Friday, October 3, 2014

When a Catharsis is a Miracle in the Making

"The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him" (Nahum 1:7).

 Hey Gang, Do you know there are times when a potential disaster is really a miracle in disguise?    Well, let me share an experience that took place right here in the basement of my house that explains what I mean.   We had been in Chicago for two days and upon returning there were normal chores that had to be done; one of the chores consisted of filling the water jars in the basement.

 No big deal!  I had connected a hose to the inlet off the well which allowed me to fill the jugs.  Why do I do that?  So that we have drinking, coffee and cooking water that by passes the water softener.  And why by-pass the water softener? To eliminate the salt from our diet.

 I had completed this chore hundreds of times, since moving into this house ten years before, but this time was very, very different!   I turned the valve on and was immediately soaked from head to toe.  Within moments I was kneeling in two inches of water and the three and a half horse-power pump in the well was doing a magnificent job of soaking everything within ten feet.  Fortunately, I did not run for help but kept very calm and carefully forced the faucet cover back into the faucet opening and applied all the pressure my body had in it. 

 And at the same moment yelled at the top of my lungs “Jean” quick.  A clamp solved the immediate problem.  Jean then asked a question that has become fairly common around our house when a crisis hits the fan, “Shall I call Gary?” 

 Now, Gary is a neighbor, but he is far more than a neighbor – he is a Godly-servant who continually bails me out.  She called and learned Gary was on his way out of town. But, being the servant he is, he turned his truck around and sped home to pick up his tool box, water vacuum and needed items to repair my crisis.  Within the hour Gary had come and the faucet was replaced and the water was cleaned up!

 Now for the miracle! As I mentioned, we had just arrived home from Chicago. If the faucet would have broken while we were gone, we would have arrived home to three foot of water in the basement.  Can you get a mental image of what the Christmas displays in our basement would have looked like under water?  Hey, pass the snorkel!

 The point of the story, “God makes all things work to His good – if we are locked into His power supply”. 

 Sooooo, take it from a salty eighty-one-year old, the next time it appears that you have a real live catharsis building, ask God how He is going to handle it.  And then calmly respond to His leading.  It works every time.  Keep in mind that His promise to His children is He will never leave you or forsake you.  Is that not awesome?  

 Blessings, 

 Gramps

Are You A 'Johnnyppleseed'?

Monday, September 30, 2013

"These words I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, You shall bind them as a sign on our hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead, You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

  Hey Gang:  As a child growing up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, I was blessed to be in that time period before the so called "Age of Enlightenment" covered our earth with a darkness that seems to be rotting in every area of our lives.  One of the things I vividly remember was as student in Fairview Elementary School, was the opening of the school day.

  It was the same every day for the six years I attended that school.  We began with the pledge of allegiance to our country and the raising of the flag (which means we moved it from one side of the teacher’s desk to the other each day). This was followed by the reading of the Word and then a prayer.  Every school day, five days a week, nine months of the year. 

  In the first three years of my school experience, I was truly blessed to have a grandmother-type teacher by the name of Mrs. Barnhart.   She was like a "mama hen" that watchers her chicks with a loving eye to make sure they were safely tucked away in the nest.  Each morning, after the pledge, Scripture, and prayer she would get out "Peanuts the Elephant", a kind of mascot of the class, and read a story. While reading the story, she would walk up one aisle and down the other until she had made physical contact with every child.

  Mrs. Barnhart was far more than a mere teacher, she was a "seed planter" of God's love.  There was no big deal made of this planting of the Word into the hearts of all the children who were privileged to learn under her guidance, she just did it.  Why, I believe? Because it was her way of following the Lord's command to "Go into all the world and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is the "Way, Truth and Life". 

  I wonder how many of the little ones, who passed under her watchful eyes, learned eternal lesson about God's love and respect for their country and love for the flag.  She certainly was no preacher, not even a teacher of the Word, but she was, as James said we should all be, "…a Doer of the word".  I wonder how many noses she wiped or boots that she helped put on, or how many mittens she had to search for in her thirty plus years of sharing her purpose in life - sharing of God's love.

  Soooo, the question: are we losing our young people?   I’d like to think that maybe the seeds Mrs. Barnhart planted in my heart, in those first three years of my school life, later surfaced in the founding of the Village.  I pray that my life has been one of ‘seed planting’.  So, get your hoe and spade and get about being a Johnny Appleseed with God's fabulous Word!

Blessings,

Gramps

W If Today Is the Day?

 Tuesday, September 23, 2014

"When you see these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone" (Matthew. 24:33-36).

Hey Gang:  Could it be today?  You bet your sweet bippy!  It could be right this moment! BUT, every moment He delays gives us a moment to fulfill His command to His children, "Go into all the world and share the good news that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords".  

No warning, folks.  One will be gone and the other left.  While I was still an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Agency there was an airline that made sure at least one of their pilots on board every flight was a non-believer, in the event Christ would come an collect all those whose names were recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life and take them to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. 

The disciples asked Jesus, "When will these things happen? What will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?"  (Matthew 24:3).  Notice His first response, “Be very careful that you do not buy into the things of this world and be diverted from the truth for many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another, many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”  (Matthew 24: 11-12). Hainley Version!

Jesus also gave us an iron clad formula to prevent or allow (our choice) slue foot to take us down the road to the pit: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1).  John goes on and gives us a formula for testing the spirit:  "By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God" (V.2).

During the cold war years there was a group of world guru's who got together each year to set the hands on the "Dooms Day Clock".  Man, through the advent of the nuclear age, had now found the key to annihilating life on planet earth.  It is said that we now have the power to annihilate every human being on earth many times over and, we are learning through the barbarism of Isis, Boka Haram, Hamas, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, there are those that have the will to do just that!    

Jesus said, "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.  But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into, for this reason you must be ready, for the son of Man is coming at an hour when you don't think He will (Matthew 24:42-42).

Soooo, I ask you again, could it be today?   No man knows the day or the hour, not even the Son of God, Yeshua.  Is your lamp filled with oil and your armor in place this morning?  Have you honed your defense by spending time with the Lord and in His word?   Jesus said, "Behold when I come, I come quickly” (Revelation22:12) and the door of salvation will be closed!  

Blessings,

Gramps       

Time to Wake up and Take Notice

 Friday, September 19, 2014

"I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me.  And how I may reply when I am reproved.  Then the Lord answered me and said, "Record the vision and Inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.  For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.  Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay." (Habakkuk 2:1-3)

Hey Gang:  I just celebrated my eighth decade plus one birthday.  My eyes have seen many wondrous things, both good and bad in my sojourn on this earth.  I have seen great deception leading mega multitudes down the road to the fiery furnace;  I have seen false prophets and false teachers spreading the blasphemies of Replacement Theology, Prosperity theology for believers,  there is more than one road to God and to believe is enough!  

 I have seen increases in hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, floods, wild- fires, mud slides that have taken the lives of multitudes of people.  I have seen many wars and heard many rumors of war.  And with those wars I have heard of famine and pestilence that are the brothers of war.    I have seen diseases that have no cure come out of the pit of hell, AIDS, Ebola, Parkinson's, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Crones, and a recent rebirth of Tuberculosis and Polio. (2014)

 I have seen the world preparing for the coming battles of Psalm 83, Gog Magog and Armageddon.  When I was born none of the countries listed as participants in the final battle of Armageddon were in existence.  Today they are all in place with great armies - armed with weaponry that could annihilate the world’s population many times over.  

 I have seen the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the ever-increasing flow of Olim making Aliyah back to the Land of their heritage: we were priviledged to play a tiny role in helping to make that happen.  I have seen God's mighty miraculous protective hand in interventions in four wars, where Israel was out manned and out gunned.  I have seen the eternal city of Jerusalem returned to the hands of God's chosen people.

 I have seen the fulfillment of Matthew 24:9, even as I pen this, "…then they will deliver you to tribulation from the four corners of the world and will kill you" (the Jews).  Thousands upon thousands of believers have been martyred in this year alone and that number is continuing to grow as barbarians such as ISIL, Boko Haram, Hamas, Fatah,  Al Qaeda and Hezbollah gain in strength and resolve. (2024)

 I have seen a czar rise in the bear of the North and seen the rapid coming together of the Gog Magog confederacy. Tragically, it saddens me to report the rapid decline of America as a ‘light unto the world’.

 I have seen the rapid deterioration of moral -code in our nation where anything goes that brings pleasure.  I have seen the rapid decline of the church as a force for good in our nation.  A pastor recently wrote, "How tragic that so many of our churches have placed flags of surrender to the evil one on their steeples".

 It saddens my heart when I look at the world I am going to turn over to my children, grands and great grands.   I truly believe judgment is just around the corner.  But, it is about more than judgment.  God said through Ezekiel, "I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of  many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 38:23).  He also said, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went" (Ezekiel 36:23)     

 Sooooo, my friends, if after seeing all these things come to pass that are clearly described in the Word of God, would I not be a fool not to follow the Author and Finisher of these words?  Jesus said:  "When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 23:28).   I repeat, it is time to wake up and take notice!

 Blessings,

 Gramps

Is the Following Scripture Bound on Your Forehead?

Tuesday, September 2, 2014   Gramps would have been 91 this week!

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your foreheads.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your grates" (Deuternomy. 6:5-9)

 Hey Gang:  Read it again and again and again.  Our nation is going into the dumpster (2014-2024!) because we have failed to instill Deuteronomy 6:5-9 into the hearts of our children.  Let me share a story that has been tucked away in my heart and mind for more than fifty years. 

 Amos Zook, an Amish man was helping little Amos to build a rabbit hutch. Little Amos was about to begin making a contribution to the family by raising rabbits.   His neighbor, a local businessman, stood watching from his porch and sauntered over to see what Amos and son were doing.  When He saw they were building a rabbit hutch, he said, “Hey, Amos, they sell those at the elevator in town and probably cheaper than you can build them.”  

 Amos did not hesitate in his response to the neighbor, “Well, we are in this for the long haul and the one at the elevator is probably cheaper but will fall apart and require constant attention, this one will last as long as little Amos wants to use it.  But that is not the bottom line, the reason for my helping little Amos build the hutch - it gives me undivided time with him and teaches him something he can use the rest of his life to earn a living.  It is called learning a work ethic.”

 There was a story in the Washington Post about a woman who wanted to have a house built.  She asked her friends for names of good trust-worthy contractors and one included the name of a local Amish man.  She drove to his home, he had no car or telephone, and they discussed what she wanted included in her house.

 After the discussion period was over and it was time to seal the deal, she was amazed first with the price which was less than half of the other builders, and secondly that there would be no contract or written agreement but a mere handshake to seal the deal. The most shocking thing was there would be a two-year lapse in time until he could build her house.  His work schedule was booked that far ahead.

 Soooo, I have a request to make from each of you.  Turn with me to the last verses of the Old Covenant and read these words with me "Behold I am going to send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible days of the Lord.  He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." (Malachi 4:5-6).   I ask you this morning - are we not deserving of a curse from God?

One last point, in my many years of working with children who were hurting inside, never, did I see an Amish child in the treatment system.  (Read and heed 2 Chronicles 7:14).

 Blessings,

 Gramps