Talking about the weather

When I Grumble about the Weather

"The Lord has heard all your grumblings against Him!" Exodus 16:8

Does God really hear every discontented word I ever speak? Does He hear when I grumble about the hard winter, about the late spring, about the dry summer, about the wet harvest?

Does He hear when I grumble about the frosts, about the drought, about the high winds, about the storms?

Does He hear when I grumble about my circumstances, about the hardness of my situation, about my losses and disappointments?

If we could get into our heart, and keep there continually, the consciousness that God hears every word we speak, would we murmur and complain as much as we do?

We are generally careful to not speak words which would give pain to the hearts of those we love. Are we as careful not to say anything that will grieve our Heavenly Father?

"I tell you this--that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak." Matthew 12:36

"He who complains of the weather is complaining of the God who ordains the weather!" -- William Law

-- J. R. Miller

 

HT- Mack Tomlinson

All I want for Christmas...

...is a 12 bedroom, 12 bath house on a hill overlooking the Caribean Sea in Puerto Rico.  And in the three car garage, a convertable, a mid-sized motorcycle and an extended cab pickup truck.



Seriously, with all the greed associated with the modern celebration, I do not think I want anything this year.  Every year I am asked (especially by the relative that draws my name) what I want.  Every year I cannot think of anything.  So I get some article of clothing or a CD I listen to three or four times.  So this year, I am asking for donations to one of the ministries or charities listed below.  So, if you are the relative who got my name this year, take your pick.  Make it anonymous- you don't even have to give in my name.


Heart Cry Missionary Society.  This organization finds native missionaries and supports them.  From the website:

Our greatest concern is that His Name be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun (Malachi 1:11), and that the Lamb who was slain might receive the full reward for His sufferings (Revelation 7:9-10). 

The Wounded Warrior Project, which desires “...to provide tangible support for the severely wounded and help them on the road to healing, both physically and mentally.”  They provide things like counseling services for servicemen wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other things like backpacks with toiletries, etc, for their hospital stay.

The Salvation Army.   I know it is more of a social than spiritual ministry in modern times, but this organizatoin does more to help the poor than anything Washington does.


Your local food bank.  The economy has caused so many to loose their jobs that many former donors are current users.


There are several other worthy causes out there.  This year, instead of piling up more useless stuff, why don't we all give to those more needy than we are?

Morning glory to God

 

(Photo from flikr )

Last week as I was driving to work, the sunrise was beautiful.  I wish I had a camera, or that I was not in a hurry to meet my carpool.  What really made it even more wonderful, was that I had just put the first hymns CD by The 2nd Chapter of Acts, and the first one, “All Creatures Of Our God And King” came on, right as the sun popped over the horizon.  I was moved by the moment, especially the line: “Thou rising morn in praise rejoice” seemed to be written exactly for a time as this.  I wonder if the hymn writer saw a beautiful sunrise and wrote that line.  The photo does not quite capture it.  It was one of those days when the sky was cloudy except the horizon, so the sun reflected beautiful red and orange light over everything.

Diversity

I heard on the news the other day that the Illinois governor appointed someone to make sure that there is diversity in state government contracts. Tonight I heard that the Naval Academy had to change who was on the color guard at the World Series so there would be a group representing the diversity of the academy. Every week or so we hear about diversity in the US, or discrimination against this group or that group.

Ah, diversity! That wonderful idea that every race, gender and orientation must be represented in order for something to feel right. Do we really need something like the Illinois Diversity Council, which “...is committed to fostering a learning environment for organizations to grow in their knowledge of diversity”? A council which values leadership “that values diversity and inclusion and stimulates the potential of each individuals to contribute and achieve their goals (sic)” (but not necessarily good spelling and grammar)? Really?

What happened to colorblindness? What would Martin Luther King, Jr., the patron saint of the diversity movement, say about such things? He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” His now grown up children are still waiting.

And so am I. When I get in my car and drive across the Mississippi River, I do not care who owned the construction company who made the bridge. I don’t concern myself that the owner be white, black, male or female. I just want the bridge to be built by the best possible work crew. Now, in Illinois and other places, watch out. The state may have hired a company because the owner was a minority female, since there were already contracts given to the white, male owned companies. So the bridge you are about to cross may have been built by a company with almost no experience in building quality bridges. It just happened to be owned by the politically correct person. I hope your car and life insurance are current!

Driver’s education

Youngest daughter turned 15 last month. She now has a learner’s permit to drive. Of course, that means dad is a driver’s ed teacher for the next 12 months. So far, no accidents. Just some frayed nerves. Like when she was taking a turn on a gravel road with the rear tires spinning and the nose headed for the ditch. Or when she made a left turn onto a highway and we both forgot to look the second time. There was suddenly a car in the rear-view mirror with one unhappy looking driver.

Thank the Lord for traveling mercies.

Kudos and "Whatever"

First, I want to publicly (at least as publicly as this blog is) express  “kudos” to the junior senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill (Dem).  Most of the time I do not agree with her.  But she, along with several other senators “called for greater transparency as the health insurance reform debate moves to the Senate floor.”   Basically, they want “legislative text and complete budget scores from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to be posted on a public website at least 72 hours prior to the first vote...”  Sounds like a great idea for any legislation.


Now for something light.  The other day, the AP (Associated Press) reported that “Whatever”, especially when pronounced “WHAT-ehv-errr”, is the most annoying slang in American conversation.  About twice as annoying as “you know”.

It got me to thinking about other annoying speech habits we have.  One I have heard a lot recently that drives me batty is “long story short”.  It is a shortrened version of  “to make a long story short”, which usually is said after the speaker has rambled on and on, telling too much minutiae of the story already.

Saying “No”

The fool has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 53.1).

Some commentators I have read say that this verse can be translated as The fool has said in his heart, “No, God.” To me, that means we have all been fools at one time or another. Every time we do not do what God commands, we say “No, God.” Every time we act un-Christ-like, we say “No, God.” When we offend our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we say “No, God.” If we try to do things our way, we say “No, God.”

Let us repent and say, “Yes, God.”

Lest we forget.

May we never forget what happened eight years ago, 9/11/2001.

In September, 1983, I took my lovely bride to New York to meet my relatives (grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins). We went up the World Trade Center, even though she was afraid of heights. I convinced her to go up to the observation deck on the roof. It was very windy up there, but the view was wonderful. I asked a ranger how high we were. He said 1365 ft. above sea level, or 1354 off the ground.   I was awed by the smallness of everything below, even the Empire State building just a mile or two away.  We could not look straight down from the roof, as the deck was some 30 feet or so from the edge.  But the 106th floor had a museum of commerce with indoor observation windows.  One could sit on a bench and look almost straight down from there.  Other than being on a mountain top or the rim of the Grand Canyon, I have never been on land and seen such a view.   As seen from there, the people were smaller than ants.  The cars on the streets below were miniature toys. 

Too bad I cannot take my children there. We went to New York City in 1990 with them, but did not have time to go up the towers. I wish now we had, because the next time we went was in March, 2002. All that was left was the hole in the ground and a lot of rubble.

It doesn't happen often

It only happens twelve times per century, to be exact. I am referring to the date and time stamp on this post. It happened on morning of January 1 of 2001, then again on February 2 of 2002. Then, every 13 months and one day since then. The last time will be early afternoon on December 12, 2012. Have you figured it out? Look carefully at the date and time stamp. September 9, 2009 at nine minutes, nine seconds past nine o'clock in the morning.

Okay, perhaps is not as obvious to some: 09/09/09 09:09:09, or the moment when the month, day, year, hour, minute and seconds are identical. I say in the morning, because on the 24 hour clock, 9:09 PM is 21:09. 12:12 AM is 00:12.

If I were in that union...

The news today reported that the Rhode Island governor wants to have state employees go on 12 days of unpaid furlough in order to save the state some $17 million. But the union representing the state workers says no, because that effectively would be a 4.6% or more pay cut. The union has joined in a lawsuit to stop the furloughs. So the governor may have to lay off 1000 workers, starting with the most recently employed. Seems to me the union is not serving those 1000 workers very well, is it. Now I know unions usually take care of their members when they lose their jobs, but does it cover more than 96% of their salary?

Were I one of the chosen 1000, I would be on the phone with the union representative: "Excuse me? Would you mind asking us workers what we want? I think I would rather take the pay cut than lose my job."