I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND

Sometimes you just have to vent.  If you don't want to read it, move on.

As I sit watching the news after Hurricane Ian hit Florida's Gulf Coast yesterday, I...again...ask my husband why in the world people want to "ride it out."  I completely understand if there are certain circumstances, like if you're caring for a person who can't be moved, maybe a person is alone in the world with no money or car or any other means of escape, and certain other situations.  I'm not addressing them in this blog post.  I'm talking about people who are capable of leaving.

I'm watching the news as they talk about a pregnant woman who is missing, an older man who fell in his home and couldn't get up and the water came in and, well, you know what happened to him.  People have to be rescued from cars that went into rivers.  I just don't understand why you want to "ride it out."  A relative rode out Hurricane Hugo in Charleston and said she would never do that again.  There isn't a thing in this world you can do to save your house, your vehicle, or your possessions when something like this hits.  If you're looking for a thrill, let's sit down and talk about other avenues.

Here's something that really upsets me, as if nothing else about this does.  First responders stay in place and they help rescue these people.  I'll tell you one thing.  I'd be an angry lady if I had a first responder in my family that you put in danger because you wanted to "ride it out."  They have enough to do without you...who could have driven out of there...complicating things and possibly costing that first responder's life.

In 2018, Hurricane Michael was forecast to move inland and affect the area where I live.  Easy decision...gather up stuff, put it in the car, get in and drive north.  So hubby and I did just that.  Easy peasy.  It didn't do much here.  Great.  No harm, no foul.  We came home the next day and in a few days enjoyed our new granddaughter who was born the day before Michael hit.  (Because of the low barometric pressure, it was suggested!)  She was born far enough away that we didn't have to worry about them.  And bless the hospital's heart, they wouldn't let them bring her home until it was confirmed that the electricity was back on in their house.  I was glad for that.

I just don't get it.  So folks who rode it out during Hurricane Ian, did you learn ANYTHING?  Anything at all?  Will you not just load up the car and drive away next time?  Take it from me, unless there are extenuating circumstances, it's one of the easiest things in the world to do.  If you lose your house, well, yeah, that's a bad thing, but it's not the worst thing that could have happened, now is it?

There are already 21 dead.  I hope they find those 10,000 people that are missing.  I'm praying.  I know the likelihood is that both of those numbers will rise, but I'm still praying.

SHOULD I GIVE UP?

I am tired.  At 64, the physical tiredness is often there, but the tiredness I speak of today is mental, emotional, and spiritual.

I had just about decided, and had even told my husband, that a certain ongoing project I found myself beginning several years ago just doesn't seem worth the fight anymore.  It doesn't seem that I make any difference.  I feel swallowed up except for an ultrathin shaft of light at the end of the tunnel.  It seems all but closed up sometimes.

Then a sweet lady approached me this weekend and said something to me that gave me hope and makes me think that I've made some sort of impact on that one person.  Could there be more?

This morning's Bible reading schedule encouraged me more.  I checked it and today's New Testament reading is 2 Timothy 3.  Here is the entire chapter, but verse 14 is the one that really spoke to me.

2 Timothy 3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ^[a]haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of ^[b]godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who ^[c]enter into households and captivate ^[d]weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the ^[e]knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as ^[f]Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

¹⁰ Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, ^[g]perseverance, ¹¹ persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is ^[h]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for ^[i]training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I see the evidence of verses 1-5 all around me.  I'm even able to secretly pin names on most of the negative attributes listed there.  Maybe I'm not supposed to do that, but I do, not revealing them to others but knowing that these things are true for many people right now.  And I believe these ARE the last days.

I don't know if I'll continue on this project or not.  Maybe writing this blog indicates that I will...or that I never gave it up...or that these recent encouragements have made me pick it back up.  I don't know, but I'll keep praying and asking God to show me what to do.  The road is long and hard and the persecution goes completely against my sanguine temperament, but as Paul said, I look forward, fighting for the prize.

TEACHERS...LOVE 'EM OR LEAVE 'EM

God sometimes has the funniest ways of helping us to get past things in our lives that have weighed us down.  Things that have been weighing us down a LONG TIME.

In my case, this has to do with teachers.  There were several things that happened to me in my school days that caused me...not at the time but as a young adult looking back on my life...to have, let's say, not such a high regard for teachers.  (The ones I respected the most actually seem to be the ones I had in the nine-month course I took at DeKalb Tech, now Perimeter College in the metro Atlanta area.  Maybe that will be a later blog post.)

When I was a child and teenager, respect for your elders was huge.  To the point where I always believed adults were right and if there was trouble, I certainly must be to blame.  Case in point:  When I was eleven years old and in the sixth grade, some of my close friends were, shall we say, blossoming.  I, however, could still pass for a fourth grader and was highly self-conscious of this.  I wanted desperately to look like some of these other girls, but it just wasn't that way.  Therefore, I knew the boys were looking at these girls and not at me.  If anything were to happen to betray to said boys the fact that nothing was happening in the way of physical maturity in my person, I would have just collapsed on the spot.  I would have been mortified, so I tried to stay covered up.  My mother made sure I was dressed appropriately when I left the house anyway, so there's that.

You know how when you were a child and you would really get into a project such as doing your school work or coloring a picture or whatever and you would forget where you were because all you could think about was what you were doing?  Well, that happened to me in the sixth grade and I was all bent over my desk, apparently causing a, shall we say, wardrobe malfunction.  The little dress I was wearing buttoned up the front and was a thick enough cotton that a slip was not necessary.  Well, evidently the crouching over my paper caused a gap between two of the buttons.  I noticed a little boy across from me looking at me and realized there was a problem.  I'm sure inside I gasped but made little of it outwardly except to straighten up and continue my work.

Soon it was time for lunch and we all went to the lunchroom to eat.  Afterwards my teacher told the boys to go back to the classroom and the girls to go to the gym.  We were all very surprised.  This never happened.  We all wondered what was about to take place.  I actually don't remember anything that was said at this "meeting" until my teacher reached over to me as I sat among my friends on the bleachers and jerked the dress apart between two buttons and exclaimed, "Just look there!"  I immediately began to cry and she dismissed us back to the room.  I don't think anyone ever said anything to me.  Did they understand whatever it was that she had said?  Did they think I was a bad girl?  As I walked back to the room with my friends, I knew the boys would ask why I was crying, so I stopped at the water fountain and turned the water on so that it would shoot into my eyes.  That way if any of them asked, I could say the water shot me in the face.  No one asked.  At least no one asked me.  I don't know what might have been said among my girlfriends.  In fact, I was so traumatized that before I got off the bus that afternoon, I had blocked it out of my memory.  I didn't think of it again until I was grown and married.  I'm not sure what triggered the memory, but I remembered it one day and told Mother.  She was a bit aghast.  She said if I had told her she would have "gone down there."  Mother NEVER "went down there."  So this must have hit her hard, too.  I still loved this teacher because, as I said, the trauma sent me into a state of denial for years.  Two or three other instances occurred, not nearly so traumatic but still enough to affect me.  To wit:

When the end of seventh grade was approaching, we were given a form to take home to our parents.  It offered them a chance to keep their child at Walker Park for eighth grade or send their child on to the eighth grade in town at the high school.  Of course, I wanted to go there!  But my mother had other thoughts.  "You'll get more personal attention if you stay at Walker Park."  I was crushed but, as I said, respect for elders was paramount, and I didn't argue.  I didn't realize I could try to discuss it.  I just obeyed.  Mother later realized it was a bad decision.

Walker Park was a good place.  First through eighth grades were there and it was a nice quiet place out in the country.  I had started school there in first grade and so I stayed through eighth grade.  I lived out in the country, so I rarely saw any of my friends.  Pretty much never, actually.  So when the first day of eighth grade approached I could hardly wait to go and see my friends again and see who had gone to the high school and who had stayed.  I was not prepared for the sight.  When I got settled in the room and realized everyone was there that was going to be there, again I was crushed.  Many of my friends had gone to the high school.  Some of them I never interacted with again.  Actually, because of course lines taken, I don't even remember seeing any of them again until  years after graduation.  In the eighth grade that year, there was a handful of us that were friends and I was the most vocal.  The most trouble I ever got into in twelve grades of school was that I talked too much.  This was apparent to my eighth grade teacher and one day he declared that I was the ringleader of my tiny group.  It stung a bit.  It actually sort of made me angry.  We weren't trouble.  We just talked.

When I got into ninth grade, my first year in high school, my heretofore A's and B's turned into C's and D's except in French, Home Ec, and PE.  It was just a horrible year.  My mother realized her decision to allow me to stay at my old school in the eighth grade (for more "personal attention") rather than letting me go on to the high school for eighth grade was a bad move.  Everything was new and strange and things were said that frightened me ("If you are late to class, you have to go to the principal's office".)  I never went to the principal's office a day in my previous eight years except to relay a message from my father to the principal and to actually man the front desk while the principal went on errands outside the school!  Whoever heard of that?!  I hated doing that but they trusted me, so I didn't complain.  I think my mother was very proud of the fact that they chose me for that.  A trustworthy child is dear to a parent's heart.  "A wise son makes a father glad..."  Proverbs 10:1

So after I started getting C's and D's in Physical Science, one day the teacher stopped me as I was leaving class and said, "You used to make good grades at Walker Park, didn't you?"  I confirmed that I had and expected him to say something else, something to help me.  He didn't.  Ever.  He never asked me if there was a problem.  He never offered to help me.  He just let it slide.  I knew he had to have had a concern and looked at my previous grades to have known that.  I thought surely there would be some action forthcoming.  There wasn't.  He never mentioned it again.

That same year with C's and  D's in Algebra, my mother finally decided to "go down there" and have a conference with my Algebra teacher to seek some sort of help.  I don't know what happened at the meeting, but again nothing was said.  Ever.  He just let it slide.  No offer of help.

In tenth grade I had a really nice General Math teacher (yes, I escaped further humiliation with Algebra, etc., by taking General Math for the other required math class) and trusted him and liked him.  Still, I had matured only a little physically since sixth grade, and one of the good-looking and popular football players was in my class.  There was a discussion of some sort one day during class and he called me Bird Legs right out in front of everyone.  You're thinking the teacher called him on it, right?  Nope.  I just sat there mired up in humiliation.  I knew I was underdeveloped.  Did I need Mr. Perfect to point that out to the whole class?  Not really, no.  What I needed was for someone to defend me.  The teacher should have at least made him apologize to me in front of everyone, but he didn't and I think I lost a little respect for him that day.

Teachers, what you say to little children (and bigger children) makes a huge difference in their lives.  Maybe you think it's cute to call them "Meathead" or "Dimwit" or "Ya-Buncha-Goofballs" or some other derogatory name because the other kids will laugh.  It's not cute and it's not cool and it's certainly not professional.

As I said, God has this funny way of helping us get past things.  You're wondering what He did here for me, aren't you?  Well, my daughter and her husband are BOTH teachers!  So now I have to look at it from a little different perspective.  Although my daughter is home schooling now.  That should tell you something.

I've had a couple of significant surgeries over the decades.  I got over them very nicely but there are tremendous glaring scars. Like these surgeries, the things these teachers did to me cut me deeply and viciously.  I've forgiven them, but the scars live on.

CARNAL METHODS

I have again found a youtube video that says what I want to say probably better than I could.  I don't agree 100% with anyone whose youtube videos I find and listen to and post, but there is a gem in so many of them that I continue to listen.  Here is a gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f6iVWVqugc

What do you think?

YOU'RE JUST NOT A GOOD FIT ANYMORE

This is just an old saw, folks.  An excuse.  A cliché.  It has become popular now that when someone in charge is ready to ditch an employee...or a pastor...they tell them, "You're just not a good fit anymore."  You can probably already tell this riles me a bit.

In the case of pastors, I have to wonder...at what point did he start to "not fit?"  I've had shoes before that didn't fit, but they didn't fit to begin with and I should have never bought them.  Don't ask me why I did.  I guess I liked the way they looked so much I thought I could live with them.  I didn't think they would rub my heels or crush my toes that much.

Or maybe the shoe doesn't fit because I gained weight?  Or lost weight?  If the shoe started to "not fit" after I bought them and wore them for awhile when they actually did fit to begin with, the fault could very well lie with me.

So...what happens when a pastor that's been in his pulpit for years all of a sudden "doesn't fit anymore?"

Did the congregation start complaining about him?  No.  Was he caught in an illicit affair?  No.  Was he embezzling funds?  No.  Had he forgotten how to preach?  No.  Was his wife a problem?  No.  Were his children a problem?  No.  Maybe the leadership changed and had a close friend they wanted to pastor the church.  Maybe the leadership decided to steer the church in a different direction and the current pastor doesn't want to captain a ship that's making what he considers a wrong turn (or is unstable.)

Maybe the church has heard about things that other churches in other places are doing to entice visitors, things that maybe aren't quite square with how the Bible says we should be conducting church and the pastor has pointed this out.  Maybe there are some new, hip goings-on in those other churches that might be fun or different to do at this church and the pastor points out that they are not quite in line with the Bible.  Maybe these things don't square with the denominational tenets.

In that case, "Pastor Fuddy-Duddy, you aren't a good fit anymore."  The pastor then has to wonder what happened because the leadership didn't give him any other reason for giving him the boot.  It's just that he's "not a good fit anymore."

Well, folks, this doesn't set well with me.  A person shouldn't just be sent packing.  Everyone deserves to know the reason he's no longer wanted in his job.  I abhor it when people are mistreated.  If the pastor has done something illegal or immoral, that's one thing, but when he's done nothing and you blindside him with not fitting anymore, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Climbing down from my soapbox now.  My shoes are hurting my feet.

IS NOTHING SACRED?

I'm sorta into looking at or listening to youtube videos in the mornings while I get ready to start my day, and some of them are doozies!  I listen to mostly Christian-related stuff (notice I didn't say that I listen to mostly Christian stuff because sometimes this stuff is way out there...a bit off from being Christian yet seeming to present itself as such!)  Sometimes there's a little something political that jumps up and grabs my attention and I'll give it a listen.  Sometimes I listen to praise and worship songs.  Sometimes there's a preacher that I'll give a nod to.

Recently I saw a video that caught my eye, and I just had to check it out.  It's just 3:17 long, so it won't take you long to look at it.  Some of you will turn it off in a few seconds.  The listing said it would make me laugh.  It didn't.

Now I can't tell you if this is a children's church choir performance or if it's a secular performance where they are costumed.  If so, the costumes have a large cross right in the middle of the chest, linking it to the Christian world.

I really want to know what you think.  It made me emotionally ill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPdqdqj3ghY

COFFEE IN THE SANCTUARY?

Apparently I'm not the only one that's agitated about coffee in the church sanctuary.  It's rare for me to let someone else do the talking (!!!!!!!) but this youtube video speaks to how I feel about the topic in question pretty well.  I can't say that I agree with everything he says, but at least he is speaking to it and making us think.  The video is only about 4:40 long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ch-i8XssIo


What do you think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...EVERYBODY IN THE CHURCH!

When I was a little girl growing up at Double Springs Baptist Church, a very small independent Baptist church about a mile from my house, there was a tradition that I have not heard anyone speak of since I left there about 1969.  I don't know where the tradition came from or whether any other church has ever adopted it or whether Double Springs even carries it on.  Maybe someone in our tiny congregation came up with the idea.  Maybe they heard of it at 'sosation.  (I never knew what that was until I was grown and realized it was a shortened form of "association."  That's the yearly conference a delegate from the church attended.  Sort of like the annual conference that Southern Baptists attend.)  The tradition was simple but fun and minimally fruitful at the same time, and people of all ages could participate.

At the front of the church was the pulpit and in front of the pulpit stood a table.  On the table sat a small bank in the shape of a globe.  It was about six inches tall. Visitors...if there were any...probably wondered what purpose it served until the person opening the service asked if there were any birthdays this week.  That might give a visitor cause for pause and could actually make them look around in confusion, wondering,  "Why does he want to know if there were any birthdays this week?"

If your birthday was within a few days of that Sunday, at the leader's invitation you would get up and walk to the globe bank and drop in some coins.  How many coins you dropped in was up to you, although you must remember that this was the 1960s in rural Georgia, so there probably weren't that many coins dropped in on any given birthday.  But it was a really nice way to celebrate your day and also a great way to help others because, you see, that money was given to missions.  I didn't really know what "missions" meant but I knew it sounded nice and the church approved of it, so I was accepting.  If it was okay with my parents, then it was okay with me.  They were my plumb line.

My church was so small that many Sundays there was not anyone with a birthday soon, so no coins were dropped in.  I don't know how often the money was emptied out and turned in, but my guess is that in a year's time there probably wasn't more than $15 collected altogether, maybe not even that much.

I heard a song on the radio today that went something like this:

I wanna go back to "Jesus loves me, this I know because the Bible tells me so."
I wanna go back to "This little light, gonna let it shine."

I like that idea, too.  I'd like to go back to dropping coins in a globe-shaped bank that sits on a plain little table in front of the pulpit.  Of course, these days we'd have to get a pulpit.  Then we'd have to get a plain little table to put in front of it.  And I bet there's a globe-shaped bank out there somewhere.  I'd love to walk down the aisle and drop my coins in.  I'm prepared to drop more coins in these days, and after all I've heard from people in my church who have gone on long-term and short-term mission trips, it would be an honor to give on my birthday.  Maybe we could find a globe-shaped bank that has a hole in it big enough to drop in folded-up bills as well as coins.  I would love that.





Here's the song by David Dunn.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0VirZWCtJQ

IF YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HIM, JUST SAY HIS NAME

In some circles, the fear of God's Name is so strong, they either don't dare say it, or if they're writing about Him, they won't even include all the letters.  For instance, they will write G-d for God.

I have taken to watching a fair amount of youtube videos of preachers, musicians, speakers, etc., and there's an oddity that I have noticed lately.  Either some of these people are simply speaking too quickly or they actually have a problem saying the Name of Jesus.  Not to marginalize or simplify an awesome and complex Name, but His Name is pretty simple.  It's "Jesus."  Two syllables.  Je.  Sus.  Jesus.  I don't have to leave out a letter.  In fact, He likes for me to say His Name when I'm talking to Him or telling someone else about Him.  I like to say His Name, too, which is pretty funny when you consider the fact that when I finally accepted the ongoing invitation from Joyce and went to this ladies Bible study back in the 80s, I thought it odd that these women were all sitting around talking about Jesus like they knew Him or something.  Like He was their...I don't know...friend!  You see, I wasn't accustomed to hearing His Name often outside of my regular attendance at Sunday School and church.  You just didn't say His Name in everyday speech.

Well, that was the day that I got saved.  I'm not saying that I came to know Him all at once that day, but I was introduced to Him and realized that I was not right with God and that if I let Jesus into my life and let Him dispose of all my sins, this would make me right with God.  I knew I wasn't right with Him and if this is what it would take to fix that, then I was going to do this thing.  The study said that everyone is born a sinner and that sin separates us from God but that Jesus died to take away our sins if we would just accept that.  Well, I did.  Not to trivialize this most important decision I ever made, but for me it was like a business transaction.  In business, you take facts and act on them accordingly.  The facts were:

I was a sinner.
I was separated from God.
Jesus died to take away my sins.
Accepting that fact would make me right with God.
I wanted to be right with God.

The result was:

That day, I accepted that Jesus is my Savior from sin.

A bonus fact is that Jesus came back to life soon after He was buried and promised to come back for all of us Christians at a later date.  It won't be long, considering the things He said would happen not long before His return are happening.  Matthew 24 and other scriptures back this up.

It didn't take long for me to realize why these ladies were so free to say the Name of Jesus.  They did know Him.  He was their friend.  After that first day, He was mine, too.  It was easy to say His Name in the loving way that I had learned because I had also learned that He loves me unconditionally.  Unconditionally.  Are you grasping that?

So why is it so hard for some of these preachers and other people I'm listening to on youtube to say His Name correctly?  I think there is a problem.  Not sure what it is but I think there is a problem.

You're wondering why I think they're not saying His Name right, aren't you?  Well, they all seem to not particularly like that middle "s" in His Name.  Instead of saying "Jesus," they're saying "Je us."  Je.  Us.  Je us.  It's really odd.

Who does it?  At times David Platt, for one.  Francis Chan is another.  And also this musician I listened to this morning...I think his name is David Keefe...who had a video that was about 15 minutes long and he was complaining about Christian music being so boring.  He said that it all has the same beat and is not creative.  I guess if he heard a hymn he'd just keel over on the spot.  Here is the video.  I didn't particularly like it.  He had a problem saying "Jesus." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE4_dHW0nWk

Here's one featuring Todd Friel of "Wretched Radio" when he was preaching to a public crowd.  The woman in the video argued that he was being unkind in trying to get people to get saved.  Right at the end she says, "Je us."

And how about unsaved people?  How about this little girl?  What hate has she been taught and by whom?    www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVs7BhCOIKs

What do you think?  Is it hard for you to say His Name?  Not me.  I like telling others about Him.  Would you like to talk with me about Him?

DO IT ANYWAY

As you may know, I read or listen or read and listen through the Bible every year and have done that for about 20 years or so.  It's an amazing thing to do.  Yesterday this was part of my reading:

Mark 6:1-6 - Jesus went out from there and *came into ^[a]His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. ² When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such ^[b]miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of ^[c]James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in ^[d]his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could do no ^[e]miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He wondered at their unbelief.

And He was going around the villages teaching.

This is a simple message, but aren't those some of the ones that impact us the most?  And if you've ever done anything, especially for the Lord, that was...shall we say "different" than is expected from those around you...this passage will speak to you immediately.  Your town, your friends, your family, and your household suddenly wonder what in the world you're doing and, "Who do you think YOU are, you self-righteous, holier than thou so-and-so??????  I knew you when you were just a little pipsqueak who could barely add two and two.  I've known you all your life.  Do you think you can impress me now?"

Well, Jesus wasn't in the business of impressing people.  He made that abundantly clear all through the New Testament.  His life was dedicated to serving God and doing whatever it was He told Him to do, even to dying on a cross for my sorry self.  He would have done that even if I had been the only person on earth, and I really don't think that has ever sunk into my inward parts.  (He did it for you, too.  TRY and let that sink in.)

Yes, this is a simple message but profound.  He had to do most of all that he did outside his hometown and away from his own people, even his own immediate family for a time.  I think they finally got it, but it took them awhile.   I'm certainly not comparing myself to Jesus, but I'm not sure I could have done some of the things I've done either if I had stayed in my hometown.  They're good folks and it's a good place, but they know me.  They knew me most of my life until I left there in my mid-20s, still a sinner.  So when I got saved about the age of thirty and started living for Him, some of them probably wouldn't have taken me or what I was doing seriously, and that can detract from the goal of getting something done for the Kingdom.

Do you know what strikes me most about this passage, though?  The very last sentence:  "And He was going around the villages teaching."  He KNEW what He was supposed to be doing and it mattered not that no one else believed that He was supposed to be doing that.  He did it anyway...because He knew it was what God was calling Him to do.  He and God had that kind of close relationship.

And wouldn't you know it?  Here is how God works.  I have this little thing that I call a flippy chart thing because I'm not sure what it's called.  It's a wooden pedestal about 8" tall that has a bunch of cards with sayings and Bible verses on them.  You flip one over every day and read it and it starts your day off with something to think about.  I've had it for about 40 years.  My niece gave it to me when we were both young sprouts.  I'm just six years older than she is, so yes we were young together.  Some of the sayings are just stupid and I have crossed them out so that I'll know to flip to the next one and not camp out on the stupid ones, such as, "A coincidence is a small miracle where God chose to remain anonymous."  Sigh.

Well, guess what today's says.  "How men treat us will make little difference when we know we have God's approval."  Don't you just love how God operates sometimes?

American Influence

My post today is very simple.  Well, the post itself isn't simple, but my actions to post it are simple:  I'm taking it from the internet. Seems to be the thing, doesn't it?

During my daily activities, I listen to and watch lots of youtube videos of preachers, speakers, musicians, etc.  I heard one today by Ravi Zacharias.  It's only 3:07 long, but it is full of truth.

This video was accessed today, January 22, 2018.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXD9lsNG5E

Happy Year's End

Another year is coming to a close in a couple of hours or so and again it's hard to believe.  The year has fairly flown by.  Seems I just got used to saying "2017" when another year is attempting to introduce itself to me.  This year has been a bit trying but still I look around and see that we have had it better than many and for that we are grateful.

Although atrial fibrillation has plagued me off and on since 2014 and began a non-stop attack at year's end last year, running into the new year this year and after a failed attempt at an ablation I finally had a pacemaker installed on Groundhog's Day, totally missing General Lee's AND Punxsutawney Phil's predictions, and hubby and I both had the flu in March and I had a complete hysterectomy in June, which required weeks of mandatory recovery period and missing our yearly beach visit, and hubby had a GI bleed after a colonoscopy and ended up back in the hospital for a repair, we still count ourselves among the very blessed in the world and indeed in this nation.  A nation which has shown out for the TV cameras pretty much all year, and not in a good way.  A nation which should also have considered itself among the most blessed in the world because it is.

I have to say that although it has been a good year for us compared to the trouble so many people have suffered, and I'm grateful for the good year that we had, I'm still somehow glad to see it come to a close.  I am petitioning the Lord for a healthier coming year for hubby and me and asking Him for good health for our family and safety for us all.  I ask Him to guide us into witnessing to those around us the goodness of Jesus Christ and the salvation that can only come through Him.  There are many who do not believe this, and some that never will, but I hope and pray that we can witness to some who will believe.

To you and yours, I wish a safe, healthy, prosperous 2018, and that you will trust Jesus Christ with your life in every way, that He will bless you in every area of your life because you trust Him with it.

God bless you.

THE SINNER'S PRAYER UNDER ATTACK

There are those now who are trying to make a case against The Sinner’s Prayer.  The argument is that it is superstitious and unbiblical, or so goes David Platt’s conclusion.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhEEzjU8xQ (accessed on November 21, 2017)  He says it is nowhere in the scriptures.  To that I say, neither is abortion or the rapture, but conclusions can be made from other scriptures about God’s instruction on those subjects.

To address what the Bible says about salvation and how someone may have come up with The Sinner’s Prayer (I have no idea who came up with it or how, but Biblically it appears to be okay to me) let’s go straight to the Bible.  No better place to start…or end, for that matter.

The argument some people make is that what the Bible actually says is that we should orally confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.  The basis for that is Romans 10:9, which actually says:  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  That is absolutely true.  However, are we not taught that we should compare scripture with scripture?  Is that ALL the Bible says about salvation, or is there more?

Can we also offer these scriptures? (From the New American Standard Bible, NASB)

John 1:12 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His Name…  There is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  Neither is there mention of receiving Him and believing in His Name in Romans 10:9.  So we must believe in His Name and receive Him.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  There is nothing from Romans 10:9 here.  "Believe" is mentioned in both but with different meanings.  In Romans 10:9 it is that we are to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.  In John 3:16 it is that we are to believe in Jesus.  Two distinctly different ideas.  So we must believe in Him.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Again, there is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  Neither is there mention of John 3:16’s message of believing in Christ.  So we must believe salvation is free to us but we must accept this gift.

Ephesians 2:8-9  - For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Again, there is no mention of confessing with your mouth or believing that God raised Him from the dead here.  So we're saved through faith and accept His free gift.

Ephesians 3:17 – …so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…

None of the previous scriptures contribute to this one’s message except Ephesians 2, which says you’re saved through faith.  If you don’t accept Christ into your heart, how is Ephesians 3:17 going to happen?  If you're a Christian, not only has He come into your heart, He is DWELLING there!  No one DWELLS at your house unless you invite them.  Just like there are probably not squatters in your house (I hope!) there aren’t squatters in your heart.  If someone is in your heart, you’ve allowed it.  You’ve invited them in.  So by faith we must invite Christ to dwell in our hearts.  He does not force His way in.

It appears to me that God offers us a free gift:  salvation through Jesus Christ.  It also appears that we must take ALL the scriptures on salvation (and surely I have not listed them all here) and compare them, put them together, and tell the whole story.  Let me ask you this:  if I stand in front of you holding a wrapped gift and tell you that it’s yours, don’t you have to accept it?  Don’t you have to walk up to me and take it from my hand?  I guess I could put it on the ground in front of you and walk away, but you still have to pick it up.  You still have to accept it.  Accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ as our salvation is VERY Biblical, in my humble opinion.  The gift is there.  If you never accept it, do you really have it?

God is not going to force Himself into your heart.  If Ephesians 3:17 is true...and it is...it’s up to you to invite Jesus Christ into your heart.

Have you done that?  Or have you left His beautifully wrapped gift lying on the ground and walked away?

UP ALL THE TIME

I saw this posted on Facebook this morning.  In my opinion this is one of the most misleading and, yes, even foolish quotes I’ve ever heard.  The person who posted it is a friend of mine and I love her, but I think she didn’t really get the full impact.  Again in my opinion, this is just another example of how easily we Christians are deceived.  I know a lot of the people who hit the “like” button and I just simply believe they took the post at face value, maybe just skimmed through it and it sounded good, and didn’t really concentrate on it.  At first glance to some, this seems like a great read.  For me it wasn’t.

"We shouldn't be so up and down. There ought to be consistency. We should be the same all the time, because if we're walking with Jesus, He's 'the same yesterday, today, and forever' (Hebrews 13:8). If we're up sometimes and down other times, it's because sometimes we're trusting Jesus and other times we're walking in our own flesh. WE OUGHT TO BE SUPERNATURALLY NATURAL. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us at all times (Ephesians 1:19-20). It never fluctuates." ~ Andrew Wommack "Living in God's Best"

Is there a Christian on earth that doesn’t on occasion walk in the flesh?  How about those of us who go for that second piece of cake when we know we shouldn’t?  How about those who give in to premarital or extramarital sex?  And, yes, that happens to some Christians.  They may not be very strong Christians but they’re Christians nonetheless.  All of us give in to temptation, which Jesus never did.  Mr. Wommack is asking me to BE Jesus, not be LIKE Jesus.  There’s a great difference.

And speaking of Jesus, how about Him?  He cried when he was at the tomb of Lazarus…and He knew He was going to raise him!  Doesn’t sound like a very “up” moment.  How about when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane?  That was not a very “up” moment for Him.  He was grieving.  How can you grieve to the point of sweating drops of blood and be “up” at the same time?  If it was possible for anyone, it would have been possible for Him, but it doesn't appear that way when you read this account in the Bible.  Probably not an “up” moment for Him.

And what about being “supernaturally natural?”  It is not natural…or even human…for someone to be “up” all the time.  Even a Christian.  I guarantee you that if you know someone who is “up” every time you see them, they’re having a “down” moment sometimes when they’re alone.  One of our emotions is sadness.  Am I to believe that there is a Christian who has never been sad?

Anyway, here is my response to her post.  Oddly, one of the people who first made a positive comment on the post hit the “like” button on my response.  Maybe my response made her reread the post and come to a different conclusion.

However, we are humans and this is just not going to happen. A person going through something devastating (divorce, sickness, etc.) is going to have a down moment or two although they know Jesus hasn’t left them. Jesus also asked us to be perfect as He is perfect and holy as He is Holy but we all know that’s not going to happen on this earth. I appreciate the thought but it is a crushing burden for anyone to expect that of me. And, really, if you know me you know I’m usually “up” but it’s just not that way every moment of every day. I wish it were, but Jesus is always there in those moments.

Soooo…what do you think?

GRAPE JUICE

Usually I come at you with something serious, something that disturbs me or even ticks me off.  Today I want to be lighthearted.  Maybe it's because the world seems to be going crazy from the ground up.  To' up from the flo' up, as my friend likes to say.  That's actually supposed to be "tore up from the floor up."  Proper English would be "torn up from the floor up," but that doesn't rhyme and isn't nearly as funny.  So here's the giggle story.  It's okay to laugh at me about it.  I did.  Eventually.

Several years ago before our Winn-Dixie turned into a Harvey's, I was there doing a bit of shopping, and as I finished up and was leaving the checkout pushing my haul in the buggy (yes, in the South it's mostly a buggy but sometimes a cart) I slipped on something and landed on my back.  You know, like in the cartoons.  Exactly like that.  I guess to some, like my daughter who has always had this uncontrollable tendency to laugh when someone takes a spill, this would be funny.  Of course, people came running from all over as I lay there in my stupor.  See, I was still trying to figure out how I got from a standing position, yea, even a healthy gait, to sprawled on my back on the cold, cold tile.  I was standing, and then I was lying.  I know it sounds like a page straight out of a Winnie-the-Pooh book, but there I was...gone from standing to lying in a nanosecond.  That has to be a record.  Someone check with Guinness while I finish the story.

It was a bit surreal, y'all.  I paid for my items, started to push my buggy toward the exit, and all of a sudden I was laid out on my back looking around like a blooming idiot.  I'm sure my mouth was gaping open and my eyes were big as saucers, as my mother used to say.  Employees (Do they still call them that?  Maybe it's associates.  No, that's Walmart.  Oh, well.) were bending over me and I started telling them, "I'm okay.  No one's going to get sued."  After they were sure I was steady on my feet (and no lawsuits were forthcoming) they left me alone and it occurred to me that it might be interesting to find out how I fell.  You don't go from standing to lying in a billionth of a second for no reason.  I went back to the checkout lane and there it was.  The culprit.  The antagonist.  The villain.  A smashed grape.  A freshly smashed grape.  I could tell because it had not become grotesquely smashed.  It just looked like it had been smashed one really good time.  (Not my grape.  I didn't buy grapes that day.)  Still...it was ugly.  Wow.  Well.  Okay.  Satisfied with my discovery, my groceries and I turned and headed for the exit...again...this time actually making it to the car and home.

There's something mildly satisfying about finding out why something happens.  As far as all the craziness that's going on in the world right now, well, the end is near.  That's not original with me.  I'd like to claim it but I can't.  That's from 2 Timothy 3:3-5 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power..."

Oops.  I threw something serious at you again, didn't I?  Honestly, this really did start out to be simply a funny story on myself.

NOT TOO SPORTY, BUT...

Anyone that knows me very well knows I’m not much on sports.  I wasn’t as a child and I’m not now.  I got into the Braves big time back in the 90s when they were all the rage, but I even gave up on that after awhile.  I like to go to my grandson’s baseball games because…hey, he’s my grandson!  I like to go to my church’s softball games because my son and son-in-law play on the team.

Although I sorta like baseball and like to watch a few of the events in the summer and winter Olympics, if you pressed me to pick a favorite sport “just because,” even though I don’t even like racing, I’d have to say NASCAR, and here’s why:

You couldn’t pay me to go to a race (never been to one…I hear they’re too loud, too dusty, and you’re too likely to be splattered with “something,” most likely beer, or vomit because of the beer) but I pick NASCAR for several reasons.  While driving, the drivers’ bodies are all covered up by car, and even when the dash cam is on, their heads are covered up with helmet, so you can’t see if they’re swearing, and they pretty much don’t use foul hand gestures because they have to hold onto the wheel.  Besides, their gloves fit like big old marshmallows.  (They’re not perfect…you will catch one outside the car sometimes unloading on someone.  They’re human.)  Before the race starts, there is ALWAYS a prayer that is televised and many times prayed “in the Name of Jesus.”  There’s a whole slew of us that like that.  The drivers stand in silent respect as the National Anthem is sung and the prayer is prayed.  (They even take off their hats.  They take off their hats!  Wow!)  If anyone is offended by any of this, no one knows it as they keep it to themselves and don’t spoil everyone else’s good time by running and screaming that they don’t feel safe or that their rights have been violated.  If any of them is homosexual or lesbian, no one knows it because they’re not in front of a camera trying to thrust their lifestyle in our faces.  This is how NASCAR is done, this is how it’s been done for years, and if that is a problem for you, then you need to pick another place to spew your beer or political rantings.  Don’t support NASCAR if you’re not going to support NASCAR.

And today I have a whole new reason to choose NASCAR as my favorite sport.  Hubby’s been watching the race and they just ran a commercial involving several of the drivers, one at a time, saying “Thank you,” some even mentioning names and one saying, “Thanks, Navy.”  It ended with, “Home of the free because of the brave.”

Yeah, I’ll choose NASCAR.  Now hand me that remote.  I want to watch an old movie on TCM.

CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Christian music used to be so simple.  You knew what to expect.

You went to church.  You waited until the song leader indicated that it was time to sing.  (I went to a small church.  We didn't have a music director.  We did well to have fifty people there.  We had a song leader.)  You  picked up your hymnal and the music portion of the service began.  You turned to the page selected by the song leader, the pianist (only a pianist...no guitars, drums, horns, etc.) played a short introduction, and you started to sing.  A very familiar tune.  Someone's favorite, for sure.  I think my daddy's was "In the Garden," but I'm not sure.  We didn't talk about it much.  I have no idea what my mother's was.  Again, we didn't talk about it much.  What was there to talk about?  This is the way it was.  Everywhere.  This was the ritual.

Admittedly, there was not much life to the ritual.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved the people.  They were either neighbors or people my parents knew or relatives.  I loved them.  I loved the songs.  I loved the pianist.  She was only a year younger than me and we took piano from the same wonderful teacher.  Marla was better at it than I.  She had that playing-by-ear thing going on sometimes.  I don't do that.  I wish I did but I don't.  Sometimes we girls would sing.  There were four or five of us.  Sometimes Marla's mother would play and we girls would sing.  Sometimes Marla would play and we girls would sing.  Sometimes Marla would play, "Whispering Hope," and I would sing.  That made me only slightly nervous.  Playing the piano would have made me sweat bullets.  I'd much rather sing.

Over the years Christian music has changed.  If you listen to Christian radio, unless you're listening to a lively gospel station, you hear some contemporary, upbeat music that just might make you tap your feet.  I like some of it, but some of it I find a bit problematic.  The rap music makes me wince.  In the first place, it doesn't do much for me because, truthfully, if I can't understand the words (and this is radio, folks, there's no lipreading) it doesn't do much to minister to me/help me minister to others/bless me/encourage me/draw me closer to Christ/teach me to reach others.  It could be any of that other foul stuff on those other stations, for all I know.  Right now, I'm trusting that it's not, seeing's how it's on a Christian station.  But "Christian" rap is just, for the most part, a bit garbled, in my humble opinion.  It has the rebellious sound that the other rap music has and the words just don't always come through the speakers.

Then there are the "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs.  I wish I had come up with that cute little phrase, but I didn't.  I heard a guy on Christian radio tagging them as such once and I realized that's a good name for them.  You know the ones, don't you?  There's one out right now called, "Hold Me," and honestly she could be singing it straight to her boyfriend as she says, "I love the way you hold me," and "Just when I feel this crazy world is gonna bring me down that's when your smile comes around."  There isn't a real hint that she's talking to God.  I looked up the lyrics online and she doesn't even bother to capitalize "Your" to make sure everyone knows she means any part of the Trinity.  I searched for something that made me know it was a Christian song and the word, "Lord" is in there three times.  You know, like, "Lord, I was born a ramblin' man."  Or "Oh, Lord.  Stuck in Lodi again."  Or "My Sweet Lord," George Harrison's tribute to Hinduism.

Call me old-fashioned (I've been called worse) but I think Christian music should have something to do with Christianity.  You know, God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.  It should say that Jesus Christ is my life, that He is the One Who gets me through my day (which I think is what "Hold On" is supposed to convey.)  It should tell you about Him, lead you to Him, praise Him, worship Him, scream that I'm nothing without Him, encourage you that He is your help in times of trouble.

You probably aren't getting the fact that I love contemporary Christian music by reading this, but I do.  I love the songs that do what I just described, not the ones that someone hoped would be crossover songs and make it on the pop, rock, or rap charts.  I like the ones that don't do a lot of "oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh" but that have actual words and that lift Jesus Christ up to people, that offer what He wants you to have, that praise and worship Him.

Church is for worshiping the Savior and telling folks about Him and what the Bible says, and I think the music part of the church service should do that as much as the sermon does.  Thankfully, my church does a pretty good job of that most of the time.  Thank you, Stacy.