Thursday Night Summary

Last night continued in the same great way. First up we had Bro. Bill Abbott, evangelist, preaching about Men on Fire from Daniel Chapter 3. He talked about the three men thrown in the fiery furnace, and how they were different because they were in the crowd, standing, when everyone else was bowing to the image. Then they were daring because they were brought in front of the king. He gave them another chance and they still refused to bow. They were also dedicated because they told the king that, while God could rescue them from the fiery furnace, even if He didn't, they would still not bow. The final point was amazing as Bro. Abbott pointed out that the men were not delivered until they were actually in the fire. He closed with a great illustration of a man putting a potato, an egg and a coffee-filled pouch into boiling water. The potato was hard, but when it went through the fire, it became soft. The egg was fragile, but going through the fire toughened it and gave it strength. And when the coffee went into the water, it affected its environment and turned all the water into coffee. It's really just a question of what the fire will do to you.

The second sermon was by Bro. Allison, and as usual he knocked it out of the park. He preached from Exodus chapter 32 about the golden calf. His question last night, "Which kind of a leader do you want--Moses or Aaron?" He pointed out from the first few verses it showed that the people wanted to give and they wanted to worship. But they were also prone to wander and forget their past promises to do right. V.22 showed that Aaron understood the people. V.23 showed he was willing to listen to their new ideas. V.24 showed he was willing to make the people happy and he was willing to serve publicly. V.25 said he kept them worshipping Jehovah (Note, this was not THE Jehovah. Calling the calf Jehovah did not make it the one true God.) It also showed he was willing to allow shame in the people (they were naked) without rebuke. He had a ministry of "love" and it was enjoyable, but he nearly destroyed the Israelites with his ministry. (God wanted to destroy them because of their disobedience.)

On the other hand we have Moses--instead of spending time with the people, he spent forty days with God. He was always giving commandments, he had a temper and he was severe. (He commanded the people to pick up their swords and kill the ones who were doing wrong.) Although 3000 people died because of his command, he wasn't as severe as God, who in V. 10 said He would destroy all the people.

Pastor ended with the face that a Preacher who is running with God is going to hate sin. He's going to rebuke it and preach against it. He also said that the way to avoid feeling guilty when a preacher preaches is to get right. The main difference between Moses and Aaron? Aaron spent forty days with the people. Moses spent forty days with God.

We also had Reggie Payte here all this week and his singing was really a blessing! In addition, last night we had Larry Harrison, the book cole porter. Lots of good sales going on in the fellowship hall after the service!

We left the church about 10:00 last night. All of my boys were dragging so I put them to bed and told them to sleep in the next morning. To my surprise, they slept until 10:00 a.m. Nicky woke up with 102.5 fever and throwing up. Guess the flu is trying to make a repeat appearance at our house.

Tonight's the final night of the conference. Bro. Abbott will be preaching again and then Bro. John Reynolds will be closing out the conference. I'll share with you on Monday what we learn tonight. Have a great weekend!

Super Conference Update

We are still rolling through our Super Conference. Three nights down, two to go. Several have asked me if we're taping the messages. We don't have that capability yet. Hopefully we will by next year. Last night Bro. Allison preached on the Valley of Dry Bones from Ezekiel 37. God commanded Ezekiel to preach to the bones and they became a mighty living army. But Ezekiel didn't do that. God did. Ezekiel simply obeyed God's command. Bro. Allison really stressed that we are only to obey, even if we don't understand the command. And also, nothing we do will have any meaning or merit without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bro. John Reynolds of Volusia County Baptist Church here in Florida followed up with a message on the battle of Jericho in Joshua 6. He stressed persistent obedience, even when we can't see where God is working in our lives. The Israelites were probably pretty excited the first day they went out and marched around Jericho. But day after day doing that, probably with the Jericho-ites mocking them from the wall, had to be tough. And they weren't allowed to say a word. Every day they marched around the city and nothing happened. But they kept obeying until God moved.

Both sermons were used by God last night. Cant' wait to see what will happen tonight!

Update on my flat tire--I actually managed to drive over a curb in the median as I was driving Monday night. (Never dig in your purse when you're supposed to be driving!) I not only ripped a literal hole in my tire, but I bent and cracked the rim. The wheel itself will cost about $170 to replace, and then we have to have a new tire on top of that. From The Emperor's New Groove: "Now I feel really bad! Bad llama!" The men at church are now calling me "Crash". I will not live this down any time soon.

We got home last night around midnight--went to Denny's with several of this week's speakers after the service. I woke the boys up at seven this morning so we could start school. They complained of being tired and begged to go back to sleep. I cheerfully told them no, they had to do school today. But, if they would hurry with their work then we could all take naps this afternoon! Their reply? "We'd rather take our naps right now." Smart guys.

Husband of the Year

Just gotta brag on the hubby today. I dragged myself out of bed this morning, not remembering what day it was or why the alarm was on. I usually get that way by the fourth day of Super Conference. We've only had two days so far--this is not a good sign! But I had to get up early because we have company coming to the house this afternoon. Our house looks exactly like you'd expect it to when everyone was sick for two weeks. Neglected is probably the nicest thing I can think of to say about it. So I staggered out of bed and woke the boys up. (I didn't make the mess by myself; I'm not cleaning it up by myself!)
Terry followed me into the hall and asked what I was doing up so early.
"Time to clean the house." I muttered, knowing I sounded like the Dunkin Donuts guy.
"Go back to bed for another hour," he suggested.
I told him I'd love to, but the house had to be clean and I wouldn't have time after I got home from work to take care of everything.
"I'll get the work started and the boys will help me. You go back to bed and sleep for another hour."
Terry gave me a kiss and headed down the stairs. I staggered back to the bedroom and slept deeply for another hour. I felt much better when I woke up, and when I went downstairs, the boys were working like little fiends. The house already looked better than it had.
Terry's had about as much sleep as I have the past couple of nights. Isn't he the sweetest thing?

For an update on the conference, last night was totally awesome. Bro. Riggs spoke on having good judgement. He used the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis. He pointed out from the text that, when Joseph was tempted, first he looked around and saw how much he'd been blessed. Then he looked within himself and saw that he wasn't the kind of person to do something like that. Then he looked to the future and saw that no good could come from giving into this sin. Then he looked upward and saw how his actions would appear to God. Great challenge on using wisdom and discernment!

The second speaker was Bro. Mike Allison. Anyone whose heard him knows that the message had to be great. He preached on the decline of the church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. He pointed out that they had over 10,000 saved in the matter of a few weeks. Then people began selling their belongings to help take care of each other. Then they had problems with hypocrites (Annanias and Sapphira) and then no one was giving anymore. Then in the next chapter they had complainers. Then they went to criticizing others that were doing something for the Lord. And finally, several chapters later, they came to the point where they had to dispute what really saved a person because they no longer knew the truth. It was a very challenging and eye-opening message. No matter how close you are to the Lord, there's always room to fall if you don't keep serving Him as you should. Both messages were so challenging! I can't wait to hear what God's got in store for us tonight!

Murphy's Law

When it rains, it pours. You've heard that one before, right? And you know some other gems that comes from Murphy's Law? "If anything can go wrong, it will."

Welcome to Super Conference week at Victory Baptist Church.

I know from experience that, when you've got a revival week of some sort--such as we do this week--that Satan will be fighting extra hard to cause problems. To mess things up.

We got bad news from a family member over the weekend. Nothing horribly catastrophic, but it's not pleasant and there's not a thing we can do about it.

Sunday morning the septic tank at church clogged and the bathrooms quit working. We got it fixed Monday morning, at a cost of $300.

Our entire family was sick for the two weeks before Super Conference. (See yesterday's post.)

Our organist has business meetings scheduled out of town for this week.

Our song leader and pianist cannot be here for the last meeting on Friday night.

I got a flat tire on the way home from the meeting tonight. I ran over something in the road, bent the rim and ripped a chunk out of the tire.

Once the tire was fixed, we took one of the speakers out to get a bite to eat. After we finished eating and were ready to head home (about 11:30), Terry got a call to go pick up a dead body. When Matt is working or sleeping, Terry takes the shift. So he won't get home until about 2:00 in the morning.

We gotta laugh because that's the only way to get through it. But if you wanted to pray a little extra for us this week we could really use it.

On the upside, we heard two fantastic sermons tonight. The first one was from I Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. Verse 29 quotes David as saying, "Is there not a cause?" Really challenging about fighting for God's cause. The second sermon was taken from Revelation 2, where the church at Ephesus is described as having left their first love.

After hearing those two sermons, I can see why Satan keeps fighting!

Flu Laws

My family has been fighting the flu for the last two weeks. And what a flu it was! It started out with each of the kids with stomach flu--and all that entails. I can almost see you wincing in a combination of sympathy and relief--that you don't have it! Then the flu morphed into a high fever with headache, dizziness, sore throat, aches, etc. Once that worked its way through the system it settled into a combination of extreme head congestion and a cough that could hack up a lung.
So while I've been tending the sick (and being sick myself) I realized there are a few universal laws to the flu. I've had time to think about this recently and I thought I'd share it with you.

1. If you have more than one child, they will only get the flu one at a time. Subsequent children will not get sick until the first one is feeling and acting noticeably better.

2. The exception to rule number one: if you start feeling sick, then several of your children will become ill all at once. In the middle of the night. Repeatedly.

3. Whatever medicine you have in the cabinet, it will not be what you need to treat the current symptoms.

4. If you do have the right medicine, it will be past the expiration date on the bottle.

5. If your children are throwing up, their ability to make it to the bathroom is directly related to what time of day it is and how you are feeling.

Example: Middle of the day, you're feeling pretty good = child makes it to the bathroom before throwing up.

Middle of the night and you're running a fever = child will throw up in his bed and then repeatedly across the carpet as he tries to make it to the bathroom.

6. The child's need to throw up is directly related to the color of the last food that he ate. Anything the color red = high probability of vomiting without reaching the bathroom.

7. Whichever person insists they absolutely cannot get sick will get sick last. (My husband)

8. The closer you are to an event you can't miss, the more likely you will get sick just before it starts. (Terry held out for a week and a half. He got two days before he had to preach Sunday, and three days before our Super Conference starts.)

9. Your spouse will get sick just about the time you start really feeling horrible and absolutely have to have his help.

10. No one will want to shake hands with you for a full month after your entire family has completely recovered. When they actually shake your hand again, they will get sick within 24 hours and they will blame you.

I promise you that no germs were shared in the typing of this post.

And The Answer Is ...

Ingrid challenged me to come up with some answers to the questions I asked on my blog yesterday. Here are a few I thought up. What about you? Any answers? Silly, thought-provoking, ridiculous--if you think up an answer, share it here!

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke?
Maybe they just like the taste of Diet Coke better!

Why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?
Get serious! These banks loaned billions to people who could not afford to pay it back. They can't afford to give away free pens!

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage?
The cars are insured. The junk is priceless.

Why do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?
There is a huge conspiracy between the bun people and the hot dog people. In case you haven't noticed, the lunchmeat people are in on it too. I never have enough bologna slices to match the number of slices of bread in a loaf. And why does the bag of chips run out before the can of soda does? It's just wrong on so many levels!

Why do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering?
For the same reason that fastfood drive through windows have signs offering braille menus.

EVER WONDER ...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Because doing it the other way just sounds stupid.

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
We can, but then we have to hold the mascara wand backward, and it's just a hassle.

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?
I think this falls in the same category as 'Physician, heal thyself.'

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?
It's not that long a word, but the double consonants can be confusing.

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?
Because it makes sense. I've been to quite a few doctors that needed more practice!

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
I think the real question is, why are you drinking dishwashing liquid?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
For the same reason there isn't cat-flavored dog food.

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Okay, seriously, this is a good question.

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
That's dumb. If a cotton field doesn't shrink in the rain, why should a sheep?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
This isn't a question--it's a true statement.

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
Haven't you listened to the news lately? Who said flying was safe?

Okay, there are my answers. I didn't answer them all because I wanted to leave some for you. Well, really it was because I couldn't think of anymore, but still ...

If you can answer one I haven't, or if you have another answer for any of these, fire away!

Whaaa???

I'm not completely over the flu, but I have decided I am going to live. What I haven't decided is whether or not I want to live. While I debate that question, I thought I'd share a few other questions with you that someone sent me. Enjoy!

Why do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front?

Why do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke?

Why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?

Why do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage?

Why do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?

Why do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering?

EVER WONDER ...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Just a few things I've pondered in my fever-induced haze!