Big Lots!

American owned discount retailer Fortune 500 company, Big Lots, was in the news today about making lots of money!

Big Lots was the first word that came to mind as I reflected on a cruise that my dad took my brother and I and our wives on this last week (very kind and gracious and fun...thanks dad!).  Below is a big list of lots of things that wow’d and impressed, were noticed, appreciated, shocked and offended, can learn from, was reminded and shown, need to be applied to my life.

Lots of water on this planet and …
Lots of different created shades of beautiful blue in the water
Lots of people don’t know that Creator God or about God or the name of God
Lots of people have lots of money to waste
Lots of food can be consumed in a day
Lots of music everywhere… it is a major part of life, joy, energy, motivation and expression
Lots of good musicians out there wanting a place to play
Lots of evil people that can still do good, impressive, smart, important, loving, caring things
Lots of amazing things to do everywhere
Lots of ways to make people pay for something that used to be FREE like buying water
Lots of ways to forget God, Sunday church, devotion, Bible study, disciplines can be easily forgotten, replaced or in other words….
Lots of ways to fill the void that can only be truly filled by God
Lots of Impressive ship employees remembering people’s names and what they do or order during meal
Lots of space needed to park a big ship that look like a city block of downtown sky scrapers however,
Lots of places on a big ship to still find a place all to yourself
Lots of places to explore
Lots of different ways to shape towels into animals
Lots of international people willing to work long hours, 7 days a week,  for 8 months,  for not a lot of pay
Lots of ways still/always to improve things  (safety stations, getting off boat, things offered)
Lots more to say…

27 # 2

Starting summer worship choir project next week on the 27^th

 

Life & Travel
27 - How old I was when I was married
The 27th state is where I now reside – Florida
Hwy 27 is the main hwy that goes thru Greenbay, Wi
Hwy 27 goes thru hill countries both in Texas and Florida

From the Bible
With the numbers 3 27 9 you can see:
Old Testament = 39 books
New Testament = 27 books
The total number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet (22 regular letters and 5 final consonants)
There are 27 generations from David to the Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew.

Trivia
27 is a perfect cube, being 3³ = 3 × 3 × 3. (2+3+4+5+6+7=27)
27 was the number of 2 of my favorite baseball players Boston Red Sox, Hall of Famer, Carlton Fisk and Oakland A's Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter
27 is the number of bones in our hand and in our foot
27 is the race car number for driver Paul Menard

Thots
27 is also the number of times the word “love” is mentioned in 1 John 4. 
*Actually just in the 2^nd half of the chapter. (7-21)
27 times is an extravagant number of times.  God must have been trying to get a point across.
Jesus Christ did/does it very well.  Can I easily list more than 27 ways He has shown His love towards me?
How can I go out of my way to express love today?
How many times and ways can I express it in a day, in a letter, in an email, in a phone call, in a song today?
How can I express it in every area of my life today?
How many ways could friends and family notice that I have shown them love?
How about 27… then keep going…

Sons of Korah

BACKGROUND STORY
The amazing story can be found in Numbers 16 and the Psalms
Only Moses & Aaron’s family members were allowed to serve as priests
And of those… Levi and his family members served the temple
Korah one of Levi’s 3 sons – His family was responsible to care for the most cherished objects.  Cherished so much… they couldn’t even touch them upon penalty of death.   They had to use poles and carry them on their shoulders
Others were allowed to carry things some the things on carts
The Sons of Korah began to grumble and complain… which led to anger… which led to rebellion…
They got together and said “we’re not gonna take it”  (can you hear the song… or “take this job…”)
Moses warned them not be that way, but they would not change
God said to Moses “say to the assembly, move away from the tents of Korah”
An earthquake happened and swallowed many along with their families and possessions
Then fire came “from the Lord” and consumed 250 more
A remnant of the sons that were too young or too aware of God’s authority and rule were spared
Seven generations later we find the Sons of Korah as: expert/strongest warriors and the greatest song writers
Of the 150 Psalms, 25 of them were written by the Sons of Korah

HERE’S MY TOP 3

• Psalm  42:1  As the deer  pants for the water so my soul longs after Thee…
• Psalm 46:1  God is our refuge and strength an ever present help in trouble …
• Psalm 84:1  How lovely is Your dwelling place, LORD Almighty!

APPLICATION

• Out of the tragedy, death, horror, bad things, hard time can come amazing things….i.e.
• Deep respect for God and His house and His people
• Hope in the midst of sorrow, doubt, and loss
• No matter the things that have happened to you, your background, your upbringing
• God does take things very seriously so be careful to obey
• God does not judge us for the sins of our fathers

Let great songs of praise, strength and skill come from me out of a humble, grateful heart…

to the One who has redeemed my life and raised me up

 

GEARS

GEARS
Gears have been around for hundreds of years. The first mention of gears came from Aristotle in the year 330 BC, who used the devices for various construction jobs. He observed that the direction of rotation is reversed when one gear wheel drives another gear wheel. At that time, gears were also used in making water-raising devices and to make catapults.  You can have any number of gears connected together and they can be in different shapes and sizes.

THINGS THAT USE GEARS

• A car has a whole box full of gears—the gearbox—sitting between the crankshaft and the driveshaft (make the engine run)
• Steering for a car (rack and pinnon)
• Things that have multiple speeds
• Clocks
• Bikes
• Screw
• Egg wisk
• VCR

3 MAIN THINGS GEARS DO

• Increase speed
• Increase force
• Change direction

MAINTENANCE

• Check regularly to make sure…
• Clean
• Sealed
• Oiled
• Replace/restore worn out, broken parts

APPLICATION

       For you, your team, organization...

• Check to see any changes that need to be made
• Check to see what areas may need some maintenance

BONUS

Gears also make beautiful things
  

Bald... Bears....

 

2 KINGS 2:23-24:  From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”  He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

• Teach boys how to react when around bears
• God loves “baldies”
• Don’t make fun of bald people… they really don’t like it
• Be careful not to ask for bad things or pray curses on people
• R-E-S-P-E-C- T (admire, high regard, think highly of, have a high opinion of, look up to)
• Word of God
• It is much more than stories
• Word of God is powerful
• Know what it says and means serious consequences
• Logic and intelligence is not enough
• Your elders
• Men of God
• Bad company…corrupts good morals - I Corinthians 15:33
• Take the things of God seriously
• False truths get mauled

INTERNET QUOTE:  “Not only mauled by the Truth – but frozen – immoblilized by doubt, evil, and disrespect”

GREAT VIDEO:   http://newchristianbiblestudy.org/bible/story/elisha-and-the-bears