In the book of Judges, Sisera commanded a Canaanite army. They were fighting Israel when a woman by the name of Jael was given the opportunity to do away with him. She accomplished this when Sisera sought a place to rest his exhausted body. Once he was soundly asleep, she drove a tent peg through his head with a hammer. Not a problem for her, for she was a Bedouin and accustomed to driving tent pegs into the ground. Her people lived in tents and were constantly on the move, so pegs and hammers were very familiar to her.  Someone in one of my Bible classes said, “She sure had him pegged.”

A song was written about her courage and accomplishments in defending Israel. Her name would be recorded for all time in God’s Word. She was a prime example of a woman stepping up to the plate when a man is too cowardly.

The opportunity to do the right thing doesn’t have to be so dramatic in our experience but needs execution when the time comes. He could have landed in any tent; however, he found himself in hers. She was a headache he couldn’t recover from.

Galatians 6:10 

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

However a situation might present itself to us, it becomes our responsibility before God to do something about it. Let’s nail it.

Think about it.

Gary

Sometimes, I go back to my youth in my imagination.  Dad drives into the yard on a Friday afternoon with his hardhat still on. Mom has some meat frying in an iron pan. She’ll fry it till there is no more moisture left. That’s the way I like it. Late that night, I would torment my brother for the use of his truck. I didn’t have a license, but sometimes he let me go with it just because I was the kid brother. However, I could only go west and never east. He’d spend some quality time lecturing me on that point. The other six siblings were either in the military or married with their own homes.

For some reason, most of the time my memory harks back to 1968. I spent half that year being sixteen. That was fifty-three years ago, but in my mind, it’s still quite fresh.  Memory has a definite purpose. We have lessons learned from so many sources:  parents, friends, teachers, and siblings. The most significant lessons occurred while watching others get burnt or getting burnt ourselves. Back then, life was kind of complicated, but now Christ has simplified it, even though it is difficult.

John 14:15 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments

Remember this most important of points. If you love Him, keep His commandments. Then you will not remember the now-years with regret.

Think about it.

Gary

He came back from Connecticut with the sloppy joe recipe. A herd of us twelve-year-olds waded the Allagash River, made a fire, and set up camp. This was going to be a culinary experience never before tried on this island by preteens. The old recipe had been around since 1930, but its debut in my hometown was in 1964.

Can you visualize a group of gluttonous boys lounging around after consuming way too much ground beef, with who knows what was added to it, loaded between two sesame seed buns? He did it up right.

It was one of the best meals I ever had. The cook’s motto was, “Taste and see how good this is.”

The Bible speaks of the need to taste new things:

Psalm 34:8

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

We have sixty-six books full of recipes that one can truly enjoy.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“Deadlines and commitments, what to leave in and what to leave out”, is a line in a country and western song. It is about the fact that life gets more complicated as we move towards the conclusion of this journey. The more relationships we develop, the more room for error arises in making decisions. The more decisions made can multiply the number of decisions we’ll have to face later.  Did you get that?

This is also true spiritually. The more years we have into this Christian experience, the greater the responsibility and the sharper the enemy’s attacks, but the stronger we should have become along the way.

James 1: 2-4

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

I hate to ask this question again, but did you get that? The stuff of life piles up and like Walter Cronkite would say, “And that’s the way it is.”

Give it some thought.

Gary

My flipper is coming off and I’m only half-way across the river. It’s still the spring of the year and the water’s high. At the time, I was probably eleven. I never feared water, but this was my first experience with flippers and something was going wrong down south.  I had enough Irish I would have fought the current to the bitter end to save that flipper.

It was just a flipper. Why did I take such a chance? It seems so foolish now.

The Bible doesn’t mention saving flippers. It doesn’t mention saving the lousewort (That’s an endangered plant which stopped a dam from being built.), condors or even the planet. However, it does say a lot about saving souls. Here’s an example:

Romans 10:1

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Try and save the eternal things and don’t get too excited about the temporary things of this life.

Give it some thought.

Gary

A man in the television commercial declared he was pain-free after taking the medicine for three weeks. I have two doctors of pharmacy as nieces and I’m sure they would never get on TV and promote such a thing. How many with chronic pain are being taken in by such foolishness?

Unfortunately, this also happens in Christendom with false presentations of the gospel. The promotion is that if you accept their brand of Christianity, usually by sending in some money, you’ll never be sick, all your problems will be solved and you’ll become unbelievably prosperous. Of course, if that doesn’t happen, it’s because you lack faith. They have all the bases covered.

After finishing his jail sentence, one televangelist took a brand-new wife and went right back into the business of selling his spiritual snake oil.  An old friend of mine once told an acquaintance, “You should tell Gardner to go to Texas because there is money to be made in religion in Texas.”

Peter addressed it:

1 Peter 5:2

Be good shepherds of the flock God has put in your care. Do not care for the flock as if you were made to. Do not care for the flock for money, but do it because you want to.

Give it some thought and if you want to throw some money away you can direct it my way.

Gary

The man claimed that it wasn’t getting old that made him so sad, it was that it happened so fast. He could have quoted:

James 4:14

Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
You’re not playing fair at all
I’m really now upset with you
For giving your distorted view

You show my hair is turning gray,
It’s just the way the shadows play
I know that you’re not hanging straight
To make me look so over weight

The way you show a double chin
Is just the way the light comes in
I think I’m fine, but you’re so wise
To put such accent on my thighs.

I wish you’d try to be my friend
And tell me I’m a little thin
Just tell me I look good in jeans
And frilly shirts and pretty things.

Please don’t let the wrinkles show
I’d like to have a pretty glow
I see you won’t respond at all
So I’ll just tear you off the wall.

The reality is that you can’t change the inevitable. God has so designed it that most of us get plenty of physical warning that the end is just over the horizon.

How about you? Is life a joke? Every wrinkle is a new message from the Creator.

Think about it.

Gary