Whispers of Truth

I realize that I am getting older by the nanosecond, but I am rapidly losing more and more things all the time, including things I used to know. In a way, it makes rediscovering things already stored away a present of sorts, like finding the Christmas present meant for two years ago hidden so well I forgot where I put them. They’re still there, buried beneath the piles of life in a deep, dark recess somewhere, but they just need some help being located.  My summer discipleship group will begin meeting in about a month, and I sent the girls a reminder to go ahead and review the verses we’ve memorized the previous two summers because we will be reciting the cumulative verses at some point during the study while learning twelve new ones. It made me realize that I, too, get to do the same, so I immediately started trying to recall the eighteen verses we’ve already memorized along with their scripture references. While the verses come to mind more readily than the references that go along

I think most have imagined it—the scenario where the house is on fire and there are only seconds, if that much, to grab what’s most important and escape to live. Okay, maybe we haven’t all imagined that scenario and it’s just my overactive imagination at work (the one that stops working every single time I try to employ it in writing the great American novel . . . ). I decided in my early teen years that my one thing would be my Bible, and I made sure I knew where I put it down each night when I went to bed. Right now, you’re probably scratching your head or shaking it and asking where in the world I could possibly be going with this train of thought, or maybe not if you’ve read Gen. 19, Ezekiel 12, or Luke 17:22-37 among other scriptures.  In Gen. 19, God in His mercy spares Lot from the destruction He has planned for Sodom. However, when he delays leaving in trying to gather his family members and convince them to go, the angels grab his hand and drag him out telling him, “Escape

In Luke 17 Jesus continues speaking to His disciples, offering them warnings about what they would face in the future. He speaks of stumbling blocks and offers the disciples an image of a millstone being hung around an offending person’s neck for the purpose of drowning him in the sea saying that is more desirable than being one who causes a believer to stumble in his/her faith. Millstones come in pairs—one stone serves as the base and has grooves in it to channel the milled product away from the center. The second stone sits on top and grinds as it turns using the friction of the bottom stone to grind the grain. A single millstone can weigh as little as a hundred pounds or upwards of three thousand. Jesus telling His disciples that it would be better to put one of these stones around the neck and be drowned rather than being offenders in this case seems hyperbolic, but it does make the point strongly about the seriousness of the magnitude of being in the position of causing any belie