Forgive us, God, for sinning against You.

I was reading Psalm 95: The world is the Lord's; the oceans are the Lord's and all things that live in it!

Lord God, we humans have fouled, have spoiled your possessions. Look what we have done to Your Gulf of Mexico!

Let us humans know our sin and repent.

I am so sorry!
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No Easy Way Out

One morning not long ago I was reading Solomon's message to the people upon the completion of his Temple. He quoted Moses a long. In particular, what caught my eye and mind was his statement that the people would be conquered if they rebelled against God, and if their hearts returned to God, then their conquerers would treat them kindly.

What I noticed was what Solomon did not say. He didn't say that God would immediate free all the people from bondage if they returned to Him. Instead, Solomon said the people might still be in bondage, but that their conquerors' attitudes toward them would change.

I guess that means there is no quick fix to sin.

Swimming

I have a problem with procrastinating. I have procrastinated for quite some time in writing this report of a very spiritual experience I had at church while we were doing praise and worship. No one knew; it was totally between me and God.

As we same praise songs, I suddenly became aware that I was swimming in an aquarium. Air bubles were coming out of my nose and rising up all the way to heaven. I knew the bubbles were my prayers, and that I was swimming in the Holy Spirit.

The experience was so cool. The experience has not happened again, but it is really neat to remember. Sometimes, I can put myself in that frame of mind and realise that I am swimming in God every minute. Through Him I live and move and have my being

Yesterday, I could have helped someone in need, but I did not do it. It's not that I refused. I simply didn't think about it until it was too late.

A WIC mom could not pay for all the food in her cart. She was frustrated as she tried to decide, 1 item at a time, what to remove from her cart.

I moved to another aisle in order to get out of the store faster, and it did not occur to me until I was on the way to my car that I could easily have bought the woman's groceries for her and her child.

I got my credit card out of the car and returned to the store, but the woman was no where around. I never saw her leave. She may have been an angel, and I totally failed the test.

God Makes His Saints Face Their Rejectors

I was just reading Acts 7:30-50. What jumped out at me was the story of how Moses was sent back to the very people who rejected him. So was Jesus: He was rejected by almost everyone, yet the Father sent him to his rejectors.

The same thing happened to me. As a kid, I was rejected by all my peers, but the people who treated me the worst, who actively persecuted me, were working-class and under-class Americans. Those are precisely the people I teach at my college, and I have no doubt that God put me in my job.

Isn't that interesting? I am beloved by my students, with very few exceptions. Yet, these are mostly members of the class of people who treated me so badly.

I have marvelled at this before, but today I read Acts and read that God seems to do this on a fairly regular basis: send his followers back to the people who rejected them.

First Rose of Sharon popped out yesterday.

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