LESSONS FROM A DUCK

Ducks are funny.

I’ve never seen one yet that didn’t change its mind when swimming. They’ll start off in one direction, all of a sudden make a sharp turn, stop, and then take off in a different direction. I’ve seen them swim up to the shore, get out of the water, turn around and get right back in. I just watched one swim off in one direction, then suddenly take off flying, turn around, and come right back to where it started from. You’ve got to wonder what’s going through their little heads.

But one thing I’ve noticed about them is that they know how to handle bad weather. I’ve watched them take on fierce storms as nonchalantly as a duck can be, which I presume is very calm.

Well, a hand full of them just took off flying. Where to this time?

The other day in a particularly nasty storm I watched one of the ducks just floating around out there on the water taking on the elements. It suddenly occurred to me that ducks are designed to handle storms in the water! Aha! That’s exactly why I wouldn’t make a good duck.

Then it all started to sink in. We best handle the storms in our lives when we do so the way God designed us to handle them.

The problem with most of us is that when the storms come, we get out of the water; we get out of God’s will. That just makes matters worse.

Ha! Here come those ducks that just took off, floating back.

God designed you to face the storms of your life in His will. It might seem a little scarier that way sometimes, but it’s a whole lot smarter and safer than getting out of His will to take on the elements by yourself.

If anyone knew about storms it was Job. He faced disastrous storms, but he stayed within the will of God. Let this most remarkable verse sink in:

“Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm.”

(Job 40:6)

LESSONS IN THE DUST

Whoa!  I just found out this week that some of you are already using our new website, so I’d better get busy with these blogs!

Marcia and I are cleaning out our old house so we can put it up for sale.  What a task that is!  Actually Marcia is doing most of the work.  I’m a bum.  The truth of the matter is that some of you have been doing the hard work!

Your love and encouragement and support have been overwhelming!  There is absolutely no way we could get this done without you!  And we are so grateful!

I was working on cleaning out one of the closets this week.  Back behind all the stuff that had sat there for years I found tons of … dust.  How does dust get behind boxes in a closet that has been closed for most of the time?

Today I was in Psalm 30 – a fabulous Psalm!  And I came across verse 9: “…Will the dust praise you?  Will it proclaim your faithfulness?”

Now, I know what David was trying to say.  He was simply saying that he needed God’s protection and provision because as dust he would be useless to God.  But the verse gave me thought.

Yes, actually that dust did praise the Lord.  It did proclaim God’s faithfulness.  Through the years, God has been so amazingly faithful and caring!  In that home where we raised 3 boys, He was so good to us!  If God has been so faithful through the years, why would we question him now when we wonder what the future holds?

“Thank you Father for the gentle reminder that You have been faithful even in ways and places that we didn’t expect or recognize.   Thank you for being there even when we weren’t looking for You.”

“You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.”

(Isa 26:19 – completely out of context

…but it still spoke to me!)

I LOVE OUR NEW WEBSITE!

Isn’t this great? Our website strategy has evolved through the years to this!

We started years ago with a very small and starkly simple website. Then Ali St. John took it on and developed a new one with nice graphics and sound. And now as the class has grown so has the demand for more ways to use the website, so Scott Beard jumped in and developed this one!!!

You’re going to see a whole lot of really cool things develop here over the next few weeks and months. I’m not gonna spill all of the beans, but I will tell you that our class studies will be posted here for you to catch and share with others. We’ll have some pretty cool links for you to enjoy. And we’re even going to have our own radio station!

So, keep checking this website out. It’s another way The Open Class is growing!!!