At Just the Right Time

Good morning, afternoon or evening, whichever it is. We had some excitement yesterday afternoon. We had a vegetation fire (in the Bay Area we called them wildland fires.). It started just a mile or so away (as the embers fly). We heard the spotter plane go over and then a little later we started hearing sirens. And then a helicopter went over. Then more sirens and more sirens and more sirens. They dispatched engines from every area around us. After a while the air tankers showed up along with two more helicopters. They worked on that fire all afternoon and evening. The choppers used the water from the quarry that's just over the hill from my son's house to dump on the fire. (I could see my son's house from my deck if trees weren't in the way.) They actually came up out of the quarry and flew directly over my son's driveway. The tankers would make their drops and then head back to Tuolumne to reload and after a few minutes they'd be back to dump again. It's fascinating to watch the air attack work fires. It's really a science the way they do it. They had it pretty well knocked down by dark when the air support had to leave because of darkness. They kept units on the scene all night. Shortly after dark the wind picked up and blew the smoke into our area. We had to turn off the cooler and our window fans and still we stuffed up so badly we could barely breathe. But by midnight when we went to bed, it had pretty much lifted and I was able to turn on the bedroom fans again to get that nice cool air in our bedroom.

I don't have any plans for the day except to go to the drug store and fill a prescription. Just had to go call some in for refills. I've had them on the counter by the phone needing to be called in all week and I totally forgot until now. And this is Friday which means if the doctor doesn't okay them today (which he doesn't usually do on Fridays) I will have to go through the weekend without them. I saw them sitting there several times during the week and was going to call and then got busy and didn't call them in. I wish I wouldn't do that. Maybe I'll have to make it a routine to call them in as soon as I empty them rather than just putting them up there to call on later. I've done so well on my routines lately and I'm so proud of myself. You'd have to know what a procrastinator I had become for so long before you'd understand the extent to which my routines have changed me. I didn't bother to turn over a new leaf; I just turned over the entire tree!!! They get me up and going, doing things I'd normally put off doing (like calling in my meds, but imagine that attitude toward just about every thing in my life and you can kind of get a picture of what I was like). It's a lot like losing 30 pounds; you're different and proud of it!! And there's nothing wrong with have a healthy pride in something you've accomplished. God was proud at the close of each creation day. He had sat back at the close of each and surveyed His work and breathed, "And there was evening and there was morning [another] day," brimming with satisfaction and pride in His work. (Genesis 1&2)

You know, I'm thankful we have trees we can park under to shade my car during the hottest parts of the day but I sure wish they were different trees. These drip a kind of sap all over my car. It's not a sap like pine sap, that sticky, gooey, tarry stuff that's next to impossible to get off. This is just little tiny specks all over the windshield that obscures my vision if I drive into the sun or into the lights of an oncoming vehicle. It's like trying to see through a sand pitted windshield, if you've ever had that experience. They wash right off with the hose but now that I'm washing my car every Saturday I don't want to have to go out on Wednesday and spray it off. I don't want to water spot it halfway through the week. Using Windex and paper towels work, of course, but that's a lot more work than just spraying off the car. Oh well, what else do I have to do??? I never cease to amaze myself of the number of things I can find to complain about. Well I'm not the only one who does that. (As if that somehow makes it okay?) But it's still a bad habit that needs to be changed.

The mine tragedy has increased and they've suspended the rescue efforts after another cave-in killed 3 miners and injured another 6. Add that toll to the number that was originally trapped in the first cave in and it becomes very tragic and it's a lose/lose situation. If they keep digging to rescue the trapped miners they run the risk of losing more miners and if they don't keep digging then they'll just have to write off those who were trapped in the original cave in. It's a difficult situation no matter what they decide to do. I just ask the Lord to comfort all those involved. He doesn't protect us from pain in this life, but He does promise to go through our pain and struggles with us. We don't have to go it alone.

Today's Bible verse is Romans 5:6-8 where it says: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly ... While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I love those Scriptures. The world and it's people had to be just right, it had to be just the right time for Jesus to come as Savior. Any sooner and the world wouldn't have been ready to accept Him. Any later and the world would have totally ignored Him. But it was just the right time. The people were desperate for a Messiah and the world was at a climax of Roman intolerance.

But notice the words when we were still powerless. All recorded history shows that people had been, from the very beginning, (Genesis 3) struggling to save themselves. They recognized they were fallen, broken, and fatally wounded. They needed a savior desperately! So when the time was right, Jesus entered the world. But notice who he entered the world for. Sinners. It doesn't say He came to save the righteous, no, He came to save us while we were still sinners. And if Christ, in His great love for us, would come and die while we were still sinners, think how much more He will do for us once we establish a personal relationship with Him!

I use the term 'personal relationship' in my blog quite a bit. What do I mean when I say 'personal relationship?' I mean it's a heart kind of knowing, not a head knowledge. It's the difference between knowing all about someone and knowing them personally. I could read all about Brad Pitt in the Hollywood gossip publications. I could learn when he gets up and what he eats for breakfast. What he likes to do for relaxation and his favorite author. I could learn which soap he prefers in the shower and his favorite dessert. I could even meet him in a coffee shop, but I still wouldn't know him. A personal relationship means that while I may learn all about the Lord, it's a knowing of Him intimately, in my heart that becomes my immediate concern. Something happens inside of me. My heart swells to take Him in, He meets me in my heart, and I find that I am in love with Him. I don't just know things about Him. I know Him personally. He's no longer just the Savior; He's my Friend. He's no longer just my Lord; He's my Brother. He's no longer just God; He's my God. My God. My Friend. My Lord. My Messiah. My Brother. My Shepherd. He's no longer an abstract concept; He's my reality. It happens in my heart, not my head. I find myself suddenly in love with Him and think about Him constantly and have an overwhelming desire to spend time with Him. Just sitting quietly under a tree somewhere, loving Him. Waiting in line at the grocery store, loving Him. Mopping my floors, cooking, doing laundry ... loving Him. He's the first One I think of when I wake up each morning and He's the last one to whom I whisper goodnight. It's desiring to spend time with Him instead of watching a movie. And it's that conviction in my heart that He's "Christ in [me], the hope of glory..." (Col. 1:27). My heart longs for His companionship and is satisfied only by His presence. It is that vital, immediate, vibrant aspect of knowing Him personally.

Did you know that in the Greek (in which the New Testament was originally mostly written) there is no word for "truth." It's true. The word the Greeks used when they penned Scripture was "reality."
Things aren't the truth; they are reality. God isn't truth; He is Reality. My love for Him isn't true, it's my reality. It's what's real in my life. I just thought I'd share that with you. They say the same thing but it just gives a different flavor to Scripture when you know that the Bible isn't truth, it's the Reality.

This is Friday and it brings another week of blogging to a close. I hope you've enjoyed reading them. I rarely know what I'm going to write about until I sit down at the computer. I suppose I could run out of things to write about sometime but it hasn't happened yet. I just try to meet you here each morning and go with the flow. I really hope you get something out of my blogs. They are so much fun to write. So until Monday take care and stay close to the Lord.