hurricanes

A Banjo Lesson

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you,
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Luke 12:27 NKJV

As many of you know, we here in Florida have recently been through two hurricanes. Thankfully, our home was spared damage, though for a couple of days our neighborhood was surrounded on all sides by flooding. For us, the highlight of these events is that Betty and Banjo moved in with us. Betty is a lady from our prayer group, and my buddy Banjo is a fourteen-year-old Yorkie, who is still pretty spry though he is missing a few of his teeth. Taking a quick glance at Banjo’s face as he waits for me to hook up his leash, doesn’t inspire the thought, “Now that is a wise looking animal.” Yet, the Lord has used my new friend to remind me about stopping to consider.

You see, when I go for my normal walks, I look up at the sky, smile at the neighbors and focus on finishing a mile in just over twenty minutes. But walking with Banjo has been quite a different experience. Banjo’s goal (besides his normal doggie duties) is to stop and sniff at leaves, fallen branches, plants in my garden and even rather ordinary patches of grass. At first, I wasted time and energy fussing at Banjo, tugging on his leash and wondering what in the world was so intriguing about whatever twig his nose was closely inspecting. Then I remembered how Jesus said, “Consider the lilies.” and He, the master craftsman of the universe, designed every detail of every lily to teach me a lesson about life. I recalled that while I enjoyed striding around my neighborhood, Banjo preferred slowly ambling up the sidewalk, pausing every few feet to consider the delicate smells of a thousand things in his world. When I toss and turn in my bed wondering how we can help Betty and Banjo get reestablished, Banjo sleeps soundly though the night. While I fret over whether we should invest in a generator, Banjo simply eats whatever we put in his dish and then lies down for a sweet nap. Though our future seems more uncertain than ever, now I pause again and consider lilies, and sparrows, and remember that my Heavenly Father is still in control. He orders the tides and storms, commands the wind and waves, and calms my heart. And I am thankful this morning for how God sent us one little Yorkie named Banjo, to remind me of His love and care!

Asleep in a Storm

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

This morning, we are once more, right dead center in the track of another hurricane and making preparations to evacuate. I wish I could tell you that I have wonderful, sweet peace just trusting in Jesus: but that would be a fairy tale. In reality I am stressed and checking the forecast and radar images wondering when we should leave and what will become of our home. When Hurricane Helene passed by last week, it left flooding on a scale I have never seen. Thousands of people including several friends of ours have been forced to move out until they have major repairs done. One dear sister came to live with us a few days ago and last night all we began packing to move even further inland. While I was tossing and turning in bed, I began remembering three men who managed to sleep soundly in their storms. Today I just wanted to take a look at one of them, whose name was Jonah.

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But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD...…But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. Jonah 1:2;4b NIV

Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of storms of our own choosing. The Bible calls the choices that lead to these kinds of storms sin. Like Jonah, we know what God wants, yet rather than obeying we, “Flee from the Lord.” Maybe like Jonah, we should have known better. After all, Jonah was a prophet, he knew the Bible backwards and forwards and had spent his entire adult life teaching other people how God wanted them to live. But when God came to Jonah with the assignment of preaching to people that weren’t his friends, his neighbors, or even from his own nation, he decided he had a better idea: run! Instead of heading where God called him, Jonah got on a boat going in the opposite direction and then went into his cabin and fell sound asleep. Now sleeping in a storm sounds like a wonderful privilege of those who love God, but Jonah was really just falling asleep at the switch. Jonah might have thought God would just let him off the hook, but he soon found out that running from God’s was a very poor business model, because God sent a storm. The funny thing about this part of the story is that everyone but Jonah figured out that something was wrong. The sailors were all doing their best to keep the ship from sinking, they were even urgently praying to their idols for help. Finally, when the captain of the boat went looking for this strange fellow who wasn’t helping out and found him snoozing in his hammock. The shocked captain grabbed Jonah by the shoulder asking, “How in the world can you sleep in this?” Isn’t it amazing how God sometimes sends the most unlikely person to confront us about our sins. The bartender tells us we have had too much to drink. The policeman pulls us over or the doctor asks why in the world we keep eating so much ice cream when our cholesterol is through the roof! You see God has ways of getting his way with or without our permission and sometimes He uses a storm. It isn’t that God likes to see us suffer or gets amusement by watching us run frantically in circles. The problems He sends put us in a corner because He cares about us. If we will just wake up and listen, we will hear His voice calling us back even above the howling of the wind and the crashing of the thunder. So, if we are facing a storm, maybe the first question we need to ask, is: “Am I running from God’s plans?”. In the end God will have his way – anyway. So, why not line up your way with God’s way? When you do, before you know it, He will calm the storm and lead you safely home!

Standing Out In the Storm

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments 
 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. 
Psalm 18:3 KJV

Here in Florida, we have more than our fair share of hurricanes, at least passing by if not hitting us. This leads to many of us staying glued to latest the weather reports, wondering whether this is the time we will need to evacuate. Being now a veteran of worrying and watching these storms, my wife and I have often asked ourselves, “Why in the world are they sticking that poor weatherman (or weather lady), out in the middle of the mess?” As we were watching the luckless weather-beaten reporter on day, a sizeable branch blew down the street, sideswiping them and sending them scurrying for cover. Thankfully they were okay, but it got us to thinking and we decided that they were showing us those people out in the storm, so we would take their forecast seriously enough to prepare for it.

In today’s verse, King David is standing out in the storm. He is surrounded by enemies who have less than happy plans for the end of his life. The men who are out there are five times as many as he has on his side. Adding to the imbalance of numbers, the army looking to kill him is better armed, better trained and better fed. It would appear they are all about to be slaughtered, but in his quiet times while watching his father’s sheep, David has prepared for this storm. He knows what to do: Call out to the Lord! I share this morning’s meditation with you because these last several weeks I have been going through a few health-related storms of my own. Besides a bad bout of strep, I also have some long-term issues with my vocal cords that has me seeing a specialist. But this morning I remembered this verse and the song we used to sing with these words, when I was a twenty-something. In those days, nothing hurt for long, my energy seemed limitless, and I could blithely sing that verse, because I was not standing out in the storm. But I am glad that while things were easy-peasey in my life, I learned this promise, because today I was able to pull it out of my storm preparedness kit and use it to good advantage. God knows the forecast for each of our lives. He is not taken by surprise, nor swept off His feet by the branches blowing down the streets of Heaven. Whatever kind of storm you might be standing out in today, be sure to call with all your heart to the Lord. He is listening for our cry and is as ready to deliver us right now, no matter where the hurricane makes landfall!

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