Author: admin

My mailman has been delivering my mail for 33 years until his retirement this year. He probably knows about as much about me from delivering my mail as anyone else in town. He was the one who delivered the love letters from Germany for over a year from 1979 through 1980.

For months while my boyfriend was in Germany, I rushed to the mailbox every day as soon as I got home from work to get that eight-page letter he wrote to me nearly every day. I frequently received three or four letters in one day, and then none for several days, because of the way the military mail operated.

I’d put everything on hold until I had read his love letter at least twice before supper, then I’d read it again at bedtime, sleep with the latest letter under my pillow, and then carry it in my purse to read on my coffee break and lunch hour the next day.

He came home on leave for our wedding and then returned to Germany to finish his last hitch of three months. Oh, my, that was the hardest part, being separated after we were married, but the love letters continued after he arrived in Germany and a few came straggling in even after he arrived back in Oklahoma after his discharge.

I got in that habit of rushing to the mailbox, as soon as I got home, and I’ve been doing it for 33 years. It doesn’t really matter what, as soon as the mail comes, I drop everything and get the mail.

Am I just as compelled to check my mail (the Bible) every day to see what the Love Letter from God has to say? Do I open the letter and read it twice before dinner, once before bedtime, once on my coffee break, and once on my lunch hour?

Do I hang on my Lord’s every Word of Love?

Some day He’s coming back and I will want to know what He is saying to me today.

I found a hand-written copy of my mama’s mother’s lye soap recipe recently, hand-signed by Grandma herself. Grandma died in 1936, when she was only 48 years old, so I never knew her.

Mama was well-known for the lye soap she made from that recipe. People came by our house begging for her lye soap, which she always gave away. We used it for everything, except doing laundry. For that, she used the new-fangled powdered detergent she bought at the corner grocery store.

Lye soap was Mom’s cure for chigger bites and poison ivy—well, just about every ailment. As soon as we got home from the farm, we bathed in lye soap. Then at night when we itched, she rubbed us with a bacon grease and salt mixture, (with some other ingredient in it, but not sure now what it was.) I can still remember going to sleep with that smell.

I also remember Mama praying way into the night and often slipping away to the dark bedroom during the day to pray. She was also known for her praying and people would come by to ask her to pray for their illnesses or troubles.

Now that she is 94 Mama brags that she never took an aspirin till she was 30 years old and working for a doctor. Yes, she takes medicine. We believe God gave us doctors and medicine for our good and God’s glory, but Mama has depended on her faith in God to heal and the home remedies God revealed to keep her family well all these years.

The Bible speaks of the River of God flowing from the Great Temple in heaven, in Ezekiel 47. It is a healing river, “because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes.” Ez. 47:9 NKJV. “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; ….Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.” Ez. 47:12

That river is in heaven, but God also put leaves of medicine and rivers of healing on this earth for us.

We survived a childhood of chigger bites, poison ivy, stepping on nails, splinters, cuts, scrapes, pokes, stabs, and injuries, by the grace of God, through the power of prayer, and mama’s old-fashioned, heaven-sent, home remedies.

GRACE AND MERCY

Grace and mercy ! One of my favorite prayers. The old-timers used that as a euphemism instead of cussing. “Lord, have mercy!” or “Mercy goodness.” I have said it myself.

But lately I have been really praying for mercy! “Lord, don’t give me what I deserve. Give me grace and mercy!” Grace to do what is right and mercy to forgive me when I do what is wrong.

On the cross, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” That was mercy crying out. Jesus was full of mercy. Everywhere He went, He was forgiving sin and healing the sick, delivering the oppressed. Mercy forgives, heals, delivers.

Grace enables. When I can’t seem to do what is necessary, grace empowers me to do it. Grace enabled Jesus to go to the cross. When He was praying in the garden, He said, “Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, Thy will be done.” After making the choice to do the Father’s will, Jesus then was given the grace to do it.

Life happens. We grow up, marry, have children, live life, and all to soon, life has come to an end. At each step, we are given the grace to do it. Whatever life brings, Jesus will supply the grace.

Are the children driving you nuts? Too many household jobs and school activities to handle? Strife between spouses? In-law troubles? Finances a mess? Illness and disease? Call upon the Lord for grace! As each day comes, there is grace for that day.

Grace doesn’t just enable you to get through the problems; grace gets you out of them. The grace of God changes circumstances and situations. It gives you the wisdom to overcome all obstacles so that you emerge victorious, an overcomer.

Grace for the moment! When troubles come, call on the Lord for grace and mercy.

I’ve been picking three or four asparagus stalks a day for several weeks now, from just a small bed of asparagus in my flower bed, putting them in a glass of water until I accumulate enough to cook.

I should have planted more asparagus when I planted that flower bed. I should have planted a whole garden bed dedicated just to asparagus, but that would mean digging out the grass and preparing ground that hadn’t ever been used for gardening, as far as I know. And that’s a lot of work, more than I wanted to do at that time, when I was moving into this house, so I just dug a few holes, dropped the roots in, covered them up with dirt, and let them grow naturally with no attention from me, except harvesting the asparagus in season when I see they are the right size.

Did you know that asparagus will grow right up through the Hosta plants? Did you know you can pick a good-tasting asparagus stalk out of 10-inch high weeds if you can find it?

Just imagine what a fine crop of asparagus I could get if I really worked at it. I could make a dedicated asparagus garden instead of the flower bed, and plant more roots for a bigger crop next year.

You can’t plant 3 asparagus roots and expect to get enough asparagus to feed a crowd. That is what the Bible calls “sowing sparingly.”

“He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” II Corinthians 9:6

The Law of Sowing and Reaping is in effect in God’s spiritual kingdom as well as in nature. What you sow you will also reap in the spiritual world. How much you sow in God’s kingdom determines how much and what you will reap back. The world speaks of ‘karma,’ or says, ‘what goes around comes around’ but it is really God’s Law of Sowing and Reaping that is taking place. And that can be good things or bad, positive things, not just negative things always.

Whatever a man sows that’s what he’ll reap and how much he sows determines how much he’ll reap. Just ask any Oklahoma gardener.

Mother’s Day cards show up on store shelves April 1^st through Mother’s Day, describing the most wonderful mothers of the world, but what about those mothers who don’t live up to the rosy sentiments on greeting cards?

How can we reconcile those? Isn’t a mother’s love the closest there is to God’s love? Isn’t a mother supposed to put her baby’s life before her own, just like a mother bear would give her life for her baby bear?

When a mother addicted to drugs neglects and abuses her children, it offends our sense of right and wrong. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.

Where is God when mothers mistreat or neglect their children? His angels are watching over the children all the time but act when a human being makes a move to prayer.

God has called us Christians to pray. When we see these things taking place, such as in a store somewhere, we are not just to click our tongues and criticize the mother. “How can she act like that to her children? Isn’t that a shame? Someone should do something.”

Yes, someone should. And that someone is you. Stop and pray. You don’t have to make a big deal about it. Simply say under your breath, “Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you will send someone to take care of those children. Stop her from harming them. As Psalm 91 says, ‘No evil will befall them, because you have given your angels charge’ over those children. Amen.”

No one else needs to know you prayed. If the opportunity opens up, you can speak to that mother, “It’s hard to raise little ones. Maybe you might check to see if your church has a Mother’s Day Out Program where you could leave them while you shop.” Then if she says she doesn’t have a church, there is your opening to invite her to your church.

God is looking for ways to intervene in the lives of those who need Him the most. And He will use you if you’ll let Him.

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.