MInTheGap

His Will

    Finding that I could no longer stare as many around me seemed to
disappear, I decided that it was finally time to see where these people
were all going.  I mean, it didn’t make sense that someone standing
right next to me seemed to disappear right before my eyes without a
trace.  I had been walking this way for a long time, for as long as I
can remember.  No, I’m not quite sure where it leads, but I think that
it’s about time I find out.
     “Excuse me?”  I  turned to the guy on my left.  “Just where does this path go?”
     “I don’t know, I’ve been going this way for a long time!  I hope to find out where it leads soon.”  The man answered.
     “I’ve just been wondering where all these people have been
disappearing to.  I mean, just yesterday there was this girl to my
right.  She looked healthy and all–”
     “Sorry, don’t have a
clue.  Perhaps you could try that guy over there.”  The man pointed
across the way to another man.  I thanked him, and decided to go over
to the man.
     “Excuse me, sir?”
     “Yes, lad?”
     “Do you know where we are headed?”
     “Well, some say that it’s a great party that we’re going to. 
Others say that it’s really hot.  Still others don’t think that we ever
quite get there.”
     “Really?!  What about all these people that keep disappearing?  I mean, there was this girl on my right–”
     “No one really likes to talk about the disappearances.  Some think
that they are taken back to the beginning of the road.  Some think that
they get taken to the party, or whatever is at the end.  Some just
think that they vanish from existence.”
     “Oh.  Is that why no one talks about it?”
     “No one knows, son.”
     “Certainly someone must know, for I was shown this road by my
parents, and theirs before them.  In fact, if you look closely you can
see them way up ahead of us.”  I said, pointing.
     “Don’t know
what to tell you, son.  I can only tell you what I’ve heard, which is
only bits and pieces from here and  there.”  The man shrugged his
shoulders.  “I guess we could walk a little faster and see what’s up
ahead.”
     “No thanks.  I think that I’ll just stay at this
pace.”  I replied.  The man started to walk faster and I noticed
someone poking her head through the leaves.  It was that girl that was
walking to my right.  “There you are!  I thought that you had
disappeared.  Where did you go?”
     “Some one snuck out of these woods and asked me a few questions.”  She replied.
     “Like what?”
     “Whether I knew what was at the end of the road.”
     “Did you?”
     “No, not then.”
     “You mean that you do now?”
     “Well, yes!  It was all explained to me.”
     “Tell me, what is at the end of the road.”
     “The end of the road is the end of your life as you know it.”
     “Really?  Is that the party?”
     “Not with the direction that you are walking!”
     “Why, where does this go?”
     “That way leads to the big furnace.”
     “If that’s so, why doesn’t everyone leave this road?”
     “Well, some don’t know it’s there, others don’t think it’s real,
still others are more concerned about not falling and scraping their
knee, or how tired they are to think about what is at the end.”
     “How do I get off this road?”
     “Well, there is a high price to pay for getting off.”
     “Really, what’s that?”
     “Your life.”
     “Whoa.”
     “Fortunately, One paid the price in your place.  You must believe on Him, and give your life to Him.”
     “Can I do it right now?”
     “Now’s the best time.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I was headed on a
road to destruction, yet there was one way of escape.  I turned to look
for people around me.  Some were saying that the girl was crazy. 
Others were just blocking her out.  I looked again to where she was
standing.  “If you will come, He says, follow me.  It is His will that
all should follow Him.”
     “Will that mean that I must surrender my will?”
     “Trust and follow Him.  It’s the only way.”  She looked into my
eyes, and it almost looked as if she would cry.  I decided that I would
follow this one that she told me about, for if she were right I would
die in a furnace, though one had already paid the price for choosing my
own will.

     Christian, are you leading others to follow His
will?  Are you showing a Christ-like example of self-denial.  Are you
sharing the Good News that Christ has made it so that we don’t have to
bear the punishment of our sins?  There are people out there that do
not know about Him, and need Him so desperately.  There are also those
out there that need to hear it again.  Follow His will in all that you
do, so that His face may come shining through!

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Stories and Current Events

Hope you have enjoyed the past two stories.  It’s been a crazy few days
at MInTheGap’s place.  It’s one of those times that things in the real
world must take away from time spent in the virtual.

Couple of headlines with some comments.  Some judge decided the Particial Birth Abortion ban is unconstitutional
based on Supreme Court cases.  This is ridiculous.  Maybe we should,
instead, try to pass some law that says that we can kill infants, and
then run it through the courts just to get some decisions on our side
that we can use?   I’m being facetious of course, but this is getting
pretty ridiculous.  I think that part of these decisions should involve
these judges walking into an abortion clinic and and watch one of these
procedures.  Jill Stanek takes up this issue regularly, and after
reading this article, how could anyone think this is good for the nurses, the doctors, and especially the mother and child!

It appears that the Swift Boat Vets are erroding Kerry’s support enough
for him to become desparate.  Not only did he stage the show with Sen.
Max Cleland, but now aides of his are being quoted as preparing to use
personal info on the Vets to attack him.  Also, he’s now showing his
weakness by challenging Bush to debates– a tactic for those behind,
and make Bush look even more stable.

Did anyone notice how
biased the reports about Bush’s comments about 527 ads were?  Most of
the leading headlines proclaimed “Bush condemns Swift Boat Ad” only to
mention somewhere (buried at times) that Bush actually said all ads. 
Today, he’s campaigning with McCain and discussing how to reign all of
them in.  Kind of funny that while it’s Bush for a year it’s ok, but
once it’s Kerry– watch out!

A Dusty Mirror

Walking upstairs, the two walked to the spot in the hall where the ladder to the attic came down. Using the pole that he had discovered the morning before, Joey was able to catch the little handle and pull down the panel. “It’s open,” stated Joey, looking back at his sister.

A big smiled came over her face as she watched her brother pull down the ladder. “Be careful, Joey!” Joey turned his head and gave his sister a look of disbelief. Turning back to his work, he pulled the ladder down and started his climb into the attic, his sister still standing below.

“Well?” Joey called down. “What are you waiting for?!”

“It looks so dark up there!”

“There has to be a light switch somewhere,” Joey stated, as he disappeared from the doorway. He stumbled around in the dark for a bit. Jill heard a crash, and called for her brother. He replied that he was all right. Jill looked around the hallway, and flicked a switch nearby. Joey appeared back at the doorway. “Found it!”

“Yep, I did. Right here.” Joey looked embarrassed, and Jill started to climb the ladder up into the attic. Once there, she looked around at all the dust covered objects. She saw a mildly organized attic with a lot of covered things.

“I wonder what’s in those trunks,” Joey wondered aloud as he pointed to some trunks in the corner. He headed over to them and started playing with the lock on one of them.

Meanwhile, Jill wandered toward some plastic covered dresses in another corner. Lifting up some plastic, she imagined wearing the fancy dresses.

As Joey finally opened the lock on the trunk, Jill found an old hat box. She lifted the cover and— “BANG!” She turned to see Joey wearing a cowboy hat and holding an old cap gun in his right hand. “I shot you!”

“So,” she replied. “A real gentleman wouldn’t shoot a lady.” She batted her eyes.

“Yuk.” He placed the that and gun back into the trunk and started to look for something else to play with. As he continued to do this, Jill wandered over to what she thought was a window. Looking at the large thing in front of her, she figured out that it was not a window, but a mirror. She could see her own silhouette in the dusty mirror, but as she moved her head around to try to get a better view she couldn’t seem to make out anything but her silhouette. She could tell that she was still wearing the hat, but that was about it.

She looked around her and found a rag on shelf next to the mirror. She picked up the rag and rubbed it once over the mirror. She looked into where she had wiped. She really couldn’t see too clearly. The dust had to have been there for a long time. She could now see a little of her face, but the size of the spot that she wiped and the amount of dust that was still on it caused her vision to be impaired. She started cleaning random spots, but everywhere she cleaned yielded the same result.

“What are you doing?” Joey asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Jill replied, placing the rag behind her. She meandered over to look at something else until Joey moved to another trunk. As soon as he was out of sight, she went back to the mirror. Finally, she started to rub increasingly harder on one spot. The more she cleaned, the more she saw, to the point that she finally saw just a bit, enough to see her eyes.

“Hmm. What’s this?” Joey asked. He picked up a black leather-bound book from the trunk. A thick layer of dust covered it, and as he blew the dust off and coughed a couple of
times, he tried to make out its title. He couldn’t quite make out all the letters, so he turned it on its side to open it. As he leafed through it, he saw that many pages were as if they’d never been read, while very few actually looked read. He then flipped to the front page and realized that this was a Bible.

Like a mirror, the Bible reflects the true image of the viewer. By looking deeply into it you see how holy He is and how you really appear to Him. The only catch is that you must take the time to look deep inside it to see yourself. A casual listening to it may show you a silhouette, and a casual glance at it might show you a better outline, but only digging deep will reveal the person that God sees in you.

A Master Carpenter

Two people drove up in an elegant car and stopped in front of a house out in the country. The two exited the car, a man in a suit leading a man in a pair of bib overalls. The two
were a sight to behold. Walking up to the house, the man in the suit turned to the other. “Well, here we are, Mr. Stevens.” The old man eyed the door, and stepped into the building.

The man in the suit followed Stevens into the building, and shut the door. “You said that it could use some work, and you were right.”

“I didn’t think that it was this bad. The picture that we have back at the office…”

“How much did you say you wanted for it?”

“Let me go back out to the car and check.”

“Don’t you have the pamphlet here with you?”

“Yes, but this house doesn’t look anything like this picture!” The man in the suit showed the picture to Stevens once again. They both looked around the room and again at the picture. The man in the suit placed the picture back into his pocket and proceeded to go back to his car, carefully.

Stevens walked around the room, eying the wood. No, this house didn’t look anything like what He had envisioned. As he walked over toward the fireplace, a piece of wood came down from the ceiling and smacked him in the jaw. He took the board and put it back into place. Pulling a hammer out of his pocket, he quickly secured the board. Blood dripped down his face, but he quickly stopped it by placing a handkerchief up to his face.

The man with the suit reappeared. Seeing the bloody handkerchief and everything, he immediately inquired as to what had happened. Stevens just looked up at the board. The other man replied, “I’m sorry, sir. Let me show you another…”

“I’ll take this one.”

“Pardon me?”

“I said, I would take this house.”

“But sir, this house is…”

“I know, but I think that I may be able to do something with it.”

“Are you sure?”

“How much is it.” Stevens answered. The man in the suit started to object once again, but ended up stating the price. Stevens whipped the money out of his pocket. The man stood looking at the money, and Stevens asked, “Isn’t that enough?”

“Yes, it is, but where did you get all this cash?”

“Out of a mayonnaise jar in the back yard. It’s my entire life’s savings.” The man in the suit again objected, but Stevens refused to take the money back. The man in the suit gave up and left the building. Stevens stood and eyed the room he was in, and then started to get to work.

He worked diligently, repairing one flaw after another. It was amazing what this man could do. Soon, the house started to resemble the one in the picture. A few weeks after that first encounter, the man in the suit returned to the house. After welcoming him in, Stevens offered him a seat. “I don’t understand. How did you do this?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy, but through diligent work I was able to take this place and make it a great house.”

“I can see that. What about that board that smacked you in the face?!”

“Well, there were many times where I wasn’t so sure that I would be able to get this house looking just like this. It was like it had a mind of its own, not wanting to submit to my work. Quite a few boards were found like that one, striking me.”

“And you kept going?!”

“Well, the house was still there, and it still was mine. I just had to work at it. As long as the foundation was firm, I could work with it. Although, I would have preferred not be smacked as much.”

Christian, God wants to build a suitable temple for Himself our of our bodies. We are so unworthy of this, for we have a persistent habit of sin and not putting our full love and trust in Him. Yet, the Master Carpenter continues to work, for He loves us and is committed to finishing the work that He had begun. He owns our lives, for He bought it with His life, His all. When we resist He leadership and work in our lives, we are striking at the one who loves us tremendously. One day we will be presented faultless, but the path that we chose how we get there shows how much we love the Lord that saved us.

Mental Health and our children

Increasingly, the state believes that it is their responsibilty to raise our children. The latest tactic it through “mental health“. 
It seems that they are not content to just judge a parent by whether or
not they discipline them in public, but now they want to screen first
born children to their environment shortly after birth!  What was once
the parent’s gift and responsibility is gradually becoming the state’s
with little thought of the father and mother.  Of course, this is all
done under the guise of protecting children from unfit parents, but it
has grown with financial incentives as well.  When will we stand up to
this intrusion?

Swift Boat Controversy

In my opinion it looks as if Kerry is going to be plauged by flip flops
for the entire campaign.  Let alone the fact that he can’t get straight
when (if ever) he was in Cambodia, now there’s a new Swift Boat ad! 
This ad is hard to refute, for even Senator John McCain of Arizona said
that the things that Kerry and the other Anti-Vietnam crusaders were
saying was used in their torture in the POW camps.

Will this
hurt him in the long run?  It can wear away at those that believe in
him– but is this election really about those that believe in John
Kerry and his plans?  I haven’t really heard many plans that he has,
and many of them hardly differ from Bush.  No, it seems that this
election is more about President George W. Bush and whether you like
him.  What will these people who hate him so do when they find out that
they’ve put into office someone as two-faced as Kerry (if he manages to
get there)?

Keyes– Not all he’s cracked up to be.