I finished the book about my brother’s time in China.  Took it to UPS and had it printed.  And will get it to him for editing this weekend.  Hopefully there aren’t too many mistakes.

What I need is a publisher.  If any of you have suggestions---I’m open to it.  My publisher finally called me, then texted me, said she would get the final edition on flash-drive a week ago.   Nothing.  It’s making me nuts.

I spent yesterday going through the book of Hebrews.  It is like a jury trial.  The jury is the Jews who are Christians and want to hold onto the past--the laws and Levitical priests..  

The writer is the prosecutor.  And he or she--we don’t know who wrote Hebrews--makes the case for Christ being our high priest.  That we don’t have to ever go to a priest again and take sacrifices.  Christ is our sacrifice and he died once for all.  We can have access to God through Christ.

One point he makes is that when you have the Holy Spirit, you are a part of the family of God.  If you sin, you know it, are repentant, and don’t do that again.  But you don’t have to be “re-saved” because as the writer explains, then Christ would have to be crucified all over again.  He died once for all sin.  The writer says that God puts the law in your heart when Christ comes into your life.  And you want to obey him. You are changed.

Yesterday’s lesson was the story of Zaccheus.  Who was short.  Tall men have the advantage--statistics tell us that about the real world .

It is an incident, not a parable.  One that only Luke recorded.  There were many incidents in the life of Jesus that didn’t get written up...this one did.  It is the actual occurrence of what salvation looks like:

1. A person tries to find God.  Zack climbed a tree to get a better look.  “Seek me and you will find me,” is what the Bible says.

2.  Jesus knew his name.  When the Holy Spirit pulls at you, it is always personal.  God knows your name.

3.  Jesus told Zaccheus what to do.  “Hurry, come down.”  Zack obeyed.

4.  Repentance occurred.  “I will give half of what I have to the poor.  If I have taken anything I shouldn’t, I’ll give back 400%,” Zaccheus said.

5.  Jesus went home with him.  When we give our life to Jesus, he comes in and takes a place in our soul.

This is not a story about being short.  Or being a tax collector.  It is the story of salvation.

                   

Every Friday it is late afternoon when I realize I didn’t post.  My cousin Ann picks me up and we go to breakfast and then go garage sale hunting.  

When I get home, I go get my hair done, then read the morning news paper and do the puzzles.

What I am saying is that I am a creature of habit and when something different happens as it does on Friday, I forget my system and don’t remember to post.

Happy Friday.

It looks like tornado alley has moved to the east of us.  For my entire lifetime, it came up right through the middle of Oklahoma and carved a path of death and destruction every spring and summer.

But last year there weren’t many of them in the state.  No bad ones this year either.  Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina seemed to get most of it.  I feel sorry for them.  Tornados are awful.  You don’t know where they are going to hit exactly.

Before doppler, my mom was the early warning system.  The minute the skies didn’t look right to her,  we were going to the cellar.

The maddest I ever saw my mom was once when we were all under ground and she looked around for my dad--who was nowhere to be found.  He was in the house killing flies with a fly-swatter.  They lit on things when the weather got muggy and day my dad thought it was an excellent opportunity to reduce their population.

My dad was never afraid of anything.  He came from wild-west stock.  Tornados were just a momentary irritation to him.  He would stand outside the cellar with my uncle Cleo and watch the clouds.  I don’t remember either one of them coming down into the cellar with the rest of us.

 Today we are looking at the first couple of chapters in Hebrews, and circling the word “Angel” in pink.  Making a halo around the word.  Then we are going to look a the book of Revelations and note the seven angels of the seven churches.

I’m sure some scholar has written on the seven angels of the seven churches.  The churches were probably the largest Christian populations at the time.  And were the ones who got letters and were asked to copy the letters and pass them on to smaller groups.

Whatever, they got pointed out, and their good and bad characteristics noted.  And each church had an angel.

After finishing with the “Kingdom of God” group of words, I couldn’t help but think that within church memberships--which contain both Christians and non Christians--that the Kingdom of God is made up of believers who have repented.  And that group has an angel who watches over them.

We also noted that the angels are always “doing” something at the direction of God.  Most of the time to do something for us.

It is comforting to know that angels are watching over us, directed by God himself.

Craig had a job in France that flew him to China on a regular basis.  They made reproductions of almost everything in Singapore.  They made “Rolex” watches that were almost impossible to detect as fakes.  He brought one to Ken and told him it wasn’t real and where he got it.

He said that Ken wore the watch from then on, but never mentioned to his buddies that he ate breakfast with on Saturdays where it came from or that it was a fake--just that Craig had given it to him.

After months, one morning at breakfast, Ken said he didn’t really like the watch and was going to get a better one.  He threw it on the table, and asked if anyone wanted it?  Joe Mike Bacon took it, surprised that Ken was going to give his Rolex away, thanked Ken and wore it from then on.  

Ken said all his breakfast buddies thought Ken was the most generous man in the world.  Ken said, “I never told them it wasn’t real.”

Craig reminded me of the story--I had forgotten it.  Joe eventually caught on that the watch wasn't really a Rolex.  I don’t know if he told the others.

Craig said that Ken got tickled at of the looks on his buddies faces.  He never told them it was a Rolex.  He got such a kick out of doing things like that.

We all miss him.  

Last night, Craig told me and Becky a funny story about Ken that I had never heard.

We had all four gone to Tulsa and since Becky and I were both in the resale business with booths, we wanted to go to Goodwill.  Which is not very high on a fella’s list of things to do--but they went with us.

Craig said that Ken went to the ladies dress rack, picked out the ugliest dress he could find and took it over to me and said, “I really like this dress.”  Craig said I took one look and said, “That’s the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Ken put on a rejected face, hung the dress back on the rack and winked at Craig.  “That’s how you do it son.  They won’t be asking us to do this next time.”

Becky said, “My dad was the most honest man I’ve ever known.  But he could always prevaricate with a straight face.”

He was an honest man.  He really did  like the dress because it was the dress which was going to get the two guys out of the Goodwill store.