Scripture

“O Israel, be quiet and listen!”

~Deuteromy 27:9, NLT

Quote

I never learned anything while I was talking.

~Lou Holtz

Verbosity is using more words than necessary. Once you have articulated and illustrated your point, there is no need to use more illustrations. A couple of weeks ago, God convicted me about being verbose. I had told a story in the Sunday morning sermon that had nothing to do with the sermon: it simply came to mind and I told it. One of my goals is to stop speaking before the audience stops listening, and trust me, this is not an easy goal to attain. But, there is more to the story, the next Wednesday night, I did it again. June didn’t know what was going on in my mind, but driving home was not pleasant. I was beating myself up for making the same stinking mistake again after the LORD had kindly brought it to my attention.

Then Elisebeth Elliot piled on. She says on page 173 in A LAMP UNTO MY FEET, “Simply shut up for a change. It is amazing what the being quiet before the LORD will do to the soul amidst the seemingly uncontrollable tumult around us.” It does not appear that I have the ability to shut up. Shutting up for a day seems impossible; I am not sure I can do it for an hour. Mother didn’t like for us to use the term “shut up.” You could get slapped if you told a sibling to shut up. Daddy never used the term either, he always said, “Be still,” but that meant to shut up. I think it means the same thing in Psalm 46:10, “Shut up and know that I am God,” or as Moses said, “Be quiet and listen.”

I tell the preachers, of course they don’t listen, if we don’t shut up ourselves before God and listen, we don’t really have anything of substance to say once we are in the pulpit. We may present an articulate sermon but we don’t have a burden or a message. All the Minor Prophets preached with a burden with maybe the exception of Jonah. Ironically, God used him in spite of himself, and He does that with all of us.

Extra

Praise God from whom all blessing flow. The LORD has answered another prayer. Kathryn got accepted by MD Anderson to donate white blood cells today. They begin at 8:00 this morning. Say a prayer for Melanie, Brent and Kathryn.

Bobby Vest is still in HH and can not go to the Terrace in Priceville at this time. Robbie has him a room next to Edward his brother but Bobby has to go to rehab first. I think he may go to the new one on the other side of Chapman Mountain. Bobby fell last week and laid in the floor for several hours. Bobby and Edward are the two roughest characters I have ever played against on a basketball court. My goal was not to win, it was to survive. You never walked away without a bleed or a bruise. You couldn’t hurt them but they could hurt you.

Thank You LORD for the rain. It was perfect for our rye grass and our green fields. We were actually dry again but we got a little more last night, maybe close to an inch.

I reckon this is Doctor week. I go to Cullman today for test on the lungs and June also has an appointment. I had rather stay here and read, but I am not complaining.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.