- Do you ever have one of those days where nothing goes right from the time you get up until you go to bed at night?
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good,
Very Bad Day — by Judith Viorst
I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray ar kit in his cereal box and Nick found a Junior undercover Agent code ring in his cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal. I think I’ll move to Australia.
In the car pool Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window. Audrey and Elliott got seats by the window too. I said I was being scrunched. I said I was being smushed. I said, if I don’t get a seat by the window I am going to be carsick. No one even answered. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
As school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul’s picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle. At singing time she said I sang too loud. At counting time she said I left out sixteen. Who needs sixteen? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
I could tell because Paul said I wasn’t his best friend anymore. He said that Philip Parker was his best friend and that Albert Moyo was his next best friend and that I was only his third best friend. I hope you sit on a tack, I said to Paul. I hope the next time you get a double-decker strawberry ice-cream cone the ice cream part falls off the cone part and lands in Australia.
There were two cupcakes in Philip Parker’s lunch bag and Albert got a Hershey bar with almonds and Paul’s mother gave him a piece of jelly roll that had little coconut sprinkles on the top. Guess whose mother forgot to put in dessert? It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
That’s what it was, because after school my mom took us all to the dentist and Dr. Fields found a cavity just in me. Come back next week and I’ll fix it, said Dr. Fields. Next week, I said, I’m going to Australia.
On the way downstairs the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to go get the car
Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud Nick said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Nick for saying crybaby my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy and fighting. I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I told everybody. No one even answered.
So then we went to the shoestore to buy some sneakers. Anthony chose white ones with blue stripes. Nick chose red ones with white stripes. I chose blue ones with red stripes but then the shoe man said, We’re all sold out. They made me buy plain old white ones, but they can’t make me wear them.
When we picked up my dad at his office he said I couldn’t play with his copying machine, but I forgot. He also said to watch out for the books on his desk, and I was careful as could be except for my elbow. He also said don’t fool around with his phone, but I think I called Australia. My dad said please don’t pick him up anymore. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
There were lima beans for dinner and I hate limas. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing. My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain, and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas. When I went to bed Nick took back the pillow he said I could keep and the Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my tongue. The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me. It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
- My mom says some days are like that..
---— Even in Australia.
- Paul cried out, Rom 7:24 “O wretched man that I
am! Who shall deliver me”?
- Now triumphs “O happy man!’
- Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of God?”
- Can anything separate us from Christ’s love?
- Can anyone drive a edge between us & Christ’s
love?
- Can any one put a distance between Christ’s love
and us
- Can any one lead Christ to cease loving us?
- Such things can happen between husband and wife
- Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have
these seven
- Really what are they?
❶ The Dangers
- Stuff I can’t control
1. Tribulation - Trouble Mt 24:21, 29 Rev. 7:14
Affliction (squeeze, pressure)
2. Distress - Problems
Hardship – Calamity – Anguish
- Etymology " from dis- "apart" + stringere "draw
tight
- "draw apart, hinder,"
- Idea to twist, pull and rip apart
3. Persecution - suffering — Hatred
- Etymology - "to oppress for the holding of a belief
or opinion,"
- To run or drive away
4. Famine - Hunger
- "Unease or pain caused by lack of food, craving
appetite, debility from lack of food,"
5. Nakedness - Poverty
Penniless – Destitute – Homeless
Without protection
6. Peril - Danger
Hunted down – Threats – Bullying
7. Sword - Death
Destroyed – Backstabbing
❷ The Digression
- Side track
- Four areas of attack
- Starting with feelings – the heart
- Ending with thinking – the mind
1. Emotional
* Tribulation – Inward
- Like Depression
* Distress – Outward
- Insecurities
2. Relational
* Persecution
- Relationships dissolving
3. Physical
* Famine
- Immediate needs
* Nakedness
- Long-term needs
4. Psychological
* Peril - Impending Disaster
* Sword - Final end
❸ The Declaration (Paul’s Experience)
- Who shall separate us?
- 1 Corinthians 4:11-13 KJV
11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; 12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: 13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.
2 Corinthians 11:23-29 KJV
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
- The Message 23–27 I’ve ….., been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. 28–29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.
2 Cor 12:7-10 - ... there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, ... 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
❹ The Deliverance - Is LOVE
- Being Loved – v. 35, 37, 39
- The Love of Christ
- His Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience
- 1 John 3:1-3 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
- Source – v. 1 Father
- Relationship – v.1 Child of God
- Expectation – v.2 We know (Readiness)
- Prospect – v.2 Be like Him
-Evidence – v.3 – Obedience
- Promise of His Love
- Jeremiah 31:3KJV
3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
- No matter what evil thing happens to the believer, God will salvage it and turn it toward good
- Time now to let go & let God
