9-1-1

Family get-togethers are almost always fun, especially in my family. We always find ourselves staying up way later than normal, trying to fit as much family time into a few hours.

This past weekend my daughter and I were visiting my sister in Michigan. We stayed up late Saturday night. The term "late" seems to get redefined with each decade. Late for me is 10:30. Late for my daughter is midnight. Just wait kiddo! Someday. LOL!

Earlier that evening my niece was relating a story where she and my daughter got themselves into trouble at an early age by dialing 9-1-1 and telling the operator someone needed help. They apparently did this a few times, resulting in the police calling our house to investigate.

My dad answered the phone and told the nice officer that there indeed were two young ladies in the house but that no one was in need of assistance. The my dad informed me and my sister what our daughters had done.

I yelled upstairs where our daughters were "playing" and made it very clear to my daughter that she had done something very wrong. My yelling was having quite and impact on my niece. She confessed this past Saturday that it was SHE who called 9-1-1 and that it was her fault.

She said she felt so guilty when someone else was being punished for something SHE had done. Let that last sentence sink in for a bit as we reading this verse from the Book of Isaiah.

"5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed." - Isaiah 53:5

When you found out that someone else (Jesus) was being punished for YOUR sins, how did that make you feel? I know I felt pretty bad. It was my fault that Jesus had to die!

Now, I know that everyone else's sins resulted in the death of Jesus as well but I took it personally. I think we ALL should take it personally.

What is the first thing we should do when someone else takes the punishment for OUR sins. I don't know about you but I apologized to Jesus when I learned that "²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21

May we all take the time to reflect on the things we've done in this life. The thought of someone else dying for something I did is a constant reminder of how much God loves us and the sacrifice He was willing to make for us. How do we answer that? We should offer our lives to Him.

Lord, I Offer My Life To You - Hillsong

Urgent - Foreigner

ER

It's amazing, the things one thinks about when they find themselves the focus of attention in an emergency room. Not much actually. Although everyone seemed really interested in finding out more about me. I must have given my "last name and date of birth" about a dozen times. Blood was being taken out of one arm and something else was being pumped into the other. Yet 24 hours ago that's where I was.

I was at work all day Friday. Things were fine. I was still feeling good that night. But then at one o'clock AM I was NOT feeling good at all. Not at all! I didn't sleep the rest of the night, feeling extremely weak and achy, temperature. Very dizzy. And my heart seemed to be acting up a bit. That last symptom prompted my wife to take me to the ER.

I was there for 3 hours with a very worried wife by my side. Then, upon returning home, I slept. I slept ALL DAY. Then last night it started again. I got up from bed and went into the living room so my tossing and turning wouldn't disturb my wife. That's when I did something I hadn't done in the past 24 hours. I prayed.

Funny. That's the first thing I should have done, yet it was the last. So, as I drifted off to sleep early this morning I still was not feeling very good. But I had prayed, not for myself, but for God's will to be done.

Perhaps that sounds a bit melodramatic but that's what I did. I fell asleep in our living room chair and woke up feeling incredibly refreshed. All of my symptoms were gone. This morning I ate some food, the first since Friday night's dinner. This morning I feel so much better, as if nothing had happened.

This morning, as I type this story for you, I paused to look out the window. We have a bird feeder in our back yard. The chickadees and nuthatches are busy feeding themselves on sunflower seeds, not a care in the world. God has provided for them. And so, for today, I leave you with the words of Jesus, my friends. May thoughts of Him be our FIRST line of defense, and not our last.

"26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:26-34