Praise the Lord for this sweet summer
day. It is going to another sizzling and stunning day. I love these
long summer days. I spent two weeks in Alaska during July a few
years ago. The temperature reached into the 90s there. It was
amazing to enjoy almost 19 hours of daylight and a brief night. I love
these days of summer when we have long days of daylight with a very short
night. I heard from several friends yesterday. One of them who
lives in Oklahoma sent a letter of encouragement. She shared that the
Lord gave her the ability to fix her own plumbing all by herself using a
Youtube tutorial. I am enclosing a brief portion from her letter.
"Whatever they are saying…I believe the report of the LORD. He still heals, parts red seas, removes mountains and leaves me in AWE! I Praise Him because we are fearfully and wonderfully made! Made in His very image.
"Our God Reigns!! Over heaven and earth and all things therein! I stand amazed by His Great Love! Thank you Jesus for who you are and all you have done for us.
"Lord, I believe you passed that power to us to do 'even greater things' by the Power of the Holy Spirit residing in us!"
I talked with another friend, who is one of the faithful and sweet servants of Jesus. She was sharing about the mission program of the church they started attending. I spoke to another woman who went to college along with her daughter, and finished a degree in teaching. She is retired and lives in one of our Methodist Retirement campuses. She is 97 years old. She still drives her car. Her husband died recently. They were married for 73 years. She will be driving to Alice's retirement party. What a country! One of my friends drove by to see me yesterday. who had been in a nursing home few years ago. The Lord restored him. He is back in his own house. He shared from Psalm 104. I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
We are getting ready for Alice's retirement party. I got hold of a farm from which we are getting the pig for the party. The farmers were kind. We got a big pig. It will be all dressed out and ready for the BBQ pit. The Lord is gracious and faithful in providing all that we need for the party. We are so blessed. Alice spent some time in the evening baking sup a storm. She baked some her signature german rolls. It is all sweet and all good.
The Wall
Street Journal featured a story about an 85-year-old
man named Al Golden, who still chokes up when he talks about his twin brother
Elliott, who recently died. The brothers shared a room growing up, graduated
from the same college, and then married within a month of each other.
Yet, Al still remembers how their father often compared them, asking one or the
other, "How come you got a B and your brother got an A?"
Elliott became a lawyer and eventually a state Supreme Court judge.
Al sold life insurance. Al says he always envied his brother's status and
secretly took pleasure in knowing at least he was a better fisherman and owned
a bigger boat. Even as adults, there was a lot of comparison and
competition. Then one day, Elliott accused Al of not doing enough to take
care of their sick mother. After that, Al didn't speak to his brother for
more than a year. Elliot repeatedly reached out to him, but Al ignored
him. Then one day, Al received an email from Elliot telling a story about
two brothers who had a stream dividing their properties. One brother hired a
carpenter to build a fence along the stream, but the carpenter built a bridge
by mistake. Al thought about the email, then wrote back, "I'd like to walk
over the bridge."
This reminds me of something said in the Book of Proverbs: "When the
Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their enemies to make peace with
them" (Prov. 16:7). We should pray we might
walk in peace and have favor with those around us. It is inevitable that
disagreements, disputes, and times of animosity will come between us and our
brothers and sisters, but our prayer should be that we'll be the first to seek
reconciliation and be quick to forgive. Romans 12:18 says, "If it is possible,
as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Ephesians says,
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as
Christ God forgave you" (4:32).
I have
been struck lately, in reading my Bible, how often the spiritual blessings we
have are called our "riches in Christ." In Ephesians, we read
of the "riches of his grace" and "the boundless riches of
Christ" (2:7; 3:8). In Romans, we read of the "riches of his kindness"
and the "riches of his glory" (2:4; 9:23).
The Bible says our "enemy prowls the devil around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8), but what we learn here is that
God will give us strength to resist him. God's strength will come to us
daily, as we need it. We do not get strength from God for tomorrow's trials, but we get it for today's
trials.
" Indeed we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved and still loves."
In Him,
Brown
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