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Welcome to our weekly topic entitled, "Thoughts for the Week"!


Each week we start a new topic which begins with a short devotional and/or a hymn and then we share all week with other, our comings and goings in our daily life.

If you wish to share a scripture verse, tell us about an outing that was special, talk about your problems with your car, or whatever it might be, please feel free to join us.

This week's devotional is entitled, "Crutches and Heart Transplants" by Jack Scott

See you in the coming week!

• Prayer and Praise     Thanks for visiting this area of our site to share prayer requests and items for praise!

Morning Devotional...


Crutches and Heart Transplants

         
His bitter countenance hardened to a sneer when I informed him that I was a Christian.

"Christianity," he snapped," is only a crutch for weaklings".

His eyes flashed hate against his Maker as he repeated this old tattered and silly platitude. It was obvious that rage was rolling and boiling within his innermost being.

What should I say in reply? Perhaps I could remind him that the sinner is lame and blind and in need of help and assistance on life's great journey. I could go on to say that Christ alone is able to support the morally lame and guide the spiritually blind. However, such an answer would have been inadequate and misleading.

It is indeed true that unregenerate man is "poor and lame and blind" and therefore, unable to walk uprightly and in a straight path before God Who is holy, righteous and just. But man's disease, in a spiritual sense goes far beyond the darkened eyes and the deformed feet. Both his sinful sickness and his spiritual penury are merely symptoms of a far more serious malady. Isaiah, the prophet wrote, "...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;...". (Isaiah 1:5,6) The sickening symptoms of this disease are vividly pictured for us by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-18:




This may sound awful, but remember it is God's diagnosis of the problem, and men left to their own devious devices will soon manifest such terrible conduct as that described. We only have to read of the acts of men in recent history to confirm the truth of it. Even the behaviour of "civilized" troops sent to keep the peace in war torn lands attest to thefacts of scripture.

Man does indeed seek out and use many devices to support himself as he travels through life. Indeed these props may appear to be of some help for a time, but by and by they crumble and break when they are most needed. These supports give a false sense of security and will be of no help at all when the poor forsaken soul stands before the Last Great Assize. These crutches have various names. A few examples are: socialism, humanism, atheism, psychology, religion and entertainment to name but a few. They all have some things in common. For example, their place of manufacture was Hell and their designer was the arch enemy of souls. His name is Satan. They are among the many and diverse tools which he uses to blind men to their personal depravity and to the real cause of the present distress of nations.

When God reaches down and imparts saving faith to a poor sin sick soul, He does much more than provide a crutch.  He performs a spiritual Heart Transplant.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26,27 NKJV)

As the new heart is thus given in grace, the unsoundness of the head is also dealt with. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." (Mark 7:21-23 NKJV)

To the one who calls Christian faith a crutch we can confidently answer, "It is not merely a crutch to the lame. Rather it is a spiritual heart transplant which never fails." The recipient of such a new heart as God gives will never die spiritually for he has eternal life.

Oh, that sinners may be moved to cry with Israel's king David "Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10 NKJV). Those who do this, trusting in Jesus Christ and His redeeming work on Calvary will receive new hearts and will become new creations in Christ. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) This truly describes the experience known as the new birth. Those who have truly experienced it no longer need crutches for they are enabled to "walk in newness of life."

Beloved reader, have you received this divine surgery? You don't need to have your name put on a waiting list. God now calls sinners to repentance and faith in His Son the Great Physician of souls.

~Jack Scott~                                                              

Thank you Pat!

I've had a busy week in one way or another. 

You know those water coolers that you put a 19 or 18 liter bottle inverted on the top?

I have one.  And I've been the strongest person all my life with no qualms about lifting things etc.  Well, I carried my last one in from the garage the other afternoon.  No trouble doing that.  I removed the empty one and then proceeded to lift the new one up to put on the cooler.  I managed it but in so doing, I think I either wrenched severely (or cracked) a rib (back left) and/or over stretched a left muscle as the pain is terrible behind my left breast and down the left side and in the back it's almost unbearable.  I'm alone right now so no one to put on any rub!  I lay on the living room floor most of the night on an icepack with a damp towel on top of it and then a hot pad with the same alternating back and forth.  They don't do much for cracked ribs--had several in my life so I'm taking percocet and really having trouble doing much .

Guess I'm a mess!  (A 73 year old mess!!!!)  Last week after kicking the bed leg and breaking my baby toe and now this!!!

Anyway, I'm in here off and on.

Oh, Pat!  I'm praying, of course, for quick and complete healing.  Sounds like it's time to find another way to get your cold drinking water. 

As always, thank you for sharing Jack's loving and insightful message.

Hi everyone.  Will leave for coffee in a few minutes but stopped to see who had posted since I did last night.  Today should be a normal Monday for me with my Monday men's luncheon and then a meeting tonight.  That will likely be about all I try to do today. 

Pat, so sorry to hear of your pain and agony and on top of a broken toe.  This sure isn't getting off to a good week for you and hope it gets better.  When will Paul be back?  Thanks for sharing the very powerful writing from Jack.  As I read it I just felt it was one of his and I was right.  He paints quite a vivid picture in words and quotes from the Bible. 

Liz, I have a good friend who has celiac disease and has to stay away from any product with gluten.  He almost died in the hospital several years ago with the disease and now is extremely careful.  He says he feels much better.  I have a feeling that gluten is something we would all benefit from not eating but it found in so much of our flood made with wheat.  Glad you are feeling better and hope you get some rain shortly.

Carol, sometimes I do get very frustrated and tired of computer problems as it seems there is always something on one of the four we have.  I don't know what Pat will do when I am no longer around to fix the problems or answer the questions she has on why something isn't working but guess she will manage.  Nice of you to take your middle son to two birthday celebrations. 

Oh Pat why not in the future get the neighbour to help with that?

I feel so helpless not being able to help.

Pat, I am SO very sorry to hear of your pain and problems.  I am used to doing the heavy lifting, too, and know the day may come when I cannot do it any more, but, like you, I will likely continue doing it until something stops me!  I do hope you can get relief from the pain.  Wish I were there with you, I could do the work for you, and we could have such a wonderful visit!

We have been to the gym, home and showered, John came out to shower and change, too.  We will leave early in the morning to take him back to Dodge to catch his plane home.  Beth will really miss him!  I am so thankful they found each other.

I need to go see what I can do with my hair!

Quote from: JudyB on July 29, 2013, 11:16:48 AM
Oh Pat why not in the future get the neighbour to help with that?

I feel so helpless not being able to help.

Oh, I'll be getting help.  It was just unreal that I had to decide, "This is too heavy for me!!!" and it hasn't been all my life!  HAHAHAHA!  And to think that Andrew was here and Phil was here and I didn't think to ask them to do it for me!  LOL

Quote from: Janet on July 29, 2013, 12:04:09 PM
Pat, I am SO very sorry to hear of your pain and problems.  I am used to doing the heavy lifting, too, and know the day may come when I cannot do it any more, but, like you, I will likely continue doing it until something stops me!  I do hope you can get relief from the pain.  Wish I were there with you, I could do the work for you, and we could have such a wonderful visit!

Come on up, Janet!  What a visit we'd have!

Sounds as if you may be in Guelph, Pat. I think we're having some of your cool Canadian air here in Nashville. The high is possibly going to get to 80, and the humidity is low, too. So, perfect day to enjoy a bit of the outdoors.

My daughter and son in law took me to dinner last evening at a nice restaurant that has sprung up in a part of town that is regenerating itself. The fish tacos and black beans I ordered were delicious, and then they ended up by ordering a "banana pudding cake" and it came with a candle on top, which, of course, I dutifully blew out. Thankfully, they didn't surprise me with a 73-candle cake n which all the icing had melted! 

Y'all have a wonderful day.

Love to all,
Ruth Ann

Ruth Ann I was looking for a "Like" button!

This has been a lovely day weather wise, one shower but warm with a wonderful breeze.  Zeek is full of the beans today and that I will take care of with a walk.  That should drain some of the energy.  By the way his real name is Exekiel.  The Hebrew Meaning: The name Ezekiel is a Hebrew name meaning  God strengthens. Biblical Ezekiel was a prophet among the captives taken to Babylon at the first fall of Jerusalem who wrote the Book of Ezekiel in captivity. See also Zeke.  I have changed the spelling of his nick name to Zeek.

Jean, I emailed the picture but got an error and told to send again, so did and you may or may not receive one or two...or none.  Every time that I figure something out they go and change Photobucket and this is a different system on my computer.....and I am too old for all this  

Judy, I meant to ask if your deer spray worked.  Wendy found one that really does after much messing around with homemade stuff.  I nearly passed out every time they went away and had to spray.  Phew.
This product is non-toxic and totally natural....reasonable in price and she gets it from garden shops.  Only has to be used every little while and best of all....works.  We live on Bucktail Rd. in Deer Park....and it lives up to the name.

The name of the product is Bobbex      http://bobbex.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BobbexLogo.jpg

Have a nice day all and Pat, sorry to hear about your pain.  Hope things are better.

Liz

Guess what, I found a way to get the picture from PhotoBucket to work....but the email didn't.  So there I am in all my current 80 year old wrinkled state. 
We are told that life really begins at age 40 but no one mentioned that it pretty much ended at age 80.  An old school friend recently sent me an email about the Winter Years.  Seems that is now us......no mention about Spring!

God Bless,

Liz

Awww.....  Liz...  sorry you're having trouble.  We'll hear from Jeanne and see what she says.  Thanks also for the sympathy.  I am breathing better today.  I couldn't breathe deeply all weekend due to the pain. 

Liz, I'm glad you were able to get your photo into your profile and posted for your avatar.  Looks great!  I haven't received any email from you, with or without a picture.  Must be floating around somewhere in cyber space.

Hi everyone on a sunny and supposedly non-rainy day with mild temperatures expected.  The main activity for today will be the trip to Athens for my 8th EECP treatment as they called yesterday saying the machines are working once again.  I will not finish until the end of the  first week in September.  The computer restore completed during the night and I am now installing the latest Microsoft updates and the next major job will be to move the computer back into Pat's office and get everything reconnected and hooked up to a printer.

Janet, John has certainly been one of God's blessing to Beth and to you as well to see Beth find some happiness in her life and having something to look forward to when he will make his next visit. 

Ruth Ann, I don't think I wished you Happy Birthday so I will do so now.  It sounds like you had a lovely meal and enjoyable time with family.

Liz, nice to see your photo after all this time.  Always good to have a face to go with a name. 

Pat, glad to read you were breathing easier yesterday. 

Hello from the left coast. We I finally made it here. I worked an extra day this week on Sunday so that will be 4 days this week. I had plenty of help yesterday there were 4 of us working the Recovery bed. So we got some extra stuff done. Joan cleaned all the cat carriers, she does that 2 days a week beside working the bed with me. I got all the inoculations drawn up and more boxes of Syringes unwrapped and put in the drawers. Plus we folded the laundry (towels and blankets), cleaned out the dog cages Etc. Just stuff we do every day for teh most part. We had 37 animals  yesterday and will there are 34 scheduled for today.
so I am just stopping in to let you know I am still alive and well.

Busy times Marilyn!

My grandparents had only 7 grandchildren and six of us had a wonderful reunion this afternoon.  The only missing cousin was the only male.  You can imagine the gab fest of six women exchanging old photos and memories for about two hours over a delicious lunch served on a riverside restaurant patio.  Who knew talking could be so tiring!   

Hi everyone.  Thought I would stop and and catch up on the postings since I will have a short time in the morning and want to get Pat's computer back into her office and set up.  I think all of the updating and software loading is done.  My trip for the EECP treatment was uneventful and I got home about 3:30 and rested for a couple of hours.  That was about it for today.

Marilyn, it sounds like you have been keeping busy.  There are a lot of things to do to keep an office going.

Jeanne, what a great thing to have happen.  Was it hard to get a word in edge-wise? 

Actually, Larry, since I'm the oldest I think I did more of the talking!   

Liz-  It is just great to see you posting.  You are having some warm weather and I remember the time we spent on Vancouver Island when the temps were way over 100.   No air conditioning and that is when Don lost his hearing from standing  near enough to the ceremonial cannon in the downtown area.  It was a rough week but we did enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  Anyway, good that you are posting.

Pat:  Sounds awfully painful to me - can you check with medical service to see if everything is alright?  It sure does take time to mend with those problems. 

Jeanne:  Super that almost all of you could gather.  These family meetings are so nice now that we have a little more time to chat - (I mean without the little children). 

Our final day of this month's bible study was this morning.  We surely will miss the speaker - she is in pastoral care at church.  In September, the regular Wed. women's bible study starts up and that is very good and it is just huge with over a couple of hundred women.

Larry:  When do the EECP treatments stop?  Sorry that it is so tiring for you with the travel and all that is involved. 

   Good evening to you all.  We are still thankful for all your prayers.  My computer has been giving me a lot of problems and quite often when I try to do or send things out it does weird things.

Noreen is still having pain and she will see the surgeon this Thursday then we are gone away for two weeks so I will not be on line at all as I do not have any way at the cottage to send out any post's.

Pat I am so sorry to here about what happened to you Sis.  You have had so many things happen over the years and you have to give into some things that you cannot do any more.  Listen to little brother.  All our love to you from Noreen and Gordon.

Well I must go for now will try to come on before we leave but if I do not we will be back on the 18th of August.    Please continue to pray for us.  God's richest blessings.   Gordon and Noreen

Quote from: Jeanne Lee on July 30, 2013, 07:26:57 PM
My grandparents had only 7 grandchildren and six of us had a wonderful reunion this afternoon.  The only missing cousin was the only male.  You can imagine the gab fest of six women exchanging old photos and memories for about two hours over a delicious lunch served on a riverside restaurant patio.  Who knew talking could be so tiring!   

Did you get photos, Jeanne?

Jeanne, your post reminded me of what a friend told me the other day.  He said, "We have ten grandchildren now, and all but eight of them are boys!"      Your gathering sounds like so much fun!

We are ready to go to the gym.  When we get home, I must hurry and shower and then drive to Hugoton to judge art at their fair.  Diane has also volunteered me to help with face painting at their Friends of the Arts booth later.  She said I can stay as long or short a time as I want, or not do it at all.  She's easy!

My youngest grandson is leaving in August for the Air Force.  So we plan to drive to Salina to visit our youngest daughter and both the boys this weekend.  We will leave on Friday, if all goes according to plan.

I need to go see Beth today, see how she is coping with John's absence.  They called me last evening to tell me they have messed up her recliner --again--and ask me who I want them to call to fix it.  I told them the last time the guy fixed it, he said he will not do it again because they just yank the chair around and keep tearing stuff up.  We paid over $1000 for that chair, and they don't even try to take care of it.  So I think they can just supply her one now since they tore hers up.  Maybe I have the wrong attitude, but it does get irritating. 

Liz, I love your picture, and it is so nice to have you posting!  I know what you mean about the 'techy' stuff!

Pat,hope you are doing better now.

Larry, always good to read your posts and glad you will soon be finished with those computer chores.

I must get going--we are burning daylight!

Carol, I should complete the EECP treatments on September 6.    Had a good drive to Athens yesterday and finally have the roads figured out so won't have to drive through any business areas.  It only took me eight tries.

I got Pat's computer back into her office and set up this morning but the printer will have to wait until tomorrow as getting things moved really exhausted me. I tried to organize the cables and wires a little better and put the plug in strips up on the back of the table as it is very hard on me getting on the floor to work with them.

Gord, hope you and Noreen have a great time at the cottage.  Is it far away from where you live?  Is it on a lake?

Janet, all I can say is you sure have a full plate for today.  I don't think you are unreasonable for them to replace the chair if it is their staff that broke it.  However, good luck getting that to happen. 

Pat, I did indeed get some pictures, the best one is HERE- and I'm hoping to see results from a couple other cameras that were in evidence during the afternoon. 

Nice family picture! 

Prayers for all who are in pain and need of healing. 

I just lost a post so I will just say the rain has arrived and have a great evening