A young Colombian Girl received a New Testament in her school. She read the New Testament until one day her father caught her reading it�.  He told her not to read it any more because it was full of lies and fantasy.  But the girl kept on reading until one day her father came home unexpectedly and found her with the New Testament.  He grabbed it from her hands and put it in his pocket.

The father went off to work where he was a mining engineer. Several hours later sirens went off in the community.  There had been a cave-in at the mine. And father was trapped in the mine. Rescue workers took five days to finally reach the men, but it was too late.  All 31 men died, including the father of this little girl.

Curiously, workers found the man clutching the New Testament between his praying hands. When they opened the front cover they read a note:

�To my daughter�: Keep reading this New Testament, it is true and right, and I will see you one day in heaven.

Then they turned to the back page where the father had signed the commitment card after having said the sinner�s prayer.

But that was not the end of the story.  Turning the page, were the signed names of the other 30 workers.

- The Gideons International

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” —Isaiah 55:11

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Now playing: Pete Seeger – Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
via FoxyTunes

A young lion wandered from his father to test whether or not he would get the same respect from the other animals as his father did. As the young lion approached some monkeys, he roared and asked, “WHO IS THE KING OF THE JUNGLE?”

The monkeys, being afraid, responded, “YOU are!”

The lion replied, “And don’t you forget it!”

The lion repeated this to each animal in the jungle and got the same response until he came across a herd of elephants. The little lion roared and asked, “WHO IS THE KING OF THE JUNGLE?” The big bull elephant walked closer to the lion, swooped him up in his trunk, swung him around and around and threw him in the river.

Battered and wet, the little lion replied, “Just because you didn’t know the answer to the question doesn’t mean you had to get nasty about it!”

Revelation 5:4-6 (New International Version)

⁴I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. ⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits^[a] of God sent out into all the earth.

The season of Advent begins Sunday November 29th. I invite you to join my on an Advent-ure.

Every Monday I will be reflecting on the Names and Titles of Jesus.  There will be the Scripture, Name, and questions to ponder and a prayer relating to the theme.  You can join in by commenting and adding your personal reflections and prayer if you like.

Hope you can join in!

I like cartoons by Joe McKeever:

I have a 1997 Dodge Sport Caravan with 130,000 miles on it.  So I decided to check to see if my vehicle qualified for the givernment deal. No I did not misspell that last noun.  I wanted in on some of the stimulus.  But I was just outside the “clunker point.”

Well, I got buzzed off the qualification stage. My car is not clunky enough.  It gets 1 mile per gallon better than the clunkers!  Beat by the factor of 1.

Don’t weep for me Dodge Motors.  I will run your product until the kingdom comes or transmission termination – which ever comes first.

All of society has to have standards and rules.  There’s is a cut off point.  Let’s call it the Clunker Point.

• Great America rides have a height line.  If you are below it you have experienced the height Clunker Point.
• Want to join the Marines and fight the terrorists? There is an age Clunker Point.
• You want to carry what on the plane?  You just hit the weight/size Clunker Point.
• Rejected from getting into UW-Madison?  You just hit the grade point Clunker Point.
• So you saw the red&blue flashing lights behind you and pulling you over. The Speed Clunker Point.
• The line went flat on the screen hooked up to your brain. You just hit the ultimate Clunker Point.

Which leads me to wonder – does the Lord have a Clunker Point for people?  You know – some get in and some don’t qualify.  Wait, you say, God is full of love and mercy and all those warm and fuzzy characteristics Mr. Rogers had.  His neighborhood was open and welcome for all and any.

News Flash – God is not Mr Rogers. I hear a clunk there.  If you read the following you will see that Jesus had a Clunker Point.  But it is not too late to qualify. Just don’t let your clunker self run out of oil…Here’s what Jesus said…

¹“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹” ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹“Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’

¹²“But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’

¹³“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

I grew up eating fish.  Fish fried, fish boiled, fish baked, fish I caught, fish smoked, fish cakes, fish in jars and fish in cans.  Does this sound fishy?  Not if your ancestry is half Norwegian and Half Swedish. Scandinavian without excuse.

It was not uncommon for my dad to open a small can of King Oscar Sardines and take out a box of Saltines and hand me a cracker and sardine while watching a ballgame on TV.  I grew up with it.  Or Sunday night for supper it was smoked chubs on rye bread with a cucumber and onion salad followed by a pudding called, Danish Dessert.

I thought God made sardines just for us.  However, we humans are just another species waiting in line to dine.  This amazing Video will show you that the sardines that get to the grocery store shelf made it through an army of predators from sea and sky.  Check out, “Sardine Run.”  God’s creation is so glorious!!!  What has nature taught you about the Lord?  Do you like to eat fish?  Any favorite?

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea inform you.

⁹ Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this? Job 12:7-9

Ownership with an invisible stamp

“Enter at your own risk”

Oh, we can explore it with great cost

But we have to come back

Down to where we belong;

All of us have a stake in this fermament,

All of us in this one spinning blue house;

A speck of dust on the universe’s screen

Yet a gift that is ours, sort of.

“Mine” is only in God’s lexicon.

__________________

In remembrance of Apollo 11, on the 40th Anniversary of Moon Landing

The children of Joy Zamoiski wanted to give her a special present for her 85th birthday, in April. They knew that their mother had always loved gardening. So last year, on the grassy hill of her home in Candor, N.Y., they planted some 13,000 white and yellow daffodil bulbs. When Zamoiski looked out at her yard one day last month, she got the surprise of her life: The blooming daffodils had been set in a pattern that spelled out her name, J-O-Y. “We were thinking about writing something,” said her daughter Nancy, “and ‘Zamoiski’ was way too long.”

Joy will allow us to enjoy my relationship with Christ, His creation, others, and our circumstances with an expression of delight and real, authentic happiness from and with harmony with God and others. We are called to “Count it joy” this refers to declaring our situation as happy and fulfilling. It is to change our mindset and focus. It is realizing the sovereignty of God and that He is in control, even when life seems to be turned upside down and inside out (Psalm 32:7-9; Proverbs 15:13; John 15:11; 17:13; 2 Cor 12:9; James 1:1-4; 1 Peter 4:12-19; Heb 10:34)!