Celebrate! Praise God! The baby is coming! We must prepare! Yeah! Yippy!
 
The baby I am celebrating was born in China on July 28, 2025.  We learned today she and her mother will travel to Tampa from Brazil in March, 2026, for a paintball tournament.  I expect the baby’s father, our son, will travel with them. 
 
I am already thinking of the myriad of the baby items we will need to properly host an 8-month-old girl: a crib, a playpen, a car seat, toys, diapers, high chair, soft blankets, and, and, and.  Those items are in scarce supply in a community with a population of 25,000 residents over the age of 55 and virtually no one younger.  And we must remember to child-proof the condo, scrub the guest bath, and clear out the sewing room.  I am tired just thinking about it. 
 
All this for a human baby. What more should we do in preparation for the birth of Jesus? Jesus who is both God and human.  Jesus who dwelled among the people in the Holy Land over 2000 years ago and yet dwells in the hearts of all who, since then until now and into the future, believe in him.  Jesus who ate bread and share the cup with his disciples and who offers his body as our bread of life and his blood as the cup of our salvation.  Jesus who suffered a very human death and was resurrected into a heavenly body.  Jesus who ascended into heaven and who will return to judge all humans, living and dead. 
 
Jesus does not need the accoutrements of twenty-first century baby raising; He needs believers who live in humble obedience.  We do not need a crib; we must prepare a place for him to dwell in our hearts.  We do not need to stranger-proof our homes; we………. We do not need to prepare for him a sumptuous feast; we must share the ‘bread’ of our lives with those around us.  We do not need to selfishly praise God for his gift of life; we must offer the knowledge of salvation through Jesus to those who don’t know him.  We do not need to look around us and notice people who are different or who sin in a public way; we must love people and leave the judgement to Jesus.

Prepare by thinking about this poem by Ann Weems:

THE COMING OF GOD
 
Our God is the One who comes to us
in a burning bush,
in an angel's song,
in a newborn child.
Our God is the One who cannot be found
locked in the church,
not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where God will be
with no constraints,
no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
and destruction has no power
and even death cannot stop
the living. 
Our God will be born where God will be born,
but there is no place
to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
God will come
even to a godforsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem.
Watch ...
for you know not when
God comes.
Watch, that you might be found
whenever
wherever
God comes.
 
 Weems, Ann. (1987). “The Coming of God”. 
Kneeling in Bethlehem. Louisville.
 Westminster/John Knox Press. 15

 'There's honey in the rock, water in the stone
Manna on the ground, no matter where I go
I don't need to worry now that I know
Everything I need You've got' – (a)
 
This song tells about God’s provision for his people the Jews when they were wandering in the wilderness during their exodus from Egypt.
 
'There's honey in the rock, water in the stone
Manna on the ground, no matter where I go
I don't need to worry now that I know
Everything I need You've got' –
 
When God gave the law to Moses he required a festival we know as the festival of tabernacles to remind the people of His generous  provision -the details as in Numbers 29:12-38.

This festival lasted 8 days –  
 
Each day of the festival the priest followed by celebrating crowds would walk about 630 meters from the temple to the Pool of Siloam to bring a golden pitcher of water from the pool and pour it on the altar.   On day seven of the festival they paraded from the temple to the pool and back happened 7 times -  each time the crowds and the priests praised God for his provision in the desert.
 
The eighth day, considered the greatest day, was the final day – there were other rituals to bless God for his goodness – John chapter 7 we learn Jesus’ disciples went to the festival but Jesus stayed behind.  And arrived later than his disciple. We will read chapter John 7:  37 – 41 says:
 
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
 
Just as the Jews were thirsty when they were wandering in the desert – Our souls are thirsty – our hearts are dry – You and I get thirsty -
Jesus invites all who are thirsty – anyone who desires more of God in their life to come to him and drink the living water he provides to every believer.
 
Just as the Jews were thirsty for water in the desert – we long for something to satisfy our souls.
 
Jesus invites us to drink of the living water he offers us.
Jesus says that those who drink of the water he gives will themselves become sources of this living water. Jesus tells the  Samaritan woman in John chapter 4: “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (4:14).
 
Is anyone thirsty?
 
The Book of Revelation chapter 22: 17 says “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”
 
 Is anyone thirsty?
 
This living water is a gift to all who believe – it does not cost us shillings and is priceless – that is so valuable we cannot even think of how much is cost – it cost the life of God’s dearly loved and only Son our savior.

David cries (Ps. 63:1), “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” 
 
 In Revelation 21:6b, Jesus says, “I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
 
'Is anyone thirsty Anyone
Is anyone thirsty Anyone
Is anyone thirsty Anyone
Is anyone thirsty
Jesus said, "Let them come to me and drink
Let them come to me"
 
Let the living water flow
Let the river of your Spirit flow through me. ' (b)
 
My sisters,  come to the water Jesus is offering for a fresh infilling of his spirit – Lift your hand with expectation to catch the refreshing and cleansing water of the Holy Spirit –
 
The holy spirit God has given us – The Holy Spirit who pours God’s Love into our hearts – Receiving the continual blessing – let the blessing of living water overwhelm your life – share God’s abundant living water with everyone around you. 
 
The love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit God has given us – Come to the waters and drink –

Do you hear God calling you? 
Is anyone thirsty?
Are you Thirsty?
 
'So my brother, my sister if the things that this world gives you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away,
My blessed Lord will come and save you
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray--
 
Fill my cup, Lord
I lift it up, Lord
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul
Bread of Heaven, feed me 'til I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.' (c)
 
Jesus simply said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” It is a personal relationship with Jesus, not a bunch of religious rules or rituals. It is having the Hope the confidence God will fulfill his promise of forgiveness of sin and eternal life because of the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ. His promise to Pour his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit God has given us.
  
Jesus said, "come to me and drink – come to me and I will fill your heart and mind with my Holy Spirit who will Pour the father’s love into your heart.
 
Are you thirsty?
 
(a) ‘Honey In The Rock’
 Songwriters: Brooke Ligertwood / Brandon Lake / Mitch WongHoney In The Rock lyrics © Integrity's Praise! Music, Bethel Music Publishing, Maverick City Publishing Worldwide, Brandon Lake Music, A Wong Made Write Publishing, City And Vine Production Music, City And Vine Music Publishing International
 
(b) ’Is Anyone Thristy’
Graham Kendrick
Copyright © 1994 Make Way Music,
www.grahamkendrick.co.uk

(c) ’Fill My Cup, Lord’
Richard Blanchard (1925-2004)

The ghost in the attic is back…Several days ago I got up around 2 AM to take my nightly trip to the bathroom and notice light leaking from around the attic access door in the hallway.  I was sure the
light was not there when I was in the hall at 9 PM the previous evening.  Being unsure of the source of the light, I found the step stool and pushed open the door.  I discovered the ceiling light in the attic was on.  Now, it had been months since anyone had been in the attic, so I was perplexed to say the least.  In fact, I was unsettled and spent the rest of the night listening to every sound in the condo trying to determine who or what was in our attic and how they might have gained entry.      
 
In the morning, Alan brought in the step ladder climbing into the attic to investigate.  He found the   bulb in the pull-chain activated porcelain lamp holder was loose.  He tightened the bulb and pulled the chain to turn off the light.  He assured me the chain was too short for some rodent to climb the chain thereby turning on the light. He also confirmed there was no secret access some person could use to enter the attic.
 
Early this morning the light was again shining through the attic door.  So, let’s look are the facts and draw a conclusion:  1. The light was off at 9 PM and on at 5 AM; 2. The only person-sized access into the attic is through the attic door; and, 3. The pull-chain is too short to be activated by a rodent.  Therefore, there must be a ghost in the attic.
 
Happy New Year friends!  

Hurricane number 2 since we moved to Florida in 2018 is here.  As I write this, Ian is still off the coast near Port Charlotte, 80 miles south.  The current prediction is the storm will make landfall in about an hour.  In the meantime, swirling bands of wind and rain have been hanging over Sun City Center.  One oak tree branch has blown down without damage to our condo. 
I am watching the effects of the storm from the security of our lanai, a room with three walls of windows.  Directly across the street is a tall palm tree with a full crown of pinnately ('feather-leaved') fronds. The fronds dance in the 30 mile an hour prevailing wind and bow dramatically in the face of the heavier gusts. Their flexibility is astonishing; once the gust has subsided, they rise from the bow to dance again. The stem of the tree is slender and strong resisting the winds efforts to bend and break it. 
The palm tree in the wind reminds me of the lesson Jesus gives in Matthew 7:24 - 27
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
I pray for you and me our faith is like the stem of the palm firmly rooted in God; and like the fronds able to dance and bow and return to our center as God’s chosen people in the face of the troubles in our circumstances.  

A few weeks ago, my sister clued me in on a totally cool app named Merlin from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University.  Among other bird identification techniques, Merlin can record ambient sounds and distinguish bird calls from other noises in the environment.  It then searches the eBird citizen-science database for a match of each bird call as it is extracted from the recording and produces an item for the list of bird calls on the particular recording.
 
This morning as I was sitting on a picnic bench idly watching the St. Lawrence River in is relentless journey to the Atlantic Ocean, I became aware of the music of the bird calls all around me. I knew the red-winged blackbird, the Canada goose, and the osprey but not the many other calls.  Merlin helped me out.  In three minutes, Merlin recorded and identified seven other near-by birds. Who knew I was sitting with a yellow warbler, a warbling vireo, and a yellow-rumped warbler? 
 
I am delighted and thankful for the folks who are able to created apps to help amateur bird watchers like me learn a bit about the wonders of God’s world!
 
Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

I am not a compulsive neat-nik; on the other hand, I get antsy if every flat surface in the house is under disarrayed piles of whatever I neglected to put away when I was no longer using them.  Today is the day I am sorting out the clutter.  In a pile on my desk, I have found a dried-up chestnut. I am reminded of the morning 5 (five) years ago when Dear Husband (dh) retrieved the chestnut from near the wheel of my car – a gift of the squirrel who thought it a safe spot to store his dinner. 
 
Let me take you back to another early morning 12 years ago.  A terrible scraping noise accompanied me as I backed my small car from the garage onto the street.  I pulled back into the driveway stopping to look under the car for the branch I was sure I would find lodged there.  Nothing.  I backed to the street again.  The noise was so scary I drove back into the drive and phoned dh for help.  He returned home, looked the car over and under, finding nothing.  At that point he gave me his car to take to work.  My car was towed to the local service garage.  The mechanic soon called dh to report one of the front coil springs had broken and was scraping the front tire.  A 40-mile trip at freeway speeds with a broken coil spring scraping the front tire was a recipe for certain disaster. Praise God I was spared!
 
Now you understand why I panicked 6 years later when I was unable to identify the source of a scraping noise from the front-end of my car.  DH investigated and this time found a chestnut stowed in the brake mechanism – a gift of the squirrel.
 
This is the season of gift giving.  It is the time to remember family and friends with gifts; and most importantly, the time to remember the dearest and best gift of all:  God’s gift of His Son to the world and to each of us, His gift we may not recognize.  Yet when we do, we are adopted into His family, forgiven our sins and receive eternal life with Him.
 John 1:9-14    ' The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.'
Merry Christmas!

Pastor Kasey Maxwell asserted this truth in Sunday’s sermon (The Life, Apollo Beach, FL).  I never really contemplated my feet before.  They are average size with disproportionately short toes.  The skin sports more than a dozen red ant bite scars of various ages including one still pimpled up.  The nail of the left second toes is growing back from an injury sustained several months ago ripping more than half the nail from its bed.  The bottoms are dark with ground in dirty from years of going barefoot and wearing sandals in all but the snowiest conditions.  The little toe on each foot has a small callous caused by the strap of my favorite pair of sandals.  And, of course, odd suntan stripes from those same sandals.  Although my feet will never be pedi-model perfect, they are clean from daily washing and hours each week in the swimming pool. I bet you never wanted to know so much about my feet. 
 
I am sure the dirty and scarred beautiful feet Pastor Kasey spoke of have nothing to do with the condition of my physical feet.  He was referring to the beautiful feet described in Romans 10:15, ‘And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”’ The dirt on those beautiful feet comes from bringing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to a hurting world, a world desperate for a word of hope from those who carry this hope within them, those who are willing to risk getting scarred and dirty beautiful feet!
 
I pray you and I, who have the hope God promised His children, will have both compassion for those who do not know the good news and the courage to risk getting dirty, scarred, beautiful feet introducing them to our Savior.    
 
Isaiah 52:7  ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”’

A couple weeks ago, I received a series of texts in the middle of the night from my credit union notifying me it appeared my credit card information had been stolen and was being used to charge items in the Pacific Northwest while I live near Tampa Florida.  I logged into my account and, sure enough, there were several unauthorized charges on my account. I contacted the credit card company as per the instructions in the texts and confirmed which of the recent charges were legitimate and which were fraudulent. 
 
Fast forward a few days and I began to receive notices from UPS informing me they would be delivering a package requiring signature from an industrial vendor the following Friday. I was confused as I couldn’t remember ordering anything and was sure I didn’t recall the vendor.  As promised, the package was delivered Friday albeit without my signature.  The package was a padded envelope used for shipping small items.  I noticed the shipped-from label was not the industrial vendor but a local well-known retailer.  And, one of the fraudulent charges was from this retailer.  Hoping I had not ordered something without remembering or our cat had helped me order a $33 item, I opened the envelope.  Inside I found a detailed order form and a manufacturer packaged item.  I logged into my online account and searched my email to verify I indeed had not ordered the 2mm high speed steel thingy.
Next, I called the vendor’s customer service to ask their advice for what to do with the thingy.  The agent and I had a long chat and determined scammers were not always smart – The order form in the package had several identifying numbers enabling the agent to identify the phone number, email @ress, and professional account number of the orderer.  Based on the information both the vendor and the credit card company have identifiers for any recourse. And I still have the thingy.
 
Hmmm – what is this thingy?  I don’t want to open the manufacturer’s package in case I am instructed to return the thingy to the local retailer.  It reminded me of other unknowns in my life:  my future; the stability of the stock market and my 401K; the possibility of hurricanes in western Florida; all sorts of things I cannot predict.  Paul preached to the Athenians the identity of the Unknown God . (Acts 17:22-23). 
 
I am thankful the ‘thingy’ in my life is not an Unknown God.  I am thankful the Unknown God has made Himself known to me through the scriptures, the wisdom of inspired preaching, the counsel of other Christians, His word into my life through prayer, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
 
I urge you to get to know the Unknown God – study the scripture; attend services preaching the gospel with clarity; join a small/study group with mature Christians; open yourself to the revelation of the Holy Spirit and meet with God in prayer.  And the ‘thingy’ will be revealed – the Unknown God will become known!  Praise be to God.  

I have been spending several lunchtimes a month volunteering at Anchor House, Inc., at Port Manatee. The port is a fascinating place with ships of all sorts docking to unload their cargo.  My favorite is what Alan calls bulk product.  Bulk products are things like sand, gravel, concrete, fly ash (black snow) and who knows what carried loose in the hold of the ship and unloaded onto the long conveyor or into hoppers to be dropped into dump trucks.  As best I can tell, most of these products are stored in piles on port property until the importer sends vehicles to carry it away.  The piles are several shades of gray or tan.  Some are flat topped and covered with huge tarps to protect the product from wind and rain.  My absolute favorite is the bright yellow pile of sulfur. Actually, the pile is more like a collection of yellow pyramids.  

Equally fascinating was when sulfur was removed the largest pyramid and the pile resembled a yellow El Capitan! 

How alike the piles of bulk product are on Port Manatee; and yet how unique each on is.  And how different they look after the work of their owner.  It reminds me of people – how alike we are and how we are uniquely made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) and how different we are when we have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col. 3:10).
 
I pray daily I am open to the work of my owner in my life to transform me the image of His Son!

Update October 07.2021.  The pile of sulfur has been completely removed from the lot at Port Manatee.  The plot is so clean it might have been vacuumed!