1 Peter is only four short pages.  But he stays on target.  He is writing to Jews who would understand all the things I have been telling you about the mercy seat, priests, and sacrifices.  (I wish I could tell you all of it, but that would take hours.)

1 Peter 2: 5,9  "You also, as lively stones, are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up a spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ……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."

We are the church.  We are spiritual houses.  Built up on Jesus Christ--the corner stone.  No more temples, no more buildings where we have to go to meet God.  Now God lives within us.  We gather together in buildings to praise him.  To learn about him.

And no more blood sacrifices.  Now our sacrifices are spiritual.  We are royal priests that go straight to God.  Into the marvelous light behind the torn veil.

We are peculiar people.  We live in the light.

As long as I am talking about the "mercy seat" that was in the holy of holies where the priest took the blood of the sacrificed lamb each year, let me run you back to the Old Testament where the directions were given to Moses for building it.  Exodus 25: 17a, 21a "And you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold…and you shall put the mercy seat above, upon the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you."  (The ark is another story)

And here is the good part:  Ex. 25:22  "And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat…"  That's where God would be.  Above the mercy seat.

The people had to go to the tabernacle--which was a huge, huge, tent--to meet with God.  And they couldn't even go into the holy place.  Not like now.  We get to talk to Him wherever we happen to be.  We can ask for mercy any time we need it.  But mercy is always granted because of the blood of Christ.

Sin.  It has always been a problem for us.  We don't want justice,  We want mercy.  And since the veil was ripped open, We can go to the mercy seat of God immediately, We don't have to wait a year.  Because Christ died for me and paid the penalty for all my sin, I am a joint heir with Jesus.  God is now my Father. What a deal.  (However, the assumption that God makes is that you will quit committing known sin.  You don't go get mercy so that you can keep doing wrong over and over again.)

Read the 24-26 Chapters of Exodus.  The Holy of Holies was very, very important.  God knew that someday he was going to open it to those who accepted his Son.  The men who built it didn't.  Jesus hadn't come yet.  But remember, you can't go in unless you have accepted the blood of Christ as a covering for your sin.  And to do that, first you have to repent.  Saying "I'm sorry," isn't repentance.   (Yes, I'm going to connect all of this to Peter.  I just needed to give you some background.)

Years ago, I heard someone say, "Those bloody Baptists."  Which was meant to be derogatory.  But Methodists, Church of God, Pentecostals, and most other main stream churches are on the same page as the Baptists.  You can't have salvation without sacrifice.   The Jews sacrificed a perfect lamb for their sin.  They had to do this every year.   (We call Jesus "The Lamb of God.")

Peter put it this way:  Peter 1: 18a-19, 21  "For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, (such) as silver and gold…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot...Who by him (we) do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God."

They used to tie a rope around the Jewish priest that (once a year) took the blood of an unblemished lamb into the holy of holies.  If the priest touched the Ark of the Covenant he would die.  Then they needed a way to get him out--since they couldn't go in--so they pulled on the rope.  Sacrifice for sin was done with blood.  But they were saved just as we are.  By faith.  Faith in a coming sacrifice that would take away sin once and for all.

An interesting moment occurred when Jesus died.  Mark 15: 37-38 "And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.  And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom."  This was the veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the Temple where that one person, once a year went in.  But when Jesus died, this huge veil, many, many feet high began to rip from the top down.  In an instant, the veil was torn open, and the holy of holies was revealed.  Torn open in the instant that Jesus gave up his spirit and died.

With Christ's death, his blood was given to seal our salvation.  And with the veil ripped open, God was saying, "Welcome.  Come on in.  Welcome to this holy place.  Talk to me.  You don't need a priest anymore, your sins are forgiven.  Covered by the blood of my son, Jesus."

Where do our ideas of what Jesus looked like come from?  I am sure that one artist must have given his rendition, and another saw it, tweaked it, made it look more "holy".  After all, this was the Son of God they were trying to paint.  God himself in human form.  You wouldn't have wanted to paint a picture of a common looking man.

So what we have are pictures of very handsome men.  Thin and wispy.  I've never seen a picture of Jesus with muscles.  And yet, he spent his first 30 years as a carpenter.  Lifting logs, using a ragged tooth hand saw.  Hefting lumber to build houses.  Probably carrying logs long distances.  He would have cut his hands.  There would have been scars on his arms.  You couldn't do that for 30 years and not look the part.

His hands would have been callused just like Peter's hands.  He would have been muscular just like Peter was.  They were both "working men."  You would never have looked at Jesus and thought, "Isn't he sweet."  When he took a whip to the money changers in the temple, he had the hands to do it--very effectively.  He cleaned them out.  Nobody stood up to him.  He was a man's man.

Isaiah described him this way:  Isa. 53: 2b-3a  "...he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him...a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…"  And Peter followed him.

Peter saw truth in Jesus.  He saw a man that had paid his dues.  Jesus was  the man that would draw Peter away from his fishing nets and make Peter a "Fisher of Men".  He changed him.  He changes you and me.  If you aren't changed, you might want recheck the man you say you believe in.  He's certainly worth following.

I love the way Peter describes things.  He is talking about the gospel  in verses 10 through 12.  He says it was revealed to the prophets that Jesus was coming and that they wrote about it.  And then he says that he can now testify that what the prophets told us has come to pass.  The Messiah is come.

And here is the line I love that is so "Peter".  Peter 1:13  "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind…" This is a term of battle, to gird up your loins before you go to face the enemy in combat.  But Peter uses the term to describe the war we must fight with what we have in our minds.

You can't fight if you have an empty mind.  But when you read God's word, it sticks.  The Holy Spirit helps us recall what we need when we need it.  Even if you can't remember where it was, which book it was in, you can look it up in the concordance or on line.

Peter was a man with callused hands.  He had spent his life hauling fish nets full of fish up and into a boat.  His shoulder muscles must have been huge.  He would have been very very strong.  He was looked up to by his fellow fishing buddies.

Would Peter have followed a wimp?  Can you even imagine him leaving his nets to follow a man of less stature than himself?  Jesus said, "Come, follow me."  And Peter did.  For three years.  Our pictures of Jesus are fashioned after all of the early oils commissioned by the Catholic Church, many of which hang in the Louvre in Paris.  Hundreds upon hundreds of them.  The artist had no idea what Jesus looked like and probably fashioned their portraits on other portraits.  I don't know.  But I have walked down row upon row of these paintings and can't imagine Peter following any of the men portrayed in them.

More about this tomorrow.

When I was a little girl, I went to church 3 times a week.  And Bible School.  And Sunday school.  I loved Bible School.  There were projects to do, pop cycle sticks to glue into stick people, boxes, whatever.  But the thing I loved best were the colored cards with ten scriptures on them.  If you memorized them all, you got another card.  It was like Bible baseball cards.  I wanted them all.

So every day I would memorize all ten scriptures so I could get another card the next day.  For two weeks of Bible School.  100 scriptures every summer for years and years.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.

I took elocution from the time I was 6 until I think I was 10.  My teacher made me stand straight and recite poetry (from memory) with the correct facial and body presentation.  "Make it interesting to the listener," she would say.  When I finally got it like she wanted it, I got a sticker--a bird, dog, flower, whatever, on the poem.  The only thing I cared about was the sticker.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.

I have been teaching Bible since I was l7.  The teacher kicked me out of class because I talked too much.  The pastor started me out teaching 9 year old girls.  Wrong motivation.  Right result.  Since then, there has been almost 60 years of studying the Bible in order to teach others.

What I am trying to say is that when you learn to do something well, who knows what God will do with it.  I am never afraid to speak.  To 10 or a thousand.  I know how to do that because I took elocution.  And when I speak, I have something to say because I have scripture in my memory.

And it is never too late.  My friend Carolyn who is 74 just started taking piano lessons.  "I always wanted to know how to play."  Learn something God can use.  Keep learning.

We have a reservation for heaven.  All paid for, ready to go.  Peter said so.  And he ought to know.

In Peter 1:8-9,  He begins to talk to us--you and me--about the man (Jesus) that he spent three years following. "Who, having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory:  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."   Again Peter said so, and again, Peter knew.  He was an eye witness to  everything that he wrote down for us.  He saw every miracle that Jesus did.  He saw Jesus alive and well after having been crucified, buried, and sealed in a tomb.

Think about it.  We believe in a man who lived 2000 years ago.  A Jew.  We have a written record, but we have never seen this man.  But because of the testimony of 11 disciples, a man named Paul and his friends Mark and Luke, we hear the remarkable story of Jesus' life.  They wrote it down.

The change in the lives of these men after the resurrection bears such a vivid testimony of the truth that they experienced, that it fairly jumps off the pages of the Bible.  There is nothing in recorded history that is even remotely like it.  It grabs your heart.  All but one of these men died for the truth they wrote about.   They went from confused and without direction, to passionate about the story of Jesus.  They changed the world because of what they saw.  They saw Jesus die.  They saw him risen from the dead.

And they wrote.  We are so blessed that they wrote.  They gave a trustworthy account.  And they all gave the same account--even though they were scattered all over Asia.  The truth is true.

And because of this written record, our faith allows us to receive the end of our faith.  The salvation of our souls.

So.  Peter tells us that we have a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  He continues in 1 Peter 1: 4-5  "To an inheritance that is incorruptible, and undefiled, that doesn't fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation…"

We have a reservation.  It's a done deal.  We inherited it ( it was bought and paid for) when we became God's child, Christ's brother. That's what God and Christ say they are.  Our Father.  Our joint heir, Christ being the first heir. (Yes I know they are "One", but I'm just not deep enough, or something enough, to understand that.  There is one God.  That's good enough for me.)

My daughter Becky goes overseas often.  She will call and say, "How does this sound.  Does this sound like somewhere you would like to stay?"

How in the world would I know.  I just tell her to book something she would like, and I'll tag along.

She will call back and say, "We have reservations…"  And then three or four months later, we go.  You can't just get on a plane and hope you have a place to stay when you get there.

And that is true for Heaven as well.  You have to have a reservation to be able to go there.  And you absolutely have to book your reservation in advance.  That's  the rule.  And more than that, there is only one way to get there.  Jesus said, "...I am the way…"

You can't just sit around and hope everything will turn out okay.  You have to accept Christ's death as the payment for your sin.  And grab hold of the resurrection as your hope for life.  Eternal.  Reserved.

I've been reading the two books that Peter wrote.  He writes so very different from Paul.  Paul was a theologian with an extensive education.  Peter was a fisherman.  His hands were probably gnarled and calloused from dragging in nets and from rowing boats.  He didn't have the vocabulary that Paul did.

When Peter writes, he doesn't go into a lot of explanations.  He just speaks.  And it is always to the point.  I am a huge fan of Peter's writing.  When I find an important verse (to me) in the Bible, I underline it.  I have more verses underlined in Peter than almost any other book.  I am going to go through 1st Peter with you, so read it yourself.  It shouldn't take two or three minutes.  It's short.

He begins by identifying himself as an apostle, and then addresses all of the strangers, Christians that had scattered due to the persecution of the Jews in Jerusalem.  Getting a letter from Peter would have meant a lot to these people.  They were frightened, and for the most part, alone.  Christianity hadn't spread.  But because of these people it was about to.  My daughter Becky says, "God's word is spread through his people.  But his church is spread through persecution."  They were definitely persecuted.

I Peter 1:2-3  Peter calls them elect.  "…through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience (and through) sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…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,"

Life after death in a good place called heaven.  That's a pretty lively hope.  It is what we are counting on because this life is short and eternity is long.  So.  Sanctification (growing into Christlike people) produces obedience.  It's a good thing God is merciful or we wouldn't have lively hope.  We wouldn't have any hope at all.  He has begotten us again.  Born again.  That's what we are.  New creatures.

Yesterday I said for you to read the Bible.  Read His Word.  It is personal.

This last weekend I went to Edmond to see my daughter Becky and go to the "Edmond Antiques" shop where she has booths.  I love to go there.  The people are fabulous and the owner, Pam, and the booth renters are all good friends.

Well, while I was there, Brenda, one of the booth renters told me that because of a blog I had written she had started reading her Bible again.  And she was really enjoying it.  That made me happy.

You have to find a translation that you can enjoy.  I like the "Living Bible."  It isn't a translation, it's a transliteration--it puts the thoughts in everyday English instead of translating word for word.  Of course, I have to go back and read the King James as well because I was raised on it.

Pam said she found the KJ thees and thous and all the words that end in 'th difficult.  Most people would rather read another translation as well.  But find something.  And don't make it a job.  You don't have to read a chapter, or a book.  Just read until your mind starts to wander.  Sometimes for me, that is one or two verses.  Other times I read an entire letter from Paul two or three times to be sure I "got" it.  If you need a plan, then get one.  If you don't, fine.  Just read.

Psalms 40:  7-8  "Then said I (God), Lo, I come:  in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do your will, O my God: yes, your law is within my heart."

You can tell an Oklahoma woman by the way she turns her head into the wind.  She wants to keep her hair from messing up.  Even our state song speaks of the Oklahoma wind.  "When the wind comes sweeping down the plain."  And "The waving wheat…"  It waves because of the wind.  The Oklahoma wind blows.  It howls.  It turns your garbage cans over.  And that is just our normal every day wind.

My youngest son lives in Moore.  The tornado last year was huge.  And very, very wide.  It moved toward Moore so slowly.  It simply chewed up everything in its path.  I was watching it on TV as it moved down on the school where my son and his wife taught.  You knew people were going to die.  All I could do was pray.

Psalms 86: 1-6  "Bend down and hear my prayer, O Lord, and answer me for I am deep in trouble .  Protect me (them) from death, for I try to follow all your laws.  Save me (them), for I am serving you and trusting you.  Be merciful, O Lord, for I am looking  up to you in constant hope.  Give me happiness, O Lord, for I worship only you.  O Lord, you are so good and kind, so ready to forgive, so full of mercy for all who ask for your aid.  Listen closely to my prayer, O God.  Hear my urgent cry.  I will call to you whenever trouble strikes, and you will help me."

We need to have the kind of relationship with our God so that when the wind blows, we can go to him.   And when trouble strikes we know that he will help us.  The conditions in the passage are:  1. I try to follow all your laws.  2.  I am serving and trusting you.  3.  I look up to you.  4.  I worship only you.

You can't say things like that in prayer if you wait until you have an emergency to call on God.  You have to know him pretty well to pray like that.  Get to know Him.  Read His Word.

I don't like rules that other people make.   I'd rather make my own rules.  However, since God is in control of the universe, and since He made us, He gets to make the rules.  We get to choose if He is in charge or if we are.  Those are our only two choices.

Becoming a Christian means you have to give it up.  All of it.  You have to let God be in charge of the rules.  Yes, we are saved by faith.  But we are saved to do good works.  And follow the rules.  So that others can see Christ in us by our example of righteous living.

Psalms 19: 7 -9  "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul:  the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.  The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart:  the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.  The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever:  the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

When you read a passage from the Bible, it helps if you break it down into its parts.

Law------------------------Perfect
Testimony----------------Sure
Statutes--------------------Right
Commandments---------Pure
Fear of the Lord---------Clean
Judgments----------------True, Righteous

On the left are a bunch of words concerning "Rules".  On the right are words about the result of following the rules God lays down for us.  I would like to be Perfect, Sure, Right, Pure, Clean, True, and Righteous.  So I guess I will follow the rules.  (Being "right" all the time really appeals to me!!!!  But I seriously doubt that's what that passage means.)

I went out to dinner last night with a really good looking 25 year old man.  Black curly hair.  Looked like one of those models in GQ.  He was so nice.  He said: "Let's do this every time you are in town.  We'll have a date night."  What more could a grandmother ask for than to be loved by her grandson.   As I have gotten older, he still wants to know what I think about things.  His brother is just as kind.

I wouldn't want to leave out any of the others.  There are 9 of them.  One granddaughter goes for groceries.  Another just stops by to see how I am doing, or what I need her to do for me.  The youngest of the nine is two years old.  I hope I am around for him to take me out on a "date night" someday.

I can't help but think that this is one of those "I will bless you to the seventh generation" things that God promised to give us.  That because my great-grandmother Sarah suffered so much and stayed faithful to God, the generations after her are also blessed.  Her husband died young and left her with four children.  And a cow.  Thank God for the cow or they wouldn't have made it in the mid 1800s.  In Arkansas, with no other family to help.

Sarah's youngest, my grandmother, had five children.  She was a really good woman and raised her children in the church.  She only had an eighth grade education, but she saw that all of her children went to college, got degrees and raised their children pretty much like she had raised them.

I guess my point is:  Someone has to start doing the right things if we want it to trickle down to the seventh generation.  God says he bless our lives and the lives of those who come after us if we do his will.  Think of all the people you will bless.

I have a new favorite recipe.  I eat it every morning.  I ground up a ham (smoked in cherry wood) and then fried the bits till they were crunchy.  I mixed a couple of tablespoons with an egg, fried it and then rolled it up in a burrito with half an avocado.  Once I get started on something like that, I will eat it every day for months.

Habits are like that.  Once you get started, it gets easier every time you do it.  I remember back in l963 when we got seat belts, I just couldn't remember to buckle up.  I finally threw my hands up in disgust.

I wanted to buckle up.  I just couldn't remember.  Then one day I got the bright idea that instead of making it my problem, I would make it God's problem.  I told him, "You remind me when I get in the car, and I'll buckle up.   I never forgot again.  I have been buckling up for 50 years.

Sometimes, we forget that God is there in the little problems as well as the big ones.  Or we just think that we would be bothering him if we called on him about the small things in life.  Or we just don't think of God as being interested in little things--that we should handle the small stuff ourselves.

Psalms 46: 1  "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble."

A present help.  He is not far away.  He wants to hear from us.  I guess if we need help, all we need to do is ask for it.  Talk to Him.  Sometimes I mumble.  But God hears our hearts.

I have spent more time in the post office in the last month than I have spent in all of the rest of my life put together.  I have been drowning in paper work.  I had no idea how difficult dealing with the federal government was.  I don't think I had ever had to deal with the government before.  Ken did all that.

I have been trying to get witnesses to my signature, notarization, and certification of paper after paper.  And that is on top of the fact that all our affairs were in order.  It is truly unbelievable.  But God be praised, I can say there is light at the end of the tunnel.  My kitchen counter is still covered with stacks of paper, but the stacks are shorter.

For those of you who have asked, my four children and I will bury Ken at Arlington National Cemetery this spring.  That has been an entire stack of paper in itself.  Believe it or not, you have to wait your turn!!  Our daughter is buried there, so he will be next to her, directly across the street from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  I am now trying to decide what to put on the stone, and I need Ken to be here so I can ask him what he would want.  The entire process has given me something to take my mind off of things occasionally.

I have been reading each night for an hour or so from Ken's Bible, which is falling apart from his use of it.  It has been interesting to read the notes that he has written in the margins.  I have truly enjoyed doing this.  It is so comforting.

He underlined Psalms 40: 1, 3  "I waited patiently for God to help me; then he listened and heard my cry.  He has given me a new song to sing, of praises to our God.  Now many will hear of the glorious things he did for me, and stand in awe before the Lord, and put their trust in him."

I usually write my blog the night before, edit it and then edit it again the next day before I post it.  Obviously, I am not an editor.  I keep missing things.  Sorry.

I have two dogs.  The older one (12 yrs.) was a homeless dog that my daughter found on the streets of Houston.    He was so distraught that even though he was starving, he wanted to be loved first.  He was filthy.  Covered in mud.  Four baths later, she called me and said, "I think I have found you a dog."

I was the mother that wouldn't let a dog in the house.  Four kids was enough mess for me.  However...

Ken and I drove to Houston, picked "Beau" up and realized that his name was Bo.  He was much too dignified to be a "Beau."

My hard heart melted.  He slept with Ken and me from then on.  I was so smitten that I asked Becky to find us another Schnauzer.  We named him Squig.

I love my dogs.  They are such a comfort to me.  I have to lift Bo into the bed now.  He can't jump up on it anymore.   He is going blind.  He limps.  I don't want to think about all that right now.

And Squig is a chicken.  He is afraid of everything.  We had sleet in the middle of the night last week. It made a strange pinging sound on the windows.  Squig jumped straight up, ran to the head of the bed and nosed his way under the covers--where he spent the night.

Psalms 33 6, 9  "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.  For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."  I think that  "the host of them" included dogs.  They are such good friends.

I told  you that I had read the Psalms twice.  Well, then I read Acts, Romans, I Corinthians and am currently finishing II Corinthians.  So I am way behind on sharing what I am learning.  Losing my DSL for 16 days was irritating.

I encourage you to read the Bible.  It is always new.  Always fresh.  Always personal.  God speaks to us through his Word.  He has a conversation with your heart.

Psalms 40: 7-8  "Then I said, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book.  It is written of me.  I delight to do your will, O my God: yes, your law is within my heart."

Psalms 119: 11 "Your word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you."

Anything you hear from a pulpit, preacher, friend, (or me) etc. is an opinion.  You need, no, must read God's word for yourself.  Otherwise you are at the mercy of the ideas that the world would sell you.

The most important thing about reading the Bible for yourself is that God himself promises to speak to you personally.  It's a habit.  You just have to resolve to do it.  Then do it.  Get an easy translation.

Isaiah 55: 11  "So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it will not return unto me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I have purposed it."

God's mouth to your ear.  Think about what a privilege it is to have a personal message from God himself.

Read.  For yourself.

Psalms 41:1  "Blessed is he that considers the poor: The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble."

Also Proverbs 19:17  "He that has pity upon the poor, lends to the Lord;  and that which he has given (to the poor) he (God) will pay him again."  Giving to the poor is a loan that God will repay.

My problem is that I don't cross paths with poor people.  Or at least I didn't think that I did.  My town is a middle class small town.  I don't know but one poor person in my church.  I'm sure there must be more people out there who are poor, but people are proud and sometimes it's hard to find out where they are hurting.

Sometimes you have to be more sensitive than was my habit.

I a couple of months ago, I found a poor person by accident.  And now I am accountable to God.  I can't help but wonder if we avoid poor people so that we aren't responsible for them.  Or we excuse our responsibility by judging them and noting that they wouldn't be in the mess they are in if they had made better choices.  But God doesn't make that differentiation.  He just says pity them.  And help them.

This poor person works full time, overtime, and nights if she can get the work.  But even if she worked all day and all night, I doubt she could make it.  Her job requires a car.  And car insurance.  She lives in a trailer, and her heat and electric bills higher than mine are.

God is the one who puts people in our paths.  He will--in turn--deliver us if we get into trouble.

Pity doesn't judge.  With pity, our help for the poor is a loan to God.  Help the poor person you know.  And if you are afraid you will get snared, do things in secret.  Works better that way anyhow.

You are probably thinking, "It's time she got over it.  It's been a month."  Good grief!  This is going to go on for a while.  You can't undo 57 years in a month.

The day Ken died, I had gone to Tulsa to have cataract surgery.  It had been scheduled for a month.  Who knew?  I left him with my eldest daughter Pat and my youngest daughter Becky drove me.  I fretted.  I stewed.  I wanted to be home.  It all turned out ok, but I was a mess.

But in the middle of the day, right before I got home, God gave us all a laugh.

Pat told us:  "Daddy reached up and held my face in his hands and said, Pat, I have a confession to make to you."  Pat said that she had no idea what was coming next.

"You know how you always found stray kittens and drug them home?" he said.  "You were always bringing cats home.  We always had kittens in the house."

"That's true, I did," Pat told him.

"Well, I hate cats."

That was the confession.  Ken always kept short accounts with God.  I guess that was the only thing that was troubling him at the end.

Psalms 37: 37 "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace."  He was very much at peace.  He just needed to let Pat know his position on cats.