Lawn Chair Balloonists

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying.  The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.  ~Douglas Adamsere

Just when I think I have heard it all, along comes another wacky weird story.  Two guys decided to go lawn chair ballooning over Oregon. Now that is weird in itself but they decided they were going to fly from one guys gas station in Oregon to Montana.  The problem was they were 14,000 feet in the air when a storm blew in.  The storm popped 10 of the helium party balloons all at once but the wind took them higher and then they starting descending really fast. 

If you don't know anything about lawn chair ballooning, you take your Red Ryder BB gun (I kid you not) and shoot balloons to make the craft (if you can call it that) descend.  This was for a warmup so they could take another voyage to fly over Iraq. That flight was scrubbed because they failed to get government clearance in Iraq's airspace.  You think!  I don't know about you but last I heard there was shooting going on over in Iraq and do you think someone over there might take exception to a red, white and blue unrecognizable aircraft.  

Sometimes we humans can come up with some really dumb stuff and we actually spend valuable time at it.  Time that could be spent in better ways I think.  I often wonder what God thinks of us sometimes.  I know he loves each one of us, but sometimes I think it must be hard.  He created us in His image and then we do stupid stuff and he has to get frustrated and angry with us.  All I do know is I don't want to meet my Maker after having fallen 14,000 feet in a balloon propelled lawn chair.    

Prayer for the Day:  Father, thank you for your grace and mercy as well as your patience.  I do stupid things sometimes even when I know better and yet you still continue to love me.  I pray that the time I invest on this earth is for your glory and that I will think before I do something stupid.
    

Scripture: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people:“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Isaiah 6:8-10

Utility Transfer

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God.  If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said.  At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in your presence, Lord?  I have nothing more to say to you, but I do love to be in your presence."  ~O. Hallesby

Have you ever tried to transfer utilities?  I called this morning to do that as a part of my job and this is the scenario.  I called at 8:10am.  I’m thinking that this would be a good time because there wouldn’t be as many people trying to call that early in the morning.  Not true.  All representatives were assisting other customers. 

These days when you call a utility company you don’t get a live person to speak with.  Instead you will get the automated machine and that went something like this.  “You have reached Utility Company X”.  “Please state your account number”.  Since I didn’t have an account number there was not an option for that so I said “Don’t have one”.  This confused the automated machine because he then asked me for my social security number.  Well since I don’t currently have an account with them I didn’t see how he would be able to find my non-existent account with my social so I said “Don’t have one”.  So more confusion sets in and he asks me for my zip code.  I stated the zip code and he says, “That is an invalid zip code”.  So then the machine repeats the request for my zip code so I give it to him again.  He is unable to locate that zip code so he tells me to hold for a representative which then brings me full circle back to the “All representatives are assisting other customers.  Please hold.”

As usual, this started me thinking about God.  God is always available.  He won’t put you on hold while he helps another sinner, he won’t transfer you to another representative who is already on another line.  He won’t ask what your sin is and then say that one doesn’t exist or that one is too tough to handle.  Above all he won’t give you instructions that don’t work, and you don’t need to keep repeating your requests because he heard you the first time even if you didn’t state it clearly, he knows what is in your heart.  God is available 24/7 and he hears all of our requests.  He may not answer them in the way we think he should but then he knows what is best for us so that is a good thing.

Prayer for the Day:  Father, thank you for always being available to listen.  It always amazes me when I think of the number of people that pray to you daily and you hear every prayer.  What an amazing God you are and I am forever thankful for your presence in my life. 
    

Scripture:    if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.   I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.  2 Chronicles 7:14-16

The Termite Truck

Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today.
~Ogden Nash

 

You see a lot of interesting things on the freeway.  This morning was no exception.  I saw a termite truck this morning on my way to work.  How did I know it was a termite truck you ask?  Because it had termite antenna.  Yes, you heard me right.  The truck was bright yellow and the antennas were black and red and were attached to the roof of the truck. 

This started me thinking about termites.  They can be very destructive.  They will come out of the ground and into your home and eat the foundation that holds the structure together. The thing is most of the time you won’t even realize they are there and then the house will crumble around you.  A great example of this is if you have ever ridden out in the country and come across an abandoned barn or old house and the structure is leaning precariously to one side.  It will only be a matter of time before it collapses. 

Satan gets into our foundation the same way and is more destructive.  We make a decision to do something that we know is against God’s will and our structure leans a little.  Then we rationalize a sin and it leans a little more.  Then one day we sin again and the whole thing comes crashing down.  The problem with Satan is when he invades our structure, it is not just our home that we lose.  It is our salvation.

 Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I am guilty of allowing Satan to invade my life.  I want to live a life devoted to You.  When Satan tempts me I pray that you will remind me of what is at stake so that I don't make the wrong choice.  Help me to always choose You. 
    

Scripture:    “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:40-42

Tree of Life

The dying Jesus is the evidence of God's anger toward sin; but the living Jesus is the proof of God's love and forgiveness.  ~Lorenz Eifert

When you suffer on this earth the place where suffering started is at the Tree of Life.  How ironic is that. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life they chose a path that led to decay and destruction.  Up to that point they lived in paradise.  Can you imagine a place where you didn't worry about getting cold or hot because God made the temperature perfect? They didn't need stores because they didn't need clothes and food was everywhere around them so they didn't need Tom Thumb or Walmart.  Medicine wasn't a requirement because you never got sick.  They actually were able to walk with God in the garden.  

Sadly, at the moment that they ate the fruit, their hearts were corrupted and every human after that except Jesus had or has a diseased heart.  Throughout history we have continued to rebel against God and the saddest part is we cannot blame God for our situation but that is often what happens.  We blame God for anything bad that happens to us but praise him for the good.  

Trouble will come to every one of us in this life and if it hasn't for you yet, it is just a matter of time.  I don't say that to discourage you but there is no insulation from the troubles of life in our fallen world.  The best thing we can do in this life is build our relationship with God because He is the answer when trouble comes.  The only thing God ever wanted from us was obedience and we lost paradise because of disobedience.  

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I praise you for creating me.  I know that trouble will come to me at various times in my life.  You are not to blame.  Sometimes the trouble is caused by me and my disobedience and other times someone else is disobedient and someone will pay the consequence.  Thank you Father for loving me enough to create a way out for anyone who chooses You.     

Scripture:    To the woman he said,"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. ”To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  Genesis 3:16-18

Sorry or Not

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury.  ~E.H. Chapin

I was listening to a song this morning by Tenth Avenue North.  The song is about forgiveness.  This is one of the most difficult things for me to do in my life.  Forgiving someone who has hurt me.  There are times when I can’t even comprehend how someone can forgive another person for murdering one of their family members or a drunk driver killing a person's child.   

It takes an amazing heart to do that kind of forgiveness and I often think that my heart is just not big enough.  If it came down to me losing a family member due to someone being careless or just not caring for human life, that is a whole lot of forgiveness.  

The thing is we are called to forgive even if the other person is sorry or not and 70 times 7 times.  Do you realize that would be 490 times?  That is alot of forgiving.  This made me think about God and how he must have felt knowing that he had control over whether his only Son would die on the cross or not, and then choosing to allow it to happen for the rest of us on this earth who don’t really deserve it.   God gave us a perfect example of what forgiveness means.   

The heart is an amazing muscle.  It is the center of emotion whereas our head is the center of our intellect.  The problem is our head tells us to seek revenge and it is compounded by the fact that our heart is filled with emotion.  I pray daily that I can get them both on the same page. I am still working on it. 

  

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I am so guilty of not forgiving others.  How can I serve you with reverence if I am not able to forgive those you love?  It is not possible to praise and worship you wholeheartedly if I am unforgiving.  Please Father, help me to see past the anger and hurt and love others as You love me.  There is no greater love than Yours.     

Scripture:  If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.  I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.  Psalm 130:3-5

Character

A good character is the best tombstone.  Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered.  Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.  ~Charles H. Spurgeon

What does our character say about us?  When you think about it, even when we don't say a word we are speaking to others through our character.  Some qualities of character include honesty, courage and integrity.  It means living life knowing God is watching and can see it all.  He knows the motive behind whatever we do.  When I stop and think of all the things I've done in my life that lacked honesty or integrity it makes me sad and ashamed.  For so long in my life I lived like God couldn't see what I was doing.  

It takes concious effort on our part to remember that God does see it all and knows it all.  I honestly praise God for allowing me to get cancer because it turned my life around.  It made me think before I act and it made me see Him clearly for the first time in my life.  It was what I consider my "saving grace".  I pray that one day when I die, God's name will be carved on many hearts because my character reflected Him.    

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, there are still times when my character needs work.  I need your help to keep me going in the right direction.  Thank you for being the loving Father that you are and for showing me grace and mercy when I didn't deserve it.  Sometimes you build my character by the challenges of this life.  Thank you for loving me enough to teach me through the trials.  

Scripture:  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we  also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.   And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  Romans 5:1-5

Advertisment

Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to advertise it.  ~Will Rogers

  

I am not sure what we did before commercials came along.  I have figured out that I have lots of problems if I believe what the advertisements tell me.  Also, if I believe what the advertisements tell me, they have a cure for all of my issues.  I can buy a car cheap, furniture with no interest for a year, vitamins that will cure my every ill, makeup that can remove wrinkles and make me look 20 years younger.  I can save money by spending more, if I use my reward card I can buy more for less. If my hair turns gray I can solve it by coloring it.  According to the advertisements, I can grow stronger, live longer, save energy, and insure everything from my home to my car and even my pet.  

The thing is if I really think about it I don't need any of the stuff that advertises it will fix any problem I have in my life.  I only need to put my faith in one thing and that is God.  He is always there, loves me as I am and can provide the only thing I really need, salvation. 

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I am guilty of buying into many of the things that are advertised.  Please help me to always turn to you for provision. Remind me daily of the many things I have to be thankful for and keep me from buying into the worldly things that are not important.  You give me salvation and that is priceless.      

Scripture:  Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Philippians 1:18-20