“Without Him was not anything made
that was made” (John
1:3).
Hey
Gang: I have said it before and I say it
again, my bride is a compulsive reader.
I have also said it before and say it again, she does not read books,
she consumes them. I have also heard it said
opposites attract. In this area of our
relationship I would totally agree. So, I rely on her to do most of the new
reading and, when something truly rings her bell, I find a book on my desk with
a note or book mark which means “READ THIS”.
This morning
was one of those times. I judge her love
of books, and she does truly love books, by opening the cover and seeing how
many times she has read it. In the
coming weeks, ten or twelve or if I find a new one, thirteen books will get a
repeat performance for her highness, the queen of my castle.
The
following story by Elizabeth Sherrill is taken from a book in her archives from
2005. It remains part of her library
because it contains some very neat stories of victories in people’s lives- and
we need to dig into and pay special attention to them - victories in believes
lives. But, there is another reason it
remains firmly implanted on her bookshelf of very special books, it was given
by a very special friend who has since gone to be with the Lord.
Elizabeth
addresses a problem that I have heard many people voice in the modern day of
“you must fill every moment of every day with something that will make you rise
on the totem pole. I recall a story
written by Max Lucado about his trip to Israel.
He thought it would be an experience of walking close to, and hearing
the voice of God. Such was not the case
for him. Elizabeth wrote:
It’s December, the season of Advent,
when our thoughts should focus on the coming of Jesus – as a baby in a manger
and the King of kings at the end of time.
But., oh dear! With shopping and mailing and writing cards
and getting the house ready for guests, I often forget the point of it all.
So as left the house today, I murmured
a quick prayer; Don’t let me lose sight of You today, Lord!
Answers to my pleas came all day
long. Driving down roads recently
cleared by snowplows, I recalled other obstacles also cleared away - like
getting in to see the doctor whose schedule was “completely full.” And I saw
God as the One Who, time and again, has opened a way for me. Outside the grocery store, a bell-ringer
stood beside a Salvation army kettle. Jesus
has compassion for the poor.
In the children’s clothes section at
a apartment store, a woman worried over the fit of a pair of boys’ jeans she
was sending as a Christmas gift. How
perfectly God fit His gift to our need.
At the drugstore checkout counter, a
manager was blasting a tired clerk for entering the wrong key on the cash
register. Jesus took abuse from the authorities,
too. ‘Let me not lose sight of You’….It
must be a prayer God loves to answer because all days, everywhere I looked, in
everyone I met and everything I saw, there He was!
This year I’ve remembered specific
God sightings, past and present. Today
He told me, “There is nothing you can
see, nothing you can hear or touch, where I’m not.”
Tonight,
after the boob-tube is silenced and the house is quiet get out your Sword and
ask God to lead you into a new level of understanding, and read David’s word in
Psalm 139 and ask, “Search me, O God,
and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any
‘hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way” (vs. 23-24).
“Christmas is
the White-hot moment when Eternity melted into Time.” Christ in the Carols
by Christopher and Melody Lane
Blessings,
Gramps
Enlarge my vision now and on the coming days.
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