Mental Musings

“The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” Exodus 20:10 (NIV) There is some controversy about what the Sabbath means and what day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath. Most would agree that Sunday is the first day of the week and that the actual Sabbath day falls on Saturday. That is still the day of the week that Jews set aside as the Sabbath. The Pharisees and Sadducees were very adamant that there would be no work done on the Sabbath. What constitutes work? Religious leaders were very legalistic about this point, even setting specific weight limits on what a person could carry on the Sabbath. Too much jewelry could have constituted work. Temple priests served as guards at the gates to ensure that nobody would enter the city on the Sabbath carrying any items as that was seen as work. The disciple...

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 (NIV) Sheep dogs herding sheep God seems to like to shake things up. At times He seems to be very traditional in His ways by giving the Israelites all of these rules and regulations to follow and feasts and festivals to observe, but then He enters into the world in a very unusual manner that did not fit in with the understandings and expectations of His people and their traditions. The people of Israel were looking for a king to come sweeping in with force to free them from their oppression and rule victoriously in Jerusalem. Yet prophecies did make it clear that the Messiah would be born as a child (Isaiah 9:6); that He would be born among the smallest of the clans of Judah (Micah 5:2); that Jesus would be crucified for our transgressions, killed for our sins, and that through His blood we would be h...

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way." Isaiah 53:6a (KJV) Sheep seem to get a bad rap; they are called smelly, self-absorbed, and stupid. Smelly: anyone that has owned a wool coat can vouch for how easily wool collects dirt and odors. Sheep often have very thick coats of wool until they are sheared. Their wool continually grows thicker and sheep do not shed. If they are not sheared, sheep would become wool blind-the wool would grow so thick around their head that they would no longer be able to see. Wool blindness would lead to death since they could no longer see to find food or water. Shearing is necessary and it helps to cleanse them from a year's worth of filth. Sheep cannot simply walk into a pond to rinse off as this would make the wool too heavy for them to climb out of the pond and they would easily tire and drown. Self-Absorbed: like most animals, sheep are typically concerned with only a few things-and all ...

Facebook has problems. No social media is perfect. But I really like Facebook. It has become a vital source for connecting with others and for getting information about my friends and family. Those who have always lived in the same location or live around most of their family members may not understand this, but for 25 years I have not lived anywhere near my family and I have lived in 5 states and 2 countries during that time. Nothing beats face to face communication. Yes, there are other apps and tools for connecting with people who do not live near you and this is not a new problem. Just 100 years ago some people moved and never heard from or saw their family and friends again. But humans have an innate desire to communicate, even across distances. Ships used to carry messages from one port to another. The Pony Express carried mail across the United States. Benjamin Franklin helped to start the post office in 1775 before we were even a nation. In 1836 Samuel Morse invented a m...

2012 was a tough year. I am not generally one to look back on the negative things, but as I was thinking about this past year I realized that there were many difficult situations for us. There were many good things, but surrounding all of that was some very tough times for our family. I am sure that others can relate. Our year started off with bad financial news. We had just returned from a wonderful Christmas break visiting relatives. After unloading the car, I started to sift through our pile of accumulated mail only to find a letter from a law group in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The letter informed me that by order of the Harford County Courts my pay was going to be garnished $300 a week. After two years of paying the mortgage on two houses, we could no longer financial handle that. We had gone through all of our savings and even took some equity out of our Maryland home in order to keep paying until we could sell the home in Florida. The home appears to b...

Christmas Eve is here and Christmas morn will soon be upon us. There is no telling what special memories I will have from this year to one day share with others, but I already have many fond memories from year's past. I remember listening to all of the old Christmas carols on my dad's reel to reel tape player. We had hours and hours of Christmas music that he had taped from the Armed Forces Radio while onboard his ship during one Christmas. I still hear those songs each year thanks to our Time Life Christmas collections, but I do miss the occasional radio announcer comments to the men and women serving our country. There was the Christmas I discovered the truth about Christmas. It all happened in 1969 as my sister, brother, and I were playing hide-n-seek. I never understood why they were both so bad at that game. I could hide so well that they would never find me. Hours later I would come out of hiding to laugh at them for being such lousy seekers. On this part...

I write because I have difficulty saying what I am thinking. I guess that is a typical problem for anyone with ADHD. My brain is usually 4 or 5 steps ahead of what I am currently doing. But writing helps me to organize my thoughts. One style of writing that I do more for my own enjoyment is poetry. Some of these have been combined with music for hymns, but most are simple poetry that I have done to express my thoughts. I thought I would share a few of the Christmas poems that I have written over the years, beginning with one I wrote this year. Because of Who You Are Stephen R. Poole December 11, 2012 Days of travel on dusty trails, Bethlehem was still to far Yet they continued with the trip, Because of who You are Shepherds left their flocks, Wise men followed the star, Angels sang peace on earth, Because of who You are Wise men came from the East, Each one bringing a jar Gifts for kings lay at Your feet, Because of who You are Gold was used to buy a tomb,...