Wind Problem

 

Last week, I was cleaning out rainwater from a spoon-bending tool that I have mounted on a steel table outdoors.  I dropped the used paper towels on the driveway and continued working.  But the wind picked them up and began to swirl them around.  I tried to catch them, but they eluded capture.  I was able to step on one and hold it in place so that I could grab it.  Then I stepped on the other one and caught it.  Those little pieces of paper towel kept me busy for some time.  First, the wind blew them one way, and then the wind went the other way.  There was no pattern to wind gusts, so there was no way for me to anticipate the paper towels’ movements.  Paul reprimanded the Ephesian church for being childish in their doctrine.  He said in Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”  Hey, don’t whirl around following every new teaching that comes along.  Stick with the Old-Time Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As the old song goes, “It was good for our fathers and it’s good enough for me!”

Sudoku

 

I learn much more than critical thinking from working Sudoku puzzles:  I learn to be careful.  I learn to be look twice before I make a decision.  I learn to think “outside of the box”.  I learn to check my work often.  I learn to be creative and look for different ways of solving problems.  I learn persistence.  And I learn when it is time to cut my losses and to move on.  And these are so true in the Christian life as well.  Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Hillbilly Wedding

 

Marshall Dillon showed up just a bit too late to break up the hillbilly wedding on Gunsmoke.  He admonished the old woman, who had performed the ceremony that she was not qualified to perform weddings.  She screeched, “I may not be a Bona fide preacher, but the bride and groom both swore their undying love on this here Bible.”  And she held up the book.   Marshall Dillion was undeterred, “None of you can read because that book that you just swore on is Little Women, by Lousia May Alcott.”  Hey, don’t laugh too hard at the hillbillies because we do the same thing!  We can read, but we don’t read.   We leave our Bibles on the end table all week collecting dust.  We say what we think the Bible says.  We should be reading the Bible and letting it speak for itself!  Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”