Angel,

One thing that helps me is that all this suffering is temporary, if we place
our trust in Christ.  The day will come when that suffering will be over for
us.  As the author of the book, A Life God Rewards, puts it, it's like a dot
on an infinite line.  The dot stands for this life on earth, the line stands
for eternity past and future.

Hope this helps,

Sharon
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: Bird Sermon


>I liked reading this little offering, but if this is true why has my
>husband
> lost his mind.  Why does he not know the closest people around him.  Why
> does he cry a lot and laughingly talk to imaginary people.  Why has he
> lost
> the ability to care for himself.  If God cares so much for us individuals
> why has he allowed Satan to take from him his mind?  If he means to teach
> his family patients or something, it certainly hasn't done a thing for
> him.
> There is no cure for Alzheimer's, and he will die wetting himself and
> talking nonsense.  If God cares so much why does he allow this to happen
> to
> people.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 6:17 PM
> Subject: Bird Sermon
>
>
>> Why God Made The Birds
>>
>> By Phil Scovell
>>
>>
>>
>>      This weekend, I wasn't feeling too well physically.  It was
>> sort of like the stomach flue or something.  Anyhow, I normally
>> seem to get discouraged pretty easily whenever I get sick.  Some
>> of it is related to the dozen eye operations I had 41 years ago
>> because I used to wake up sick as a dog and puking my guts up
>> after ever operation.  So, there's some healing there that needs
>> to be done but fortunately, I've already received a great deal
>> already in that area but there is more work to be done.
>>
>>      Anyhow, as the day wore on, I got to feeling better.  I had
>> been thinking about what I was going to teach on this morning,
>> Sunday, but somehow, and for some reason, I felt my spirit telling
>> me to switch to another topic and that was about birds.  I
>> remember at the moment I felt the change, I was walking near the
>> bird cage where Chester, our African Gray Parrot lives, and I
>> heard him chattering and playing around.  Parrots of all kinds
>> love to play.  They, unlike people like me, have no problem
>> keeping themselves occupied in one way or another.  So, as I said,
>> I was walking by his cage and his chattering made me stop and
>> think about him and other birds.
>>
>>      When I was a kid, I had a dog named Corky.  I've talked
>> about him on the list before.  He was a rat terrier and I spent a
>> lot of time with him.  I used to always say to him, "Corky, I
>> wish I was a dog."  One day my mother heard me say that and she
>> asked why I was saying it.  "Because," I replied, "dogs never have
>> to go to school."  I have a feeling there was a lot more behind my
>> secret confession but I'll save that for another time.
>>
>>      I was reminded of this when walking passed Chester and
>> hearing him playing in his cage.  I sort of thought the same thing
>> as when I was a child about being a dog but this time, instead of
>> wishing to be a dog, I thought of being a bird in God's animal
>> kingdom.  I heard myself saying in my thoughts, "Lord, why are
>> birds so happy?"  I was thinking, why do birds sing, those that
>> are song birds I mean, and why do they chatter and play around and
>> seemed to always be having a good time.
>>
>>      Several years ago, I watched a two hour program on a local
>> educational channel which was on birds.  They claimed that there
>> were over 600 billion birds on the planet, sounds low to me, and
>> 2800 different species.
>>
>>      Most of us probably never pay a whole lot of attention to
>> birds but I was thinking, this weekend, what it must be like for
>> all the birds in the world to awaken each morning and start
>> singing and chattering to the Lord.  Millions of birds, billions,
>> singing and to whom are they singing?  Well, they are for our
>> enjoyment, that's for sure, but what do you bet that God hears
>> them, every one, more than we take notice.
>>
>>      In the late seventies, we lived in western Colorado.  I was
>> an assistant pastor in a small Baptist church at the time.  We
>> lived in a brand new house and had one child about two years old
>> or a little less when we moved there.
>>
>>      One morning, about 5:30 or 6 o'clock, in April, I put on my
>> coat, after making some coffee, and carried my cup out on the
>> patio.  the meadowlark has been just about my most favorite song
>> bird for many years.  We lived in a very large valley and at the
>> edge of town.  In fact, over our back fence you were considered
>> out of the town proper.
>>
>>      that chilly mountain morning, as I stood and prayed, I had to
>> stop to admire the thousands of meadowlarks I could hear all
>> across the valley.  One came within about 75 feet, or less, of the
>> patio and perched on top of a nearby telephone pole.  He sang so
>> loud with all the others, you almost had to cover your ears.  I've
>> never heard anything like it before or since.  As I poured out the
>> small amount of coffee I had left in my cup on the ground and
>> pushed open the patio door, I realized that those birds new more
>> about praying and praising God than I did.
>>
>>      This weekend, when I asked the Lord why birds were so happy,
>> He instantly said, "Because they know me."  Quickly on the heels
>> of that knowledge, I realized that birds know him as their Creator
>> and so they are happy.  Secondly, they know Him as their provider.
>> You see, I know these things myself, theologically speaking, but
>> the birds know it from experience.  More than anything in my life,
>> I want to know God as his creation but to do that, you have to
>> experience something like that.  How do you experience God's
>> nature?  I personally believe it is accomplished through intimate
>> prayer.
>>
>>      Have you ever seen a bird up on a telephone wire muttering to
>> himself and saying, "What a lousy morning this is.  The whole day
>> will probably be as lousy as yesterday.  That's the way life is
>> for me," you hear him say, "nothing ever goes right for me.  I
>> think," he says a little louder and with a little more courage,
>> I'll just cash it all in right here and now.  I'm going to do a
>> swan dive, a perfect header, right off this wire into the ground.
>> I'll snap my little beak, my neck will break, and I'll be dead.
>> I'm sick of life."
>>
>>      I hear little sparrows all the time around our house.  No,
>> they aren't very pretty birds and they can't carry a tune in a
>> basket.  All they do is chatter together.  I've noticed though,
>> when I listen closely to their sounds, they seem to be happy.  I
>> bet, I just bet you that they are chattering about the Lord and
>> His goodness and that's why they sound happy.  Of course, I could
>> be wrong and they could be belly achers and complainers like we
>> are but somehow I doubt it.
>>
>>      "Oh," you say, "birds don't have anything to worry about like
>> me."  Oh, really.  What about their predators?  Cats, squirrels,
>> high voltage power lines, hunters, and a whole host of others that
>> would love to have them for supper?
>>
>>      I've never seen a bird sitting up on my house saying, "I hate
>> life.  Life just isn't worth living.  It ain't rained in days.
>> The worms have gone so deep, I couldn't pull one out of the ground
>> with a pile driver.  My stomach hurts I haven't eaten for so long.
>> Not only that, every single freaking bird feeder in the
>> neighborhood has been picked bone dry by them crazy squirrels.  I
>> wonder why God made them dumb things any way.  All they do is
>> steal my food.  Oh, my belly hurts.  God must not even care about
>> me.  I'm so weak, I can't fly another inch," and with that, his
>> little legs give out, he rolls down the roof, off the edge, and is
>> dead before he hits the ground; dead of a broken heart.
>>
>>      Why do you suppose we don't hear birds talking and acting
>> like that?  I'll tell you why.
>>
>> Matthew 10:29-31
>> 29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them
>> shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
>> 30  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
>> 31  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many
>> sparrows.
>>
>>      The word for "value" is a rather unusual word.  One meaning
>> is that of a boat, a ship really, filled with precious grains,
>> gold and silver, and many other such goods which will be sold in a
>> land far away.  The returning sailors will be rich men because
>> they will have sold everything in the ship to those who have no
>> such provisions.  Plus, they will fill the same ship with new
>> things from the far away land which they will sell when they get
>> home and make even more money.  This describes the Greek meaning
>> of the word for "value" that Jesus used to describe how much he
>> values us.
>>
>>      Further more, He makes a comparison.  He reminded us that the
>> Father is aware of ever single sparrow that falls to the ground.
>> Sparrows, in those days, were worthless and were sold for a tenth
>> of a penny or a tenth of a day's wages.  Oh, so you are thinking
>> that isn't very much value?  Remove all the birds in one second
>> of time from our planet and see what effect it has on our
>> ecosystem.  In a week, this planet would be in big trouble if god
>> removed all his precious little birds.  Jesus says, you are worth
>> more to Him than the sparrows.  In fact, he says, He knows exactly
>> the number of the hairs on your head.  Admittedly this is
>> considerably fewer on some heads but regardless, God not only
>> knows how many we have, He chooses to keep track of them.  Try and
>> figure that one out.
>>
>>      So, why did God make the birds?  Because they know Him as
>> Creator and Provider.  I wonder if you do.  I know I do
>> theologically but I don't experientially.   I want to experience
>> the truth that the birds know so I can sing and praise God with
>> them every morning.  I, too, want to be as happy as they are
>> because they know who they are and they know who their Creator is.
>>
>> Phil.
>> Victory Isn't Something You Have; It Is What You Are.
>> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
>
>
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