Summer holidays began on June 1 for us and we decided to do something we have never done before as a family - take a vacation! Thanks to some very generous supporters, we were able to visit a neighboring city and spend a few nights at a nice hotel and live the tourist life by the pool. We really enjoyed the relaxation and the time playing with our kids. I think that everyone needed a break from the business of life!
After getting back home and doing some laundry, we started packing for a different type of relaxation therapy - 2 nights sleeping on the beach! Our family really enjoys spending time at the beach and there is a beautiful beach not too far from our house. We drive for about an hour and then take a boat for about 30 minutes and find ourselves on a beach that belongs in a brochure somewhere! Two days is about all we can handle because the sand and the sun takes its toll, but we come home with smiles and lots of great memories.
This picture is of Grayson playing close to our tents.
About 2 months ago I bought a snake ... for the kids ... and had it in a cage behind the house. After about 2 weeks I went back to see how it was doing and couldn't find it. My 6 foot long brown snake had escaped! We found out that this type of snake is very powerful and had been known to push weighted lids off of cages before and so we figure that this snake pushed the corner of the door just enough to squeeze out. Well, just last night our night guards caught a 6 foot brown snake and returned it to me! Of course, I had to "buy" it from them, but I didn't mind. It did create a bit of work for me - I had to do some fixing on the snake cage, but now I think things are closed up!
The Snake! I feel that as a pet it should have a name, but how do you name a snake? It just doesn't feel right.
Devotional
I have been listening to Matt Hannan, a preacher from the States, and he was teaching on the stories Jesus told as he walked to Jerusalem and eventually His death. He focuses on the fact that Jesus is teaching on the street and knows that He has a limited amount of time to clarify what following Him means before His death. The stories are clear, poignant, and are designed to stick! The stories are about how to truly live like a Christ follower. The stories are answers to questions posed by the Pharisees and theses stories tend to bypass the actual question and address the underlying conditions like self-righteousness, judging others, and caring for others. These stories have been significant for me because I see myself as a Pharisee a lot of the time - a spiritually serious person who is just missing the point.
In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus is really addressing the issue of, "How does God deal with bad people"? There are three stories because of the different categories of bad. There is the story of the lost sheep, which addresses the bad person who aimlessly wanders away from God because they are dumb sheep. There is the story of the lost coin, which addresses the bad person who is irresponsible and loses sight of what is important. Then there is the story of the lost son, which addresses the bad person who outright rejects God's teachings. There is a fourth story, the story of the "good" son who stayed behind and worked for his dad. This is a special story for those of us who are especially bad and have become self-righteous. The point of Jesus telling these stories to the Pharisees is to tell them about the "good" son at the end. This is every Christian who doesn't like the idea of "bad" people getting a second chance. This is me. Ask yourself and look right to your very core - if the person who ran away was your little brother, would you be angry? That anger is self-righteousness and Jesus was directing this story to the Pharisees who felt like the "sinners and tax collectors", really bad people, had no place sitting with Jesus.
Give these stories a read - Luke chapters 10 -20.
Thanks for reading!
Paul
