HEADLINE!!!!    BANNER DAY!!!  KATHY DAVIDSON SENT ME ROLLS.  FIVE PANS OF ROLLS.  

Love is a pan of rolls.  A lot of pans of rolls is a lot of love.  Five pans of rolls is so over the top it is impossible to imagine how long it took her to do it.  For me.  Who would do that....!  Twenty four rolls in each pan.  I’m in heaven.

Thing is, I don’t deserve that kind of love.  Kathy just simply made a decision to love me years ago and keeps on loving.  It makes me so very aware that I need to do better--be better--love better.  You can’t order those kinds of friends from a Sears and Roebuck catalog.  They are gifts.  Kathy knows how much I love yeast bread and for at least twenty years has been the undeserved “Yeast” in my life.

God is good.  He blesses us with friends who really care.  Don’t send me roses; don’t send me chocolate.  And you don’t need to send me yeast rolls.  Kathy has that covered.

  

So, the words Spirit, Holy Spirit, God’s gift, etc. through the book of Romans have been colored in blue.  We will finish the New Testament soon.  It became obvious that the book of Acts holds the record number of those notations--by far.

And since Luke wrote the book of Acts, it is an interesting take on what was important to him.  He had never met Jesus, so the Holy Spirit was of critical importance for him to.  (As it is to us.) He mentioned how people received the Spirit, where they were when the Spirit came, what they were doing at the time, and how the Spirit changed their lives.

Luke is my favorite New Testament person...Paul is my favorite writer.  Luke is very exact--he was a physician and always got the “prescription” correct.  Although I am sure Luke knew the disciples and heard what they had to say, Luke went to the source, the women, to get his stories about Jesus--Martha and Mary. He records their experiences and the story of Herod killing the babies, the birth of Christ, the shepherds, and wise men.  Other writers don’t do that.

It has been an interesting experience for me to color words in my Bible.  “Faith” is purple, “The kingdom of God” is in yellow, “Priest and High Priest,” are in orange...and so on.  Now when I read, I am much more aware of the author, and his word preference and subject preference.  Note that Paul uses the word “mystery” over and over again.  To him, it is no longer the priests and the law, it is the indwelling Spirit--and he calls that the mystery that God has hidden from the ages only to reveal to us with the resurrection.  “Christ in you...the hope of glory.”

 I am on point today.  Even though the girls came to clean the house, I didn’t let it interfere with my schedule list!  Even though Squig got up three times in the night to go outside and of course I am sleepy....I’m doing the next thing on the list...blog!

Today, I am going to color in blue all the times in the Word where the Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, etc. is mentioned in the book of Acts.  My friend Jeanette has prodded me because I mentioned it Sunday in class and she has already got it done.  She said that she would walk me through it.  And she has already done the entire Bible!!!

The reason I mentioned it Sunday was because of the discrepancies in the book of Acts as to how, when, where etc. the Spirit comes into our lives.  Of course we believe that we receive God’s Spirit when we allow Him--through repentance and our belief in the death of Jesus for our sins, and his resurrection.

And we believe that the Spirit is the Life within us.  And we believe that God breathed into Adam the breath of “Life.”  But that after Adam and Eve disobeyed, sin entered the world,  and people were subsequently born dead in trespasses and sin--without the Spirit of God within them.  We needed a redeemer.

However, read the Book of Acts and pay attention to the subject of the Spirit.  Let me know if you have an epiphany.  I know believers have the Spirit.  That’s all I need to know, but I’m curious about the book of Acts and the written record of what happened to the new believers back then.  Curiosity is like the itch.

I did it!!!! I submitted a book for review.  And it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  I have no secretarial skills, Nada, zilch, none...and as I have said before, I hold the title for the world’s greatest procrastinator.  I lost 10 pounds of anxiety in the process...however...the next time I do this, send something to a publisher, I will already have typed up all the stuff they want...so it will be easier.   

With procrastinators, there is always a feeling of anxiety because you know you are failing, and you know that whatever it is that you are putting off, you have to do it.  You can’t escape.  You are just delaying the necessary.  Why?  I don’t know. 

The solution is to do what you have to do.  Now!  Since I know I will put something off that I don’t want to do, I have a list in my head for the mornings that I follow religiously.  I have a rule in my head that if I don’t do the first things on my list, I can’t have my morning cup of Darjeeling tea.  And I am a psychotic rule follower!  That’s why I say I would have made an excellent Pharisee. 

One of those things I have to do is microwave a sweet potato.  It is one of the only things left that Squig can eat that he likes.  He has almost quit eating canned or dry dog food at all.  He has almost quit eating period.  He sleeps all of the time, but doesn’t seem to be in pain.  He no longer gets me up in the morning.  Bless him.  He doesn’t feel good and so on my mental morning list, I fix a sweet potato before I drink tea.  But every now and then, he brings me a toy and asks me to throw it, which I do.  But only occasionally does he have the strength to go get it.  So I go get it and throw it again.  He wants to play, and having me play seems to make him happy even through he can’t participate.  I love this sweet creature. 

I have got to got to get my act together.  My system  and the order of what I do in the morning isn’t working.  Too many of you are having to remind me to post---which I  been doing over 2500 times.  I’m trying (!) to do better.  But....

Have you ever been consumed by something you are trying to get done?  That’s where I am.  I had to write a resume...which I had never done before...the college  hired me to teach math for 20 years without one--I guess because they knew me and what I could do.  Who knows.  But this publishing company wanted one--and so I did it last week.  It took a week because  I had never reviewed myself, what I do, what I have done, who I am, or what my talents are.  I guess I just floated through life?  I found it very difficult.

And then, they wanted referrals from people in the business.  I don’t know anyone in the business of writing novels.  And they want email addresses...which I’m not going to give them!  I would lose all my friends if I did that.  Anyway, I spent a lot of time staring at my computer screen, frustrated.  It was much, much, much harder than writing the books.

I would have given up, but this publishing company is interested, and the story of my brother’s life underground in China setting up medical clinics for the Communists so he could use them to establish underground churches is too important a story to give up on.  He should have been dead a dozen times at least.  The publisher wants one chapter to read.  I chose the one where he got into a war zone, set up a tent to treat people, and the commander of an army brought his dying father to be treated, implying that Bill had to cure him or he would kill Bill.  That story was a tie with the chapter where the war in Viet Nam was raging, he was in a medical tent when a bomb hit, and he had to wade out through swamp and spent the evening picking leaches off of his legs. Or....or....or...it goes on and on.  I’m trying to get it out there.

It is 8 PM in the evening, and Rebecca Perkins texted, “You didn’t blog today.” Ahhh....my friends.  You keep me balanced.

I spent the entire day trying to write a proposal for this book about my brother.  Then realized it was supposed to start with a thesis statement.  I condensed two pages down to two sentences.  It is the hardest writing I have ever done.  

I spent hours and hours doing it.  I live for adjectives, and I had to eliminate all of them.  And of course, getting up every fifteen minutes to eat something bad for me. 

By this time every night, my neighbor across the street has called to tell me to turn my porch lights on.  All of you, my friends, take care of me.  Oh my!! How God has blessed me.  It’s becoming obvious that I can’t make it without all of you.  Kathy Davidson called this morning.  Becky Bacon did as well.  And Jeanette, Jamie and Carol picked me up and took me to lunch.  It is called assisted living in your own home!

I sincerely thank all of you who stay with my blog as I get erratic in my schedule.  Today I got up really early, took Squig to the groomer, left him there and drove to Luther.  I needed help writing a “cover-letter” a publisher wanted.  Pat is my go-to gal for computer stuff.  And since she works in the library, I can sit there and work on writing and when I get stuck, I can ask questions. (Thank Carnegie for our National Library system.)

And then, on the way home, I got a dash board light about my tires, and any time that happens I go into apoplexy.  I don’t do dash lights.  And I just got new tires anyway.

I was so bumfuzzled that I forgot to go out and get the newspaper, do my crossword and cryptogram.  It is now four in the afternoon, and I just brought the paper in.

And then, AT&T, my least favorite company in the world, has raised my “bundle” that is supposed to save me money by $45.  Why?  They don’t seem to know.  And nobody I get speaks English--I take that back.  They read it, they just don’t understand the questions I ask.  I think I’m being forced to have 5G. ??? 

And Becky Bacon just called to ask why I hadn’t blogged...and her eyes are doing remarkably well.  Which means she won’t be coming to see her Okla. City doctor.  I told her she needed to get a new disease so she will have to come stay with me!!  (I may have to drive to Pryor. I miss my Pryor friends.)  Tomorrow, I will go get the paper first thing and then blog.  I promise.  Unless I forget again.  The cure for forgetfulness is to quit having birthdays which is too drastic a solution.