Hot Days

     This is about the hottest day I can remember for the last three or four years.  The temperature itself isn't so bad, but the humidity is horrendous.  I'm beginning to feel the need to move to a much cooler climate.  I know that Toby never could stand any heat. He would always find the spot in the house right where the coolest air was coming from the air conditioner. He loved the cool weather just like I do. The two of us went for long walks in the fall. Where I live, late October and November were the two months with the temperatures Toby and I enjoyed. We'd take our time wandering through the orchard and just enjoy being alive and together. When the heat came, we stayed in as much as possible. I hope that in Heaven the temperature for him is about 50 degrees just like we liked it.

Old TV Shows

     I don't get cable TV where I live, so I just watch what comes over the public air waves. Last week, a new station came on that shows old programs from the 60's, 70's and 80's.  I enjoy watching these programs, especially the comedies that didn't have to sink to the level of the crude and rude to get laughs. I wish that there were more good contemporary programs being produced today.

A Parable About Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35 is a parable about forgiveness. Peter comes to Jesus and asks if he should forgive someone who has offended him up to seven time. Jesus says that Peter shouldn't stop at seven times, Peter should forgive seventy times seven times. To illustrate His point, Jesus tells a story about a king and a servant who owes the king an extraordinary amount of money. There's no way the servant can ever pay back his debt, so he begs the king to have patience and he would pay him. The king was moved to have mercy on the servant and forgave all the servants debt.
     Later, the servant whose debt had just been forgiven found a servant who owed him a small amount of money. The servant in debt begged for more time to pay the debt, but his fellow servant had him thrown into debtor's prison.
     When word of this got back to the king he became very angry and called the unforgiving servant into his presence.  Because the servant had received such extravagant forgiveness from the king, the servant should have been willing to forgive his fellow servant. Because of this, the unforgiving servant was cast into prison until all of his debt was paid.
     All of us who have come to faith in Jesus Christ have been forgiven of our extraordinary debt of sin. It was a debt we could not pay. The Lord now expects us to be a forgiving people. Nothing that anyone can do to us can compare to the offense our sin brought against God. 
     Jesus said that we should forgive others from our heart. That is part of what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

A Good Program

     Last night, I watched a program about how the Palomar telescope was made. The program was called "Journey to Palomar" and was broadcast on PBS. This was an excellent show, and I encourage everyone to watch it if you have the chance.

Jesus Has Done It All

     I read an article in a religious magazine today about how salvation is a work of grace and human cooperation. In some way, we supposedly accept Christ and then keep ourselves in the faith by not sinning. If we sin to much, we're lost.
     We are not saved by any work that we can do.  Salvation is all of Jesus and none of us. Good works never saved nor kept anyone saved. To be born again, we must put our full faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and rely not one iota on ourselves.

Verse For The Day

Revelation 22: 12-13-"Behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.  I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

The Lost Sheep

  Matthew 18:10-14
     This is one of my favorite parables that Jesus tells.  I like sheep and sheepdogs.  I wanted to have a sheep ranch with working Border Collies in my younger days. 
     In this parable, Jesus talks about the responsibility of a good shepherd.  The good shepherd is responsible for all the sheep in his care.  If there are 100 sheep, it doesn't matter if 99 return to the fold at night.  The good shepherd goes out and searches for the one lost sheep until he finds it and brings it back to the fold with great rejoicing.
     Those without Christ are the lost sheep, and Jesus is the good shepherd.  He doesn't want to lose a single sheep.  The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.