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Posted on 01/01/2021 6:43:29 AM PST by JustAmy
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Hope work isn’t too hard and the temps keep going up! Nite!
Bible in a Year:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.
According to Chinese legend, when Sai Weng lost one of his prized horses, his neighbor expressed sorrow for his loss. But Sai Weng was unconcerned. He said, “Who knows if it may be a good thing for me?” Surprisingly, the lost horse returned home with another horse. As the neighbor congratulated him, Sai Weng said, “Who knows if it may be a bad thing for me?” As it turned out, his son broke his leg when he rode on the new horse. This seemed like a misfortune, until the army arrived at the village to recruit all able-bodied men to fight in the war. Because of the son’s injury, he wasn’t recruited, which ultimately could have spared him from death.
This is the story behind the Chinese proverb which teaches that a difficulty can be a blessing in disguise and vice versa. This ancient wisdom has a close parallel in Ecclesiastes 6:12, where the author observes: “Who knows what is good for a person in life?” Indeed, none of us know what the future holds. An adversity might have positive benefits, and prosperity might have ill effects.
Each day offers new opportunities, joys, struggles, and suffering. As God’s beloved children, we can rest in His sovereignty and trust Him through the good and bad times alike. God has “made the one as well as the other” (7:14). He’s with us in all the events in our lives and promises His loving care.
Reflect & Pray
Can you think of an example where a misfortune turned out to be a blessing? How can you keep your focus on God in good times as well as in bad times?
Sovereign God, thank You for ordering my life. Help me to praise You in both good and bad times, believing that You work all things for the ultimate good of those who love You.
Hope you had a good day!
Back from work and planning on being as lazy as possible.
🙃
My sister has her twin grandsons staying with her this week. Unfortunately, that means that she is “under quarantine” because the crazy ex-D-I-L has decreed that nobody can visit or leave the house while the kids are there. (she also won’t let my sister give them meat or cut their hair).
And so, that means I can’t visit her when I walk with Penny, take her out to eat, or share a meal with her and watch JEOPARDY together. (Our little harmless Senior-Citizen Pleasures!)
To alleviate my ire over how this fruitcake can use COVID to manipulate my sister and everyone connected with her, I decided to go out myself and have some sushi.
First I went South to my favorite sushi place. It was a madhouse with a long wait. So I decided to go to my favorite steak place in the next town.
They had a 40 minute wait and were crowded to capacity.
So then, I went to the British Tavern. Same thing.
At that point I got on the Interstate and drove North almost to Boston to my SECOND-Favorite sushi place. 30 minute wait...Buh Bye.
I didn’t even stop at my favorite Mexican place because every spot in the parking lot was jammed, and people were parking in the bank parking lot next door.
I sped by a Pub across the street from my house...same story.
So I came home, opened a can of lentil soup, put some feta cheese on it, and grabbed a hunk of bread, and some ice water from the fridge.
It tasted good, but by that point I was really hungry and put 18 MILES on my car.
It proves one thing:
MASSACHUSETTS IS SICK OF THE STINKIN’ LOCKDOWN!!!!
Sorry about the rant.
I loved your story! Not a rant, a great story of how America is awakening from being obedient to tyrants. I feel better knowing places are so busy and some things are normalizing.
Our stores seem busy enough. I don’t shop much since we moved, as we live too far from big cities. I must have saved a lot of money since moving in 2018. I used to enjoy shopping, but we were within 15 minutes of town then. Now it’s 30-40 minutes, so no more driving in just for browsing.
We also don’t need anything but groceries. I feel like a squirrel keeping the supply of nuts at a good level. 🐿
Even Massachusetts is getting awakened from being “woke”.
Bible in a Year:
Mind your own business and work with your hands.
Years ago, my son Josh and I were making our way up a mountain trail when we spied a cloud of dust rising in the air. We crept forward and discovered a badger busy making a den in a dirt bank. He had his head and shoulders in the hole and was vigorously digging with his front paws and kicking the dirt out of the hole with his hind feet. He was so invested in his work he didn’t hear us.
I couldn’t resist and prodded him from behind with a long stick lying nearby. I didn’t hurt the badger, but he leaped straight up in the air and turned toward us. Josh and I set new world records for the hundred-yard dash.
I learned something from my brashness: Sometimes it’s best not to poke around in other people’s business. That’s especially true in relationships with fellow believers in Jesus. The apostle Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). We’re to pray for others and seek by God’s grace to share the Scriptures, and occasionally we may be called to offer a gentle word of correction. But learning to live a quiet life and not meddling into others’ lives is important. It becomes an example to those who are now outside God’s family (v. 12). Our calling is to “love each other” (v. 9).
Reflect & Pray
What happens when you meddle in other people’s business? What’s the first thing you should do instead for others?
God, teach me to know what it means to love others better.
As I read your story, I was thinking the same thing. Mass. is finally in a state of celebration. It’s a good thing for the people there...but sux when you can’t get your sushi!
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Our RINO Governor is still acting like a little caesar, but the rest of us are starting to feel a little 1776-y.
Good for you! MA is known for their rebellions! :)
Back-in-the-Day, Yeah.
Happy Caturday-Dogurday!
Nice here today, around 40. The snow is hanging in there, still pretty deep in places.
Bible in a Year:
I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures. . . . So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition.
A family’s prayer time ended with a surprising announcement one morning. As soon as Dad said, “Amen,” five-year-old Kaitlyn proclaimed, “And I prayed for Logan, because he had his eyes open during prayer.”
I’m pretty sure praying for your ten-year-old brother’s prayer protocol isn’t what Scripture has in mind when it calls us to intercessory prayer, but at least Kaitlyn realized that we can pray for others.
Bible teacher Oswald Chambers emphasized the importance of praying for someone else. He said that “intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and perspective.” It’s praying for others in light of what we know about God and His love for us.
We find a great example of intercessory prayer in Daniel 9. The prophet understood God’s troubling promise that the Jews would have seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11–12). Realizing that those years were nearing their completion, Daniel went into prayer mode. He referenced God’s commands (Daniel 9:4–6), humbled himself (v. 8), honored His character (v. 9), confessed sin (v. 15), and depended on His mercy as he prayed for His people (v. 18). And he got an immediate answer from God (v. 21).
Not all prayer ends with such a dramatic response, but be encouraged that we can go to God on behalf of others with an attitude of trust and dependence on Him.
Reflect & Pray
When you pray for others, how are you seeking the mind of God? How do you seek His perspective?
Dear heavenly Father, help me to know You better so that when I pray for others, I can filter my requests through my knowledge of Your will.
Bible in a Year:
But these are written that you may believe.
“The Lord is my high tower . . . . We left the camp singing.” On September 7, 1943, Etty Hillesum wrote those words on a postcard and threw it from a train. Those were the final recorded words we would hear from her. On November 30, 1943, she was murdered at Auschwitz. Later, Hillesum’s diaries of her experiences in a concentration camp were translated and published. They chronicled her perspectives on the horrors of Nazi occupation along with the beauty of God’s world. Her diaries have been translated into sixty-seven languages—a gift to all who would read and believe the good as well as the bad.
The apostle John didn’t sidestep the harsh realities of Jesus’ life on earth; he wrote of both the good Jesus did and the challenges He faced. The final words from his gospel give insight into the purpose behind the book that bears his name. Jesus performed “many other signs . . . which are not recorded” (20:30) by John. But these, he says, were “written that you may believe” (v. 31). John’s “diary” ends on the note of triumph: “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” The gift of those gospel words allows us the opportunity to believe and “have life in his name.”
The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are diary accounts of God’s love for us. They’re words to read and believe and share, for they lead us to life. They lead us to Christ.
Reflect & Pray
How might it change the way you read the Gospels if you thought of them as diaries? How are you being led to the heart of Christ through them?
Gracious God, thank You for the gift of the Scriptures, written down by faithful hands so that I might believe and have life.
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