Are You Listening? Aka: The Dummy, The Donkey and The Doggie

God uses a multitude of interesting ways to speak to us individually. I wrote a scene in a book where the main character has to be hit on the head with an iron skillet before God finally has her attention.

My Bible reading today brought me to one of my favorite stories. It’s found in the book of Numbers, chapter twenty-three. Israel is on their trek toward the Promised Land. Nations that refused their request to peaceably pass through were quickly defeated. Both the Amorites and the people of Bashan fell to the chosen of God. With Israel drawing near, Balak, king of the Moabites called on Balaam, knowing his reputation as a prophet.

Balaam saddled his donkey and went with the Moabites, disobeying God’s command to stay put. As a result, God sent His angel to block Balaam’s way. Balaam didn’t see the angel…but the donkey did. Three times the donkey veered away from the sword wielding angel and three times Balaam beat her for her disobedience. God saw fit to allow the donkey to speak to her master.

“What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?”

“Because you have abused me, I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!”

“Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day”? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”

“No.”

Then God opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord and he said to him. “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now and let her live.”

Wow! I wonder what it would be like if God allowed my dog Max to speak so he could tell me what God wanted me to do. In fact I have an issue I’m talking to God about right now. I desire His perfect will and it would be so easy if Max would turn to me after a good ear scratching and say “Mom.” That’s what he calls me. “God really thinks you should do…” But I guess that’s not going to happen any time soon.

So what’s a girl to do if God won’t make my Weimaraner speak? And I don’t mean barking. I suppose I’ll have to get down on my knees, do the speaking myself, then shut up so I won’t miss what God’s trying to tell me.

ANNOUNCEMENT

(Please feel free to share with your readers and/or writing group)

Writers, would you like to make money doing the thing you love most? If so, then this announcement should be of interest to you! Janice Hanna Thompson, author of over fifty novels and non-fiction books, would like to announce the debut of her writing course for freelancers titled “Becoming a Successful Freelance Writer,” available at www.freelancewritingcourses.com. The purpose of this course is to strategically train freelance writers so that they can earn top dollar with their writing. Students can purchase the entire course (Ten Lessons) for only $199, or students can choose to purchase individual lessons for only $24.95 each. Each lesson will include an audio file (mp3 for download), a corresponding audio script, a downloadable worksheet, a power point video, a bonus feature, and full access to the site’s forum, where Janice will meet with authors for group mentoring (at designated times). Currently, there are ten lessons available, but the site will continually grow. New, fresh material will always be added. If you’ve been looking for creative and exciting ways to earn money with your writing, your time has come! Please visit www.freelancewritingcourses.com and sign up for the newsletter, or write to Janice at booksbyjanice@aol.com for more information.

ENDORSEMENTS:
What writers are saying about Janice’s course:
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My book-related website:www.janicethompson.com
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Explanation of course on YouTube site: My freelance writing course site: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-5IZSNaZFU
My facebook reader's page: www.facebook.com/pages/Janice-Hanna-Thompsons-Readers-Page/303537684650?ref=ts

My Home Is A Castle

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good. Psalm 100:4-5

During a trip to England, my husband and I planned to tour Windsor Castle. Imagine that! I was excited about the opportunity to see the splendid home of the royal family.

Outside the castle, we waited in line, the chill of damp, gray gloom seeping into our bones. Then we heard something. A jet? It passed right over us. We moved up slightly in line. Five minutes later, another jet. I turned to my husband and said, “You know, honey, we’re not the richest people in the world. Our house is a fraction of the size of this place, but I wouldn’t trade it.”

He laughed and asked me why not. “Because as beautiful as this place is, it’s still under the flight path of hundreds of roaring jets.”

We had a good laugh together. But then I realized that our home truly is our castle—a blessing most of us regularly take for granted.

Beatitude Check: Be thankful for the home God has given you. It may or may not be a castle, but God chose the home you live in just for you. Celebrate your hearth and home with a bouquet of flowers or a prayer of thanksgiving.


From: Babes with a Beatitude Devotions for Smart, Savvy Women of Faith
Published by: Howard Books, a division of Simon & Shuster, Inc. 2009
Written by: MY DEAR FRIENDS, Linda Kozar and Dannelle Woody, my favorite babes with beatitudes! www.babeswithabeatitude.com

God Will Make A Way

“…and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” Exodus 14:21-22

God has a thing about making ‘a way’ for His people when the situation seems impossible. He’s been doing it since He first freed the Israelites from Egyptian captivity and He’s still doing it today. Ever received an unexpected insurance reimbursement check in the mail at just the time you seriously needed the money? That was Him.

No, He might not part the Gulf of Mexico for you, (even though we have proof He could) but He will miraculously stop a two-ton SUV before hitting the sub-compact who’s slammed to a stop in front of you. Yes, that was Him too.

What is your Red Sea? Is it a lost job? Is it an illness? Is it coming up on April 15th? Only He knows how to part your Red Sea. Turn it over to Him and He will allow you to cross over on dry ground.

God WILL make a way even when there seems to be no way…

Photo courtesy of Connie Morgan/Flickr.com

iFever

It seems of late that technology is exploding like an atom bomb. I’m reminded of my first cell phone purchased about 18, 19 years ago. It was about as big as a size 6 tennis shoe with a screen the size of a postage stamp. It took phone calls…that’s all it did.

Over the years my phones have shrunk in size and grown in the amount of technology they utilize. But it’s not just cell phones that have evolved; portable music listening devices have changed immensely over the years. I’m dating myself by admitting this, but I was once the proud owner of not only a record player, but also a Dynamite-8, eight-track tape player. It was bright yellow and shaped like that box thingy in movies that set off dynamite, complete with a plunger handle you pushed to change tracks. Did I listen to my Carpenters tape on the player? Yes…yes I did!

The eight-track gave way to the cassette tape. Anyone have a Walkman? And then we were introduced to the CD and the portable CD player and eventually the MP3 and MP4 player. Okay, I don’t want any techies harshing my blog because I’m not very tech savvy. I’m just hitting the highlights here.

Last weekend my husband bought me the famous Apple iPhone. What an awesome piece of technology it is! Now my phone not only takes phone calls, I can text, update my Facebook, surf the web, watch a movie and play an awesome App…all while driving my SUV! JUST KIDDING!

The real reason for this blog entry stems from stumbling onto an online video touting the wonders of the (heralding trumpets) Apple iPad! Gotta have it! This thing is amazing with its 9.7 inch LED backlit display, websites, e-mail, photos, movies, books, 150,000 apps and all for $499.

What’s drawing me to this product you ask? I just got the iPhone after all. It’s because my friend, who I’ll call Sam, because that’s his name, sat in church last Sunday morning and whipped out his Bible…on Kindle! Who does he think he is, reading God’s Holy Word digitally in the Baptist church? And that, my friends is why I MUST have the iPad. Come on April 3rd…well, maybe I’ll wait until the iPad comes down to four hundred fifty bucks.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

Bob Dylan said it and I’m here to attest that his words are true. They are in my case anyway.

A couple weeks ago as I lay alone in my bed resting a pain developed in my side. I didn’t think much about, after all, I often have side pain with my Crohns Disease. The pain didn’t dissipate as I had planned. Instead it got worse.

It was a different kind of pain, like a contraction. Now I’ve given birth on three separate occasions—I know what contractions are like. The difference with this pain and a contraction is that with childbirth, you get a small break in between.

I’m a very patient woman. That’s the only reason I can determine why I lay in my bed writhing in pain for two hours. My husband at work, my two younger children at school, I decided to call my eldest son, home from college. He was down the hall asleep in his bedroom.

My son, rushed to my side. We came to the conclusion that I must be having an attack of appendicitis. I’d just gone through that only a couple months earlier with my husband.

The pain continued to worsen to the point that I began throwing up. The only good thing about this turn of events is that the pain seemed to abate for a few minutes after throwing up. I threw up four more times before I saw the emergency room doctor.

My husband met me and my son at the ER. I could tell he was frightened. He’d seen me give birth to our three children. He knew how I reacted to that pain. This was worse. He would later tease that he was sure an alien was going to explode out of my torso.

Thank God the emergency room was fairly empty and I was quickly taken back. After seeing the ER physician I was hooked up to an IV, given some fluids and a very strong pain killer before being rolled down for a CT scan.

The CT came back shortly with a diagnosis—kidney stones.

The following evening I survived the passing of my first stone. It wasn’t nearly as painful as the day before. I investigated kidney stones on the internet and was surprised (well sort of) to find that people with inflammatory bowel disease are prone to kidney stones. This disease just keeps getting better and better.

From my blog posts I must sound like I’m sick all the time…but I’m not. I’m living a happy, productive life despite my illness. In fact I praise God for the trials I’ve gone through. I even searched for a Bible verse to describe this current situation. Here’s what I came up with.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:38-40

I’d like to think that when I was laying there unable to do anything but groan in pain that my “stones” cried out with praise to God!

But don’t get me wrong…I do not feel so all alone, because everybody must get stoned…

Snow Time Like The Present

He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.' Job 37:6

The Good Lord is certainly generous in Southeast Texas with rain showers, but snow…well not so much. On December 4, 2009, however, Houston, Texas delighted in a smattering of snowfall. Most school children were already deep into class or school would surely have been cancelled. Thankfully for my kids the snow lasted well into the evening so they had their chance to play in the soggy white drifts. Keep in mind the drifts are what accumulated on car hoods.

A Houston snow is about as common as a flock of Blue Footed Boobies migrating to Galveston Island. Speaking of Galveston, a blanket of snow covered Galveston Island on Christmas Eve 2004. The amazing pictures of the Galveston Seawall, coated in snow were all over the news and internet. There was even a coffee-table book released commemorating the “miraculous” event.



We’ve been blessed with a layer of the white stuff only four times in the past fifteen years including the December 4th snow. There doesn’t seem to be much accurate information on the history of Houston snowfall, but here is what I’ve learned from the internet and from having lived here over forty years myself. Apparently it has only snowed in Houston thirty-three times since 1895 when the heavens opened up and dropped twenty plus inches of snow on downtown Houston. Believe me when I say it has NEVER snowed that much in the one-hundred-and-fifteen years since. The December 4th snow marked two records; first it’s the only time it snowed two years in a row, 2008 and 2009 and it beat the previous record for earliest recorded snow of December 10th set in 1944 and 2008.

I’ll never forget my first snow memory. The year was 1973. I would have been nine or ten years old. Schools were closed at the first mention of snow. My brothers and I watched the news reports warning about icy roads and covering the tender vegetation as we snuck peeks out the window waiting patiently for that first bit of fluff to fall from the sky. When it finally came, we rushed outside wearing three pair of pants, four shirts, winter coats and rain boots. (My mom doesn’t like cold). I remember a snow man of about two foot tall and my face stinging from being pummeled by snowballs. I also remember my mom making snow ice cream and saving one final snowball in a plastic baggy in the freezer. Yes, these are memories that stick with you.

Another memorable snow happened in 1989. It was special to me because it was the first snow I could remember since my first snow in 1973. My husband and I played in the snow in the backyard of our first home. We made a six inch snowman complete with match stick arms and cat food eyes. Ahh memories.

It seems strange that my youngest child has seen snow three times already in his short life. And we’re looking at freezing temperatures at the end of this week. Do you think it might snow in Houston yet again? That’s global warming for you!