Year: 2012

 

In the Christian churches I have attended in my lifetime we have never celebrated Lent, but two years ago I decided to recognize the season as a way to grow closer to my Lord Jesus. After giving some thought to what I should give up for Lent, I decided that for me, in my case, I needed to add something, not take away something, during the Lent season, which is the 40 days prior to Easter when the Christians are to prepare their heart through repentance, prayer, penance, and self-denial.

This year I will wear a cross in one form or another, with 3 special cross necklaces that are meaningful to me.

As I put the cross on each morning, I will reflect on the scripture where Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Daily, just like Jesus said, as I take up my cross necklace, for instance, and put it on, I will be reminded to deny myself and follow Jesus that day, wherever He leads me. As I go about my daily duties and become aware of the cross necklace, I will remind myself of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for me.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Daily as I recognize the cross necklace I have taken up and placed around my neck, I will be reminded of how Jesus laid down His life for me, so I will find some way to lay down my life for my friends.

At the end of the day when I take the cross off, I will remember how Jesus was taken down off the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb for three days, but then Praise God! on Resurrection Sunday, He rose again!

And I will for 40 days remember and prepare myself for that day when I will be raised to new life with Jesus.

Won’t that be a Great Getting-Up Morning?

 

Now that Valentine’s Day is over, husbands all over the U.S. can breathe a sigh of relief. They have lived through another year of diamond advertisements. Yes, Valentine’s Day is too commercialized, as all holidays are now. Yes, it is a gimmick, a way to sell flowers, chocolates, and jewelry, but if there is one thing that deserves a holiday of its very own, it is Love.

We celebrate a mother’s love on Mother’s Day, a daddy’s love on Father’s Day, a grandparent’s love on Grandparent’s Day, but we should celebrate Jesus’ Love, pure love, true love, sweet love, on Valentine’s Day.

This year Valentine’s Day put me in a lovey-dovey mood, not that I needed anything more to make me feel loving. I am already well-known in the church circles as the huggy lady.

I’ve been feeling the emotional love bubble up in me a lot lately. For instance, when I look in your eyes, the Love of God wells up in my heart. I used to think this was because of the loving personality I was born with, and I accepted it as just the way I was.

Then one day while I was praying, I remembered that I had asked the Lord to give me love for people, even the unlovable ones. I asked Him to make me a vessel, a conduit of His great love to others, so that they would feel the love of God flowing through me.

And I realized that was exactly what had happened. God has planted His love for people in my heart. It doesn’t mean though that I act loving all the time. I have had to repent many times for unloving actions that hurt others.

Obviously you can have love in your heart but act in an unloving manner. We must make an effort to translate our love into action, based on how the Bible teaches us to treat others.

Romans 5:5 NKJV says, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Every Christian has the love of God in their hearts, but some just don’t know how to show it.

In Acts chapter 27, a great storm came up on the Mediterranean Sea when Paul was a prisoner, being taken to Rome. He had tried to tell the captain of the ship that there was a storm coming, but they decided to chance it and sailed anyway.

According to some recent studies, this was the worst storm that ever came on that sea and was recorded by the local historians. This was a killer storm.

As the ship tossed and rolled on the waves, Paul was fasting and praying. He came to the deck and told them, “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost.

 Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.

.And I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” Acts 27:21–25 NIV

Some of the men tried to leave on lifeboats but Paul told them “Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved,” so they cut away the lifeboat and let it fall. Then he urged them to eat, because they hadn’t eaten in 14 days and again he said, “Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”

Paul had a destiny and the destiny of all those on that ship with him was tied up with his. Because Paul must live, they would live too. Paul had enough faith for them all.

Who is sailing through the sea of life with you? Your family, your friends, your neighbors. Their destinies are all tied in with your destiny. Remember this promise when you are praying for them.

God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.

I recently held a letter in my own hands written by my great grandmother Mary May (Slankard) Hightower in 1929 to her son and daughter-in-law, my grandparents. It was in a box of papers that looked like they would disintegrate and fly away if I breathed on them. I carefully unfolded the letter and brushed the dust off with a soft-bristle paintbrush, then placed it in an acid-free archive-quality clear plastic sleeve to protect it.

My Granny Hightower died when I was 4 and sometimes I think I can remember her, but it might be because I have seen so many pictures of her and heard so many stories about her.

My other great grandmother didn’t go be with the Lord till I was 17, so I knew her well. She was tiny, barely 5 feet tall, with a little bun on the back of her head and the disposition of an angel.

Our family has a wonderful heritage of faithful Christian believers for generations. Mother is almost 94 now, one of eight children born to a Christian couple who married 101 years ago and dedicated their family to Jesus. Their eight children all came to know Jesus and now Mother and her two remaining sisters are dedicated Christians.

Families in Jesus’ day took great pride in tracing their genealogy back to Abraham. They repeated their genealogy from one generation to another

Heaven has families. Adam and Eve. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel. David and Abigail. Mary and Joseph.

Luke 3:23-24, 31-32, 38, “Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat…… the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz….the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

Just think how it is going to be meeting all those ancestors in heaven. I’ll know them too, because their DNA is in me. We have the same blood, the same ancestry, but more than that the same great heritage, the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Your ancestry is important to God.

At the telephone operators’ reunion, it always comes up.

“Hey, remember how Lavon pulled out in front of that semi (when we were car-pooling to Tulsa and it was my turn to drive) and she had her cigarette in one hand and her Pepsi between her legs? Everyone screamed. “Gun it, gun it! Lavon, look at his eyes!”

“I don’t have time to look at his eyes,” Lavon yelled back, with a few choice words thrown in.”

That was back in my rebellious days. I wasn’t living for the Lord. I wasn’t doing anything so wrong, unless you want to count smoking and cussing.

We sure had a lot of good times together, those girls and I did, but I had some hard times, too. Sometimes one of them took an extra turn driving because I didn’t have the money for gas or my old worn-out car broke down. There were two in particular that always seem to end up on the same shift that I did, so we almost always rode together, and they had to listen to all my sob stories all the way to Tulsa and back. There were times we all didn’t like each other very well, and sometimes we had our quarrels, but now I can’t remember any.

As I look back now I can see that God put us all together for a reason. Those girls were my support team. Jesus surrounded me with Christian women who could lead me back to Him. They showed me Christian love and never gave up on me.

“A man who has friends must himself be friendly: but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 NIV

I had one other friend, my Best Friend, during that time that never left my side, even though I wasn’t living a lifestyle befitting a child of God. Jesus was always with me. He had told me He would never leave me or forsake me, that He would go with me to the end.

 And when it seemed like the end had come, there Jesus was waiting to welcome me back home into the fold.

Until a couple of years ago, all I had ever heard about the Mayans was the archaeological discoveries made in Central America. Then suddenly everywhere you turned you were being told about the Mayan calendar which announced the end of the world in the year 2012.

We here in the US use the Gregorian calendar, which starts the new year on January 1^st , 2012. I don’t know what day the Mayan calendar starts the new year on, but I guess some archaeologist has determined the dates.

The Hebrew New Year, the holiday they call Rosh Hashanah, begins in the fall, this year September 28^th. It will be the Hebrew year of 5772.

Let me ask you a rhetorical question. If the God we worship, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is going to tell us about the end of time, which calendar would He use to predict it?

God has been speaking to us for many thousands of years through His word, the Holy Bible, Old and New Testament. Is He suddenly going to start speaking to us through the Mayan cave inscriptions?

He has been using the Hebrew calendar for thousands of years to time all the events of His people. Is He suddenly going to point us to the Mayan calendar to schedule the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the end of time?

As the New Year begins according to the Gregorian calendar in January, year 2012, and we celebrate a new beginning, let us go back to The Book of beginnings, the Bible, and the original calendar that God set in place.

Colossians 2:16-17 NIV, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

Christ Jesus Himself is our Beginning, our New Year, our Sabbath, our Holy-Day. We celebrate Jesus.

Let’s look forward and press on with Christ.