Tea For Two?

While making tea for the folks at church I noticed something unusual.  We had a lot of boxes of tea that seemed to have been around the church for a long time.  And just like at home, I decided to check for an expiry date. One particularly old looking box, failed to have an expiry date so in my wisdom I tossed it. It must have come to the church before everything had to have an expiry date.  This had me wondering how long you could keep tea around.  Turns out, after doing a computer search, tea is good for up to eighteen month. That had me looking at other boxes. I found another one that was due to expire Aug 25 2013. Was it still good? I didn’t check, gone.

Later that day, while at the store I bought a new box of tea. When I picked it up off the shelf, I looked to see if there was a date on it. After all, aren't all items supposed to have expiry dates? Well, the only date I could find at first was, "Since 1837". I looked again and found Sept 2018. Perfect.

For those people who buy in bulk, maybe there are times when we just need to buy a box of tea that will be finished by its expiry day.  I’m reminded that there are items in our lives that never have an expiry date. Our bible doesn’t expire, it’s always the same, updated to our modern language is all. Love for friends and family never expires. Sometimes it’s strained but we still love them. Not to sound morbid, but we all have an earthy expiry dates. God takes care of that one. But then, He also gives us the free gift of eternal life. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and receive forgiveness of our sins through faith by grace, then yes, we will not have an expiry date. My bible tells me that we will be transformed, in the twinkling of an eye to eternal life with God in heaven. Do you want to live forever? Just accept Christ into your life because that’s . . .

Something to think about.

Rob

What Do You Think?

For years I have loved statistics and those wonderful pie charts that come from them. I would really like to do one of those surveys.  Never done something like this and maybe it would straighten me out some. No, I didn’t think so either.  The one I was putting in my mind was to find out how we come across with people. What do people see in us is a great questions. What characteristics are seen in us by all those thousands of people who have known us over the years?

I thought about this again last night as I did one of those interesting quizzes you sometimes get on line. You answer questions and after doing all of them, they tell you about who you are. Might has something to do with Sigmund Freud, I don’t know. Each time it told me something about myself. But then I thought, is this what people think I am?

The latest one, which I didn’t take part in, was to put down one word to describe the person that sent you this Facebook post. Now, again my mind started analysing. Wouldn’t those that answer only be people that can be polite and put down something positive? Or would some people just neglect to tell the truth? 

Many years ago I was contacted by the research lab a McMaster University. They had this contraption gave two choices. The other person’s choice was to get the maximum or the same as me. Mine was, do I help him get the maximum or, the same as me. It didn’t take us long until we figured it out and I started giving him all the money. After it was over, he left with $75 and I left with $15.

On my way out, I told the tech, “I’m a giving type”. Didn’t mess up the results but two people went away happy, the one with the money and the person that gave it to him.

I again thought about this experiment that I was considering. Then I realized, it’s not what people think of me that is important, it’s what God thinks of me because eventually I want to hear His words, “Well done good and faithful servant ... enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Something to think about

Rob

Rabbits Laying Eggs?

Being that it is Lent I thought I would do some reading in the area of church traditions.  I even looked up why we have Easter Bunnies and Easter Eggs.  Strange what the German Lutherans came up with.  If you look back far enough you will discover that the rabbit had similar characteristics as Santa.  I'm still trying to get my head around that as I think of Easter morning and going on an egg hunt or getting a basket of Easter chocolate eggs.  Wondering if someone is going to give me some of those chocolate treats for being good? Well, that's what history tells us.

Don't bother looking for either in your bible, their not there. It's all symbolism.

Here is something interesting I discovered that I can actually swallow, yes, that's a pun. The egg came out of the practice of giving up eggs, fat, and wheat for Lent. Easter became the day you could again enjoy these items and many more. The forty days are over and you can again add them to your diet. But then again, you won't find it in scripture.

What you do find is this; Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. That is what Easter is about. It's about getting closer to Jesus each day of the forty days of Lent. It's about standing below the Christ on the cross and realizing He died for my sins. It's sitting through a very long Easter Saturday wondering if everything He said about why He was dying was really necessary. It's about being there on Easter to witness the empty tomb. It's about seeing the risen Jesus and having Him talk to you as He did on the road to Emmaus. Can we say as these two disciples told the disciples and ask themselves; "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”. ... Luke 24:13

After all, they walked with Jesus eleven kilometers.

Something to think about.

Rob

Special Friends

How many friends do you have?  I’ll wait until you count them. Okay? If you have a good number I have some questions.  If you were to one day have a conversation with one or all of them and you had a different opinion and it became a bit heated. Maybe you wanted to win no matter what. Would they still by your friend?  How about you had a call from them asking for your help and you said, “sorry I’m busy”. Would they say okay and not call you again for a while?

If you have a small number of friends it might get the same results, right? Maybe not? But if you have just a few, you might be able to say you have been friends for quite a while. You see, we usually work through all those relationships dimensions and work out the dynamics of friendship. We are well versed on what it takes, on both sides of the equation. Remember the line: “The only way to have a friend is to be one”. We also know, it doesn’t always work out perfect, but the smaller the group of friends the easier it is to be there for the others. And that is what seems to work.

Maybe our definition dictates who our friends are and what it takes to have them and them us. Friends are there for each other. They are willing to put aside everything just to be with the friend who needs you. And you can call on your friends to be there for you. That you can take to the bank.

More than all those other friends, we have one friend who outshines all the others. That friend will never leave us nor forsake us. We can even sing about it. “What a friend we have in Jesus . . . 

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness

Take it to the Lord in prayer

Something to think about

Rob