[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Tuesday, January 7, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all.  Well, for about 187 million of us in this country, we are or were to some extent affected by what has now been termed a "polar vortex." Fortunately in my situation we have sufficient heat and electricity for our needs, and I pray that the Lord has provided the same for the rest of you affected by this unusual weather phenomenon.

As promised in Sunday's Daily thought message, I'm going to give you the answer to the "poetic riddle." However I'm going to give it to you again along with the answer, and I would ask that before you delete this part of the message that you get your Bible and read it again in the light of the Scripture cited.  Again, here is the poem along with the answer.

As you have started, continue in Christ.
In Him, the fullness of God is sufficed.
Buried in baptism, risen in grace,
Head feeds the body, and keeps it in place.

Again, any idea of the Scripture that this poem is based on? Well, your answer is:  Colossians, chapter 2.  Now get your Bibles and read that chapter in the light of the words of this poem, and you'll find that the two harmonize perfectly with each other.  Thanks to the late Alvy Ford of Tamecula CA for doing all this writing.

Laura Gater of Columbia City, Indiana contributed today's story entitled "The Old Stove," rendered as follows:

I opened the door to the garage and there it was.  The knobs were greasy.  There were crumbs around the burners.  The oven was caked with blackened, dried food.  The door creaked.  I stared at it.  I don't want to clean you, I thought.  What have I gotten myself into?

I got down on my knees and opened the oven.  Gross.  I doused it with cleaner and closed the door.  The stove was secondhand when my husband, Steve, and I bought it 12 years earlier.  I hated it back then, too.  But it was all we could afford.  So I neglected it.

"Why don't you ever clean the stove?" Steve asked.

"Because we're getting a new one," I said.

For years, though, we didn't get a new one.  Our kids were in private school.  Steve worked in construction.  Sometimes he had work.  Sometimes he didn't.  Every month I thought, "Maybe this month I'll get that new stove." I even prayed about it.

Then, an unexpected check came for some freelance work I'd done.  It was just enough for a new stove.  I walked into the kitchen, looked at the old stove, and said, "You are out of here."  We hauled the old stove to the garage.  I thought about dumping it in the alley.  But then I remembered my friend Berneice, who worked for a charity.  She was always saying, "If you have something to donate, let me know." What a perfect way to get it off my hands, I thought.  I called Berneice.

"That's great," she said when I told her about the stove.  "I think I know a family who needs one.  What condition is it in?"

"Well," I said, "one of the hinges doesn't work, but you can hardly notice."

Berneice asked if I could fix it and make sure it was clean.  "How about I send a can of oven cleaner along?" I asked.

There was a pause.  "Laura, I think it would be better if you cleaned it," Berneice said.  She sounded a little testy.  Hey, I thought, I'm giving you the stove!

"Okay, I'll clean it," I said.  "When can you come get it?"

Berneice told me to call when the stove was ready.

Now, out in the garage, I went to work on it.  My rag made brown swirls in the grease.  In the oven, the cleaner had formed a dirty foam.  I sat back.  You know, I thought, this family is getting a free stove.  You'd think they wouldn't mind doing a little cleaning themselves.  I reached in and rubbed away layers of grime.  Finally, I could see the oven walls again.  I gave them one more pass.  They were clean for the first time in 12 years.

I stood up.  "Not bad," I said to my dog, Bingo, who had wandered into the garage.  He gave the stove an approving sniff.  "This family is very, very lucky."

Steve came home and installed the new hinge.  I called Berneice.

In the morning, a man from the charity arrived with a pickup truck.  I opened the garage and he looked at the stove.  "Wow," he said.  "It's like brand-new.  The family will be so excited.  They've been without a stove for weeks.  Thanks for all your work." He loaded the stove into his truck and drove away.

I stood at the curb, watching the truck leave, my old stove perched in back.  For the first time, I thought about where it was headed and felt a twinge of guilt.  A verse from Corinthians came to mind and I smiled at myself for all my grumbling.  We don't give things away just to get them off our hands, I realized.  Sometimes, giving takes work.  and God wants us to do that work cheerfully.

Thank You, Lord, I prayed.  Thank You for that lesson in giving.  And for that old stove.

Although Mrs. Gater didn't mention it directly, I believe that she was mentioning the verse where it says that God "loves a cheerful giver." Anyone any other idea of what she was referring to? I hope that this article was a blessing to you.  Tomorrow we're going to have what I consider to be a very interesting though somewhat long article about the church of Laodicea which I hope you will like as well.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul