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Routines

I have an evening kitchen routine. I do the dishes or at least load the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, and sometimes sweep the floors before shutting off the lights. It is a joy to get up to a clean kitchen every morning.
Developing routines helps us accomplish more without having to think about what we are doing, but routines can be boring.
Some churches have removed rituals and liturgies from their worship, replacing hymns with choruses, pipe organs with guitars, a full choir with a worship team. Other churches hang onto hundred-year-old rituals of worship, which the present-day worshiper cannot relate to.
Rituals and routines are part of Christianity. After all, it was Jesus Himself that said at the last supper, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19.
The problem is rituals can take the place of a vital personal relationship with Jesus. Instead of committing our hearts and lives to Jesus, a ritual allows us to go through a show of commitment. Instead of burying our old selves in water baptism and rising from the water into new life, we just get wet. Instead of singing with our hearts to the Lord, we mumble through unfamiliar and meaningless words to a tune that is too high for the common voice to sing.
The answer to this dilemma is following the Lord in the Christian life with our hearts and not our minds. As we go through each ritual of the church, whether singing, water baptism, commitment, we should keep our focus on Him.
With Jesus Christ as the center of your worship experience, the routines will not become ruts.
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Jonah and Las Vegas

Imagine God telling you to go to Las Vegas and walk the streets telling the people, “In forty days, Las Vegas will be overthrown.”

Imagine walking down the sidewalk in front of the MGM Grand Hotel where the golden lion sits guarding the entrance to the great casino, wearing nasty clothes, and smelling like fish guts and seawater, the results of being swallowed by the great fish. You walk through the crowd of well-dressed business people, flashy dressed gamblers, prostitutes, and comfortably-dressed tourists.

“In forty days, Las Vegas will be overthrown.” You don’t tell them to repent. In fact, you would
rather they didn’t.

God sent Jonah to Las Vegas. Well, okay then, Nineveh. The people of Nineveh believed Jonah and God. The king of Nineveh proclaimed a fast and ordered the people to cry out to God, so that God would change His mind and not destroy the city.

Sure enough, it worked. God made a liar out of Jonah. God forgave them. Jonah knew God would do that, because God is kind and compassionate, full of mercy and it made Jonah mad when God didn’t destroy them.

Jonah said, “This is exactly what I thought you’d do, Lord. . . For I knew you were a gracious God, merciful, slow to get angry, and full of kindness; I knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people.” Jonah 4:2  Living Bible.

In Jonah’s great desire to see the people of Nineveh wiped off the face of the earth, he had forgotten that God had specifically called Israel to be a light, to reveal God to the world. Jonah’s problem was that he was patriotic; he believed God’s mercy and love was exclusive to the country of Israel. Jonah had forgotten that the people of Nineveh were people just like him, in need of God’s mercy and grace.

God loved the people of Nineveh and He loves the people of Las Vegas, too, just like He loved Jonah and He loves us all.

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GET UP AND TRY AGAIN



My little daughter who is grown was one of those kids who walked all around the coffee table when she was learning to walk, touching as she went, never letting go. She could walk all over the house touching the walls or chairs, and if there wasn’t something to touch, she got down and crawled. She was over a year old when she finally let go and walked across the room.

Once at church, my best friend’s first-born son started walking across the aisle to his daddy–at 7 months old! I could barely believe my own eyes. “Edna,” I said, “that baby is not old enough to walk. How did you teach him to walk so young?” She said, “I tie a harness around him and walk him around as I do housework.” The harness held him up and he had no idea he was supposed to fall.

I read recently that babies fall at least 2000 times, while learning to walk. I probably fell more times than that when I was learning to walk. I was born with twisted feet that Mother held in her hands and prayed over. She was overprotective of me because her two-room house had concrete floors. Every time I fell she was afraid I would “bust my little ol’ noggin’.”

The Lord knows our weaknesses. He knows we were born with “twisted feet” and the tendency to fall or sin. It’s because of our sin nature that we inherited from our ancestor Adam. The only way for us to “learn to walk” was to be born again, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
 
God sent Jesus to straighten out the crooked paths and make the way straight. Jesus walks with us, with a little harness around our heart, propping us up as we walk.

The Bible says in Psalms 37:24, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His Hand” and in Micah 7:8, “When I fall, I will arise.” Every person faces struggles in their lives, but the winner is the one who gets back up after falling. The last man standing is the winner, so don’t give up.

The key to the victorious life is getting back up again.
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Come Boldly

“Wasn’t this the holiest place, where only the high priest was allowed to enter? How could we enter it so casually?” The tourist thought to himself as he entered the Holy Place in the  tabernacle in southern Israel. Of course, it was only a replica, built without the gold or acacia wood, but in every other way just like the tabernacle for which God gave Moses the plans.

God appeared to Moses and gave him the specific details of every piece of furniture, every wall, every doorway, all designed by God. The complete blueprint was spelled out to Moses.

When God gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle, it was patterned after the tabernacle in heaven. Paul said that perfect tabernacle was not made with hands, so it must be the one in heaven that God made.

The outer part of the tabernacle was the Holy Place, where the priests sacrificed animals every day to God. Inside the inner tent was the Holy of Holies, where the high priest entered once a year to offer blood as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation. Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is our high priest forever. After He was crucified and rose again, He entered the Holy of Holies in heaven one time, taking His own blood to place on the heavenly ark of the covenant, as the final sacrifice for all sins.

Like the tourist who described how he felt when he walked into the Holy of Holies in the replica model of the Tabernacle, we feel uncomfortable when we think of coming into the throne room of God, but since Jesus Christ offered His own blood once and for all, now we have access to God Himself, the Creator of the Universe and God Almighty.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NKJV.

The throne of grace is God’s throne in the Holy of Holies and Jesus has invited us to come, and come boldly.

Lavon Hightower Lewis

 

 

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He Hears Me

When I got my iphone several years ago, I was excited about being able to use “Siri,” the Apple built-in assistant which answers questions and follows commands. All you have to do is hold down the Home button or say, “Hey Siri” and she answers.
I have my phone connected by Blue-tooth to my car stereo system, so when I ask Siri, she makes phone calls for me. “Hey, Siri, call Frances.” Then Siri says, “Ok calling Francine Smith.”
“No, no…Siri, no.. Call Frances Peetoom.” “Ok, do you want to call Frances Hightower Peetom?” “Yes.” “Ok, do you want to call Home or Cell or Mobile phone?” “Oh, Siri, just forget it. I’m almost to her house now.”
Part of the time, Siri doesn’t even understand my Okie accent. I’ve been trying to train Siri for 4 years, but she’s not the first one who didn’t quite understand my accent. I’ve had my accent laughed at by college classmates and customers when I was a telephone operator. I’ve always taken it good-naturedly, since I assume that was how it was given.
Even if Siri doesn’t always understand me, God always does. It doesn’t matter what language or dialect or accent I use, God understands. He’s even the one who gave us all these languages, at the tower of Babel.
God speaks the language of the heart. We hardly ever hear Him with our ears, because God doesn’t speak with a physical body, with vocal chords. We hear Him in our hearts, our spirits, because God is Spirit. He speaks by the Spirit and He hears us by the Spirit.
God says in Psalm 91:15-16, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, and I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
 
When we call on Him, He hears and answers the instant we call.
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Savings in Heaven

One of the banks in our town advertises that it is “the oldest national bank in the state of Oklahoma still operating under its original charter, a safe place to keep your money in troubled times.”
I haven’t been doing very well at saving money or cutting expenses. I have continued spending for groceries and household items just as I always have. However when I find myself running low on cash toward the end of the month, I just quit spending, make do with what I have on hand, and trust the Lord to supply what I need.
Jesus said, in Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven……for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Heaven is a real place, and that is where my heart is, since the Lord revealed heaven to me several years ago.
Now I store up treasures by giving to the local church and certain charities. I give of my free time to volunteer with good service organizations. I give hugs all around and spread the love of Jesus everywhere I go. I have been “laying up treasure in heaven” for many years.
We won’t need our treasures when we get to heaven. I believe the purpose of laying up our treasures in the Bank of Heaven is so that we will have it available when we need it here on this earth.
I use my bank in Vinita for day-to-day expenses, but my Bank in Heaven is where I keep my savings, so that in times of trouble, I can write a check signed by Jesus to meet my needs.