This morning as we studied the events surrounding the first Gentiles receiving repentence unto life in Acts 10, 11 we saw in the narrative what each person was intent on doing or being. Cornelius was intent on his fearing God with his house, doing many good works among the people, and praying always. Peter was intent on maintaining the Jewish diet and was concerned about not mixing with Gentiles. The apostles and brethren were intent of finding out why Peter didn’t maintain his distance from Gentiles as a Jew. God was intent on making Peter understand that the Gentiles were not common or unclean in repentence to life. The Holy Spirit was intent on seeing that Peter accepted the vision and went with the men to Caesarea. The family and near friends gathered with Cornelius were intent on hearing the Word of God. Again the Holy Spirit was intent on coming upon the family and near friends who believed. But at the end of Peter’s message we see that Christ was intent on taking our own sins in His own body that we can have repentence unto life that through His name whether Jew or Gentile, whoever believes in him shall receive no enforcement of the penalty of sin. No matter what we are intent at doing, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are intent on doing so much more. Where sin abounded grace did super abound!

We had a great night of feasting in our praise to God. This time we have is based on the fact that the tithe of yearly produce was to be brought before God in the place He would choose to place His name, offered to God, and then they were to have a feast on that which was tithed. (Check out Deuteronomy 14 for more details.) We have chosen in our family to take out of the tithe from our Income Tax return to have a feast of praise to God with that money. God wants us to rejoice in His goodness and take part in what we offer to Him.

We all had a great time and feast upon the great food at El Mexicano in Moore, SC. My nephew Keith was visiting and joined us in this great time. It must be noted that non-praise features included a light sabre fight between Androids (Eunice and Ricky sat on opposite ends of the table with Schwartz light sabres on their Android OS cell phones waving them at each other). All was in a time of fun and enjoyment of the goodness of God.

Thank you to all who prayed for my brother Dan. He came home Wednesday. The doctor said that his arteries and heart are all good from what they can see. He noted a couple of posibilities as to why the situation that occurred on Sunday as to why he went to the ER in the first place. Thank you all again. Praise God.

Bilbo Baggins may have written, There and Back, but at times we need to consider ‘Here and Back’. I am not speaking of daydreaming or such like. I am thinking of ‘here’. What is your ‘here’? The play ‘Our Town’ defines ‘here’ as the corners, the town, the county, the state, the country, the earth, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the universe. It could have been expanded downward to some degree for physical location qualification. However, that would have been true for that point in time as the earth, the solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy are all moving. So does time define ‘here’ as well? I will not venture much into the mental concept of being ‘here’. There are those on the earth that through no devising or action of their own they may not be able to participate in competent communication and exchange of thought. Other s may be but circumstances in their lives have caused them to withdraw from what they have perceived as violent, violating, and vicious. Yet others, though present choose not to be ‘here’ mentally. Though some would disallow the next thought it is nevertheless true and valid. There is the spiritual aspect of being ‘here’… This ‘here’ begins with an agreement of not only there being one God, one Divine Being, one who is almighty, one who is Creator, but also that every person who is alive and has ever lived has a relationship to that one God. This also has levels to define such relationship and provides open discussion for being ‘here’. How ‘here’ is defined in this context becomes not ours to qualify, but with that one God being Creator being ‘here’ become His definition, not ours.

Been awhile since the last post. Was it because of inconvenience? Lets see… Labor Day at Bruce’s but some had other plans… Jesse’s birthday and outing to Chimney Rock, but not all the family was there because some had already made plans… Thanksgiving Day meal as a family on Sunday because Thanksgiving Day meal came and we were in three or four different geographical locations… Then Christmas… Two days before Christmas our white van died… possibly the fuel pump… the van Andrea planned to take to Wisconsin. Christmas eve evening after at time with family at Ricky and Karlyn’s new house on the way to Eunice’s new home our blue van quits in the middle of the road. Christmas day, when Eunice was planning on taking us to Michigan, was spent at Eunice’s home. The day after Christmas Jesse and I spent five hours fixing things that require fixing, but do not get the blue van running. And inconvenience?

And this is Christmas… That first, as we tend to call it, Christmas… Was it not inconvenient for Mary to be told she would be pregnant, not by man, but by God. How do you explain that? Joseph wanted to at least hide her shame as much as he could, but it was inconvenient to be told by God to take her without shame to be his wife in the face of all criticism they would face. It too was inconvenient to be nearing the end of Mary’s pregnancy and be required to travel on foot or donkey about a hundred miles to register for the Roman government. It was inconvenient to get there later than so many others and find room for birthing in a stable. Then within a couple of years to have to flee for the life of their son to Egypt traveling the same way. Was it not inconvenient for so many families to have their children under two years old to die because of that one child? that one child whose ultimate purpose was to die on this earth for the sins of all who would ever live.

So tell me, was your Christmas inconvenient for you?