Hosea 7 - Hunting Season - Yooper Holy Days

I spent Monday evening at my husband's hunting camp. He is preparing for the Yoopers' (a person who lives in or is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) grand holy days - that is deer hunting -firearm season. People come from all over to celebrate those last two weeks of November. I find the whole season quite confounding. Men, women and children miss worship services as they are sitting in their blinds and you cannot even begin to imagine how full our taverns get after the sun sets! Lots of drinking and carousing going on... Just a warning: Drinking or drugging and hunting do not make good companions. Stuff happens - bad stuff happens - when sites are not set on the Kingdom of God.

Right now, it is bow season. Not so many participate in this sport.

"They do not turn to the Most High;    they are like a faulty bow." (Hosea 7:16 NIV)

Like a faulty bow that cannot hit a target, so too are all those who refuse to keep their eyes on the goal of the Kingdom. A warped bow is almost impossible to use and one whose faith is skewed will struggle mightily in their journey through the wilderness. Like a bent arrow, we might be aiming for the target, but the slightest wind will cause us to stray.

May God help us all to keep our eyes the Most High and on the target He has given us, which is His Kingdom, through Jesus Christ, our LORD.

God's Peace - Pr. J.

P.S. Just a note to thank God for all of the hunter's who are from out of our area (seasonal residents)somehow manage to make it to Zion to worship during firearm season even while sometimes local members cannot manage it.

Psalm 120 - Too Much Drama!

Some people just like drama! I don't know why. But, some people just can't seem to live without it. So, when the drama is on the decline they will make things up, usually about other people, just to get the drama going, again. Maybe their lives are so empty that they are trying to fill them up.  It's kind of like they have to have their own personal soap operas going and they are the star. Personally, I have never made a habit of watching soap operas. I don't have the time. I have a pretty full life already and don't need to observe someone's fake life on television daily. There are way better things to focus on in life than this kind of drama.  The outcome of a lot of this drama is that the deceitful tongue that often goes with it hurts others and then it boomerangs and comes back on the one with the deceitful tongue. Everyone gets hurt.

You want a life? Skip the drama. "Live Life" in peace - in the peace of Jesus Christ.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Psalm 120 (NIV)
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.

What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.

Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.

I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.

Psalm 64 - Verbal Attacks, Gossip

Verbal attacks, gossip, bitter words are devastating to the one who is being the target.  Secretly aimed, behind one's back, like a sharp arrow, they are meant to destroy.  They can do real damage; psychological, spiritual and ultimately can even lead to physical destruction.

Thanks be to God, that it is He who defends the innocent.  He will not allow those who spend their lives trying to defame others to make themselves look good, to justify themselves. He will make the accuser stumble over their own tongues.  They will be wounded by the words of their own lips so that the evil that they unjustly plotted will cause them to stumble and their cohorts will flee in fear that they will fall with them. 

The accuser shall fall and "The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and trust in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory." (Psalm 64:10 NIV)

May God defend us from the unrighteous tongues of those who would accuse His children falsely, slander His children unjustly, gossip so as to destroy us. May He bless His children with peace in the midst of these attacks.

God's Peace - Pr. J.