Storms

          The disciples left the crowds one evening and took Jesus with them in their boats. While Jesus lay sleeping in the stern, there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves began crashing over the boat, filling it with water. They woke Him and cried out in terror, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 

(Mark 4:36-38)

In the aftermath of an unrelenting Sandy, some may be asking, “Lord, do you not care?”

God invites you to come to Him to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  Jesus implores you to cast all your anxiety on Him because HE CARES (greatly) for you (1 Peter 5:7).

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).

May the God of all comfort, comfort you by His grace and love in whatever storm you are facing.

The storm continued throughout the afternoon. Tall trees swayed in the blustery wind like wooden masts on a rocking ship. By evening, the temperature had dropped drastically changing raindrops into white flurries – the first snow of winter.¹

¹   Jill Watson Glassco. The Schoolhouse (Peoria, AR: LifeHouse Publishing, 2012), 40.

(The Schoolhouse is available online at Amazon.com)

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God's Mysterious Ways

The Schoolhouse is currently for sale online at Amazon.com, as well as, in several bookstores around the southeastern United States. Much to my surprise, however, the top selling location so far for my book is Cowboys – a gas station off highway 280 in Birmingham, Alabama!

This unique convenience store features a plethora of Alabama products from Wickles Pickles to Dreamland Ribs to Dean’s 7-layer cakes to, now, one little Christian storybook. As Alvin York (played by the late Gary Cooper) proclaimed in the 1941 film Sergeant York, “The Lord ‘shore’ does move in mysterious ways!”

            “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

            Need a new, innovative idea? Ask the Master of creativity: God, the Creator!

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Father's House

                                                              Pryor Institute: 1887-1910

Marion County High School: 1910-1967

Jasper, Tennessee

            In the late 1880s, Washington and Jackson Pryor, along with A. L. Spears, gave land and money to construct Pryor Institute. The story’s told that the Pryor family built this local college so that their children could be educated close to home. In 1910, the Marion County High School Commission purchased the building from the trustees of the Pryor Institute and established the county’s first public high school. Unfortunately, in 1967, the beautiful landmark was torn down. (After graduating from Marion County High School in 1916, my grandmother received her first teaching assignment: a one-room, eight grade schoolhouse nestled in those picturesque mountains of east Tennessee.)

            In John 14:2-3, Jesus told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places…for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (forever).”

            “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1).

            “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:16-18).

Come and go with me to my Father's house.


It's a big, big house with lots and lots of room.


A big, big table with lots and lots of food.


A big, big yard where we can play football.


A big, big house, it's my Father's house.¹

¹ “My Father’s House” by Newsboys

           

              (Grandmother’s story is retold in The Schoolhouse; available online at Amazon.com)         

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Gentle Voices

(Grandmother’s senior portrait from the Marion County High School 1916 annual.)

            I once heard gentleness or meekness defined as power under control. A gentle voice, as opposed to a clanging one, is useful and of great value to God.

“Blessed are the gentle (meek), for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5 NASB).

            “Your adornment must not be merely external – braiding of hair, and wearing gold jewelry…but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:3-4 NASB).

            “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1 NASB).

            Sound check. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3... 

Gentle or harsh? 

Did you pass the test?

            “O Lord, I confess that I was prideful today and thought I was better than the past four teachers. Father, now I recognize my own shortcomings and realize I’ve got a lot to learn about teachin’ children. How will I ever make it through this school term?” I prayed.

            The Comforter’s gentle voice resounded deep in my spirit and rekindled His strength within me by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for (My) power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). ¹

  

¹   Jill Watson Glassco. The Schoolhouse (Peoria, AR: LifeHouse Publishing, 2012), 23.

                                     (The Schoolhouse is available online at Amazon.com)

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