The Coffee Shop

When I was a  kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every
now and then.  And, I remember one night in particular when she had
made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and
extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad.  I remember waiting to
see if anyone noticed!  Yet all my dad
did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me
how my day was at school.  I don’t remember what I told
him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly
on that biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember
hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the
biscuits.  And I’ll never forget what he said:  “Honey,
I love burnt biscuits.”

Later  that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I
asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned.  He wrapped
me in his arms and said, “Your Momma put in a hard day
at work today and she’s real tired.  And besides – a little
burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!”

You know, life is  full of imperfect things…..and imperfect people.
I’m not the best at  hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and
anniversaries just like everyone else.
What I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept
each others faults – and choosing to celebrate each others differences
- is one of the most important keys to creating
a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that’s my prayer for you today.  That you will  learn to
take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and
lay them at the feet of God.  Because in the end, He’s the
only One who will be able to give you a relationship where
a burnt biscuit isn’t a deal-breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship.  In fact,
understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a
husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

“Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s
pocket – keep it in your own.”

So Please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burnt one will
do just fine.!.!.!.!

- – Author Unknown

Recent Virginia Church Sermon –
This is a great story. Whether Truth or Fiction, who knows? I researched it and could not find the original source but regardless of the original source there is lots of wisdom here. It is supposedly from a predominately Black church somewhere in Virginia sometime early this year. I wish I could meet with this wise pastor and tell him, “Right on Brother! Preach on!” We need more pastors in more pulpits that will tell the truth like he does.
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“Good morning, brothers and sisters; it’s always a delight to see the pews crowded on Sunday morning, and so eager to get into God’s Word. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will to the 47th chapter of Genesis, we’ll begin our reading at verse 13, and go through verse 27.

Brother Ray, would you stand and read that great passage for us?

….(reading)…

Thank you for that fine reading, Brother Ray… So we see that economic hard times fell upon Egypt , and the people turned to the government of Pharaoh to deal with this for them. And Pharaoh nationalized the grain harvest, and placed the grain in great storehouses that he had built. So the people brought their money to Pharaoh, like a great tax increase, and gave it all to him willingly in return for grain.
And this went on until their money ran out, and they were hungry again.

So when they went to Pharaoh after that, they brought their livestock -their cattle, their horses, their sheep, and their donkey – to barter for grain, and verse 17 says that only took them through the end of that year..

But the famine wasn’t over, was it? So the next year, the people came before Pharaoh and admitted they had nothing left, except their land and their own lives. “There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh.” So they surrendered their homes, their land, and their real estate to Pharaoh’s government, and then sold themselves into slavery to him, in return for grain. What can we learn from this, brothers and sisters?

That turning to the government instead of to God to be our provider in hard times only leads to slavery? Yes. That the only reason government wants to be our provider is to also become our master?

Yes. But look how that passage ends, brothers and sisters! Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt , in the land of Goshen .. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.” God
provided for His people, just as always has! They didn’t end up giving all their possessions to government, no, it says they gained possessions! But I also tell you a great truth today, and an ominous one. We see the same thing happening today – the government today wants to “share the wealth “once again, to take it from us and redistribute it back to us. It wants to take control of healthcare, just as it has taken control of education, and ration it back to us, and when government rations it, then government decides who gets it, and how much, and what kind. And if we go along with it, and do it willingly, then we will wind up no differently than the people of Egypt did four thousand years ago – as slaves to the government, and as slaves to our leaders.

What Mr. Obama’s government is doing now is no different from what Pharaoh’s government did then, and it will end the same. And a lot of people like to call Mr. Obama a “Messiah,” don’t they? Is he a Messiah?

Obama Messiah?

A savior? Didn’t the Egyptians say, after Pharaoh made them his slaves, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh”?

Well, I tell you this I know the Messiah; the Messiah is a friend of mine; and Mr. Obama is no Messiah! No, brothers and sisters, if Mr. Obama is a character from the Bible, then he is “Pharaoh”.

Bow with me in prayer, if you will.
Lord, You alone are worthy to be served, and we rely on You, and You alone.
We confess that the government is not our deliverer, and never rightly will be.
We read in the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel, when Samuel warned the people of what a ruler would do, where it says “And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” And Lord, we acknowledge that day has come. We cry out to you because of the ruler that we have chosen for ourselves as a nation. Lord, we pray for this nation. We pray for revival, and we pray for deliverance from those who would be our masters.

Give us hearts to seek You and hands to serve You, and protect Your people from the atrocities of Pharaoh’s government.

In God We Trust… “

There once was a man who had nothing for his family to eat. He had an old rifle and three bullets. So, he decided that he would go out hunting and kill some wild game for dinner.

As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit. He shot at the rabbit and missed it.
The rabbit ran away.

Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel but missed it. The squirrel disappeared into a hole in a cottonwood tree.

As he went further, he saw a large wild ‘Tom’ turkey in the tree, but he had only one bullet remaining. A voice spoke to him and said,
‘Pray first, aim high, and stay focused.’

However, at the same time, he saw a deer Which was a better kill. He brought the gun down and aimed at the deer.

But, then he saw a rattlesnake between his legs about to bite him. So he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattlesnake.

Still, the voice said again to him, ‘I said, ‘Pray first, Aim high, and Stay focused.’
So, the man decided to listen to God’s voice.

He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree, and shot the wild turkey.
The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the gun, hit the snake in the head, and killed it.

And, when the gun went off, it knocked him into a pond. When he stood up to look around, He had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer, and a turkey for his family to eat.

The snake (Satan) was dead simply because the man listened to God.

Moral of the story:

Pray first before you do anything,
Aim and shoot high in your goals,
And stay focused on God.

Never let others discourage you concerning your past. The past is exactly that, ‘the past.’

Live every day one day at a time,
And remember that only God knows our future, And that He will not put you through any more than you can bear.

Do not look to man for your blessings, But look to the doors that only He has prepared in advance for you in your favor. Wait, be still, and patient: keep God first, And everything else will follow.