September 1 – Bus trip to Tak

        Psalm 29:3 – "Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due his name; worship him in the splendor of his holiness."

        Psalm 68:34 – "Ascribe power to God. His majesty is over Israel, his power among the clouds."

        I have a friend who wrote a small book titled "Did God Really Do That?" It contained short stories of events in his life, in which things happened so unexpectedly favorable, that there was no denying that God was working within the situation. In modern-day conversation and writing, the word "ascribe" is one that is used very little, if at all. It is a verb that means "to give credit to". My friend gave credit to God for the details of his stories.

        This story is from November, 2008. It was my third trip, traveling alone to Thailand to volunteer at a Christian school for Karen refugee kids. I had made hotel reservations for one night after arriving in Bangkok. I decided this trip to not stay downtown, but instead to stay on the outskirts. After a good night's rest, I caught a ride to the nearest bus station, anticipating an early ride to my destination, Mae Sot, eight hours away. When I got to the bus station, I was told that this particular line did not travel to Mae Sot. I had to take the line leaving from downtown!

        So I hopped the bus for downtown and caught the second bus heading for Tak, which was the next-to-last stop before Mae Sot. After a day on the bus, I finally arrived in Tak at sunset. I inquired of the bus to Mae Sot; I was informed that the last bus had already left for Mae Sot. With my heavy luggage, I thought I was going to have to spend the night in the bus station, which was basically a large outdoor area – with a hundred other people, just milling around or waiting on their rides home. I started to mentally prepare myself for that fate, as I did not know of any accommodations in Tak.

        Instead, a Thai woman immediately approached me, speaking very good English. Apparently, she knew that I seemed to be in dire straits. She offered to give me a ride to Mae Sot, for a certain amount of money. That amount was higher than normal, but not too outrageous. I took her offer; she produced a van driver, who drove me over the mountains in the dark, and dropped me off at the local hotel. I then called my contact, who came and picked me up.

        My unexpected and sudden stroke of luck was no such thing. It was God, who knew of my bus line mistake, and who provided a ride for me that evening, when I thought I was stuck. Thank you God, for watching over me.  Yes, God really did that!

January 4 – Read Something Every Day

        Deuteronomy 17:18, 19 - " When [the king] takes his throne, he is to write for himself, on a scroll, a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. The copy is to be with the king, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere Yahweh his God, and to carefully follow all the words of this law and these decrees....."

        The above verses were written for future kings of Israel, and during the time when Moses was still the leader of the nation.  It was a command so that the future king would not get arrogant, think himself more highly than his people, and thus pervert justice in the kingdom. We Christians can certainly take heed from these words. A daily dose of God's word, with a willing heart to submit to God's will for the day, will teach us to follow God's ways and to love Him.

        I realize that sometimes one does not feel like reading every day, or that time restraints may prevent us from taking time in God's word, especially time to really meditate on the words and pray about them. One thing I try to do in the midst of these constraints, is to at least read a Psalm every day. One should definitely read and meditate upon texts from the New Testament, as that contains a fuller revealing of God and his ways. As has been stated by someone, "the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed".

        There are 150 psalms in the English Bible (a couple are actually combined in the Hebrew texts). There are an average of 30 days in each month, the number of which divides evenly into 150. Therefore, no matter what day of the month it is, I know which Psalm to read. If it is March 23, I know to easily turn to Psalm 23, Psalm 53, 83, 113, or 143. If it is January 31, I know that I can read some of Psalm 119, which has 176 verses, and which is also 80 times larger than Psalm 117. Proverbs can also fit into this pattern, since it has 31 chapters. Certainly Matthew, Luke, John, and Acts fit into this pattern also, as these NT books are divided into slightly less than 30 chapters.

        So forgive yourself for those days that you miss reading God's word. Then dive back in the next day, and let God speak to you from his word.