Year: 2012

Mary woke up early the morning after Jesus was born with the glow of His birth lingering around her. The memory of the shepherds’ stories of angels singing in the night sky brought back memories of the angel who stood before her and told her she would conceive and give birth to a son who would be the Son of the Highest. “And you shall call His name Jesus.” Luke 1:31 NKJV.

She pondered in her heart that early morning the words the angel had spoken to her and remembered how she had replied. “Let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38.

And now in the light of day, looking down at the newborn Baby who had come into the world just as the angel had said he would, she had no trouble believing that the Baby was the Son of God. She knew she was a virgin when she conceived the Baby Jesus. She knew and God knew. She still didn’t know how it had taken place. She only knew that God had done what He said He was going to do. He had fulfilled His promise to her through the words of the angel that day.

She must have wondered just what was expected of her now that the Baby was born. Maybe she expected the angel to return and give her more instructions, but when he didn’t, each day she did what every other new mother did in Judah. She fed her Baby, dressed Him, and taught Him day upon day. And when He was old enough, His step-father Joseph began teaching Him and taking Him to the synagogue. And she pondered in her heart the ability of Joseph to raise a son who wasn’t his as if He were his very own.

“And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” Luke 2:40

All because one woman Mary in faith said “Yes” to God.

 

 

Everyone is talking about the Dec. 21 Mayan end-of-the-world prediction.

 Now we have a “Fiscal Cliff” in national politics to worry about at the same time.

Unemployment is down to 7.9% but in addition, many people have given up trying to get a job, so those people are no longer counted.

Iran gets nuclear capability. Syria has chemical warfare capability to use on their own people.

It’s enough to make people want to go into a fantasy world for a little while.

No wonder one of the most popular TV shows this season is award-winning Walking Dead, a show about survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. The Walking Dead—where living people battle dead people, a.k.a Zombies, for food, water, shelter, while all the time having to watch their back to keep from being killed by living people. These survivors are “Walking Alive” through a war-torn land searching for other survivors, and looking for a city where they can finally have a peaceful life, happy and free, and united once again with those they love.

These survivors are searching for heaven.

In Hebrews 11:10, God’s Great Hall of Fame, it says of Abraham, “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.” Hebrews 12:22NIV

That is our destination. Just like those survivors who are walking alive among the walking dead, searching for a place to live, those of us who have received Jesus are looking for a city.

But that is where the comparison ends!

We are not killing the walking dead; we are telling them about Jesus and getting them born again. There is a new life for those who are walking around in their sins and trespasses and we are responsible for telling everyone we come in contact with that Jesus can give them that new life. Then they can go on this wonderful journey with us to heaven.

Are you a zombie, walking around, feeling dead inside, just going through the motions of living? The good news is zombies can live again through Jesus Christ the Savior.

 

 

I learned to drive in Drivers Ed in 10^th grade, but my Uncle Cecil trained me in many skills. He had me practicing my parallel parking skills in downtown Vinita in front of the Center Theatre at 9 o’clock on Saturday night when one show got out and the other was starting.

We Vinita kids honed our driving skills running up and down Main Street every Saturday night after the football game. I wish I had kept track of how many miles I actually drove those 3 years.

I went to work for SBC in 1971 as a telephone operator and put many miles on my vehicles over the 13 years I worked that job. Then I transferred into the network department, and since we drove company vehicles, we had to take on-the-job drivers training and yearly driving tests.

One of the most important things I learned from the Southwestern Bell drivers training was to scan the road a mile ahead of you, as far as you could see, to anticipate any hazard that might occur, so you could take evasive action.

Most of us drive one block at a time, instead of looking ahead. In Tulsa traffic, you’ll miss your exit that way. You should be planning ahead and looking for an opening in traffic two miles ahead of your exit. It takes training.

We should train our spirits to take the long view, to look ahead, further and further down the road.

”I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1

Raise your eyes up from your feet, where you are watching each step, the drudgery of everyday life. Don’t look at life one step, one day at a time. That may be how you are having to live your life right now, but lift up your eyes to the Hills of Glory. Your help is on the way. The Lord God of heaven has a plan.

Take the long view.

 

 

 

 

When Mom was growing up in the 1920s, there was only one telephone in the Kelso, Oklahoma, rural community and it was hanging on the wall at the store.

Now my 94-year-old Mom can see my sister who lives 45 miles away on the computer monitor when she talks to her. The first time she and my sister talked, my sister reached out her arms to hug Mom through the computer monitor and blew air kisses that Mom reached out to receive.

I have a program on that computer to access it remotely. One evening I started a word document and typed in large letters, “Hello, Mother, How are you tonight? I love you, Lavon.”

Mom picked up the phone and called me. “Did you make my computer write those words?”

It reminded me of the Bible story from Daniel about the Hand of God writing on the wall.

The fingers of a hand appeared and wrote on the wall at Belshazzar’s party. A thousand lords and ladies were drinking from the golden cups taken by his father Nebuchadnezzar from the temple in Jerusalem when he defeated Judah. They were defiling the precious holy vessels of Jehovah God by praising the false gods of Babylon.

When Belshazzar saw the finger writing, he was frozen with fear and his knees knocked together. He called for the wise men to interpret the writing but no one could tell him what it said. Someone suggested they call Daniel, “a man in the kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God.”

Daniel read the words, “MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. PERES: Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. ” Daniel 5:25-28. Within twenty-four hours the country had been conquered and Belshazzar was dead.

Our country is facing some serious struggles. It’s time for us who are the men and women of God full of the Spirit of the Holy God to interpret the writing on the wall. Have we been weighed in the balance and found wanting?

We can call on God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and He will hear from heaven and heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14.)

 

My house looks like a jungle now that the first freeze threat of the season has come. My home has a covered patio where I hang baskets along the edge of the roofline, and some of those plants I wanted to keep. I also have a straggly schefflera plant in a huge pot on rollers that comes inside every year. Every year I wonder how much longer I will be able to keep it alive, because it is failing to thrive for sure.

However my Christmas cactus in the hanging basket is blooming again, the second time this year. I just hope it blooms for Christmas. The secret of making the Christmas cactus blooms is to have a consistent light and darkness for a certain period of time to signal time to bloom.

When I was first married and my husband returned from military duty in Germany, he said it was like moving into the jungle when he moved home to live with me. I had houseplants everywhere. I have always raised African violets although in the last few years, I haven’t kept up with them as well as I used to.

I have a fluorescent Grow- Light that puts out a special light wave that plants like, which makes the plants grow faster and better in every way. Just about every kind of plant likes the Grow-Light. The more light the plants get, the bigger they grow, and the more they bloom. The Grow-Light produces the optimal light pattern for the plant’s growth.

God has an optimal plan for our lives too. He knows just what we need to make us grow spiritually, physically, and in every way. When God gave us eternal life, He recreated our dead spirits and we were born again. He called us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Light.

“For you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” I Peter 2: 9.

When His Light shines on us, we grow and bloom bigger than ever before.

Did you ever get a song stuck in your head? You hear it all day long, all night long. Every time your mind is in neutral, the song is playing.

This last year I have had one song stuck in my head, Well, not in the typical sense that every time I was not thinking about something I would hear it, but in the sense that every time I would consciously think, “song,” it was always that same song. I sang it twice in church last year acapella (voice only, no music.)

Little kids love to sing, loudly, heartily, putting their whole body, soul, and spirit into it. They just can’t stand still so they do a little dance, a little jig, as they sing. Teach a child the song “Jesus Loves Me” and he will know it till the day he dies.

Then they grow up and develop a taste for a certain kind of music, rejecting other styles. They might sing along with the music in the car or sing in the shower, but seldom in public. Sometimes the only opportunity some people have to sing is in a Karaoke bar, where they can sing along to a recording of the latest hit song.

Most churches have changed their format to praise-and-worship songs. Many older folks wish they would sing some old familiar hymns, but the younger folks want to learn the latest-and-greatest praise songs. Some churches resolve this issue by holding two separate services, one traditional, one contemporary.

God created us with the ability to sing and then put a song into our hearts. Every
race on earth sings, from Africa to New Guinea to Alaska.

“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:19.

God’s kingdom choir can sing every style of music, from chanting psalms, gospel hymns, and songs of the Spirit of God given to us in these last days. Don’t limit yourself to only one style.