Scripture

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

~Psalm 29:4, NLT

Quote

We have a tendency to emasculate our understanding of who Jesus is: He is not a good old boy, a buddy or a pal. He is God and He deserves our worship.

~Ya’akov

First, the thought from the quote came from reading the NIV commentary and Gerald H. Wilson. Wilson tells the story of his seven year old son observing a thunderstorm from the den with his nose in the slidding glass door that opened to the outside. A sudden lightening bolt and a jarring round of thunder caused the boy to do a sudden back flip landing him in the middle of the den. That bolt of lightening did more than get his attention; it put the fear of God in this seven year old. He sat there stunned, afraid and amazed: after the brief silence, he said “WOW!” Wow, that is my word. How long has it been since you had a “wow” moment? How long has it been since you sensed the presence and the power of God so powerfully that you were stunned or amazed?

I am reminded of the story of Peter going back to sea after fishing all night. He was tired; he had fished all night, cleaned and put up all his nets and equipment, listened to Jesus teach for a couple of hours and then Jesus tells him: put out into the deep and catch some fish. I sure Peter at least thought to himself, “You have to be kidding. I am a fisherman by trade and I was out there all night and they are not bitting.” But Peter quickly processed Jesus command and decided to do it just out of respect for Jesus. You know the story: they catch a boat load of fish, two boats actually. Peter pats Jesus on the back and says, “Way to go bud.” No, no, Peter fell on his knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

We have had a lot of thunderstorms lately and the power of the Almighty has been obvious. Giant oaks were uprooted. Some were broken off like a tooth picks or match sticks reminding us of the awesome power of the wind. The OT word for Spirit is Ruach {wind}. We need a spiritual wind to blow. There is a desperate need for the Ruach to move and to wow us with His presence.

Extra

June and I worked in the garden some late yesterday. The ground is as hard as a brickbat and grass everywhere. We worked out one row of okra and June said, “I don’t know why we are doing this: the kids will not cut it. They only cook it if you cut and carry it to them.” She is right of course but I love to try. We are way behind” the tomatoes need stuck and I have to get a fence around the corn. Ty’s Summer basketball begins today and I have a doctors appointment. The garden may have to wait.

Brent Cooley and his brother are sick. Brent is in Africa; his brother who lives near GP is still in HH I think.

Mickey Hembree and Billy Parker still in HH but both better.

Extra/Extra

I still read the IMPRIMIS each month and the latest issue was about our outsourcing defense technology. According to the article, we have gotten behind and almost all military defense systems and weapons depend upon computer software that is not being made in the US. What the past administrations have done, going way back, is give our technology to china and others where things can be made by slave labor and we get them here in the states at low prices. All this has backfired. We have now become dependent on others. Check the labels of your clothing. Nothing is made in the USA or Canada. The tariffs which are a necessity if we are going to regain our independence have driven the prices up, but there is some price goughing going on also. Lowe’s is guilty and so are many others. Price gouging is when companies charge excessive amounts due to a disaster or a crisis. It is a legal form of extortion.