A Product of the 70’s

Our songs are not the cause of our loss of the sense of God's greatness, though songs are surprisingly influential. No, our songs reflect this loss. Singing God-centered hymns is desirable, but more than that is needed. We sing what we feel, what we believe. When once we rediscover the greatness of God, we will sing it. Our song will echo our conviction. Tom Wells

I am a product of the 70’s.  I often wonder why people say that.  Maybe because those were my formative years where outside influences are the things that stick with you because the world is in your face.  Some of you may have heard of the things I am going to list about the times of the 70’s and others will have to Google it to figure out what I am talking about. 

The 70’s were a time of parachute pants and earth shoes, Farrah Fawcett hair, platform shoes and eight track players.  The Trans Am was the favorite muscle car and video games like Pong and the Atari were the rage.  There were no cell phones so you had to depend on a stranger for help if you got stranded on the road.  DOS was the operating system for those who even owned one. 

Music was different then.  Everything centered around peace and love.  Joy to the World was a big hit and One Bad Apple wouldn’t spoil the whole bunch.  We all wanted to go to Sweet Home Alabama to find out How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.  Everyone wanted to do the Crocodile Rock and the Monster Mash.  For those of us who couldn’t spell there was ABC and YMCA.  Then there were the love songs.  I’m All By Myself, Pickin Up the Pieces.  Don’t Go Breaking My Heart was a common theme but we then sang Love Will Keep Us Together.  

If you think about it things haven’t changed much.  We still get broken hearts and we still look for love in all the wrong places. One of my best memories from growing up during these formative years was singing in church.  Songs from church weren’t about the angst of life.  They were about turning to the One who made us for deliverance.  We could Have a Little Talk with Jesus, I Saw the Light and take A Closer Walk with Thee.  There was Power in the Blood, In the Sweet By and By and Precious Lord Take My Hand.  There was Victory in Jesus, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms and What a Day That Will Be. 

The thing about the old hymns is that I remember the words to all the songs.  When I return to listen to them it is like I am returning home.  Bart Millard from the group Mercy Me has a cd that is just old hymns.  It is one of my favorites because it brings back those long ago memories of Jesus my Lord and Savior and reminds me of how much I owe Him. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I thank you for blessing me with parents who knew the value of a Christian life.  When I was in church all those years ago, I can still remember the songs of praise for You.  Thank You for reminding me of the importance of worship and loving You.  

    

Scripture: For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him.  You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.  Psalm 32:6-8

Achievements

Achievement - something accomplished, especially by superior ability, special effort, great courage, etc.; a great or heroic deed.

There are basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. One says you can earn your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone.  John MacArthur

Have you ever looked back on your life and wondered what you achieved in your lifetime?  Have you thought about what you would like to achieve in the future.  I was thinking about jobs from my past and I thought about when I worked in retail. 

I was fresh out of college and God was not a priority in my life.  In my mind I thought it was important to have a great title.  So I applied for two very different retail positions.  One position was for a Manager in a women’s suit department.  The other position was for a major department store who was hiring a Display Coordinator. I was not so impressed with the Display Coordinator position because I didn’t really like the title. On the other hand the other position “Manager” made a statement.  It said that I had arrived.  I was going to take on the retail industry with my new title.

I was a newbie in the business world.  I thought it was all about the title.  I naively thought that if I didn’t have a title then my having a degree wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.  So you guessed it, I took the Manager position.  It was not one of my better moments or decisions.  I lasted about a year.  I had no passion for the job. It was hard for me to justify trying to sell a $400 suit when I didn’t think it was worth $400. 

The thing about the other job was that I had a passion for design and I loved creating retail displays.  I had extensive training in that when I was in college.  I was an expert at dressing a mannequin.  I knew how to take them apart and put them back together and they looked stylish when I was finished.  So the job I had the passion for, I passed up because of a title. 

I am not saying that everything you have a passion for is the thing you should be doing.  The thing is too many times we accept a position in life because of the prestige it will give us, not because it is what God would call us to do.  If our main focus is on the title or the money then we will probably not like the job.

Years have passed and I have since changed my view of life, work and God.  My achievements in my job don’t matter as much anymore.  I still enjoy work but it doesn’t define who I am.  I don’t really care what my title is and money is not my main motivator.  I now have a passion for God and people in that order.  It doesn’t matter what the job is there will always be people who need a Savior and I am passionate about that and the One who saved us. 

       

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, thank you for helping me to see wisdom from my past.  I can look back on my life and see the mistakes I made but each one was a lesson leading me back to You. The achievements that are most important all deal with eternity.  If I am not trying to reach another person for You exactly where I am, then I am not using the skills and talents You gave me.  Help me to understand that it is not important to be first, it is important to be last and servant of all.  The world teaches us to strive to be more important than others when we should be just the opposite.  The ladder to success and achievement often leads to nowhere. 

Scripture: Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” Mark 9:33-37

Milestone

One often sees a call only in retrospect. This too is God's design. God often reinforces our faith after we trust him, not before.  Ravi Zacharias

God is the shaper of your heart. God does not display his work in abstract terms. He prefers the concrete, and this means that at the end of your life one of three things will happen to your heart: it will grow hard, it will be broken, or it will be tender. Nobody escapes.  Ravi Zacharias

I thought I would share a little tidbit of trivia with you.  Today marks the 365^th devotional I’ve written with God’s help.  It only took me 1 year and 8 months to reach this major milestone.  I know about now you are thinking “she’s not really that good at this is she?”  Well it is a major milestone for me because I never thought I would write anything, much less blog it.   I was thinking it was kind of momentous that it landed on Christmas Eve.  What better day to remind me of what the purpose of the devotional is in the first place and in and for Whose glory it is intended?

You now know more about me than you probably ever wanted to but you have stuck with me through all the stories of everyday life.  To recap some of the highlights of this journey, you were with me when I rebuilt Gladys Knight and the Pips condo, caught Lou the lizard red-handed taking a bite out of my tomatoes and then there was fishing and catching poison ivy.  We talked about aging gracefully, mayhaws & chainsaws and Pepe Le Pew.  We discussed deregulation, how exclusions apply and fine print. You were there when I took a tumble off my front porch and also when I fell in the parking lot.

  

You’ve taken a trip down memory lane and visited Green Acres, the Blue Light Special and a trip to the Diamond Mines.  We’ve talked about squirrels, horses, pandas, pigs and a car driving dog.  You were with me through a chair snafu, a blowout and trading cars. You were there when boxes got stuck to the front of my car and again when I asked the guy to mow my grass. 

  

I have had more people tell me I’m funny and they love my perspective on things and life in general, but I just don’t see it.  When I was growing up I was quiet, shy and reserved and no one laughed much at anything I said.  My grandfather used to sit with us around a campfire and tell stories.  Maybe I got my story telling ability from him. 

Over the past year and a half I have learned some things too.  Each one of you is special because you have a thirst for God. Some of you are at the beginning of your journey, others in the middle and many near the end. It doesn’t matter where in your journey you are; the most important thing is you are not alone.  I thank God for each of you because it reinforces my faith in humanity.  There are good people in the world who love and care about each other.  We are part of the family of God and no one can take that from us. 

I will close with this.  God can and does use anyone for His purposes if we let Him.  It took a great leap of faith for me to stick my neck out and write something that others could read. Many times my fear of rejection would almost stop me from writing.  During those times I would pray to the Father for strength and courage.  Many of you have encouraged me and continued to follow me daily just to see what I will say next. I thank each of you for continuing to read and I pray that God will bless you in your journey.

P.S.  I have more stories where these came from so stay tuned.  Until God tells me to stop, I will continue to throw out thoughts to ponder.  

         

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, without You I wouldn’t have reached this milestone.  I praise You for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  In a world where violence, cruelty and hate have become the norm; there are still Christians who thirst for Your Word and who love and care for each other.  You are an amazing God who offered an amazing Son as a sacrifice to save us.  Thank you for this unbelievable gift.   

            

Scripture: Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38

Fishing

Our Lord said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." It is evident, then, that a true disciple is a soul-winner. It is possible to sit on the shore discussing the signs of the times when we ought to be driven by the signs of the times to launch out into the deep and let down our nets for a draught. Vance Havner

Last weekend it was early afternoon and my husband and I were sitting in the living room talking about what we could do for the afternoon.  I’m sure I surprised my husband because I told him I wanted to go fishing.  He looked at me funny and then I said, “I want to take a rod and reel and stand on the bank of the lake and fish.”  I asked him if he knew of a place where we could do that. 

For those of you who don’t know my husband, he makes fishing an art.  He has all these terms for the lures that he uses.  My husband is creative in the area of fishing.  There are Carolina rigs, spinner baits, twitch baits, then there are poppers and triggers, finesse baits, jig heads and drop shots, Crazy leg jigs and Dark Star swimmers, Scum frogs and the Frog Brigade.  

I’m a live bait kind of fisher-gal.  Give me a worm, minnow, shrimp or cricket and I’m good to go.  A bobber or cork with a hook and rod and reel and I’m there.  All those bass fishermen out there would be appalled at my idea of fishing.  Have you ever gone to Bass Pro?  There are aisles and aisles of different kinds of fake baits in a rainbow of colors. 

As I thought about the variety of fishing gizmos and gadgets that are available it made me think of our purpose. God created us to be fishers of men. Fishing for men requires ingenuity. Every person you interact with is not going to respond to the same kind of lure.  The reason they make so many different kinds of lures is because there are so many different kinds of fish.  What works for one fish won’t work for another.  I think too many times we keep using the same bait.

To become fishers of men we need to fill our tackle box with different tools.  If I don’t know and understand scripture it’s like using a waterlogged worm to catch fish.  You will never get a bite. Also, if I don’t understand that each individual is different, the approach I choose may turn that person further away from God instead of drawing them nearer. Jesus chose four fishermen to further the gospel. God doesn’t want any of us to perish but it will take each of us taking up our cross and following Him to become fishers of men. 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, you call each of us to be fishers of men.  You blessed each of us with talents that others don’t have. Help me to use the talents you gave me to become a fisher of men.  With Your Word, the Holy Spirit and perseverance, I too can be what You created me to be. A soul winner.    

   

Scripture: And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.  Matthew 4:18-22

Just Do It

Perhaps you began to question God's love or His wisdom. Maybe you were afraid to say that He was wrong, but you sort of said, "God, you deceived me in letting me believe that this was the right thing to do. Why didn't you stop me?" A whole lot of wrong things can happen if you try to look at God from the middle of circumstances.  Henry Blackaby

Most companies use tag lines in advertising to draw attention to their products.  One of the most famous tag lines is for Nike.  In essence it says “Just Do It”.  So the advertisement will show athletes running faster, jumping higher, and basically doing everything better when they have on a pair of Nike running shoes. 

This started me thinking about tag lines as a Christian.  If we are advertising what it means to be a Christian what should our tag line be?  We want others to want what we have so what could we say as our advertisement that would draw others to us. 

I came up with my very own tag line for what it should mean to be a Christian for our Heavenly Father.  My tag line would be “Just Do the Right Thing and Run the Race”. 

The majority of the time we all know what the right thing would be, but the problem comes in when we try to live up to the right thing.  Sometimes the right thing means we will be required to stand up for someone else and that often means facing ridicule from others.  Other times we might need to stand up to someone close to us and often that means they won’t appreciate our efforts.  Doing the right thing often means it will not be a popular choice and sometimes the very person you are trying to help will not appreciate it and will walk away. 

If we are to live a Christian life the way God wants us to, we will be called to make some tough decisions.  There are going to be tough times when you choose to be a Christian.  We are in the race of a lifetime and too many times we are just sitting on the sidelines instead of running the race. 

Our Christian life is a team sport.  Many years ago when I was in junior high we had what they called field day.  It was the one day near the end of the school year when we did team activities.  I was selected to run the 4x100 relay.  It was the only race where you got to carry something (the baton) and pass it to someone else.  The thing is there is no relay race if you don’t have 3 other people running with you.  When we understand that God intends us to run with others we have won half the battle.  The others in the race of life with us are going to be the ones who help us “Do the Right Thing” and “Run the Race” with excellence.  

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to run the race of life doing the right thing.  I praise you for bringing other Christians alongside me who have stood by me when I felt like giving up and who encouraged me to keep running.  This is the race of a lifetime and I want to run it well.  Thank You for Your many blessings and for keeping my eyes fixed on You.  

          

Scripture: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

A Lizard & A Tomato

God dwells in His creation and is everywhere indivisibly present in all His works. He is transcendent above all His works even while He is immanent within them.  A.W. Tozer

My husband and I were sitting on our patio last night after work enjoying the sounds of nature and catching up on each other’s day.  We have two tomato plants on our patio.  We both enjoy tomatoes so we decided to try to grow our own. 

A couple of weeks ago Jerry was watering the tomato plants and he saw small tomatoes on the plants.  The problem is the bottom of each tomato was missing.  Something was eating our tomatoes before they ripened. 

We discussed what we thought could be eating them.  You know the usual caterpillars or some other bug. Well Jerry was watering the tomato plants again and as soon as he started watering a big green lizard came running out.  You notice I say big, because he was pleasantly plump on our home grown tomatoes. 

Last night we are sitting on the patio and the lizard boldly runs in front of us across the patio to our tomato plant.  Well, he might get away with that when I am not sitting there but he wasn’t going to make off with my tomatoes without a fight. I mean fresh tomatoes are one of my favorite things about summer.  I couldn’t let the green bandit make off with mine. 

God created some amazing creatures.  I am watching this lizard run and his front legs are shorter than his back legs but he is really fast.  Well, Lou (that is the name of my tomato stealing lizard) was able to get away so my tomatoes are still in danger.  I decided in order to save my tomatoes from Lou, I would have to pick them.  I had five green tomatoes but unfortunately when I picked them Lou had already beat me to two of the larger ones.  In reality, Lou was really coming back for the second course. 

My husband and I started talking about the amazing things God created.  He created lizards that can lose their tail when in danger and grow a new one of a different color.  Many can change colors to blend in with their environment. Then I thought of the Komoto Dragon that is really a lizard.  I mean those things have been known to grow up to 10 feet long and sometimes track humans.  I am thinking Lou will never get that big but then I am feeding my tomato plants Miracle Grow so who knows, maybe I’ll leave a few tomatoes for Lou.   

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, it never ceases to amaze me about Your creation.  I watch nature and see You in everything.  When I see the animals you created, I can’t help but be in awe of You and praise You for creating me in Your likeness.

 

Scripture:  Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”  So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”  So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  Genesis 1:20-25

Deregulation   

Definition: To remove government regulatory controls from an industry, a commodity, etc.

Christianity is a world that is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there a rumor going around the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.  C.S. Lewis

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.  A.W. Tozer

Have you ever tried to get electricity? I was doing that recently and I was amazed at how much time this took. In layman terms this is how it works.  You call company XYZ to get the ESI number for your meter.  You then call the Retail Electricity Provider, but to make this simple we’ll call them REC for short.  They will ask you all kinds of questions about your first born, what country you come from, where you ate last week, who you spoke to yesterday, and they may even call the FBI to check you out.  I’m just kidding but it sure felt like that at the time.  Then even if you already have electricity with this company they will check your credit and payment history to make sure you are worthy of their service. 

Then they will send you to company LMNOP because these are the guys who actually go out and hook up your meter or set up a pole and they are also the ones who regulate your kilowatts or kWh.  

 

So as I am setting this up, since I was on the phone with them for an hour and a half, I decided to ask some questions in order to get a better understanding of deregulation.  When I asked company LMNOP what exactly they have to do in the process, the representative told me “think of us as the biller”.  

So after you are warned you are being recorded, for training purposes of course, then they read you your TOS or “terms of service”.  They start out with the PURA or Public Utility Regulatory Act, (this is to help you understand what all this means), then if you live in Texas you get the YRAC, the PUCT and the REP.  These stand for Your Rights As a Customer, Public Utility Commission of Texas and your Retail Electric Provider.

This is what I figured out.  I don’t know beans about my kWh and my REP really didn’t explain my YRAC well enough for me to understand the PURA. This whole process is used to wear you down so that you won’t question how much the REP is going to charge you for your ELEC. I also started thinking; maybe it’s time for me to get a Pedal-A-Watt Bicycle Generator.  I won’t have to read the fine print and I can stay in shape at the same time.  What a concept!!

This is what I learned about God from this process.  I praise God that he is not this complicated.  He doesn’t send us to someone else for clarification or explanation.  We are able to go directly to the Source.  When Jesus died on the cross the veil was torn and we were allowed direct access to our Savior.  What a comfort it is to know we can talk to our Heavenly Father any time or any place.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, sometimes we humans like to complicate things.  I praise You for making salvation available to everyone who seeks You.  Thank you for sending your Son to die on the cross for my sins so that I could live.  

       

Scripture: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  Matthew 27:50-53