Is there any passage in the Bible that gives us comfort like the 23rd Psalm.  "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters."

Did you know that if the water is moving, the sheep will absorb the rushing water in their wool, lose their footing and drown? And that sheep won't lie down if they are frightened or hungry.

So the shepherd takes care of the physical needs of his sheep.  Of course the Psalmist means us.  Christ is the shepherd, we are the sheep.  We do not want.

"He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."  I have needed quite a bit of restoring of my soul this month.  Christ sustains me as grief overwhelms me.   And he does it so that his name will be glorified.

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

I have felt like I was walking in a shadow this last month.  Death casts a shadow, but with a tap of His rod and with the crook of his staff, Christ comforts me an pulls me out of the shadows.

"You prepare a table before  me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;, my cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Goodness, and mercy.  What a comfort.  And they will follow me for the rest of the days of my life.

Psalms 19: 12,14  "Who can understand his errors?  Would you cleanse me from secret faults."  "Let the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

It's a good thing that God doesn't let us see ourselves like He sees us--right off the bat.  I don't think I could have taken it at the beginning of my Christian journey.  But little by little, God revealed areas that I needed to work on. When I was ready for the next step, he provided the strength to deal with my errors.

Looking back, I am reminded of the scripture that says, "To him who knows to good and doesn't do it, to him it is sin."  God will get around to what you don't know you need to improve soon enough.  When you are ready.  That's why we need to be so careful about making judgments of other people.  That's God's job.  He has given us only one commandment.  Love each other.  Warts and all.

I have a much easier time with the meditation of my heart than with the words of my mouth.  I am really trying to make an effort to stop and think before I speak.  But it is so hard.  I just always say what I think before I think about what I'm saying.  Other people don't seem to struggle with this like I do.  Or they have more discipline.

My daughter Pat said: Use the word "THINK" before you speak.  Is it True,  is it Helpful, is it Important, is it Necessary, and is it Kind.  And even if it is true, you don't always need to say it.

That's a good set of five things to ask yourself.  And if your errors seem impossible to correct, remember that what we do we do in the power of God.  If we could correct our sins ourselves we wouldn't need a redeemer.

Finally!!!!   16 days without a computer.  I didn't realize that I was so hooked to blogging to all of you.  To say I am disgusted with my phone company is an understatement.

So, I have read all 150 Psalms twice without sharing much of anything.  I have underlined many of the verses but certainly can't talk about them all.

Psalms 8: 3-5  "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you visit him?  For you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor."

Sometimes I get full of myself and elevate myself to the center of importance in my world.  And then, like this morning, I look up when I go to get the newspaper, and there are the stars.  Millions of them.

They are such a contrast to the weather we have been having.  Fog, ice, freezing rain, snow.  You forget the sky.  Everything is gray and gloomy.  And then the temperature rises, the sky clears and the sun comes out.  The night is crystal clear.  The stars twinkle.

And then, like David in the Psalms I ask, "What am I that you are mindful of me?"  When I consider God's handiwork, I am just an insignificant creature on the earth.  One of millions.

Crowned with glory and honor in the eyes of God.  What a privilege to be his child.  The work of his fingers.

Merry Christmas.  The Messiah has come.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God."  John 1:1

For those who do not understand this beginning, there is no way to understand the birth of Christ and what it means to Christians.

He is our hope.  He conquered death.  He gave us eternal life.  There is no end to this beginning.  We will spend eternity with him and with those we love.

The world would prefer to keep Jesus in a manger.  He is so sweet all wrapped in swaddling clothes.  But the point of Christmas is that God wrapped himself in flesh so that he could come and live among us and be a man as well as God.  So that he could die for us.  So that He could die for our sins.

I love Christmas.  I love the story of the trip to Bethlehem.  I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been to have made that long trip on a donkey when you were eight and a half months pregnant.  And get to Bethlehem and not have a place to stay.  And to have your first baby without any of the women in your family to comfort you.  To tell you what to expect and to help you get through it.

I had my first child like that.  In a strange place in California far away from Oklahoma.  No friends. No family.  And Ken was night flying.  I was alone and didn't have any idea what to expect.  Women end up having to have a  baby alone anyway.  No body else can do it for you.  I had five.

God started His life on earth in the most common of circumstances.   I wonder why.  The creator of the universe could have given Himself every advantage.  But He didn't.  He started His life on earth in such a way that nobody could ever say that He had it easy.

And it went downhill after that.  His entire family had to flee to Egypt to keep Herod from killing him.  Thousands of boy babies were killed just to get at that one baby, who escaped.

God always has a plan.  We sometimes don't know what it is, but God does.  And his plan for Jesus was to put Him on a cross.  For me.  For you.

I have been in a broadband crisis for over two weeks.  It doesn't look like it will be fixed before the 26th.  AT@T made a mistake they don't seem to be able to correct.  I certainly don't need this right now, but it has been something to distract me.  Maybe that is good.

However, I have found out that I love writing this blog and that I miss it terribly.  I will be back soon.  Today I'm at my daughter's house so I can use her connection.

In the meantime, I have read all 150 of the Psalms twice.  And that has been so interesting.  He says the most interesting things to God.  Like, "Are you listening to me?  Why don't you answer me?  You promised that you would hear me and rescue me."  This type of conversation goes on and on in almost every Psalm.

And that is what the prayers of David sound like.  A conversation with God.  David does not use the usual phrases that we associate with prayer.

I think I will talk to God differently after reading the Psalms.  No question David asked seems trivial, just a plea from the heart.  An attempt to communicate with his creator.

He uses the phrase, "You promised," often.  I never though of reminding God of the things he has promised us in His word.  Maybe using such phraseology shows our faith--that we really believe what the Bible says.

"I will never leave you or forsake you," sounds pretty good to me right now.

Hi everyone.  This is Janie's eldest daughter.

Mom asked me to let you know that her broadband is out and won't be back up until Monday.  She'll be back and will post then.

She's doing well - hanging in there, cheerful of heart and busy at the task of discovering her "new normal."  Thank you for all your prayers and kind thoughts for our family during this time, and thanks for supporting mom's blog efforts.

God bless you and yours this Christmas season.

Pat

The most interesting new thing I have learned from reading the Psalms is:  David wrote most of them when he was despair.  He felt besieged from every side.  He was sure he was going to be killed.

But the thing that lifts your spirit is that in every calamity, David stands firm on his faith in God.  Even when he thinks he is losing, he begs God to hear him.  To listen.  To answer him.  He never gives up on God, even when his future looks bleak.  He praises God.  He lifts God up to the people.

In Chapter 40 and 41, God speaks.  First, two commands to David.  Don't be afraid.  Don't be dismayed.

Psalms 41: 10  "Fear you not; for I am with you:  be not dismayed; for I am your God:  I will strengthen you;  yes, I will help you;  yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness."

I confess.  My worst fear is to feel fear.  I  avoid fear at almost any cost.  I hate the feeling of fear and as a result, I am not very adventurous.  I avoid conflict.  I will stay in my house and read a book.  I always plan ahead:  If "one thing" happens, I will have a  plan do one thing.  If something else happens, I will  have a plan to do another.  I always have a plan.  The unexpected makes me afraid.

Then God says four things to David:   (1.)  I am your God.  (2.)  I will strengthen you.  (3.) I will help you.  (4.)  I will uphold you.  And all of this is done with the right hand of God's righteousness.

I'm counting on God to be my God.  And to do the next three things.  I can't do any of them myself.

Proverbs 3: 24  "When you lie down, don't be afraid.  Yes, lie down and your sleep will be sweet."

I had to drive to Tulsa today--spent most of it in doctor's offices for rechecks--and will blog tomorrow.  God is good, the main roads were clear.  Getting out of the driveway was interesting.  The side streets were still terrible

Psalms 49: 15  "But God will redeem my soul...for he shall receive me."  I know where Ken  is.  He has been redeemed by God.  "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Substance.  Evidence.

A friend who is a Methodist minister said, "If our loved ones are with the Lord,  and the Lord is always with us, then our loved ones must be close by."

Paul said it this way when he wrote to the Hebrews about our forefathers.  "…seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, (those who have gone on before us) let us lay aside every weight…and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."  Heb. 12:1  I just have to suck it up and run the rest of my race.

I like to think of those who have gone before me as Paul described:  A cloud of witnesses.  Their lives and witness are a standard for us to follow.

Psalms 46:1-2a  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear…"

There are good days, and there are not so good days.  But God is truly a defense (refuge) and offense (strength).  He supplies (helps me) what I need to get through these days of grief.  The weather has been so terrible that I have been house bound and that makes it lonely.  But people are so good.  Every day there are cards.  I am not alone even through I am by myself.

Thank you for your prayers.  The thing about a not so good day is that I know I'll have a better one tomorrow.

Well, I'm locked in.  Sleet and ice.  The worst that weather Oklahoma has to offer as far as I'm concerned.  I really feel sorry for those people have to get out in this mess.

I'm sure we've all seen "sayings",  those quotes of scripture--or moral reminders--that are meant to hang on the wall.  My grandmother had one of those.   In her little four room house,  as you walked in the front door, was a little plaque that quoted this scripture:

Psalms 37: 25  "I have been young, and now I am old;  yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed (children) begging bread."

Now that I am probably considered to be old--I understand that scripture.  I find it interesting that she, my Gran, had no other scripture on her walls.  Just that single Psalm.  It made such an impression on me.  It was her statement that God was her strength, that He would never forsake her, or let her go hungry.  The only requirement was that you be righteous.  Christ covers that for us; he is our righteousness.  But if there was ever a righteous woman, it was my Gran.

She was in her 80's, living alone on Social Security.  She had an old 1950 Ford, and she would pick up the "Old Women" (as she referred to them) and take them to the grocery store, or to church.   I don't know if any of those ladies helped with Gran's gas.  I hope they did, but even if they didn't, she depended on God for her sustenance, not other people.

I've been young.  Now I am older.  God has never forsaken me either.

I had a wonderful grandmother.

Today will be interesting.  Sleet, ice, freezing rain and snow.  The snow is not so bad, but rain freezing on power lines and freezing limbs that break trees is a disaster.  There is a saying in Oklahoma, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute."  Maybe all of this will melt soon.

I'll just keep reading the Psalms.  Unless I lose electricity and can't see.  The day that Ken left, I had cataract surgery.  Who would have known?  And I still haven't gotten new glasses.  I have to wait two more weeks.  But I've got a magnifying glass so I think I will be able to read Psalms even if I lose power.

Psalms 50: 10, 12  "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit."

If you are like me, there are things that I wish I could redo, or take back, or even forget.  But it doesn't work like that.  Our hearts are not clean.  We're guilty.  And it takes an act of creation to clean us up.  Only God can do that.  He paid a price--his life--for our sins.  Just so we could be clean again in God's eyes.  He sees clean.

And thinking about the things we've done wrong is so discouraging.  Satan would defeat us with discouragement if God was not in the business of renewing a right spirit within us.

And with discouragement comes the death of joy.  And that is what we want.  Joy.  The joy of knowing that things are right with our God.  The joy of salvation.

And we want to be held up when everything falls out beneath us.  Upheld with the Spirit of God that lives within us.  I'm being held up right now.  Thank God.

Psalms 14:1  "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God."  

If I've told you this story before, indulge me.  Ken taught sociology for 28 years.  On the first day of each semester he would say to the class, "The most basic sociological question that humans decide, is whether there is a God or not.  Since I believe there is a God, it will affect the way I present every sociological theory.  If that bothers you, now is the time to find a different teacher.  If it doesn't bother you, welcome to my class."

I have been amazed at the number of people that I don't even know who have told me stories about Ken.  I heard another one today.  I keep hearing things like, "He changed my life."  And, "He changed the way I looked at the world."  Hundreds and hundreds of his students are scattered all over the state.

 I remember checking into a hotel in Oklahoma City with our school's Student Council members and the check-in clerk looked at my signature and asked me, "Are you related to Ken Jacks?"  I told him I was his wife, and listened to his story about knowing Ken when he was in high school.  "We wrote Ken's name on our tackling dummies.  The coach told us that if we could take Ken down, we could beat Pryor.  He was an amazing fullback."

The stories go on and on.  Just when I think I know him, I hear another story.  I know one thing for sure, he believed in God.  It affected every aspect of his life.  It was a joy to be married to a man who had such a strong Christian conviction.   He lived what he believed.

There is a God.  It is the basic question we must answer before we can decide how to live our lives.  Any route that doesn't acknowledge Him is foolish.  Eventually, every knee will bow.

I think that I told you that when I go out to get the paper each morning, I look up and tell God what a good job He has done in creating our beautiful world.  I like to start the day by praising Him, because before the day is over I will almost certainly be asking for something.  As the day goes by, I become more concerned with all I have to do.  With problems.  But in the morning, my mind is clear.

I didn't even know there was a verse on that subject until I started reading the Psalms again.  Maybe I had read it years ago, and it stuck in my brain.  I don't know.  I know that the Bible says, "My word will not return unto me void, but will accomplish that which I have prospered it."  So if I read it years ago, it stuck somewhere and His word returned to my mind.

Psalms 5: 1-2  "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto you will I pray.  My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct my prayer unto you, and will look up."

When you look up  you may see the sun rise, or like today--fog.  Whatever it is, it feels good to look up and say "Hello" to God.

I also raise my hands to the sky.  It humbles you.

I have been reading the Psalms.  What a wonderful collection of David's thoughts, songs and prayers.  (He was so human.)  I play the piano and the marimba at our church.  So many of the hymns are like David's songs.  Full of meaning and from the heart.  I have found the hymns and the Psalms so very comforting the last two weeks.

Ken loved music.  He would always tell me what a great pianist I was.  (I am very, very average)  The last few months, at night after I got him in bed,  he would ask me to play for him.  I wish I had played more, but there was a 40 year period that I just couldn't seem to get around to it very often. Raising children, going to school, working…Playing the piano wasn't at the top of my list.  But Ken kept after me to play.

He bought me an upright grand.  I gave it to my daughter.  When my mom was gone, I took the piano from her home, but when my granddaughter began to play, I gave it to her.

So four years ago, Ken bought me another upright grand and I began to play again in earnest.  And I got better.  I am glad Ken didn't give up on me.  Every night he would ask me to play, "Eternal Father Strong to Save."  I did.  We sang it at his service.  I have been playing it again each night these last two weeks.  I think Ken is listening.  I am a much better pianist because he kept pushing me to play.

Music.  One of the gifts that God gives us.  We have the understanding of it in our hearts and souls.  It transports us to a memory, a place or time.

"I will sing a new song unto you, O God…"  Psalms 144:9a.  I am trying to sing a new song.  It is no longer a duet.  I am singing a solo.  I will get better at it with practice.

Thanksgiving.

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  1 Thess. 5:18

This verse keeps running through my mind.  It is God's will that we be continually thankful.  I have read this verse may times, even memorized it--and yet it took me awhile to recognize the word that makes continual thankfulness possible.  The word is "in", it is not "for".  In everything give thanks, not for everything give thanks.

I am not thankful for the agony that Ken had to go through.  But "in" it there were so many things to give God the glory for.  Ken's life in Christ was remarkable.  Everyone who came by the house, actually everyone in Pryor, knew where Ken was going.  His friends were there.  His children.  He slept in the comfort of his own bed until he drew his last breath.  Dozens of loved ones helped him during the final steps of his journey.  He was surrounded by love.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me…" Psalms 23:4a

Ken was absolutely fearless in the valley he went through.
                                                                                             

Ken was always deployed.  To Cuba, Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea, The Philippines, Okinawa, Vietnam.  I never got to go with him.  Wherever we were living at the time, the children and I would wait until he returned.   There was a "saying" among Marines that if the Marine Corps had wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.

And now, he has been deployed to heaven.   There will come a day when I fully comprehend that he won't return from this deployment.  But on this deployment, this time, I will someday get to join him.

I will write about him for awhile.  Bear with me.

During this season of his departure, he would look at me and say, "I know two things for sure.  I know that I love you, and I know that God loves me."  I was always humbled by his complete faith in God's love.

As the children's song goes:  "Jesus loves me, this I know,  For the Bible tells me so…"

God loves us.

If I were not a child of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, I don't know who I would be right now.  I am going to have to reinvent the rest of myself.  I was my father's daughter, and then I was Ken's wife.   Now, I am on the first day of the rest of my life.

The service was unbelievable.  A tribute to his life.  Marine guards standing at attention, then the folding of the flag with a presentation to me, a brilliant sermon from a young man that Ken had led to the Lord.  "Eternal Father Strong to Save" sung by the Marine Corps choir.  A full auditorium.  Then a fly over of planes-actually a recording of Corsairs returning from a mission.  And Ken.  In full Mess Dress.  Dark blue, red, with gold braid medals and wings.  Lt. Col. E. Ken Jacks.  Looking exactly like the commanding officer of a fighter squadron--which he was.  Three times.  If you get one squadron command in the Marine Corps, you are very lucky.  His achievements were not luck.  He was truly a great man.

We honored his life.

He honored mine by choosing me.   I have loved.  I have been loved.  What more can we ask for in this life.  Fifty seven years, three months, and one day.

I will see him again.

November 19, Ken left for heaven at 12:55 in the morning.   The last words we had were when I said, "Ken, you are going to God."  He said, "Maybe God is coming to me."  And He did.

He will be buried at Arlington with full military honors.

Strange things happen.  A new couple moved to Pryor, two doors down from our house.  This evening, the man knocked at our door with a  newspaper clipping from 1945.  Seems that although he and Ken had not met in over 65 years, they had played football against each other in high school. The man heard Ken's name and found out we were neighbors.  And brought a copy of the clipping.

Ken got a kick out of me reading the clipping to him.  Pryor against Pawhuska.   They are old men over 80 now, but both of them were once young and remembering the past was a nice thing.  Both of them are veterans.  Korea, Vietnam, and WW2.  

I really enjoyed watching the two of them visiting and remembering.  God bless the men and women who were willing to go war, to serve their country.  All of you out there, thank you for your service.

Ephesians 1:7, 9-10b  "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;…Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,, according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself,…..That he might gather together in one all things in Christ…."

Redemption, blood, forgiveness, grace, mystery, purpose…all in order to gather us all together in Christ.  Paul could say more in one sentence than any other writer I know.

One of Paul's themes deals with the word "mystery".  I will elaborate on this when I write again.

They put Ken on oxygen today.  He is holding his own.  He has won the victory, but keeps losing the battles.  Thank you for your prayers.

There are controversial verses of scripture.  Ephesians 1:3-5 is an example.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:  Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of this will."

Predestined.  There are two arguments.  The first says that only a few were chosen.   This contradicts other scripture:  John 3: 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him might have everlasting life."  There are dozens and dozens of other verses in the Bible that tell us that we are all included in his plan.  His salvation was for all mankind.


The second argument says that God had a predestined plan to adopt us even before the world was formed.  Naturally, if we are to look at all the letters of Paul, we know that he believed the plan of God was for everyone.  He was a Jew, but he called himself the apostle to the Gentiles.

Of course I believe the second point of view.   I believe God told us to share his plan of salvation with the world.  I have a 'driven' desire in my heart to do just that.   I want all of you to be 'driven' too.  I want everyone to know that Jesus died for our sins.  Without that, the entire future is hopeless because we have all come short of God's measuring stick.  As long as I measure myself against other people, I can come off looking okay.  But when I measure myself against Jesus, I am doomed.

Thank God He loved us enough to sacrifice himself for our sin.

  

In the New Testament there is one book of history.  Acts.  The first four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are testimonies of the life of Jesus from four points of view.  The book of Acts tells us what happened next in the lives of the people who were Christians at that time--after the death of Christ Jesus.  It is a very interesting book.

Then we get to the letters of Paul.  A rich treasure trove of personal letters that he wrote to different churches that he had started after he accepted Jesus as the Messiah.  Paul's passion spills forth in each letter.  Paul has found the Christ, and he wants everyone to know the truth.  He wants everyone to know that he was wrong about Jesus, and that he has been converted to Christianity.  To Jesus.

Probably the most important letter he wrote was to the Romans.  Ken, my husband, says that if he could only keep one book of the entire Bible, it would be Romans.

Romans, I Corinthians and II Corinthians are lengthy.  Then there are four short letters.  The first is to the Galatians.  It is not a happy letter.  Paul is unhappy with the Galatians.

Then comes Ephesians, Philippians, and  Colossians.  Very short.  These are an easy read.  I am going to give an overview of each.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives his credentials.  Ep. 1:1 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus."

 Paul said that he was an apostle--by God's will.  Equal in every way with Peter, James, John, Thomas….and the others.  But his mission was not to the Jews.  There were eleven apostles to take care of that back in Jerusalem.  His mission was to tell the Gentiles that they were included.  Not only was he writing to them, but he was writing to us.  The faithful in Jesus Christ.   You are one of those.

My favorite books in the Bible are the ones that Paul wrote.  I have given you a little overview of the manner in which James and Peter wrote.  But Paul.  That is an entirely new level of writing.  Paul had such an advantage over the other New Testament writers.

He was a Roman citizen.  He had studied at the very best "universities" of his day.  He was an expert in Jewish law.  He was extremely respected by the Jewish leaders of the day.  And he hated Christianity so much that he had given his life to killing them.  In his mind, Christians were a threat to the one true God.  The one true religion.  Judaism.   His plan was to stamp out all the Christians and thwart the movement that declared that Jesus was God.  The Jewish Messiah.  Paul even held the coats of the people who stoned Stephen.

But he didn't take into consideration the power of the Holy Spirit.  Until, one day, as he was traveling to Damascus to carry out his reign of terror, he was struck blind. Cut down by a Holy God.

Acts 9:1 "And Saul, (Paul) yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went into the high priest, (Jewish) And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, (Jewish) that if he found any of "this way", (Christians) whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem."

He got the official papers, set out on his journey, and when he was almost there he was blinded by a light from heaven and a voice:  "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  Saul asked who He was, and received a life changing answer.  Verse 4b:  "…I am Jesus who you persecute…"

The rest is history.  Saul began to tremble and asked the eternal question of Jesus:  "…Lord, what will you have me to do?"  When you meet Jesus, that's a very good question to ask him.

 

Peter ends his first letter with a blessing.  1 Peter 5: 10,14  "But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you…..Greet you one another with a kiss of charity.  Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus.  Amen."

Don't you just love Peter!  He is such a changed man.  He looks at life, people, and his own purpose in life with such love and care for others.  He was concerned about the Christians who were being persecuted.  Who were suffering for the faith.

He called on the God of Grace to make us perfect.  To establish and strengthen and settle us.  He reminded us that we have been called into God's eternal glory because of Jesus.  What a marvelous thought.  Eternal glory.  Peter gave us hope.

But he reminded us that until that time comes, we will suffer.  I don't know why we think we will be excused from troubles and trials.  They come to us all.  But we have each other.  Hug someone.  Pray for someone.  Peter says give each other the kiss of charity.

I have been so humbled by the number of people who have given me a hug and said that they are praying for Ken and also for me.  It is a comfort.

Aren't you glad you have friends.  Aren't you glad you have a church family.  There is a song that says, "Make me a blessing…to someone today."  Everyone needs a blessing.  I know I do.

Peter ends his letter by saying, "Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus."  That's us.

I'm getting further and further behind on blogging.  I just haven't been able to get it done in the morning.  I'll try to do better next week.

I have all this knowledge in my head about old glass that is of no use at all anymore.  Every girl wants the stuff her grandmother had, and depression glass was the thing my grandmother had.  Nobody wants depression glass anymore.  Girls today want Tupperware because that's what their grandmother had.

My grandfather had a little grocery store.  Griffin tea gave you a tall green stemmed glass when you bought tea.  Many people bought the tea and left the glasses, so Gran had dozens and dozens of them.  We all drank out of them until we realized they were selling for 25 dollars apiece. We still drink out of them but are a little bit more careful.  

Things have value because someone you love gave them to you, or because they are rare.   One of the favorite things I have is a small valentine candy box.  Empty, except for the memory of my dad giving it to me on Valentine's day way back in the forties.  We certainly didn't have the money, but somehow he managed.  It's just red cardboard, but I see it every day--and feel special.  Daddy thought I was.

Just think of the precious people who wrote to us long ago about Jesus.  People like Peter who gave his life to telling the story that he had personally witnessed.  We have those pages in our hands.  We can read the actual words that Peter wrote.  What a treasure.  They believed that all of us who read their words were special.  God's children.

Twelve Jewish men, (Including Paul).  They knew what they were looking for.  A Messiah as prophesied in the books that Moses and Isaiah, and dozens of others wrote.  And Jesus fulfilled all the prophesy of the Old Testament.  Someone told me that there were over 70 prophesies that Jesus fulfilled.  I've had a few, (a lot) of statistics classes.  The chance of that happening is in the stratosphere.  Jesus was God.  No way around it.  He was the Messiah.  The Jewish Messiah.  And he included me.  And you.     

The third chapter of first Peter is about how wives and husbands should interact with each other.  You can read that part yourself and decide what you need to work on.  Chapter four is general instructions.

Peter 5:6-8  "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour:

The roaring of the male lion scares prey to move toward the pack of females who are ready to make the kill.  They used to think the males had no part in the hunt.  But further study showed that he put fear in the hearts of the prey and caused them to move away from him and into a trap.

The devil himself is the roaring lion who is out to move humans into a trap.  Peter knew about lions.  He used this analogy to explain the absolute necessity to be vigilant.  The devil wants to eat you.

But God, with his mighty hand desires to exalt you.  He requires two things.  You must be humble, and you must cast all your care on Him.

Lately I have been burdened with cares.  As Ken gets weaker,  I can no longer lift him.  But God is watching.  He knows my needs and one at a time my four children have taken turns staying with me.  Yesterday, Pat, my eldest, decided to move in Monday through Fridays for awhile.  Her husband Tom  understands.  He takes care of his parents.  On the weekends, I have a helper that comes in.

God is really good.  I have four children that want to be the ones to take care of their father.  We will do this.  For awhile.  For a while longer.  Ken has no idea how to give up, or quit.  He just keeps on keeping on.  I really don't know how he does it.  God must have a plan that He hasn't shared with me yet.

I had cataract surgery yesterday.  Amazing…"I was blind but now I see…." is what the Bible says.   I just didn't know I couldn't see.  I have to wait a month for the other eye.  Now that I know how bad my sight was, I can't wait to do the other eye.  It is exactly like people who don't know Christ and then find Him.  They don't know the condition they were in until Christ comes into their lives and hearts.  It changes everything.  You aren't spiritually blind anymore.

There is a verse in the third chapter of Peter that I memorized a long, long time ago.  It is a perfect description of what becoming a Christian is all about.

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"

1.  Sanctify God in your heart.  Give God supreme  control of everything you are.
2.  Be ready.  You personally have to prepare and fortify yourself with scripture.
3.  To give an answer.  You have to have the answers in your heart.  You can't help someone if you left   your Bible at home and if you wouldn't know where to look anyway.  Put God's words in your heart.
4.  To anyone.  Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone.
5.  That asks why you are so hopeful.  Jesus is for everyone.  He alone gives us hope.
6.  With meekness and fear.   Have a tender heart.  Listen to what people are saying to you and look for a connection with them.  Share Christ, knowing that you may be rejected.

I am not afraid of rejection.  They aren't rejecting me, they are rejecting God.  I just keep putting Bible stuff in my head hoping that the question someone asks me is a question I have prepared myself to answer.  It is a lifetime commitment to Sanctify God in your heart.  Join me.

Peter had a hard time growing up in the faith.  As a Jew, he had a lifetime of learning to obey hundreds and hundreds of Jewish law.  After Christ arose, Peter understood that Jesus was the Messiah.  But the idea of God including everyone in his plan of salvation was foreign to Peter.  He couldn't imagine that Jesus came to save Gentiles.  He wasn't alone.  There is some indication that James seemed to think that you had to become a Jew before you could be a Christian as well.

You remember that God let a blanket come down with all kinds of forbidden meat in it and told Peter that he was to eat.  Peter refused because some of the animals were forbidden under Jewish law.  God told him, "...what God has cleansed, don't you call common."  Three times.  God had changed everything with the sacrifice of his son.   Peter finally got it, did what God said, and went to share Christ with a Roman Centurion.  A Gentile.  You would think that would be the end of it.  But, no.  It wasn't.  Peter still had a problem with Gentiles being as good as Jews.

When Paul found Christ as his Savior (on the road to Damascus) he went to Jerusalem to meet James, John and Peter who were looked upon in the church as leaders.  They were afraid of Paul, because Paul had been killing Christians.  Barnabas interceded and assured them that Paul was indeed preaching Christ to the Gentiles. They compared notes and agreed that they were all on the same page as far as the truth of the gospel was concerned.  Christ, and Christ alone saved you.

But fourteen years later, Paul returned to Jerusalem because of a conflict that he had with Peter's behavior when Peter had visited Antioch.  Paul  condemned Peter for his hypocrisy, and implicated James and the others as well.  They had a conference and finally,  after fourteen years, Paul, Peter, James and John got their ducks in a row concerning the necessity of obeying Jewish law.  Galations 2: 1-21.  Please read the chapter.  It shows the total humanity of a group of men who were trying to do God's work.  And settled the issue of salvation for Gentiles.  The gospel was for everyone.

There is hope for you and me.  If apostles could fail and admit their faults and be forgiven, so can you and I.  Thank goodness.

Peter doesn't write like like Paul.  Or James, or Matthew, or Luke, or John.  Peter is not exactly my favorite writer, but he is definitely one of my favorite people in the Bible.  What you see is what you get.  He is just so very, very real.  He just says what he thinks.  He tells it like it is.  And he knew his scripture.

1 Peter 2:25 "For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd…of your souls."

This is a reference to Isaiah 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

This scripture (from Isaiah) was what the eunuch was reading when God told Phillip to "Go and join himself to this chariot."  When Phillip explained the verses to the eunuch, the man understood what he was reading and asked Phillip, "See, here is water; what hinders me from being baptized?"

Phillip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may…"  Acts 8:37a

First you believe. Then you are baptized.

Sheep are stupid  They need a shepherd.  With a staff that has a crook on the end to reach out and hook us by the neck when we stray.  Dumb sheep.  That's us.

The new medication worked.  Ken is on dialysis now.  Thank you for praying.

In the middle of all this, my daughter Pat came to help me and brought her dog.  (Incidentally, Squig came through the surgery just fine).  I had to go to Tulsa for an appointment, and Pat came to stay with Ken.  When I got home, Pat ran out to the car to meet me and said, "Oh mother, something really horrible happened."

Of course I had visions of Ken falling again, (he broke a rib a few days ago)  or something worse.

"My dog ate daddy's teeth.  They are broken into  pieces."

God has a sense of humor.  In the middle of difficult times,  funny things happen.  Pat was so upset.  I told her that in the grand scheme of things that broken teeth were minor.  Our dentist had them fixed in two days.

1 Peter 2: 20  "For what glory is it, if when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?  But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God."

Suffer.  Take it patiently.  In other words, God knows what is going on in our lives.  He knows what we are going through.  All of us will suffer in some way or another.  It's nice to know that if we do it well, that it is acceptable to God.

Ken is doing it well.  I have no idea how he does it.

The dialysis unit could not treat Ken today due to his weakened condition.  They will try again tomorrow.  If they still can't, he will be hospitalized.  This can't continue much longer.  I have told him not to feel like he has to stay here for me.  I do not want him to suffer like this because he feels like he is leaving me alone.  Ken knows that I want what is best for him, and that he is the love of my life.

There is a chance that a new drug they started today will give him strength.  But it is only a matter of weeks or days.  We will see.

I am fine.  Knowing that God has a plan for each of our lives gives me strength.  I may not understand, but I trust God's wisdom and can't imagine how those who do not know Christ and his precious love  go through times like this.

I will try and post tomorrow.  However, I am living in the moment right now.  Thank you for you prayers.  I feel so comforted knowing that there are people uplifting me through all of this.

There are some things that Peter said that I would rather he would have left out.  Hard things to hear.
1 Peter 2:13-15  "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.  For so is the will of God, that with well doing you may  put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:"

Stop at red lights.  Obey the speed limit.  Pay your taxes.  In other words, obey the law.  In this way people know that we live peaceful  and honorable lives, which is a testimony to Christ.

However.  However.  I am not a pacifist. Peter cut off an ear.  Even Jesus took a whip to the money changers in the temple.  I'm not advocating using a whip, but there is a time for protest.

In a gas station across from our Jr. High,  I asked a manager to put some magazines under the counter.   My concern was that they were inappropriate for kids who were coming over during their lunch hour.   The manager said, "No."  So I went home and  made a picket sign and started a small protest.  Within an hour the community heard what I had done, quietly agreed, and made themselves some signs. It grew so large that it ended up being news.  A friend in California called and said, "What is going on?  You are on National TV. "  Now it seems my protest was in vain--as porn is rampant and everywhere.

But that day, every establishment in our town that carried those magazines came down where I was picketing and begged me not to picket their stores.  "We've removed all the mags," they said.  "Our suppliers have already been notified not to bring them back." And all I had asked for was to put them under the counter!  I was amazed.  I didn't know you could peacefully protest and accomplish something like that.  I don't know if that fits in with what Peter told us. But knowing Peter, I don't think he meant for us to do wrong things against the will of God just because there is a law.  Peter certainly didn't.   He ended up getting crucified.  Follow the laws.  God's laws first.  I hope you don't get crucified.  

When Christ told Peter that Peter was a pebble, Peter got it.  He understood how the church was going to work.  In 1 Peter 2:4-9  he goes into detail about "stones, and rocks" and the allegory of building a church on the foundation corner stone that is Jesus Christ.  I am going to pick out some phrases.  You probably need to read it all.

Verse 5:  "You also, as lively stones, are built up (into) a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

Verse 9: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:"

In these two verses we, the members of the church,  are described.  Peter calls us:
1.  Lively stones.   We don't sit and soak.  We do stuff.  Good stuff.
2.  Built up.   We learn and grow.
3.  A spiritual house.   Together we form a church where God dwells.
4.  A holy priesthood.  We are our own priest.  Each one of us is holy due to Christ within.
5.  Chosen generation.  God chose us before we chose him.
6.  Royal priesthood.   Jesus is King.  We are joint heirs.  Royal.
7.  Holy Nation.   This is probably referring to the Jews who are now Christians and all of us as well.
8.  Peculiar people.  I love this.  I am definitely peculiar.  We are all very different from the world.

Peter says the first point of all that is to offer up spiritual sacrifices.  (Not sheep, lambs or doves)  And he says that the second point is that we show others the praises of God.  Because he called us out of darkness.  Into His marvelous light.  Marvelous.  Peter said we had become something special to God.

When my children were young, we had a beautiful collie dog named 'Feet' that went missing.  He would never have left on his own, so we knew he had been stolen.   I kept telling the children, "It's just a dog."   I had never been an animal person and I looked at the dog as just another kid to clean up after.  He was never allowed in the house because I wasn't going to vacuum up dog hair up every day. I didn't know at the time that dogs had personalities!!!  I figured they were like turtles.  They needed to live outside.  The only difference of one from the other was size and color.

But  one day I opened the front door  and there was Feet, lying on the porch facing the door with his head between his paws.  His paw pads were bleeding and missing skin.  He had found his way home from some place far away and suffered great injury in doing do.

I brought him into the kitchen, cleaned his paws with warm water and put cream on them.  He licked my fingers.  He stayed in the house that day.  I realized that even though I hadn't loved him, he had loved me.  Someone has to love someone first.

Now I know about dogs.  They are all very different.  A few weeks ago I had six of them in my house all at once.  They all had very different personalities.  And one was my favorite.  He sleeps with me.  Where I go, he goes.  His name is Squig, and this morning he is getting his teeth cleaned for the first time.  And I am praying (!!!) for my dog that he will come through this safely.  My children all say, "Is this our mother???  Who is this woman??"

Someone has to love someone first before we can know what love is, what it looks like, how it feels.
1 John 4: 19  "We love him, because he first loved  us."

After Peter realized how much Jesus loved him, he was never the same.  When he writes something, he is passionate about it.  Do you think Peter had a dog that followed him on his journeys?? I hope so.

I don't know how I raised 4 children, taught at a Jr. College full time, drove 60 miles both ways every day, taught Sunday School at the church and cooked all our meals etc. etc.

Youth is wasted on the young.

Now I find myself wandering around wondering what I am doing.  As Ken always said, "Getting old is not for sissies."

1 Peter 2: 2 "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby."  We have to eat to grow.  The thing is, you need to desire to eat.

I love food.  But now and then, I find the day is half gone and I have forgotten to eat.   That is not healthy for a person's body.  It's also not healthy for us to forget to eat spiritual food.  You get a bad case of spiritual anemia.

You can't quit reading God's word and expect to stay spiritually healthy.  You just have to be consistent and stay in there.  Read.  Eat, digest God's word.

My dog ate the leather cover off of one of my Bibles.  And the first chapter of Genesis.  That isn't what I mean by eating God's word.

 I have a very holy little dog.  And he was totally unrepentant.

1 Peter 1:13 "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…"

Mind control.  You are in charge of your own.  Your mind can be trained to think right and instruct your body to do right.  Everything begins in the mind.  You need to fill it up with good stuff.  Peter says to gird it up just exactly as if you were going into battle.  Which we are.

Sobriety.  Don't be stupid.  You can't function at your best if you numb yourself.  If you numb your mind.  You need all your faculties to think.  And thinking is what you gird the mind up to do.

Hope.  I wonder all the time if today will be the day.  I told you yesterday that I look up every morning and raise my hands to a holy God.  I also check the East just for good measure.  Will Jesus come?  Hope is what we live by.  We believe.  We have faith.  And we hope.

Grace.  It is going to be brought to us by Jesus Christ.  I need some grace.  Taking care of Ken is getting more difficult.  He is trying so hard to do the things he needs to do and losing the fight.  I just hate it for him.  The two of us haven't ever done this before, and every day I ask myself, "Am I doing this right.  Could I do better."  Ken is the love of my life and watching him struggle is so hard.  He never quits, he just loses ground.  He is bigger than life--in his spirit.  But his body is not getting the message.

A lesser man would give up.

I have always liked mazes, puzzles, cryptograms and anything to do with solving problems.  When we took those tests that they gave us when we started school, where you had to look at a multi sided object from one perspective and identify where it fit from another view point, I could "see" it.  I thought everyone could do that.  I loved to sew and figure out how the pieces went together.  If I wanted to change a sleeve or whatever, I figured out how to cut a new pattern.  I always loved Algebra, Calculus, Physics.  They are puzzles waiting to be solved.  I guess I'm a female nerd.

I get up every morning, put on my robe and houseshoes and go out and get the paper. And then I come in with the paper and work the Sudoku puzzle, Cryptograms, and blog.  In that order.  I always look up, raise my hands to the sky, and thank God for the weather, the clouds, the sunshine or moon and tell Him what a good job He did designing our world.  I am so thankful to be alive.  There is so much to be thankful for.  (This month it has been five years since I had surgery for breast cancer.  I survived)

Maybe my desire to work puzzles has something to do with why I love the Bible.  It is like a great big puzzle.  If you don't know what the prophets said,  you don't know what you are looking for as the story unfolds.  It's all tied together.  But like a puzzle, first, you get the outside edges.  Then you work on one color, or one shape, and then you find a connection between what you have put together and some other part within the puzzle.  It begins to make sense.  And finally the last piece falls into place.

Peter didn't quite get it.  He had a big moment, "You are the Christ…" and then he denied Christ, cut off someone's ear, and finally he quit the whole thing and went back to fishing.  The last piece of the puzzle for Peter was the resurrection.  Then he was able to see the picture.  All the pieces were in place.

1 Peter 1:8 "Whom (Jesus) you haven't seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"  He's talking to you and me.  Us. Those of us who haven't seen Jesus.  Peter saw Christ and wanted to rejoice with all of us who have heard his story and believe.  Nothing is more miraculous  than a 180 degree turn around like Peter's life.

One of the more famous remarks concerning Peter is in Matthew 16: 15-16, 18  "He (Jesus) said to them, But who do you say that I am?  And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God….And I (Jesus) say also to you, that you are Peter, (Petros, in Gteek, meaning a small pebble)  and on this rock (Petra, in Greek, meaning a large rock, boulder, cornerstone) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

You can see the gestures as Jesus points at Peter, names him, and tells Peter that he got it right.  Jesus is the Christ.  At the same time, he tells him (Peter) that he is a small rock.  Then Jesus turns his hand and points toward himself and says, "…upon this large rock I will build my church…"  No one but Jesus was ever intended to be the cornerstone of the church.  We are all the the small stones built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Peter was quite specific about this when he gave his his speech in the temple in Acts 4: 10a, 11-12 (after Christ's death).  He tells all the people, "Be it known to you all...by the name of Jesus Christ…who God raised from the dead…the stone which was set at nought of you builders, (the Jewish leadership) which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Paul says it this way:  Ephesians 2: 20-22  "And (you) are built upon the foundation of the apostles, (all of them) and prophets, (all of them).  Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building, fitly framed together grows to a holy temple in the Lord:  In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

That's us.  We are all resting on those who have gone before us.  We are the church.  God inhabits us.  We are the temple of God.

We used to play hopscotch.  Marbles.  Hide and seek.  Now I ride down streets and rarely see children outside.  Nobody sits on their porches anymore.  What happened to porches?  I think I'm out of date.  I would like to see my neighbors every now and then.  If I hadn't given tomatoes away, I don't think I would ever have seen them.

We push  a button and the garage door goes up, we back the car out and we go somewhere, come home punch a button, up goes the garage door and we're back in our houses.  Last night Ken said, "Let's go drag main.  I want to see what's going on."  It was dark outside.  So I got him in the car and drove him downtown.  We drug main.  By ourselves.  Nobody drags main anymore.  Main street  in Pryor was pretty well empty.

I don't know what to think about all that.  I can't be like Peter and go down to the docks and tell everyone what Christ has done in my life.  So I go through the window at McDonalds and say, "God bless you."

But the nicest thing happened yesterday.  The man who lives on the South of us knocked at the door and said, "If you will get your garbage can outside your garage door,  I'll get your garbage out to the street from now on."  (We have a long, long driveway.)   "Don't worry about it anymore.  And when I get in from work at three the next morning, I'll bring the garbage can back to the garage for you."  What a nice thing for him to do.  And what a help that will be to me.  I met them passing out tomatoes!!  

Neighbors are out there.  I just have to work harder to connect, to meet new people and tell them about Christ.  Tell the guy who comes to fix the heater!  That's what I did yesterday.  And he listened.

I'm happy.  Blessed.  I got up this morning and thought about all the women in the world who don't have running water.  Thank God for running water.  And my heater is running again.

It is hard to skip any of the verses in 1 Peter.  1 Peter 3b-6a "…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you.  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  Wherein you greatly rejoice…"

Short, sweet, and to the point.  Peter doesn't mess around.  He is an evangelist.  He gives us the entire story.  He starts with the most important detail of Christ's life, the resurrection, and tells us everything that is going to happen next.

1.  By the resurrection of Jesus Christ
2.  To an inheritance incorruptible
3.  And also undefiled
4.  That does't fade away
5.  Reserved in heaven for you
6.  Who are kept by the power of God
7.  Through faith
8.  Unto salvation
9.  Ready to be revealed in the last time
10. Wherein you and I greatly rejoice

And it makes me pretty happy to think that everything is all taken care of and I that don't have to unpack boxes, decorate, hang pictures or line the kitchen shelves with paper.

When Ken was in the Marine Corps, we made 19 moves in 15 years.  My next move is up, up, up.

Peter and James couldn't be more different in their personalities.  James was very exact.  Peter was over the top exuberant.  Peter never did anything halfway.  When he wrote, he was full of adjectives.

1 Peter 1:3  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,"

First, he blesses God.  Not just God.   Not just Father.  But God and Father.  And then, not just Lord.  Not just Jesus.  And not just Christ.  But Lord, Jesus, and Christ.   I love the way he describes mercy:  Abundant mercy.  And the way he describes hope:  Lively hope.

And then he gives us the gospel.   "…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  That is the historical event that ties the knot. The event that changed Peter's life.  Jesus was God.  He was the Christ.  He was the Messiah.  He is God.  He is the Messiah.  He is God.  He rose from the dead.  Top that!!!

I love Peter.  I identify with him.  I am impulsive.  I am outgoing. I am verbal.  I make mistakes.  I repent.   I am totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.  

When Peter got it right, he never turned back.  I can just see him returning to the sea to find some of his old buddies and telling them that Jesus had risen from the dead!!  Telling them how his friend Jesus had changed his life.  Those guys would have listened to him.  I doubt they would have listened to James.

There is someone out there that your personality will connect with.  Get going.  What do you have to lose.  You may save someone's  life.

We've looked at James.  Let's look at the first of three letters that Peter wrote.

In 1 Peter 1:1, Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. and addresses people he doesn't know who are scattered throughout five different regions.  Although they are strangers, they are brothers in Christ.  New Christians.  Peter wants them to know that he is authentic, an apostle of Jesus.

1 Peter 1:2  "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ::  Grace unto you and peace, be multiplied."  Peter doesn't know these people, but he knows what Christ can do in the life of a person who finds Christ.  Believers have been sanctified.

He explains that it is the blood of Jesus that saves them.  Not the sprinkling of the blood of sacrificial animals on the alter in the holy of holies.  Jesus is the lamb.

Then he blesses them.  With grace and peace.  Why those two things?  Why not health and prosperity?
When you think of the ultimate blessing, it is Grace from God and Peace in the world we live in.  That is what we all need.  And we need it to be multiplied--as Peter wanted.  More and more.

I am so tired of conflict.  It seems like the entire world is in conflict.  Even our nation.  It wearies me.

Yesterday was Ken's birthday.  He is 84 years old.  It was a good day with family and friends.   He was able to get up and join us and eat strawberry shortcake.  Right now it doesn't get any better than that.  He asked me, "Did you ever in your wildest imagination think you would be married to a man who is 84 years old?

I told him, "In my eyes you are always 26.  Just like the day I met you."  And he is.

         James is not a book about the way  to salvation.  It is a book about the results of salvation.  It is a book about behavior.

         One of the most controversial passages in James is his black and white statement concerning Faith and Works in James 2: 15-18.

"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled; notwithstanding you don't give them those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit?  Even so faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead, being alone.  Yes, a man may say, you have faith, and I have works:  show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
          Dead Faith.  A statement of belief in God without any changes in behavior.  (Remember even the devil believes in God.)
          Productive Faith.  A faith that produces differences in the way you live your life.  Especially in the way you treat people in need.  True faith is generous with the less fortunate.  True faith does good.

           On Saturday, we fill up paper bags for the poor, to be picked up by the Postal Service.  This is one way everyone can help.  Don't just fill it with things you don't want.  Fill it with the things that everyone needs.  Flour, sugar, canned goods, etc.
           Don't put your unwanted clothing in a garage sale, give them to a local shelter.

           If you are like me, I don't know any poor people.  People who have no food or clothing.  They are out there, I just don't cross their paths.  If you are like me, you have to go out of your way to find them.  But you can.  It just takes some effort on our part.   We need to remember where it all comes from in the first place.   Don't build bigger barns.

James 3:4a  "Behold also the ships, which though they are great, and are driven by fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small helm…"

Earlier I had written in James 3: 3 about "…bits in the horse's mouths, that they may obey us; and we can turn about their whole body."

James uses those two comparisons to present  what he wants the people to understand concerning a particular sin.  James 4:5a  "Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things.  Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!…"

As we have seen the huge fires in the West this year that were kindled by a match or campfire, we know this is true.  People die.  Thousands lose their homes.

Small things.  Bits, helms and tongues.  They can produce mighty works.  But when misused, can cause disaster.  And each disaster is final.  You can't un-buck a spill from a horse, or un-crash a ship.  In the same way, you can't take back your words.  Once you say something, it is irretrievable.  Your words do great good or great harm.

We are social people.  We love to communicate.  But care is needed in what we say, how we say it and whether it should be said at all.  I have such difficulty in this area because I am a public speaker.  I find by writing to all of you, I can edit, and reedit what I want to say.  You can't do that when you open your mouth.  If you say something, you can't very well edit it.  All you can do is apologize.

In James 3: 10 James gives further warning.  "Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so."  Basically, that means don't curse.

Yesterday, my oldest son Scott said something that I thought was interesting.  He said, "Wouldn't it have been hard to have your older brother always being perfect.  Can your imagine what James felt like having a brother that was always good.  Never got into trouble.  Was always obedient to his Mom and Dad.  Never missed church.  Gladly shared everything he had."  Then my son said, "That would have been really, really hard to live with."

Sometimes we read the Bible and we don't think about the humanity of the people we read about.  We know that James didn't think that Jesus was the Messiah.  He didn't think Jesus was anything but his older brother until the resurrection.   Then it all came into focus.  Jesus was God.  Jesus had lived a perfect life in order to die for us.  When Jesus rose from the dead, James was forever a changed man.

James started the letter he wrote by saying, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,…"  James had given his life to God and recognized the Lordship of his own brother.  He realized that everything his mother Mary had told him about his older brother had been true.  After the resurrection, James understood the prophecies of the Old Testament had been fulfilled.

Mary and Joseph.   Jesus,  James and their sisters and brothers.  Wouldn't that have been an interesting family.  I had never even thought about that.

There is so much in the Bible that I have never thought about.  That's why reading it is so interesting.  You always are learning something new.  It is alive.

I'm going to tell you a story.  Six months ago, I got tattooed.  A radical procedure for a woman who is  75.  But there is background.  You don't just jump up and go get tattooed at my age.  My mother probably rolled over in her grave--as the old saying goes.

Five years ago, after a long illness, (I survived, praise God)  not only did my hair fall out, so did my eyebrows.  Permanently. Then a year ago one of the chambers of my heart quit working.  Stopped. So I had to have shock therapy and then they put me on a drug that makes me shake.  Which meant that every time I tried to sign my name it looked like  chicken scratching.  And every time I tried to use my eyebrow pencil it took forever and a day to pencil them in and was a mess.  Lipstick was even worse.  So I had my eyebrows  tattooed on.  Best thing I ever did for myself.  It was so great I decided to have my lips tattooed as well.

Yes,  I could  have given the makeup up, but my generation always makes up their face.  Our mothers instilled real fear in us if we left the house without looking our best.  And Seventeen magazine reminded us in every issue of all the things that were wrong with the way we looked.

James 4: 17 "Therefore to him (her) that knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him (her) it is sin."

James is definitely not talking about tattoos. He's talking about doing good.  Not getting something good--like a tattoo.  He is saying that not only is doing the wrong thing a sin, so is not doing the right thing.  That divides sin into two categories.  Mercy.  Just when I thought I was almost there, I find out that there is an entire other category of sin.  This is getting serious.   I am certainly not doing enough good things for others.  I can do better.  And James says if I know it and don't do better, I'm in trouble.

It's time to give up on the okra and tomatoes.  For me, it's hard to pull up the stalks that have served me so well all summer long.  It's like saying farewell to an old friend.  But the okra has made seed that will get planted again in the spring.  And the tomatoes were so prolific that I have been begging my neighbors to take them.

When I was very young, my dad once told me  that if there weren't any yellow blooms on the okra, there wouldn't be any okra. And if there wasn't any rain, there wouldn't be any blooms.  I wasn't very big, and had never known anything about growing things, but I understood what he was saying.  You have to have rain.  So in Oklahoma, we always pray for rain.

James 4: 17 "…the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

My dad was all of those things.  Pure.  Peaceable.  Gentle.  Easy to be Entreated.  Merciful.  Full of good works.  Without partiality.  Totally without hypocrisy.  I was  truly blessed.

He gave me the wisdom that he had without making me feel stupid.  Now, when I pick okra, I always look to see how many yellow blooms are there.  So I know how much more okra is coming.  And I always think of my dad.  Maybe that is why I like to garden.

How do you pass wisdom along?  Maybe the reason that the younger generation doesn't listen to us like they should is because we don't have the qualities needed to pass wisdom along.  They need it.  We have it.  So maybe those 8 qualities James talked about God having, are qualities we need in our own lives.

Bloom where you are planted.

We have a dear friend (Cleta) who brings Ken a coconut pie every couple of weeks.   Ken loves coconut pie.  He has half of it eaten before the day is done.  And then finishes it off before noon the next day.  It is such a nice thing for her do for Ken.  Her husband Jim was part of the Normandy invasion on D-day.  We eat breakfast with them every Saturday and Ken and Jim swap war stories.

We have been so blessed with people in our lives that really do what James said we should do.  Do good.    When James writes something, it's all black and white.  No gray.

James 2:19  "You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble."

Now there is an interesting thought.  Believing that there is a God doesn't save you.  Believing there is only  one  God doesn't save you.  If there is anyone who believes there is one God, it is Lucifer--Satan himself.  He went head to head with God and lost.   He, the devil, knows positively that there is only one God.

Now he (Satan) roams the earth.  1 Peter 5:8  "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking who he may devour."  We must take this fact seriously.  We are in danger of an adversary who spends all of his time  looking for people to ruin.  Their lives.  Their relationships.  He is relentless.  You are his target.

The Holy Spirit is what saves us.  Inviting Christ into your life is the step we must take after believing that there is one God.   It is Christ who saves you.  "...Christ in you, the hope of glory. "  Col. 1: 27b

He alone is our hope.

James 2: 8  "I you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well'."

John put it this way:   "A new commandant  I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."  John 13:34.

The other disciples said it in similar ways.  But one thing is sure, Christ changed the way we look at law. Keeping 10 rules no longer cuts it.   That's just a starting place.    We have to love others in exactly the same way Jesus loved us.  It has to come from within our hearts.

You can't possibly do it unless you have been changed.  Even when you have been changed it is sometimes difficult.  Some people just aren't lovable.  But we are not given a choice.  Love and "Like" are two different things.

Love is not a feeling, it is a behavior.  It doesn't matter how we feel, what matters is what we do.

James nails this down in James 2: 14a  "What does it profit, my brothers, though a man says he has faith, and doesn't have works…."

Faith, followed by works is the natural result of being changed by Jesus.

There are lots of ways to love others.  Sometimes chicken soup will do.  But sometimes it takes writing a check.  Other times a person just needs someone to listen to them.

Thanks for listening to to all the stuff I've written.

The word "religion" is very seldom used in the Bible.  Of the three times I found it referenced, two are in the book of James.  Once in James 1:26 and once in verse 27.  James realized  that Christianity was something very, very different from Judaism, and tried to define some basic behaviors that any religion

should produce in the lives of its followers.   He was primarily speaking to Jewish converts. 

James 1:26 "If any man among you seems to be religious, and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain."

James 1:27  "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,  To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

I think that James was correct about the necessity for a few identifying  characteristics  that any religion should have.

1.  You know when to keep your mouth shut.  I got on one of my daughter's horses a few months ago and was able to lead him where I wanted him to go because of the bridle in his mouth.  God needs to be in the saddle of  your life and you need a bridle in your mouth.

2.  You attend to the needs to those who are in need:  those who are sick, those who are homeless, and those who are alone.   

3.  You live differently (unspotted) from the world.

But religion in itself isn't enough for salvation.  You must give the saddle to God.  You must accept the bridle.  When you truly give yourself to Christ, you have the heart to do his will.  The Holy Spirit.

There is nothing worse than getting on a bucking horses that won't do your will.   They aren't worth anything to the rancher until they have a heart to do the master's will.   

Last week was difficult for Ken.  Thank you for your prayers.  Like I told you, I don't believe in luck.  I believe in prayer.  And when you are exhausted, it is very comforting to know that others pray for you.

So I can't help but skip from the first chapter of James to the fifth chapter to tell you this:

James 5:16b  "…and pray one for another, that you may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  Effectual.  Fervent.  Prayer.  Of righteous people.

He's better, siting up.  He ate  a huge dinner  and finished it off with Blue Bell peach ice cream.

Some of you have asked why I haven't answered your comments.  I didn't know how.  Yes, it is easy if you know what you are doing.  I don't, but as it turns out, the system didn't work.

Your comments now work.
If you subscribe to my blog via email the only way to comment is through the blog site    (http:/janiescupoftea.blogspot.com)   

          Any replies to the email feed go to a dead mailbox.  

                 Site comments require you use Google profile,  or page id.

James 1:25  "But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

James uses a phrase:  "…the perfect law of liberty…"  to describe what happens when we step from the Old Testament laws into the New Testament laws.  He says we now have a law called "Liberty."

He says the new laws are perfect.  That if we follow these laws we will not be forgetful about what we hear, or what God expects of us.  That there is a work to be done, and we will do it.  That's what happens with the salvation experience.  We get "a will" to do God's work.  He gives this "will" to us.

Hebrews 10: 16  "This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and I will write them in their minds."

Now, when we hear God's words, we remember them.  They are written not in stone, but in our hearts.

Ezekiel 11:19  "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; That they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them:  and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

One heart.  New spirit.  A heart that is soft, not hard.  We will walk in his laws.  Do his work.  Then Ezekiel gives a blessing.  "…I will be their God."   James also gave a blessing:  "…this man shall be blessed in his deed."

Doing good feels good.  You are the one who gets the blessing.

How much do you have to know anyway.  All the fine points of the Bible can be learned as you go along.  But for the purpose of sharing Christ--being a disciple--you really only need your own experience.  You needed forgiveness.  God forgave you.  In Christ.  Jesus covered what you have done wrong.  He is ready to forgive others as well.

James 1: 23-24  "For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass (mirror): For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straight away forgets what manner of man he was."

Sunday morning Christians.   They come to church on Sunday, listen attentively, agree with everything that is being taught, and then go home and do nothing about it.  Unchanged.   The Gospel is a life changing message.  But it has to start from the inside and work its way out.  Not the other way around.  If Christ is not in your heart, you have no motive to change.

We use other people to be our looking glass.  You say something, they smile or frown and you react.  People behave in a back and forth way, being shaped from the outside in.  You may think you are a self made man, but the truth is, we are all shaped by what we grow up observing.  And the way to be changed from the inside out is to let Christ shape you.  In the Bible it's called regeneration.

After Ken retired from the Marine Corps, he taught Sociology at a local college.  There was a theory that was prevalent among Sociologists at the time, (by Cooley) called the "Looking Glass Theory."  Ken always took his Bible into the classroom and read James 1: 23-24 to the class and told them that this "looking glass" theory wasn't new.  It had been written over 2000 years ago.   And that we were changed in only two ways.  Either from the outside in, (Looking Glass Theory) or from the inside out.

Great way to get the Bible into the classroom.

James is full of one line zingers.

James 1: 22  "But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

Which means:  It doesn't do you any good to learn, learn, learn if you don't put it into action.

I teach young women from time to time. I have determined that I can give a class almost everything that I have to give in three years.  By that time, they are either ready to serve or they aren't ever going to do anything but listen.

I had a class full of women that were ready to serve in the church.  They just didn't know it.  They wanted to stay in my class and sit and soak.

So I told them, "It's time for all of you to go find a place in the church to serve."  Three months later, they were still in my class, so the next Sunday I told them that I was quitting.   "I'm going to go teach High School seniors."

Now, they are all serving in the church as leaders.  It's been forty years.  The other day, one of them said to me  "I couldn't believe you would really leave us.  I couldn't believe that you would just up and quit."  I told her that I didn't quit, I just got a brand new set of "listeners."

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  Just be sure you are a doer--of the word.  Not a sit and soaker. "Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."  2Tim. 3: 7

One of my readers in Europe said she knew something was going on with me because my posting times were so erratic.  As usual, I never know what the point of my problems is until they are over.  I just figure I'll get through it with the help of God.

I just don't like to sound like I have a complaint.  I don't.

But Ken had one of his regular emergencies.  It's his arm where they do his dialysis.  It has five stents and clogs up from time to time.  Which requires emergency surgery.  His Tulsa surgeon and I know each other pretty well by now.  I like him.  And he knows me well enough to know that when I call that it's an emergency--so when I call,  Ken is next in line for surgery.  Usually by the time I can get him to Tulsa.  If I wait for the people here to get me in with someone it might take a week. I have a type A personality in case you haven't figured it out.  One of my favorite words is "Now." (Politely of course.)

Anyway, all is well.  I have just been busy with details.  Things are back to normal, whatever that is.  Ken was sitting up at the hospital today saying he was hungry.  He ate.  They let him go home.  He has spent the day catching up on the crossword puzzles.  He's back in charge.

I love talking to all of you.  I still have not been able to access your comments, but my computer  savvy daughter--who set all this up for me--is here for a few days, and she is going to figure it out for me.  So if you have comments, I will be looking forward to seeing what you have to say.  If you don't, that's ok as well.  I know you are out there.

We have the same God.

This verse is one we have all heard before, or memorized.  James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

God is the great giver.  You can't out give him.  Everything good comes from him.

 I have a habit of praying for a parking space close to the door of the places I need go.  It's easier for Ken to get in.  It's easier for me as well.  It's uncanny the way they appear when I need one.  They come, from above.  From the Father--when I really need it.

I don't recommend that you pray for that particular thing, I'm not advocating pie in the sky, but whatever your need, God can supply it.  I just happen to need to get into doctor's offices, etc. as easily as possible.

Why are we surprised when God gives us what we need?

He is the Father of Lights.  He doesn't cast a shadow.  He doesn't turn away from us.  He doesn't vary from one moment to the next.  He is our provider.

If you think you or your spouse is your provider, you haven't had a real crisis in your life.  God is the provider.  He gives the gifts.

And we don't need the same things.  Right now, in my life the only thing I really need is a parking space near to the door.

Authority is always granted from the bottom up.

There may be rules, laws, ordinances or agreements.  But unless you choose to comply, there is no authority over you.  True, you may end up in prison, lose your job, have your spouse leave you or even end up dead.  But each individual chooses whether or not  to come under authority.

Every time I come up to a stop sign, I grant the state the authority to decide when I should stop.  But I can choose not to obey that authority.  There are consequences if I don't obey, but it is my choice.  I grant authority when I stop my car.

When we give our lives to Christ, we grant him authority over us.  It is our choice.  He cannot force us.  But once that authority is granted, there are consequences.  Good, if we follow him.  Bad if we don't.  Once we are his, we are his.  He will not let us go.  Much like a good father, he leads us into good choices and gives us a bad conscience when we do wrong--so we can repent and renew the fellowship with him.  You can't do anything to break the relationship.  You are bought with a price.  You are his.

James is a very authoritarian writer.  He spells out what we should be doing in short blunt statements.  He was the top elder or pastor of the Jerusalem church and as such, had the authority to speak.

He knew Jesus well.  He grew up with him in the same house, with the same mother.  Although James didn't become a Christian until after the resurrection, once he knew that Jesus was God, James was a faithful follower and granted Jesus--the Christ--full authority over his life.  Once James chose Christ, he was willing to die to spread the good news.   I am thankful for his writings.

Temptation?  Depending on your age, you have passed through many different periods of temptation in your life.  You can look back and wonder what your problem was, since what tempted you then may not tempt you now.  One temptation that I have had all my life has been any kind of bread with yeast in it.

My mother used to send me to the store with 2 dimes for two loaves of bread.  She knew that I would eat one whole loaf before I got home.  Luckily I had a racing metabolism so I didn't gain weight. (Yes, bread was a dime.)  Doughnuts should have been a food group.

When I finally got to Junior High School, I would take my quarter to the Bakery.  While my friends were eating their hamburger and french fries, I would eat an entire loaf of fresh baked bread.  There is nothing wrong with bread unless you are me.  I don't seem to know when I've had enough.

It's easy to judge someone who has a temptation in their life that you don't have.  But judging your own temptations is something we should regularly do.  My method of dealing with the things that tempt me is to stay away from them.  When you have a lifetime habit that is damaging you or those around you, quit.  I don't go to bakeries when I am in charge of what is going on because I know the aroma will overcome me.  I limit myself to one doughnut a week at church.

Why in the world would a church hand out doughnuts and coffee.  I know.  I know.  It's not your temptation--but I could eat the entire dozen in the box.  You might be thinking, It's not Scotch--it's not cigarettes.  No, but the way I eat bread is not good for my health.

James 1: 12  "Blessed is the man (woman) that endures temptation:  for when he is tried, he (she) shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him."

 I bet there will be doughnuts in heaven.  There's probably going to be a doughnut tree.