 |
| Google image |
Vernon Kemplin shares with us something that happened in his home. "Brrr, it was cold.
So cold it took an act of
supreme will for me to crawl out of bed.
I shivered as I made my way down to the basement,
though why I was bothering to try and get the furnace going again I couldn't
tell you.
I already knew it was hopeless.
My wife and I had finally bought our first home, a
1905 farmhouse just outside of Mansfield, Illinois. It needed work, for sure,
but it beat the shoebox we'd been renting from a relative.
We moved in the summer of 1970 and started fixing the
place up with what little savings we had left. Then fall came and the weather got brisk. One night I went down to
the basement to fire up the furnace.
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to work. I
called every heating company in the book. They said the same thing. ‘That type
of furnace has been obsolete for years. You need a new system.’
No way could we afford that. For weeks, my wife and I
wore coats around the house and huddled by the oven, worrying about what to do.
Our dream house had turned into a nightmare.
So I didn’t know why I was bothering to go down to the
basement this morning. Maybe I just wanted to glare at the old furnace.
‘Lord, what are we going to do?’ I cried out, sitting
on a cinder block to think. Just then, something slid off the joist above and
fluttered to the ground. A dusty, yellowed card.
There was the date of installation for the furnace…many
decades ago. Below the date was ‘Mr. Doss.’ The installer.
Mr. Doss. I puzzled over the name. In my small town, everyone
knows everyone. I seemed to recall a Mr. Doss once worked at the appliance
store. But that was a long ago.
Was he still
around? I looked the name up I the phone book and found a listing. I dialed the
number.
‘Hello?’ a man
answered. ‘Is this Mr. Doss, the furnace installer?’ I asked.
Mr. Doss told me he
was more or less retired now. But he still lived nearby and he agreed to take a
look. He got our furnace running in minutes—and only charged a minimal fee.
‘It’s just good I had the
parts lying around.’ He said. ‘I’m probably the only person in the world who
would’.
And good too that his business card was lying around
just when I needed it."
Vernon Kemplin, Mansfield, Illinois Taken from GUIDEPOSTS, Nov. '12 issue
Today’s quote: John Hagee -"Do you feel defeated? Pray! Are you surrounded on every side? Pray! Are you desperate for a personal victory in your life? Pray! The only way to land on your feet is to get down on your knees!" (Nov./Dec. JHM magazine, pg. 5)
"Poetic prose in prayer to God
Is not what He requires;
Instead, specific heartfelt pleas
Are what the Lord desires. - Sper.
The heart of prayer is prayer from the heart."
Our Daily Bread
12/19/12
Isaiah 25:1 "O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."
[Father, may we remember that You're busy working on our behalf for our good, and Your glory!]
Our thought for today: Why are we so silly? God sees everything. He knows our every need.
Tomorrow’s post: God's Way, Even when it Makes no Sense: Prayer Note #104 Dutch Sheets
A popular post: Choices
A popular post: Choices
A 31-day devotional book for women
contemplating marriage and
looking for godly advice.
No comments:
Post a Comment