Timothy J. Pruitt's Blog, page 172
January 12, 2021
God Is In The Business Of People
God is in the business of people. He has been since before time began. God made the worlds, so He could make man. Everything we see, is designed for us. He cares about everything from the sparrows to the mountain lions, but people are His focus.
He focuses on us, not because we deserve it. Even before the fall, the creation is never greater than The Creator. However, If God loved us enough to form us, knowing all of the repercussions of it, why do we worry? Why is it, myself included, that we think He’s somehow missed the problem that we can’t get around?
He didn’t miss the problems of Abraham, Moses, David, or Stephen. Each one’s circumstances were different, and their experiences, but everyone had God’s hand holding them. We measure problems by time, circumstances, and how it affects us. He measures them by how they deepen our faith, stretch our kindness, and expand our possibilities.
One of those men I mentioned, David said, “I’ve been young, and now I’m old, but I haven’t seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” David had been hunted, they had tried to murder him, and called him everything you could imagine. Yet through it all, He held to God, knowing that God was carrying him through.
That didn’t mean that David always knew where he would end up, but he knew one thing. David knew that wherever he ended up, God would be there, because he was following after him with all of his might. David also knew, if he followed after God with all his heart, his children would never be without what they needed.
David knew that God would take care of his kids, because he had seen Him kill the giant, defeat Saul, and secure him in either a cave or a castle. I don’t know what all we’ll go through, and I’ll be the first to admit that I worry far more than I should, but I’ll tell you this. Those in His hand are secure, because God is the best in the business of taking care of people!
January 11, 2021
iPainting Snoozing
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Our Patches sleeps so funny, had to draw a picture of the way she snoozes.
January 9, 2021
January 7, 2021
Hear Versus Heard
When we seek to hear, it’s a current action. When we seek to be heard, it indicates a past tense. Listening is an ongoing process, speaking can prematurely end conversations, relationships, and destinies. There is a time to speak, but we should weigh the cost.
Hearing is one of the five senses, and is a daily sense we must cultivate. The ears only job is to take in. The mouth can eat and drink for days without needing to vocalize anything. The mouth doesn’t even do the vocalizing, the vocal chord do. It’s just the microphone, not the sound system.
Seeking to hear opens us to the needs of others. Speaking the wrong thing, or the right thing at the wrong time, does not serve others well. It is an old analogy, but we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. I am praying to learn more about seeking to hear than to be heard.
January 6, 2021
iPainting 80 Years Still Qwacking
In December 1941, a character waddled on the scene of Gotham City. The Penguin debuted 80 years ago this year. I grew up watching reruns of the actor Burgess Meredith playing him. As I loved character actors, The Penguin became one of my favorite characters.
A simple, entertaining, yet tricky bird. I like him for one of the same reasons I like Peter Falk’s Columbia. There’s more to him than meets the eye at first glance. The lesson, look for and appreciate, the unexpected. Happy 80th Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot!
January 5, 2021
Setting In The Light
Genesis 47:7-10 (ESV)
7 Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
Jacob lived to be 147, and he died with his sons being at peace with each other. Abraham had sons which he had sent away from Isaac. Issac lived for years, with bad blood between his sons, but Jacob would die with his children spending years in peace with each other.
The son he thought was dead, had brought him in the presence of the king. Now he was the Father of the Prime Minister Of Egypt. Jacob had not lost his child, and yet, he still had sadness.
I am a man who knows what it’s like to deal with unnecessary sadness. This Covid has reminded me of it, truthfully I’ve battled depression for several days. Yesterday it began to lift. Even as I was going through it, I knew it was illogical. At the same time, it felt like I was spiraling into a downward pit, and taking my wife and son with me.
I remember at 6-7 years old, standing in my Grandfather’s yard. A thought went through my mind that I knew shouldn’t have been there, and I remember thinking, “Lord I was going to be something great for you, and now I’ve messed it up.” At that time, I didn’t realize how much greater than my own failures God is.
While I knew better going through Covid, I was still struggling under the mental weight of it. Sunday The Message from our Church, Point Of Mercy and Pastor strengthened me. Yesterday, I started playing their project, The Livingstons, “Unexpected Journey”, and things began to lighten.
I can tell you, nothing circumstantial changed, yet I got close enough to where God was louder than my insecurities. I had been reaching out, I had been praying, and God was near, but He wanted me to take this journey. What Jacob may have missed was, God wanted him to take an unexpected journey to Egypt.
His Grandpa Abraham left Egypt, being sent away by Pharaoh. God wouldn’t let Isaac even go into Egypt. Now Jacob set before the King of Egypt, because of a son he had mourned over, and The Bible says Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
After he blessed Pharaoh he lived seventeen years, the same age Joseph was when he went into Egypt. God will restore the years you thought you had lost. He will set you in places others never got to see, but if you’re not careful, you’ll allow your viewpoint to look at the shadows of old things, while setting in The Light. Don’t get so focused on the pain of yesterday and today, that you miss the joy, of setting in The Presence Of The King!
January 3, 2021
January 1, 2021
Sure
Hebrews 6:19 (KJV)
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
The word sure here in the Greek is asphalēs, and while it means sure and certain, it’s root is what caused me to rejoice. The root word is Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. You remember another Scripture, “I Am The Alpha And Omega”, and another one comes to mind.
Hebrews 6:13 (ESV)
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
In another place He says when He promised Abraham, He promised by Himself. There is nothing more sure in this day than The One Who created it. Our Alpha will see us through to the end, whether it’s 2020, 2021, or 2037, He will be there for us.
Because of this, we are never alone. When troubles hit, it’s tempting to focus on what. However if we focus on Who, what quickly becomes how He reveals victory. No matter what you face today, knowing Who is in your corner, will anchor you through anything ahead in 2021.
December 29, 2020
All Of Our December’s
His hand has never slipped. He has never acted too quickly, or moved to slow. What we assume as a delay, is exactly on schedule. While we view 2020 as a challenge, disaster, or a series of horrible occurrences, it fits perfectly in the timeline of The Master.
This is true, not because the year was great, but because Our God is. He is so great, Herod couldn’t stop Him. The Pharisees couldn’t end Him, and Death couldn’t hold The Lord Jesus. 2020 will neither stop His purpose, or His people.
As we stand on the edge of a new year, neither you nor I know what it holds. We do know the God Who blessed us with all of our December’s, has a plan for January and beyond. We wonder about the end times, while He plans Eternity, which just a reminder, He invented.
I don’t have any predictions for 2021, except this. The nail scarred hands that are holding you and I are not perspiring. The pulse rate isn’t elevated, and no infection will affect His strength. He hears and cares, but as Pastor Jason said recently He is not alarmed. The God of yesterday, today, and forever will continue to continue, and care for all which place their future in His hands.
