Journey into Forever

       Busy week.  Ever notice how when summer gets started we meet ourselves coming and going?  During winter, the weather sometimes prohibits us from getting out. Too snowy, too cold....good excuses to crawl under a blanket with a cup of something hot.  During summer, however, something hot means going swimming, sitting in the shade with a cool drink...anything but staying indoors.  So it has been a week since I last posted.  The subject was blind spots.....areas where we don't recognize someting as sin.  Hmmmm.....      The American Dream.  Those of you my age have basically lived it.  We have houses, cars, clothes, boats, motorcycles, campers, the list goes on and on. My supply of endless food has made weight a health problem. Yet, we worked hard for what we have.  I know I did.  31 years of 10-16 hour days, depending on how much I had at home to do along with school work. So, if I worked hard for it, I deserve it. I earned it.       David Platt talks about the American Dream

      I have been having a lot of discussions lately about "levels" of sin.  Which one is more serious than another? Which ones are sins that will 'keep us out of heaven'? Which sins indicate an unsaved condition?  Which loved ones are committing sins that prove they are not going to heaven?  It can be a pretty interesting thing to talk and think about.       I have heard it said, and I think I have also said it in the past, "Well, at least I don't _________________" (fill in the blank with whatever horrendous sin you can think of).  With that in mind, let's take a quick check on our ideas of which sins are the worst.  Label the following 1-10 with 1 being the least sinful and 10 being the most sinful: _______ lying  _______  murder ________adultery ________homosexuality _________greed _______lust  _______gossip ________envy _________stealing ________judgmental/unloving      Let's see....there are three there that I haven't done and 7

       I've thought alot about this subject of the last blog since I wrote it.  Things that are unfair have always gotten us, haven't they?  I taught little kids for many years, and I can't begin to count how many times I heard the words ,"It's not fair!".  As adults, we tend to express the same feelings, sometimes in different words.  It's very hard to have a situation that we feel is unfair and simply have to bear it.   I remember my mom telling me,"Life is not always fair".  And it's not.       Especially hard to deal with are the situations where others are believing untruths told about us.  It has happened to me.  You want so much to get justice.  To be sure everyone knows the truth. To be sure the person that has hurt you is known for their lies.  To make it fair.       That's what makes this walk with Christ so tough.  If we go to the trouble to fight back, we have done the opposite of what The Word tells us to do.  I admit the l

      The title of this blog was a comment my mom would make to me when plans had to be changed.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I knew it meant that no matter how carefully we plan, sometimes things don't go as we expected.  We have to alter the course, change the plan.  So it is with my blog this time.  First of all, it's been a while.  Didn't plan on a bout with the flu or an allergic reaction in my eye.  Did plan on working on a building in Republic, but didn't plan on it being so time consuming for me.  Did plan the next blog, but found out God had other plans.       We have just about finished the Beth Moore study of James with my church group.  I have a friend who says James is her favorite book, and now I know why.  I love in depth Bible study.  I learn so much.  I, too, learned to love James.  So......I planned this next blog to be a celebration of the main things I learned from that study.  Oh well, maybe another time.  It fascinates, humbles, and e

     Well, I wonder if any of us have come up with some less than pleasant memories concerning our tongues?  If we really thought about it, it's a silly question.  We all will have numerous examples of using that part of our body as a weapon.  A deadly weapon.      There are a lot of scriptures about the tongue, but I'd like to start here with a quote from Mark Twain.  If you search for quotes by him, you will find many of the sayings we use regularly are from this well-known writer.  Some of them are pretty striking.....this one is funny because it's so true:     "Better to remain  silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."      Hmmmmm.  Bet I've left some people pretty confident and doubt free in my time!       Scripture references abound, and I am going to just include a few of them here.  Some are from NIV and some are from "The Message".  I didn't think much about even looking at "The Message" until my p

       Wow.  One thing I am sure of, in the midst of many things I am not.  When we start a close journey with Christ, He gets in our business.  Every day.  I sometimes feel like I'm on speed or something, although I really don't know what that feels like.  In my experience, I can only guess what I think some things might feel like, such as hitting a brick wall, being smacked in the face with a bat, or being on speed.  The fact is, every day as I seriously study the Word and ask God to give me understanding and insight, He actually does.  And 99% of the time, there is some part of my study for the day that causes me to experience one of the above ....hitting the brick wall of my obvious sin, being smacked in the face with my preoccupation with 'me', or the speed thing where there is so much going on in my brain about what I should be doing that I can't even sort it out.  Today is a speed day, so if this post is mumbo-jumbo that is why.       I have never been one t

      I wonder if any of you have the same problem I have.  The more I read the Bible, participate in a study on the Word, or even listen to someone on the radio, I come up with the same problem.  God's Word kicks me in the tail (to coin a phrase from Beth Moore)  all the time.  It has happened again.       Still in the book of James, I now come across James 4:4 which reads (in the NIV)               " You adulterers!  Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."      WHOA!!!! That's pretty harsh!  An enemy of God?  Me?  NO WAY!  Beth Moore, in her study on James titled "Mercy Triumphs,"  points out that the word 'chooses' or 'choice' denotes a conscious decision. So, I decided to look up a few scriptures containing the word choice. I found quite a few scriptures that I will list for you at the end of this blog, but I want to list a specific