Wow!

Is it just me, or is yesterday's miracle on the Hudson River a prophetic sign to us all?

Keep Smiling!

Yesterday I put a big yellow smiley face on the post for the AW4W blog. I like looking at it because it sends a visual message of happiness, and because it reminds me of a patch that was on a pair of my favorite bell-bottom jeans in the 70's. What's funny to me, though, is that when I posted today's AYITN entry on that blog, the template interpreted the "8)" in (Romans 8:28) as a smiley face. I've tried several times to change it, but it always shows the face. I guess it's supposed to be that way.

Hey bloggers...thanks so much to those of you who have written such beautiful reviews on the book blog...your words are extremely encouraging...tonight in LIFESKILLS IN THE NOW I'll be talking about self-confidence, and living without a sense of rejection. I hope to see you all ITB...there are some good words on the blogs, so take a look around...I'd like to hear from some of you who have been missing in action for the last few days...what's happening?

PEACE!

BLOGS, BOOKS, and BIBLE-TALK

Hey bloggers,

I posted late yesterday, so I know that you're still digesting what was published, but thanks for all the great feedback from the events of this past Sunday (which were obviously the result of the beautiful Week of Prayer). There really is something new and fresh and exciting in the CITN air, and many of you have expressed that very well on the last several blog posts. Anyway, I need to get back to writing MITN, so here's verses 9 - 14 of Chapter 12 (verses 1 - 8 were posted on December 29...man, it's amazing how time flies!)...

Speaking of my books, there's a new blog that you can click on (above in orange letters) that is just about the things that I've written so far. I'm making my material more accessible on the internet, so I'd like to ask you to do me a big favor. There's no hurry, but when you get a chance, would you please go to the new blog (Books by Jim Swilley), and scroll through all of it to see if there's a post about a book of mine that you've read that you could write just a little blurb (2 or 3 lines) about on the appropriate comments page? The format is different from this blog, but it's easy to do. I really would apreciate it.

Now here's MITN. Enjoy!

9. Going on from that place, He went into their synagogue,

10. and a man with a shriveled hand was there. As always, the religious leaders were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus of something, so they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

11. Instead of directly answering their question of entrapment, He said to them, "Let me ask you this…if any of you has a sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

12. Well, how much more valuable is a person…a human being…than a sheep! Therefore, we can say that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

13. Then, to validate His point, and to take the conversation out of the limited realm of natural, religious law, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand, friend." So the man stretched it out, and immediately it was completely restored to the same soundness of the other hand.

14. But, as usual, the Pharisees were unfazed by the miraculous. So they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus because, once again, He had embarrassed them, and had made their rules and regulations seem silly and irrelevant.

Have You Caught Any Fish?

Hey bloggers,

I don't think that we're through talking about this, yet...here's the passage from yesterday's word...

Chapter 21:1-11

1. After this, Jesus appeared again to His disciples, this time at Lake Tiberias (also known as the Sea of Galilee).

2. And this is how it happened: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “The Twin”), Nathaniel (from Cana in Galilee), and the brother of James and John were all there, together with two other disciples.

3. They were all still in a sort of subdued state of shock over everything that had happened in the last several days, and nobody knew what to do...how to act...how to live. Now that Jesus was gone, should they just go back to doing whatever they were doing before He interrupted their lives? He really hadn’t been that specific in His instructions about what they should do post-resurrection. So Peter looked at all of them just standing around and said, “Well, I’ve got to do something! Life has to go on; I’m going fishing.” And the rest of them, relieved that someone had finally broken the awkward silence and had come up with a plan, said, “We’ll come, too!” So they all piled into the boat and started fishing, finding comfort in the normalcy of a familiar activity. And they fished all night long, but nobody caught a thing.

4. Early the next morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize Him or realize who He was.

5. So Jesus called out to them, “Hey guys, have you caught anything?” And they answered him with a simple, indifferent, “No.”

6. Then He said, “Throw out your net on the right side of the boat and you will catch plenty of fish!” After staring blankly at Him for a minute, they all looked at each other and said, “Why not? What have we got to lose?” So they did what He said and almost immediately began catching so many fish that they couldn’t even draw the net back into the boat.

7. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “You know who that is, don’t you? It is the Lord!” When Peter heard this, he scrambled to put all his clothes back on and spontaneously plunged into the water, swimming as fast as he could to the shore. His immediate response to the thought of seeing Jesus was sheer elation; all he could think about was getting to Him, so much so that he forgot the fact they had not faced each other alone since the three denials.

8. The others stayed with the boat and tried to drag the overloaded net to the shore, for they were only out about three hundred feet.

9. When they got up on the beach, they saw that a charcoal fire was burning and fish was frying over it. There was also bread there to go with it.

10. “Bring up some of the fish that you’ve just caught,” Jesus said.

11. So Simon Peter ran back to the boat and dragged the net to shore. There were one hundred fifty three large fish in it, but somehow the net didn’t rip.

A Whole New World: The Other Side of the Boat