What I saw today

Today I went door-knocking, and I saw:
1. One fighting cock
2. A hamster
3. A baby chicken grazing in someone's front yard
4. Evidence that an equine animal had passed by
5. A large mean dog who chased us
6. Three different kinds of puppies
7. Someone's laundry hung in their front yard. (The line was tied to the street lamp.)
Another normal day-nothing unusual!

Bouquet?

Love my little freckeled tiger lily!

Joy in the presence of the angels!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and plunked down on the couch, opened my Bible, and started rubbing the sleepyheads out of my eyes so I could read. I do not like mornings. As far as I'm concerned the only thing good about them is the fact that no one else is up, so I can have some solitude with the Lord before the rush of the day begins. As I peered at the first chapter of Colossians I realized that I was not alone. I heard a pair of little feet slapping down the stairs. My youngest daughter appeared, looking just as sleepy as I was.

Great. There went my devoes. I thought. I said, "Hi, sweetie, come sit with me." Maybe I can get some reading in this way. She snuggled up, and I commenced reading out loud, so she wouldn't feel the need to squirm or talk to me. I got to this part:

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

And I began to think, she has no idea what this means. I read the next verse;

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Then the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask, "Do you know what redemption means?"

"Uuuuuh, no."

Again, the Lord pushed me to explain this word to her. There is a wonderful story about a little boy who made himself a sail boat, that he loved, and when he went to the river to play with it, the wind blew it away. He saw it go in to the rapids, where there was a big fall, and he thought it was lost to him forever. Then one day he saw his sail boat in a store window. Not only had it survived the falls, someone had found it! When he asked the store owner for it, he found out that it was still lost to him, because in order to get it, he would have to pay the full price for it. He loved his boat so much that he brought money to pay for it, and redeem it.

I told her this story, and explained, that was what Jesus did for us. He made us, and He loves us. But our sin will take us to Hell, and we will be lost to Him, so He paid for us to be redeemed back to Himself, to take away our sin, and the price he paid wasn't money, it was His own blood. That's why it says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." All we have to do is repent of our sins and receive His gift of eternal life!

"I want to do that! Right now!"

Thank God for this! Isn't it wonderful to see His Spirit working in the lives of our children? Elisabeth had made a profession of faith, but I sensed she didn't understand everything she had done, and last week, the Lord put a burden on my heart to pray for her, that God would make clear to her if she was saved. My prayer was answered a couple days ago when she told me frankly that she was not saved and going to hell, because she was a sinner and couldn't stop sinning. At that time, she didn't accept Christ. Sometimes it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work each part of the gospel through our hearts. I didn't push it. This time, I could see the lights come on. No, she didn't want to wait another minute, Jesus had paid for her sin, and she wanted to receive eternal life right now! I told her to tell Jesus! She did, very simply and frankly, ask Jesus to forgive her, and take away her sin so she could live in Heaven with Him. Then she jumped up, eager to tell everyone, "How do you say 'I got saved' in Spanish?"

I don't think I'll ever complain about having my personal devotions interrupted!

Zoom in and check out the flying drool!

Two verses and a thought:

Psalms 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Can I possibly understand the blessing it is to dwell in the presence of the Almighty God? David longed to live in the house of God! What would he say if knew God’s people carried around His Temple on their feet, and then did not bother to seek out God’s face at least once every day?

Just in case you were wondering if I have it all together...

We were late to church yesterday. After we had all gotten ready, I reached for the keys to unlock the front door, and they were not there on their little hook! Bad keys! We began to look, since we could not get out without them. We searched the upstairs, the downstairs the kitchen and even outside where I sometimes leave them when I go out back to feed the dog. As I stood in the kitchen, praying and frustrated, a thought came to me. I saw outside some of the items that were on my washing machine on the ground. Hmmm. How did they get there? Would my idiot dog possibly thing jingling keys were fun to play with? Sure enough, twenty minutes after church had started, I found the keys near the back of the yard by the wall. Along with several of my washcloths. Bad Dog!

I like the dog, I really do. If she survives to adulthood, when she will theoretically be less trouble, it will be a miracle, because I really want to strangle her about three or four times a week.

Here is the future site of the First Baptist Church of Tizayuca!

The Property:

The church family!

A little unasked for advice

A young girl asked me for advice the other day. Advice about BOYS. She met a nice young fellow at camp, and he wanted to communicate with her as a boyfriend. Now, I understand the young man’s perspective more than one might think. I know him, and he’s been saved for three months of his fourteen years. He’s excited about everything that has to do with church, and he’s lost all his previous ambitions; he only wants to preach. A young lady who wants God’s will for her life is something new to him, and it is attractive. (Nothing wrong with that) He doesn’t yet understand about how to have a Christ-honoring relationship with such a person, so he is relating to her according to the rules of his old life. At this point, I assume he doesn’t know any better, especially since I sent a similar young fellow packing in my first year of college right when he wanted to “go steady” with me. It wasn’t the time for me to be thinking about marriage, and I didn’t need any distractions with my first year of college. When God put me back together with that guy after we had both matured a bit, we knew it was His work! For more on this story, go here, here, here, and here!
I told the young lady these things, and also this: You are in a very important time of your life, and it is a time to guard your heart! These years, if you are submitted to God’s Holy Spirit, He is preparing you for His will. He’s building something precious in your life, making something beautiful. Your relationship with Him is being established, and you don’t need distractions. These years don’t come back when they are gone; don’t lose what God is doing in your life!
This is for the young ladies that read my blog. Those of you that I know personally, I want you to know I pray for you by name often! I know that God has a plan for you, that it is the best plan for you, and there is something in your life right now that can destroy you. I don’t know what it is, but our enemy always puts up something that we have to make a choice about. Am I going to trust God, or worry about my family? Am I going to make room for Him in my life, or am I going to seek my own interests, and let Him have my leftovers? Am I going to pour out my hurts to Him and leave them there, or am I going to get bitter and angry? One of these things that can turn us off the path God has laid for our feet is wrong thinking about romance, boys, marriage, and the future.
You see we ladies are full of dreams! Exciting dreams, dreams that make our heart go pitter-patter-pumpernickle! There is a powerful ton of emotion built up behind those dreams, and the hope that those dreams might be realized in this amazing person is enough to sometimes shut down our ability to reason. If you have seen the movie Bambie, think “twitterpated”. And I know whereof I speak. I have talked to a lot of twitterpated young ladies. You are a smart person, but emotion can turn the heads of the brainiest among us. For this reason I offer you my advice. (Yes, unasked for by you, but I love you all to bits, so you have to put up with it!)
• Keep your relationships Christ honoring.
• Make good friends, and keep your closest friendships at a spiritual level. (I'm talking about all your friends, not just guys, but especially guys!) Be aware that extra time with someone builds intimacy. If you run out of things to talk about, you will be tempted to start bringing up more personal things. Not a good idea! Certainly not a good reason to speak of personal things with someone.
• Always keep Christ first, and if any friendship is pushing away your thoughts of Him, step away from that friendship! Believe me, I speak from experience, Mr. Right, at Time Right will not push away Christ! I am so glad I told my “Mr. Right” to “just be friends” when I did! God's time was perfect. If he’s got a spiritual bone in his body, he will understand and appreciate what you are saying; if he doesn’t understand, you really don’t want to tie your heart up with him!
• Also, if God has placed authority in your life, honor it! Honor your parents, and don’t hide anything from them. Respect your pastor and consider his advice carefully.
• Find spiritual older woman who can hold you accountable, and pick their minds! Don’t worry about bugging them, they will love it. Just don’t say you are following my advice to find someone “older”, or you will get me into trouble!
Most importantly, keep your dreams and desires subjected to God’s will. Seek His face, and determine in your heart to never deny the Holy Spirit. You can’t afford at this point in your life to let something come in and mess up the amazing things He’s preparing you for!

I don't have much time, but I wanted to say we were able to buy land today for the church building!

"Inattention"

What happens when Mom leaves a three year old alone with a ketchup bottle for too long.

Human Respect and Unconditional Love

I've read a lot about "unconditional love" and "basic human respect" the past two days since a California judge negated the clearly expressed will of the people of California.

Lets reason together. Christians believe that dying in one's sins is an eternal death sentence. (By "Christians" I mean Bible-believing followers of Christ; not people who take His name without believing His words.) Bible believers also believe that homosexuality is a sin that will put a person in the same Hell that was created for lies, and every other sin. God did not make Hell for people, but for sin. Anyone who dies in their sin ends up there.

Basic human respect says that we view other people with the same value as we view ourselves. This is logical and correct. Unconditional love means that no matter the consequence to ourselves, we will favor the other person, value them, and put their needs before our own. Unconditional love will come with action, and with respect for the value of the other person, as God created them just as He created us, and we are no more important than they are.

If these are true, how can a Bible believing Christian who follows Christ and His example keep silence when they see their neighbor fall into a sin that they believe will take them to Hell, and say nothing? If that neighbor is a homosexual, they might be uncomfortable about such a conversation, especially in California where you are esteemed as a subject of special hatred if you express condemnation to this lifestyle. Nobody wants to be rejected by others, and a Christian will have to face rejection if he or she takes a stand against this sin. They will try to hurt you if they can, no matter how your heart loves them and breaks over the prospect of an eternity lost to God in Hell fire.

Please, Christian, love your neighbor! To say nothing because of fear of attack is an act of true hatred, for it will send many into Hell, never knowing the truth. If we believe this, to not speak against sin is to be selfish in the extreme, saying our own comfort and the affection of others is more important to us than their life, which was created to be with God forever.

If a Christian does not speak the truth in love, as is commanded in the Bible, and as Jesus Himself did, then he is either a true selfish coward, or he does not really believe the Bible.

I've read a lot of griping by a lot of Bible-believing Christians about the law, the judge, and the liberals. And I don't disagree, but I chose to write today about the root of the problem. If God's people won't shine His light, why do we complain when sinners fall over in the dark?