Hello my friends! Last day with Angie here, she leaves in the morning, today we had apple buckwheat pancakes for brunch - very delicious, and we went out for supper as we do every year the last day she's here. Went to our fav restaurant again, nice visit with Jim and some waitresses! Also such a welcome place to be, nice piano playing and we sat near the piano, it was so nice and peaceful - a great blessing!! It's been a great blessing having Angie these past few days, and this afternoon another classmate came over to visit - and that was so special. She's a nurse at the hospital here in town, we had such a nice couple of hours. Both Angie and Shirley are alone. Shirley just sold her house and moved to an apt. now about a week ago. An apt. that has a swimming pool and she asked if I like to swim, I said yes, of course, and she'll have to get a suit and she'll have me over for some swimming.
Sermons I See
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell me the way.
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
fine counsel is confusing, but example is always clear
And the best of all preachers are the ones who live their creeds,
for to see good in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn how to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,
but I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do.
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
Author: Edgar A. Guest
I was taught a lesson that just six simple letters could make a
difference.
Those six letters made the word - SILENT.
Those letters when rearranged also spell the word - LISTEN.
I never truly understood that until the day I stood silent and
learned there was more to life than everyday living.
When you don't take the time to listen and be silent then
everything is easily taken for granted.
The things I wasn't silent for and listened for, I now miss the
most. A simple I love you from my child.
The request of a loved one that I was too busy for at the time.
Little did I know, that if I stayed quiet and savored things,
I could have imprinted their voices in my mind and made memories that would have lasted.
The one thing I always will be thankful for is that I learned my
lesson and heeded the call. But also that God truly is silent
and listened for my every need, but in return if I'm silent,
I can also hear from Him.
WHAT TO DO WITH GARBAGE
By Ron Hutchcraft
In certain parts of the country taking out the garbage is a no
brainer. Not where we live in the Metropolitan New York area! We are
talking pages of trash regulations including what to do with plastics,
different colors of glass, aluminum cans, leaves, branches, tires.
Well, my friend Craig isn't used to all these regulations because he
just moved here. So he let his garbage pile up for the first few weeks
in the area, with odoriferous results, shall we say? Eventually he had
his own little land-fill developing by his back door. Finally he found
the instructions on handling trash and Craig told me, "It wasn't that
I didn't want to get rid of that garbage, I just didn't know how to."
Some of us face a quandary similar to my friend's, only with the
emotional and spiritual garbage of our lives. Things we've done that
we wish we could undo. Things we hope no one ever finds out about.
The
guilty memories that keep coming back on the VCR in our brain. Not to
mention the pain we carry inside. We want to get rid of our garbage,
we just don't know how to . . . and it continues to pile up in our
soul,
and it's starting to deteriorate.
Well, there is a designated dumping ground for our lifetime of
garbage. It's on a skull shaped hill with a rugged cross on the top.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from I Peter 2:24.
Speaking of Jesus, it says, "He bore our sins in His own body on the
tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. " You
see,
all the guilt of all the sins that you and I have ever done, God's Son
absorbed when He was dying on that cross paying our death penalty for
our sin. In Isaiah 53, God graphically describes this dumping of all
of
our sin garbage on His Son. It says, "He carried our sorrows, He was
pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the
punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." . . . Every lie we've
ever told, every angry, hurting word we've ever spoken, Jesus was
absorbing on that cross. Every lustful thought, every immoral act,
every adulterous act, every act of violence, every act of selfishness,
Jesus
the sinless Son of God absorbed into His soul on that cross. Why? In
the words of the Bible, "God so loved the world that He gave His one
and only Son." And today Jesus invites you to bring the accumulated
garbage of your life to the cross where he died to forgive it. Jesus
said of those who nailed Him to that tree, "Father forgive them." If
He could forgive that, there's nothing you've done that He cannot and
will not forgive! But, you have to come to Jesus willing to admit that
you're a sinner, willing to tell Him that you are putting all your
trust in Him to erase your sin from God's book and to give you life
forever. You can trade in guilt for forgiveness, you can trade in pain
for healing, you can trade in death for Eternal Life when you ask the
One who died for you to be your own Savior.
There is no reason to deal with the garbage of your life again. Not
when Jesus Christ has shown you what to do with it. Bring all of that
garbage up skull hill where it was already dealt with by Jesus, and
leave it there.
Today's Daily Wisdom is written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his
popular "A Word With You" broadcast (Available in transcripts or
RealAudio format.) Ron Hutchcraft Ministries has been on-line with GCN
since
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