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.