Whispering in Church

Last Sunday night Pastor Dave was reading some Old Testament blessings, and came to a section on children. He spent some moments emphasizing that children are a blessing and should be viewed that way. He cautioned the congregation to remember that just because something is a blessing, this does not mean that it should be one’s aim to get as much of it as possible. Daddy scanned down our family (which took up two rows this service), leaned over to Mama and whispered, “Oops.” : ) Unfortunately, most of us heard him, and the joke got passed along the whole row. : )

I’m afraid we’re a major distraction in church.

Navigation Issues

A very put-together looking young man just stopped in the office to ask for directions. He said he was looking for his counselor…he hadn’t seen her for a while. I ever so helpfully directed him to the Psychological Services Center just down the hall in the opposite direction, surprised that he would offer such personal information.

He dropped by again about a minute and a half later to say “I’m sorry, I meant my academic counselor.”

Nearly dying of embarrassment and held in laughter, I pointed him to the advising suite and explained how to get there. As he turned to go out the door, he asked “are you sure?” Oh gosh. I’m the worst.

But it was

Hilarious.

Why C.S. Lewis Is The Best

"If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will make in the end no
difference what you have chosen instead." (Thomas More) Those are hard words to
take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women or patriotism,
cocaine or art, whisky or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely
no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end for which we are
formed, and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it matter to a
man dying in a desert by which choice of route he missed the only well?

--C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Forgiveness is Something Else!

"...Remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real ‘extenuating circumstances’ there is no fear that He will overlook them. Often He must know many exuses that we have never thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they had thought. All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a doctor you show him the bit of you that is wrong–say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and eyes and throat are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really all right, the doctor will know that.”

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

--C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

"The silence of God is different from that of [humans]. When Jesus lay silent and asleep in the ship, He was more kind and His arm was more near to help and more certain than the anxious cry of the doubting disciples suggests. The silence of God and of Jesus is not of indifference. It is the silence of higher thoughts. God is fitting stone to stone in His plan for the world and our lives, even though we can see only a confused and menaingless jumble of stones heaped together under a silent heaven."

--Helmut Thielicke (quoted in When the Soul Listens).

That's All.

The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Dear Sarah,

who fears THE LORD. That’s all.

Love,

Me

Stretch Out Your Hands

Job 11:13-20

“Yet if you devote your heart to him
and stretch out your hands to him,
if you put away the sin that is in your hand
and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;
you will stand firm and without fear.
You will surely forget your trouble,
recalling it only as waters gone by.
Life will be brighter than noonday,
and darkness will become like morning.
You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,
and many will court your favor.
But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
and escape will elude them;
their hope will become a dying gasp.”