It’s
that wonderful Thursday and a chance to meet with the mop room gang
meeting in the Freedom Fire House. All the boys and girls are seated
with one new visitor. The visitor’s wheelchair almost runs over
Smokey’s tail. The girl in the wheel chair hugs Smokey and all are
friends.
She
introduces herself, “Hi everyone, my name’s Norma and I just
heard of your mop room gang last Monday. I’d sure like to come
regular to your meetings if you don’t mind my wheelchair. My only
friend at school said you all learn about having a happy heart, and I
sure could use some of that.” Norma slowly moved her hand over her
right thigh that still gave painful reminders of the car accident
almost two years ago.
When
Zeb heard Norma’s words, ‘happy heart’ he had to wipe his nose
quick or he’d soon have to wipe his eyes. He told himself that
being a kid is plenty tough enough, let alone having to do it all
from a wheelchair.
Zeb
asked Bradley if he’d open the mop room meeting with prayer and
asked that he’d include prayer for the military men and women away
from their families, giving their lives to protect our freedom.
Bradley felt it was a privilege and did his best.
“You’re
all seeing that a couple favorite areas of the Bible I like to share
with others like you all is in the book Numbers. It’s just a shame
that people only see some of the repetition and generations and
decides to skip it all. But just like digging for gold that’s just
under the surface, you need to take a second glance… you, and I,
need to dig in to find valuables.
I
want to tell you about the Pueblo Bible, that few people know about.
The
evil communist North Koreans captured the American electronics
intelligence gathering ship named Pueblo. The eighty plus American
sailors were put in a dismal prison and repeatedly subjected to
mind-bending sessions that included confession sheets. In secret, the
sailors all contributed Bible verses and lists of its books the best
they could remember. They wrote the verses and lists on scrap paper.
The only papers they could find were leftover confession sheets. How
like God… though the enemy tries his best, still God’s Word more
than triumphs!
God’s
Word over and over tells us to remember all that He has already done
for us. Whether it is a miracle or just providing a warm safe bed and
a full glass of milk all our own He knows our needs and expects us to
trust Him to meet them.
Zeb
continued teaching the children, “To help us with that remembering
He’s given us a super powerful brain between our ears with two
types of memory. One type of memory is short term and gets somewhat
reset as we sleep each day. My silver hair somehow makes this short
memory less dependable,” he said with a smile. “The other memory
is long term and lets me remember things I did when I was younger
than you all.”
“Gang,
when you read God’s word for yourself you catch sight of golden
verses and principles you may have never seen before. How many of you
have seen the “Remembrance Ribbons? Actually, it’s pretty hard
not to. They are on the sides of cars, trucks, and sides of buildings
and signs. Most all of them help us to remember our military service
people and their families at home that miss them.”
“Did
you know these are mentioned in the Bible? They sure are. God has all
sorts of wonderful ways for us to remember how much He loves us and
all the things He’s already done for us. Like you can probably
guess, I’m going to look for Remembrance Ribbons in the Old
Testament of the Bible. So let’s turn to Numbers chapter 15.
We’ll
begin at verse 38 where God is giving Moses instruction on adding a
special blue ribbon on the bottom of their clothes. Boys and girls
use your Bibles and let’s read this wonderful passage:”
Speak
unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes
in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and
that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And
it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and
remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye
seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use
to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments,
and be holy unto your God. Numbers 15: 38-40.
“Now
gang, this is super important. Listen to ‘Ol Zeb close. God has
not made us robots with electric computers for brains. But He expects
us to make choices based upon all the powerful truths He has shown
us. He gave the Israelites (and us too) the responsibility to
remember His blessings AND His directions for our good health,
safety, and spiritual growth. We can certainly take great comfort in
His watch care and provisions for us.”
“Now
if you still think it’s ok to do just what you want and not what
God has told you, you may want to read what happened to a fellow that
was gathering firewood when he wasn’t supposed to. The description
is in the same chapter starting with verse 32.”
Zeb
told the mop room gang, “You and I get to make lots of choices each
day. But we must also obey our parents, teachers, policeman, and
pastor. But most of all we must learn God’s will for our lives and
do it cheerfully.”
