Category: Devotionals

If you want to get people started laughing or crying, just start talking about Christmas memories. Everyone has a story.

I remember bringing the Christmas tree home from school the last day of school. We were poor so the school gave us the tree.

I remember walking through Otasco looking at the toys lining the aisles.

I remember looking through the Sears Christmas catalog at all the new toys.

I remember the year my sister and I got transistor radios and brother got a battery-powered police car with lights that flashed and a siren.

I remember buying hair combs for Aunt Leona, handkerchiefs for Daddy and our uncles, pretty handkerchief for Grandmother.

I remember the year we bought Mother a silver-coated serving plate at the jewelry store and learned years later that she had to pay the rest of the cost of the plate since we didn’t have enough money.

I remember learning all the words to the Christmas carols at school in October and November so that we could sing them for the Christmas play.

I remember dressing in old sheets to play the shepherds and being jealous of the cute little girl who got to play Mary.

I remember singing “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night” and feeling my chest fill up with love for Jesus.

I remember the first Christmas after my son was born wishing I had a home church to go to for Christmas.

I remember the first Christmas after my daughter was born, when she was 6 weeks old, attending the Christmas program in which my 6-year-old son was a king, dressed in the dark blue velvet costume I had made him.

I remember all the years that we spent our shopping days practicing the Christmas cantata and program instead of going to Tulsa to shop in the mall.

Most of all, I think of the loved ones who are spending Christmas in heaven this year and I wonder what it must be like to see Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior face to face.

 

I was not glad when I got out of bed this morning. Some things have occurred recently that tried to take away my joy.  Now I know I’m not the only one who has troubles. Life is full of troubles and it doesn’t seem to care much who you are or what your position in life.

Just so you’ll understand, I wasn’t unhappy, I just wasn’t glad.  Sure, things weren’t good, but they sure could have been worse.

Saturday on a trip home from Tulsa, one of the girls mentioned the old praise song, He Has Made Me Glad. I lead worship on Sunday morning from the piano, so I started the music with that old praise song from 1976. (I looked it up.)

“I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart. ….He has made me glad, Oh, He has made me glad, I will rejoice for He has made me glad.” (Taken from Psalm 100:4)

We sang a couple of times through and then from some place deep within me a little something began to stir as I sang. The feeling rumbled around inside me, until I did something I hadn’t done in a long time. I stood up, left the piano bench, and raised my hands to the Lord.  We just kept singing a cappella, until we sang through two or three more times, then I went back to the piano to go on to the next song.

Now maybe you don’t do things like that in your church, but it’s acceptable in ours and it has been a while since I stood with my hands raised toward heaven.

At that moment, in one instant, God gave me back the joy that troubles have tried to steal away. My troubles haven’t gone away, they’re all still there, but my heart has changed.  I might not be happy but I’ll have the joy that only the Lord gives.

God does many things “Suddenly.” I’m patiently waiting for my “Suddenly” to come to pass. Circumstances change. People grow up and change. In a moment’s time, things change and will never be the same again.

With God all things are possible. It’s time to rejoice.

 

 

Garth Brooks is coming back to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a concert. The ticket sales broke his previous record with 105,000 tickets sold in two hours, so he scheduled four more shows, bringing the total to seven shows. Garth Brooks’ last concert in Tulsa was 17 years ago.

Everyone knows who Garth Brooks is, but just in case you don’t, he is the best-selling album artist in the US since 1991, even selling more than the Beatles, but falling behind Elvis Presley for overall album sales. Garth was born and raised in Tulsa, and went to college at OSU, Stillwater. He and his second wife Trisha Yearwood have lived in Owasso, Ok., near Tulsa for several years. Garth’s roots are in Oklahoma and he is deeply loved as an Okie and as a great musical star.

In announcing the concerts in Tulsa for 2014, Brooks says, “Tulsa, I told you I’d be back.” His many fans, called believers, have patiently waited for Garth and his band to return to Oklahoma.

That reminds me of the story of Jesus talking to His disciples at the Passover meal the night before He was crucified. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself.” John 14:2-3. Yes, Jesus said, “I’m coming back.”

As Jesus was being lifted up in the clouds into heaven, two angels appeared to the disciples and the great crowd of people who were there when Jesus left. The angels said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.

I love that, the Bible says, “This same Jesus.” Not another Jesus. Not somebody claiming to be Jesus the messiah. Not some self-proclaimed messiah, but the same Jesus that walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee, who healed the sick and raised the dead.

He said He’ll be back. I’m just waiting for that moment when the angels announce His appearance.

 

 

 

 

I ran into a guy a while back that I knew in the 60s. During our conversation, I asked if he was married and he said, “Yes, 5 times.”

“Good grief,” I said, “why did you get married so many times?” And he said, “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.”

Isn’t that the way life is? This is often the answer when asked why a person drove drunk, “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.” When a unwed girl finds out she is pregnant. When a drug addict faces the judge on a possession charge.

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

My body, mind, and emotions desire to rule me. What “I think” is more important to me than what anyone else thinks. I think that what I think is the truth, sometimes even when I am proven wrong. My feelings or emotions are even more important to me than what I think. And it seems as though what my body is telling me is more important that what I read in the Holy Bible.

This was Paul’s dilemma too. He tells us in Romans chapter 7 that the very thing his body wanted to do was what his spirit was telling him not to do. People read this passage and feel like Paul is saying there is no hope to be able to overcome trials and temptations while we live here on this earth. They feel that they will always be a sinner, because they cannot resist temptations as long as they still live in this body. However what Paul is saying is that this is the way it is before Christ, but after we are born again, we can be conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Your spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit is always trying to tell you the right thing to do. Add to that reading the Bible, God’s Word; praying; attending Bible study and church; and contact, fellowship, and accountability with other believers.

Remember, what “seems the right thing to do at the time” might be the wrong thing.

If there is any one thing that I have trouble doing, it is making my bed every day. I don’t know why it is such a struggle to accomplish. If you timed it, bedmaking takes less than five minutes.

I am no amateur at housekeeping either. I learned how to make “hospital corners” with the sheets when I worked at a nursing home back in the 60s. Experts say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. I guess I am  going to have to get some gold foil stars and put one on a calendar for every day I make my bed, like we did as children for brushing our teeth.

Routines and habits. We talk about someone doing something  religiously or habitually and it sounds like that is a bad thing, but we human beings are creatures of habit.

The 60s, when I was a teen, was the era of the free spirit. Do what feels good. Free love. Living together unmarried. Back to nature, living in the woods. No one was going to tell us what to do. Boys rebelled  against their clean-shaven, crew-cut fathers and grew long beards and long hair. We girls rebelled against our aproned mothers and just barely kept house, preferring to let life happen however it would.

However, over the years, I have found that habits aren’t all bad. Brushing your teeth morning and night sure helps you avoid some nasty problems, not to mention it keeps people still speaking to you. Taking a bath, getting a hair cut, holding down a job are not all bad.

Here is another good habit. Hebrews 10:24-25 NKJV says, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,  but exhorting one another..”

Going to church every Sunday is a very good habit to get into.

After I moved back to Vinita, Ok. in 1977, my little son and I would go to Grand Lake fishing with Mom and Dad sometimes.

Daddy would say, “Let’s go fishing,” then head outside to mess around with his fishing poles and tackle. Mom packed crackers and cheese, apples, cookies, napkins in a paper grocery sack. She poured the boiled coffee in the thermos. A jacket in case it turned cool on the water, a book for me to read in case the fish weren’t biting. Just the necessary stuff. Oh, and the flashlight. Don’t forget the metal Ever-ready flashlight.

Then we’d pile into the old ’57 Ford with the non-functioning stick shift on the column and a 4-in-the-floor that shifted backwards and stuck through an open hole cut in the floorboard. Roll the windows down for air conditioning.

Along the way we had to stop at Simpson’s bait shop to buy worms and minnows, Snicker bars and bottles of pop. Daddy always said was, “Why do you women have to turn every thing into a picnic?” He was going to catch fish. We were going to relax, enjoy life, read a book, visit a little after a hectic week.

It is the woman’s way–providing nutrition for her family. Birthday? Cake and ice cream. The family together after church on Sunday? Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. Anniversary? Going out to eat. Friday night date? Movies, popcorn and soda pop. Thanksgiving or Christmas? Turkey dinner for the family. Baby shower? Cake and punch, with party-mix nuts.

Paul talked about food in Romans 14:17KJV. “For the kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” 

There is nothing wrong with eating to celebrate, as long as you remember, that what you eat or don’t eat does not bring you righteousness, peace, and joy. It might be true that we are what we eat, but my value as a child of God doesn’t come from natural things.

I am not defined by what I eat but by who I am in Christ..