Prayer help

Most of the blogs coming out of this dreamer's mind are from things going through my head.  Today at 1:00 EST will be an important meeting with one of the largest retailer's buyer so we can have our Attic Trac product placed in over 2500 stores.

1. Please pray that the Lord will find favor with us to present ourselves in a  forthright way
2. Please pray for His guidance in our businesses
3. Pray for the buyer for her open heart and decision 
4. Please pray for success in receiving orders from retailers so the Lord can be given the credit..

We believe that there is so much power in prayer an appreciate your petition to the Lord today.

Stay tuned as we'll tell of His favor tomorrow.

Giving a Second Chance

Acts 15: 36-40  Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the believers in every town where we preached the word of the Lord, and let us find out how they are getting along.”  Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul did not think it was right to take him, because he had not stayed with them to the end of their mission, but had turned back and left them in Pamphylia. There was a sharp argument, and they separated: Barnabas took Mark and sailed off for Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the care of the Lord's grace.

I suspect the conversation went something like this:

“Barnabas, I refuse to give Mark another chance.  When the going got rough he ran home to his mother.”

“But he was young and not aware of all the dangers.  He has matured now and I think he would help us a lot on the second journey.”

“I do not want to take the chance that when we need him the most, he runs out on us again.  My answer is a definite, NO.”

“But Paul, we wouldn’t even be here today if not for second chances.  Moses was a murderer and God gave him a second chance.  Jonah was a bigot and God used him.  David was a liar, murderer, adulterer, and had a problem with anger.  They all got second chances.  Remember what He did with them?  And, look at you.  When you were out getting Christians killed and  had the conversion with the Lord on the road to Damascus, I was the one that said you should be given a second chance because you had changed.”

“Mark may be related to you, but I can not trust him when the going gets rough.”

There are several theories how this “sharp” argument may have taken place, but I believe there is a parallel to our lives today.  Personally, I have a hard time understanding why Paul did not allow John Mark to come along with him and Barnabas.  Yet in hindsight, it was the best thing to happen for the cause of Christ.

But that is not the end of the story.

Paul speaks of Barnabas in the book of Colossians with affection and desires that Mark should come to him, having found him valuable in the ministry. Paul realized he had made a mistake and later reconciles with Mark while in prison.

What about us?

When we have a disagreement with someone, don’t we often reject the person and never speak to them again?  Don’t we sometimes build up resentment toward them and everything they stand for in life? 

Even when there is a sharp disagreement, we do not have to speak harshly about the other person.  It’s okay to agree to disagree and end the conversation.  The trouble is, I have seen people justify their verbal abuse of another person by using this very scripture.

Maybe we need to examine ourselves and see who in our lives needs to be given a second chance, because the Bible shows us that God is the God of second chances.  Giving someone a second chance begins with our own attitude of ourselves and our relationship with the Lord.

So What's the Fuss?

Luke 10: 38-42  “As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home.  She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said.  But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand."  The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing.  One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it - it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

Now that I have had a taste of spring here in Tennessee, my mind recalls the events of the past.  Anyone who knows me knows of my desire to have fun.  Growing up in the country, it was my responsibility to hoe the garden to get rid of the weeds every spring.  Hoeing crops in a ¾ acre garden was an “after school” event that I never thought could be fun.  But I would make the best of it as I headed down to the garden with my little transistor radio tuned to my favorite rock and roll station.

As I began working with the sharp hoe, it always seemed that the first row I completed was my best weeded row in the whole garden. 

Soon I would lose interest in what I was doing and would get too close to the tender shoots of corn, cutting them down with the weeds.  I’d work a while longer then take a water break.  Walking back to the house, I’d find more seed and go back down to the garden to replace the cut stalks with new kernels.  No big deal; that should take care of it.

Later, when Dad came down to the garden to inspect the work, he knew that I had not been careful and paid attention to my task.  I figured he knew exactly how many stalks there should be in each row because he was quick to inform me in no uncertain terms exactly how many were missing.

In today’s verse, it is Mary I can relate to best.  My mind would think, “OK, this Jesus is really interesting, and Martha seems to have the kitchen under control.  I’ll just stay here and listen to Him until Martha calls us to the table.”

 I figure that Martha was a dedicated servant and host.  As she was in the kitchen, she began stewing because Mary was no help in preparing the meal.  Martha continued in her detailed preparations to the point that it consumed her and she became angry at her sister for not pitching in to help.

Let’s think how Martha might have sounded as she wanted Jesus to push Mary to get to work in the kitchen.  Maybe there was a little whine in her voice as she asked Jesus the question.  Then to her surprise Jesus told her that she worries too much over things that are just not that important in the long run.

To everyone’s amazement, Jesus did not scold Mary for spending time with Him and not helping out in the kitchen but instead Jesus said it was Martha who needed to get her priorities in place.  In other words, she was missing the big picture.

I like the big picture approach but I still had to replant the corn seeds for the ones I had cut off.  But maybe if we are so into the details we will miss the blessings God has coming our way.   But worry is a hard master to overcome.  I'm still working on that one.  How about you?

Under The Sun

We each have our share of bad luck or misfortune. None of us know when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap.

Yet I see all this as wisdom and it impressed me.” Solomon uses the term “ under the sun” twenty-eight times in his book of Ecclesiastes. I wonder how many times he would have used it if he had lived in Alaska during the summer. 

On a trip to Alaska, the plaguing question was “When do these people sleep?”  It does not get dark within the span of a 24-hour day, which really throws off the sleep habits of visitors. As we were busy doing the tourist thing, we thought it might be time to get a bite to eat. The sun looked like it was about 4:30 in the afternoon, so I asked Lynnette what time it was, and to our astonishment it was after 9:30 in the evening,

I think Solomon’s point about being “under the sun” was not about the daylight of each day, but was to teach us about the events and situations that occur around us every day in which we have no control. While living in Florida the first warning signs that a hurricane was heading directly through Ocala, had me getting up at 5:00 a.m. and moving everything inside and tying down everything else that could possibly move. I am sure many other people throughout the state prepared the same way but as the time approached and the storm veered off to the east there was a sigh and prayer of relief from everyone in our area. When I heard of the destruction and death that took place within the impact area east of us, my mind went to today’s verse.

Even with all the preparations, no one knows when we might fall victim to a disaster. On the television I listened to a man in the hospital crying because he went to move his elderly parents from their home but the home was blown 150 feet in the air by the hurricane winds. His parents died in the storm and he kept crying, “Why couldn’t I have gotten there earlier and saved them?”

It does not matter who we are or how good we might be, we all encounter problems. Does the Lord love us any less? Did we do something wrong for God to show his wrath on us? Was it something our family did? I emphatically say, "NO".

Every day we encounter events that may drive us to feel that God is out to get us. Yet, as we continue to study the Bible, we see that the Lord will never give us more that we can handle.

Try reading the book of Job this week. Then you can see who the author of all disasters is and who the Comforter is. Maybe our wisdom from hurricanes is to thank the Creator of this world for His love for us.

Ecclesiastes 9: 11-13 “Here is something else I have learned under the sun: The fastest runners and the greatest heroes don’t always win races and battles. Wisdom, intelligence, and skill don’t always make you healthy, rich or popular

Understanding Community

As new experiences go, this one was refreshing. Upon accepting an invitation to a mountain party, thoughts of what I would experience brought on images of everything from the Elvis mountain movie “Kissin’ Cousins”, to the “Dog Patch” comic strip characters, and to unknown events that might lie ahead.

                                                                                                  

The party was only ten miles out of town, but with the winding roads and traveling at 20-30 miles per hour, it took us forever to get there. Traveling around one twisted turn to the next, we saw this little building that was four feet wide and about three feet deep. There was a door in the side and a window in the front. The wood had grayed with age and an old sign hung above the window. It read, “Welcome to Mudhole, TN Community Center”.

Lynnette and I laughed about this building and questioned what was in store for the rest of the evening. Driving down this gravel road, we turned into the driveway of our friends who hosted the party. The end of the driveway opened into a beautiful valley with an attractive home. To our amazement there were cars everywhere.

Talking to our host, he told us that he has this party every year around his birthday and the party lasts for three days and nights. We found such a peacefulness in the air as we met a lot of new people from the mountain area. Everyone kept bringing in great homemade food as we sat around a big bonfire listening to personal life stories being told.

Just as you might imagine there was music in the air (Beatles) as the host sat down and talked about their little community. He said, “We have a great community here. There are about 75 families that live on this mountain and we watch out for each other. If we dialed 911 for an emergency, it would take no less than a half hour for someone to arrive. Therefore the telephone company has set up a special line so that if there is an emergency, we dial one number and it rings into all the homes in the area. Within three minutes of the call, five to ten cars will be in the driveway of the person needing help.

Heaven forbid that someone is being hurt by someone else because we take care of our friends.” Funny, but I realized what he meant. They really understood the value of community. Many people today will live their entire lives and never experience community like this. We have acquaintances we run into occasionally, people we only smile at in church,  or a group of soccer parents you see once or twice a week for an hour.  But, do we really build lasting relationships with those near to us?

Maybe by taking the first step and getting into a small group of people doing life together we can take the dynamics of a church and become small communities of believers that watch out for each other. Jesus spent most of His ministerial relationship with just twelve people, and they have changed the world forever. Isn’t time we build a community of believers?

Can you tell I love being part of a small group?

Clearing the Trail

Have you ever been a part of the Boy or Girl Scouts? If so, you were given the opportunity to learn many of life's lessons from Scouting. Through that experience 51 years ago, I was involved with my Scout Troop in establishing a national hiking trail that is still being used today. Our farm was only nine miles from the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant, our eighteenth President. He attended school as a young man in a town 30 miles away, so our Troop set a goal to blaze the trail following the path he walked daily for the Dan Beard Scouting Council in Ohio. Our job was to mark the trail with permanent identification markers. We took big rocks and made milestones for everyone to see. We made metal markers and placed them on trees for others to follow. It was a lot of fun.

Then we came to the dense brush where we had to use machetes and cut through five-foot high weeds and briers. We were no longer having fun as the briars cut though our skin and mosquitoes buzzed around our heads. About eighteen miles into the trail, we saw a farmhouse about a quarter of a mile away. To the disapproval of our Scoutmaster, we began running across the field toward the farmhouse in hopes of filling our canteens.

We quickly found out why our leader did not want us going in that direction. Off to our right was a huge bull, watching our every move. As the Scoutmaster yelled for us to stop, the bull began moving closer. Looking around, we saw a fence about fifty feet to our left. We first started walking slowly toward the fence, but with the bull now in full stride, we started running for the fence, all the while yelling at the top of our lungs. Thankfully, we all outran the bull.

During the rest of the trail blazing, we obeyed every order of our Scoutmaster. We set every marker that was needed for generations of hikers to follow. In Luke 3: 3-4, we see John the Baptist also blazing a trail. A trail that led to Jesus. He called for people to repent and reminded them that the Lord was near. His message was clear and to the point. Unlike my scouting friends and me, John never left the trail. Even when confronted by adversaries, he boldly preached the message that God had prepared in his heart.

Just as the US Grant Trail is still in use today because a bunch of kids marked the way, the message of Jesus continues to heal and enlighten over 2000 years later because, in part, of the trail that John blazed.

What about you? Are you blazing any trails with your life that reflects Christ's love? Will it affect generations to come? All you have to do is make yourself available. And watch out for briars.