Home Alone

Well, I will be in the morning.

Cynthia, Heather and the grandkids are going to Mobile for Thanksgiving. I decided not to make the trip; Jody has to work. So it’s a girls outing. They will be staying at Cynthia’s parent’s home on Mobile Bay, always a relaxing time. We got a call yesterday that her aunt Ida was hospitalized, so she will be able to see and help her for a few days too. Otherwise it will be a family holiday time. Our grandkids don’t get to see their great-grandparents-aunts-uncles and cousins too often, so this trip has been planned for sometime.

I will not be going because my own physical condition has transitioned a bit; not necessarily in a positive way, yet. After the surgery, I had a few days of discomfort from the procedure itself along with a general sense of the “miseries”—sort of like a bad case of the flu along with a great deal of fatigue. Last Thursday I moved into much more “site specific” pain! I won’t say more than that, but you can perhaps get the idea. The fatigue continues but now the pain at times becomes acute, along with a frequency/urgency sensation that aggravates it. Enough of that!

We had a busy week last week. I finally was able to get the Journal to the printer; got six weeks of radio in the mail; answered dozens of letters and hundreds of emails. The office did a mass mailing for the Florida conference along the way too. I taught Sunday mornings and Wednesday night. I still haven’t felt up to doing both Sunday morning and evening—along with all afternoon meetings in between! Alex has done an outstanding job in my absence. Our attendance has also been very good. We actually hit a record last Sunday evening for attendance via the Internet! Also, Sunday evening three fellas showed up looking of me and itching for a fight. They didn’t like something I said on the radio that morning. In my absence they jumped on Alex! He successfully put them to flight, according to reports I received, and sent me word that I missed a good time.

I also started studying in earnest what I think will be our Wednesday evening studies in the new year. We just finished Luke—it took 7 years to the month! Now we are looking at a few carry over issues in early Acts (Acts is really Volume 2 of Luke’s account). I haven’t decided exactly what to do next and have received several suggestions. Our mid-week study is mainly attended by more advanced students and we have traditionally focused on the prophetic program during this time: I’ve taught Genesis, Daniel, Matthew, Luke, Acts, Hebrews thru Revelation on Wednesday evenings.

Some time ago I taught a series on the Messianic Psalms (after we finished II Corinthians and before we got into Galatians). While doing that I got to thinking how helpful it would be to teach through some of the chapters in the Old Testament that summarize the history of the nation Israel. (So much for those who say we never study anything but Paul’s epistles!!).

I started with a list of five chapters; before long it had expanded to 16! It is fascinating how many times the Holy Spirit has recorded a summarized history of God’s dealing with Israel; several of them are actually prophetic in nature, laying out that favored nation’s history in advance!

Needless to say, I’m having a grand time studying through the details of these chapters again. At the moment, I am thinking that we would study through Deut. 32 (Israel’s God given National Anthem), Psa. 78, Psa. 105, Psa. 106, Acts 7, Lev. 26, Lev. 23, and Rom. 9-11. But that would leave out Jer. 3, Ezek. 16, Neh. 9, Gen. 49, etc.!

When my wife is away I don’t sleep much or well. I have never been able to lie in bed when I’m awake; I would rather get up and do something. So, while the house is quite and the holidays draw people’s attention, I should have several days worth of time to give to uninterrupted study. I’m gona have a great time! Besides, I still can’t get too far from the facilities anyway!

Maranatha!