The Chronicles of Melinda

Well I almost forgot - but HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Andrew Daniel - one of our NHC Spiked Youth.  He’s gettin’ old!!!

Saturday I went to Selma and announced for a Helping Horse Benefit Horse Show.   Helping Horse is a Therapeutic Riding Program that benefits people with special needs through the joy of horseback riding.  They operate out of Wake County.  Check them out HERE!   It was fun.  Got some compliments on my announcing skillz.  I love announcing the shows when I’m not showing (it’s also much cheaper.  They fed me and gave me some gas money even though I put most of it back into the cause by buying t-shirts and horse stuff).  It was a long drive and we left out at 7:30AM to get there.   I haven’t made the drive in that direction in awhile.  It was very close to where one of my best friends Michelle used to live before she moved to North Dakota.  But she’s moving to Texas now - - -so maybe I’ll go visit.  No way I was going to visit  North DaCOLDa.  HA HA! 

I did have to listen to Taira all day saying “I wish I would have brought my horse!”.  Maybe next time.

Sunday was NHC day.  You know how that goes.  I even put them in my voicemail rap.  It ends with ….”Leave a message or a text, that’s how it’s got to be…and if you need me on a Sunday…then come to NHC!”  HA HA!

Update on my back - well it was killin’ me for a couple of days.  Then I switched from ice to heat and took some muscle relaxers.  Woke up feeling not so bad.  Well….don’t let me think I’m getting well cuz then I will start acting like it.  I hate being semi- unable to do things for myself.  Well between main services and Spiked I went home and  the kids and I did some mowing with the push mower.  They did the yard and I did down the driveway - which is uneven.  BAD IDEA!

By evening service I was back on level 1 again.  Today - - - spasms all day.  Going home to feed…relax…and take some muscle relaxers.  At least I’ve got an arsenal of Ibuprofen, Flexeril and Robaxin.  If you see me doing something that looks semi-strenous for the next couple of weeks - tell me to stop.  I never learn!

In Club 56 and Spiked we’re talking to our youth about the S-Word.  Not S as in Serious (but it is) - but S as in S-E-X.

Last week Adam kicked off the Spiked series talking about the saturation of sex in our society.  It’s everywhere…the internet, billboards, magazines, commercials, you can’t run from it.  So we can’t shelter our kids from it - so we might as well talk to them about it before it’s too late.  Plain and simple - sex is everywhere.  No point in telling our kids it’s wrong.  After all….GOD created it and everything He created is GOOD.  But we just have to lay the foundation for them…that it’s only wrong when it’s not in accordance with God’s plan.  And let me tell you people - it is NOT too early to tell 5th and 6th graders about sex - - - because some of them are having it!!!

Adam was out eating Olivia’s birthday cake and probably whacking a pea-filled pinata so Chris covered the message in 56 and I covered Spiked.

This week Chris started our “Exposed -The Naked Truth” series for the Club 56ers.  Big props to Chris for tackling such a sensitive subject for his first deliverance of the message to our youth.  

So this week I rolled with second series and talked about God’s plan for sex.  It’s easy - Man+Woman+Marriage=The Best Sex Ever!  That’s right…God planned for sex to be AWESOME….when saved for marriage. 

Remember when I did the Jerry Springer blog about all the drama in Genesis a few blogs back?  Well - since Leah and Rachel gave Jacob their maidservants as WIVES….

Genesis 30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Genesis 30:4 So she (Rachel) gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife.

…I guess that made it okay for Jacob to romp in the sheets with the maidservants. 

Now I might be crossing the boundaries here to say that…if you had  sex outside of marriage go ahead and confess the sin and ask for forgiveness.  And don’t dwell on it - once you ask for forgiveness it’s buried.  We all know that by now.  But even if you thought that sinful sex was good….well start praying for God to bring you the husband or wife he designed for you cuz once you say I DO you will truly star to have The Best Sex Ever!!!  Sex is not just phsyical…it’s spiritual.  And I’m sure some married couples can attest.

Okay - so Job was a prosperous man (he had it goin’ on in the riches department).  Job was put to the test by Satan to see if he would curse God.  First he took away all of Job’s possessions and family - but like I said in the other blog….Job praised the Lord and did not curse God.  But then Satan comes along and goes straight to Job himself by striking him with awful skin boils.  Jobs friends come and chilled out with him while he is in his suffering and feeling sorry for himself.  After sitting with him in 7 days of silence then the talking begins.

So Job is pretty much miserable now.  All his riches and family are gone and now he’s one ugly mug.  He questions why God would punish him and allow him to suffer when he has been livin’ on the good foot.  His friends (same three friends who came to be with him when they heard of his trouble) seem to think that the reason he is suffering is because he has sinned and that he needs to confess his sins.  But Job holdsstrong that he’s not committed any sin to justify the punishment he’s received and that he’s been living right.  He doesn’t understand why he’s suffering and why God would let him suffer becasue he’s been so good (almost tooting his own horn here).  Now he curses his own very being in his rambling, but through it all…he never curses God (which was what Satan intended through his testing).

Finally - after a lot of back and forth between Job and his friends this other guy - ELIHU comes in.  (He wasn’t one of the original three friends and I read back and can’t figure out where he came from.  I read back a few books to see if he showed up and I missed it, but I didn’t.  So if you read the book of Job and can help me figure out when he showed up please let me know.  Anyway, he had some good stuff to say.

Elihu comes in sayin’ he was listening, but since the others were older than him he didn’t speak.  But he finally must speak.  He says he hears Job saying he’s guilty and without sin, yet God is punishing him anyway.  But Elihu tells him that God does not punish without an explanation.  That he pretty much lays it right out on the table and tells them what they did wrong and delivers them in their suffering.   God gives the opportunity to repent after showing sinners what they have done wrong…and if they repent they will prosper.  If they refuse… they perish. God hasn’t done this to Job….so how could he be punishing him for something wrong without telling him what it was?  He’s not that kind of God. 

Well…God himself shows up in a storm and speaks then directly to Job. (Pretty awesome to have the big man talk DIRECTLY to you….even if it is when you are coverred with boils and feeling pretty sorry for yourself).    He never really answers any of the questions JOB asked about why he was being permitted to suffer and so on.  But He goes pretty deep and tells Job that He’s (GOD) the man by all that he can do.  It’s actually pretty powerful.  God knows He’s the man….but Job had to submit. Job says “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” and then he goes on to say he knows he talked about things he didn’t understand and goes on to say he despises himself and repents.
 
At that point…what does God do?  God pretty much lays the verbal smack down on the three friends (but not Elihu…who again showed up WHEN?) and tells them togo get some offerings and that Job will pray for them.  They do - JOB does…the end?  NO….after Job prays for his friends and God accepts it….God makes Job mad prosperous again.  He had it goin’ on before the tests…but he REALLY had it goin’ on after God let Satan test him.

Now…don’t you wonder what would have happened if Job had cursed God????? 

Yeah - we had some rockin’ storms yesterday didn’t we?  I know we were in Spiked yesterday at about 6:25 watching the light show and the sideways rain come down like it was nobody’s business.  Know where they came from?  Well WRAL may spell it out one way, but Elihu pretty much spelled it out in Job 36. 

27 “He draws up the drops of water,
       which distill as rain to the streams;

 28 the clouds pour down their moisture
       and abundant showers fall on mankind.

 29 Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
       how he thunders from his pavilion?

 30 See how he scatters his lightning about him,
       bathing the depths of the sea.

 31 This is the way he governs ^[d] the nations
       and provides food in abundance.

 32 He fills his hands with lightning
       and commands it to strike its mark.

 33 His thunder announces the coming storm;
       even the cattle make known its approach

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