Thrills

"More waves, faster, go in circles!"
These cousins enjoyed some tubing thrills!

August 13-14

Check out Proverbs 21:17

"You're addicted to thrills?  What an empty life!  The pursuit of pleasure never satisfies."

While we are not to live for thrills, for they do not satisfy, temporary ones are out there.

The Olympics provide some thrilling moments.  

Can you imagine bottling up all the adrenaline poured out at the Olympic games! You'd have a potent potion worth a lot of money!

As a child, Christmas morning was probably the most thrilling day of  the year!  Back in my college days, I was working on my pilot's license and flying planes over the lake and our beautiful mountains was pretty thrilling. Certainly my first teaching job was a thrill! A nail bitingly close college football game has always gotten my heart rate up and excited me.  Watching my boyfriend, get off the plane in Orlando, Florida when he'd fly in from Roanoke for a weekend was truly thrilling. I lived for those weekends together. (Yes, I did marry him.)  Birthing six children, after eight months of anticipation  was total exhilaration. We never knew the sex either, so that added to the excitement.

In the world of academia being acknowledge, placed on the podium, seeing their findings and thoughts in print can be anticipated as the ultimate thrill.

What thrills our hearts changes as we age.

In an interview with Michael Phelps, it was enriching to hear him say that while all these gold medals were amazing, nothing could compare to his beautiful baby boy and fiancé.  Those were the things he cherished now.

For a Christian, experiencing another person coming to the knowledge of Christ as Savior is pretty off the charts exciting!

What thrills your heart?  

For me, I believe with all my heart that the greatest thrill remains.  The thrill of seeing Jesus face to face and realizing the life yet to come is more than we could ever imagine.

Take in 1 Corinthians 2:6-9

"We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it's not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out of date in a year or so.  God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes.  You don't find it lying around on the surface. It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest-what God determined as the way to burn out the best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven't a clue about what this eternal plan is.  If they had, they wouldn't have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. 
That's why we have this Scripture text:

No one's ever seen or heard anything like this.

Never so much as imagined anything quite like it-

What God has arranged for those who love him!

I will leave you today with this thought...

"Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.  You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom."  Psalm 1:2-3