The Agony of Age

Age comes to us all and with it comes a raft of anomalies, dichotomies and shouldn’t be’s. Simply put age is poorly planned. And nowhere is that more sharply clear than at the supermarket.
For example, why is that the elderly and the relatively infirm with decreasing mobility insist on parking their shopping trollies in the centre of the aisle, thus requiring them to travel further to fetch something on the shelf? 
Why to do those with limited dexterity having the waiting queue behind them while the fumble through in their wallets or purses for coinsto par the exact amount of cash for their groceries? 
Why too do those with (probably) the least amount of time left insist on wasting part of it in idle chatter with the checkout operator?
That is what I mean by dichotomies and shouldn’t be’s.
Now, I am no longer young, though I am bound to say I am probably younger than my father was at my age, and I am on the cusp of entering old age. However, I am still sufficiently observant to note that there is a supermarket etiquette that all but the elderly adhere too. In the elderly’s favour, however, is that many of them passing into the dying of the light retain a sense of the niceties and they know how to charm—like the elderly lady in the supermarket today who asked me to fetch something for her off a bottom shelf. I did so. She had the grace to thank me—profusely—before adding quietly: “such a nice young man.”
Age is, after all, relative.

As Cecil C. Sackrider Sees It: Comfort

God has bestowed great comforts upon me. There is my wife Sister Billy-Jo Sackrider of course. The there is my flock, who continue to be bountiful with their prayers and gifts. And then are my partners in God—Pastor Jimmy Swaggart and his anointed sons and my old friend in Christ Pastor Kenneth Copeland.
Of these comforts I am eternally grateful. Of these comforts, I am most grateful for Sister Billy-Jo for not a night goes by that I do not lay my healing hands upon her and feel the body of Christ within her.
Yet, dear friends, I feel that God has another role for me this life. That He has other plans for me and my ministry. That the Word is not yet received by all whom God does love and the power that he has invested in me to take His word to those people has found not the succour that God would have for all of us.  Friends, last month for the third month in a row, our Ministry’s Lamb of God fleecing programme has not met its target. God has forgiven me—he told me so—and his mercy is infinite, but He says that it cannot go on forever and the work of the Word will in time not be available to those who do not commit fully to his love.
I urge you brothers and sister to take heed. The displeasure of God is truly terrifying. Yet his mercy and love is bountiful. And there is a message in there for those of you who say to me “Brother Sackrider, I am too poor to answer to the Word of God with my prayers and gifts.” The message to you is what use are food and clothes and education if you do not feast on the food of God’s love? Better to stand naked in the face of God than not to stand at all. That is what I say to Sister Billy-Jo each night.
So give. Give not what you can afford. Give not what you can. Give what you have, as the Lord has given to you.
•    For a list of God’s Gifts, as delivered personally by God to Cecil C. Sackrider (handwriting verified), send a check or money order (minimum US$ 99.99) to the Cecil C. Sackrider Ministry 1069E West 35 Street Montgomery Alabama United States of America, Zip Code 666.  Checks should be made out to CASH (Congregation Against Satan’s Handiwork). All donations over US$50,000 go into the draw to win a three-day family pass to the Cecil C. Sackrider Theme Park. Offer available only to American Christians.