Read and Heed

      I am always amazed at the organized chaos of our highways and by-ways. I am also always amazed at the poor driving habits of some people. The octagonal, red signs at intersections that blatantly state “STOP” are being treated like a yellow triangle of the “YIELD” brand, as drivers are sort of sliding through cross-streets narrowly missing one another. I’ve got news for the locals; our police are out in force bridling some of these stop sign stallions and from what I’m hearing it’s costing some up to a couple of hundred dollars. As long as I’m on a mini rant, turn signals are not used to assist in turning your vehicle, they are used to let other drivers learn of your intended move, so try using them before you change lanes or make a turn. And by the way, right on red is not a license to run the red light. You must stop, yield right of way, then turn. Thanks.


      “Here’s Your Sign” Three elderly ladies had gone shopping in the big city several miles from home. On the return trip, one of the ladies was driving and the other two were riding in the back seat. The driver was creating a traffic problem with her slow driving. A State Trooper worked his way through the snarled vehicles and when he got behind the elderly driver he turned on his blue lights prompting the driver to pull over. “Now officer, I know I was not speeding. I promised my children that if they would let me keep driving I would always drive the speed limit. So I don’t drive one mile over or one mile under the speed limit, an I know I was driving exactly what the sign said, and it said twenty miles per hour.” The trooper looked at her in disbelief and said, “Lady, that’s not the posted speed limit sign. That’s the highway number! This is highway 20!” The trooper looked in the back seat at two very nervous ladies. One of the ladies was drumming her fingers on her purse in her lap. The other was repeatedly pulling a handkerchief through her hand. The trooper smiled and said, “It’s all right ladies. I don’t plan on issuing her a citation. She was just confused about the sign. She thought she was supposed to drive what the highway sign said.” One of the nervous ladies quickly exclaimed, “Officer, you don’t understand. We just came off highway 102.

      [1 Timothy 4: 6-16] The order, in the king’s name, was published on September 1, 1538. It said that throughout Great Britain one book of the whole Bible, of the largest volume in English, should be set up in some convenient place within the church. It was to be chained to a desk in every church, in order that the literate parishioners might read, and the illiterate ones hear “wholesome doctrine and comfort to their souls.” The order stated that you should not discourage anyone from the reading of the Bible, “…but shall expressly provoke, stir and exhort every person to read the same, as that which is the very lively Word of God, that every Christian person is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if he look to be saved; admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all contention therein, but to use an honest sobriety in their inquisition of the true sense of the same, and refer the explication of obscure places to men of higher judgment in scripture.” The order had to be clarified latter on that the reading not be done during the divine service because, “…there were many people who found it much more interesting, and possibly more edifying as well, to listen to the Bible being read by one of the literate fellow-parishioners than to listen to what the parson was saying.” (The English Bible, F.F.Bruce) We are so blessed to possess a personal Bible to read; so read it.