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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First you believe. Then you are baptized.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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