Year: 2012

When I worked for the phone company, I went to the company school in Dallas at least once a year. In 1995 I joined a traveling crew, going all over the state. I left on Monday morning and returned on Thursday night.

One night recently I dreamed of finding a bulging suitcase from one of my trips. It was full of neatly pressed blue jeans and work t-shirts. Mixed in were snack cakes that were spoiled and moldy, melted chocolate, and gooey unrecognizable mildewed stuff all over everything.

In my dream a friendly rhinoceros that seemed to be a pet rushed down the hall, and I made my way behind him to let him go outside to potty, but it was obvious from the condition of the living room that he wasn’t very well potty-trained.

All of us have forgotten baggage and wild dangerous pets living in our hearts. Keeping things inside allows them to spoil, mold, mildew, melt, and get all over our hearts. Holding onto junk from the past ruins the good stuff in our lives today. These things are like wild animals that defile us, ruin our relationships, and stink up everything around us.

“Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all,] on Him (Jesus), for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully…be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring, seeking someone to seize upon and devour.” I Peter 5:7-8 Amplified.

Even we Christians hold onto old grudges, dislikes, anger, hatred, or prejudices that defile our hearts, leaving us prey to the enemy of our souls, the devil.

Satan loves to sneak around looking for those who have hidden baggage that he can take advantage of. He wants to destroy our lives, our homes, our families, our churches, and all our relationships.

We need to ask the Lord to reveal those things in our hearts so we give them to Him.

Gold is selling for $1660 today and silver for $31 an ounce. Gold-buying parties are popping up everywhere. Existing businesses are now buying gold and silver too. There’s big money to be made, whether you are buying or selling. A tiny handful of broken necklaces and earrings can bring you $100.

The Bible story of Creation tells us, “Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it parted, and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon: it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.” Genesis 2:10-12

God created the whole earth, and He put gold near the Garden of Eden, before He ever created man. He put everything here in this earth that man would need for the rest of the time that the earth and man would be in existence, and made sure that there was plenty of it here.

The gold is symbolic of our spirit. When we have been born again, our spirits are pure as gold.

The bdellium or myrrh (also in some references an aromatic resin) is symbolic of our soul, which is made up of our mind, will, and emotions. Resin or myrrh is fragrant which reminds me of our emotions—sweet, salty, rosy, or sour like a dill pickle. Resin is also easily impressed. As a child, we are impressionable, and then as we or the resin is exposed to the world, we and the resin get hardened, holding the form of the impressions.

The onyx in the Bible mentioned here is the color of a man’s fingernail, not the black color we are familiar with. I believe this onyx refers to our body.

There are the three parts of our person: our body represented by the onyx, soul represented by the bdellium, and spirit represented by the gold.

God placed all three here on this earth at one time in one place before He made man to show us a picture of ourselves.

I have a snakeskin hanging over some deer horns in my living room. Some poor old snake is running around with no clothes on. No, really, the snake grew a new skin underneath and then shed the old skin. If he were to shed the old skin too soon, it might kill him; too late, it would hinder his growth.

There is a gospel song named “Take Off Those Rags, Lazarus”. It is popular,but not scriptural. Lazarus couldn’t take off his own grave clothes. His hands and feet were bound. When Jesus called Lazarus forth from the dead, He told the people standing nearby, “Loose him and let him go.” John 11:44.

When you were born again, you came forth, spiritually speaking, from the grave, bound in grave clothes. But you didn’t have the ability to take off your own grave clothes. Your spirit by the Holy Spirit was born again, but some things didn’t change–your eye color, your height, your disposition. Your mind was still the same, your prejudices, your thought patterns, your phobias, your way of thinking.

Romans 12:2 says “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You have to renew your mind by the Word of God. That is why studying the Word of God is so important. When you read what God says in His word, you incorporate it into your thoughts. Then you are thinking what God thinks. You become what you think. The thoughts of God transform your mind.

As you learn God’s Word, as you grow in Him, the Holy Spirit removes your ‘grave clothes.’ He looses you. He takes off the chains that have bound you to your old habits and releases you to walk in newness of life. But it is a process.

Just like that snake shedding his skin, you will begin to shed some outer layers of behavior. Some former activities and associations will have to go. They will drop off by themselves when the time comes. When you are changed on the inside, it begins to affect the outside.

You’ll become just like Jesus. You will be changed from the inside out.

Zebedee’s wife came to Jesus with a special request for her two sons, James and John. She requested that her sons might sit on both sides of Jesus when He came into His kingdom.

I wonder how her sons felt about that? Maybe their mother had been doing this all their lives, manipulating to get them promoted in life. Were they Mama’s boys? Did Mama always run their lives? Did they not have the guts to ask themselves, so they let their mother do the asking?

But Jesus said, “You don’t even know what you are asking. It is not up to me, but it is in the Father’s hand. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” Matt 20:22.

They both said yes, they were able, but they didn’t realize that Jesus was speaking of His own death soon to come. When Jesus responded, “You will drink My cup,” He knew that James would soon be martyred.

The other ten disciples got mad, but Jesus settled it once and for all when he said, “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant,” Matt 20:26.

There is a song that says this is an upside down kingdom. The way to become great in the kingdom is to become the least. The way up is down, the way to become great is to humble yourself, the way to become the boss is to become a servant.

Even in the natural world, the best bosses are those who have come up through the ranks of employees and done the jobs that they are telling others how to do.

The way to see your child become all that God intends for her to become is to teach her to serve other people. And please don’t try to manipulate things to see that your child gets the best seat or the preferred place or the special treatment. No one likes a mother who pushes her kids to the front all the time.

And remember this: let God do the promoting. It’ll save you a lot of heartache in the long run.

One of my favorite computer games is a hidden picture game involving deep-sea diving to a ship-wreck to recover the Queen of England’s crown which was lost at sea when the ship sank. To find the crown, the player has to find all kinds of hidden objects jumbled up during the wreck in the wrong compartments of the ship and bring them to the surface to salvage them.

Games like this are good for your mind, to keep it sharp, sharpen your memory, and cause you to pay attention to your surroundings.

Hunting for hidden pictures makes my eyes and brain look beyond what I initially see to what is there but hidden. And that is what faith is–looking beyond what can be seen and seeing with our spiritual eyes the hidden things God has in store for us.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” I Corinthians 2:9-10

We frequently quote this scripture, “You know, eye hasn’t seen and ear hasn’t heard what God has in store for us,” but we stop short of the real blessing that is included in these two verses. Yes, God is a God of mystery and, yes, we don’t always see or hear or know what God is going to do, but the next verse explains further, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”

God wants us to see the hidden pictures in our lives. He wants to reveal to us the things He has prepared for us, for those who love Him. When we reach the end of life, we will win the crown of Life that God has in store for all that love Him.

God isn’t hiding things from us; He is revealing them to us.

Easter was always my favorite holiday next to Christmas when I was growing up. Besides the excitement of getting a new dress and new shoes for church, it was because we got to see our cousins from Wichita after a long winter apart.

Our cousins came home to Vinita for Easter, Memorial Day, 4^th of July, Rodeo Week, and Labor Day, but they stayed in Wichita the rest of the year to celebrate the holidays there. Their daddy and my mama were brother and sister who had grown up out north of Vinita on a little farm and still called Vinita home. Since there wasn’t a house on the old farm, everyone always gathered at our little house to visit.

If they didn’t have any car trouble or flats they usually pulled into Vinita by 9 o’clock at night but I started watching for them as soon as supper was over. Every few minutes I’d go look out the front door expecting them to drive in. Any time a car drove by, I just knew it was them, so I’d race out the door.

. When the lights of the car shined on the front door, I ran out the front door, slamming the screen door behind me. I always wanted to be the first one there when the car pulled into the driveway. Before the car had even come to a complete stop, I already had the car door open, and I was inside, on their laps, hugging and kissing.

That’s how I imagine it will be when we are ready to go to heaven. Our loved ones who have gone there ahead of us will be waiting for us to arrive. Some of them will be so excited they might even show up early to escort us across the great divide. You know, it is common for people who are getting ready to go to heaven to see a loved one coming to escort them home.

Jesus told us, “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.” John 14:2-3.

This isn’t home. Heaven is home.