DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22:
WORD OF WISDOM
. I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
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DAILY DEVOTION
Everything Old Is Getting Older Still
Details Written by Rev. James L. Snyder
A friend of mine has a saying, "I'm going to get as old as I possibly can
get." From what I can tell, he has. I must agree with his sentiment. Of
course, the alternative is. well you know. Another friend of mine likes to
tell me, "Brother, you're only as old as you feel." I am not sure how old
feels or if wrinkles are involved. But, I am feeling quite fine, thank you.
Just the other day the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage came in from her
workshop, sat down on the couch and said, "Whew, I feel like a hundred."
At the time, I did not know if she was talking about dollars, pounds or
years. Being the old fogey that I am, I know there are times when silence is
golden and this was one of those golden moments. But, what does a hundred
feel like? Is there some special sensation that pulsates through the body
when a person reaches that age level? Or, is it the absence of anything
pulsating through your body?
Just this morning I got up with a sore knee and could hardly walk to the
bathroom. I complained about it to my wife, who has no compunction about
expressing her opinions, said, "Well, you are older than when you went to
bed last night."
I did not know I was aging so rapidly. If this keeps up, I will change from
an old fogey into an old geezer before I know it. The difference between an
old fogey and an old geezer is, an old fogey walks around in a fog while the
old geezer cannot get up from his chair and wheezes a lot.
I was musing on the idea that getting old was a lot of trouble with a lot of
pain involved. Then I remembered what a lot of trouble and pain it was to be
young. As a youngster, I thought many times, "Oh, I can't wait to get old."
I thought getting older was the panacea for all of my problems.
I remember thinking that when I got older nobody would boss me around. I
would do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. I could not
wait for that time to come. I dreamed of that mystical land. No parents to
boss me around; no teachers to tell me what to do and when to do it; no
siblings interfering with my plans for the day. What a life I would lead
when I got older. I lived each day hoping to get older which, in my
thinking, was the door into that area.
Just as I was entering that mysterious realm of being my own boss, I got
married. Not only that, but several years into that marital bliss came the
pitter-patter of little feet in the hallway. I did not figure that getting
older would involve so many people in my life. Just going to the bathroom,
for example, was a three-day wait. And, guess who is at the bottom of the
list?
I guess you know you have gotten old when you give up the idyllic idea of
being your own boss, doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do
it.
Now that I think of it, it was a lot more painful and a lot more troublesome
to be young than it is to be old. In fact, there are some marvelous
advantages of getting older.
For example, when my wife sends me to the grocery store to get a few things
I usually forget something. Now, that I am getting older, I can tell her
that I do not remember things as I used to, after all, I'm getting older.
Also, when someone invites me to go out and play what they call senior
softball, I can always say, "I would love to, but my knees are acting up now
that I'm getting older."
This process of getting older has drastically improved my social life. Every
joke I hear is as if I am hearing it for the very first time. It is amazing.
My wife and I were at a social function not too long ago, and I was having
a marvelous time. When we got home, my wife said to me, "You put on a good
act tonight."
"What you mean I put on a good act?"
"You laughed at every joke tonight as if it was the first time you ever
heard it."
I did not have the heart to tell her that it was the first time I heard
those jokes. That is what is so marvelous about getting old. You do not have
to burden your brain, and all the little gray cells in it, with remembering
things. My brain is now free to enjoy the moment. It is wonderful getting
older.
When I was younger, it would embarrass me if I forgot something. Of course,
I blame that on my parents and teachers who tried to pound into my little
head that I needed to remember everything. Now that I am older, I do not
have that burden.
It is good to remember some things. I remembered one of my favorite Bible
passages. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine
own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy
paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV).
I will never get too old to trust the Lord with all my heart.
The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, 1471
Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. He lives with his wife in Silver Springs Shores.
Call him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@xxxxxxx. The church web site
is www.whatafellowship.com
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Deuteronomy 7-9New King James Version (NKJV)
A Chosen People
7 "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess,
and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites
and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and
the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the
Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly
destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter
to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn
your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the
Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you
shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their
sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images,[a] and burn their carved
images with fire.
6 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has
chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the
peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The Lord did not set His love on you
nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for
you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the Lord loves you, and
because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of
bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who
keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him
and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their
face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will
repay him to his face. 11 Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the
statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.
Blessings of Obedience
12 "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and
keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and
the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless
you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the
fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase
of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He
swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all
peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your
livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will
afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have
known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16 Also you shall
destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your
eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that
will be a snare to you.
17 "If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how
can I dispossess them?'- 18 you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall
remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: 19
the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty
hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out.
So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20
Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who
are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. 21 You shall not be
terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is
among you. 22 And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you
little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the
beasts of the field become too numerous for you. 23 But the Lord your God
will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they
are destroyed. 24 And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you
will destroy their name from under heaven; no one shall be able to stand
against you until you have destroyed them. 25 You shall burn the carved
images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that
is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is
an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination
into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall
utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.
Remember the Lord Your God
8 "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to
observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of
which the Lord swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the
Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to
humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would
keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger,
and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know,
that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man
lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your
garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord
your God chastens you.
6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk
in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow
out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig
trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which
you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land
whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When
you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the
good land which He has given you.
11 "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His
commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12
lest-when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and
dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your
silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led
you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents
and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water
for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with
manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He
might test you, to do you good in the end- 17 then you say in your heart,
'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'
18 "And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you
power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to
your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means
forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship
them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As
the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because
you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.
Israel's Rebellions Reviewed
9 "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to
dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and
fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the
Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, 'Who can stand before
the descendants of Anak?' 3 Therefore understand today that the Lord your
God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them
and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them
quickly, as the Lord has said to you.
4 "Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out
before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in
to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations
that the Lord is driving them out from before you. 5 It is not because of
your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to
possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the
Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the
word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6
Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land
to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 "Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in
the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until
you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Also
in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough
with you to have destroyed you. 9 When I went up into the mountain to
receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord
made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I
neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 Then the Lord delivered to me two
tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the
words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the
fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass, at the end of
forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone,
the tablets of the covenant.
12 "Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your
people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly
turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves
a molded image.'
13 "Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and
indeed they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy
them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a
nation mightier and greater than they.'
15 "So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned
with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And
I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God-had made for
yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which
the Lord had commanded you. 17 Then I took the two tablets and threw them
out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down
before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate
bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing
wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was
afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with
you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. 20 And
the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed
for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took your sin, the calf which
you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very
small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook
that descended from the mountain.
22 "Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the Lord
to wrath. 23 Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying,
'Go up and possess the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled
against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him
nor obey His voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the
day that I knew you.
25 "Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I
kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. 26
Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: 'O Lord God, do not destroy Your
people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness,
whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember Your
servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this
people, or on their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which
You brought us should say, "Because the Lord was not able to bring them to
the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought
them out to kill them in the wilderness." 29 Yet they are Your people and
Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your
outstretched arm.'
Footnotes:
a.Deuteronomy 7:5 Hebrew Asherim, Canaanite deities
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James VersionR. Copyright C 1982 by Thomas
Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
