Remember when....

 Greetings to you all  in the  name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Ecclesiastes 12:1 says, “ Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”

     A lady goes up and down the hallway almost every day calling out for her “Daddy.”  She was at our door one day and was looking for him and Diane opened the door and said, “He is dead.”  She gasped in shock for a moment and then went on her way, still calling out for her Daddy.  She has no short term memory at all.  Many have to be led to by the hand to the meal time and hen led back to their rooms after they eat or to sit in the living room and watch the large screen TV which seems to go in one ear and out the other.  Such is life at an assisted living facility, and one by one they pass away.

     I received an email recently that requires me to think back over forty years and to remember how things were.  It is a challenge do me but will try ro do my best to fulfill the request.  The above passage is one of my favorites from verse one tro verse eight.  Notice in particular, the words, “...in the days of thy youth.”  The Lord used me to begin certain ministries especially in regard to youth work, one of which was the AWANA program.  Id a child goes through the entire program from Cubbies throughRTeens, they will have memorized over a thousand verses of Scripture.  The memory banks of the youth need o be filled with verses of Scripture as these verses will emain with them when they are old.  The “Preacherr” exhorted us ro remember God when we are young and no rto wait until we get older and moe serious in our lifestyle.  When the memory begins to fade, only those things that have been embedded in our minds will survive.  Music is one of the last things to leave the memory.  Parents need to be a part of the training up of a child in the ways of the Lord.  Grandparents also need to be faithful in living out the Word of God and to be continually teaching the children the Word of God and then also by living it out.  How is your memory when it comes to the Scriptures?  How many verses can you still say after having memorized to many AWANA verses?  Praise od to day for His Word and rhe impact it has on rhe lives of both young and old.

A Penny For Your Thoughts!

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Second Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

     Our minds seem to be continually thinking about something.  I was once told in a book that meditation begins with freeing your mind of all thought.  At that point, I gave up on that course of thinking.  After i removed all thought, I was to start moving my tongue in an uncertain direction and let the Spirit take over.  I didn’t want to free  my mind of all thought as I might get something in it that I didn't want.  

     The Bible however, has much to say about our minds in regard to what we are thinking.  Elizabeth Elliott made the following statement, “"[Spiritual strongholds] begin with a thought. One thought becomes a consideration. A consideration develops into an attitude, which leads then to action. Action repeated becomes a habit, and a habit establishes a “power base for the enemy,” that is, a stronghold."  Notice that she begins with the fact that a spiritual stronghold will begin with a thought.  If that thought is unchecked, that is, measured with the Word of God, it will lead to a spiritual stronghold that we will have to battle with in the future.  When we look at the armor of the believer in the book of Ephesians, we notice that the sword is the Word of God. It is the only offensive weapon listed.  The rest of the pieces are all defensive.  As always, our attention needs to be focused on God’s Word with every thught that comes into our minds.  One sin that is quite common among many is covetousness and we find that to covet something is going to begin in the mind.  What are some of the more important things in your life about which you should be thinking?  The world thinks that religion is funny and in particular, Christianiy is funny.  It seems to ease their conscience if they can laugh about God and laugh about eternal punishment in hell.  While we know about God’s love, His grade and His mercy, we also know about His coming judgment when every soul will bow the knee before Him.  What people don’t understand is that you have the choice to meet God now in grace or you will meert Him later in judgment    Second Timothy 3:1-5 is already rampant in society so we know the time is short.  I pray that my thoughts will be how to keep people, souls, from going into a Christless eternity.  Praise God for His Word, the Sword of the Spirit.  A penny for your thoughts!

Tomorrow,, Tomorrow!!

 Greetings to you all in the  name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     James 4:13-14 says, “ Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

     We live in a wing that has twelve rooms and our room is, number twelve.  We are at the end of the hall and each time I leave the room, I can look up to the left and right and see the names of each resident.  In the past year, some have come for a short stay and left.  Other “old timers” also disappear as they pass away one by one.  Five have died during the past eleven months.  Just when you think you get to know some of them, they are gone.  One lady across the hall in room eleven, was only 58 years old when she passed away.  Another lady, young for such a place, who could not speak, suddenly was transferred to another facility.  She could not say one word to me but just mumbled.  She had things to say, but couldn’t get them out of her head to her mouth.  She would sit for a spell during the service on Sundays.  Other times, she would just walk around as I spoke.  I never will know this side of heaven if she understood or if it made any difference to her life.

     The passage above reminds us of the brevity of life.  The woman mentioned above was a scientist, and nurse and had been involved in cancer research.  Then, in less than a year, she could no longer speak or take care of herself.  James says that we make all kinds of plans as if we have all the time in the world, but in reality, we don’t even know what the next minute will bring to our lives  Vapor doesn’t last very long  You can watch it rise from a boiling pot and then almost instantly disappear less than six inches from the pot.  I have to admit that I spend far less time building relationships these days.  Oh, they are important, but I tend more to get to the point a lot quicker because I may not be here tomorrow nor may the person to whom I am talking, whether young or old.  Most of us hae people for whom we are praying, especially for salvation.  We hope and pray that someone will get to them before it is too late.  We are probably that “someone” that will take the message of salvation to them.  We often wait for the ideal circumstance to make our plea for salvation but it is never quite what we desire, so we hold off for a more convenient time when conditions are perfect, only, they probably will never be perfect.  Praise God for the time He has given to us.  May we use it wisely.

The Pot and the Wooden Spoon

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

     Put a two year old on the kitchen floor with a pot and a wooden spoon and you won’t be able to hear anything else going on around you  To them, the louder the noise, the better.  One of  my very first Christmas gifts as a child was a peg board with a wooden hammer and a bag of different colored pegs.  I recall getting out  of bed in the wee hours of the morning and starting to pound the pegs into the peg board, making a lot of noise.  I guess it was too much as soon, my Father came in, took the board away and the hammer, put me in bed and turned out the light.  I assumed you couldn’t make noise when it was dark outside.

     The above passage is one of the most famous and perhaps, most used by the world, even the unsaved.  I have seen it on cross stitches.  In fact, I had one hanging near my bed and could see it every evenin when I went to bed.  This chapter is often referred to as the “love” chapter as it is mentioned in almost every verse.  When you come down to it, only you and God know what’s in your heart as far as motives that you and I have for doing what we do.  The Apostle Paul emphasizes that every work that is done is nothing more than a bunch of noise if there is no love present. There are no selfish motives present in the presence of this type of love.    Thee is just the simple act itself, perhaps done in secret. I am growing, hopefully in this area as I have an elderly lady  That is continually rattling my door knob.  I would often open the door and yell at her and ask her to please leave my doorknob alone.   the other day I just calmly went up open the door and ask her what she needed and she replied,  “ I just wanted to know if you would like to have a pair of tie-dyed tennis shoes.”   I said no thank you to that offer and she said okay and just walked off.  At the age of 84 I am still learning to love bitter here at the Assisted Living.   Praise God today that he is still working in our lives may we all be doing righteous acts to meet the needs of others.

Faith

  Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”     

     We have been studying the book of Ephesians here at the facility in which Diane and I are currently living.   we are at the point of studying the Christian armor and how we need to put that on.   I reminded the people that the Apostle Paul was writing to the Saints which are at Ephesus so he was writing to Believers not to non-believers.   but then I ask myself “is it necessary to teach about the Christian armor to a group of people that run probably between 80 and 103?”  As odd as it may seem it is necessary as there seems to be a lack of kindness between residents not only at this facility but probably at many facilities.  A frequent prayer request from the people is that the residents would be more happy.   even they recognize a lack of Happiness between residents here because of our actions between one and another.  I can answer yes to my above question as I do think it is necessary in all of our Christian Life to be concerned about the Christian armor that God has given to us in order to live successfully and victoriously here on Earth.

     We often exercise faith in our everyday lives even when we don’t think about it.  I sit in a chair and I have faith it will hold me.  I would start my car and have faith that it would start.  I drove on the right side of the roa and by faith thought that the oncoming drivers would do the same as we passed by each other at 40 mph less than three feet apart.  The above passage is astounding in that it describes for us the creation of the universe.  All matter was framed by the Word of God.  God spoke, and it was there even when it was not made or shaped by existing material.  Romans 1 d  eclares that even the creation itself bears testimony of God and His power and that all things were created by Him as well as Colossians one.  We may ask ourselves, “How powerful is the object of our faith?”  In the case of the believer, the Object of our faith is God Himself Who is all powerful above and beyond all that we even dare to think about.  From the bombardier Beetle to Andromeda, we see the power of God and know that without a doubt, we can have our absolute faith in Him in all things both here and now and the hereafter.  Yes, we will  keep on putting on the armor which sometimes gets laid aside in the corner of our busy lives.  Paul said that in all circumstances or above all, put on the shield of faith.  Praise God for His  daily help in the living of our lives while we wait for glory.

Interruptions

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Romans 15:22-25 says, “For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.  But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.  But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.”

     Mark Lowly once did a skit on”interruptions.”  Many times we find that our plans are interrupted and we end up doing something different than we had hoped in the beginning.We find that the plans that we had just turned out to be a lot different the word for hindered up above was the word were saved with chop up the pathway and stop the forward movement.    Last Monday I found myself back at the hospital I didn't plan on that so it's been a few days there came back on Friday and came back to find it my computer was dead and it my phone charger cable is also broken which means I have to type by devotions on my laptop which is really not convenient so my communication to you has been impeded so to speak.  

     The Apostle Paul had a desire to get to Rome and every time he would try to get there something else would come up and you end up going someplace else sometimes the things that occurred in life are not necessarily good things but they do stop us from doing what we intended to do.   There is another passage in 1st Thessalonians where Paul says that Satan hindered him from going to thessalonica.   we often find that true also where the evil one will put a block between us and that which we intended to accomplish this impeding our progress,  However in my case I need to determine what things are of God at what things are of Satan I may have my own plans and they may not necessarily be God's plans.  I looked at the experience of going to the hospital and wondered why I was there and I did have an opportunity to speak to different people make new acquaintances sing a few songs not necessarily having a good time but it wasn't that bad so God had a purpose God has a purpose in doing a lot of things in our lives sometimes it changes the direction that we plan to go it's like we say he opens doors and closes doors and I just go through the open doors that he has put before us.   It would be obvious that the open doors are those doors which actually do the will of God and as we look in the New Testament we realize what God's will is.  For instance he says to give thanks in everything sometimes that's hard to do but that's the will of God.  Praise God today for the interruptions in your life and in my life God has a purpose. 

No Vacancy

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     John 14:1-4 says, “ Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.   In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

     Well I just got back from the hospital. I spent a lot of time in the emergency room because they did not have a room available in the hospital I was there probably over 24 hours but the same is true in many of our hospitals in this area in that they do not have adequate space which reminded me about having a reservation when you go to the hospital or a motel or a hotel how important that is 

     I am trying a new feature on the devotions which is voice typing I hope it works okay in speaking about reservations. It reminded me of the Celestial City.   we know that the celestial city is big according to the measurements it's around 1500 Mi long and 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles high it's like a giant Cube that's a lot of floors for a lot of people and I was thinking there's probably not going to be one room that does not have a soul in it every room will be filled and there will be no vacancy.   that's a lot of people when you think about it.  Only God knows who the last person is that would be called to fill every room in the celestial City.  As we go out into the world today let us be conscious of spreading the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the lost that we come in contact with. we need to give the gospel message to each and every person that we know the time is growing shorter and we know that each room in the celestial city is being filled moment-by-moment when that last room is filled then we will all go to heaven we will all be there. The world however has a different program and you went there are 4000 different religions in the world we can realize that man is trying to come up with his own way to get to heaven but there is only one way the passage above when you go 2 verses 5 and 6 remind us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the father so definitely pray for those who are around you today those you will come in contact with need to hear the message as we close today the thought is the praise God for the way of Salvation and that the Lord Jesus Christ is building that place a place for us it's like I've Got a Mansion Just Over The Hilltop