Year: 2011

Most of my Christmas decorations I received from Grandma Lewis. We have her ceramic Christmas tree with lights and little mice peeking around the tree limbs. It’s always the first Christmas thing you see when you enter my home.

We also have Grandma Lewis’ angel from the 1940’s. Pretty face printed on paper, pasted on cardboard, with a fiberglass fuzzy skirt and silvery wings. It was probably very inexpensive when she bought it, but treasured by the family as they placed it every year on top of their Christmas tree. We have it packed away as a keepsake, since it is falling apart.

When I was first married, I bought cheap Christmas balls, icicles, strings of lights that burned out and were so hard to fix you just threw them away in disgust and bought new ones every other year. I have a few Avon collectible Christmas ornaments and things the kids made in church or school. But it’s funny, I don’t seem to have very many special tree ornaments to cherish like many folks do.

I have a few ceramic decorations to set around on shelves and tables to decorate. I have pretty Christmas tablecloths and placemats, which are just a nuisance in our family when we sit down at the table to eat.

And now it is Dec. 17 and my decorations are sitting in boxes in my living room and my tree is bare, but I’ll decorate before Christmas Eve just like we did when I was a kid, and then enjoy my tree till the day after New Year’s when I will box it all up till next year.

Maybe this is a good excuse to go shopping for new ornaments and decorations at the After Christmas Sales.

Reflecting on my family life, I realize that to our family Christmas means plays and programs at church and school, practicing for weeks, learning the songs and practicing the music and the speeches.

Instead of shopping and decorating our homes, we spent our lives singing Christmas carols and performing the Christmas story and that is really what Christmas is all about anyway.

She rode into town on a donkey, nine months pregnant. Her husband hadn’t wanted to make this trip, but it was a commandment by the government that each family go to the town of their ancestry to pay taxes, and since Joseph was a descendant of David, they had to go to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was normally a tiny town, but with the influx of taxpayers, all the inns were full. Joseph must have knocked on every door in Bethlehem trying to find a place to spend the night.

Mary knew somehow that she would have the baby tonight, even though this was her first child. Within hours of the time that Joseph found them a place to stay in the stable, Mary delivered her first-born son, the baby Jesus.

As she held him in her arms, her mind went back to the day the angel Gabriel appear to her and said, “Behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. “ Luke 1:31

Jesus, what a precious name. Yet there were many men in Israel named Jesus, a common name, also called Joshua.

Jesus is the English version of the Greek word, “Iesous,” pronounced ‘ee-ay-sous’.

The Hebrew word Jesus, or Joshua means ‘Jehovah is salvation.’

Joshua in the Old Testament was a type of Jesus. He led the people of Israel, those who would follow him, over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, while Jesus led His People, those who accept Him as Savior and follow Him, into the Promised Land of salvation.

Yes, there might even have been other men named Jesus who lived in Israel, there is even one mentioned in the Bible, but there was only one Jesus who was born to a virgin Mary in Bethlehem that night, to fulfill the many prophecies of the Old Testament and the words of the angel Gabriel, the messenger angel sent from God.

There was only one Jesus who died on the cross for me and for you. It was Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, son of God, Emmanuel God with us, the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, Christ the Lord.

You can’t just walk into the President’s Oval Office, dressed in any old paint-stained clothes or with your hair all wild from sleep. The Secret Service will stop you at the gate, long before you ever get near the White House. There is a certain protocol for a visit with the President of the United States.

Even so, the Courts of Heaven have a protocol for the worship of God Almighty. The required uniform? The garment of thanksgiving and praise.

I wear a uniform, of sorts. During the week, I wear blue jeans and T-shirts, but I dress up for God on Sunday. The last thing I put on before I walk out the door to go to church is a smile and an attitude of praise.

It starts with a heart-felt “Thank you,” for all the Lord has done. If you woke up this morning, you have something to be thankful for. He has given you the very air you breathe. Giving thanks get you through the first gate into the outer court.

The next step is to bless the Lord with your praise. If you find it hard to think of something to say to the Lord, pick up the Bible and read Psalms 100 aloud. Praise gets you into the inner court. Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”

And the final step in this protocol of the kingdom of heaven is to come with a sacrifice. In the Old Testament an animal sacrifice was required, but since Jesus gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, we must enter by His blood.

Hebrews 10:19, 22 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”

The blood of Jesus gets you into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of the Lord Himself, where the worship takes place. The only way to obtain the blood of Jesus to bring with you is to receive Him as your Lord and Savior and be born again, then you will be spiritually covered by His blood.

It is fitting that we wear our best when we come together to worship God, considering Who He is, the Creator of heaven and earth.

The God of the universe deserves the best we can give Him.

COUNT THE COST

Mrs. Irene Mitchell my Home Ec teacher would be so proud, but she would insist I go back through the section of the Home Economics textbook on baking cakes. Even though this cake is turning out perfectly, I didn’t follow procedure.

Step One — Gather ingredients. Make sure you have everything you need to make the cake before you start assembling the ingredients.

When I shopped, without a shopping list, I tried to buy the ingredients for the cake recipe from memory, and forgot the most important two items—powdered sugar and cream cheese for the icing. This problem is easy to fix since it is only the icing and not an ingredient for the cake itself.

Mrs. Mitchell drilled into us that we gather all our ingredients around us and check them against our recipe before we begin to mix them in our bowl. We were not to mix the sugar with the butter and eggs, and then run over to get the flour. No, we must assemble all the ingredients around the mixing bowl, so we can see if we are missing something necessary for a good cake before we started.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘this man began to build and was not able to finish.’” Luke 14:28-30 NKJV

 “So, likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”Luke 14:33

Some of us need to go back to school and learn to start at Step One. In our spiritual life, Step One is “Count the Cost.” Becoming a Christian and accepting Jesus as your Savior is the easy part. Letting Jesus become your Lord and Master is harder. Becoming a disciple means listening to His voice and learning to follow the steps Jesus has given us.

Are you willing to give up everything to follow Jesus and become His disciple?

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Have you ever been to Alaska? One of these days I would love to take a cruise that leaves Oregon, goes up the coast of Canada, and docks in Alaska.

The whole sky is frequently lit up with the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, so that if you are outside, you cannot miss it. They say that the lights are brilliant, with every color of the rainbow.

They say that Alaska has seasons just like Oklahoma, with spring and summer, fall and winter, just like we do. I hear that there are days in Alaska when the sun doesn’t shine. Darkness covers the land for weeks on end, but when the sun returns it is glorious, and people appreciate the sunshine more because of the darkness.

Yes I have heard stories, seen pictures, known people who lived there or visited there and I do believe there is a place known as Alaska.

I know Heaven exists, just as surely as I know Alaska exists. I’ve heard stories of people who died and went to heaven, but were resurrected from the dead and returned to live out their lives on earth. I’ve read in the Bible the story of John who saw heaven.

In Revelation chapters 21 and 22, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,. . . and I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. . .having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone. . .And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. . .
the City had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb was its light.”

Paul also saw heaven and he told the Corinthians, “to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” II Corinthians 5:6. Paul knew that his time here on earth was drawing to an end so he was anticipating his travel to heaven.

When Paul closed his eyes one day in Rome, he opened them in Heaven.

Warm days, cool nights. Rainy days. Leaves turning autumn colors. I love the seasons of the year. Can’t say which I love more. Each has its own special treat.

Seasons change. Nothing stays the same. We are born, we live, we die. Some have called it futile, but there is a peace in knowing that each season follows the one before. When seasons are disrupted, it causes confusion and uncertainty.

When we have a warm spell in the winter, nature sends forth buds and leaves, which are killed by the next freeze. A late freeze in spring kills the fruit on trees. 14 inches of snow in March when gardeners are preparing their soil for planting is not normal.

Here, of course, I’m speaking of weather in the Heartland of America–Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas. I don’t know about weather and seasons in other parts of the country. And I can’t even guess what it is like in other parts of the world, like Australia or Africa.

Genesis 8:22 NKJV says “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”

This was a promise from the Lord. Noah came out of the ark after more than a year and built an altar to the Lord God Jehovah, sacrificing burnt offerings on the altar. Then the Lord spoke to Noah, making a covenant of blessing with him. God promised never to destroy all the earth with a flood again and as a sign of His promise, He set a rainbow in the cloud.

This promise included the seedtime and harvest, winter and summer. There is something very reassuring in knowing that while the seasons change, they will always remain. As long as there is an earth, as long as the earth remains, there will be seasons.

I was young, I became a teenager, married, and had children. I now have grandchildren, am now growing older, but when I reach my 90’s on earth, and I’m satisfied with my life, then I will lay my life down to go be with my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.

Seasons change, seasons remain, as long as the earth remains—this is God’s promise to me.