Transcript

Episode transcript here.

I like what Solomon said in verse two of chapter seven: Be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes.

I had a very scary experience with my eyesight a few years ago. The lovely lady LeeAnn and I had a rare day off, and I decided to take her on a drive down the coast. Most of you know that we live in southern California, and Pacific Coast Highway is only about an hour’s drive from our home. She loves the beach, and we like to get out of town whenever possible and have lunch or dinner by the water and listen to the seagulls and watch the waves. 

Well, on this particular day we were taking a nice leisurely stroll on the pier in Oceanside, enjoying the warmth of the sun with a gentle breeze on our faces, watching the pelicans dive for fish, when all of a sudden my vision was filled with what seemed like a million tiny red spots in my left eye. They seemed to sort of cascade down from the top of my field of vision and then just sort of drift around in my eye. It scared me. I didn’t know if I was going blind, having a stroke, or what was happening. 

I won’t go into all the details, but as soon as I was able, I went to Urgent Care where, as soon as the doctor on call heard my symptoms, he sent me directly to an ophthalmologist who told me that part of my retina had become detached. He decided that the best thing would be to do laser surgery right away to sort of spot weld the retina to keep further damage from happening. I’m thankful that we caught it when we did. Today I’m left with no vision at all in about 40 percent of the bottom part of the left eye. I still have all of my central vision, but the bottom part of my peripheral vision is gone. 

You’d better believe that I do all I can to protect my eyes now. 

So Solomon’s words really hit home with me. I’ve read this verse many times before, but this is the first time this verse ever really hit close to home. 

Be as careful to follow the teaching found in God’s Word as you are to protect your eyes.

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. GNT

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Steve Webb 0:00
Man, I gotta tell you it scared me to death

Steve Webb 0:09
Hi there. This is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG God casters Steve Webb. This is Thursday. So we’re going to read from one of the books of poetry today we’ll read Proverbs seven. And of course, after the reading, I’ll have some comments I’m calling today’s episode. It’ll put your eye out. The show notes page for today’s episode is Lifespring media.com/s 12 V. 176. Let’s begin.

Steve Webb 0:40
Proverbs chapter seven.

Steve Webb 0:42
My child, remember what I say and never forget what I tell you to do. Do what I say and you will live. be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes. Keep my teaching with you all the time, right it on your heart, treat wisdom as your sister and insight as your closest friend. They will keep you away from other men’s wives from women with seductive words. Once I was looking out the window of my house, and I saw many inexperienced young men, but noticed one foolish fellow in particular, he was walking along the street near the corner where a certain woman lived. He was passing near her house in the evening after it was dark. And then she met him. She was dressed like a prostitute and was making plans. She was a bold and shameless woman who always walked the streets or stood waiting at a corner sometimes in the streets, sometimes in the marketplace. She threw her arms around, the young man kissed him, looked him straight in the eye and said, I made my offerings today and have the need from the sacrifices. So I came out looking for you. I wanted to find you and here you are. I’ve covered my bed with sheets of colored linen from Egypt. I’ve perfumed it with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come on, let’s make love all night long. We’ll be happy in each other’s arms. My husband is in at home. He’s on a long trip. He took plenty of money with him and won’t be back for two weeks. So she tempted him with her charms, and he gave in to her smooth talk. Suddenly, he was going with her like an ox on the way to be slaughtered like a deer prancing into a trap where an arrow would pierce its heart. He was like a bird going into a net. He did not know that his life was in danger. Now then sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Do not let such a woman when your heart don’t go wandering after her. She has been the ruin of many men and caused the death of too many to count. If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead. It is a shortcut to death.

Steve Webb 2:44
I like what Solomon said in verse two of chapter seven. He said, be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes. I had a really scary experience with my eyesight a few years ago, a lovely lady Leanna and I had a rare day off and I decided to take her on a drive down the coast. Well as you know, I live here in Southern California and Pacific Coast Highway is only about an hour’s drive from our house. She loves the beach and we like to get out of town whenever possible and have lunch or dinner by the water and listen to the seagulls and watch the waves. Well on this particular day, we were taking a nice leisurely stroll on the pier in Oceanside enjoying the warmth of the sun with a gentle breeze on our faces. Watching the pelicans dive for fish, when all of a sudden my vision was filled with what seemed like a million tiny little red dots in my left eye. They seem to sort of cascade down from the top of my field of vision and then just sort of drift around in my eye. Man, I gotta tell you, it scared me to death. I didn’t know if I was going blind having a stroke or what was happening? Well, I won’t go into all the details. But as soon as I was able, I went to the urgent care where as soon as the doctor on call heard my symptoms, he sent me directly to an ophthalmologist who told me that part of my retina had become detached. And so he decided that the best thing to do would be to do laser surgery right away to sort of spot weld the retina to keep further damage from happening. I’m so thankful that I went in when I did and he saw what was going on and did something about it. Today I’m left with no vision at all in about 40% of the bottom part of the left eye. I still have all my central vision and I’m thankful for that. But the bottom part of my peripheral vision is absolutely just gone. So you’d better believe that I do all that I can to protect my eyes now. So when I read these words from Solomon, it really hit home with me. I read this verse many times before but after this experience with my vision, it really hit close to home. be as careful to follow the teaching found in God’s Word as you are to protect your eyes. I’d love to hear your thoughts as anything like this ever happened to you? Let me know. Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 176. or shoot me an email at Steve at Lifespring media.com. Our reading tomorrow will be Ezekiel chapters 13 through 18.

Steve Webb 5:21
It is time for le boost! Somebody sent me three 500 sat boosts from the podfriend app yesterday morning. Turns out Podfriend does not tell me who the sender is. So if it was you and you care to let me know who you are, and thank you for the boosts. Also, somebody sent me a here’s where I found you email yesterday. And when I went to look for it, to put it in the notes here, I can’t find it. I really hate when that happens. But the email only said, Thank you for your courage. I remember that I just don’t remember the name. But we do know that with that message it was another no agenda producer. So thank you for sending that email. And it’d be awesome if you’d send it again. So I know your name. I got to get a better email client. And speaking of that, does anybody out there have experience with nextcloud? I just ran across it last week. And it looks like a pretty cool platform. Send me an email if you have any experience with it either good or bad. I’m thinking of hosting my own instance of it here to replace Dropbox, Google Drive, my sorry, email client, and some other things. So let me know.

Steve Webb 6:32
On this date in church history, February 24 1902, Gladys Aylward was born. She was an English missionary. And there was an award winning 1958 film called in of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman that was based on her life and her work among the Chinese. I’ve never seen that film, but I’m gonna have to find it.

Steve Webb 7:02
Prayer requests. I’m recording this on Wednesday afternoon, and after about a three hour surgery, just a little while ago, I got this text from Del. He said, Kathi is out of surgery. And in recovery, she lost a lot of blood. So they put in a drain, and the doctor thinks that’ll solve the problem, but time will tell. He said, I can see her in about an hour, most likely she’ll spend the night and then go home tomorrow, which is today for you. So let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, you are holy, and you’re worthy of our praise. So we offer that to you right now. We do praise you and we worship you. Hallelujah. We thank you for another day to serve you, Lord, help us to make the best of it. And thank you for bringing Kathy through her surgery. We pray that her recovery goes quickly that she has a minimum of discomfort, and that the pain that she’s been having in her arm for so long is a thing of the past now and help Dell as he tends to her at home. And once again, I thank you for each person in the Lifespring family. Bless them today. Lord, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Steve Webb 8:12
Have you shared the show with anybody lately? Please do and comment on the show at Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 176. My email address is Steve at Lifespring media.com. As always, the bills keep coming in. So if you receive any value from this show, please convert that value to a number and send some of it my way at Lifespring media.com/support. And until tomorrow may God bless you richly. Thank you for being here. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. My name is Steve Webb. Bye bye

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