The prosperity preachers would like us to believe their gospel will provide a life of financial success and physical health. One of them blew away Covid-19 with his breath a year ago. Another called angels from Africa and South America to help Trump win the election.  This, of course, flies in the face of Biblical revelation. I would take a pass on the kind of life Abraham, Jacob, Job, Noah, David, Paul, Peter or John endured. The Scriptures state, unequivocally, that the rain falls on the just and the unjust.

The thing I would do is trust Him when adversity, which is a common human experience, comes my way. The hymn writer expressed it well in, “My Grace is Sufficient:”

Many times I’m tried and tested
As I travel day by day.
‘Oft I meet with pain and sorrow
And there’s trouble in the way.
But I have a sweet assurance
That my soul, the Lord will lead.
And in Him there is strength for every need.

Oh, His grace is sufficient for me.
And His love is abundant and free.
And what joy fills my soul,
Just to know, just to know
That His grace is sufficient for me.

When the tempter brings confusion
And I don’t know what to do,
On my knees I turn to Jesus
For I know He’ll  see me through.
Then despair is changed to victory.
Every doubt just melts away
And in Him there is hope for every day.

James 1:4

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Go out there today and prove that His grace is sufficient.

Think about it.

Gary

While standing on the back porch of my nephew’s house, I look out over the confluence of the Allagash and St John Rivers.  Old memories come to life.  I can see us as kids swimming in that water hole between Gardner and Hog Island.  There we are wading over to attack the Wehrmacht with our wooden and plastic guns. The dogs that always follow us are taken downstream by the current and come to shore some distance away. Another has us returning from a camping trip with our sleeping bags and blankets because the night is too long and the ground too hard. Then my mind sees us skiing down the river bank and speeding out onto the ice, unstrapping our skis and trekking through the snow back to shore.

If only the kid could look up and see that old man standing on that porch, looking down. No, that’s not possible. They are only memories of days long gone.

If I live long enough, what will be my memories of my present days? I ask that because what we do now will become a memory. Let’s practice good memory- making.

Acts 10:38

 …how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Let us imitate Him and do good things with the time and gifts He has given us.

Think about it.

Gary

“The Carnival Is Over” is a Russian folk song from circa 1883. It was adapted with English-language lyrics, by Tom Springfield, for the Australian folk pop group the Seekers in 1965. The song became the Seekers’ signature recording, and the band has customarily closed their concerts with it ever since its success in late-1965.

Say goodbye my own true lover
As we sing a lovers song
How it breaks my heart to leave you
Now the carnival is gone

High above the dawn is waiting
And my tears are falling rain
For the carnival is over
We may never meet again

Like a drum my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine

We were young and couldn’t wait to go to the annual fair that came to Presque Isle every year. The definition of carnival is a traveling enterprise offering amusements. That’s what it was. There were rigged games to win teddy bears that no one ever won. There were shows that no one should ever see. There were rides with vomit encrusted on the safety bars. There was food too expensive for us to eat. The whole thing was designed to take the money from your pocket and place it in their coffers while making you believe you were having a good time. It was a very brief time of pleasure that left you feeling like a fool.

The song I mentioned describes such an experience.  It could be a marriage, a business endeavor, one of multiple pleasures that humans take a shot at that leaves them empty.

God offers man an experience that is real and lasting, and when life is done for you, there will be no regrets that you took the journey.

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

Give it some thought.

Gary

I can’t listen to Ann Murray sing, “Someone’s Always Saying Goodbye.” We’ve been at too many airports and seen too many cars leaving our yard to be able to handle this song.

Railroad station, Midnight trains
Lonely airports in the rain
And somebody stands there with tears in their eyes

It’s the same old scene, time after time
That’s the trouble with all mankind
Somebody’s always sayin’ goodbye

When our youngest grandson was hardly more than an infant, he was on my shoulders as I was walking around the airport. My son kept an eye on me because he thought I would leave with him.  He knew how hard it was going to be for us to part.

Separation is a constant struggle for us in this life and it presents itself in multiple relationships. However, there is one relationship in which we will never experience separation.

Romans 8:35

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

The answer to the second question was an unequivocal, no.

No, I didn’t kidnap my grandson. If I had, he would have been returned after his first dirty diaper presented itself.

Think about it.

Gary

Jacks recorded “Seasons in the Sun” in Vancouver in 1973. The song is about saying goodbye to a childhood friend, a dad, and a girl who always kept him standing. Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? This is the age-old question. My personal belief is that some of the oldies make us think of reality more so than much of contemporary Christian music. Not that the oldies have the answers, but they sure emphasize the questions that people struggle to find answers to.

I wish I could sing it for you, but since I can’t sing, here are the lyrics:

Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We’ve known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we’ve climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and ABC’s
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees
Goodbye my friend it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky

Goodbye Papa please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how I got along

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone

Goodbye Michelle my little one
You gave me love and helped me find the sun
And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground
Goodbye Michelle it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there

Life is a tremendous gift that comes from God and is required to end at some period of time. All those things we find enjoyable are only for a season. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Why death? Where will we be when this season is done? Only one book has the answers to all these questions and that is the Bible.

Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

Think about it.

Gary

I was probably seven years old when I was either invited or had invited myself to stay overnight at a friend’s house.  They had a policy that everyone went to bed at the same time which was much earlier than our family tradition. Sleep eluded me and an uncomfortable feeling of homesickness raised its ugly head.

After some deep thought, I climbed out of bed, got my winter clothes on and sneaked out the door. That’s when I realized the obstacles along my way home. First of all it was snowing, secondly it was a mile to my house, thirdly there was a graveyard to pass and lastly there was a one-way bridge to cross. Plus, there was a neighbor’s dog by the name of Hunter that enjoyed terrorizing any passersby. The graveyard was the most fearful because you never knew when a ghost would come after you. I closed my eyes tightly some 200 feet before and only opened them about 200 feet after I passed.  I continued to walk hurriedly.

What a heartwarming sight to see the old house come into view. There’s no place like home. Dorothy sure had that right in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Sixty-one years later I’m sitting here and I’m once again lonesome for home. No, not the one back there because it’s long gone and we can’t turn back time; it’s the one that lies ahead that has been promised to us by God.

John 14:1-2

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

Think about it.

Gary

Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines roared back to life after 600 years of quiet slumber in 1991.

When asked to account for the incredible destruction caused by this volcano, a research scientist from the Philippine department of volcanology observed, “When a volcano is silent for many years, our people forget that it’s a volcano and begin to treat it like a mountain.”

MATTHEW 7 contains the illustration of the wise man and the foolish man who both involved themselves in building a life:

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

What have you started to treat as only a mountain in your life?

Give it some thought.

Gary