Archive for the 'Theology' Category
(by Dr. Charles Stanley from the June 2010 issue of In Touch Magazine)
14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.
15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16 “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. 19 After them, seven other cows came up—scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. 20 The lean, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first. 21 But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.
22 “In my dreams I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk. 23 After them, seven other heads sprouted—withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. 24 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none could explain it to me.”
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. 27 The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
28 “It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, 30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. 31 The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. 32 The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.
33 “And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. 36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”
37 The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”
39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”
41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.”
The Bible is relevant for every situation. Although the details of our circumstances probably differ from those described in scripture, God’s Word still applies.
From the life of Joseph, we get a glimpse of what it means to have God with us in hard times. First of all, the young man’s faith strengthened, helping him place loyalty to the Lord above his personal welfare. For example, when Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce Joseph, he refused, saying he would not sin against God (Genesis 39:9).
Second, the Lord’s presence meant that Joseph prospered right where he was—as a slave in Potiphar’s house and as a prisoner in a foreign jail. In both situations, those in charge recognized God’s favor was upon Joseph. So they gave him great responsibility and authority (verses 3-4, 21-22).
Third, during times of suffering, Joseph gained invaluable life lessons that prepared him for the future. As a slave and prisoner, Joseph learned ways to handle responsibility, the details of Egyptian culture, and the importance of keeping God first.
An additional blessing was the opportunity to be a witness to the Lord’s power and sufficiency. When brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream, Joseph said he could not do it but testified that God could (Genesis 41:16).
We can see our faith grow by relying on our heavenly Father the way Joseph did. When we give God His rightful place in our lives as Lord, His presence will strengthen us to resist temptation. Then we, too, will be equipped to do kingdom work and ready to proclaim His greatness to those around us.
September 02 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
(devotional from OurPrayer.org)
Nature is the perfect example of renewal. But did you know the Creator renews people, too? The Bible tells us that God sees within each of us vast potentials for new energy and accomplishments.
Think of how many people and situations have been changed forever as God brought out the best within them. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “Father of Many” (Genesis 17:5), and today Abraham is honored as the father of all Christians. “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:14). Throughout the Bible, people’s names define the essentials of who they are—a new name means a new individual. Tricky Jacob was given the new name of Israel (Genesis 32:28)—in Hebrew “God strives”—showing that in the future Jacob would struggle spiritually until he became victorious.
Jesus looked at cripples, lepers, blind men, prostitutes and individuals with all kinds of defects and problems and saw within each of them new potential. He brought their good, positive potential out! He saw within impulsive, wavering Simon an underlying strength, and named him “Rock” (the original meaning of “Peter”). He made a despised tax collector one of his choice Apostles. What would we do without the Gospel that bears the name of Matthew?
God sees within you valuable and new potentials. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). Whenever you face a problem, bring it to Jesus. He will not only answer your prayer, but also bring out new resources within you!
August 26 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
(written by Max Lucado from MaxLucado.com)
Resentment. . . a door quietly closes.
Anger… the door slams shut!
Hurts from your heritage.. . fasten the latch!
Weakened faith . . . throw the bolt!
Four elements that can lock up a heart, keeping delight out and darkness in. Resentment, the cocaine of the emotions. Anger, the destroyer of joy. Your heritage, the straitjacket of expectation. Declining faith, the marauder of hope.
And four keys to unlocking the heart… to replacing resentment with forgiveness, anger with understanding… to repairing the past with the possible… to rediscovering faith.
Chapter One- Get Rid of Regret
You have one. A sack. A burlap sack. Probably aren’t aware of it, may not have been told about it. Could be you don’t remember it. But it was given to you. A sack. An itchy, scratchy burlap sack. You needed the sack so you could carry the stones. Rocks, boulders, pebbles. All sizes. All shapes. All unwanted. You didn’t request them. You didn’t seek them. But you were given them. Don’t remember?
Some were rocks of rejection. You were given one the time you didn’t pass the tryout. It wasn’t for lack of effort. Heaven only knows how much you practiced. You thought you were good enough for the team. But the coach didn’t. The instructor didn’t. You thought you were good enough, but they said you weren’t. They and how many others?
You don’t have to live long before you get a collection of stones. Make a poor grade. Make a bad choice. Make a mess. Get called a few names. Get mocked. Get abused.
And the stones don’t stop with adolescence. I sent a letter this week to an unemployed man who’s been rejected in more than fifty interviews.
And so the sack gets heavy. Heavy with stones. Stones of rejection. Stones we don’t deserve. Look into the burlap sack and you see that not all the stones are from rejections. There is a second type of stone. The stone of regret.
Regret for the time you lost your temper.
Regret for the day you lost control.
Regret for the moment you lost your pride.
Regret for the years you lost your priorities.
And even regret for the hour you lost your innocence.
One stone after another, one guilty stone after another.
With time the sack gets heavy. We get tired. How can you have dreams for the future when all your energy is required to shoulder the past?
No wonder some people look miserable. The sack slows the step. The sack chafes. Helps explain the irritation on so many faces, the sag in so many steps, the drag in so many shoulders, and most of all, the desperation in so many acts. You’re consumed with doing whatever it takes to get some rest.
So you take the sack to the office. You resolve to work so hard you’ll forget about the sack. You arrive early and stay late. People are impressed. But when it’s time to go home, there is the sack—waiting to be carried out.
You carry the stones into happy hour. With a name like that, it must bring relief. So you set the sack on the floor, sit on the stool, and drink a few. The music gets loud and your head gets light. But then it’s time to go and you look down and there is the sack.
You drag it into therapy. You sit on the couch with the sack at your feet and spill all your stones on the floor and name them one by one. The therapist listens. She empathizes. Some helpful counsel is given. But when the time is up, you’re obliged to gather the rocks and take them with you.You get so desperate you try a weekend rendezvous. A little excitement. A risky embrace. A night of stolen passion. And for a moment the load is lighter. But then the weekend passes. Sunday’s sun sets and awaiting you on Monday’s doorstep is—you got it—your sack of regrets and rejections.
Some even take the sack to church. Perhaps religion will help, we reason. But instead of removing a few stones, some well-meaning but misguided preacher may add to the load. God’s messengers sometimes give more hurt than help. And you might leave the church with a few new rocks in your sack.The result? A person slugging his way through life, weighed down by the past. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s hard to be thoughtful when you’re carrying a burlap sack. It’s hard to be affirming when you are affirmation-starved. It’s hard to be forgiving when you feel guilty.
Paul had an interesting observation about the way we treat people. He said it about marriage, but the principle applies in any relationship. “The man who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28). There is a correlation between the way you feel about yourself and the way you feel about others. If you are at peace with yourself—if you like yourself—you will get along with others.
The converse is also true. If you don’t like yourself, if you are ashamed, embarrassed, or angry, other people are going to know it. The tragic part of the burlap-sack story is we tend to throw our stones at those we love. Unless the cycle is interrupted. Which takes us to the question, “How does a person get relief?” Which, in turn, takes us to one of the kindest verses in the Bible, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. The teaching I ask you to accept is easy; the load I give you to carry is light” (Matthew 11:28—30).
You knew I was going to say that. I can see you holding this book and shaking your head. “I’ve tried that. I’ve read the Bible, I’ve sat on the pew—but I’ve never received relief.” If that is the case, could I ask a delicate but deliberate question? Could it be that you went to religion and didn’t go to God? Could it be that you went to a church, but never saw Christ?
“Come to me,” the verse reads.
It’s easy to go to the wrong place. I did yesterday. I was in Portland, Maine, catching a flight to Boston. Went to the desk, checked my bag, got my ticket, and went to the gate. I went past security, took my seat, and waited for the flight to be called. I waited and waited and waited—finally, I went up to the desk to ask the attendant and she looked at me and said, “You’re at the wrong gate.”
Now, what if I’d pouted and sighed, “Well, there must not be a flight to Boston. Looks like I’m stuck.”
You would have said to me, “You’re not stuck. You’re just at the wrong gate. Go down to the right gate and try again.”
It’s not that you haven’t tried—you’ve tried for years to deal with your past. Alcohol. Affairs. Workaholism. Religion.
Jesus says He is the solution for weariness of soul.
(to be continued in the next post!)
August 20 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
(devotional by Neil Anderson – Freedom in Christ Ministries from Christianity.com)
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.
For many people, loving others is a nebulous concept. Fortunately, agape love is very clearly defined in the Scriptures. When love is used as a noun in Scripture, it is referring to character. For example: “God is love” (1 John 4:8); “Love is patient, love is kind,” etc. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Love is the highest of character attainments: “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). Love is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), the means by which a true disciple of Christ is identified (John 13:35). The attention given to love in passages such as 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 4 reveals its importance to God in our interpersonal relationships, of which the family is primary.
Agape love is not dependent on the person being loved, but on the lover. You may like someone because of who he is; but you love him because of who you are. God loves us not because we are lovable, but because God is love. If it were any other way, God’s love would be conditional. If you performed better, would God love you more? Of course not. God’s love for us is not based on our performance, but on His character.
Love is also used as a verb in Scripture. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Used this way, love is grace in action. It is giving unconditionally to meet the needs of another.
If you say you don’t love someone, you have said more about yourself than about that person. Specifically, you’re saying that you haven’t attained the maturity to love him unconditionally (Luke 6:32). The grace of God enables you to love others in a way that people without Christ cannot. God doesn’t command you to like your family, your neighbors and your coworkers because you can’t order your emotions to respond. But He does instruct you to love them. You can always choose to do the loving thing and trust that your feelings will follow in time.
Prayer: “Thank You, Father, for bestowing on me the greatest love of all by sending Jesus. Teach me to love others as You have loved me.”
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August 15 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God.”
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
Do you know how God pursues those who run from Him? He pursues them with purpose, and with provision, and with unbending love. The tiny book of Hosea is a mini-pageant of God’s pursuing love played on the stage of human life. In it, Gomer leaves her good husband Hosea and goes her own way, taking other lovers and shaming the faithful man she married. But he doesn’t write her off or cut her loose. In fact, even when she is with other men, he is concerned for her welfare, and reckoning for her good.
When Gomer sets up housekeeping with another man, Hosea seeks him out and gives him wool and flax and bread, saying, “Give her these, she’ll need them.” So the man does, and takes credit for them himself, receiving the gratitude and affection that should have been Hosea’s.
God’s love is like that, isn’t it? He keeps on loving you and keeps on loving me, even when we say “God, I’ve had enough,” and run from Him! We flee as far and as fast as we can, then stop to catch our breath and think we’ve out-distanced Him. But then there’s a quiet word or a gentle touch, and God is near again. We say, “Lord, how did you find me here?” and He replies, “My child, I knew a short-cut.” Pursuing love is not deterred by our weak protests. Love always knows a short cut.
(devotional written by Dr. Ed Young from Christianity.com)
August 10 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
(devotional by Dr. Charles Stanley from the June 2010 issue of In Touch magazine)
71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
73 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.
74 May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.
75 I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
76 May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.
David rejoiced in affliction because trials added to his knowledge of God. Lessons in the Lord’s constancy, grace, and provision were more valuable to him than a sack of money. Moreover, David’s heart and spirit were enriched as well.
Affliction acts as spiritual fertilizer on a believer’s faith. David’s radical pursuit of the Lord developed while he was running from a murderous king. The years between his victory over Goliath and his ascension to the throne were physically demanding and emotionally draining. Yet the challenges molded the future king into a wise leader, a cunning warrior, and a humble servant of God.
David’s psalms reveal that his struggles taught him dependence on God (Psalm 4), perseverance (Psalm 13), and many other valuable spiritual traits. The Lord also provided comfort even as He stretched the warrior-poet’s faith (Psalm 86:17). As God intended, David’s words offer solace to others who must walk through misery.
By means of affliction, God molds His children into comfort carriers (2 Corinthians 1:4). The message we offer is the one we learned in our trials: God is enough. He is sufficient to meet needs when the pit is deep, the obstacle high, or the suffering prolonged. Moreover, our own life proves that hardship makes Christians stronger and wiser.
Second Corinthians 2:14 tells us that believers are a sweet aroma on the earth. Those whom God leads to triumph over affliction become the fragrance of His care to a hurting world. We carry cheer to the discouraged, relief to the hurting, and the message of Christ’s love to all.
August 06 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts | No Comments »
(written by Pat Lierley and Murphy Lierley for Guideposts magazine from Guideposts.com)
This life or death situation brought a father and son together—through panic, strength and prayer.
PAT: It was a Friday afternoon last July. I was 15 feet off the ground, standing on a step, my left hand holding on to the metal frame of a massive cornfield irrigation system. With my right hand I punched my son Murphy’s number into my cell. We were repairing a malfunctioning water gun for a client near North Platte, Nebraska, an hour from our home in Grant. The sun was broiling. I’d been out here for two hours and still I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the system. I’d taken the face off the high-voltage power box, checked the electrical contacts. I’d pulled the pressure hose, reattached it. I’m used to getting results. But today, nothing I tried worked.
Murphy was at the main controls. Between us towering cornstalks blocked him from my view. His job was to turn the power—480 volts—on and off when I called. This was his third summer working with me fixing irrigation systems. In a few weeks he’d be headed to college.
I couldn’t believe how quickly the years had gone by. I’d tried to prepare him to be a man, drilling into him the importance of doing a job right. He was our only child still at home, a good kid, like his two older sisters. I admired his strong faith, how he prayed daily. But sometimes I wished he were a little more focused, a little less dreamy. That had been a strain between us. I kept having to remind him about basic stuff. Sometimes I just didn’t know where his head was at.
On the other end, his phone rang and rang. Where is he? “Uh, Dad?” I heard a groggy voice say.
“Murphy, were you asleep?” I said.
MURPHY: I must have dozed off when Dad called. “Listen, I need you to pay attention,” Dad snapped. “Turn the power on.” I could picture him in my mind. Mouth turned down, eyes intense. I knew that look well. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but the heat was stultifying and it was boring, staring out at a sea of green and waiting for Dad’s call every 20 minutes. Lately it seemed like nothing I did was good enough for him.
“It’s on,” I said, pushing the button.
“Thanks. Let’s hope this works,” Dad said. He hung up. My throat was parched. I’d left my water in the truck Dad had driven to his end of the field. Another screw up.
I pulled out my rosary, started saying a prayer, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, counting the wooden beads with my fingers. Catholics say the chaplet at 3:00 p.m. each Friday, the hour that Christ died. “For the sake of the sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and the whole world,” I prayed after each Hail Mary, words that had given me comfort for as long as I could remember. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Dad. No matter how I tried, I’d never be as good at fixing things as he was. He’d repaired irrigation systems for more years than I’d been alive. He always knew what to do. Not me. Even from across the field I could feel Dad looking over my shoulder.
PAT: I reached for a piece of tubing, my right arm grazing the power box….
The electrical current pulsed through me—all 480 volts. My body shook uncontrollably. My bicep was glued to the power box! I pushed away with all my strength, but the current’s grip only tightened. “God, help me,” I screamed. I’m dying, I thought. My family. I didn’t want to leave them. Not now. Then, suddenly, I was free. I gazed down at the ground swirling below me. At least I hadn’t fallen. Somehow, my left hand hadn’t lost its grip on the frame.
I climbed down shakily and looked at my right arm. Buckets of blood poured out of it. I ran to the passenger side of the truck and grabbed a roll of paper towels, ripped off a huge wad and pressed it hard against my arm. The blood streamed through it. I’m bleeding to death. Have to get to a hospital. I pulled out my cell phone with my left hand, but I didn’t have the strength to push the numbers. All I could do was hit Send….
MURPHY: It surprised me, the phone ringing again so soon. It couldn’t have been five minutes. Hopefully that meant the irrigation system was fixed and we could go home. “Dad,” I said.
“Murphy, I’m driving myself to the emergency room,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. It took a second to register what he was saying. “Turn everything off and call your mom.” The phone went dead.
I didn’t know what to do: drop to my knees or run to Dad. I tore down the field road, praying harder than I’d ever prayed. Dad was about a mile away. I was afraid he’d be gone before I could get there.
I saw a man on a backhoe up ahead. “My dad’s hurt,” I yelled to him. “Can you take me to the other end of the field?”
We got in his truck and took off. I pulled out my cell and called Mom in Grant. “Something’s happened to Dad,” I said. “I’m on my way to him and then we’re headed to the ER. I’ll stay in touch.” I saw Dad’s truck in the distance. “That’s it!” I said. I jumped out and ran. The driver must have gone on. I never looked back.
PAT: I stood by the open passenger door, slumped against the seat, pressing the blood soaked paper towels against my arm. Please, God, I prayed, I don’t want to die. But it was too late. With my right arm useless I couldn’t operate the stick shift, couldn’t make a tourniquet. The world was fading…. If only there were something I could do. Then, like from out of a dream, there was Murphy. “Take off your belt,” I croaked.
MURPHY: For a second I couldn’t figure out why Dad wanted me to remove my belt. Blood was everywhere. Then it hit me. A tourniquet. Frantically I whipped off my belt. Dad pointed weakly to where to put it, above his bicep. I jerked it tight. There weren’t enough holes in the leather! I glanced at Dad for advice, but he was in a stupor. It was up to me. I looked around, telling myself not to panic. Dad’s belt. It was knit. I’d be able to make it tight. I took it off of him. Something told me to tie mine to his and make a double tourniquet. I pulled it as hard as I could. Was it even working? Maybe. I wrestled Dad into the passenger seat, got behind the wheel and roared toward the highway and North Platte, 12 miles away.
I pulled out my cell and called Mom. “I think Dad cut himself,” I said. Next to me I heard Dad moan, “Electrical burn.”
“We’re on our way to the emergency room,” I told Mom.
“I’m already here,” she said.
Mom thought we were going to the ER in Grant. I looked at Dad, soaked with blood, his body limp. I thought of Mom panicked, having to drive an hour on the freeway to reach us. I didn’t want to lie, but I knew I had to keep her safe too. I took a deep breath. “No. The ER in North Platte,” I said. “But don’t worry. It’s minor. We’ll see you when you get there.”
I hung up and then realized: I had no idea where the hospital was. “Dad, I need directions,” I yelled. He opened his eyes. I could see him looking straight out at the horizon, the retreating sun to our left.
“It’s too bright,” he said. “I can’t see.”
What was he talking about? The mileposts were flying by. Soon I’d be in North Platte. I couldn’t afford to make a wrong turn. “Dear God,” I prayed aloud, “help me find the hospital.” I remembered the words of the chaplet: “…have mercy on us…” I prayed over and over. I looked out at the highway. Hospital, next exit, the road sign read.
PAT: The light was blinding. I could hear Murphy talking, praying. His voice sounded far away. Then I heard another voice, this one crystal clear yet strangely unearthly and reassuring. “We have a room for you,” it said, “but it’s not for today.”
Murphy pulled up outside the hospital. I saw him run in and come out with a wheelchair and a nurse. My door opened. Then everything went dark.
MURPHY: “I need you to stay in the waiting room,” the nurse said, his face grim as he rushed Dad down the hall. I fell to my knees in a corner and pulled out my rosary.
I murmured prayer after prayer, squeezing the wooden beads so hard I could feel them cracking. I thought about Jesus on that terrible night, a son, feeling abandoned, needing his father to show him the way.
It seemed like forever before the nurse returned. “It’s early, but it looks like your dad’s going to make it,” he said. “It was the tourniquet. That’s what made the difference. You saved his life.”
“Glory be to the Father…” I whispered. I knew I hadn’t tied that tourniquet or found the hospital on my own.
Mom arrived. I told her what had happened. She understood why I hadn’t given her a full explanation on the phone. There were only a few minutes before a plane was leaving to fly her and Dad to a burn center. I didn’t think she’d ever stop hugging me.
I went back home to get some clothes for Mom and me and to call my sisters. The next day, when I walked into Dad’s room at the burn center, I couldn’t believe it. His eyes were open. He was alert, talking and joking—his tightly wrapped arm the only reminder of what had happened. But something much more than his arm was healing. Dad looked at me and didn’t have to say a thing. His eyes were intense as always, only this time I saw the love. He reached out with his good arm and I stepped closer, feeling connected to him in a way I never had before.
PAT: I hugged Murphy with my good arm and started filling him in on all that had happened before he rescued me. With each detail I couldn’t help but be even more in awe of the miracles God had showered on me. Other than the baseball-sized hole in my arm, there were no other wounds. It was a chance in a thousand that the electricity didn’t hit a vital organ. Then there was the power surge that blew a fuse and broke contact. The voice of reassurance on the highway. But, of course, the blessing I appreciated most was Murphy. I introduce him now as “my hero.” I don’t worry anymore about teaching him to be a man. God seems to have that under control.
August 02 2010 | Bible and Blog and Christianity and Church and Devotions/Devotionals and Faith and Family and God and Grace and Hope and Inspirational and Jesus and Life and Love and Mercy and Opinion and People and Personal and Philosophy and Quotes and Religion and Spiritual and Theology and Thoughts and Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Genesis 41:14-44 (NIV)
