find our way around it—but nothing seems to
work.
If the difficulty or obstacle is big
enough or it is of great importance, we might find ourselves in danger:
physically, financially, emotionally, relationally, etc. We literally are between a rock and a hard
place. If it is bad enough we may have
no means of escape and no hope for successfully getting around it. We are about to get crushed and destroyed.
What option do we have? Call upon the Lord! When we find ourselves in those kind of
situations—it reminds me of nation of Israel flee Egypt and finding themselves
trapped with their backs up against the Red Sea. There was no escape. There was nothing they could do. They were going to get slaughtered. Humanly speaking that was true; but God did
something miraculous! He parted the Red
Sea and the Israelites walked fled across on dry land. When the Egyptians attempted to pursue them,
God allowed the waters to go back and the army perished under the waves.
Yes it was hopeless and they were
helpless; but when God enters the picture there is hope and help. It is a frighten thing to be in a no win
situation. It is awful to be in the path
of disaster and see it bare down upon you.
But when we face those moments in our lives, that is when we need to
call upon the Lord God and stand by and watch our deliverance. Those situations that seem to be the worst
thing you can imagine end up being something special as you get an opportunity
to see God at work on your behalf. They
end up helping strengthen our relationship with Him and deepen our faith in
Him.
So when disaster strikes your life, don’t
anxiously look around you. Instead, look
to the Lord and let peace flood your soul despite the circumstances. Have faith!
God is still at work around us and He still hears our cries.
Hebrews 11:29 “By faith the people passed through the Red
Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.”
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