Author: admin

 

“Does it feel like you are stuck in a rut? Break out of that rut and come to this restaurant, or go to that vacation place. Or buy this. Or try this.”  Advertisers know that we want to change, but we don’t want to change.

The rut feels comfortable. We don’t have to think about what to do if we just keep doing the same thing we’ve always done.

The rut is easy. We can just slide along in life, day by day, living each day just like the last.

The rut is normal. Everybody’s doing it. It’s acceptable to the crowd.

The Israelites got in a rut, going around the same mountain, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. God had delivered them out of Egypt, where they were slaves, but like one preacher said, Egypt was still in them. They had the “slave” mentality. They rebelled against God, almost as soon as they got out of town, and were doomed to wander around in the desert, going around and around the same mountain for forty years until the rebels all died.

Even so, the Children of Israel had it pretty good, even in the desert. God opened the waters of the Red Sea so they could cross over. He provided quail for meat and manna for daily food. If they were running out of water, God provided it out of the rock. If the water was poisoned, God gave them the solution in the form of a tree to toss into the water to neutralize it and make it drinkable. For all the 40 years they walked around in the desert, their sandals didn’t wear out and their clothes were just like new.

How long have you been going around the same mountain? It’s time for some changes in your life, maybe uncomfortable changes, but it will be good for you. God has a great plan for you, just like He had a great plan for the Isrealites.

The Lord spoke to them one day and said, “You have skirted this mountain long enough. Turn northward.” Deuteronomy 2:3 NKJV.  It was time for things to change.

God is telling you today, “It’s been long enough! Change directions. It’s time for things to change.”

 

 

 

 

When I want to remember something important, I write it on my hand. If I don’t do that to remind myself, I may not remember for days. That is an important  part of you, the palm of your hand. It is always right there in front of you, where it can be seen. You use your hands for everything, so if something is written on your hand, it would be hard to forget.

God has a tattoo of you on the palm of His hands. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:16 N IV

You are important to God. He wants to constantly be reminded of you. Every time He stretches out His hand to do something, He sees you. What a comfort! If God be for us, who can be against us? The very one who gave His only begotten Son thinks about you every time He looks at the palm of His hand.

Sometimes it might seem like you are all alone in the world, but Jesus will never leave you. You may have lost your last friend, but you have a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Jesus Himself said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you. I will go with you even to the end of the world.” I am never alone. He has promised never to leave me.

Engraved on God’s hand is a permanent reminder of me to God, tattooed onto God’s hand.

He couldn’t even forget me even  if He tried.

Lavon Hightower Lewis

I remember times I tried to argue with my mother when I was a child and she would say, “Are you disputing my word? Are you calling me a liar?” Her word was the final authority and what Mama said went.

There’s a lot of talk about faith these days. Discussions abound on what faith is, drawing on the famous Bible definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, which says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence  of things not seen.”

Consider the woman mentioned in Hebrews 11, Sarah, wife of Abraham, mother of the Jewish race. The scriptures say she was given strength to conceive when barren and 90 years old because she considered Who had made the promise and determined Him to be true to His word.

She looked down one day at her 90-year-old body, which had been barren even when she was young, and she determined that it was impossible for her to have a baby. Then she looked up into the stars, and tried to number them, as God had told her husband. Then she considered the One who gave the promise—God Almighty, the Creator of the universe—and determined that He was reliable, trustworthy, faithful, and true to His word. Simply put, if God said it, He will do it, no matter how it looks on the surface.

She stopped doubting His word. That’s what faith is—not doubting, but believing everything God says. Anything less is sin, because it is the same as calling God a liar. “God is not a man that He should lie,” Num. 23:19.

If He has said He will do it, it will come to pass. There is no place for doubting or disputing His word. The Psalmist said, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven,” Ps. 119:89.

Faith is simply taking God at His word.

My thornless hybrid blackberries aren’t very sweet this year, so I had to add a lot of sugar to the cobbler. They really only provided the purplish-blue color, and a little bit of sourness, but mostly it was just bland.

My red hardy hibiscus is blooming nicely but the flowers are smaller in diameter and the petals of the flowers are skinnier. It also took a long time for them to bloom. The crape myrtle is doing well, but the bloom heads are not as full this year. The flower petals all seem to fall off quickly.

I haven’t heard a thing from anyone about okra this year. Makes me wonder how it is bearing in local gardens.

This has been a very cool summer, over all, with an a lower average temperature compared to the last couple of years. Add to that more rain in July than we’ve had in quite a few years, and I believe the summer crops just are not getting enough heat.

All of these—blackberries, hibiscus, crape myrtle, okra—all need heat to bloom and set fruit. They are plants that thrive in the heat of the summer, one of the main reasons I have chosen to grow these things. If it isn’t hot, they don’t do as well. Oh, they will grow and put on blooms, but the results will be sort of skimpy.

I used to always say that I did well under stress. My job at the phone company was one of the most stressful jobs in the company—taking care of local and long distances equipment. We had constant trouble tickets to resolve, with some of course more important than others, but all customer reports were considered important. Almost every part of my job was high priority, but I got used to the stress and considered myself not just a survivor, but a thriver, (if there is such a word.)

Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NKJV.

Jesus overcame, so that we could overcome. Use tribulation to thrive; don’t settle for survival.

You all probably would never guess it but I’m just a little bit OCD—Obsessive  Compulsive Disorder. When combined with Perfectionism, this can be serious. I’m not one to make fun of psychological problems, but I guess it’s okay if you’re talking about yourself..

I started taking piano lessons in the 3^rd grade and stopped about halfway through my senior year, because I was too busy with senior things to practice. Then I took a year of piano and music theory at ORU in college. I will never be a concert pianist, but I can play hymns and praise music. I have always considered myself a singer who plays piano to accompany herself to sing.

I have one peculiarity—I have to finish the “phrase” in a song. If I am interrupted when playing, I have to go back and finish the verse or chorus. There is something in my brain that nags at me until I go back and finish it.

Then you add Perfectionism, and if I get stuck in a song when learning it, I have to practice it over and over until I get it right.

This is not to say, I always play every song perfectly, but I strive to practice to perfection, and then when it’s time to play it for real, I do the best that I can do, and don’t feel bad if it’s not perfect.

King David brought the ark of the covenant into the city of David, Jerusalem, and placed it in the tent or tabernacle that he had built for it. Then he appointed musicians to minister before the Lord in the tabernacle, singing and playing the musical instruments of God. (See I Chronicles 16:4 & 42.)  These musicians were well-trained and spent their lives worshiping the Lord.

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23 New King James Version.

I would never compare myself to those musicians of God, but I strive to be perfect in everything I do. Every song I sing or play, I do it for the Lord.

Do you remember this little song from childhood days?

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, Think I’ll go eat worms,

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.”

To tell the truth, I’ve never been quite so despondent that I ate a worm, but there have been times in my life that I wondered if I would make it through overwhelming circumstances.

David the writer of many Psalms knew what it was to face discouraging circumstances in his life. While David and his army were off to war in another part of the country, bandits attacked their hometown of Ziklag, stole their belongings, burned their homes, and kidnapped their wives and children. When David’s army returned, expecting a welcome-home party, they found a burned and deserted city. David and all his men broke down into tears, not knowing if their families were dead or alive. It didn’t seem like things could get any worse, but they did.

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”  I Samuel 30:6 KJV.

David was a musician, so he probably got his harp out, started to strum, and made up a new song about God’s great deliverance.

David probably sang, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:1-4 NKJV.

David sang until his heart was encouraged, then in verse 8 it says, he prayed, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he (God) answered him, ‘Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.’” And that’s exactly what David and his men did, they went after the bandits, recovered their families and fortunes, and brought them home to Ziklag.

Sometimes you have to encourage yourself and remind yourself of the goodness of God.