Tag: faith

What will You do After?

As all of you know I go places that most people don’t. I told them at Bible Study when we were asked what was our purpose, that I was their conscience. There was an audible and collective gasp in the room and then total silence for about five seconds. Now those of you who have ever had to give a speech or have been interviewed know that second can and do seem like minutes. So with that being said, here goes today’s food for thought. America was built on Christian values. The very core of our existence is on Christian Values. Sure there have been many who have tried to squash those values because they either didn’t understand, didn’t want to understand or refused to understand there is a greater Creator. We were not just zapped into being. Madeline O’Hare comes to mind. For those of you too young to remember go look her up. There are others, but I will let that dog lie for the moment. On every side, Christians since the beginning of the Lord’s Church have been persecuted, maligned, put down and even at times killed. ( See the Middle East). And yet when tragedy strikes people come out in droves with their hidden faith. Take 9/11. Now, we are in yet another event. That being so different, that churches have chosen to not assembly (well with the exception of a few). in order to keep their faithful safe. I respect that, I understand it.But, I have an observation. It is this, throughout the Bible, God’s people have been tested. As they were tested their faith grew stronger, Remember the furnace of fire, the Lion’s Den just to name a few. We are now in that arena. We are being tested. It is so easy to say we have faith when the ship is sitting on a calm sea. It is to easy to say that we trust in our Creator when the sun is shinning and the sea is like glass. It is so easy to say we have faith when the Captain is steering the sea and not sleeping. However….. When there are storms and the ship is broken apart and we are set adrift each to his own devices, my question is this how much faith do we have? Do we really believe that our Captain will carry us to safety and if we do, once on that dry shore do we continue to have a strong faith or do we say, “Thanks” and move on in our life without putting our ship back together in order to go out and fish again. Attending worship is like that ship that is now broken apart. We no longer go to a place to worship, we watch it on live Facebook. How comfortable will we be when the doors are opened again? Will we make the effort to get dressed to get in our cars and make that drive to meet with those of like minds? Or will we say, I can watch it here, I will go next week. See where I am going with this. See how soon we forget that we have strength in numbers. That we need that physical closeness with each other in order to grow. I have thought about this often, thought about how much I miss gathering with like minds. How much I starve for that. I cannot wait to be with them. To sing with them, to read scripture with them to study with them. We are like sheep that have been scattered. Separately we are vulnerable to the wolves. I guess what I am asking is that each of you examine yourself and ask yourself, what will I do when the doors are once again opened. Yes, it is just a building, but it is a place where we come together in strength. #faith, #God,#prayer, #strengthinnumbers

Broken Pieces

“I was at the grocery store this morning and heard a loud crash and something shattering. Being nosy, I walked towards the sound and saw some people whispering and looking back to the end of the next aisle. When I walked down that aisle, I saw an older lady had hit a shelf containing dishes with her cart and many had fallen to the ground and broke. She was kneeling on the floor embarrassed, frantically picking up the shattered pieces, while her husband was peeling off the bar code from each broken dish saying, “Now we will have to pay for all this!”
I felt so bad for her, and everyone was just standing there staring at her!! I went and knelt beside her and told her not to worry and started helping her pick up the broken pieces. After about a minute, the store manager came and knelt beside us and said, “Leave it, we will clean this up. Let’s get your information so you can go to the hospital and have that cut on your hand looked at.”
The lady, totally embarrassed said, “I need to pay for all this first.” The manager smiled, helped her to her feet and said, “No ma’am, we have insurance for this, you do not have to pay anything!”
I have read this story many times and it never fails to send its message to me.
We are all broken. And yet, we pay no price for our repairs. That price has already been paid. We just have to accept the check and take the action of putting it in the bank. We will never be able to repay the bill. However, we can invest in the account. No matter our age, educational level, or experience or lack thereof, we can and must invest in the account, because we are no longer broken.