Faith – Page 4 – Angel Wheeler

S.O.A.P. #3

Today I’ve been convicted. Not of a crime, but of a wrong.

Yesterday I blogged about the joy I felt when finding my dad’s writings in my storage building. The anxiousness and excitement I felt to read them.

It was a treasure, how someone who had passed on could still speak to me. And then God was like, “Hello, Mcfly!” tap*tap*tap on my head (Back to the future reference in case you’re wondering.) “Anybody in there?”

And he continued to speak to me and show me that He too is my Father who is not physically with me but has left me his words and his writings. Why am I not as anxious and excited about His book and words? Why do I not immediately sit and pore over them like I did my dad’s journal.

In the same way I entered a dark storage building and it was flooded with light, so our dark lives can also be illuminated by the Words of God.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119: 105

I must confess that since my dad died, I have not been spending time reading my Bible. And I must. I must make a priority of it.

Dear Father, Thank you for loving me despite my shortcomings. Thank you for my dad, his life, and his writings. Help me to find your words riveting and captivating. Show me understanding and discernment while I read your Word. Forgive me for not making time for you. In Jesus name.

De-Stressing

Stress. We all have it. It attacks us at different times and for different reasons.
I’ve been feeling a tad bit overwhelmed lately. When I stop to think about my life, I realize that in the last 3 weeks I have buried my dad and have (am presently) moving to a new house, while not selling my other one. Two semi-large stressors added to my life. Then, if you add in the new baby chickens, that’s like additional family members right there, ain’t it? I’d say they rank right up there with birthing a new baby, wouldn’t you? I mean they have their own nursery for crying out loud. I check on them constantly, make sure they’re breathing, and listen to their peeps through the baby monitor.

Kidding, kidding.

About the last part anyway.

Instead of packing, cleaning, unpacking my belongings, organizing for a garage sale, and doing things to help RELIEVE my stressors, instead I google stress just to see if I’m really stressed. You know sometimes I need to confirm my thinking. If I think I’m stressed, well by golly, I need to prove it to everyone else.

There’s a little test you can take online. It’s a simple inventory where you check off a few things that have happened in the past 24 months. So I clicked away, and discovered that actually I’m not as stressed as I think I am. So I must tell myself to Get. Over. It. and Get. On. With. It.

In my google searching, I found a little article however that talked of the small things that actually stress us out more than we realize, and sometimes more than the big stuff. Things like co-workers and facebook. Can you believe facebook can be stressful? Why yes, yes I can. It is the absolute zapper of time, leaving us feeling more stressed because we don’t have time to do what we should’ve been doing while we were busy stalking and poking others. This article also says it can play a big part on your emotions, leaving you feeling inadequate when you read that someone just met Their Mr. Perfect, while you’re still waiting by the phone.

So what do I do when I’m feeling overwhelmed, overcome, and overextended?

I hit the road walking. I unplug myself from the busy world via technology and head out. Now that we’ve moved outside the city limits, I have nothing but wide open spaces and a long country road to walk. No cars and no dogs. Just the singing of the birds and the blowing of an occasional train whistle falls on my ears.

I walk and I pray. Out loud. I thank God for everything. I start counting blessings. Being out in nature just makes me feel so blessed and thankful. Lately I’ve been feeling so close to God the Creator. I’m in awe of Him.

Look at this picture of brown dirt road, meeting green hay field, meeting blue sky.

This view speaks to me.

It says, “Hello, I’m God.” And I speak back and simply say, “Thanks.”

While walking and talking with Him, He grants me peace and lets me know it’s okay. Everything is okay. It’s as if He says, “Angel, look around you. Look at all this. I did it. Nothing is too big for me. See the size of this Texas sky?”

Let me give you a link to this beautiful song.

It’s saying what I’m trying to.

4th Horseman

In Revelation 6, it says”

¹ I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” ² I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

³ When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” ⁴ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

⁵ When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds^[a] of wheat for a day’s wages,^[b] and six pounds^[c] of barley for a day’s wages,^[d] and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

⁷ When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Revelation is confusing and bizarre. There are aspects of it I simply don’t understand. Maybe it’s to be taken figuratively and not literally. I don’t know.

Perhaps you’ve seen the following video, but it was only brought to my attention earlier. You must watch it to the end.

Some people are claiming the rider on the pale horse is a reflection of something, somehow.

Me? I don’t know. Throughout history mankind has attempted to explain God’s acts away scientifically.

What I do know, is that the Bible is the word of God, and the end of the world is coming one day. In the end, the good will win and the bad will lose, and we must be ready. Are you?

Revelation 21:

¹² “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

¹⁴ “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you^[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

¹⁸ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. ¹⁹ And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

Pruning

A few days back when the sun was shining and all was right with the world, I decided to sit my plants outside. I only have 4, but they’ve been lighting up my world for several years now. I placed them in the sun, gave them a big drink of water from the hose, and allowed them some fresh air. Then I went in the house.

Three days later, after 3 nights of freezing temperatures, I remembered them. No longer green, they’d taken on a color of ash, and sat wilted and lifeless in the backyard. I was so upset with myself. One of those stupid, forgetful acts that I find myself doing more and more often.

I managed to kill them all. But with a closer examination, I noticed a touch of green life remaining in each of them. A shimmer of hope in the base of a leaf. Could they be revived? I reached for my scissors and began cutting out all the dead with a faint hopefulness in my task. My friend Pam (who my dad called Mrs. Demonic, not meaning anything bad, simply because it rhymed with her last name) told me it’s very scriptural to prune the dead.

John Chapter 15, verse 1: words of Jesus: I am the true grapevine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.

So taking this literally, I hope my plants survive the brutal cold they endured. Spiritually translated, I hope the pruning of which I am presently experiencing may allow me to produce much fruit.

Fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

And I wish the same for you. May the pruning of today, produce fruit for tomorrow.

Ashy loves this song. Can you believe I have it on my iPod?

Somebody help.

Overcoming

Sometimes I get tired.

Physically tired.

Emotionally tired.

Spiritually tired.

I don’t like myself like this.

Days like today, when all I want to do is vomit hate, bitterness, rage, and tears all over my keyboard, I must restrain. I must filter.

My stable self says, Read your Bible, Count your Blessings, Breathe Deeply.

My irrational self says, Eat chocolate, Yell at the dog, Screw the world.

I must focus in order to let my stable self prevail.

Tonight I thought it might help if I found my gratitude journal. Oprah. I can’t stand her, but I learned about a gratitude journal when I used to watch her. Each day write down 5 things you are grateful for. I haven’t written in my journal in years, but I knew where to find it.

I rummaged through my closet looking for my gratitude journal and found my prayer box instead.

It contains prayers I wrote down from the year 1998.

I can’t share all of them because some reveal a very pathetic, desperate side of me and are much too personal.

This one is for my sister prayed on 7-2-98 “Dear Lord–please reward Jolea and John with a precious, beautiful, healthy child—-all in your time.

Two years later she was blessed with a daughter, and then two years after that, another. All in His time.

This one is asking for help in learning to say I’m sorry. It’s a work in progress. Pride is an ugly thing.

As I unfolded these papers one by one, I found prayers for marriages that were never restored.

Prayers for people whom I don’t even know or remember, but at the time, I believe they were on my heart for a reason.

There are prayers of loneliness, prayers for salvation, prayers of relationships, prayers for forgiveness, prayers for healing.

Some have been answered.

Some weren’t.

Some I’ll never know.

Some I’m still praying.

Like this one:

“That God will use me as a witness for Him”

As I look back on these prayers, I experience God’s sovereignty. His faithfulness. His forgiveness and love.

I am encouraged, my burdens are lifted, my heart is lighter. I even added two new ones tonight.

It’s funny. My mom always taught me never to put anything in writing.

Obviously, I didn’t listen.

I never found my gratitude journal in my closet. It doesn’t matter.

1. Thank you for my health.

2. Thank you for my husband and family

3. Thank you for my job.

4. Thank you for my salvation.

5. Thank you for always knowing best.

6. Thank you.

7. Thank you.

8. Thank you.

9. Thank you.

10. Thank you.

Pets

This cat belongs to my niece Ashlynn.

He goes by the name of Biggie.

It’s short, or maybe it’s long, for Big Cat, his real name.

One might think him to be gigantic with a name like Biggie or Big Cat. To the contrary. It’s that Ashlynn had two identical cats. One was bigger than the other, so naturally they got penned Big Cat and Little Cat.

Little Cat pooped all over the house and something very mysterious happened to him. He just vanished one day. Up in smoke. He should have been named Houdini the way he magically disappeared. It was during a time when my sister was in town visiting. I do believe she was the last one to see him, but oh nevermind about that story. Perhaps you’ve had a pet Houdini in your life as well.

Yesterday I received a phone call from my mother. She was moping about. Biggie was gone.

Then later I received a text from my niece. It read:

ATTENTION: yellow tiger cat, named and listens to Biggie. If found plz call. THANK YOU!!!

This isn’t the first time Biggie has run off. One other time my mom needed to leave town for about a week, so Ashlynn came to stay with me and brought Biggie with her. He was in the yard 12 seconds before he promptly disappeared. The next day, he still hadn’t surfaced. We checked the pound and made posters to hang on the the lamp posts. My sweet niece was beside herself with grief. Did he get lost? Could he not find his way home in this strange neighborhood? Had he been picked up? After 3 days, we put an ad in the paper. No one called. Then one night my husband popped in the door late after work and announced to Ashlynn, “I just saw your cat running across the street.” We were then able to breathe easier knowing that he was simply out tomcatting in a new neighborhood and would return when he was through prowling. And he did. Three or four days later, he came back and infested us with the worst case of fleas I do believe I have ever witnessed. Needless to say, that was the last time I kept Biggie when my mom went out-of-town.

Yesterday when my mom phoned, I reminded her of that story. Remember mom? Remember? Oh yeah, she remembered. She felt better and relaxed with the faith he would return. And he did. Today he is back home sleeping off his wild adventure.

To many, one of the worst experiences in their young life is when their beloved pet goes missing. My childhood pet, the one I dearly loved, was a cowdog named Fancy. Loyalty was to her as orange is to the sunset. I remember losing her one Saturday. My friend Misti and I had been hanging out at my house early that day. We decided to walk around the block to Misti’s house and of course Fancy followed, her little stub tail wagging. We played a while inside Misti’s house, then ventured out to her back yard. After a time on the trampoline, boredom set in, so we opened the back gate, went down the alley and back to my house to engage in something more exciting. After a day full of play, dusk came, and we couldn’t find Fancy. We looked and called and called and looked. Finally, we discovered her lying on Misti’s front porch, waiting. Waiting on us to come back out of the house we had entered hours earlier. That was the last place she had seen us, and she would not abandon us. No matter how strong her hunger. Or her thirst. She had followed us to Misti’s house and when we went inside, she stayed on the porch. Unaware that we had gone out the back door and down the alley back home, she faithfully remained on the porch.

For the entire day.

I do believe she would have waited there all night. I’m just glad she didn’t have to.

The Moon

“I see the moon,

And the moon sees me.

God bless the moon,

And God bless me.”

I went to feed my dogs last night and I caught a glimpse of it. Of course my camera and photography skills can not do it justice.

I was looking through the oak trees and it was shrouded in clouds and carried a spooky air.

“He covers the face of the moon, spreading his clouds over it.” Job 26:9

It reminded me of a graveyard scene my sister drew when she was in the fifth grade that I copied. Stone cold graves carved with RIP resting on hills underneath thin clouds floating across the moon. My picture wasn’t as good as hers. My hills were too humpy. My clouds were too puffy.

In this picture above, I changed the setting on my camera to “night” and it lit up the foreground, giving it a different look.

This morning when I awoke, my bedroom was cast with the light from the moon. But really the moon has no light of it’s own, only a reflection from the sun. It’s a little deceiving isn’t it? I took this picture this morning. The moon wasn’t as close, just a pinpoint in the sky.

Funny how things so big can appear so small.

When you’re lonesome and missing someone, do you gaze at the moon and does it remind you that it is smiling on both you and the one you’re missing?

Even though the world is so large, and the miles are so vast, the moon gathers the two of you under it’s light and holds you in the same place and time.

Unless of course the one you’re missing is across the world, then it’s daylight over there, and this whole romantic notion is ppppffffffttttttt.

When I consider your heavens,
   the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
   which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
   human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

Have a wonderful full-moon Friday.

February 16, 2004

Today is February 16. Today is the day. I don’t think of it every year, the day usually passes without a thought, but today I have remembered. Seven years ago today, my 4 1/2-year-old niece was holding a puppy, singing it a song, when she was suddenly attacked by two Rottweilers. I was at work, just finishing up tutorials when I was paged to the office for a phone call. My sister-in-law told me that Ashlynn had been bitten by her dog and they were in the emergency room. Her voice was calm, and I imagined she had been bitten by a dog, needed a couple of stitches, and would go home later that night.

When I walked into the emergency room and met my sister-in-law, saw her face, and heard her words, I knew then that it wasn’t just a bite. The emergency room personnel let me go back and I entered and saw the doctors, the nurses, and my brother all around her bed. Steve, her dad, was holding her hand. Then someone moved back and I saw Ashlynn with her skinny little naked body laying on the table. She was alert. She turned her head and the first words to me were, “I’ve been dog bit.”

The Lord was in that room. I could feel him everywhere. Although the situation was very serious, the bleeding had stopped, Ashlynn was extremely calm, and a peace was upon me that I cannot explain. The nurses started pointing out the wounds to me, only when they rolled her to her side and I saw very deep bites on her lower back with tissue protruding that I felt my stomach go queasy. They were preparing her to be transported to Amarillo for surgery. The room was quiet. Suddenly a doctor grabbed my hand forcing into Ashlynn’s and urged me to talk to her and tell her she was going to be okay.

I began to get a little panicky realizing the seriousness of it all, knowing that my mother needed to be there. And as much as I should have stayed there with my niece and my brother, I needed to get out of there. So I left. I went to try to find my mom. This was before she carried a cell phone. She worked for a home health agency. I knew about 3 of her clients and where they lived, so I got in my car and drove by all their houses looking for her car. I couldn’t find her. I called my friend, asking her to pray, I called my aunt, my grannie, everyone I knew, pleading them to begin to pray. Someone found my mom and by the time I returned to the hospital, she was there and they were loading into the ambulance.

They gave Ashlynn morphine and she never slept. It had an adverse reaction and was as if she was coming out of her skin, reaching for things that weren’t there, saying bizarre hallucinating statements. Then she went into surgery. After a while, the doctor came into the waiting room and informed us that he had sewn up her front, and when he rolled her over to sew up her back, the bites were much deeper than surface level, so they needed to open her up in the front to clean and stitch the interior wounds. The dogs had nearly bitten through her. She had cuts on her intestines, kidneys, stomach, and liver. Stitching the intestines was time consuming because the doctors had to literally pull them out and unwind them to search each and every inch for wounds.

Four hours later the surgery was over and she was placed in ICU. By this time, the word had reached all four corners of our small town. When she awoke she was greeted with visitors, flowers, cards, phone calls, stuffed animals, more than anything I’ve ever seen. The nurses began to turn the visitors away. During the next 10 days of recovery, our family was showered with love. Prayer chains were active, a fund and donations were given, strangers who saw it on the news or read about it in the paper came to visit, sent her cards, gave her toys. People came daily from surrounding churches to pray for her without fail. Mankind is truly generous and good.

She’s had two other surgeries since to undo scar tissue that formed adhesions and caused unbelievable pain in her intestines.

I hate to think about what she endured. I remember her words that day in the hospital, “I need a drink. I got dirt in my mouth.” And I can’t help but picture her being dragged around the backyard by those dogs whose animal instincts were to kill.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Genesis 5o:20

The greatest act of love I’ve ever witnessed came during that time. One stranger who came to pray told me he was praying for healing of the memories. I had never heard that expression before. So much of our focus was on her body, and not her mind. Our God is so good. That prayer was answered and although she has scars to remind her, Ashlynn has no fear of dogs to this day.

Today she’s an outstanding eleven year old girl. I talked to her on the phone a while ago. She was going to jazz class and then to church, two things she loves. She was talking with her mouth full and I scolded her. She made all A’s and B’s on her report card. I think she deserves a little money for that.

I couldn’t imagine my life without her. She is a little bundle of energy, a friend to all, a hater of broth, an amazing artist, a survivor for sure.

And a testimony to our God, who is with us in the valley of the shadow of death, who brings us through trials, who saves our souls, and heals our wounds, and our memories.

To God be the glory.

Footprints in the Snow

A couple days ago, my husband shoveled us out of the snow. It was just in the nick of time too. I believe with my all of my being that he was on the verge of having a full on attack of deliriousness as a side effect of the cabin fever he’d developed after being cooped in the house.

It’s like we were living in The Shining. We were trapped, confined, imprisoned for….for……months.

It was at least days.

Okay, okay, it was only about 6 hours. But that’s not what it felt like.

Unlike the movie, The Shining, with a little determination, and a lot of J-Dub’s muscle behind a snow shovel, we could get out and weren’t being chased through a maze by a madman with a hatchet. And I must admit I never witnessed twins murdered in our hallway, or blood pouring from the walls, or a small boy wiggling his finger growling REDRUM, REDRUM.

Alright, so I guess it wasn’t anything like The Shining. Our biggest problem was J-Dub was bored.

He said he was going out to the place. “The place” refers to our new little piece of land with a lovely trailer house {snicker, snicker} we bought that has given us fits and convulsions since closing day way back in October. I decided I should let the stink blow off me, and go see all the crazies driving around town in the snow, so I pulled on twenty extra layers and hopped in the passenger seat.

The snow was deep when we pulled up to the gate, so we decided it’d be easier to park in the county road than to drive through the deep snow.

J-Dub led the way. My boots were heavy and the snow was bottomless. Lifting my knees up to my chest to take my next labored step was difficult. I hollered out from behind him, “You’re going too fast!.” He turned his head and hollered back, “You’re going too slow!”

Knowing he wasn’t going to slow down and wait for me, I got the brilliant idea to walk in his footsteps, and save myself a lot of hard work.

I’m sure you’ve seen footprints in the snow before, I’m sure you’ve even walked in snow deeper than this, but if I told the truth that it was only a few inches deep instead of having you believe it was 3 1/2 feet, and that it was a very short walk to the front door, it doesn’t make me sound as tough, eh?

Walking in someone else’s footprints in the snow makes me all nostalgic and I think of the time when there was a “for real” blizzard and I walked with my dad to a little convenience store several, and I do mean several, blocks away ill-dressed in a measly pair of tennis shoes. We needed food. I was about 10, he was about 40, and I realize now how terribly I must have slowed him down. And if my memory serves me correctly, I begged to go, and he insisted I shouldn’t, until of course he gave in like dad’s sometimes do when their obnoxious daughters won’t stop whining. He probably at that point was thinking, “Fine, go with me, learn your lesson, you little ninny headed brat.”

And I did learn my lesson. It was cold, and I was miserable, and very glad to get home to my momma. That day I remember walking in his footsteps, which was not easy to manage since his stride was so much longer than mine. But all the same, I was thankful they were there.

The picture of these footprints in the snow also remind me of my Savior Jesus, and that beautiful poem Footprints in the Sand.

“LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me.”

The LORD replied:
“My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,

it was then that I carried you.”

Be blessed.

Soap #2–The Old and Curmudgeonly: Sleeping Through the Storm

My little town got 8.5 inches of snow Tuesday night, and they cancelled school. And as an added bonus, we don’t have to start school until 10:00 this morning. Yippee Skippee!!

Snow days don’t come around often, and I try to enjoy them. I spend my day in lazy gear, reading, writing, facebooking, napping. My husband on the other hand, is like a fish out of water. He turns the TV on, then turns the TV off. He sits in the recliner, then sits on the couch. He lets the dogs out and lets the dogs in.

Finally, he got still long enough to sleep a little. I decided a picture of these three old dogs was in order.

He didn’t work because he took care of everything the day before.

He double-fed the cattle and put out hay, but I’m sure those cattle will be glad to see him and the cake wagon (aka the feed truck) today.

[feed+wagon.jpg]

He was prepared for the approaching storm.

It reminds me of a story I once read by an anonymous author:

Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. “Are you a good farmhand?” the farmer asked him. “Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,” answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!” The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.”

Enraged by the old man’s response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, and he returned to bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

So it is with life. Can we sleep while the wind blows? Are we prepared when the storms of life arise?

There’s marital troubles, financial troubles, job troubles, relationship troubles, health troubles.

There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.

Sorry. Bubba came to mind. It happens.

Here’s my SOAP for the week. It’s my new way of Bible Study. S stands for scripture, O for observation, A for application, P for prayer.

Scripture: In Luke Chapter 4, Jesus was sleeping during the windstorm.

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are youso afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Observation: Even the disciples who had seen Jesus do miracle after miracle were afraid during the storm. Their faith was tested, they didn’t feel prepared. They didn’t think Jesus cared about them.

Application: During storms in my own life I have cried out that same lament, “Do you not even care?” But he does. I know he cares for me. He had told the disciples to get in the boat, we’re going to the other side. He’s with us every step of our journey. Side by side, through all kinds of weather. Through the sunshine and the rain. When we give our lives to Him, ask Him to direct our steps, strive to follow Him, read His word, and pray, then we can be prepared for the storms of life. Knowing he’s in the boat with us, taking us to the other side, through the storm and all will help us feel peace.

Prayer: Dear Lord, I love you and I thank you. I thank you for my good times, and I thank you for the storms that you have seen me through. I thank you because I know that you will be with me in the storms that are inevitable. I pray that through You, I will always be prepared when the winds toss my little boat. Hide your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Guide me on my journey. Keep me safe.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.