Luke 5 -- Who You Gonna Listen To?

I noticed a few simple but notable things about Jesus as He began His public ministry:  “Many people were pressing all around Him to hear the word of God.”  They weren’t tuning in to a televangelist or watching him later on their DVR.  These people were choosing to take not just hours but days out of their lives, even traveling on foot a good distance from their homes to hear the word of God.  This wasn’t entertainment.  It was soul-hunger, and all they knew was that Jesus was feeding that hunger for probably the first time in their lives!

Simon Peter had been fishing all night.  The crowd around Jesus made it necessary that Jesus ask Peter for the use of his boat to gain enough distance from them so that He could more easily teach them.  Afterwards, in almost a rewarding way, Jesus told Peter to take the boat to a certain spot to catch fish.  Jesus’ words must have struck a chord with Peter, who was exhausted from fishing all night and cleaning his nets, for he expressed willingness to obey the command regardless.  When the nets became filled to the breaking point and they found that they now had two boats overloaded with fish, Peter realized Jesus was much more than just a teacher.  He said, “Get away from me, Lord.  I am a sinful man.”  He recognized divinity and the common belief was that no one could see God and live.  Jesus answered, “Don’t be afraid,” and gave him a new profession fishing for people instead.

Satan was trying to take Peter’s past, throw it in his face, and tell him he wasn’t good enough to be used by God.  Jesus corrected that lie.  Several other times in this chapter, Jesus took those the world considered unlovely and showed both them and the world their worth.  He’s still in the business of doing that.

Father, the guilt of past sins is part of the consequences of sin.  However, when You forgive us and remove those sins, it’s as if they’d never happened.  Satan wants us to think otherwise.  He tries to disqualify us from service, while You instead are ready to put us to work telling others what You’ve done in our lives.  Help us not to listen to the whispers of the devil.  Shout into our ears instead, telling us of Your love and forgiveness until we believe it wholeheartedly!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 3 & 4 -- Hometown Woes

After His baptism by John and having the Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove, Jesus heard God His Father say, “You are My Son, whom I love, and I am very pleased with You!”  At that point, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted.  Where God had affirmed Him, Satan tried to sow doubt in His soul.  Despite 40 days without food, Jesus did not cave.  After all, He’d already spent eternity past with His Father, and He knew every strategy of the devil.

What really spoke to me this morning was Jesus speaking in His home church in Nazareth.  People in other towns were praising Him for His teachings, but things were different in Nazareth.  He began reading to them from Isaiah:

“The Lord has put His Spirit in me, because He appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again.  God sent me to free those who have been treated unfairly and to announce the time when the Lord will show His kindness.”

He then closed the book and sat down.  Everyone watched expectantly, waiting for His next words.  He said, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true.”

They’d probably heard those same words lots of times, and likely thought to themselves, “That will never happen.  Blind people can’t be healed!  Why did Isaiah even write that?”

Knowing their hearts, Jesus reminded them of two Old Testament stories where God purposefully skipped over the Jews to bless Gentiles instead.  This infuriated them to the point that they tried to throw Him over a cliff – Church people who were blinded to the truth that their Savior and Messiah had just announced Himself to them!  And they missed it!

Father, help me not to miss what You say to me.  Keep my heart open to things You want to change in my life and people You want me to reach out to.  Help me to remain excited about the fact that You choose to work in and through me as part of Your plan.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 2 -- Marvelling and Treasuring

I was noticing the things that Mary treasured in her heart.  She’d been obedient when told of her role in bringing Jesus into the world.  Now that He’d been incarnated, she marveled at the stories told by the shepherds:  angels had appeared, not to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, but to those who, because of their work, were likely never ritually clean!  And because they’d obeyed, they’d been given the first glimpse of the Savior of the world, while the High Priest, the other priests, and the Levites had slept through it!

Later, in simply doing what was required by the Law by presenting Jesus in the Temple and offering the required sacrifice to buy back a firstborn male child, both parents marveled at the comments of Simeon and Anna, who both independently confirmed their heavenly messages that Jesus was the Savior.  Simeon declared that he could not die in peace because he had seen God’s salvation in the body of the baby Jesus!  That’s all he wanted out of the remainder of his life – to see Jesus!  And how it should be our only desire, too!  Yet too many times we become so caught up in the world that we miss the Savior!

Father, I want to keep treasuring what You’ve shown me about Jesus in my heart.  Don’t let me ever think of Him as ordinary.  Help me to have the single-mindedness of Anna regarding Your kingdom and not the dry religion of all the rest who missed the Savior.  And help me to show others what You’ve shown me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Luke 1 -- Words From An Angel To Us

The angel was telling Zechariah about what his not-yet-even-conceived son John would do:  “He will make peace between parents and their children and will bring those who are not obeying God back to the right way of thinking, to make a people ready for the coming of the Lord.”

People who are sinning and disobeying God are not thinking right, the angel said.  That comes straight from God.  Yet over and over, humans try to say that it’s not sin – it’s personal choice.  Unfortunately for them, God doesn’t agree.  We can’t just decide for ourselves what’s right for us and what’s not, because it’s not all relative.  God sets the standards because He knows what’s best for us.  We don’t.  We only think we do.

Fast forward nine months, and Zechariah gets to finally speak again after his son, John the Baptist, is born.  He said, “Let us praise the Lord … because He has come to help His people and has given them freedom.  He has given us a powerful Savior … He said He would do this … He promised He would save us … He said He would give mercy … and that He would remember His holy promise.  God promised Abraham, our father, that He would save us from the power of our enemies [including the worst enemy of all – Satan] so we could serve Him without fear, being holy and good before God as long as we live.”

God doesn’t want to be seen as a punisher.  He desires to be an enabler if we will let Him – enabling us to live a life that honors Him through our obedience by bringing us back to a right way of thinking.  Doing so gives us freedom, for we won’t be having to look over our shoulders worrying about whether our sins will be found out.  He’s a God who loves us even more than we love ourselves.

Father, thank You for correcting our wrong-headed thinking.  The world tries to tell us freedom comes from being able to do anything we could imagine or desire.  But You tell us the truth.  Thanks for correcting my thinking.  Please don’t stop.  I need Your wise counsel for the rest of my life!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jonah 2-4 Where And What He Prayed

So what happened during the time Jonah was inside the fish?  He prayed, and he remembered.

“When I was in danger, I called to the Lord, and He answered.”  Jonah had been on a ship, in danger of sinking, and God’s answer was “Get into the fish.”

Jonah couldn’t see that.  Instead, looking through his circumstances, he said, “I was driven out of Your presence … I thought I was locked in this prison (the sea) forever, but You saved me … Lord my God.”

Jonah had thought God was casting him out, when God was taking him to his salvation.

“When my life had almost gone, I remembered the Lord.  I prayed to You, and You heard my prayers in Your Holy Temple.”

Jonah had been so stuck on himself and his desires that he’d forgotten about God and what God was trying to do through him.  But God had never taken His eyes off of Jonah.

“I will praise and thank You while I give sacrifices to You, and I will keep my promises to You.  Salvation comes from the Lord!”

The most important thing about that last prayer was where Jonah was when he prayed it.  He has not petitioned God for anything this whole time.  He has only been praying prayers of thanksgiving to God.  The next verse gives us the answer of where Jonah was when he was praying this:  “Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and the fish threw up Jonah onto the dry land.”

Inside the belly of the large fish, moving through the middle of the sea, even at great depths, Jonah was spending all his time thanking God for his salvation!  This went on, not just for an hour or two, but for three days!  My commentary also said that the miracle wasn’t that the fish swallowed him, but that he wasn’t digested!

Father, when I can’t seem to see You from the middle of my circumstances, remind me that Jonah trusted, praised, and thanked You for his three-day underwater ride in much less than ideal conditions.  Help me to recognize the help You’re sending me when I need it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jonah 1 -- What Was Going On In The Background

God told Jonah to get up, go, and preach.  Jonah got up, but was running in the opposite direction – against God’s will, not with it.

Faced with the loss of their ship and their lives, the sailors on board the ship Jonah was taking to run away decided that every passenger needed to be praying to whatever God they worshiped.  When their circumstances failed to improve, they then cast lots.  God caused the lot to land on Jonah.

They weren’t God-worshipers – yet.  But when Jonah said, “I’m a Hebrew.  I fear the Lord,” they began to take notice.  He’d told them he was running away from God.  They asked, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”  Jonah answered, “Throw me in … it’s my fault.”  The men decided to change Jonah’s direction and tried to row him back to shore, but God wouldn’t be satisfied with simply delivering Jonah to Nineveh.  He had an attitude adjustment in mind for him instead.

“So the men cried to the Lord.”  Jonah’s running away was being used by God to draw others to Him!  They said to God, “You have caused all this to happen; You wanted it this way.”  They were beginning to understand God’s sovereignty.  In he went, and the sea immediately calmed down.  “Then they began to fear the Lord very much; they offered a sacrifice to Him and made promises to Him.”  Jonah had impacted others, without even knowing it; not by a sermon, but because of his sin. 

I’d always been so focused on Jonah.  Sure, I’d noticed the reactions of the men before, but today it really hit home how God can draw others to Himself not just through my actions, but also through my failures.  That’s how big my God is!

Father, I pray that my life will be so in Your will that You won’t have a need to use my failures when You desire to use my willingness.  Let my actions speak as loudly as my words.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 33-36 Doing Exactly What God Says Not To Do

God had told Moses to keep a record of their ravels over the 40 years after they left Egypt, and he reviewed it before they entered the Promised Land.  I imagine that the new generation born after the Exodus may have been too young to remember many of those places, but their parents surely had told them stories of what had happened at each one.

So, as Moses began to read off the place names, their hearts were probably tinged with regret over those places where they or their ancestors had sinned and disappointed God.

God wants us to live a life of no regrets.  He doesn’t want us wallowing in guilt.  To that end, He has given us His Word to guide us.  The warnings in it are for our own good.

As Moses concluded his tenure as their leader, he issued a warning from God.  “Force out all the people who live there.  Destroy all of their carved statues and metal idols.  Wreck all of their places of worship … But if you don’t …  they will bring you trouble … Then I will punish you as I had planned to punish them.”

What a shame that they never took God at His word.  They ended up doing exactly what He told them not to do.

Father, help me not to disobey You.  Make Your presence in my life much stronger than my sin nature.  Help me to obey.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 31-32 Satisficed -- Being Satisfied With Less Than The Best

God directed the Israelites to destroy the Midianites for following Baalam’s advice and letting their women seduce the Israelite men.  However, the army commanders ordered the soldiers to kill all of the men.  The women who’d done the seducing were taken as prisoners who could easily seduce the men of Israel again!  Moses told them to finish the job.  The problem wasn’t going to go away.  The problem needed to be dealt with.

Two tribes and half of another tribe were willing to settle for the land of the Midianites rather than wait for the Promised Land.  Moses chastised them for wanting to quit early.  They promised that if they could just rebuild the destroyed towns and create sheep pens, they’d leave their families and cross over the Jordan with the other Israelites to help secure the land before returning to their families.  They hadn’t even seen the Promised Land and they were willing to give it up, fight for it for others, and then be satisfied with less than God had planned for them!  In His love, God amazingly said, “Okay.”

He still does the same for us.  I imagine that His heart breaks when we choose “less than His best” for ourselves, like a child spending $100 on a huge pile of trinkets rather than purchasing something nice.

Father, help me to seek out Your best and to not be satisfied with less.  I want my boys to seek that, too.  Place a hunger in their hearts for what You have waiting for them, and help them to say no to anything less!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 28-30 Lots of Bawling And Bleating

This is the part that’s hard to imagine.  The church must have smelled like a butcher shop!  And the endless bawling of calves and bleating of sheep being kept for sacrifices certainly must have been noticeable.  More than anything, what a picture it painted of man’s sinfulness before God and its terrible cost!  At the Feast of Shelters alone, 71 bulls, 15 male sheep, and 105 male lambs had to be sacrificed, and each day a sin offering of 1 male goat was made to take away the people’s sin (and they were at church the whole time!)  201 animals would die at each Feast of Shelters!

Yet none of this was enough to fully remove the sins of the people and make them able to come into God’s presence!  I also wonder what the Jewish people today think when they read in the Torah that they are supposed to be doing all of this and they know that they don’t?  Wouldn’t they be heaping sins on their heads right now?

Father, thank You for the extravagant, once-for-all-time gift You gave in allowing Your Son to die on the cross for our sins!  All of the animals killed in the millennia since You told them to start doing this are as nothing to the preciousness of Your Son’s blood.  What love!  What love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 25-27 Wrapping Up 40 Years

Standing at the border of the Promised Land, some men of Israel allowed themselves to be tempted by the women of Moab and Midian.  The women invited them innocently enough to their sacrifices to their gods, and the men ate food there and worshiped these gods!  That led them to sin sexually with these women, who worshiped Baal.  God ordered a final cleanup, and 24,000 Israelites died as a result of this sin.  They were about to enter the Promised Land, and He was weeding out the troublemakers.

God ordered a final census before leading them in.  The results would determine the division of the land by families.  To me, the numbers themselves weren’t important.  This fact was:  “Moses and Eleazar counted all the people … Moses and Aaron had counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai, but no one Moses counted on the plains of Moab was IN the FIRST counting … The only two left were Caleb and Joshua.”

They’d all died in the desert as God had promised.  It was almost time to step into the land He’d promised.

Father, these people could have already been enjoying the land for 40 years, but their parents’ sins caused them to have to wait.  I pray that You will keep my heart so attuned to You that my family won’t miss 40 years of blessings.  I love them too much to let that happen.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 22-24 Not Landing On The Wrong Side Of The Fight

Balaam, evidently a man of God and a prophet, was living not with the Israelites, but in Aram, back where Abraham had originally lived.  As the Israelites camped just outside the Promised Land, the king of Moab decided to pay Balaam to intervene and pronounce curses upon the Israelites.  (It sounds like had he done nothing, they would simply have passed through his land on the way to the Promised Land, but Balak had an ego.)

God allow Balaam to go to Balak, but told him to only say what God directed him to say.  As Balaam traveled, it says God became angry that he did travel.  The only way I see to reconcile this is that God foresaw that Balaam might be tempted by Balak’s bribes and disobey.  God sent an angel to block the way.  Balaam couldn’t see the angel (was he spiritually blinded by the thought of bribes) but his donkey could, and the donkey tried three times to not continue on the journey, enduring beatings in the process.  Finally, God enabled the donkey to speak, and Balaam was able to also see the angel.  This reinforced God’s original message that Balaam could only bless Israel and not curse them.

I saw two lessons here:  First, even prophets who hear God clearly are susceptible to spiritual blindness; and second, it’s impossible to fight God and win.  Had Balak accepted that God was leading the Israelites, he could have backed off and suffered no harm.

Father, I think about several issues coming up in the near future where we need to ascertain Your leadership and the direction You would have us take.  Give us Your wisdom from the start, to help us not have to go through the difficulties Balak faced.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 18 -- The Priests & Levites Inherit God

The priests and Levites weren’t going to be receiving any land once God allowed them into the Promised Land.  Instead, He told them, “I will be yours.  Out of all the Israelites, only you will inherit Me.”  Aaron and the priestly line were given all of the unburned portions of the grain, sin, and penalty offerings.  The Levites were to receive the 10% tithe as their pay.  But they were also told to tithe back 10% of that to Aaron and the priestly line as well.  Out of everything they were to receive, God gave them this instruction:  “”And if you always give the best part to the Lord, you will never be guilty.”  They had to make sure to trust that God would provide for them, giving away the very best that He’d given them.

In my Bible’s sidebar today, something really caught my attention.  It said, “To Jesus’ listeners, the heart was the totality of the inner person – the control tower, the cockpit.  The heart was thought of as the seat of character – the origin of desires, affection, perceptions, thoughts, reasoning, imagination, conscience, intentions, purpose, will, and faith.  Thus a proverb admonished, ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.’ … If a person’s actions are evil, it’s not enough to change habits; you have to go deeper.  You have to go to the heart of the problem, which is the problem of the heart.”

Father, thank You for helping me with the condition of my heart.  Like David, I cry out, “Create in me a clean heart.”  I want to start from there, so that my desires, affections, perceptions, thoughts, reasoning, imagination, conscience, intentions, purpose, will and faith will reflect the One who created me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 16-17 The Terrible Cost of Rebelling Against God

When the Israelites heard the news that they’d been consigned to wander the desert for 40 years and would never see the Promised Land, several decided that replacing Moses would fix the situation.  Their initial comment should have raised red flags all over the camp:  “All the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.  So why do you put yourselves above all the people of the Lord?”

In effect, they were saying, “We have not sinned, and we deserve to enter the Promised Land.”

God dealt with the rebellion swiftly.  The families of three men and all their belongings were swallowed up by the earth.  And although Moses prayed for mercy for the rest, God knew their hearts, and He sent down fire from heaven to consume 250 men who’d signed on to the rebellion.  Their families were spared.

Because others remained in the large group who still wished to rebel against the 40-year sentence, God began a terrible sickness that quickly spread.  Moses directed Aaron to quickly take incense into the heart of the sickness to remove the sin from the people.  But before he could do so, 14,700 people died.  Rebellion against God can lead to terrible unintended consequences.

To reaffirm Aaron’s position as high priest, God caused Aaron’s walking stick to grow leaves, bud, blossom, and produce almonds overnight!  What an incredible sight that must have been with the sticks of the other eleven tribal leaders still dead and unchanged!

Father, rebellion against Your will bears terrible costs, and as these verses show, others can suffer greatly because of our rebellion.  I pray that You will help my boys and me never to forget this.  Help us not to cause others to be harmed by any rebellion on our part.  Remind us to love You because You loved us first.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 15 -- A Smell Pleasing To The Lord

God gave instructions for offerings that the Israelites were to make to Him when they entered the land He was giving them.  In other words, “Forty years from now …”

Five times in those instructions, God mentioned that “its smell will be pleasing to the Lord.”  I began to see that the smell that was pleasing to Him was the smell of wholehearted obedience.

God also said, “If the people forget to obey any of these commands”, there was an offering that would also be a smell pleasing to the Lord.  They would remember the command, realize that they’d forgotten to keep it, and repent by making the offering.  There was a very hopeful verse:  “They are forgiven because they didn’t know they were sinning.”  Wow!  They’d been told the command, they forgot it, and God forgives even that when they repent of their sin!

Yet there was also a stern warning:  “Anyone who sins on purpose is against the Lord … That person has turned against the Lord’s Word and has not obeyed His commands … He is guilty.”  No offering was listed that would remove those types of sins.

The sidebar in my Bible noted how God still pointed His people towards the Promised Land even after their rebellion.  He has a purpose.  It spoke of how “created things give cultural Christianity its toehold.  They defeat us and choke the Word.  When we refuse to obey, He will separate us from those created things which dilute our devotion to Him.  If we can’t remain obedient, He will discipline us for our own good…. It is not a sign of hatred, but love.  If He did not love you, He would let you completely self-destruct…. Created things divide our affection from God and become competition to our devotion.” 

The wounds God faithfully inflicts in bringing us back to Him may be the single greatest blessing of our spiritual pilgrimage, it said.

Father, thank You for Your love, Your grace, Your mercy, and Your faithfulness.  Help me to hold on to You when my world seems to be spinning out of control.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 13-14 Being Picked And Failing

God told Moses to send one leader from each tribe to explore the Promised Land.  Moses obeyed and called out the men to be sent.  I suppose that God gave Moses the names of the leaders to send out, for they are listed here.  After exploring the land for 40 days, the men returned and told about the fertility and beauty of the land.  But then ten of the twelve reported that it would be a disaster to attempt an invasion, due to the size and strength of the people inhabiting the land.

Caleb stood up and refuted their report, and he encouraged an invasion, but the men besides Joshua rallied the people against the idea.  That night, they uttered the prophetic phrase:  “We wish we had died in Egypt or in this desert!”

God heard them and said to get ready, because that’s what would happen for their rejection of His plan.  No adjustment was going to be too big for God.  He told Moses, in front of all the people, that He would simple send a terrible sickness to get rid of the complainers, then make an entirely new nation from Moses that would be spiritually stronger than the current one!  How incredible to think that God thought nothing of holding off many generations as Moses’ prospective family grew into a large, strong nation that He’d lead into the land!

Moses was less concerned about the delay and more concerned about what other nations would claim about God – that He’d been unable to deliver on His promise to get the people into the Promised Land.  And that’s most likely what other nations would have said.  He asked God, “Show Your strength now, Lord.  Do what You said … By Your great love, forgive these people’s sin …”  The Lord answered, “I have forgiven them as You asked.”  WOW!  Just like that, He’d forgiven them.  But forgiveness of sin and unwinding of the consequences of it are two very different things.  This wasn’t the first time it had happened.  It was the tenth time, and for God, that was enough.  They’d run past His grace.

Except for Caleb and Joshua, no other people older than 20 would ever enter the Promised Land.  They would get what they’d so rashly wished – they’d die in the desert.  And their children would remain outside the Promised Land one year for every day the spies explored the land.  Yes, God forgave, but they didn’t escape the consequences of their sin.

Father, I think about the men You called out to explore the land.  You had more faith in them that they had in You.  I pray that as I strive to remain in Your will, that You will continue to build up my faith and trust in You, so that I will not shrink from whatever You ask me to do.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 11 & 12 -- Hopping Back Into The Saddle

Wow, this is the longest I’ve gone without reading God’s word on a daily basis and writing in my journal about it.  The hectic schedule of our trip and the time zone differences really did a number on me.  I’m so glad to finally be back to a normal routine.

Poor Moses was probably feeling like he wanted to get back to any sort of normality as well.  The people had been okay with eating manna God provided each morning, but then they got tired of the routine and complained bitterly that they’d eaten better while in slavery in Egypt.

Moses was feeling overwhelmed – his job looked hopeless and no one was satisfied.  He cried out to God with his honest feelings.  He didn’t know why he had to bear responsibility for all of them and their problems.  He knew he was right in the middle of God’s will, but it sure didn’t feel good.

Now the people were demanding meat.  He’d looked at their resources.  They’d brought livestock out of Egypt, but God had planned that not for food but as starter stock for herds they would establish in the Promised Land.  Killing all of the livestock wouldn’t solve the problem for any length of time and would only create more problems later.

I really took notice of how God answered, because I was beginning to feel the same way before I left on vacation 2 weeks ago.  God said, “Bring me 70 older leaders … I’ll give some of the Spirit in you to them.  They will help you care for the people so that you will not have to care for them alone.”

God also promised the unbelievable – meat for everyone for an entire month.  Moses couldn’t see how God could do the seemingly impossible.  His two observations started with, “If we….” 

He was still only thinking in human terms, not God-terms.  In an unusual reprimand, God said, “Do you think I am weak?  Now you will see if I can do what I say.”  God did what He said with the older leaders – even for two men who didn’t show up.  Joshua wanted only Moses to be able to prophecy.  He was almost a stumbling block rather than a helper.  Moses said, “Are you jealous for me?  I wish all the Lord’s people could prophecy.  I wish the Lord would give His Spirit to all of them.”

The people got what they asked for – quail – 3 feet deep a day’s walk in any direction.  As God said, they had meat running out of their noses.  Sickness and death followed.

Moses’ siblings then decided that they deserved a ruling role.  They began to complain about Moses doing all the leading.  God called them in for a personal audience and told them Moses was His servant, not just a prophet, and they should be afraid to ever gripe like that again.  Miriam was given a skin disease for seven days, while Aaron asked for forgiveness.

Father, I find myself wondering what work will be like today and tomorrow with many decisions awaiting me.  I’ve still been feeling the way Moses felt.  Help me to spread the load.  Equip others to lead in areas as well, or change the circumstances.  I just need You to be God at work and guide me in my work.  Keep frustration at bay.  As usual, Your timing with Your Word for me is impeccable.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford