Gardens Aglow at the Botanical Garden Pictures by Richard Sawyer
Our Blog is Inspired by The Holy Spirit
Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
Perez became the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz became the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
Obed became the father of Jesse,
Jesse the father of David the king.
David became the father of Solomon,
whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asaph.
Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
Joram the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah became the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amos,
Amos the father of Josiah.
Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the Babylonian exile.
After the Babylonian exile,
Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
Abiud became the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok.
Zadok became the father of Achim,
Achim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar became the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.
Thus the total number of generations
from Abraham to David
is fourteen generations;
from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,
fourteen generations.
This reading presents an interesting story. The Holy Spirit years ago told me to become a Lector.
Problem, I was never taught how to pronounce words, and the Bible with all of it Jewish and Greek words totally intimidates me.
But
That was ok because I was a Lector, and this was a Gospel reading that I would never have to read. The Holy Spirit through a friend led me to a web page called Biblical Words Pronunciation Guide www.netministries.org. This web page saved my bacon more than once.
Years later a call went out for people who would like to do a Communion Service at our church, and this would involve my reading the Gospel at the communion service. I prayed every year I wouldn’t get the above reading, and or the Genealogy of Mary as a reading.
My prayer was answered, and I am just discovering, this reading was also a Wednesday reading, and we did Wednesday Communion services.
Until
Charlie Pinett asked me if I would substitute for him at a Wednesday Communion Service. Without thinking I said yes. I arrived home and decided to check the readings and to my horror this was the Gospel reading.
I prayed “HELP!”
You see, prayer doesn’t have to be long and complicated. I have prayed this more than once and the prayer was always answered.
God had me exactly where they wanted me.
The Holy Spirit had me type out the Gospel as you see above on a spreadsheet, next I listened to the pronouncements on Biblical Words Pronunciation Guide, next typed out how I would say it, and lastly practiced the Gospel many times.
Wednesday of the Communion Service came, satan of course told me I couldn’t do it – “get behind me satan,” started reading the Gospel from the spreadsheet, and when we hit the last line gave out a sigh of relief that we had successfully completed it.
The people there knew how difficult this was for me and gave me a round of applause after we finished.
Interestingly this was the last communion service because, when the Bishop found out what our Pastor had set up he cancelled lay people doing communion services.
We are now doing a Communion Service at the Veterans Home in Scarborough, and I just checked and this reading is not on the Sunday I will be holding the Communion Service.
“Thank you Father!”
Why did we talk about this?
My thought years ago was, “God set me up,” and God did!
But
By letting God take over God also gave me the tools needed to complete the task, and I also know if this reading or the Genealogy of Mary presents itself for me to read again, WE and I, yes I mean WE can do it.
For me that is a very comforting thought.
And
Because of the above reading our RELATIONSHIP grew.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy and Peace, this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
At the jail last week we had fifteen men attend, and we, The Holy Spirit through me, were on fire.
I explained to the men that they see me and hear my voice but it’s really The Holy Spirit working through me. I am sure more than one man thought I was a sandwich short of a picnic, I know at their age that would have been my thought.
Anyway, a few minutes after that statement of “The Holy Spirit working through me, my mind went totally blank,
But
We kept speaking.
This only lasted for a few seconds, but my mind was blown away by what was happening. In the twenty-nine years we have been going to the jail I had never had this experience before, and it blew me away.
We were on fire as we mentioned earlier, and the hour flew by, with men leaving saying their life had changed and thanking me for being there.
We told them “thank The Holy Spirit for encouraging you to come, and next by learning and praying the “Nine,” and next week when you come in, if you can give me the “Nine” in the proper order, that will indicate you are willing to work on changing your life.”
Cards:
Deanna sent me an email which said,
Good afternoon Fred!
I was curious if you were giving the printer’s name and permission to have your cards duplicated?
I was really excited by this request, and responded and we’re sharing our response with you. We have an account with Vistaprint @ www.vistaprint.com. I found it took a short time to learn how to use their design services, and after three or four attempts we have a card design that we are happy with, that doesn’t mean we may not make changes, so say a prayer and design away. The font we use is Georgia.
The card is below, there are no trademarks or copyrights so feel free to set up your own account and create your own card. I buy two-hundred and fifty cards at a time, and I know we have gone through more than a thousand cards.
One request if you do make a change please share your change with us, who knows we may change our card to your design.
Change of Blog title layout:
Mike, our oldest son, who proofreads our blogs, suggested the change for the title, date on top subject below. We loved it and have made the change.
Picture:
Here are a few images from this year’s Gardens Aglow at the Botanical Garden in Boothbay Maine. Use whichever ones work the best for you. I was intentional in getting there to capture dusk, the blue hour and night, Magical. Pictures by Richard Sawyer
Note: We decided to run all three because Gail and I have been there three or four times, and we are going again this year, and it is beautiful. They string over a million lights.
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
And or
If you want a copy of our version of The Nicene Creed in our book, not the book, I believe.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
