Beech Tree News Network

Have we considered the value of God’s word? Many today consider it worthless. Yet, those who are spiritually minded (I Cor. 1:18), and love the Lord, place great value upon God’s word. What makes the word of God priceless?
 

I never really liked baseball growing up.  The games were just too long.  I mean, how does anyone expect a little kid to sit for 3 to 3 and a half hours to watch a game whose final score might be 1-0? This was bad news for me, as whenever I’d go visit my grandparents in Rockport, my grandpa had a baseball game on every Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  I’d most likely brought some toys from home.  I’d play with them in the floor, or bedroom since I was a shy kid, while the game was on.

National Boss’s Day is Friday, October 16th. Although I am retired, this holiday causes me to reflect on my previous bosses or supervisors. Having worked in education for 32 ½ years and in other job settings as well, I realize how blessed I was to have had so many good people surrounding me. But, even so, I had days when I wondered how I could go back to work the next day. Our bosses have a huge impact on our work environments.

Don’t overlook people.  People like Aubrey and Amy Marlin.  Aubrey and Amy ran a small country store close to where Bett and I lived forty plus years in the country, off came Ridge road-about two cow-banels from Dimple. 

I fished a china tea cup from a recycle bin that was full to overflowing this weekend.  I opened the door for the clear glass bottles and there, right on top of everything, sat a perfect bone china tea cup—Wedgewood bone china, made in England in 1989, the bottom of the cup read.  I took it home, cleaned it up, and served myself a nice cup of hot tea that evening.  I wondered whose cup it had been, and why the people the cup had been passed down to or the people who had discovered it at the bottom of a box they purchased at an estate sale had simply thrown it away.

Within the pages of the New Testament, we find Jesus asking folks the question: “Have you not read?” This question was asked by the Lord on three separate occasions in the New Testament. On all three occasions, He asked this question in response to the Pharisees and Sadducees when they tried to trap Him in His words (Matt. 12:3, 5, 19:4, 22:31; Mk. 12:10, 26; Lk. 6:3).
 

Why do we want what we know we can’t have? Yes, that’s a Reba song from 1983 but that’s not what this is going to be about.  The perception is that the grass is greener on the other side.  That doesn’t always mean that it, in fact, is greener.  When we shop for a particular item, we almost always go for the item in the shiny packaging.  All the while, what we’re searching for might be what we consider to be in blasé packaging.  But why?

I fight an on-going battle trying to make healthy choices. Warm-weather months are easier. I don’t mind exercising in nice weather, and fresh foods are readily available. But, with cold weather around the corner, I’ve been looking for information to help me make healthy choices.

“My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives,” Jesus says (John 14:27). Grab onto that thought. When my morning coffee is not just right, that tends to lend a common tone to the start of my day. But when I consider it I think what a shallow, petty thing to hang your happiness on. It may be the sports page of the newspaper, a TV show, or a shot of early (sic) juice—heaven forbid. We’ve sadly come to think that life only has value when we are “happy” and our hours are marked by perfect moments, then on to the next fix.

At 9:20 a.m. on Saturday morning, I find myself still sitting in my favorite chair, drinking coffee.  It’s rainy and cool.  I’ve just finished a chapter from The Girl In the Spider’s Web, a follow-up to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  (For those of you who know Stieg Larson died shortly after finishing his masterpiece, this one is written by one of his protégés, and continues with the characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blonkvist.)