2018 April 27 Friday

2018 April 27 Friday in Liberty Hill Texas

54° with some color in the sky. At the same time Grimes Iowa was in the low 40s

Our first stop for the day was the VA clinic for my biannual check up and get prescriptions renewed.

Then it was to the Leander Senior center for spaghetti lunch and games. This gave us a chance to say goodbye for the summer to those folks.

After lunch we went to the 50+ meeting at Leander UMC for more games.

We played Rummikub and Fast Track with Ann and Joyce.

The next stop was the laundromat to do four loads of clothes. That way we will have clean clothes to come back to when we return next fall.

Once we were back home, I rearranged things stored in the RV basement and loaded a couple of trunks into the truck. We still have a lot of things that we carry back and forth between Texas and Iowa. So there is more to load tomorrow after we’re done with singing.

At least once year we participate in Make Church a Verb. This is where we go out into the community and assist people. Sometimes it is manual labor. Sometimes it is just going to visit shut-ins. The choir, which Ella and I are part of, will be going to a couple of nursing homes and singing for them.

MUSING – April 27 2018

WHAT IS IT ABOUT “IT’S A GIFT” THAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND?

Acts 8:15-20
“Peter and John went to Samaria and prayed that the Samaritans would receive the Holy Spirit. (Before this the Holy Spirit had not come to any of the Samaritans. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit. Simon saw that the Spirit was given to the Samaritans when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered Peter and John money and said, “Give me this power so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter told Simon, “May your money be destroyed with you because you thought you could buy God’s gift.”

Why were Peter and John so upset with Simon’s offer to give money to them?

At least once a year every pastor in the world preaches on giving. As I’m writing this our church in Texas is starting a Capitol Campaign to raise money so that the church’s debt can be lessened. Churches, businesses, families and individuals need money – that is a fact of life.

But does God needed money? Of course not! To think that the Creator of everything, the Owner of everything, needs our money, it’s to think Him too small.

However, God allows us to demonstrate our love and obedience through our giving.* In this way we become a partner in His ministries to the world.

I’ll repeat the question I asked before: Why were Peter and John so upset with Simon’s offer to give money to them? Read the rest of Acts 8 and you’ll see that until he became a Christian Simon had been an amazing magician who claimed great power. Simon now saw real power and wanted it for himself. Simon was trying to buy something that is given for free.**

Well, if not our money, or our sacrifice, what does God really want from us? “To do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly with your God.”***

*Malachi 3:7-8
**Ephesians 1:7

***Micah 6:8

All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

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