Blessed to Death II

                                  Blessed To Death II
 

       Sometimes life can get really strange and at times it can even be a good kind of scary.  At almost seventy it has become my observation that when everything is going your way, things are about to change.  The thing that is hard to tell is how.  Last weekend part of my family came and spent the Labor Day weekend with us. It allowed me to spend time putting together a cabinet in my shop with my grandson Isaiah and my Great-Nephew Gabe. It was an enjoyable day for me as we had talked about doing it for some time and it had just never happened.  The blessings seemed to keep happening all week. Right after our youngest daughter passed away my wife and I were sitting on the front porch and butterflies started landing on us. At the time we did not have any butterfly bushes like we do now.  It gave us a lot of peace and still does when I think about it.

    Today I found out my twin Great-Grand-Daughters get to start the Headstart program next week.  My daughters went to it and I think it is an awesome program that gives kids boost when they start school.  Also their Mom got a promotion at work. Which means a pay raise.  I like the hours better.  It is getting old getting up at 4 AM to go take care of them.  Now I won't have to get up till 6 AM.

    Another neat thing is that for the first time in months I not only get three days off in a row.  My great-nephew and I get to go to Ottawa, Illinois to the World SkyDiving Championships.  Which is totally cool for me as I spent many years of my life involved in skydiving. The last time I went to one was in August of 1972 in Tahlaquah, OK and it sort of doubled as our honeymoon which was okay back then as we met because of my skydiving.

    Sunday will be the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Since then I have been technically dead and retired. I remember being in Bayonne, NJ that day and looking across the water and watching the smoke pouring from that building into the clear blue sky.  Wondering what kind of idiot runs into a building under those circumstances. In less than twenty minutes all of America found out what kind of an idiot would do that.

   Just this week I stumbled on something that made me wonder.  Anybody who has read my blog knows I am always looking at numbers and seeing how the Bible uses them. Sometimes they are used over and over. Fifteen years jumped out at me this week as I was reading and came across the story of Hezekiah.  He became king after his father Ahaz who worshipped pagan gods and idols. When Hezekiah became king he turned Israel's heart back to God.  God worked mightily on his behalf and he became sick and the Prophet Isaiah told him he was going to die,  The story has it he turned to the wall and prayed and God told Isaiah to go back and tell him he would get another fifteen years.  In the end he watched his sons go into the Babylonian captivity.  That was a great fall from where he was.

   It really moved me as I believe I was far more ready to die when I had my heart attack than I am now. I mean I don't mind the idea of dying, it just seems my heart was closer to God then than I am now.  Even though I still see him working on my behalf in ways that would take a book to explain. When I had my heart attack I wasn't ready for it, At least not financially, but the Lord sustained us through it all. I had to sell my truck and my equipment, but during the whole sixth months with no income till my disability started he sustained my family. That period lasted almost eight years, but it allowed me to be with my daughter during her seven year battle with her brain tumor.  Then a couple years later after she passed the Lord Blessed me. My income multiplied several times and made a major adjustment that I could see his hand in all of it.

    It is not my goal to scare anyone, but it would not hurt you to get a concordance and read the verses dealing with Hezekiah. Isaiah 36:1 to 39:8 and Jeremiah 15: 4 to 19 will give most of the story.  There is a little in IIChronicles 28:27 to 33:3 also.  You might read it though and come to your own conclusions on the matter.

    With the chaos in the present election cycle one has to wonder if God is getting ready to deal with America. Micah is another book that deals with things that were or are supposed to happen in the end time and much of it already has  Isaiah talks about the towers falling 30:25, but if you read from 23-26 you might get that it is in this day and age that cattle eat cleaned feed, that it is to come to pass. Isaiah has many verses that foretell of the coming of Christ.

  It is my prayer we all have a peaceful 15th anniversary and many more in the future,