Shelby Shopper Shelby NC
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Page 10 - shelby shopper & info - 704/484-1047 www.shelbyinfo.com Thursday, September 7-September 13, 2023 Imagine being invited to one of your best friend's homes to hang out and fel- lowship with them. You are thrilled because you love them so much. This is a special invitation because you live out of the country and you will have to make sacrifices to be with them. It will cost a lot of money to come, but you don't mind the sacrifices and cost - the most important thing is that you get to be with your friend. Finally, the day arrives! Your friend picks you up at the airport and brings you to their home. You talk for hours, as there's so much to catch up on. Then, all of a sud- den, your friend starts ignoring you. They get busy with their family, work, and personal needs and they barely even speak. They tell you to make yourself at home, but they are too busy to spend time with you. Although you made a sacrifice to be with them, and they are aware of all the trouble you went through to be there, they still didn't make spending time with you a top priority. If that happened to me, I would be hurt and probably angry. I believe we do Christ the same way. Deuteronomy 32:18 (ESV) "You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth." Be Aware Unfortunately, it is easy to focus on everything in this life but our relationship with God. It's not that we mean to do that, but there are so many things fighting for our attention. It truly has to be a planned and determined de- cision to make Christ not only a priority but the center of everything we do. Colossians 3:1-3 (ESV) says, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." I have learned over the years to not only set a time to spend with the Lord but to fellowship with him throughout the day. I am constantly talking to him and including him in my day as I would a friend that I was walking with. Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. I am mindful of him by playing praise & worship music in my home & car, praying softly throughout the day, and even sharing my testimony with others. PRAY THIS PRAYER: "Father, I praise you for your omnipresence. You are a God that is near and not far away. I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your pres- ence! Please forgive me for ignoring you. I repent for being distracted by this life instead of focusing on you. Lord, I desire to love you with all my heart, soul, and strength. I ask that you speak to my heart and help me to remember to be aware of your presence because you are always with me. In Jesus' name, I pray - Amen." Danyale Patterson would love to hear from you! Contact her at www.danyale.com to share a testimony, send a prayer request, or book her to speak. Distractions DANYALE PATTERSON . Please Call Neil or Brenda at Morris Scrap Metal for All Your Building, Recycling and Waste Removal Services. PH: 704-739-3869 • FAX 704-739-7742 Member Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. Steel • Car Bodies • Cast Iron • Stainless Steel • Aluminum Cans • Copper • Brass • All kinds of Aluminum • Heavy Surplus Machinery CONTAINER SERVICE FOR INDUSTRIAL AND LARGE VOLUME CLEAN UPS We Sell New and Salvage Steel, Aluminum and Stainless – We Sell Brick Lentils, I-Beams, Metal Decking, Rebar and All Types of Construction Steel WE CUT & FAB TO CUSTOMERS SPECS. WE CUT & FAB TO CUSTOMERS SPECS. © Community First Media Community First Media Morris Scrap Metal Co. Inc. Serving The Carolinas Since 1931 "If it's Metal "If it's Metal...We Buy It We Buy It...Top Price!" Top Price!" CROSSWORD PUZZLE CLUES ACROSS 1. Second sight 4. Standard electrode potential 7. Type of gibbon 8. John Joseph __: Ameri- can industrialist 10. Manning and Whitney are two 12. Abrupt 13. Baroque musical instru- ment 14. Post-burning residue 16. When you hope to arrive 17. Sign up (Brit. Eng.) 19. Sun up in New York 20. Employee stock owner- ship plan 21. Where people live 25. Method to record an electrogram 26. Angry 27. No longer living 29. Simple 30. Swiss river 31. Portion of a play 32. It's under the tree 39. Wood sorrels 41. No (Scottish) 42. Dialect of English 43. Former Steelers' QB 44. Popular beer 45. It can make you sick 46. Tropical tree and fruit 48. Company ofw cer 49. Contact lens term 50. Your consciousness of your own identity 51. "Ghetto Superstar" singer 52. Piece of turf CLUES DOWN 1. Number of players on each side in a football game 2. Containing salt 3. Reasoning or knowl- edge: a __ 4. Car mechanics group 5. Leave a place 6. Southern Colombian capital 8. Old English letter 9. Tide 11. Walk heavily 14. Chemical compound (abbr.) 15. Artiw cial openings 18. Luteinizing hormone 19. Unit of energy 20. Circular movement of water 22. A way of holding 23. Popular book of words (abbr.) 24. States' group 27. Dashes 28. Body part 29. Electronic countermea- sures 31. Consumed 32. Small bird 33. Unhappy 34. Football's big game (abbr.) 35. Valued object offered in good faith 36. Wild goats 37. Precede in place 38. Small edible w sh 39. Notice of death 40. Body cavity of a meta- zoan 44. Partner to cheese 47. Not around He Knows, And Yet… Before allowing her children to leave the house on a weekend night, my mother-in-law would often remind them that they would be taking Jesus along for the ride. It was as if the Son of God had called shotgun and was already waiting for them in the pas- senger side seat. It was a deterrent, of course, hoping to elicit modest behav- ior on their part and thereby not sully the family name. It was her way of im- parting a dose of theology as well; God sees and knows everything. The thought of an omniscient God is probably not the worst thing to indoctrinate a teenager with — my parents might have been wise to employ that in their arsenal. That same thinking is well served in a society also. Where might any of us be if there were no guardrails, visible or not, in place? In the Gospel of John the Samaritan woman meets Jesus at the well. When she woke up that morning, the Samaritan woman didn't expect that her life would be exposed to the Almighty. She likely thought, like all of us at times, that her secrets could remain just that. She soon realized, however, that she was in the presence of God when Jesus began to present the scenes of her past before her eyes. Here's the strange thing: when the display was over, she no longer felt shame or condemnation. She was relieved and joyful. Everything was fi nally out in the open. Jesus didn't make her dwell on her past mistakes; he offered her forgiveness in the present. The Bible is fi lled with stories of those who have tried to elude God's presence. Adam and Eve tried to hide in the Garden of Eden after succumbing to the serpents' crafti- ness. Jonah attempted to escape God's call by boarding a ship. Moses and Peter, to some extent, sought to become invisible as well. Who can blame them? You and I have shared the same delusion. After all, who wants to be sub- jected to a highlight reel of one's lowest moments in life? What those biblical heroes eventually discovered and what the rest of us need to realize is that we can't change our past or hide from it. We can't send our lives back into the editing room to be glossed over and we don't need to. Grace and forgiveness are readily available to all of us. Jesus already did his part. His very last words were "It is fi nished" (John 19:30). Accepting what he offers is the only role required of us now. Should we have a healthy fear/respect for an all-seeing, all-knowing God? I say yes because I see a God who wants to protect and care for us. The God who sat beside the Sa- maritan woman at the well without judgement. In Jesus we fi nd a God who does not condemn us or shame us; he em- braces us. In Jesus we fi nd a God who is not only over us and above us but also with us and beside us. He sees us, every bit of us, and loves us anyway. Submitted by Richard Prow "He told me everything I ever did" John 4:39 Richard Prow