Well, remember he had a daughter named Dawn, whose married name was Sheppard?The following was written, on Facebook, by Nathan, one of the Sheppard boys, this morning.......I have "lifted" it to publish it here because I think he did a wonderful job.....he is only 22 and he so obviously has the heart of his Grandpa ! :)
Forgiveness
I have been experience a lot of this from God recently, forgiveness that is. This subject seems so simple, yet so elusive. Why is it so hard for us as humans to let go of the knives that were pushed into our flesh? Are we afraid to stop hurting, as if the pain is a treat? I don't know, sometimes I feel like that's how I am. Why do I coddle my pain?
Biblically what is forgiveness? Well, one could write a thesaurus sized books about the subject. But in short what is it? Matthew 6:9b-15 is what we call "The Lord's Prayer." (When my heart is a wreck I try to model my prayers after this prayer until I get control of it.) Jesus prays; Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored, 6:10 may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 6:11 Give us today our daily bread, 6:12 and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors. 6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 6:14 “For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 6:15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins. (NET Bible)
It is obvious that Jesus is strong on how we treat others. Here on earth we call this "The Golden Rule", which states, "Do unto others what you want done to yourself." I don't claim to be a Bible scholar, or even that wise, but I do know a LOT about forgiveness. Sadly it seems to all be from personal experience. In the Lord's Prayer Jesus says that if we forgive others their sins that God will forgive us. Does that mean that God holds back forgiveness for those who refuse to forgive others? I'm not really sure, but from my own experience I know that until I seek a spirit of forgiveness towards those who have hurt me deeply that my heart doesn't heal correctly. Until I go to God and beg Him to give me that heart of forgiveness. He is always quick to do this when I do humble myself and ask, and once my spirit becomes willing to forgive I find that I can heal very rapidly. That doesn't mean I won't scar from the consequences of my sin. But it does mean that the wound won't fester and rot in my heart causing me to become a bitter person before God and man.
Even the world cries out for forgiveness... Amy Lee (lead singer of Evanescence) opens the song Missing with the words, "Please, please forgive me." This is a human need, the need for forgiveness. That's why the Catholic Church has confessionals. That's why people go to counselors and confess to them. That's why we go to our best friends and tell them the nasty things we don't want anyone to know about. Because we NEED to be forgiven.
A personal example of this was about two weeks ago. I was in Church the sunday before New Years. The preacher gave the typical New Year message about regrets, mistakes, and mulligans (the golf term where you simply don't count the horrendous mistake). I was forcing myself to listen and not sit there and think about how other people need to listen, or people I know should be in that service listening. (Which I find myself doing ALL the time... "Hmm... so-and-so should hear this message, it would really nail them hard!") God really opened my heart and showed me something simple but to me, revolutionary. I have a number of big regrets from 2008, wounds I dug so horribly, things I would do nearly anything to undo. God showed me that I had indeed confessed my sins a million times to Him, that I had literally laid on the floor crying out His name that He would scrub my heart with hissop (Old Testament version of steel wool). God told me that it was correct for me to do that, but He showed me that I forgot one thing. I forgot to ask for His forgiveness. I was slightly bewildered at first, but then I realized that even though I had deeply wounded His children here on earth with my many sins, that it was more than that. I had wounded Him with my sins. Right then and there I listed through the sins that He brought to my mind that I had been a part of, I took them to God and asked for forgiveness for each and every one. I would say it was embarrassing (looking back I see it about as embarrassing as getting a car wash for your filthy car), His forgiveness was so moving that I cried so heavily that my body shook with silent sobs and my nose ran with snot. (yuck) Tears flowed from my eyes like rain. Now most of you, even those of you who know me well, don't really know that if I ever do cry it is never more than a three or four tears. It kills me that I can't cry, and IF I do, it is so short. I know, I know, I'm a guy griping about not crying. But God gave me tear ducts and I intend on using them when my heart is too full or breaking. Anyway, it was beautiful to cry for real for the first time in perhaps 10 years. (mind you I'm 22)
God took my pain and in that moment He brought me so much healing. I am not claiming to be over all the pain I was in, it is still very real. But I know that I can refer back to that moment and say to myself, "Look, Jesus already died on the cross for that. He took that sin off my heart and placed it on HIS shoulders... and on top of that. He has C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y forgiven me. I am white as snow in my Holy Father's eyes." Wow... what a thought. Seriously... selah... think about it. ... (hopes you're thinking) ...
If per chance all of this is new to you, and you have never understood that God not only could forgive you but craves to do so. That He has a deep interest in YOU. Then please understand this, Jesus (who lived a prefect, sinless life) loves you. He loves you SO much that He died on the cross for YOUR sins. Three days after He died He by His own divine power rose from the dead. In those actions He cured the world from the chains of sin. This doesn't mean that those of us who are His children no longer sin, it means that through His power we now have the option to NOT sin. If you want this power too all you have to do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, died on a cross for YOUR sins, and that He rose again on the third day DESTROYING the power of sin. If you believe that then pray to Jesus and ask Him to become the king of your life, and ask Him to forgive your sins. It's that simple, that's how you can find freedom from the guilt of yours sins, the guilt that you fully deserve.
The Wax That Taxes Darwin by Frank Sherwin, M.A.* http://www.icr.org/article/4312/
People are able to groom themselves in a way so as to keep external parasites (fleas, ticks) and other irritants at bay. But what about the inaccessible recesses of the ear, with its delicate eardrum? This auditory canal must be open to the world in order to take in sounds, but that means it is also vulnerable to potential pathogens. Thankfully, the Creator has provided a remarkable defense against the tiny invaders that occasionally find their way in.
Although the subject of earwax is likely to be off-putting to many, it nonetheless shows God's very intelligent design. Like all bodily functions and secretions, there is a very important purpose to this waxy, brownish-yellow substance called cerumen, produced by approximately 4,000 glandular cells. Indeed, two researchers said recently, "Cell secretion is an important physiological process that ensures smooth metabolic activities, tissue repair and growth and immunological functions in the body."1 Earwax is far from being just a sticky secretion to eradicate. On the contrary, it is a highly complex substance that is designed to attract foreign debris and that contains anti-microbial proteins, squalene, long-chain fatty acids, and peptides (molecules consisting of two or more amino acids).
Earwax protects the ear by trapping dust particles, bacteria, fungal spores, sand, and dirt, preventing them from entering inner recesses and possibly damaging the ear. If they do gain a "foothold," disease-causing micro-organisms (e.g., E. coli) are subject to a veritable smorgasbord of defensive compounds such as lactoferrin, beta-defensin-1, cathelicidin, beta-defensin-2, lysozyme, MUC1 and secretory component of IgA (a major class of antibody) found in the cerumen.2 These are highly complex compounds that defy a naturalistic origin explanation. But not only does earwax attract and trap debris --its bitterness also repels insects, mites, and other creatures.
Still, most people see this sticky substance as something to purge from the ear canal or risk social exclusion. They invite serious auditory damage by inserting a potpourri of probes into the restricted passage, including toothpicks, Q-tips, car keys, and the like. But there is a purpose to earwax, as there is for all the secretions, tissues, and organs of the designed human body (Genesis 1:26-27).
This is also true when it comes to the auditory canal leading to the eardrum. As skin cells age, they cornify (convert to keratin) and are sloughed off. God designed the old, keratinized skin cells of the ear canal to peel off in a "c" shape --unlike the flattened skin cells on the rest of the body--so they will either literally roll out of the auditory canal (termed "epithelial migration") aided by the movement of the jaw, or will more easily become trapped in the cerumen.
Did the earwax produced by ceruminous cells and the complex antimicrobial molecules within the secretion, along with the unique manner in which old squamous cells slough off, come about through time, chance, and natural processes? Or was it by the purpose and plan of an all-wise Creator?3
References
Gesase, A.P. and Y. Satoh. Apocrine secretory mechanism: Recent findings and unresolved problems. Histology and Histopathology. 18 (2): 597-608.
Stone, M. and R.S. Fulghum. 1984. Bactericidal activity of wet cerumen. Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology. 93 (2): 183-186.
"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."
I have a child......I was able to say that at each birth, even though for the twins, there were only eight minutes to say it for one before the other appeared.... :)
I find, as each day goes by, that I am living more deeply within three generations, all at once: that of a child, a daughter of my own parents, that of a parent, always and forever, and that of a grandparent.
The grandparent part is still so new, and so unused, that I can barely "feel" it yet.
The parent and child parts are so intertwined, though.....I find myself more and more, thinking, at each moment I think of one or another of my children, of my mother's perspective, as she was my age, or older.....and sometimes even when she was younger.......putting things into perspective through all that, and unceasingly measuring it all by the fact that I have a perfect Parent Who makes no mistakes, and loves me unwaveringly through mine own..... :)
Ahhhh! All seven accounted for.....my children are all home safely from an early Christmas celebration a couple of hundred miles out on these windchill-induced black-ice roads..... :) How happy I am!
Last night, I left the radio on, on a classical music station, all night as I slept, an awe-fully rare thing for me to do. :) Over and over through the night, I would become almost-awake, and realize that it was another glorious brass-filled piece of music --I could not believe how many pieces of music had glorious, trumpeting trumpets, and it seemed, in my sleeping state, a cord of gold stretching to Heaven....such a glorious night! :)
