What a week.  Jonathan and Jennifer came over on Monday for us to do Christmas with their two little boys.  I fixed ham loaf--which is Jon's favorite.  Then, I had one of those radioactive Pet Scans on Tuesday--which they say has no side effects but always gives me a blazing headache.  The next day, Wednesday, Pat had her last surgery on her heart.  And Thursday, another one of my children had surgery.  Today is Friday and this week is over.  It's been difficult.

But everything turned out good.  It's all over.  God answered all my prayers.  I had a hard time saying my prayers because I wanted what I wanted for each and every one.  So my prayers went something like this: "Lord, you know that I "want to want" your will.  But really, if I am honest with you, I want you to do what I want.  But I know you are a perfect God, and that "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."  (Romans 8:28)

So then, I would end my prayers with: "You know I love you, and you know I want your purpose in all of our lives.  So it comes down to trust, and I trust you."  But then I would end by saying, "But you know what I want."  I'm glad God loves me.  Otherwise, he would just throw in the towel.

I can't imagine the agony God suffered watching his Son suffer.  I will never understand why God did that for us.  Especially when I consider that most of the people in the world reject Him.

Why would God let Jesus suffer such agony when God knew that all the sin that Jesus took upon himself would (in the most part) be for people who would never accept him.  I thank God that he did that for me.  Jesus said: "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter (the gate of destruction)." Matthew 7: 13-14

Robert Frost said: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And...I could not travel both...I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

Christ on the cross has made all the difference.

I have been living in a pile of paper.  Ever since before Thanksgiving, I've been putting the mail on the floor by my chair, most of it unopened.  I opened the Christmas cards and read the letters, but the rest of it just lay there or got thrown out.  Until today.  I dug into it and paid bills, wrote letters, and entered addresses into my phone, etc. etc.  And now I am caught up, except for answering the Christmas cards.  Which I will do tomorrow.

I always pay my bills on time, so I don't think a few late bills are going to kill me.  But it is pretty much out of character for me to do anything late.  My mom taught me that being late was just a way to steal someone else's time.  That you should make someone wait on you.

People make new year's resolutions about this time every year.  After 78 years, I've run out of things to resolve.  I'm sure there are more things I need to do better, but other than start exercising again, I can't think of anything.  I'm sure my children will let me know where I am lacking.  They usually do.

It is a good thing to look at yourself and resolve to do better.  One other thing that I can do better is use my time more wisely.  I just don't know what to do with it.  I never had enough time until Ken was gone, but now, I can't seem to fill up my days with enough useful activities.  The things I would like to do I don't have the strength to do.  My body is working against my mind.  I thank God every day that it is my body that is failing and not my brain.  Although even that is getting slower.

They say that youth is wasted on the young.  So true.  We should be born old and get younger every day.  Then we would know how to appreciate how wonderful being young is.  Problem with that is that you would lose wisdom every day you lived.  However, at this age, with a truck load of wisdom, nobody seems to want any of it.

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:5-6

One of the things I don't like about a new year coming on, is that I have to start thinking about gathering up everything for my tax returns.  Ken always did that.  I never even thought about taxes in my entire life until the last three years.  Horrible stuff to deal with.

And my taxes went up on this house over the one in Pryor by $1,300  for the year.  Just because I live in Edmond.  Same size house as the one in Pryor, and this one is thirty years older than the one in Pryor.  And I didn't even get a homestead exemption last year.  They gave me some reason that I had to pay for the previous owner's taxes for the entire year, even though she only lived in this house for a couple of months.  I gave up on it and paid it after arguing with them forever.  Politely of course.

But I know that if Ken were here, he would do a much better job than I am doing.  He used to do my parent's taxes, and his parents, and an elderly aunt of mine, and our housekeeper.  And almost everyone else who called him to ask how to do their taxes.  

You would think with my background in mathematics that it would be easy for me.  But, no.  It isn't.  It is awful.  And I haven't gotten any better at it.

In Matthew 22:20-21, Jesus said:  "...whose image and superscription... (is on this coin.)"  They answered and said, "Caesar's."  Jesus then said to them, "...render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."  I think the Romans must have had a simpler tax method.

I'm willing to render unto the IRS  And render unto God--but rendering to God is a lot easier.  God simply told us that 10% was okay.  And if you couldn't do that, then he reminded us to "Let each man do according as he has purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver."  2 Corinthians 9:7

I'm always cheerful about giving to God through the church, or giving to the poor...but the tax codes in America are ridiculous.  You have to be a genius to understand them.  I'm not.

Last week I picked up a piece of jewelry in Pryor, and the owner, Kerry Pace, and I reminisced  about an incident that was life changing for our church.

His mother Linda was fighting for her life.  Kidney failure was closing in on her, and it was becoming apparent that she was losing her battle.

Linda had been a faithful Christian for her entire life.  She had served God in the church, in the city and among her many friends.  She was one of those people that you knew beyond any doubt that she loved the Lord.  And one of those people who, if you knew her, you loved her.  Linda had helped all of us raise our children.  We had helped raise hers.  We were family.

Everyone knew that her time was short.  But none of us ever imagined her last blessing on all of us.

It was a Sunday.  The church was packed.  Linda came into the auditorium in a wheelchair.   The preacher announced that she had something to say to us.  I wish I could remember every word she said, but my memory fails me.  What I do remember is the hush that came over the entire church as she began to speak.

She told us that she had decided not to go on with dialysis, or other life changing procedures, and that she was ready to meet God.  She thanked us all for what we had meant in her life.  And then she took off the hat she was wearing and put a different one on.  "I'm just changing hats," she said.  "I'm going to a new church."  She was so positive.  Her face simply glowed with joy.

She was gone within a week.  But the testimony that she left behind will stay with us forever.  It was remarkable.

No one who was there that day will ever forget it.

The point of what I have been saying is that God breathed His life, His breath into Adam.  And that is what he intended for all men.  God intended to take up an indwelling fellowship with man.

But with one requirement.  God would be God.  Man wouldn't.  The interesting thing is that Adam got to choose.  To obey God, or not.  But once Adam decided not to obey God, he could not turn back.  Innocence cannot be regained once it is lost.

Some people want to blame Eve, but God didn't give the requirement to Eve.  He gave it to Adam.

In the letter to the Romans, Paul says: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race.  His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned...For this one man, Adam, brought death to many...Adam's one sin brought the penalty of death...while Christ freely...gives glorious life instead."  Rom. 5:12-17

Adam was the father of modern man.  In the book of Luke, chapter 3, the linage of Jesus is traced  all the way back through the generations to Adam.  This is a remarkable piece of history that is recorded in the Bible.  You go through all the "begat's" and when you get to Adam, it says that he was the son of God.

We can also trace the timeline from Jesus back to Adam, because the Bible records the years that each ancestor lived and when the next in line was born.  It is an amazing historical record.  No other writings in the world can match the Bible.  They don't even come close.

Try reading it.  You don't have to do it all at once.  Little by little this habit will bless your life.

My grandson asked me, "How do you know that those born after Adam didn't have God's Spirit living within them?"

I gave him a number of scriptures.  Ephesians 2:1 is a good example.  "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins."  Paul was explaining to the Ephesians that without God's Spirit living within them that they are dead.  There are many other scriptures pertaining to that idea.  The point being that it is the Spirit of God that gives us true life.

There are only two positions for the human:  (1.) Alive physically but dead spiritually.  And when that person's body dies they are dead forever.  Jude 1:12 says, "These people are blemishes...clouds without rain...autumn trees without fruit...twice dead."  (2.)  Or you are physically alive and spiritually alive.  When you body dies, you still have life.  Twice alive.  Forever.  With God.  

Writing to the Galations,  (Gal. 2:20) Paul said, "...I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.  Yet not I, but Christ lives in me...."  He--Christ--is the life.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes to the Father but by me."  (John 14:6)

The secret is that you must have Christ Jesus within.  He said:  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."  Revelation 3:20

Since death is inevitable,  you would think that everyone would trust Him and invite Him into their life.  But they don't.  And they miss the greatest blessing ever given.  God's Spirit, living within.  What a deal.  Life with God.

Forever.

Open the door.

The entire subject of the Holy Spirit (as we know it) began with Adam.  God put his Spirit in Adam--who had been created perfect and "fit" for God's Spirit.  But it didn't last.  Adam disobeyed.  That is what all sin is.  Disobedience of God's authority.

Just think of it.  God asked only one thing--and he could have made any requirement.  Such as, "Don't pick daisies.  Or don't whistle.  Or stay out of the mud.  But he said, "Don't eat from the tree in the middle of the garden."  That should have been simple enough.  But man--who had free will--did the one thing God said not to do.  He did not allow God to be God.  Adam did not obey.

We do the same thing.  Take any one of God's commandments, and the nature of the human is to break it.  We don't want anyone to tell us what to do.  We want to be our own God.  We want to be in charge of our own life--until something goes wrong that we can't fix.  Then we cry out to God to come to our rescue.

People don't actually want to surrender their will to God's will.  They just use Him as an insurance policy.  Cash it in when you need it.  Problem is, it doesn't work that way.  God knows those who trust him with their lives.  He knows who his children are.  He also knows who has totally surrendered to His will, because He lives within them.  You become His when you surrender to his will.  His Holy Spirit is what saves you.  And guides you.

You can't live a Christian life without God's Spirit.  It's impossible.  If all that was required was to keep a bunch of rules, you would soon realize that you couldn't do it.  You couldn't save yourself.

When Adam was cast out of the garden, he and Eve had children.  But the Holy Spirit can't be inherited, so Cain, Able, and Seth were all born empty.   As well as every human being after that.  The apostle Paul says that we are born dead.  The place in the human body that holds the breath of God was never again filled until Christ.  Jesus was Spirit first, then wrapped in human flesh.  He alone satisfied what God had intended.  He obeyed.

When you were born, you were destined for eternal life.  Forever.  The only question is:  "Where are you going to spend it?"  Animals don't have this problem.  They don't sin.  But humans, given any opportunity to do the wrong thing, seem to choose the wrong thing.   I had a youth teacher that I worked with for a number of years named Bill.  He taught senior boys, I taught senior girls.

Sometimes we met together.  Once, when he was teaching the combined group, he said:  "Guys, sin is fun for the moment.  If it wasn't, it wouldn't be any temptation at all.  Problem is, it kills you in the end."   He said that because of what God told us in Romans 6:23:  "For the wages of sin is death..."

We think of the word "wage" as money.  However, the interesting thing is, the word "wage" does not mean money at all.  It means script.  The Roman soldier was paid a wage--a script--that he couldn't spend.  He had to return to Rome to redeem it in cash.  So just like the soldier getting paid later for the work that he had already done, those who live in sin get paid later with death.

There was a preacher--Billy Sunday--who became famous for a sermon that he preached many, many times called, "Payday Someday."  Some people live their lives as if there is no tomorrow, but there will be.  Payday Someday.  It's coming.

So God devised a plan to take up habitation within us--liked he planned to do when he created Adam.  His plan was to cleanse us from our individual sins by paying for them Himself.  As a sacrifice for sin.  Now, when we allow Him to come live within us, he cleanses us.  The rest of that verse from Romans says: "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What a deal.  God lives within me now.  Guiding my choices.  Reminding me of his will for my life.
And I am assured of life forever with him, and all my loved ones who have accepted Him.

I'll tell you the truth, it is such a peaceful way to live.  Peace with God that passes all understanding.

When God created man, He did something entirely different than when He created all other life.  "...the Lord God formed man...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7  That breath, the Spirit of God, is what made the human soul.  God didn't breathe Spiritual life into any other animal.  Only man.  And only humans have the capacity to hold His Spirit.  We have a unique place within us that God intended to be filled with Himself.

We were created specifically with the capacity to hold God within us.  That is what salvation is--God himself living inside us.  Paul explained what happens when a human receives the Spirit of God within his heart:  "For it is God which works within you both to will and to do His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13  God within us is what causes us to want to do his will.

Paul said this to the Corinthians in 5:17 "...I live, yet not I, but Christ lives within me..."  We have physical life like the animals, but we are unique because we have a greater capacity than the animals.  We have the capacity for Spiritual life.

Adam had it.  But after sin occurred, people were born empty.  Sin made us unfit to hold God's Spirit.  But God had a plan to restore us and to put his Spirit back within the human heart.  "A new heart...I will give you, and a new spirit will I put within you...I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes...and do them."  Ezekiel 36:26-27  We may be incapable of being Christ-like, but God isn't.  God's plan was to reconcile man to Himself by dying for our sin.

This "Spirit within" the human body is unique.  We read in the Bible about the only other human born with (starting out with) the indwelling Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45  "And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."  Another version says: "The Scriptures tell us that the first man, Adam, became a living person, But the last Adam--that is Christ--is a life-giving Spirit."

Getting the Spirit of God back where God intended it to be is the entire message of the gospel.   "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27

I have been writing about trivialities in my life since I finished the sequence of Genesis--first chapter.  But I am going to go deep, pick up where I left off, and get to the heart of God's plan for the man he designed.  God didn't just randomly design and create a human, he had a plan for man's purpose.  It wasn't just some wild idea that God dreamed up for his own amusement.

So what was it??  I think you would have to start with His decision to create a universe.  And an earth.  Did space exist?  What is space anyway?  Where did it come from?  How far does it extend?  And ultimately:  Why?  Why are humans in it?

Followed by the eternal question that plagues all believers:  Where did God come from?

If you are any kind of reflective person at all, in any way, I'm sure that you have pondered that question for a second or two before you realized that it is unanswerable.  When Moses asked that question, God said:  "I am that I am..." Exodus 3:14  That's the answer he gave us.  He is.

God is God.  How can any human consider the existence of our universe, and the total improbability of it being here at all, without a cause behind it.  I don't get it--why don't people examine the implications of their belief.  To say that God "isn't" is like saying "we aren't."

God--the creator--is.  There is a power behind the existence of space.  Of matter.  Of planets.  Of humans.  Of the thing we call life.  Life of animals.  Life of plants.  Life of you and me.  Life.  The journey of the human mind must come to the conclusion that there is something behind the miracle of our existence, and the existence of the space, the vast universe that we inhabit.  It came from somewhere.  We came from somewhere.

We are.  And God is.  It is simply too improbable to believe otherwise.  Connecting man to the God who created him is the whole purpose of the Bible.

I'm on my way home today.  And I can't wait to sleep in my own bed with my own pillow.  It's amazing how small things are so frustrating as I age.  My tolerance goes down every year.  I think I'm getting crotchety.

It could be the same brand of mattress and pillow and the thermostat set at the same degree, but it's not the same.  Home is home.

I understand why Ken said--when he came home from Nam and retired after 21 years of deployments, "God willing, I will sleep in my own bed, in my own house and on my own pillow for the rest of my life."

I wonder why people got started talking about heaven as "Going home."  Maybe because home is so dear to us.  It's not that we have a lot or a little, but that we know where everything is.  I have built a "nest" around my recliner in my living room.  Scotch tape, stamps, kleenex, pens, a calendar to write notes on, a white out pen, lotion for my hands, finger nail clippers, etc. etc.  Everything you can think of is in a basket, within reaching distance.

I don't have to get up and go look for anything.  I have an antique walnut three drawer chest next to the chair that holds everything else I can possibly think of.

Except hot tea.  I have to get up to get my tea.

I wonder what heaven will be like.  I hope it is a little bit like home.

One thing we can be sure of, it will be perfect.

I went to Pryor again.  It's unusual for me to go again so soon, but Squig needed to have his teeth cleaned.  They take good care of him at the Pryor Vet.  However, in the rush to get out of the house with everything I needed for two days, I forgot to post what I wrote the night before.

I think that maybe I've been trying to do too many things at once.  I left Edmond at 5:45, had breakfast with Carolyn at 8:00, unloaded an IBM that I didn't need any more at the computer store so they could find someone to donate it to. (Turns out they are giving it to my brother and sister-in-law for a mission of the church that they are involved in--I should communicate with my own family better!!)  While I was there, I gave Steve a disk to copy--10 more.  People keep asking for it.  (The ceremony at Arlington for Ken.)

Then I picked up a piece of jewelry at Ivan's that Kerry had reset in a new mounting.  Next I went to my old church to make a donation to Lottie Moon--I would do it at my church in Edmond, but they split it into a bunch of missions and I want mine to go exclusively to overseas missions because the brother that I failed to communicate with (noted above) was a missionary to China.

Next I had a doctor's appointment.   Which made me late for a funeral for a lady who helped me raise my children during the years I was so sick.  She practically became a permanent member of our family for over 60 years.  Loved her.  And finally grabbed lunch at 3:30.  Then went see my granddaughter Meagan's new house--and see my great-grandchildren and spend time with them.  It has been a very busy day.  Found time to ask God a couple of times to give me a safe trip driving.

So now, I'm still in Pryor after a long night with Squiq and Becky's dog Annie crawling all over me all night.   (As long as I was coming here, I brought them both)  I'm tired before I even get going.  I'm too old for this.

Maybe I will sleep tonight.  "You will keep a person in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God."  Ecclesiastes 9:10

Tired, but peaceful.

Squig is not very smart.  Bless his heart, he is sweet and loving, but I don't think he will ever learn to fetch.  I have tried all the suggested methods to get him to bring his toy back to me when I throw it, but nothing seems to work.  He is not motivated by treats at all, which makes it difficult.

But some things, he learns.  He will lie around all day, sleeping on the sofa.  But when I put on my shoes he comes unglued, begins to yelp, squeak, and dance all over the family room.  If I am going somewhere, he wants me to know for sure that he wants to go with me. I guess he has learned that when I put on my shoes, I am leaving in the car--since I pad around barefoot most of the time while I am in the house.

But if I tell him, "I''ll be back in a minute," he stops prancing around and just stares pitifully at me as I leave.  So maybe he isn't completely dumb.

When I let him go with me, I tell him to "get in the car" and open the car door for him.  Which he won't hop into--until he has made a complete circuit all the way around the back of the car, past the passenger side, past the front of the car and back to the driver's door where I stand patiently waiting on him while he does laps.  And then, instead of getting in the open door, he always goes under it before he hops in.  Which is difficult because there isn't much room to jump in that way.  I haven't been able to convince him that there is an easier way to do it.

I wonder if there are things that God is trying to teach me that I am just as head-strong about.   Am I running circles around things that need to be done, (like Squig running around the car). Things that I am so in the habit of doing my way that I fail listen to God, or notice that he is holding a door open for me--and fail to recognize that he has a better way for me to do it.

I said that Squig was not very smart.  I bet that sometimes God thinks the same thing about me.

Becky Bacon came to stay with me yesterday and left today.  So much fun.  She is married to Joe Mike--you may remember that I told you that he was Garth Brooks pilot for a number of years.  Vietnam veteran, aviator.  He and Ken were wonderful friends and Becky reminded me of how all of us met.  I had forgotten this story.

She and Joe were living in St. Louis and needed to move closer to Texas--where his mother was--but stay within driving distance of St. Louis--where Becky's son was.  So in a conversation with Richard Dickerman--a China missionary who was visiting his ailing mother in St. Louis, (Becky was an R.N. caring for his mother), Richard suggested that they move to Pryor as it was halfway between St. Louis and Texas.  Richard told them that he had served in China for many years with a missionary doctor that was from Pryor and told them how wonderful Dr. Swan was and that he would be an instant friend.  So Becky and Joe moved there.

Cut to the day I met Becky.  I started going to a Bible study at my church, saw Becky and knew she was new.  I asked her who she was and how long she had been in Pryor.  She told me that she and Joe Mike had just moved to town.  I asked her what they were doing in Pryor, and she said a friend had suggested it as a half-way point between Texas and St. Louis.  He said it was a great town and that it was the home town of a missionary friend of his in China, Dr. Swan, and did I know him. I answered yes, and she asked what was he like.

"He's a real brat," I said.  She was shocked.  She said, "Everything I've heard about him was so very positive and wonderful.  I can't imagine why don't you like him."   "Well," I said, "I like him okay, but from an older sister's point of view, growing up, he was ornery." And I told her the story of how he would get home before I did from school, get the mail and hide my letters from Ken.  And a dozen other stories of growing up with a little brother.

"I can't believe that the first person I have met in Pryor is Bill Swan's sister,"  Becky said!  We then began to talk about our husbands, their common experience as military pilots.  Later, Ken and Joe met each other and instantly bonded.  Ken called Joe his little brother.  They became best friends.

Becky said that Joe was so proud to be Ken's friend.  That feeling was mutual.  That was twenty-two years ago.  It seems like yesterday to me.  It seems like yesterday to Becky as well.

What you believe determines how you live your life.  Whether it is true or not.  For instance, when you were little, your mom made sure you washed your hands with soap.  So without knowing any better, we assumed that soap killed germs.  Which isn't true.

Soap cuts grease and oil.  Which loosens dirt and allows dirt, grease and oil to be washed away.  But the only germs that soap gets rid of is the germs contained the dirt, grease and oil.  Everything else lives on happily on your hands.  Washing hands is very important, but in a hospital you want to be sure that after the nurse or doctor wash their hands with soap, that they swish disinfectant on their hands before they touch you.  Bottles of disinfectant are attached to the side of the door in every room in the hospital for just that reason.  To kill germs.

It is the same way in our spiritual life.  What we believe spiritually also determines how we live our lives.  For instance, if you believe that all roads lead to heaven, you will miss the narrow path that actually leads you there.  And convinced that what you believe is true, you won't look for the truth.

When we believe something, we usually stop looking any further.  That is why it is so important to have a regular daily habit of reading the Bible.  Even if it is only for a minute or two.  It is a book of God's truth.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the light.  No man comes to the Father except by me." John 14:6  If you don't believe what Jesus said, someday you are going to be shocked when you find out that what you believed in this life didn't get you to where you wanted to go for eternity.

You can't cram learning about God into a weekend.  It has to be a daily progression in that direction.  My Grandson asked me this week how I knew where to find things in the Bible.  I told him it was because I started reading it when I was seven years old and continued doing that for all my life.  Little by little I learned what was in it, and how to find what I was looking for when I had a question.

Start.  Take a step towards God.  It's never too late.  Learn a little bit every day.  He's the best friend you will ever find.  He loves you.  He knows your name.

I was really lonesome yesterday.  Why that day?  Who knows.  Sometimes you wake up in the morning, get a cup of something hot, read the morning newspaper, do the suduko  and crossword puzzle, fix your breakfast and then realize that you have the whole day in front of you and nothing special to do.  And nowhere special to go.  And no one special to see.  And that makes you lonesome.  For something, or someone, or somewhere.

I don't do that very often.  But when I do, I know that I have to be the one to solve my problem.  So yesterday, I got in the car and went down to Edmond Antiques to see Pam.  She owns the store and has four huge rooms full of treasures.  But she is the greatest treasure in the store.  She is so upbeat.

And when I told her I was there because I was lonesome, she went into high gear to cheer me up--and tell me that my life had purpose, and that people listened to me, and that she loved reading my blog every day, and that I was wonderful, etc., etc.  Sometimes you just need a friend to lift you up and tell you that you are special even when it's not true.

And just so I wouldn't have another day like yesterday of being in the dumps, I drove the 30 minutes to Pat's house to measure the dimensions of her bathroom, utility room and try once more to figure out how to attach a garage to her house.  And Eureka!! We figured it out.

Everyone needs a purpose.  And when I'm blue, I know that I am not busy enough.  That I need more things to do for people.  So I called a friend and am thinking about joining her in tutoring kids.  The program is church based, so I have to get vetted.  Problem is, the kids are grades 2-5.  Not my calling.  However she told me that they have a program for grades 7-12 as well which is where I taught in my church for many years.

Am I going to do it?  I don't know.  I'm going to try it.  It will fill up one half of my Tuesdays.  Now I just  have to work on the other days.

"Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." Ecclesiastes 9:10

Pat and her husband Tom live in a log cabin on twenty acres.  She called last night and asked me to go get something to eat with her.  She is trying to figure out how to attach a garage to her log house.

We worked on a design for over two hours and never did come up with a solution that could attach to the house and not cover up the geo-thermal lines and wells--but there was no good way to do it.  I've helped retrofit eleven houses, and this is the first time I've been stumped.

You can't have everything you want in life.  You have to compromise.  In a situation like this one, I always start by listing my personal priorities--and when I reach an impasse, I take that item off the list and go on from there.  I give up something I really want because it just won't work.

But you can't do that in your Christian life.  Because God sets the priorities.  His plan is always perfect.  Problem is, you have to follow it.  The first step is to acknowledge that there IS a God.  Some people never get past that step because if there is a God, then He might want to require something from them.  They don't want any authority in their lives but their own.

The second step is to acknowledge that He came to earth and died as a sacrifice for the things you have done wrong,  then rose again to intercede for you.  But those steps don't get you there, they just get you started.  The Devil himself believes that there is a God and that He came to earth and died for sin, and rose from the dead.

You have to give up the authority over your own life.  Give all of yourself to God.  That's the hard part because people don't want to be subject to the will of God.  They want to rule their own lives.

It comes down to a matter of trust.  Do you trust God's plan for you or do you think He is "Out to get you."  The more a person reads the Word of God, the more you realize that He has good plans for us.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord.  Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you and expected end."  Jeremiah 29:ll

Yesterday I dog-sat.  Four dogs going out and coming back in all day.  I can manage the three schnauzers, but the border collie (Sadie) weighs a ton and doesn't come when I call her.  And of course, she got into a "dog-war" with the two dogs on the other side of my fence.  You could hear the three of them growling and barking a mile away.

I finally corralled her and got a leash on her and drug her inside, which I had to do every time I let her out.  However it was a question of who was dragging who.  She is big.  And strong as an ox.

But once inside, they are all really sweet.  Max and Annie and Squig all lie on my lap at the same time and Sadie lays her head on my feet.  At that point, it's a dog party.  Everything is peaceful and calm--until I have to let Sadie out again.  Oh well, I need the exercise.

So far, none of the dogs seems to be interested in the koi pond--which seems unusual.  It looks to me like the fish would be an attraction for them.  But all they do is drink the water.  Maybe they haven't noticed the fish.  I hope that's it.

John, my gardner, brought me three new Koi babies.  I had turned the pump off when I went to Paris and two of my big Koi had died.   (I thought it was cold enough for them to go into hibernation.  It wasn't.)  I'm going to try and not kill these.  I really felt awful about it.

"And...God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.  And whatever Adam called them that was their name." Genesis 2:19

I haven't named my baby Koi yet.

I am terrible when it comes to doing my homework in a Bible class I enrolled in.  I'll memorize the scripture, but filling in all those blanks (by the questions they ask) drives me nuts.  It takes so much time, and I have the answers in my head--so why write them down??

I guess we all have our own way of doing things.  We just need to be sure we know what we are doing.  That's a pretty important point.  Questioning ourselves is a good thing, "Why do I do this thing this particular way?  Is there a better way to do it?  Do I have to fill in the blanks?"

Our habits control us, and if we don't examine them, they can limit what we accomplish because we don't advance or learn anything new.  Or anything better.  In other words, we get in a rut.  I like the rut I'm in but I try and explore the edges of the rut on occasion to see what's out there.

I never go anywhere that I don't go through the four "P's" to be sure I'm not forgetting something critical.  1. Purse,  2. Passport,  3.  Phone,  4.  Pills.  Everything else that I forget can be replaced or bought when I get where I'm going.  I never take more than one small bag anywhere I go--including overseas.  But those four things are absolutes.

The first time I went to Paris, I stayed a week and the only thing I took besides the four P's was a backpack.  I am always amazed at the people getting off an airplane that have to navigate with four or five pieces of luggage.  Why?  I don't get it.

When we go to heaven, we aren't taking anything with us.  I'm especially anxious to get rid of the pills.  Just think, we are going to get new bodies.  It's a good thing because mine is pretty well shot.  It's served me well, but now it is falling apart.  A little here, a little there.

But God is good.  I'm still kicking.  I have no major pains that I can't endure.  And as long as the pace-maker keeps working, I'm good.  The doctor tells me that my heart is perfect in every way, except that it doesn't beat.  Psalms 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."  God's in the business of fixing hearts.  

I've always thrown parties in my home for family, church, showers--bridal and baby--and Ken's squadrons.  It just seemed like I was the one who did that for some reason.  Thirty to forty people was  the usual count that I could seat at tables.  But if there were more, they just sat on the floor around a big old round oak coffee table.  No big deal.

But there is a time you quit doing those things.  Your children are gone, other younger women start doing what you used to do, and your socials get smaller.  And fewer.  Finally I quit.  Until last Saturday.  I had my Sunday morning class over for dinner.  There were nine of us.

And what I found out was--I had forgotten about all the details that go into having a party.  A million details.  When you quit doing something, and then try to do it again, you realize that you have lost some of your ability to make it happen.  And it becomes a big deal.

I eventually got there--it turned out great.  Everyone had a good time.  And after it was over, I fell into bed, slept like the dead, and promised myself that I would never do that again.  I'm sure I will forget and do it again someday.  But it wasn't easy like it used to be.

There are habits that we have in life, when neglected, become harder to reimplement.  I have been saddened at the number of people in America that have stopped going faithfully to church.  They have lost the commitment, the habit, in their lives.  Because, let's face it, occasionally you get a pastor that isn't dynamic, or the music doesn't suit you, or someone irritates us, etc. etc...excuses.  But going to church puts us in contact with people who are on the same path that we are on.

And it's not always about what you get out of it.  There comes a point in Christian maturity when you realize that there are many people who need what you have to give.  And the people in your church bond in a way that doesn't happen anywhere else.  God put it this way: "...let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.  Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..."

God expects us to gather together.  It's his way of insuring that Christian people bond.

I learned about endurance when I married Ken.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't having to endure.  But there I was in Pensacola, Florida.  Eighteen years old.  No car.  No friends, no church family.  Actually, no family at all.  Couldn't cook and didn't have a clue about what Ken did every day.  I couldn't even carry on a conversation about his work--I wouldn't have understood it anyway.  I was an appendage to his life and hadn't figured out what my life was yet.

And then the children came along--one every eighteen months.  Children that I had to raise almost entirely by myself because Ken worked sunup to sundown.  And nights--when he had cadets that had to learn instruments--how to fly in the dark.  Someone had to teach them how to do it.  The good thing was that we seldom had an argument because there was so little time together.  We had been married 3 years when he went overseas for 13 months and left me with two babies.  (Obviously, we crossed paths a few times!!)

We barely knew each other, and it was years before he was really there in our lives.  I just endured the days, weeks, and sometimes years that he was gone, waiting, holding it all together somehow.

Becky was very ill once, they hospitalized her--and gave her no chance of recovery.  Ken was deployed.  I asked if he could come in from the field.  The answer was "No, he has the experience in  laying steel tarmac.  We don't.  They need a tarmac runway in Nam...they're depending on him."

I sat in the hospital by myself night after night.  I didn't know the doctors.  Or the nurses.  Alone.  Wondering what was going to happen.  I don't know what people do at a time like that when they don't know God.  We had lost our third daughter two years earlier, and I felt that we were going to lose another one.  God intervened, and she lived.  And I endured.  What else could one do?

Every move, every childhood disease, every broken bone, every scraped knee, etc., etc...well, you know who took care of it.  There was no point in stressing.  There was nothing to be done about any of it.  Marine families live with great stress in difficult circumstances.  It's not normal--whatever that is.  I think a person either rises to the occasion, or gives up.  I don't give up.  What's the point in that.

Proverbs has a quote on everything.  Whatever you need advice on--Proverbs has it.

Proverbs 11:13 "A tale bearer reveals secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter."  I bet you have figured out who you can trust with a confidence and who you can't.  I know I have.  And there are some people with whom I would never share anything.  Anything.  Nadda.

"Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint."  Proverbs 25:19

Once, when I was in the ninth grade, I was given the responsibly of selling a bunch of tickets for an event in our high school.  I was told to get people to help me do it, which I did.  I placed my confidence in them.  Five days later, I rounded up those people to turn in the money, and one of the girls (who had said she would help) hadn't sold a single ticket.  Why she volunteered to do it in the first place I'll never know.  But there I was--stuck, spending that last day running around Pryor selling her tickets  I never forgot that lesson.  And I never put any confidence in her again.  And here I am, 60 years later, still remembering how that felt.  Like a broken tooth.  Or a foot out of joint.

I always liked this Proverb:  "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."  Proverbs 25:11  Ken's mother had the gift of saying exactly the right thing at the right time.  She didn't say much, but when she did, you listened.  "Oh my," she once told me. "Don't pray for patience.  Because when you do, all you get is more tribulation."

She told me to read James 1:3 which I did.  "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith develops patience."  She was right.  Patience always comes from enduring a difficult situation.  You really don't need it any other time.  By praying for patience, I was asking for more difficulty.  What I needed to do was ask God for the ability to endure the problems that came my way.

Which I learned to do.  Endure.  Now, I know that things are going to happen in my life that I don't like.   I just have to wait it out, and trust God to give me the strength to do just that.                                              

I wrote this yesterday and forgot to post it.   Sorry!!

I've been reading the Proverbs again.  There is a lot of wisdom in those verses.  And some of them are humorous--but true.  "It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."  Proverbs 21:9.  Pity the man who marries a loud bawdy woman.  What was it our mothers told us--"you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

Proverbs 26:11 "As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly."  Some people keep doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different outcome.

Proverbs 12: 15 "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.  But the person who hearkens to counsel is wise."  We all know people who never listen to anything.  Their minds are closed.  They never learn or advance their understanding.  They are right about everything and are stuck in their teens.

Give me a person that listens.  They may disagree with the speaker, but they will research to find truth.  When I'm in doubt, I have a select few people with whom I can discuss an issue.  They are able to see both sides of it and weigh the problem.  I hate to argue.  Discussion, however, helps me crystalize my thinking.

Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does a person good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries up the bones."  I have friends that are always joyful.  I don't know exactly how they do it on a consistent basis, but they do.  And I love to be around them.  Joy begets joy.  I always feel better in their presence.  And of course, there are people I avoid because they are always "down."  Their lives are always half empty instead of half full.  I don't know why they are never happy.  But they aren't.

Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you...that your joy may be full." John 15:11  Get yourself some of that.

Last Friday, I wrote that you need to choose good friends.  I was so inspired by that thought, that I got up on Saturday morning and drove to Pryor to see Carolyn and go to church and see all of my real friends.  The ones who have known me all my life--warts and all--and still love me.  It was wonderful.  I either got a hug or a smooch from everyone I knew and a few that I didn't.

And the pastor taught the best sermon I've ever heard on the Mosaic law.  His main point was that we are very judgmental of others.  And that is a sin because we have all broken the law.   One of those "Take the log out of your own eye before you try and take the speck out of your brother's eye" kind of sermons.

And I got to hear my friend Carolyn teach a lesson--which was excellent.  She is always excellent.  I had gotten a substitute for my class here so that I could have a weekend mini-vacation.  That's the first time I've been been to Pryor on a Sunday since I moved to Edmond.  I'm rejuvenated.  I miss being there.  You can't take your reputation with you when you move.  Of course you wouldn't want to if it was bad.

I left here at 7 AM and there were no cars on the turnpike.  I bet I didn't meet 20 on the eighty miles to Tulsa.  And there was a dense, dense fog.  That's when you get behind a semi and drive their tail-lights.  But I couldn't find a semi.  However, coming back to Edmond on Sunday evening, the road was bumper to bumper.  I've never seen so many cars.  And it was pouring down rain.  Difficult.

I got to hug Amy Smith.  She writes me encouraging notes on a regular basis.  I would name every friend I saw, but I would surely leave someone out.

Now that thanksgiving is over, remember that we have to continue to be thankful in our hearts every day.  The apostle Paul said it this way:  "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."   1 Thessalonians 5:18.  He didn't say "for" everything.  He said "in" everything.  We can all do that.

My Bible is falling apart.  The pages are falling out.  Many of them are torn.  Tea and coffee stains are on half the pages.  And I've got the cover bound together with duct tape.  I would get a new one, but there are so many notes on the edges of the pages that I would spend the rest of my life trying to transfer them.  I guess I will just keep picking up the parts when they fall out onto the floor.

I have another one exactly like this it,  and I had started to transfer some my notes, but just when I would make some headway, I would teach another lesson, write some new notes and forget where I was in the transfer process.  I think that one of these days, if I outlive this Bible, I will have to do something because like I said, it is falling apart.

Also it is like a diary.  Important dates are recorded.  When something happened in my life, I turned to scripture and noted the event and date.

And some verses are so unique that I underlined them.  Like Jeremiah 12:5 "If you have run with footmen and they have made you weary, how can you contend with horses."  An interesting piece of philosophy.  My interpretation:  "If you can't deal with two children, how in the world are you ever going to deal with four."  (And I didn't plan on four.  God planned for me to have four.)

And then there is:  "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Jeremiah 31:29  My interpretation:  "Whatever I do, it is going to affect my children.  Especially when I do something wrong."

And then there are the Proverbs with verses like Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."  My interpretation:  "You need to choose friends who have personal qualities that are good.  True.  Kind, faithful, honest and solid.  They will make you a better person."  

If you aren't becoming a better person, you need to ask yourself, "Why?"  Because God promises to change us from the inside out.  Our part is to choose good friends. 

Happy Thanksgiving.  Of course, we are thankful every day.  But it is a good thing to set a day apart to remember how God has blessed us.  What a privilege to live in America.  To know God.  To have people who love us.

I fed eleven people last night.  They just kept coming.  It's wonderful.  And they stayed through the night.   Every bed in my house was full and the sofas as well.  We ate ham and potato salad and baked beans and water melon.  And we had enough voices to sing all the old hymns.  All we needed was an alto.   I'm going to have to get my piano tuned.  It was the only thing out of key.

Becky is having everyone over today for turkey later.  Everyone brings food.  Becky bakes pies.  Eight of them from scratch.  I may just skip the turkey and go straight to the pie.

Two of my great grandchildren came and stayed last night.   Hallie is four and Haven is 15 months.  So much fun.  What a blessing that my grandchildren come and see me and stay for a couple of days. Of course, I love my children, but my grandchildren and great-grand children--well, those of you who have them understand.

God bless you and yours.

My friend Sally has been sharing the gospel story with her sister.  And she has carefully gone through the sequence that brings a person to Christ.  Since they live many miles and states apart, Sally got her sister a copy of The Living Bible, because that Bible is so easy to read, and has spent the last month or two reading the Bible long distance with her sister and explaining scripture to her.

Last week, Sally told me that her sister had become a Christian.  Which is truly a blessing because Sally's sister died yesterday and has gone to be with the Lord.  It is never too late to come to a realization of our need for Jesus.

My grandson's fiancé has a close family member who got sick last week (he is 29 years old) and when his wife got him to the hospital, he died almost immediately.  Bacterial meningitis.  He had a new son--a son who no longer has a father.  A tragedy.

Life is uncertain.  But each of us will come to an end.  Some will live to a ripe old age like me, and some will live only a short time like my daughter Amy.  There is no way to predict how many days you have.  Only God knows that.

And because our lives are so fragile, we need to take heed of the meaning of life.  Of why we are here.  We need to acknowledge the God who made us and get right with Him.  There is a God.  And everyone of us will stand before Him and give an account of what we have done with our lives.

We waste so much time on things that don't count in the long run.  Trivial things.  Get busy helping people, making friends and sharing what God has done in your life.  Sometimes people don't get a second chance.  They need to hear this fantastic story about how much God loves us.  What he has done for us.  And how to connect with him.

God became a man.  Jesus.  To show us what He is like.  To be a substitute sacrificial lamb for our sins.  I don't think I will ever understand why He would do that.

I picked the last of the okra and tomatoes on Friday before the freeze.  There were over 100 tomatoes that were still green, so I wrapped them in newspaper and put them in a dark, dark place.  I've done that for years, and always have ripe tomatoes for Christmas.  I guess I could make fried green tomatoes, but I'm trying to avoid fried food.

Because.....over the last forty years I've gained about one-half a pound a year.  I'm still thin, but I want those extra pounds off. The way I figure it is if I lose one-half a pound a week, I can take it off quickly without giving anything up.  Just make a few adjustments--like not frying things.  I'm lucky because I don't like ice cream or much of anything sweet.  It's bread that is my downfall.  I never met a carbohydrate that I didn't love.

I just noticed that this blog is number 1007.  I passed one thousand and didn't even know it.  That's enough pages for at least three books!!  Good grief.

I am really enjoying my Sunday class.  I think they have all figured out that I am a little bit of a ding-bat.  They laugh at my stories a lot.  That's good.  Sunday, I told them about living in Beaufort Carolina for three years.  1963-1966.  Along with a story Pat told me last week (that I had never heard before) about her and Becky and Scott going home with our house keeper for the weekend.  Ken and I were at a church retreat.  Anyway Pat told me about the three of them going home with Mrs. Washington and going to the "black" church.

She said it was a lot more fun than our church because everyone sang peppy songs and Mrs. Washington helped them raise their hands in the air and "get happy."  I don't know why I hadn't heard that story before, but there are a lot of stories that I haven't heard before.  The three of them stayed the night and ate "soul food."  And of course were an object of interest since they were "flour" white.

Kennedy was shot in 1963, and the world was on edge.  It's nice to know that three little white children could go home with a woman of another race and spend the weekend as part of her family and come home saying they wished we had a church like that.

Everything is good.   I am going to make cornbread and start the process of making dressing today.  I am in charge of dressing and gravy.  That's my job every year since Becky took over Thanksgiving.  Last year she made 14 pies.  From scratch.  Homemade crust--so flakey.  So good.  I think we ended up with 36 people.  The pies were gone by the end of the day.  So was most of the rest of the food.

I was going to order huckleberries so we could have a huckleberry pie but they were $100.00.  Not blueberries--if you live in Oklahoma, you know the difference.  I wonder if we will ever have a huckleberry pie again.  Nobody wants to pick them anymore.  They are teeny-tiny and it takes a million years to pick a quart.

One of the things I love about the day after TG is that Becky makes gumbo with what is left of the turkey.  Gumbo to die for.  And she packs containers for me so I can freeze it and enjoy it all winter long.  Yum.

This has been the strangest November.  It didn't freeze or even get cold until last Friday night.  The next day, Saturday the 19th, marked 3 years since I lost Ken.  It was a very cold day--in every way.  I can't believe it has been three years.

Ken told me (when he asked me to marry him) that the nine years difference in our ages wouldn't matter then, but that someday it would.  He was right.  I miss him.  But I'm okay.   I stay busy.  I guess God isn't through with me yet.  And unlike many people who have lost a spouse, I was prepared.  Because Ken was gone so much, I learned how to be independent.  How to function well by myself.

I don't like it.  But you have to live with what you've got.  This is my life now.  And I am determined to fill it up.  And try and be helpful.  And available to the needs of those who have something for me to do.  I have four children with wonderful spouses.  Ten grandchildren--six of them married to wonderful people, and three great-grandchildren.  Lots of friends and a church that keeps me busy.

But......I miss him.  I wish I had thanked him more often for what he meant in my life.

So.  While I have been writing about how God will put someone in your path to explain something to you when you are confused, something happened yesterday that reinforced that truth.

I had a doctor's appointment--one of those "every six months come in so that we can check you out" kind of appointments.  And while I am waiting, a young nurse engaged me in a conversation that quickly became Christian in content.  We talked for over thirty minutes about the problems she faced as a black woman, and mother of a young son.

I shared experiences with her.  She was so eager to hear what I had to say, and told me:  "This morning, I shut my bedroom door, got on my knees and prayed to God that he would send me someone to help me think through the problems that I was facing.  I can't believe that he has answered me so quickly.  You don't know how much you have helped me."

I have no idea what I said that helped her.  But I gave her my card, and that evening she texted me to thank me.

I wonder how many times I have missed the opportunities that God has put in my path.  How many times have you missed the opportunity that God has put in your path?

We are here on earth as ambassadors for Christ.  However, it takes awareness.  It takes boldness.  It takes preparation in God's word.

Once you have a heart for recognizing the opportunity,  God will use you for his work.

It sure does feel good.  And I've made a new friend.  That's what it's all about.

"And you shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13.  People who want to believe that there are many paths to God will say, "What about the people that live in the deep dark regions of Africa, or on unexplored islands, etc. who have never heard about Jesus?  You can't expect them to know what to do."  But consider this: The Ethiopian had never heard about Jesus.  He was living in Africa.  And when Phillip appeared and witnessed to him, the Ethiopian was traveling through Gaza, a desert.  The middle of nowhere.

God is in the business of rewarding those who seek him by giving them answers. We are just the vehicle that he uses--if we are willing.  Phillip could have questioned God.  He could have said, "Lord, I'm busy here in Samaria and thousands are coming to saving faith in Christ.  I'm sure you've made a mistake and don't really want me to just jump up and go to Gaza."

But Phillip didn't say that.  He did what God asked him to do.  If everyone does what God asks them to do, the world will hear the good news.  One person at a time.  However, we know that there are some who will refuse to listen.  Paul said it this way: "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen...even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse...Romans 1:20.  There are those who will refuse to listen to God's voice.

Each individual--everyone everywhere--is accountable.  Because: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the skies show his handiwork.  Day unto day they utter speech, and night unto night show knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  Psalm 19:1-3

Having seen God's work in the heavens, and the earth, the next step for each person is to seek answers.  And God promises to provide them.  If you seek Him, you will find him.  You will.

Four steps.  1.  Believe that there is a God.  A creator.   2.  Respond.  (This is where God has promised to come in and reveal himself.)   3. Repent and acknowledge that Jesus has paid your debt for sin.  4.  Trust Him.  With your life, your mind and your future.  That's it.  What is really neat is that God says that he will come and live within you and direct your paths.  That is the Holy Spirit.  "Christ in you, the hope of glory."  Colossians 1:27  What a deal.

Another thing that I recently learned while reading about Phillip and the Eunuch.  Phillip had gone to Samaria and was preaching Christ to them.  He was letting these Gentiles know that they could become Christians.  That they would never again be excluded.  And the people "...with one accord gave heed to those things which Phillip spoke to them..." Acts 8:6.

In the middle of preaching to thousands in Samaria, an angel appeared to Philip and told him to go to Gaza, a desert.  So Philip left what he was doing and went.  He saw the Ethiopian eunuch sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah from a scroll.  We know this story.  Phillip shared the meaning of the passage that the man was reading, (from Is. 53:7) and told him that what he was reading had been fulfilled.  Jesus, the Christ had come, died and risen from the dead.  The Isaiah prophecy was now a fact.

So the eunuch believed.  And since they were near water, he was baptized.  Right there.  Right then.

And here is the thing that I learned from this passage which I have taught many times, and never thought about.  Phillip was in the middle of a revival.  Thousands were coming to Christ--people were believing the story that he and the disciples were telling them.  But God had Phillip leave the thousands and go out to an empty desert to witness to one man.

The individual is always important to God.  And when an individual begins to search for God and begins to search the Word of God, God responds.

"And you shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13.

People who want some other way to be saved say things like, "I think there are many paths to God."  The Bible says there is one way.  Jesus.  That's it.  And because God says that you will find Him if you seek Him,  he doesn't need a plan B.  Jesus is our savior.  He is the one who died for us.  Acts 4:12 "...there is no other name under the heaven that has been given among men by which we can be saved."   Look for Him and you will find him.

Someday in the future, I will continue into the second chapter of Genesis.  But not now.  I'm done.  Like I said, I'm probably not going to write about it anymore.  I'm through.  It's out there on the web for ever more.  Oct. 3, to Nov. 14, 2016.  My friend Amy Smith has forwarded it to her son in college.  I suggest you do the same if you have someone in your life who will benefit.

I have been teaching on Sunday from the book of Acts.  Every time I teach a story that I have taught many times before, I am amazed when I learn something new.  Last week I was telling about the man who had been lame since birth.  He sat outside the gate to the temple to beg.  Every day of his life!  And all the people who went into the temple (three times a day) knew him.  Recognized him.

Peter and John came by and he asked them for money.  They said they had no money but that they would give him what they did have.  "In the name of Jesus, rise and walk."  Then Peter took the man by the hand.  We sometimes tell people what they need to do, but don't take the next step and give them a hand.   You have to get them started on the next step.  And many times, the next and the next and the next.  That's called disciplining.

The lame man rose, jumped, leaped, and praised God.  But here is the thing I had missed when I previously taught this lesson.  Since he was lame, by Mosaic law, he couldn't enter the temple.  (Leviticus 21:17-18.)  The very first thing he did when he was healed was to run through the temple gate.  For the first time in his life he got to join the other worshipers inside the temple.  Jesus had made him whole.  And he gave his testimony to everyone who was there--praising Jesus.  Because of this, 5000 men became believers in the resurrected Christ.  And probably just as many women and Gentiles.

I was reminded of the Eunuch nobleman, who was not even Jewish, but had gone to Jerusalem to worship and had purchased a scroll from Isaiah.  Phillip met him and the Eunuch became a believer in Christ and asked, "What prevents me from being baptized?"  He was sure that since he was flawed that he wouldn't be able to be baptized.  Phillip baptized him.  Mosaic law was done with.  No more exclusions.  Our God has a big house.  Everyone is invited in.  There's a hallelujah party going on.

 

Day 7

Genesis 2: 2-3 "And  on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work...and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it..."

Seven.  We are introduced to a number that has significance from Genesis to Revelation.  Here it seems to represent completeness.  We just know it means something to God because he uses the number seven repeatedly in his Word in other circumstances.

He rested.  We desperately need rest, but it doesn't seem to mean much in the world we live in.  One day is like another.  Everyone seems to be exhausted.  In your life, find a day and set it aside from your work.  Give yourself a day to rest.  I don't know what work means to you, but for me, gardening is not work.  For me it is pure joy.  I love to set aside a time each day when I am through with my work to go outside and get my hands in God's earth.  But for farmers, planting and harvesting is work.  They need rest from it.  Whatever your work is, find time to set that work aside and rest.

Sunday is another rest day for me.  I teach a class.  I go to worship. I renew fellowship with other Christians.   I read.  Historically, we Christians set Sunday apart for a day of worship.  I do.

God blessed the animals.   He blessed man.  And He blessed the seventh day.  (Which is Saturday.)  We honor Sunday because Jesus arose on Sunday.  But God went further.  He sanctified the seventh day.  We usually think of sanctification as a work that God does in us.  He finishes us into something pleasing to him.  But here he is finishing, bringing to a full end all His creative work.

I hope this review will help you as you teach your children and grandchildren that the Bible is true from cover to cover.  And the story of creation in Genesis is true in every detail and sequence.  It is important that they know this.  That the Bible is true--cover to cover.

The thing about not eating meat is pretty important.  Until Adam and Eve sinned, nothing had to die.   But when they did sin--that sin being disobedience--God required a live animal for a  sacrifice, a covering for sin. ( Genesis 3:21)  He made them coats of skins to cover their naked bodies.  He sacrificed an animal to cover their sin.  Then God casts them out of the garden lest they should eat of the Tree of Life and live forever.  The prototype for a sacrifice has just been set by God.  

Genesis 1:32  "And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good."  (Everything that he had done was perfect at this point. ) "And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

Genesis 2:1  "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them." (Millions and millions of animals.  Millions and millions of stars and galaxies.)

We aren't getting new animals on the earth.  Or anything else.  God was done.  Animals became prey after man sinned.  Animals have been going extinct (they are not evolving into other species) for thousands of years--because we have not done the five things that God asked us to do.  He asked us to care for the fish, birds, cattle (mammals), earth, and creeping things.  That means that we must also care for the water, air, food for animals, soil, and the clean up crew of creeping things.  We are responsible for the habitat of all creatures.  We've pretty much blown that.  Just in the ocean, there are islands of discarded plastics.  And discarded fishing nets.  They trap and kill whales and other large animals every day.  And then there is smog, air pollution.  And chemical waste in the soil.

My brother (doctor, missionary to China) said that they tested all of the children they treated in China including their own children and  hundreds of missionary children, and without exception, every one of them tested well above the acceptable level for lead in their bodies.  China dumps everything in the soil--just as we used to do.   Produce that is coming up out of the ground is not coming up roses.

I am done with explaining the sequence of events after Gen.1:1  The word 'create' is used to describe three events.  1. The heavens and the earth.  2.  New kinds of animals.  3.  Humans in the image of God.   The word 'let'  or 'made' is used for everything else.

So did you decide what REplenish means?  That the earth needed to be re-plenished.  It says  that there was probably life before Adam.  You can't replenish something that was never plenished.

I find that amazing.  How  could someone only a few thousand years ago write an account of the life on earth before Adam with such  scientific accuracy on their own?!!    They had no way of knowing anything about such things.   That information had to come from a God that inspired the writer of Genesis.  I think it says for certain that the Bible is the word of God.

 God revealed it.  Someone wrote it down.  Truth always stays true.  The writer didn't know about dinosaurs,  but could use the word "Replenish"  without any problem at all.  He trusted God's supreme knowledge over his own  limited knowledge.

Science that is fact--and not theory--will never be in contradiction with God's word.  Because God's word is truth.  Truth that always stays true.  It never changes.  The theories of man change all the time.  I have a collection of publications that I have cut from newspapers, scientific journals, etc. that go back for over fifty years that announce that "they" have changed their mind about something.  Or revised "their" theory about something.  You never have to revise the Bible.

Day six is almost over. but God speaks again to the male and female:  He has given them their first instruction.  "Be fruitful and multiply.  Replenish the earth."  Now he tells them something else.

Genesis 1:29  "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face on the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."  At this point, man was a vegetarian. Fruit and herbs were their meat.  No animal had to die for them to eat food.

Was Adam the first man.  Yes.  He was the first man we know anything about.  He was a very different kind of man than any creature that had come before him.  How???  Continued............

God spoke to the animals and said, "Be fruitful, and multiply..."

He told us to have dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, earth, and creeping things.

Genesis 1:27  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."  More about this later.

Genesis 1:28  " And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air  and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

So we get His blessing.  What more could a man or a woman want than the blessing of God?  And then he tells us the same thing that he told his animals:  "Be fruitful and multiply... and have dominion over it..."

But in the middle of all that, he tells us to "...replenish the earth..."   Replenish?   Think about that.  Could it have been "Plenished" before this?  Perhaps between Genesis1:1 and Genesis1:2?

Re----plenish.  God's first words to man.  And we have perverted reproduction--God's gift to a man and wife.  The first thing he told us to do.  The world has turned the gift of God into recreation and entertainment.  We will have to answer for this at the judgment.

The Tulsa newspaper had an article in it on the age (strata) of the Grand Canyon.  Some say it is 70 billion years ago, (probably a misprint).  Some say it was carved 55 million years ago.  Others say 17 million years ago. Some say it is only 5 or 6 million years old.   Mercy.  All those dates in one article.

Fossils are dated by strata--the layer they are in.  It is a very inexact (!) science.  No one agrees or seems to be able to rectify the vast differences in the opinions concerning strata.  And we're supposed to date dinosaurs by the strata they are in?  Everyone does agree that they are very, very old.

Every fossil, every bone, creates this kind of disparity in opinions.  Todays' animals (mammals) aren't all that old in geological time.  Hence, the mad scramble science is having in trying to tie today's animals (by evolution theory) to the dinosaurs that vanished.

When God said, "...let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind..."  He didn't mean, "Dem' bones, dem bones, dem dry (dinosaur)  bones...". Many of these living creatures were new.   Only birds are considered scientifically to be dinosaurs.  (Look at the scaly leg of a chicken.)

Day six is ending.  But God isn't through yet.  Day six is a really big, big day.

Genesis 1:26-27 "And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."  This is the third time in the first chapter this word create is used.

And, what about that word "us."  And "our."  Recall John 1:1-3.  "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.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."  The triune God.

More tomorrow.  Day six is a long day.  And I have a lot to say.  Bear with me.

I have gone through the first two chapters of Genesis before.  Twice.  This third time is it.  I'm not going to do it again.  If you want to learn about it, go back to Oct. 3, 2016 and read through November.  After I finish it this time, I'm through.  I'm going to write about something else.

Evolve:  To change.  We are evolving--as I said at the beginning, we humans are losing our wisdom teeth among other things (as a species).  But we are not evolving into something else.  We aren't going to turn into a frog.  If ever our species should need those teeth again to gnaw food, we would, over time, by natural selection, regain them.  Because we carry those genes for wisdom teeth.

Natural selection.  Survival of the fittest.  Both are results of conditions.  Enough.  I could go on about this for hours.  Suffice to say, we stay recognizable.  Sharks, crickets, crocodiles...and a zillion other animals...are easily recognizable from millions and millions of years ago.  Those animals have not become some other animal.  They are today just what they were then.  They survived the darkness in the water.  The land dinosaurs didn't evolve.  They died out.  Period.

Day six.   New animals suddenly appear.  Cattle for one thing.  What in the world would the human race do without cows and goats and all the wonderful things such animals provide us.  My only question is:  why would God make pigs and then deny all that ham and bacon to the Jews.  I'm glad he didn't deny bacon to Gentiles and Christians.  Bacon needs to be a food group.

Genesis 1:24-25 "And God said: Let (just think how many times this word has appeared!!!) the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.   And God made (the third word I mentioned was "made") the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything the creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."  Chapter 1 tells us that God created these new animals.

Now, all those animals need, are names.  God is getting ready to take care of that.

We're still in day five.  God finally speaks to his creation:  Genesis 1:22  "And God blessed them, saying,  'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let (there is that word  'let'  again) fowl multiply in the earth.'"  These are the first words that God has spoken.

I love blessings.  "And God blessed them."  Sometimes our pastor reads a blessing from the Bible at the end of our church service. I find comfort in the fact that the God we worship started his dialog with the world in the form of a blessing.  He told all of his creatures to reproduce.  God invented reproduction--and blessed it.

When you study embryonic division of cells, the miracle of the creation of life is indescribable.  One cell divides.  Then both of those cells divide.  Cells divide again and again.  And each new cell knows what to become.  Our God is an awesome God.

At this period in the life of the earth, new animals appear--and this is not so long ago in geological time.  Note:  We are not evolving anything new.  Today, animals are becoming extinct.  Hundreds of species vanish each day.  The dinosaurs appeared millions of years ago, then they start disappearing, not evolving into other creatures.  They died off.  Gone.

And yet, all at once, an entire  plethora of animals appear on earth.  Scientists struggle to explain this.  They keep looking for missing links.  Problem is, there are millions and millions of missing links--and nothing in strata to validate an evolutionary process.  Nothing to explain the appearance of these new species.  That is, nothing except a miracle.

Genesis 1:23 "And the evening and the morning were the fifth day."

Continuing day five.

 Genesis 1:21  "And God created great whales, (behemoths) and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good."   This is only the second time that the word "Create" appears in the Bible.

This word will be used only one more time in the book of Genesis.  When God creates man.

The evolution theorist says that everything that lives today originated in water.  The Bible agrees to a point.  The Bible says "...which the waters brought forth...".   However, mammals didn't.  They are a new thing.  So is man as we know him today.

There are so many things that I don't have the energy or endurance to tell you about the scientific truth of Genesis, but suffice to say, I am trying to hit the high points.  One thing you might be interested in is the Triassic, Jurassic, and  Cretaceous  periods-- called the Mesozoic Era--goes back 245 million years ago.  At the end of this Era, Dinosaurs became extinct--and that was a very short time ago.  Wham.  Everything changed.  Almost everything vanished.  The fossil record drys up for over 60 million years.  Except for animals that lived in the water.

Now,  how we are supposed to have evolved in the short time--since life on land died out--is a mystery to me.  This is where a good knowledge of statistics comes in handy.  If--as the evolution theorist claims--we are supposed to have evolved from something that simply vanished--it would be statistically impossible in the time left--after the Mesozoic Era--until now, to do it.  Statistically.

We are living in the Cenozoic Era.  And only in the tiny last part of this Era does man appear.

God was done with dinosaurs.  He started a new kind of life.  He created great whales, (mammals).  He..."created every living creature that moves..."  He created new animals.  A different kind.

Day five.  Here is where the fun begins.  The earth is ready.  The sea is ready,  The grass, flowers, and trees are ready.  The old dinosauric life is gone--with a some exceptions such as crocodiles, armadillos, crickets, numerous 'bugs'--just to name a few species that could live in water and damp, dark, murky places--that made it through the destruction.  Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep...."

And of course,  almost all of the fish were still there.  They didn't care if the world was dark and formless.

When I worked with the dissection of birds--which sometimes swim, and fish--that sometimes fly, it was very noticeable that the fin of the fish and wing of the bird are very similar.  Their tails as well.  Neither have lungs like we do, (with a few exceptions).  So if you are a Christian Darwinist (which is an oxymoron to me),  this next verse might give you comfort.  But only on the subject of birds and fish.

Genesis 1:20  "And God said, Let (let again) the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament (sky) of heaven."

One species survived the destruction because it lived in the water, the other in the air.  Birds might have made it by nesting in floating debris.  And there was probably a lot of that.  Understand, I am giving an account of how what we know scientifically might fit into the Biblical account.

The tide--the force that now drives the motion of the oceans--is bringing creatures onto land.  Crabs, fish that prefer to lay eggs in sand and then go back to the sea.  Turtles as well.  Many creatures of the sea had no problem using both sea and land--thus providing a food source for the abundant life that is getting ready to appear in Genesis 1:21.  Sunshine and tides changed everything for these water creatures.

I absolutely love this book.

Someone asked me, "What difference does all this make?  Why does it matter so much to you?"

If Genesis does not stand up to the test of true and validated science, then, there is room for doubt in the hearts of those who are not educated on the facts of the Bible.  Especially our children.  We must hold the conviction that all of the Bible is true and that it is always true.  Once there is doubt about one part of the Bible, then how do you pick and choose what is true and what isn't.  We must rectify the truth of Genesis with true science.  That is why we must know what Genesis really says and what it does not say.

I want to know the truth.  That was my only motive for work in Zoology, Physics, Math, and Statistics.  I  wanted to be able to judge what was absolutely true in science.  And what wasn't.

I knew in my heart that the Bible was the true word of God.  I wanted to know what scientists knew for absolute sure, and what they were speculating on.  What was fact and what was just theory.  I was amazed.  Over and over again in the last fifty years science has reversed course, changed their minds, and recanted their 'facts'.  The book of Genesis has remained the same.  But if evolution theory is wrong, they have no where else to go--except for a Creator.  Which is no longer politically correct.  Sad, but true.  Their latest theory is that we came from outer space.  Duh.

Remember, everything scientists discover--atoms, molecules, distant planets, black holes--and the list goes on and on--God made.  He already knows everything about everything he made.  We don't.

The world will disparage your faith if you don't understand Genesis.  They will say that you and I believe the world is 3000-6000 years old--which it obviously isn't.  They will mock your faith. I am amazed at the things some people believe that it says--which it doesn't.

That's why it matters.

Genesis 1:19  "And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

So, God 'let' the lights appear.  You recall that I said that the word 'let' means to allow something to happen.  I 'let' you out of the car.  I 'let' the dog out.

From Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."  It was the earth that was void, dark, and without form--not the heavens.  There was water, and creatures in the water--we know this because of verse 20--which I will discuss later.

So when God said, "Let the lights appear," the heavens were now visible.  All the atmospheric junk around the earth that interfered with a clear view of the heavens was swept away.

When I began this blog, I said there were three words that I found interesting.  One was "Create".  One was "Let".   And the third was "Made," which can be best described as meaning to take something and do something else with it.   In Gen. 1:7,  God 'made' the firmament.  (Science says the firmament is still expanding.)

 Now we come to the second time that the word 'made' is used.  Verse 16-18. "And God 'made' two great lights; the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night:  he made the stars also.  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness;  and God saw that it was good."  How long did this take?  Who knows.  It doesn't tell us.

This is the first time the moon is mentioned.  And when the moon began rotation around the earth, something strange took place.  Tides.  Tides change everything.  Life from the oceans--that was already there from when God created the heavens and the earth back in the first verse--can adapt to the changing tides.  Critters crawl onto the land more easily.

Remember, it was land-life that was destroyed.  Not sea-life.  Animals in the water have remained as they always were.  A million year old shark fossil looks like a shark today.  So do crickets.  Roaches. Crocodiles, etc.  Animals that could live in a dark wet place survived the end of the dinosaurs.