Shopping at Wal-Mart

Saturday Kathy and I went shopping at Wal-Mart.  Our church is gathering food for our missionaries in Venezuela, Jason and Sarah Sykes.  My wife picked up 2 pounds of rice and put it in the cart.  I picked up another one and added it to the cart.  Kathy got powdered milk.  I put it back and got the giant sized one.  And then we both got into the spirit of giving.  It was great!  I thought of how we in America were blessed and how Jason’s people had so little in Venezuela.  Then I found two solar landscaping lights marked down.  And then we had to get our own stuff.  Finally, our cart was full.  But the check-out lines were backed up.  So I went to the self-check-out.  A big mistake.  I scanned and bagged all of the Venezuela stuff, but the scanner locked up at the discounted lights.  The attendant tried to help, but she put in the wrong code and she got locked out.  Her supervisor tried to help, but couldn’t.  She said, “I’ll just have to reboot the computer.”  The frustrated attendant motioned me over to her station and finished scanning in the rest of my stuff.  It came to $32.  I said, “But you didn’t get the other things that I already had rung up.”  She shrugged and said, “Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.”  I began to protest, but she glared and said through her teeth, “Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart.”  She was obviously done with me.  So, Jason and Sarah got their food for free.  $62 worth of free food.  “Thank you (dear Lord) for shopping at Wal-Mart.”

Whitewashing

When I was growing up, my Granny Whitely lived next door to us in a trailer.  No, it wasn’t a mobile home it was a trailer - eight feet wide and thirty-five feet long.  Every spring, she would mix up some slaked lime, whiting, and water, and have me white-wash the beech tree trunks white.  I have no idea why.  Maybe there was a reason, but she never told me, I just did it.  I had to do it every spring because whitewashing didn’t last.  It would look nice for a few weeks, but spring rains would soon wash it away.  In the Old Testament, the priests would offer sacrifices for the people, but would have to do it again the next year.  The animal sacrifices only atoned for their sins for one more year.  But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary was different.  “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29  Jesus was God’s perfect sacrifice for all of us.  He paid for our sins once and for all.  “But this man, (Jesus) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Hebrews 10:12  Through Jesus Christ, our sins are paid for - forever!

Silent Prayer Requests

Four years ago, I made a rolling stand for a microwave in the church fellowship hall.  The kids needed the microwave at eye-level for lunchtime at school.  So, I made a four-sided box out of ¾” plywood about three feet high.  I put a bottom in the box to have something to mount the casters on.  The bottom made the box solid with no way to get inside.  I made a slot on the side near the top and told the students that the slot was for “unspoken prayer requests”.  Anyone can write their most personal request on a piece of paper and slide it into the box and it will never come out.  Only God knows what the request is.  And I believe that God hears and answers prayer.  “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7