RUMINATE? WHAT DO YOU SEE?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
RUMINATE: To think deeply and carefully about something. To go over repeal in your mind.
ISAIAH SAID: Come let us reason TOGETHER...
LET US RUMINATE: VISION STYLES? TOO MANY PEOPLE LIVE IN THE PAST?
MANY JUST LIVE FOR TODAY?
WE NEED A GOD BALANCE TO MEDIATE ON THE CONQUENCES OF TODAY'S CHOICES
ON TOMORROW'S LIFESTYLE. HINDSIGHT?
We often hear: A PICTURE CAN BE WORTH MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS?
We can paint pictures with our thought processes and our words...
A PENNY FOR YOUR THOIUGHTS? What LIFE LESSON is God trying to teach us?
Where does a mother focus? A mechanic? A roofer?
We had a friend that had a business of building fences. As we would drive down the road, he would
count the fence post, he had an estimate of how far apart the fence post were. Then he would begin
calculating the cost of the fence.
It was always fun traveling the road with him. I knew the approximate cost of every fence in
our neighbor. I would have never thought about what that fence cost? Because of his training
that was important to him.
We hear an age old question that many today attribute to President John Kennedy.
MANY SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE AND WONDER WHY?
I SEE THINGS AS THEY COULD BE AND WONDER WHY NOT?
LET US RUMINATE: LET US COME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF VISION --- WE MIGHT NEED
TO THINK ABOUT WHAT WE THINK ABOUT --- CONCEIVE...
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law,
happy is he.
*THIS VERSE IS SO OFTEN MIS-QUOATED.
*WITH OUT A VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH.
TV Preachers probably do not like what the Bible says: WE NEED VISION...
VISION MEANS THE ABILITY TO SEE, SIGHT, EYESIGHT, SOMETHING THAT YOU IMAGINE.
A PICTURE IN YOUR MIND, --- THE POWER OF IMAGINATION.
If the blind leads the blind --- where are we going?
We had a young friend named JACK. In a terrible accident, Jack lost his vision and was totally
blind. One day JACK TALKED his mom to let him drive their car. JACK crawled in behind the
steering wheel. Conclude as you will the rest of the story?
LET US RUMINATE: GOD HAD A VISION FOR SAMSON --- SAMSON'S MOM AND DAD SAW
THE GOD FACTOR POTENTIAL IN THEIR SON'S LIFE.
SAMSON HAD TUNNEL VISION AS A YOUNG MAN... PLEASURE WAS HIS GOAL...
THERE ARE TWO BATTLE FIELDS IN DAILY LIVING:
1. YOU BECOME THE SUM TOTAL OF YOUR DAILY CHOICES...
2. YOU ATTITUDE WILL DETERMINE YOUR ALTITUDE...
Judges 14:1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of
the Philistines.
LIFE IS ABOUT FOCUS...
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME?
WHAT IS THE MAIN THING? DO I FOCUS TO KLEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING?
LET US RUMINATE: THERE CAN COME A DAY WHEN A BLIND MAN CAN SEE MORE THAN 20/20!
Explain to me that in one hour of one day one's life can totally, completely change?
One day pleasure was important to Samson...
As the hot irons burned out Samson's eyes --- THE MAIN THING BECAME THE MAIN THING.
Judges 16:20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep,
and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was
departed from him. 21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to
Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
SAMSON WAKES UP IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP ---
IN JAIL... HE GOT MORE THAN JAIL HOUSE RELIGION...
He worked like an animal all day... Let us discuss what you think SAMSON THOUGHT ABOUT
ON THE HARD BED IN HIS JAIL CELL?
LET US RUMINATE: SAMSON'S LIMITED VISION LEAD HIM TO A STUPID PRAYER LIFE?
BECAUSE SAMSON FAILED --- HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY AND HIS NATION SAMSON'S VISION
WAS SO LIMITED...
Judges 16:28 And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray
thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of
the Philistines for my two eyes.
WHY DID SAMSON PRAY ONLY THIS ONCE...
God could have used SAMSON AND HIS TESTIMONY OF GRACE MANY MORE TIMES...
SAMSON'S HANDICAPP REALLY HANDICAPPED HIS VISION OF IMAGINATION OF GOD
POSSIBILIES. WE MUST SEE BEYOUND OUR FAILURES.Our failures can open doors to
CHANGE our attitudes and choices.
LET US RUMINATE: SIX YEARS: 2190 DAYS...
THERE FOUR WORDS THAT WILL TELL SO MUCH ABOUT A PERSON.
WHAT DO YOU SEE? MAYBE: DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?
There is a story that comes from DOCTOR HOWARD CARTER.
DOCTOR HOWARD CARTER was an ARCHAELOGIST from Great Britain that spent
much of his life in THE ROYAL VALLEY IN EGYPT.
Experts had studied Egyptian History and felt like HIDDEN IN THIS VALLEY they
would find great ANCIENT wealth and valuable historic relics from thousands of years
ago. Hundreds of expeditions had invested much money and many hours of digging
in this ROYAL VALLEY. Many lost great sums of money trying to dig in this area
and they left totally defeated and very discouraged.Very little had been discovered.
In 1915, DOCTOR HOWARD CARTER lead a trained group of archaeologist and students
into this ROYAL VALLEY where hundreds had failed and lost fortunes of money. Dr. Carter
lead his group through many days of discouragement and frustration as they dug and dug.
Many individuals quit and said this is so stupid and a waste of time and money. Many others
had dug and left empty and Dr. Carter would too.
One week of nothing? One month of nothing? 6 months and still nothing? But Dr. Carter
refused to quit. Soon the one year anniversary and more nothing? Then the second year
of failures? The third year of digging and still nothing?
There was an archaeologist aid that would be behind Dr. Carter, and he would often ask
the question: DR. CARTER, DO YOU SEE ANYTHING? Over and over the answer was: NO!
The year 1916, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1921 rolled around, 5 wasted years of nothing. Tons of sand
had been moved requiring great effort and expense. There was much more than sand, they hit
rock, smalls rocks and huge boulders. Remember this time frame was before all the modern
digging equipment.
The same aid would repeat: DO YOU SEE ANYTHING? Again and again Dr. Carter would
say no, until now he answered with silence. DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?
EVERY MORNING CARTER WOULD HOPE THIS IS THE DAY? EVERY EVENING HIS
DREAMS WOULD BE DASHED. ANOTHER DAY OF FAILURE? DOUBT? SELF DOUBT?
FINANICAL STRUGGLES? LISTENING TO ALL THE NEGATIVE REPORTS AND WORKERS?
HE IS WASTING HIS TIME!
DOCTOR CARTER PROBABLY LEARNED TO DREAD THE WORDS: DO YOU SEE ANYTHING.
1922 ROLLS AROUND, 6 YEARS INVESTED, 2190 DAYS? "DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?"
One day in 1922 Doctor Carter and his crew was digging again in the ROYAL VALLEY and this day
would be different. Dr. Carter ordered the work stopped, he jumped down in the ditch of sand
and his AID SAID: DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?
DR. CARTER JUST STOOD SILENTLY PEERING AT WHAT WAS BEFORE HIM?
More sand? More rocks? NO, TODAY BEFORE HIM AS HE HEARD THE QUESTION:
"DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?"
There was before him the GREATEST SIGNIFICANT ARCHAEOLOGIST FIND OF HISTORY!
HE REFUSED TO DENY HIS VISION. HE REFUSED TO QUIT WHERE OTHERS HAD QUIT?
HE REFUSED TO LISTEN TO THE NEGATIVE NAYSAYERS. HE REFUSED TO ACCEPT
THAT DREADED QUESTION: "DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?"
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING? AS DOCTOR HOWARD CARTER PEERED INTO THE DARKNESS
BEFORE HIS EYES --- HE COULD SEE ANIMALS CARVED OUT OF WOOD. HE SAW
STATUES OF PEOPLE. HE SAW GOLD CHESTS. HE GRABBED A LIGHT AND HE SAW
FANCY CHARIOTS. HE SAW A CARVED COBRA. HE SAW WEAPONS. PRICELESS
JEWELS. EVERYWHERE HE LOOKED HE SAW GOLD GLITTERING AND REFLECTING
THE LIGHT. OVER 3,000 RARE, BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS WOULD BE CATALOGED.
IT TOOK MORE THAN 10 YEARS TO REMOVE, RESTORE AND CATALOG THAT DAY'S
WORK.
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING? IN ONE DAY HE SAW ---
ONE DAY? SIX YEARS? TEN YEARS? DOCTOR HOWARD CARTER'S NAME WILL
ALWAYS BE IN HISTORY.
HISTORY RECORDS ONE UNKNOWN ARCHAEOLOGIST AID'S WORDS:
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?
LET US RUMINATE: SO TODAY I COME TO YOU WITH A GREAT QUESTION: DO YOU SEE
ANYTHING? DO YOU SEE WHAT IS?
CAN YOU FOCUS BEYOND THE FAULTS AND FAILURES OF TODAY TO FOCUS ON:
WHAT COULD BE IF WE FOCUSED BEYOND THE PROBLEMS AND TRIALS OF TODAY?
SOME DAY YOU WILL REST BENEATH THE SOD... YOUR BLANKET WILL BE BEAUTIFUL
GREEN GRASS. AT YOUR HEAD WILL BE CARVED IN STONE, YOUR NAME, YOUR
DATE OF BIRTH AND YOUR DATE OF DEATH... ALL THAT WILL MATTER THEN WILL
BE HOW YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION: "DO YOU SEE ANYTHING?"
IT WILL BE THE DASH, HOW YOUR VISION WAS BETWEEN THOSE TWO DATES.
RUMINATE?
HOW DO I SEE MY LIFE TODAY? WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF 10 YEARS FROM TODAY?
WHAT PICTURE ARE YOU PAINTING?
FELIX HAD A MEETING WITH THE OLD PREACHER PAUL --- THEY RUMINATED ABOUT MANY
IMPORTANT ISSUES...
Felix means happy.
He was a procurator in Judea...
He was looking for a BRIBE from the Preacher.
willing to do the Jews a favor HE LEFT PAUL IN JAIL AND IN BONDS...
Acts 24:25 And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled,
and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
CONCLUSION: LET US RUMINATE OUR VISION OF LIFE? What is really important to me? What do
I value? What is my vision, what do I see? Do (I live for temporal or eternal values?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
