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Multi-Tasking

When I was a telephone operator, we had a work technique called over-lapping.
The operator answered a call, took the information required, and placed a long-distance call. Then as that phone call was ringing, the operator clicked off that call, and answered another call. When the called party on the first call answered, a red light turned green, and if no further action was required, the operator started the timing on the call for the purpose of charging the calling party.
While the operator was starting the timing on the first call, she would also be taking the details and placing that second call. A good operator could have 3 or 4 calls going at one time.
I still do that. While I am downloading a computer program, I might have another computer running an anti-spyware program, and a third doing Windows Update. I go from one to another to check the progress, at the same time writing a weekly devotional, or going through photos.
This is over-lapping or multi-tasking. My brain is wired this way, but not everyone can do this. I have worked with some people who had a one-track mind. If they start trouble-shooting and were interrupted, they had to start over at the beginning again, but my mind is able to pick up where I left off and continue as though I weren’t interrupted.
My ability to over-lap or multitask is a strength, but also a weakness. In its very worst state, multitasking causes a person to be flighty, going from one task to another and never accomplishing anything concrete.
Paul said in II Corinthians 12:9 that the Lord told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul said, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
By presenting our weaknesses to the Lord, we can join our weakness with the Lord’s strength and receive His grace.
Then we will see that the very thing we struggle most to overcome will become our greatest strength.
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Look to the Heavens

In the 70s while I was working as a telephone operator, I learned to crochet, like my friends were doing. I had learned to knit in home economics class in high school, but I liked the the cute crocheted sweaters better than the knitted ones.

I had tried to learn to crochet from Mom, but she crocheted doilies with thread and a small crochet hook. I just couldn’t seem to pick up the technique. Then when I saw my friends crocheting with yarn and big fat crochet hooks, I thought, “I can do that.” I had a picture in my mind of me holding the hook and yarn and putting the hook in the loops and pulling the yarn through.

I bought a skein of yarn, a big fat hook, and a crochet instruction book, and taught myself to crochet. My first project was a zigzag multi-colored afghan that I still have. Whether crochet or cooking or driving a car, I learned many things because I saw myself doing it. I formed an image in my mind.

“Then He (God) brought him (Abraham) outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:5 New King James Version.

When God spoke to Abraham, He told him to look up to the heavens, count the stars, and that is the number of descendants he would have. At that moment, Abraham had no children. He was an old man and his wife was old, but she hadn’t been able to have children even when young.

Abraham looked at the stars and a vision formed in his heart of an old man bouncing a baby boy on his knee, teaching him to walk, and to hunt and fish. Abraham saw himself as a father. Then he put His faith in God to see it come to pass.

Is there something that you have desired for many years, like Abraham desired a son? Look up to the heavens and visualize it for yourself. Then put your faith in God.

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Traveling to Heaven

Entering heaven
Heaven is Real
I’ve always wanted to travel, especially to Ireland. My ancestors were probably from Ireland (and Scotland and England.) I’d love to visit the countryside where my ancestors lived and listen to the people speak the Irish language, Gaelic, or English with an Irish brogue.


I have never been to Heaven, but I’ve been to Oklahoma. I was born in Oklahoma and have lived here all my life. Some people think Oklahoma is cowboys and Indians, oil derricks, flat plains, and the Dust Bowl, but Oklahoma around Vinita is hills and valleys, Grand Lake, the tail end of the Ozarks out of Missouri and Arkansas, lush hay fields, and cattle ranches.
I learned about heaven in Sunday school. I was fascinated with heaven. Streets of gold and the gates of pearl. Angels and cherubim are all around the throne of God, crying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” A great multitude of people, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, surrounding the throne are clothed in white robes worshiping the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The river of life flows out of the throne of God and on the banks of the river are trees with leaves for healing of the nations.
One day, like Paul, I will say, “The time of my departure is at hand.” II Timothy 4:6. New King James Version. I will step out of Oklahoma and step into Heaven.  “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
 
Heaven is as real as Ireland and Oklahoma.
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Milk & Honey, and Oatmeal


Oatmeal for breakfast with honey and pecans—the perfect fall breakfast.
When I was a kid, I hated oatmeal. Gummy, gooey, stick-in-your-throat mess. I forced mine down with toast. We ate cornmeal mush, sometimes fried in bacon grease, or boiled rice, with butter, sugar, and milk, but that stuck in my throat too.

Sometimes we had eggs but Mama always made “lace” on the eggs, or the yolk would be broken or hard. When she scrambled eggs, she stirred them in the pan, instead of beating them in a bowl first, and there were always strings of egg white, which made me gag. I was so picky it was a wonder I lived to adulthood.

Now I am trying to go back to God’s natural eating plan. I even thought of making up a diet with fatted calf, fish and bread, milk and honey, olives, figs, grains, vegetables, seeds, and honey cakes. I draw the line at eating locust, though. Sorry, John the Baptist.
I am still picky, but not as spoiled by my mama as I was when I was a child. I eat oatmeal frequently now.  I try to limit processed foods and use olive oil and natural oils for cooking. And I keep fruit and nuts and dark chocolate around for snacking. I sauté fish and I use my electric grill for chicken breasts. I pick out lean meat and cook it in an iron skillet requiring very little extra fat. We eat dark green salads with tomatoes, avocado, and fruit, as well as whole-grain cereals and use whole wheat-bread.
After the flood, God told Noah, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.” Genesis 9:3. New King James Version.
God has given us good food to bless our bodies.

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Meaningful Truth

Why didn’t I pay attention when my uncles and Daddy talked about World War II?  When the men gathered at our house to visit, the ladies were visiting or cooking, and the kids were playing outside or washing dishes and doing chores. Everyone had his or her own interest and mine was either reading or playing the piano. Guns, war, and history meant nothing to me.

I’ll never forget in the mid-1980s when my husband and Dad were talking about WWII and they mentioned the bombing of Nagasaki. I must have looked puzzled when I asked, “Where is Nagasaki?” because they both looked at me astonished. Dad said, “Surely you don’t mean you’ve never heard of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan?” I said, “I’ve heard of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.” And he then told me about the bombing of Nagasaki following the bombing of Hiroshima, ending the war in the Pacific.

The only excuse I have is that no one grabbed my attention in a way that was meaningful to me, so whatever I was supposed to learn went right over my head.

This reminds me of the stories of people who have attended Sunday School and church all their lives and never learned the spiritual truth of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they heard the story of Jesus and considered it a nice story, but never recognized their need of a savior. Many people think that they haven’t done anything so terribly wrong in their life, so there’s nothing from which to be saved. Maybe she has been a very good person, and had given to charities. Perhaps he had always paid his bills and been a friend to all.

However in Romans 3: 23 in The Living Bible, “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.”

Yes, everyone is a sinner, but everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.

 

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No Need for a Battery

I was going through some older stuffed animals in the spare bedroom recently, when I ran across a stuffed bear in nightclothes and a nightcap. As I cuddled him, I remembered that he used to have a heart, which I found in the dresser drawer. I found a 9-volt battery to make it work, then inserted the red heart complete with battery into the hole in his side. When I turned it on and hugged him, the bear’s heart started beating. He came to life with a beating heart; at least as much alive as a stuffed animal can be.

When Jesus hung on the cross, the soldiers pierced Jesus’ beating heart, and the blood flowed out of his body. His heart stopped beating until three days later at the precise moment that the Holy Spirit of God brought the power from heaven to resurrect Jesus Christ from the dead.

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11 New King James Version.

If I have received Jesus as my Lord and Savior, then that same Spirit does indeed dwell in me. He will make my flesh-and-blood body come to life, by the life of Christ which flows in my veins, going into each little cell to keep me alive until that day that I receive my new immortal body that will live forever.

I know this old body will completely wear out one day, but until then I’m claiming the promise that the Spirit of God will renew my physical body. I depend on God to give me strength to breathe, move, and live every day of my life.

Because I belong to God, one day He will give me an immortal body that will never die, with a heart that will beat forever. No need for a battery.