What happens at Midnight?

 Behold the Bridegroom cometh!

Does the Holy Spirit oil your lamp? or are you in the dark on the road to a store, when you should be entering into the marriage feast?

God has redemption and God has renewal for His people and the last day of the year is always a remembrance of that reality all over the world.

Watch-meeting services all over the world create a praying place for people to gather and await the possible second coming of the Lord.  The Lord is merciful, but we are either wise or foolish virgins, in His eyes.   Have we confessed our sins to the Lord?  Have we given him the glory and expected Him to appear, ultimately?  But also in our circumstances?  Is He coming on the clouds to cleanse our souls and our minds from our own devices?   Are we awaiting His Word to move to the next thing in our lives or are we living as a pragmatic Atheist.   Jesus is coming by and by we think.  I have time to sneak this one more thing past him, perhaps.  That is the foolishness that Jesus has come to cleanse and renew.   Get the Holy Spirit.  Get the confidence that He can and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   We are His people and the workmanship of His created in Christ Jesus and it is our job to be the light and salt of preservation to our culture and live in the light of the eternal God of the universe being in charge of the outworkings of providence.    We believe this, but we need to live like we believe this! 

Today is Tuesday, December 10, 2024. It is a rainy day!

 

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

2 Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3 I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

4 I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

5 Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee;

in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. 

Yesterday is Yesterday!

Today is Saturday December 7th, 2024 and it is freezing cold!        

     I said to myself, as I left work today, "when was the last time it was this cold in NC.  I don't remember, because that is not something that I document or record.  I should, though"

         I was freezing cold when I left work at 9 pm tonight.  It is only 36degrees, but it feels much colder.   Tomorrow is supposed to go up to 63, and when that happens you totally forget the chill in your bones that happened the day before.  I was cashiering, near the doors and it was chilly enough for me to keep my coat on half of the shift that I worked.   Some of the young people had on coats and hats and some had on shorts and short sleeves, as usual, some have sense and some have none.

I am afraid that, the cold hit me hardest when I walked out the door.  Bundling up is not my strongsuit.  I had my Davidson jacket on, but the hundred yard dash to Qdoba didn't feel doable once my lungs got a whiff of the 36 degree chill.

I will wait in the vestibule, was my consensus with myself, after trekking half the way.  It is funny how the bathroom cues hit you and every other bodily function kicks in when an unusual temperature is the tale of the day.   I won't travel all the way to the bathroom,  I won't travel all the way to Qdoba, I will wait in the vestibule, it is warmer and I am tired.

Tired wasn't factored into the equation earlier.  Tired was an afterthought.  I am up at 4 am and asleep at 8pm, like clock work.  I had drunk an extra cup of coffee for insurance of alertness, still, I am sure that my brain was only on half function.  Mistakes were aloof and even I was aware that my mind was on cruise control.   Tonight is another moment of night goggles on my brain.  I will see how it goes...