Freddie was a Manx cat we once owned. He was trouble from his first leap out of the box that his mother nestled in with the rest of her litter. I named him Freddie after a childhood friend of mine who also had an attachment to trouble. If Freddie the cat wanted to go out in the middle of the night, he would walk across the piano keys to get our attention. Sometimes I wanted to kill Freddie, but it was just a thought coming from a love-hate relationship we had. Someone else killed Freddie and I still miss him after four decades.

God brings some strange animals into our lives along with some strange people. Life is made up of such things and we truly miss them when they’re gone. They leave a pawprint or footprint on our lives and serve a greater purpose.

Proverbs 27:17 

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Give God-sent creatures some thought because they are worth much more than their annoyance and we’ll miss them when they are gone.

Gary

You’ll want to eat unshelled nuts like almonds and peanuts within a matter of a few weeks to a few months. “Nuts and seeds typically have a high amount of oil in them and that oil will start to go rancid after a couple of months in your pantry.” On the other hand, you could cook them up for uninvited guests so they won’t return.

We also have an expiration date in the gifts God has given us, and if we don’t use them, in time others will begin to notice. Like the manna in the wilderness, God expects us not to horde our daily bread.

Hebrews 3:7-8

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,

God expects us to do something with the diet He gives us.

Give it some thought and remember those nuts.

Gary

I tell them when I am placed in the nursing home there are only two demands on my part: Keep me warm and keep me dry.

Other than that, don’t put me on that salt-free diet. Don’t worry about my cholesterol or blood pressure. Don’t send me to the hospital because I don’t look right because I never looked right. Have a Canadian rocker in my room and don’t play that country and western music.  60’s music will be fine, for just the first few sentences are emphasized. If they don’t comply with my wishes, I’ll flip over a table and trip a nurse.

For some things, we must make our wishes known.

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

Job 5:7

But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

 Job 14:1

 “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.”

Give it some thought.

Gary

How come we say, ”What a dreary day, the sun isn’t shining.” That statement is never true because the sun is always shining.  Just go up 15,000 feet and there it is. The problem lies with what is between you and the sun.

The same is true with the Son of God. Sometimes there is a gloom in our lives and we blame it on God’s not being there. He is always there, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem like He is.

Life is a mixture of days when you can see the sun and days when you can’t. However, the sun remains constant.

Exodus 33:14 

And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Psalm 139:7 

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

It might not look like it or feel like it, but He is always there.

Give it some thought.

Gary

What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.

The white cross on the red base represents the Christian cross, as well as the sign of the old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss flag in the traditional sense represents freedom, honor, and loyalty.

Now you know, but do you know what the cross at Calvary represents?

1 Corinthians 1:18 

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Hebrews 12:2 

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Give it some thought.

Gary

A customer walked into my clothing shop and asked to see the pants that were advertised in the paper that day. “We don’t have an ad in the paper today,” I told her. She insisted I was wrong, so I got a copy of the paper, and we went through it, eventually landing on an ad for pants from another local store.

Exasperated, the customer glared at me and said, “In my newspaper, the ad was for this store!”

–       Edward Oppenheimer

In my life I’ve heard people make statements about the Bible that sound just like that. Case in point, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” The irony is threaded throughout the Word, for God is helping those who are incapable of helping themselves.

Romans 7:24 

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Romans 5:8 

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Oh, the insurmountable list of things we can’t do for ourselves.

Give it some thought.

Gary

So, this is what the individual sent me for a text: “OM, it is so hot outside IDK. If I don’t survive, it is NBD, LOL.”

All I could come up with for an answer was, you’d better get out of the sun because it looks to me like your brain is frying. You are a few letters short of a word.

I sure am glad the Scripture is written in a language I can understand.

Psalm 116:6 

The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.

1 Corinthians 14:33 

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

Proverbs 15:16 

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.

I can understand every one of those communications from Heaven. IRL

Give it some thought.

Gary

Some translations for you: OM – O my; IDK- I don’t know; NBD- no big deal; LOL – Laugh out loud; IRL – In real life