Thought for August 6, 2024

  •  1890: First person executed by the electric chair
  • 1890: Cy Young pitches first major league game
  • 1926: Gertrude Ederle is first woman to swim the English Channel
  • 1945: Bombing of Hiroshima
  • 1948: Bob Mathias wins Olympic Gold in the decathlon
  • 1952: Satchel Paige pitches a 12 inning shut-out at age 46
  • 1960: Chubby Checker does the "Twist" on Bandstand starting a dance craze
  • 1964: World's oldest tree [at least 4,862 years old] accidentally cut down in Nevada
  • 1965: LBJ signs Voting Rights Act
  • 1991: Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing World Wide Web. Sorry Al Gore.
  • 2015: First "Daily Show" with Jon Stewart
  • Born: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edith Roosevelt, Alexander Fleming, Lucille Ball, Andy Warhol, David Robinson
  • Died: Anne Hathaway [Shakespeare's wife], Rick James, Louise Suggs, Harry Reasoner, Marvin Hamlisch, 
Thought:
Yesterday, I was praying for a heart transplant from the Lord. Today, I am reading Mark 7:31-37. Here Jesus encounters a man who was deaf and spoke with difficulty. Jesus opens his ears so he can hear and looses his tongue so he can speak plainly. In verse 37, the people are astonished and say, "He does all things well; He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak." Now I am putting the truth from yesterday and these verses together in my mind. Do I want to hear Jesus clearly? Do I want to speak for Jesus plainly? Maybe that begins with a heart transplant--for out of a transformed heart flows the love, grace and mercy of the Lord.

Some of us have begun to have hearing issues. We need more volume from our televisions. We need someone to repeat what they said because the words were distorted. Or maybe we need someone to look at us so we can see their lips as they speak. If that happens to us physically, could it also happen spiritually? Our ears become dulled by the world--the noise, the turmoil, the arguing and shouting scramble the sounds. And they distract us from the small clear voice trying to speak to me. Go back and read 1 Kings 19 this morning. Elijah is standing on the mountain and the Lord was passing by. A great wind came that broke the mountain apart. Then an earthquake followed. And then a fire. But the Lord was not in any of these. Then a gentle blowing and God speaks to Elijah. We live in the days of howling winds, earth moving events, fire. Lord, help me ignore these and listen for that gentle blowing from You.

Some of us have seeing issues. Cataracts, bifocals, trifocals, macular degeneration, floaters, glaucoma. Sometimes I think I have disease of my spiritual eyes. Things get distorted, blurry, out of focus. I begin to see things through the fleshly eyes, not the eyes of Christ. Lord, help me see things as You see them. 

Good news--the same Jesus who helped the man hear and see in the passage we read, is still in the business of opening ears and clearing sight.

Blessings
Larry

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