Summer Thoughts

May 29, 2024

Leadership Notes

     With school either over or almost over, it’s time to think summer. I thought I’d engage in some lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer thoughts.

     Did you know that you can drive from Pee Pee Island {Newfoundland} to Poo Poo Point {Washington} in roughly 79 hours? Now there’s an epic summer road trip.

     Are your flowers planted? We are so excited about watching ours grow and spread. We also planted a new shrub that will flower from late summer into fall. The nice person at Barrett’s gave it a green thumb up.

     I don’t know who said it, but I liked it nonetheless:

“One person’s fear does not void another person’s rights.”

     We assume the tops of aluminum cans are clean without any reason to believe that {cheers!}.

     Now that beach season is here, we’ll probably hear of shark attacks. I love it when reporters reference, “Shark-infested waters.” You mean their home? I read a story about a guy who was attacked by a grizzly bear. No one referred to “Grizzly bear infested woods.” Let’s all be careful out there.

     Charles Spurgeon once said:

“BE INSATIABLE IN THE LONGINGS OF YOUR SOUL; HUNGER AND

THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS; COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST

GIFTS. GROW IN GRACE, AND IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR

LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.”

As we affirmed in our opening message on Obadiah, be decent human beings.

     17th century Puritan preacher and author Thomas Watson wrote:

“Affliction teaches us to know ourselves. In prosperity we are, for

the most part, strangers to ourselves. God makes us know

affliction that we may better know ourselves. We see that

corruption in our hearts in the time of affliction which we would

not believe was there. A sick bed often teaches more than a

sermon.”

-      From All Things for Good

As Psalm 119:71 affirms:

“It is good for me that I was afflicted,    

that I might learn your statutes.”

     I love this from Ed Latimore:

“Justice is to keep order in the world. Forgiveness is to keep order

in your soul. Revenge is when you erroneously believe that the

former can accomplish the latter.”

That, my friends, is fine Biblical theology.

     Speaking of which, here’s one last quote from Charles Spurgeon:

“MOST MEN IN THEIR HEART OF HEARTS WOULD LIKE TO HAVE

THEIR SINS AND GO TO HEAVEN TOO. BUT THAT CANNOT BE;

WHILE GOD IS JUST, AND HEAVEN IS HOLY, AND TRUTH IS

PRECIOUS, IT CANNOT BE.”

     Finally, why do we know Saturn is God’s favorite planet? Because He put a ring on it. I’ll show myself out…

With Much Summer Love and Affection,

Richard