A Simple Flower can tell us much about the Grace of God. 

The glories of creation surround us. 

Each evening He sends us a Testament of Grace. 

We come to God in dark moments and He answers our prayers. 

Old Glory continues to wave under God's good light 

The Light testifies of Him  

Testimonies of Grace

God has given us the Old and New Testaments . He has also surrounded us with testimonies of grace.

These testimonies of grace serve as an ever present witness of the loving mercies of God and His Goodness. They are there for us to see them if we have the eyes to see them.

The beautiful sunrises and sunsets testify to God. The daily sun and the beautiful light that streams from behind the clouds witness to His presence. The moon and the stars give witness to His creation at night.

Rainbows testify to his faithfulness. Mountains are testaments to His majesty.

The trees and flowers testify to the gentle goodness of God. Miracles surround us on a daily basis.

Each pregnancy and birth is a creative miracle.

We have become so callous to God that we fail to see him.

He is present in our church services, in our praise and worship. He is there when we do kind acts and serve one another.

We receive a multitude of answers to our prayers, and yet many of us still do not believe.

He surrounds us with His kindness and His mercies. If only we would stop and look around us for a minute, we would see the mercies and helps that he puts in our lives.

The Bible says that the grace and mercies of God fall upon us like the gentle rain. They fall on the believer and the unbeliever.

Whether you recognize His constant mercies is up to you. There are also evidences of evil in the world. I think that we have become so preoccupied with these evidences that we may have lost sight of the grace and mercy of God.

HarleyDad

TexBro's cool new Valkyrie. Gonna look great crusin down the highway! 

I didn't know a banana could have so many pipes! H.D. has engine envy! 

I ain't no Nippon lemon! 

Die Valkure

Die Valkure-One of the Richard Wagner's great musical pieces in the Ring Series. We know the tune as The Ride of the Valkyries.

And speaking of Valkyries, boys and girls, TexBro has himself a new bike. This Valkyrie has a 1500cc engine and is yellow in color.

Congratulations TexBro. I guess you and your main squeese (a.k.a. Mrs. TexBro) will be riding down the highway laughing at HarleyDad's 1200cc Harley as you pass him up.

Sharp looking bike, TexBro!

Pictures of the Nippon Bumblebee is set forth above.

Enjoy and by the way can I try it out when I come to visit?

A Child's Prayer

I still remember the prayer I was taught as a child many years ago:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
And if I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Wow! That does not seem like a very modern prayer. This was the prayer of people who had come through World War II, a blood- thirsty time when you were lucky to make it through the night in many places of the world. I wonder what a prayer would be for a modern child.

Imagine your focus as you pray this prayer. "I hope I make it through the night."

On the other hand, children were safer when I was a child. Boys and girls went out on Halloween trick or treating and most of us did it without our parents.

Times have changed. However, the forces of good and evil have battled throughout the ages, and our children are always in need of prayer.

We pray for for children daily even those who have grown up and who have left home as well as those who have not.

Pray for our Children! Protect our Children!

The indicia of our civilization is that we are judged on how we protect the weak and defenseless. Our country is not measuring up very well right now.

Pray for our Country and its Leaders that we will be mindful of protecting our children and our helpless ones, all of them.

HarleyDad

Durers Great Print-The Praying Hands. 

The door to God stands open for all of us. 

We pray with the faith of a child 

This is a great picture. Wish I had taken it. 

Prayer brings us together 

Prayer

Prayer is just talking to God. It is also listening to God and getting God's perspectives on a matter.

Prayer does no evil. A prayer with unworthy motives will simply be ignored by God.

I think sometimes we are benefited when some of our prayers are unanswered-just like our children are when we do not give them everything that they request. Everything we want is not necessarily good for us.

A good friend taught me that it is hard to be mad at someone that you are praying for.

A person at prayer is not a threatening sight; however, the Scripture says that the "effectual prayers of a righteous person, availeth much."

If we move God through our prayers, that is powerful.

God sees our heart when we pray. We are transparent to God, and our motives are known.

Seeing a person at prayer is one of the most intimate and beautiful sights in the world.

And prayer when good hearts are united in unity and purpose is a most wondrous thing. It is as gentle as a flower and as powerful as a storm.

HarleyDad is a novice in the prayer area. He is not a prayer "warrior"-but he does believe strongly that prayer can "move the hands of God."

He believes that the great things in the church and in our society that are truely good are born in prayer and delivered in faith before we see them standing like a young child and then a full grown man or woman.

Prayer is the implantation of the mustard seed that grows into the mighty tree.

H.D.

I'm feelin' good about myself today! Got my new pedals on and I'm feelin' fine as dandelion wine! 

Hey, Jesus! What is all this business about being thrown into the fire tomorrow. You mean the grass, don't you? 

Hi! We are better dressed than the ladies that buy from Nieman Marcus in Dallas! 

Hey, Solomon, my robes have more purple than yours!!!!! 

The Lillies of the Field

Luke 12:27 and 28:

"Consider the lillies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow was thrown into the furnace, how much more will you clothe you? You men of little faith!"

-Jesus-

God knows your needs-all of them. And He will care for you just like He makes provision for the flowers. Evil is prevalent in our world-but the care of God surrounds us on a daily basis. The daily rising and setting of the sun witness to His care. The stars serve as an ever-present reminder of His faithfulness. The flowers of the Spring are a witness to the love and beauty of God. It is man and his evil designs that trample down the beauty of God's nature.

HarleyDad

Sometimes even the nicest people go nuts! 

Crazy

The Gasarene Demoniac

Step 2-Alcoholics Anonymous-
"Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity".

Luke 8:26-37

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

Comment: We who have had relatives on drugs do not find these events as hard to imagine as one might expect. Some people may doubt the existence of God but most do not doubt the existence of a personal evil. They have seen it and experience at one or more occasions in their lives. So interestingly, the existence of Satan and demons is actually fairly easy for modern man to believe. It is interesting that he was living in the tombs. Although physically alive, he was spiritually dead. How ironic that the tombs were his home.



When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Comment: This man was under the control of evil. Evil does not treat its subjects well. Here a Higher Power had come into the man’s life and the evil within recognized this Higher Power. Evil drives people to “solitary” places. They are dangerous and people do not want to be around them.




Jesus asked him, “What is our name?” “Legion” he replied because many demons and gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. A large heard of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

Comment: How strange that Jesus would show mercy to this group of demons. They were called Legion because they were many; but they were also strong. It is absolutely clear that the demons preferred not to go to the Abyss because a worse fate awaited for them. Jesus did let them go into the pigs. Unclean spirits for unclean animals so to speak. But that did not really help them for pretty soon, the animals were dead.


When those tending the pigs saw what had happened they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside and the people went out to see what had happened.

Comment: News travels fast.



When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’feet, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured.

Comment: Jesus frees us from our insanities and brings us to our senses. Interesting, a man who was free from his demons scared the people more than the demons themselves.


Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.

Comment: Now here is the story behind the scenes. A insane person did not scare the townspeople. However, someone who could bring him to his right mind scared them. We become comfortable living with our familiar demons and are more afraid of being cured from our insanities than being sick. We love insanity because we fear change. Some would rather lives with their demons than have Jesus in their lives.


So he got into the boat and left.

Comment: If you don’t want Jesus in your life, he will respect your choice and leave. The choice is up to you. Jesus makes the insane, demon possessed man sane and in his right mind. The townspeople who were sane made an insane choice. It is a story filled with ironies. What is the story of your life and your choices?

It is a beautiful morning, the night of your life is over. 

Jesus appears to the apostles as the sun rises. 

How about a few fish for breakfast? 

Would you like to attend a fish fry put on by Jesus? Now that would be a "prayer breakfast!" 

Jesus and the Fish Fry

Jesus and the Fish Fry

We all love a good fish fry and so did Jesus. It is good to get together with the “buds.”

It was after the resurrection and the guys had time on their hands. There were 5 of them and some day church people would call them “apostles.” There was Thomas, Nathaniel, Peter, James and John. Now Peter, James and John had all been professional fishermen before following Jesus so they all knew how to cast a net or drop a hook. Nathaniel was from their home area. And Thomas he was along for the ride. Peter’s bro, Andrew, was out of town. So whaddya do with time on your hands-yep, you go fishin’.

So these 5 guys head for the Sea of Tiberias a.k.a. the Sea of Gallilee grab one of the family boats and head off to go fishing.

So off we go to John 21, verses 3-11:

Scripture: Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing” and they said to him “We will also come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

H.D. Comment. So what is so startling about this. H.D. never catches anything when he goes fishing. I guess the big deal is that these guys are pros, and they still caught nothing. Besides it was night fishing. We know that Peter was a married man –I wonder what his wife was thinking about him spending another night out fishing again.

Peter was called by God to do something. But right then was not the time to do any of them. So Peter went fishing. He obviously loved fishing, and besides it gave him time to think. He was probably a more humble Peter have denied Christ, and yet he was probably also very excited because of the resurrection. So whaddya do-You go fishing.

But thing seemed to back to their old ways. Perhaps nothing had changed after all. His efforts weren’t paying off. A whole night out on the lake and not one darn fish! Heck!

Scripture: But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you. They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast your net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

H.D. Comment. When Jesus comes onto the scene it is not uncommon for our night to go away and for there to be a daybrake in our lives, a son rise, so to speak. Note that Jesus called them “Children”-not friends, not brothers, not apostles. The resurrected Jesus is here to give counsel, provision and hope. Besides as every woman knows a bunch of men out fishing act like children, and I presume Jesus knew this too.

Also, Jesus as usual knows the right place to fish. He knows where the fish are, how many husbands the woman at the well had, and lots of other neat stuff that nobody knows how he knew. You know why, Jesus is tuned in. Supply is just around the corner (or the other side of the boat)—we just need a little guidance to find it.

Scripture: Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

H.D. Comment: Note that John, the Beloved, knows the sound of the Lord’s voice. Peter has to have someone tell him.

As a kid I always wondered about Peter out on the Sea of Gallilee fishing in his underwear. Wasn’t that embarrassing and cold too. I never could figure out dress at the time and what people wore and did not wear. Some of the medieval artists could not figure it out and Peter is often seen in various stages of undress. Certainly not always dressed for Sunday School.

But note Peters enthusiasm. He doesn’t wait for the boat to get in. He puts on his cloak and dives into the water and does the Australian Crawl to the shore. Well, we sure know one thing. Peter could swim and he was pretty good at it too-well at least he could swim for 100 yards.

Scripture: But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish. So when they got out onto land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and a fish placed upon it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.”

H.D. Comment: OK, so who made the fire? Where did the fish come from? How did Jesus catch it? Where did the bread some from? All I know is that Jesus shows up and already has the fire going for the fish fry. And isn’t that the way it always is. Jesus is prepared, he is in charge. When Jesus shows up, our hours of not catching anything are over. Our dead church programs all of a sudden spring into life. There is excitement instead of depression and hope instead of despondency.

Scripture: Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”

H.D. Comment. And so the Christian fish fry was born. I note that that there were a hundred and fifty-three instead of one hundred and fifty-four. I would like to comment on the spiritual significance of that but unfortunately neither you nor HarleyDad is ready for that. But someone counted every single fish. Not one got lost, not one was unnumbered, and the net did not break. In short, the disciples were back into their calling they were to be “fishers of men.” What’s more they would be successful fishers of men. They would catch many. And so many of us little fish have been caught in the net of Christ by these apostles. None of us has been lost. Every one of us has been counted and what is even better we count in the Great Scheme of Eternity-that men and women of many nations would come to Jesus Christ. And yes all fish are not the same. There are many differences like the fish in the sea-but we are in the net of Jesus Christ.

And what is more, the fish in turn become fishermen and fishwomen and they in turn catch fish.

You know Jesus and those apostles loved fish. They even had it for breakfast.

So now it is time for breakfast and HarleyDad is signing off with another fish story from the Scriptures.

H.D.

Here, shekel, shekel, shekel. Got to pay the tax or it will be heckle, heckle, heckle. 

Pay Taxes or Go Fishing

Pay Taxes-Go Fishing Pay taxes-go fishing? Go fishing-pay taxes? I don’t know. Why not do both?

And so begins one of the most extraordinary stories of the Bible. It is in Matthew 17:24-27:

When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”

He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”

When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.”

However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea, and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and for me.”

Now the two drachma-tax was used for temple up-keep. The people who were collecting it were religious Jews.

Now Jesus had much to say about the temple. At one point he told the woman at the well that eventually people would worship neither on the mountain or at the temple in Jerusalem Later he threw the merchants out of the temple because they had make His Father’s house a den of thieves instead of a place of prayer. On another occasion, he compared his body to the temple and said if it were tore down, it would be raised up in three days. (This was one of the charges made against Jesus when he was taken by the Jews.)

Well HarelyDad has a few comments and questions about this very strange account.

If the tax collectors had a problem about the tax why they not take it to Jesus personally?

Note that Peter just winged his answer. “Ugh, sure. Jesus paid the tax.”

Why did the tax collectors not ask Peter whether Peter had paid the tax?

What was Peter doing outside the house anyway?

How did Jesus know what Peter had said, anyway. (Jesus had a way of doing that from time to time.)

How did Jesus know where the shekel was?

I love this story. It is a real fishing story.
The tax collectors were fishing to see if they could trap Jesus-that is why they not ask Peter about himself.

Peter was fishing to come up with an answer to the tax collectors.

Everyone is fishing about except Jesus. He knows what is going on. He knows what the questions are getting at. He even knows where the shekel is—It is in the mouth of a fish in the sea.

We have a lot of questions in our lives. Sometimes, like Peter, we try to fake it. But Jesus knows the truth. He knows what we say and what we do. He knows when we are trying to hide the ball. And we do like to hide the ball.

He is also the God of supply. He can take the loaves and fishes and feed the multitudes. And if there is a pesky little tax, he can supply that need as well.

Oh yeah. Peter had gotten into the mess by shooting his mouth off about something he knew nothing about. So Peter for your punishment-“Go fishing!” Go drop a hook into the sea. And yes, those people that you told about the fact that Jesus had paid a tax that he hadn’t you take the shekel from the mouth of the fish and pay them and let them know the truth that neither you nor Jesus had paid this tax.

And oh, by the way, the tax was not rightly collected from us any way-but don’t bother telling them, the whole world will know it shortly.

Well, if I were a preacher, I don’t think I would preach on this topic. People might get to thinkin’ that they are “children of God” too and not bring all the money into the store house and pay my salary and help maintain our church building. These are dangerous topics that Jesus was dealing with.

Maybe my sermon topic had better be: “The workman is worth of his hire.”

I think I will just go fishing. Who knows maybe I will find a shekel or two.

A great picture-but I bet Jonah was not this clean after living in the belly of the fish for three days. Keep in mind-the fish was the instrument of God's mercy that saved Jonah and got him to dry land. But I suspect it was not first class transportation.