Rabbit Trails

Do you think the injuries you have received from your fellow-man  are more than you have offered to God?   Has your enemy been more base,  more unreasonable, more ungrateful, than you have to the High and Holy One?   Have his offences been more heinous or aggravated,  or more in number, than yours has been against your Creator, Benefactor, and Redeemer?   Have they been more provoking and exasperating  than your sinful conduct has been to him who is the author of all our mercies,  and to whom you are under the highest obligations?

I'm from a little dirt road town called Seward.  My parents bought a house from my dad's sister after their moved off to California.  Before my cousins left....they named a street----Heaven. I loved to walk down that street....and play.  There were mulberry trees, lilac bushes, rocks to find, anthills to step on, cottonwood trees to look at......for a pretty long stretch there were no houses...only a sort of forest and a pond.  The pond would freeze over in the winter and we would play. and play. and play. I don't know why they named that street Heaven....as a little kid I sure enjoyed it. I have learned a few things since then.  It was NOT really heaven......and there is a hell. Do you know where you would go if you died today? Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:15  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15...

I did a lesson on Lydia this Sunday for Sunday School. I enjoyed looking things up and learning more about Lydia. Acts 16:14-15  And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped god, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. and when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there.  And she constrained us. The name Lydia means *bending* Thyatira was known for their purple dye. She worshipped God..... she wasn't yet a believer. attended: pay attention besought:  to beg for urgently, a request judged:  form opinion, to determine abide:  stay, dwell, tarry constrained:  to secure by Purple IS a royal color and now I know why. The dye came from a certain kind of *fish* and it was hard to get......... All the other color dyes were easy to get. gree...

Matthew 18:12-13 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?  And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. There were ninety and nine that safely lay In the shelter of the fold. But one was out on the hills away, Far off from the gates of gold. Away on the mountains wild and bare. Away from the tender Shepherd’s care. Away from the tender Shepherd’s care. “Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine; Are they not enough for Thee?” But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine Has wandered away from Me; And although the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find My sheep, I go to the desert to find My sheep.” But none of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed; Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed throu...

If love is the sum of Christianity, surely those things which overthrow love are exceedingly unbecoming to Christians. And so we find it by experience.  When contention comes into a place, it seems to prevent all good. An envious Christian, a malicious Christian, a cold and hard hearted Christian, is the greatest absurdity and contraditction. It is as if one should speak of dark brightness, or false truth! No works are so becoming as those of love.  If you call yourself a Christian, where are your works of love?  Have you abounded, and do you abound in them? If this divine and holy principle is in you, and reigns in you, will it not appear in your life in works of love? Consider.  What deeds of love have you done? And how much have you denied yourself to promote the Redeemer's interest among men? If your heart is full of love, it will find vent; you will find or make ways enough to express your love in deeds. ( my words:  We find many th...

Dorcas sewed for widows and friends She used a needle to stitch and mend. She made them coats and garments with thread Until Peter was called, because she was dead. The widows stood around and cried They told Peter she got sick and died. Peter put them forth, prayed, then said Dorcas, Tabitha, arise from the dead! Her eyes opened and she arose So she could sew and sew more clothes. M. Mc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been teaching my Sunday School girls about Dorcas.  I brought a little bag of sewing things this morning to show them.....buttons, elastic, ric-rac, snaps, thread and eyelet lace.   I told the girls that Dorcas sewed for people and was full of good works.  She died and her friends missed her and loved her so much that they sent for Peter...and for a *miracle*.  If they just lost their dressmaker, I don't think they would have been so sad.  They lost more than somebody that sewed for th...

We were told last night (4th night of revival services with Brother Hudson from Alvin)  that Colossians 3 covers just about everything we need to do....to be what we ought to be.   My favorite Bible chapter has always been Romans 12 for that very reason.     Present your bodies a living sacrifice....be not conformed to this world.....think soberly.....prefer one another....rejoice in hope....be patient in tribulation......rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep, mind not high things.....abhor that which is evil....recompense to no man evil for evil.....overcome evil with good.   This is a great list of things to do. Some people I have spoken to about the Bible get very defensive and say the Bible is NOT a book of lists.  It isn't a book of do's and don't's.  The Bible may not be written in list form, but you can surely make a nice list of things FROM the Bible.   Lists are good things and can do many things fo...

It is your mission, tested and tried one, to walk out on the stage of this world and reveal to all earth and Heaven that the music is not in conditions, not in the things, not in the externals, but the music of life is in your own soul. If peace be in the heart, The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, The midnight flash but shows the path of duty, Each living creature tells some new and joyous story, The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory, If peace be in the heart. C.F. Richardson

There is a process that can happen in our life.  It is not upward but downward. You might be somewhere in this progression and don't know how you got there. EXPECTATIONS DISAPPOINTMENT DISCOURAGEMENT UNBELIEF DISOBEDIENCE We all have expectations.  If you start counting them, you won't be able to go to bed tonight.  In fact, you might not be able to go to bed for a week or two if you try to think of everything you expect in your life.   can openers, computers, pets, cars, emergency rooms, gardens, friends, Taco Bell, banks, thrift stores, books, seasons, ball games, cameras, jobs, family, marriage, bosses, tires, heaters, pens, neighbors, doctors, vacations, church services, birthdays................ Be careful of your expectations for they drive your life. If we live life just waiting for all of these things to fall into place and be perfect, we are living way too close to the edge. Life is very unpredictable so it we are very subject to disappoint...

So, you ask somebody if they're saved and on their way to heaven. Sometimes their answer will be "Yes", I've been baptized. Sometimes their answer will be......"YES! I've been saved by the grace of God and I'm sure of my standing before Him." Sometimes their answer will be "I hope so." Sometimes their answer will be "Yes, I've been saved and baptised." hmmm, what do you do with this last answer? How do you reply to somebody that says they think you have to be saved AND baptized to make it to heaven???? Well, I talked to a man not long ago about this very thing and I didn't do so well. Hopefully this will help you if you meet up with somebody like this........and hopefully it will help you if you think baptism has a saving quality. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the r...

Oh yes, I voted alrighty. Texas was going to to with McCain anyway, so did I just waste my time? It was just ONE vote after all. Does one vote really change anything? I guess it really didn't take that much time to vote. I didn't even stand in line. And I got a nice little sticker. I'm going to tell you two things that I have had thoughts on................ 1. We ought to send missionaries to the swing states.........Iowa? Pennsylvania? Good Independent Baptist Missionaries to these places, so they can straighten things out. See people led to the Lord so they will know how to vote. Then those states will go conservative. Romans 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 2. When I get political phone calls asking for money, I tell them that we are doing all we can to make conservatives out of the people we meet. For the most part, if somebody is a Christian, they don't tend ...

I found this while I was looking for something else...........it is a devotion I gave a long time ago. It still applies today. For me. The drying of your bones...... A Controlling Spirit Remember, you are not a pilot in a plane. You are also not the air controller at the airport. You are not the president, a foreman, the head cheerleader OR Smoky the Bear. You do not have to take care of everything. Your role, whatever it may be, is to one, trust God, then to trust those that are over you to take care of matters. Keep your place and you will have peace. There is a difference between controlling things and keeping your place. Keeping our place does call for actions and commands , but it should not dry our bones in the process. We all have responsibilities to take care of, it is when we step over the line that we become a controller. We just cannot let things go, we have to have our finger in the middle of everything. We want the last word, the last...

Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. It looks to me like it DOES matter what is on the outside. It isn't just the heart. Why would we want to boast that it is the heart that matters anyway? Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Search me, O God, and know my heart today, Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray; See if there be some wicked way in me; Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free. Ask the Lord to search your heart, so your outside will be acceptable. Your works. What others see.

Romans 12:1,2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. It is ONLY reasonable for the Lord to expect us to present our bodies acceptable unto Him. We apply this to our children all the time........take out the trash, it's YOUR job. You need no ribbon or badge for doing it, you're supposed to do it. If we have had the 'transformation of mind', they why be worldly? Why take any steps backward? Any time we do, we are not proving what is good and acceptable or perfect........for the will of God in our life. Any time a decision comes up and we take that step back instead of going forward, we are being conformed to the world. That is how you got to where you are at in your life, to...

This is Jame's chair. It is almost as neat as mine. It gave me a thought this morning. Everybody knows what today is. Thanksgiving. It seems sometimes, that it doesn't do much for us. It might even give us more to whine about. Mainly about where we are going to SIT on Thanksgiving Day. if we have to go somewhere in the car, we complain that we never get to stay home if we stay home, we never get to go anywhere fun if we have to bake all the pies, we are abused if we don't get to bring any pies, nobody likes my baking if we have to do the turkey, we wonder why we have to do the hardest thing if we don't get to do the turkey, we wonder what we are going to do with the 23 pound bird taking up so much room in the freezer if we don't get invited somewhere, we pout all day if we get invited somewhere, we wonder why people can't just leave us alone for ONE holiday if we have to get up early to do the rolls, we wonder why we can't just sleep in ONE morning i...

Remember this O my soul and take good heed Seek not happiness apart from holiness Nor rest apart from Jesus Nor pleasure apart from pleasing God

I've been involved in another discussion on what to do with boys.........here are more things I thought of. I cannot claim that I won't repeat myself. It hasn't been that long since I blogged about boys, so forgive me if you read something in this blog that you read in the other...... The things I list are not in order of importance. They are pretty much in the order they came to me in. boys should take all trash out and keep all trash cans clean do all yard work, mow/weed-eat/trim/yard trash/sweep sidewalks/sweep street in front of house/take care of yard deco/take care of lawn furniture/rake/move bricks/pull weeds or at least take them to the side of the road for mom/poop scoop.......there should never be dog stuff in your yard if you have a boy.... boys should take care of bikes........tires, seats and general care......let it be their job to make sure they are all in the garage at night.....they can start looking out for things early on and then they'll get used...

don't let them run around with pirates if you can help it.........

give them boy stuff for presents

I read something a long time ago that has stuck with me. I haven't practiced it like I should.....but it's worth thinking about. Let's say you are writing a letter, an e-mail, talking on the phone, talking to somebody in person.......anything that means communication with another person or group. The challenge was to NOT complain about anything concerning your health. Not one little thing. No mention of the sore on your elbow from when you fell walking the dogs 3 months ago, no talk of the splinter you dug out of your foot last week, not a word about your terrible headache, nothing mentioned about your aching knees, your ingrown toe-nail, your paper cut, your mouth sore, a sensitive tooth, your runny nose, your out of whack back, your graying hair, the soap you got in your eye, a hangnail or a burn on your tongue from drinking your coffee too hot! I took somebody to a doctor's visit in Galveston a long time ago.......it happened to be an office for VERY old people. ...