Glass Gloves

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Stories I have heard all my life…. growing up going to Catholic school, etc. This one never stuck out me before though until someone else pointed it out to me today.

Mat 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does them, shall be like a wise man who built his house on the rock,
Mat 7:25 and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Mat 7:26 “And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not do them,1 shall be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Mat 7:27 and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.”
Mat 7:28 And it came to be, when Yeshua had ended these words, that the people were astonished at His teaching,

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Several years ago one of my uncles had given me a Bible for Christmas. I think this was back in 2001. I remember thinking it was a great gift, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. I also thought of this uncle as “one of those guys”.
Several years later I decided to start reading it instead of it just being some book on the shelf gathering dust. I had always known there was a God, and casually went to church here and there but still suspicious of organized religion. I figured one day… what the hey…. if I make it to the Pearly Gates - it would be kind of embarrassing to say I hadn’t ever read the whole thing through and through so I just set out to read it all as part of a project. By the time I had gotten through to some of the prophets I was in tears at everything I didn’t know and felt like I had squandered my mental capacity on things that didn’t matter. It was when I got to Jeremiah 31:31 that the release occurred. So much of the Bible starts out with a struggle… so much pain… then the release occurs to one single destination if we are willing  - forgiveness! I had thought of the God of the Old Testament as an angry God and then when I had read about some of the things Jesus had said I felt fearful. Am I really saved? Do I really believe in Jesus or is it just some guy that died and will one day get me into heaven. He had said something about …. not everyone who comes to me and says Lord Lord shall enter the Kingdom. It scared me so bad I was in tears - thinking back to all the stuff I had done  in my life.  Then at some point I started to understand what He was trying to say. …

Don’t judge - lest you be judged…

Forgive…

Help the poor…

Have faith - trust!

Follow the golden rule!

Be the best person you can!
It seems to be the simplest of messages, and is contained throughout the whole Bible. It is something we are taught in kindergarten, but how quickly this world strips that innocence away!
Never in my wildest dreams would I have one day thought that I’d be “studying” the Word of God one day! A gift given several years ago somehow impacting my life years later. All my uncle did was plant a seed, and then God did the watering much later after my first child was born. Wild eh?

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She let me keep the other two kids this weekend for which I was very thankful.

On the way to my grandma and grandpas I found myself asking God if this is what I was really called to do… did He ask me to do this? I turned on the radio.  On the radio was this woman retelling the story of how she had lost her husband.  It was during the shuttle accident that had exploded over Texas a few years ago. She recalled telling her Dad about their marriage problems and how her Dad had encouraged her to just wait it out and to stick by the marriage no matter what happens. After the shuttle accident, she said that they had found a picture of her and her husband together in the wreckage. A miracle at that.
I had turned off the radio for awhile and started listening to my iPod. I found myself troubled again a bit later. Is this really what you have called me to do? Turned on the radio and there it was again …. but this time it seemed more direct. ANSWER THE CALL. ANSWER THE CALL…. it was an old broadcast from Chuck Schwindall.
Last night was a long night. I was restless and couldn’t sleep. I laid in bed - praying - crying with unintelligible murmurs. My cheeks started hurting I cried so hard and long. My jaw tensed up from the pain. I cried out to God again - asking for him to give me some hope to keep going and standing for my marriage. Hope keeps faith alive. I prayed for her, my mother in law, the kids, and some of my other relatives. I prayed for more hope.
I was strongly tempted to send her an email message. I asked for permission and then had opened my Bible to Jeremiah 29:24 ish… it jumped out at me. Page 1222 it was. Trying to be still and wait so that He gets the glory - not me. I had many dreams last night and by the time I woke up i remembered bits and pieces. They were intense though. I was in the deep end of a pond trying to climb out via a mud covered terrace. My whole body was submerged in the deep part of the water. I was nervous that there were snakes in the pond. I dug my elbows and hands into the mud to escape the water and snakes. As I came to the top of the hill I found houses built on top of it. They were relatively small houses, but were expensive. One of them was partially complete and the owner told me that it had cost 140,000,000 to build. It had a steel frame. I pondered building my own house on this hill due to the cost. I remember a clay pot in the form of a toad or a frog with a bit of a Southwest motif to it.

I went to bed and woke up later the next morning. As I checked my messages, Hope had arrived. Another gentleman from this site told me that he had been through almost two years of hell and his wife had finally fallen in love with him again - by her words. God DOES Heal Hurting marriages is my new replacement for eye of the tiger!. Keep Hope alive.

As I was sitting there though - I started to ask… when is she coming home? How long shall I wait? I had asked this several times… went out to help my uncle move some dirt around for his garden. Drove the all terrain vehicle with the kids while we were on the farm. Then it occurred to me to look up. I saw three birds on a power cable. Two of them moved closer together…. the third one flew away. Hope. I see little signs of hope everywhere I look it seems.

Later on I went to sit down again and kept asking… when? When?. Then I saw a little book that the kids had been playing with. It was about Beth Moore. I opened it up.. the whole book was about waiting for God - expectantly - with Hope and in faith!

So I decided to take a walk. To be alone with God. I walked towards the bottom land of the farm. I felt drawn to turn and look and saw two buzzards sitting on a chimney. They were on top of an old broken down house as is common on some farms in Texas. One of the birds defecated on the chimney. The other flew towards the other so slightly. I just watched them for about 5 minutes. Never thought I would see the beauty in something as nasty as a buzzard and it was sort of poetic too. Something that cleans up garbage from the land sitting on top of a broken house.

The two birds picked up and flew off together. i continued to walk towards the bottom land. Just feeling the wind blow - the peace from the sun, and then I turned and looked and saw - two buzzards sitting on the ground. In sort of what appeared to be a courtship pattern. They picked up to fly. I watched them struggle under their own power to fly. Flapping their wings to get aloft. Reminds me of me over the last two or three months trying to reach my wife. Then suddenly the wind picked up and I watched how the buzzards get into the air. I had never seen this before. They started an upward spiral…. using just the wind. They barely moved their wings at all. They just went in circles up and up and up. They flew directly over me for about 10 minutes. I just stared in awe at them. What beauty in even such deathly creatures.

Before long they were so high that I could no longer see them. I finished my Beth Moore book. Wait expectantly. Hope. My prayers answered yet again.

How great and mighty is our God.

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