Memorial Day...A Time to Remember

Today, we honor and remember all those who served, or are serving, in the defense of this great country in which we live. For those of us who have never worn a uniform we, too, have a responsibility to defend this land in which we live. Never before has our country been under attack from within as it is today! If there is any hope for America it is in God. We sing "God Bless America", but it seems that many Americans have forsaken God. In many ways, our country has forsaken Him. He is no longer welcome in our schools. He is despised by those in places of authority. He is scoffed at and laughed about by many. But He is the only answer to the calamities faced by our country. Our hope lies in getting back to God! One of the greatest hindrances of that happening is Christians who are not consecrated to God. The more believers who get right with God, the better country we will have. And what makes great Christians can be found below in the following scripture and devotional by Charles Spurgeon.

If, and a Triple Promise

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”—2 Chronicles 7:14

CALLED by the name of the Lord, we are nevertheless erring men and women. What a mercy it is that our God is ready to forgive! Whenever we sin let us hasten to the mercy seat of our God, seeking pardon.

We are to humble ourselves. Should we not be humbled by the fact that after receiving so much love, we yet transgress? O Lord, we bow before thee in the dust and own our grievous ingratitude. Oh, the infamy of sin! Oh, the sevenfold infamy of it in persons so favored as we have been!

Next, we are to pray for mercy, for cleansing, for deliverance from the power of sin. O Lord, hear us even now, and shut not out our cry.

In this prayer we are to seek the Lord’s face. He has left us because of our faults, and we must entreat Him to return. O Lord, look on us in thy Son Jesus, and smile upon thy servants.

With this must go our own turning from evil, God cannot turn to us unless we turn from sin.

Then comes the triple promise of hearing, pardon, and healing. Our Father, grant us these at once, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance."

Psalm 33:12

Some May Wonder...

why our grandparent names are "Lolly" and "Pops"!



Because we are "SUCKERS" for Sawyer!

Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged; parents are the pride of their children." Proverbs 17:6

Daycare with Lolly

"Today is my second day of daycare at Lolly's house. I thought you might want to see and hear what we've been doing..."

"Lolly always likes to start the day by reminding me that she loves me, Momma loves me, Daddy loves me, Pops loves me and Jesus loves me! She told me about Aunt Amanda moving to Arkansas for the summer and a funny story about my Uncle Josh."

"This is a picture of me trying to wink at Aunt Amanda! Uncle Josh - You want some of this! (Sorry, it's one of those private jokes!)"

"Here we were singing 'If You Want Joy You Must Jump For It' for the joy of the Lord is my strength - so I had to show my muscles!!"

"Then we sang, 'If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands' and we stomped our feet and said 'Amen'. We were happy!"

"Our Bible verse for the day was 'I am wonderfully made'. I think Lolly likes having me spend the day with her!"

Lazy Sunday with Sawyer

Today, while Meagan and Jeremy were out celebrating a special birthday, Sawyer had a lazy afternoon with Lolly and Pops. Sunday is always the perfect day for a nap but Sawyer was really interested in trying to talk to the zebra hanging over his pack-n-play! (That or he was working really hard to get his fist to connect with the goofy animal preying on him during his nap time!)

Happy Birthday, Meagan!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

Cancer

Doesn't that word always get our attention particularly when it follows the word diagnosis? Recently, I have had the privilege and opportunity to add numerous friends, acquaintances, and internet pals, all with cancer to my prayer list. The most alarming thing is the number of young children. My list includes a 9 month old with kidney cancer, a 19 month old and 5 year old with brain cancer, a 7 year old with thyroid cancer, an 11 year old with leukemia and the list goes on with too many adults to mention but all precious to me!

Not all of those on my prayer list have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ but for those that don't I pray for that as well! It is with that in mind that I am including the following, a post from a blog of a sweet young mother who is fighting brain cancer while raising a 2 year old. It was a blessing and encouragement to me when I read it and I hope it will be to you as well!


• The Climb

I was all ready to write my next note when I was on the plane headed to Houston. I didn’t know what the outcome of my impending MRI would be, I didn’t know what the next 48 hours held, but I did know that I would be okay regardless. I got some inspiration on that plane flying into Houston. I flew in right around 6pm. There were tons of clouds. More clouds than normal. When we were above the clouds I was overcome with wonder. They were fluffy. Cotton balls. The kind of thing you imagine heaven to look like when you’re 6 years old. The sun was shining in a gorgeous orange pre-setting kind of way. It was breathtaking.

Then, as is common during the landing procedure, the plane had to go down and into the clouds.

My window view went from white to light gray to gray to almost black with water flying across the plastic. It was obvious that while the view from above the clouds was indescribably amazing, what awaited beneath was darkness and storm.

We landed safely, bumpy, but safely. And I was so excited. What an amazing analogy!! Keep your eyes above the storm!! I was going to write all about perspective and how if you just keep your eyes on the prize you can keep going. But a few days later wisdom hit me where I least expected it. Grey’s Anatomy. Meredith's narration was along a similar vein. She was saying that you don’t take the picture at the bottom of the mountain. You take the picture at the top... after the climb. You don’t take pictures during the sweat and the tears. You take pictures of the happy ending. Even though you have to have the sweat and the tears to get there, people like to forget that part and go straight to the ending.

Obvious but profound.

Too many times we’re so focused on the future that we forget to appreciate the climb. Yes, I want to be healed! Yes, I desperately want to be able to put my hair back in a ponytail again! (So simple and stupid, but true none-the-less true.) Yes, I want my family to sleep well at night knowing that the cancer is gone. But that’s not where I am right now. Right now I am three days away from starting my next round of Chemo and feeling like crap. Right now I have short hair that I’m styling and making work, but I actually dream about my longer locks. Right now I have feet that peel and can’t be bare when formerly I was known as a barefoot queen. Right now I have severe tummy troubles that would be humiliating, but I can’t let myself go there mentally. It is what it is and I can’t help it if my system gets angry at my prescriptions. Right now I wake up in the middle of the night for no reason and need to nap in the middle of the day from exhaustion. Right now I take a minimum of 7 pills a day; when Chemo starts I will take 13 pills a day. Right now I cannot properly care for my own daughter. I just don’t have the energy. I check my blood pressure every day. I fly to Houston once a month. I talk to doctors and insurance reps far more often than a normal person should. I fill out forms. I keep records. I file every insurance summary that gets mailed to us on the off chance that something gets mixed up on their end and we need to fight the system.

I do not have a normal life. I am in the middle of the climb.

There’s a few things about the climb that I should also mention. During the climb you are raw. There’s no time or energy to be anything other than the person you are at your core. At my core I am certainly trusting God, but I miss the sense of control I had in my pervious life. Going in for an MRI is frustrating and unnerving. I have no control. A day later someone could tell me three simple words that would make me and my family... not break... we wouldn’t break, but parts of us would certainly feel broken. At the same time the doctor could say three other words and we would fall to our knees for a different, much for joyous reason. This time neither sets of those words were spoken. My results were the same as the last MRI. No growth. Which is good!! I was very happy to hear those words!! But it means the climb is not over... may not be for years to come and that’s okay.

The climb defines you. Any idiot can take a helicopter to the top of a mountain and take a picture. However, the people who actually climb that mountain are the only ones who will carry with them a sense of awe and appreciation for the mountain. The climb is WHY the picture at the top of the mountain actually means something. Without the climb there is little to no accomplishment.

I have said it many times before and I will continue to say it, Cancer is a blessing. It opens up so many doors for me to openly talk about my faith. It puts life into a different perspective. It helps me see the forest for the trees or whatever that old saying is. But, most importantly, it reminds me that this is not my home. My life is safely held by the maker of this universe. My cancer does not make me question God. If anything it goes right in line with everything the Bible has told us about him. Matthew 5:45, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.” God is JUST and LOVING and has not once left my side.

So I’m going to appreciate my climb - crevasses and all. Because even if I fall I am tethered to the God of this universe who knows my new name and has prepared a home for me when this life is through... whether that happens tomorrow or fifty years from now!

What a friend we have in Jesus!

"Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I."
Isaiah 58:8-9

Memories of Mother

Since today is Mother’s Day, I want to take a few minutes to reminisce over a few memories of Momma. I will spare the reader great detail but will give the memory its due!

She was…

• A talented Mother who was a good cook! I think her family will always remember her Sunday lunch after church of roast, rice, gravy, green beans, and dessert with the most fondness!

• A tireless mother who gave Saturday home perms that left the home smelling like a failing hair salon!

• A loving mother who apparently lived in mortal fear of hair ending up in her daughters’ eyes so she always cut their bangs just a tad north of too short!

• A patient Mother who taught her daughter to iron by having her iron bed sheets and pillowcases!

• A faithful Mother who taught Sunday School for 32 years!

• A playful Mother with a fun sense of humor which was passed down and at times became silliness in her youngest daughter.

• A responsible Mother who not only made sure her daughters looked their best but also made sure they did their best in whatever they chose to do.

• A gracious Mother who loved to host “42” parties and plan family reunions.

• A spiritually committed Mother who gave her daughters the greatest gift any parent could give her children - an introduction to the gospel of Christ and the free gift of salvation!!

"Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice."
Proverbs 23:22-25

An Evening With Pops

There is nothing sweeter than shared time
between a grandfather and his grandson!

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Third Letter

A little time has elapsed since my last post on Revelations and I want to take a minute to appreciate some essentials of this book. Revelation begins with a blessing in chapter 1 verse 3, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” And it ends with a blessing in chapter 22 verse 7, "And behold, I am coming quickly Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book." In this book God’s glory and the splendor of Christ is revealed. What is testified to here in Revelation by Christ through John is the next event on God’s Messianic timetable.

In chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation there are letters by the Lord Jesus written to seven churches. These letters likewise describe not only a single church in history but a kind of church that exists through all the history of the church. And as such they are very instructive for us.

12"And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: 13'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15'So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16'Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. 17'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.'

As every letter has begun with a description of Christ, we see for the church in Pergamum, Christ is described as the One who has the sharp two-edged sword which was certainly an indication that the church faced imminent judgment. One is reminded of the verse in Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." The Word of God is at once the instrument of salvation and the instrument of death.

The church in Pergamum was commended for standing boldly for Christ even in the place of Satan’s throne! Satan’s place of operation is here on earth not in hell. That is his place of incarceration! The church had remained faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ in spite of their evil environment.

Sadly, after the commendation comes the condemnation. The church had some in it that held to the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans and they were being tolerant of sin! They had not confronted them or removed them from the church. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul says a little leaven, leavens the whole lump! And so Christ tells them to repent! What a message to our churches today! The world is constantly preaching tolerance and Christ tells us that we are never to tolerate sin and that if we do we must repent!! There is no alternative to continued impurity and compromise with the truth except that of divine judgment.

As in His messages to the other churches, Christ gives a promise and an invitation to individuals. “He that hath an ear” is invited to listen. To him is given the threefold promise of verse 17, contained in this revelation. First of all, the believer is assured that he will have the benefit of eating of the hidden manna. Just as Israel received manna from heaven as its food, for the true believer He says I'll give you Jesus Christ. I'll give you the true bread, the spiritual bread from heaven which the world doesn't see; I'll give you that bread which will sustain you. Go back to John 6:51 and hear Jesus say, "I am the bread of life." I'll give you Christ. I'll give you all that is in Christ. I'll give you all the benefits of knowing Christ. You're an overcomer and I'll give you all you need to sustain your life forever.

In addition to the hidden manna, those who overcome by faith are promised a white stone. The giving of the white stone to the believer here, then, is the indication that he has been accepted or favored by Christ, a wonderful assurance especially for those who have been rejected by the wicked world and are the objects of its persecution. In addition to receiving the stone, a new name written on the stone is promised them, the name described as one “which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

John Walvoord points out that Christians in this modern day as well as Christians in the church at Pergamos are reminded by this Scripture that it is God’s purpose to separate them from all evil and compromise and to have them as His particular inheritance throughout eternity. However difficult their lot in this life, they are assured infinite blessing in the life to come.

If you don't know Jesus Christ, the hidden manna isn't for you, the white stone is not yours. And all you have is the sword of His judgment.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16