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This evening while we were in Bible Study there was a drama developing in our house. I was busy copying and pasting the study and not really paying attention to my granddaughter (Marie) as i should. I could see her and she was playing so I kept right on going with the study.
With abou 15 minutes left in the process of the study my granddaughter began screaming at the top of her lungs. I did not know what the problem was and tried to comfort her and continue with the study.

She continued screaming so i decided to pick her up and let her watch me finish. What i discovered was a foreign object. Earlier in the evening I had given her an empty can of Pringles to play with. She had stuck her foot in it and her leg had slipped all the way down the can. I couldn’t see it because her dress had it covered up. While this was going on my wife was in the back bedroom offering advice which i could not hear and the house became more of a zoo.
I removed the can and set her down. She raised her hands for her toy and i gave it to her. All this time tho i had continued to copy and paste as i could.

About 5 min later Marie starts screaming again. I begin praying Lord just let me get thru this study but she gets louder. So, I look and there isn’t a cna on her leg so i give in and pick her up. What i missed was her other leg. She had put her other foot in the can all the way up her leg.

After removing the can, it promptly went into the trash never to be used as a toy again. (By the way, Pringles cans in the future will not be used as toys either!)

I was telling this story in chat and someone mentioned that i should post this on the blog but not just for the humor slthough it is funny. There are at least two principles i think can be gained from this story.

The first principle is God knows our every need even when we do not know it ourselves. Romans 8:26 shows how the Spirit intecedes even when we don’t know what we need intercession for.

The Second priniciple I see in this story is not just a need but the promise of God to meet the need. Phillipians 4:19.

My granddaughters need was to have the pringles can removed from her leg. My need was to take care of her and complete the Bible Study. Obviously, without picking her up i would not have known the problem. God knows and meets the need because the Spirit intercedes for us.

Some exit lines can be quite funny. One seen today is

Dont like the way the cookie crumbles? Try the Bread of Life!

Most of my days and nights, follow a routine, there is not much that changes from day to day, that makes my times distinct. I am the kind of person, who is a creature of habit. I go to a favorite restaurant, and I do not have to order, they see me, and know what I am there for. I am pretty predictable. Some people would think that I live a boring life, but I like my life just fine, and most things that disturb the routine, are considered interruptions to me.

Life is funny though, sometimes the routines and ruts and habits you are used to, cause the interruptions in the routines. Case in point: I am a procrastinator. Evidence? It is the evening of April 14th, income taxes must be filed April 15th (well a few days grace this year) and I haven’t even begun to gather the information I will need, only now am I thinking about it. Want more evidence? I was tasked with the responsibility of getting Worthychat member’s profiles uploaded to the server, I failed miserably. Mind you, I volunteered for the assignment. Now, I want to tell you about more procrastination, and how these things came together to interrupt my routine.

I used to drive a Chevy van. One day, it would not start, so, I had it towed to my home. It was only a starter issue, an easy, inexpensive fix, but I did not get to it right away. The car sat for too long, so I had to replace the battery when I did get around to fixing it. Procrastination is costly, that means that it is poor stewardship, and therefore, not of God. I confess the sin of procrastination, but I apparently have not repented of it, as you will see. When I finally did get the car started again, I put in into drive, but it did not feel right, as though the transmission might be low on fluid, so of course, I immediately said: “It will wait to another day”. You know, I have a postcard, which is my membership application to Procrastinators Anonymous. It has a 2 cent stamp on it, which was the proper postage at the time it was filled out.

Anyway, time moves on, as all procrastinators know. The registration became due on the van, but I did not send it in. I needed to get the vehicle smog checked, to complete the registration process, but I put it off, since the car was not ready to be driven. Eventually, the registration became past due, so, it would cost me a little more. Time moves on.

My family is planning to uproot and move to another part of the state. We have been planning this, for over a year. At the time we made this decision, real estate prices were climbing rapidly. The type of house we wanted to buy at that time, was about $330,000. Those houses today, are about $430,000. Now, while that procrastination would seem to have cost us $100,000, the house we are living in, is worth more, and it has gained even more value, so in this rare case, procrastination has gained us money. However, real estate prices have leveled out and are turning downward as I type this, so, I am possibly going to lose money from now on, due to procrastination. I am not here to talk about the house though, or even procrastination. I just take a long time getting to a point, I even procrastinate about that, please bear with me a while longer.

Back to the Van. I realized, that I should get it running and sell it, or start driving it again, and I need to have it moveable, so that the house will show well when we put it on the market. It has sat so long again, that it needs yet another battery. I was going to replace the battery, and begin that project finally, but when I attempted to open the hood to access the battery, I found that the van had sat there so long, that the hood latch has rusted shut, and now, cannot be opened. Oh well, it will wait to until another day.

Time passes. One day, a white paper appeared on the windshield. The paper was a citation from the city. In my city, there is a regulation, which forbids you to store an inoperable vehicle on your own property, unless it is in a garage, or behind a 6 foot high fence. This van was in the driveway. What made this vehicle inoperable, from the city’s perspective, was the fact that it lacked current stickers on the license plate. This cannot be seen from the street, so the police had to have come onto my property to look and see that the stickers were out of date. See them they did, hence the ticket. The ticket has a $60 fine associated with it, and a requirement that the vehicle had to registered or removed within 10 days. Well, I had things to do during those ten days, so I did not move or register it, difficult anyway if it does not operate. Time passed, 20 days to be exact, and the police towed it away. Procrastination is a disease!

Am I done yet? No, I am sorry, but this was all just to set the real story up, and believe it or not, I left a lot out already. Now, I went down to the storage yard, where the van had been impounded, to get it back out, as I did not want to incur more storage fees, about $25 a day. There, I was informed, that I would have to get a property release from the police department. I went to the police department, to get the release, but they said since it was impounded for not being registered, I would have to register it, before they would release it. This presented a problem, because I could not get it registered without taking it to a pollution control station, and I could not do that unless they would release the car. Long story short on this part, I would have to let the car sit there day after day, accruing $25 for each one, until they finally decided that the money I owed was so much, that they would have to collect it, but if I paid it, that still would not get the car out, so it would still accumulate more storage fees. Obviously, the best thing to do at this point was to not pay so that they would sell the car to recover the fees, then the storage would stop. I offered to just sign the car over to them, and end it early. They were willing to do so, just as soon as they get the paperwork back from the department of Motor Vehicles, in about 6 weeks.

To me, this was unacceptable, ridiculous, and wrong. I know when I am being abused, and I do not roll over for bullies. That part where Jesus says to turn the other check, hasn’t sunk in yet. Well I investigated other ways around this, only to encounter more road blocks. I also had an engine inside the van, in the back of it, that I wanted out. I asked for my personal property, but the storage yard said I’d need a property release from the police department. I have heard this line before. I went to the police department, and did get the release for the engine. I went back to the yard to get the engine. They said “O.k. fine, how do you plan on getting the engine out of the back of the van?” I said I would use a small engine crane (a cherry picker). They said “Oh no, I cannot let you bring equipment into the yard”. I asked “why not?”, and they said that I might “hurt myself”. I am thinking that it did not occur to them that I might get hurt more, if I attempted to remove the engine without the crane, lol. It took me 10 days, to find a way to get them to let me have the van removed from the yard. O.K. I am almost to my point now.

One of the things I discovered in my researching to find a way to extricate my car, was a technical mistake the police made, a very interesting one. They used a section of our state vehicle code, as their authority to tow the car from my property. Here is the problem. That section of the code, gives the owner of the real estate (me) the right to contact the police and have them authorize the removal of a vehicle left on the property. Thing is, I never called the police, so the code does not give them any authority to tow the vehicle. There is a section they could have used, but they cited the wrong authority. Here is the fun part:

The end of this section of the code, requires that the towing company obtain the signature of the real estate owner, before they tow the vehicle. In other words, under that section, they cannot by law tow the vehicle without my permission and signature. Failing to do that, they are violating the law. So, what is the consequence of violating this law? Well, they are subject to criminal prosecution, and they owe the vehicle owner 4 times the impound fee and 4 times the towing fee. All the time the van was sitting in the impound yard, it was making money for me, not them!

I was relishing this idea, not for the money, but for the opportunity to make them pay for being abusive, and so mean that they would not even try to work with me, but gave me a road block everywhere they could, just to increase the money they could get out of me. Now, I could turn there greed against them, how fitting.

Funny thing happened to me on the way to inform them of this little snafu. Something popped into my head.

Matt 5:7
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy

Matt 6:14-15

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I was enjoying the idea that these guys would pay. It wasn’t really a revenge thing in my mind, as I said, I do not like bullies. I was seeing this as a justice, and justice is something good. Justice, is for the other guy though, while I felt unjustly treated, I was not seeking justice for myself, really. I saw their acts as unjust, and it was their punishment that I was seeking, not to cause them pain, lest you think worse of me that you should, but in my mind, this justice was to encourage them not to abuse people, I certainly did not want to see them rewarded for that.

When the word of Jesus, about mercy and such, popped into my head, a few things happened. The first was, that I submitted instantly to the idea of being merciful, I did not argue or try to justify the actions that I was intending. When I dropped my plans, I felt good. I had felt good about going for justice, but this felt better. I had missed something the past 10 days, that I usually enjoy:

Phil 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God , which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
All this money I was losing, was making me anxious, the roadblocks were frustrating me. Now that I had given up my plan, that peace that transcends understanding, returned.

I realize that as far as adversity goes, this was minor, but it was bugging me. What I was missing, was realizing the opportunity that was before me, an opportunity to do as Jesus would, and opportunity to pray for my ‘enemies’, and opportunity to allow the Lord to teach me patience, an opportunity to forgive, and an opportunity to receive another lesson about procrastination.

Don’t pass up your opportunities.

Thanks for listening.

I came to worthychat as a fluke (God may have had something else in mind). I had tried a chatroom one time before, and thought that it was crazy, I wondered how anyone could keep up. One night I had nothing better to do, and I wondered if any Christian chat rooms existed, and what were they like? I Googled for Christian chatrooms, and found Worthy. People greeting me were friendly. I do not know how I got into the topic, but I remember talking about Romans 7, how that passage represented my life and thoughts. I do not remember much about the conversation, other than the fact that a male Worthy admin, ministered to me, I had not expected that.

I came back a few times, intenting to involve myself in theological discussions, I saw myself as being a thought catalyst, one who would make people think about their own positions, I actually had an agenda of sorts, that was the role I thought was my “job”.

Things did not work out exactly like that though. People sometimes say that life is what happens, while you are making other plans. I find that often, it is God that happens to you while you are making other plans. Sometimes, God has a different plan than we envision, and we need to be open to that. I believe that if we as Christians, were more open to God’s plans, there would not be a single divorce among Christian couples.

It was not too long, before I found myself in the position of administrator at Worthy, that was not in my plans. I found that before I was an admin, and especially afterward, that many people would confide in me, with amazing honesty, especially younger believers, and I often found myself in the role of counselor, something that I never envisioned and if someone had told me before hand, I would have dismissed them as a kook. I discovered, that not only did I have some aptitude for it, but I found it extremely rewarding. I never expected that either.

Admins find themselves in the position of moderating conversation, protecting the innocent, trying to be Bible Answer man, prayer warrior, counselor, defender of the faith, evangelist, etc. When you have to do these things, you cannot make everyone happy. Speak the truth, someone will not like it. We get ridculed, attacked, blamed, and slandered. We are privy to peoples very personal issues, some are very sad and tragic, others are wonderful stories of victory, blessing, and God’s intervention.
Again, none of this was expected by me. Much of it is hard on us, we try not to let it show. One thing I can say about it, it is very different, that it looked like from the chatters point of view.

I can say without reservation, that it is one of the most rewarding things I have done. While I hate it when I handle a situation poorly and feelings are hurt, I accept that as a part of the job, and the arrows thrown at us, I accept gladly, for such is the life of a Christian. If you are not getting some kind of attack, I think you are not doing your job as a Christian.

I would not trade this for the world. Never expected that either. I pray with people, cry with people, encourage people, help people understand the mysteries of God, as best I can. Never had as much opportunity to do such things before Worthy.

The biggest thing is, that I have discovered many members of my large family in Christ here, I love you all, and am thankful for you, you minister to me, and teach me daily. You add purpose to my life, and another opportunity to serve my Lord. It doesn’t get any better than this in this life, thank you all.

Easter. My absolutely favorite holiday. It wasn’t always that way, but since I gave my life to Christ, it has such depth and meaning. It’s not about the candy or eggs or bunnies. It’s about how Christ suffered to save us all. How He died a horrible death. The ppl of the time thought that was the end of Him. Even the disciples hid in fear. Yet, Jesus triumphed! He arose from that grave. He lives!

When I first started going back to church, our small congregation did an annual ‘Maundy Thursday’ Love feast.  It was the first time I felt God’s powerful touch upon me.  It then became an event I looked forward to each year.  What we did was set up a long large table.  We used just candle light, and soft music in the background and have a solemn attitude. We had bread and meat and bowls set up w/ broth, so we could dip, and think about how Judas dipped in the same bowl as Jesus at that Last Supper. We then shared communion and had a footwashing. The men lined up on one side of table and the women on the other, and we went down the line, having our foot washed, then washing the next persons. 

We read the Bible from that supper to when Jesus rose again.  Each person had been given a thing to speak on: The blood,  the body, footwashing, crucifixion, Judas, the disciples, the resurrection.  It was such a beautiful time of reflection on what the Lord went through and the unequaled gift of Him giving His life for ours, and spending time in prayer as the family of God.  It was during prayer that I felt the Lord so powerful my body had jolts run thru me.

That church closed it doors a few years ago. But the memories of those special times will remain in my heart and mind forever. I pray that each of you is touched this year by the precious blood of Jesus.

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Last year, I went to a Maundy Thurs. service at a local Lutheran church. I cried through most of it. They have the solemn lighting. Everyone is quiet. They read about Jesus’ betrayal and how he was beaten and crucified for us. We sing songs that are fitting (I love the one ‘where you there?’) Then we had a time of prayer and meditation on our lifes…we each write our sins on a peice of paper, and file up to the front of the church, and are handed a nail and hammer and we nail it to the tree. I tell you, to do just was so humbling, yet so fulfilling to know Jesus loved me enough to take those sins on His blameless self.
I’ll be headed to that service again this coming Thurs, if anyone wants to join me
Good Friday I am not sure what church I will attend, but there’s several services going on around town.
Sat. my church is having a 5pm service, and I’ll be working in the childcare. Then attending service and helping again on Sunday. I look forward to sharing with the little ones the excitement of our Lord having risen from the grave and preparing our homes in Heaven.

I want to remember and appreciate His gift daily.

Love and hugs to you all,