Jack’s Winning Words 8/8/14
“Fear can keep us up all night, but faith makes one fine pillow.”  (Philip Gulley)  Through the centuries diseases have caused great fear…the plagues, smallpox, cholera, and in our time, polio, HIV/AIDS.  Now it’s Ebola.  Experience has shown that this, too, will be overcome.  But our fears have a way of hanging on.  I’ve read in the Bible that God neither slumbers nor sleeps, so I go to sleep knowing that “the hopes and fears of all the years” have a way of working themselves out, by God’s grace.    ;)  Jack  

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Wonderful WW to start us off on a pleasant summer weekend. Looked up Phillip Gulley on Google. He sounds like a homey preacher man. Thanks.====JACK:  Genesis 28 tells of how Jacob used a stone as a pillow and had a dream in which the Lord spoken to him.  The stone became special to him, a sign of God's presence.  Pillows of faith can connect us with God.

FROM RI IN bOSTON:  There has been a continuum of dreadful diseases through past history, and there will be more in the future, which when they arrive may seem worse than all the others.  There are many who proclaim it's God who is behind all of it, punishing us for our transgressions.  But why just a select group that suffers...haven't we all transgressed?  How about Man taking the blame, for the sort of lives we lead, and generally an unwillingness to correct course?  There are many fears about human survival on this earth, but who knows what will be the source of destruction that eliminates us?====JACK:  It's the pebble in our shoe that gets the most attention.

FROM TARMART REV:  No sense the both of us staying up all night worrying about something that 90% of the time does not come to pass . . . especially when He knows the outcome already!! ====JACK:  I agree with your response up until the 3 dots (. . .) It's not that I disagree with what comes after them, but are our actions of no effect?  In other words, is predestination a part of your (AG) theology?====REV:  A/G follows  Armenian (sp!) in theology . . . I personally believe God knows my life and outcome as He knows the time and seasons . . . It is I who works out my salvation in due respect for Him, placing my complete trust in Him in theory (actually miss that aspect my share of the time trying to help Him out).====JACK:  The Socratic paradox often applies when we try to explain God, who is beyond explanation.  "I know that I know nothing."

FROM DR JUDY:  All in all, every sentence, every phrase, every word. This is by far, my favorite post!  I'm considering taking the whole paragraph and putting it in my favorite quotes in my newsletter. First, do I have your permission. And if so, are you Pastor or Rev Jack Freed?  ====JACK:  I write my Winning Words each day, hoping that they might be of help to someone, so you are welcome to use them anytime, with, or without, credit.  In my blog comment to SHARON I made reference to Jacob using a stone as a pillow.  Whether the pillow be hard or soft, through faith it can, at times, be a place for meeting G-d.

FROM EEC:  What song is that line from? This is my Father's World? No…I give up.====JACK:  O Little Town of Bethlehem..."The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight."

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  yep. they all were scary until vaccines/cures were found. & a lot of people died & suffered from all of them.  my good friend has been w/CARE since he graduated from law school. he is a farm boy who started teaching farmers in el salvador to grow coffee more productively. he suffered malaria twice.  he later lived in sierra leone. he is not afraid of much. he is terrified of ebola... not to be taken lightly.====JACK:  A puzzle's not a puzzle if you have access to the answers.  I was just reading this morning about the building of the Panama Canal and the many lives that were lost because of yellow fever and malaria.  The problem was beginning to be solved when a doctor discovered that mosquitoes were the cause.