Favorite color: October!

No, October is not spring time with it's promise of things to come.  October is pumpkin time, harvest time, time for putting things to rest.  Often the leaves are vivid colors, the sky is often a deep deep blue, and even browns come in vibrant hues.

In days of old people would light fires in their stoves, the smell of woodsmoke would waft on the air, and once crops were put in the shocks the farming community would breathe a sigh of relief and settle back to enjoy the rest that winter would bring. 

Here is a tribute to the days long gone in the words of James Whitcomb Riley:

WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUNKIN

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and the gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin'; of the guineys and the cluckin' of the hens
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O it's then the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock

They's somethin kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here -
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock -
When the frost is on the punkin and fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries - kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A preachin' sermons to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below - the clover overhead! -
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!
I don't know how to tell it - but if sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me -
I'd want to 'commodate 'em - all the whole-indurin' flock -
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

 

Consider...Insurance...

Consider sixty to seventy years ago we were ALL uninsured. Since insurance what has happened to health care? Insurance is like giving doctors, hospitals, and almost anyone that has to do with health care-- except the patient-- an invitation to 'charge what you want--someone has deep pockets'. I say--get rid of insurance all together. Maybe we are living longer...maybe not...but we aren't living better.  And none of it is improved with insurance.

It is human nature to make things in our own image.  No one is guaranteed good things will happen to them.  No one is guaranteed that their pursuit of happiness will, indeed bring them happiness.  Which it rarely does here and now on this earth.  We are told to,"lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" Matthew 6:20.

In the -old- days people used to read their Bible daily and take a bath once a week.  In these days many people take a bath daily and never read their Bible at all.  They must think they can wash their sins away in the shower.  As if the more they wash the outside of the platter, the inside will be clean.

Matthew 23:25  "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess. 26)  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also. 27)  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  28)  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. "

This does not sound appealing to me!  People do not want to face their short failings.  They have been told that there isn't such a thing as 'sin'.  That sin is a figment of the imagination...


 What does this have to do with insurance? We put a lot of our treasure into insurance, and it seems to give many a false sense of security.  We hear that money cannot buy happiness, money cannot buy love.  We all know that money cannot buy good health.  In our world, it can't buy much of anything, and in reality, insurance does not really insure anything.    People, all of us, will grow older until our time comes to 'cross that river' from this life into the next.  Sadly enough many who have spent much of their money on unimportant things in this life will find that they are unprepared for eternity.

 Matthew 6:21  "for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." Where is our treasure?

Put your treasure in the right place.  That is the best insurance we could ever have.
Hallelujah!  What a Savior.

If I Could

The woman employee looked stressed.  She stood with an unlit cigarette in hand obviously ready for a break, she wearily said to me, "Ever have one of those days?"

Indeed, most everyone I know has had at least one of those days--most have had more than one. 

We joke about things this Grandma has.  Many years ago I attended a Grandparent's day for one of my granddaughters.  In greeting her at her school I gave her a lovely kiss on the cheek--later she laughed and said, 'I didn't know I had grandma lips on my cheek!'

Grandma lips...in our family, because I do wear lipstick--my lips tend to be dry and I have a lovely cheap lipstick that has aloe in it.  It also tastes much better than yucky chapstick--hence the term Grandma lips.  Grandchildren are marked as my grandchildren, at least until I have blotted it off. 

Of course there is Grandma's magic wand.  It doesn't do anything, but it is pretty, and I do wave it around at times in hopeful exuberance...And of course my magic umbrella. 

My magic umbrella does do something.  I got it as a freebie from our bank--in appreciation I'm sure for being the light of their lives.  Smile~ however...the happening went something like this:

My son, Peabody, the afternoon I had acquired the new articles from the bank was checking out the umbrella while I was in the kitchen preparing supper.  He was standing by the dining table across from where I was chopping vegetables, or what have you.  Our kitchen is separted from the dining area by a counter, which I was working at as he's standing there pushing buttons for this and that on the umbrella.  He discovers that if you press a certain button the umbrella snaps open, and he thinks that is just pretty cool.  He tries it a time or two, "Hey, Mom!  Look at this!" and he pushes the button again to demonstrate this new toy.  However, instead of it just snapping open, the whole head just keeps on going.  Flying off the umbrella handle it flies across the space between us, and it hits me on the shoulder.  We were both shocked.  The look on his face is priceless.
   "Oh, Mom, I'm sorry!" he says.
    And the only thing I could think to say was, "When will you stop to think?"  but then the humor and the endless possibilities begin to spiral through my mind. 

Of course he couldn't have known about the defect in the (as we term it now) magic umbrella, any more than I could have.  Or the people at the bank...when he went in for a visit to the same bank and got his 'made in China' freebies he had to tell them about our experience.  I don't think they were as impressed as we were.  Laughing, laughing, laughing!

I have since demonstrated my unique umbrella on numerous occasions, and it always illicits spontaneous outbursts.  If for no other reason it truely seems to be magic.

What does that have to do with 'one of those days'?  Many things depend on our point of view.   As a Christian one of those days should bring me back to reality.

Hebrews 11:13  "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 11:14  For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own... 16)  But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city."

We are pilgrims here on this earth seeking for a heavenly land.  As we walk this pilgrim's pathway we must:
Ephesians 6:14  "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15)  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;"
We must take up the shield of faith and:
Ephesians 6:16  "...wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17)  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"
(and do all of these things--18)  "with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,"



As I heard a speaker say, when things go wrong for a Christian we have a place of refuge, a shelter as it were, that we can rely on.  Who and what does an atheist have?  No one and nothing greater than themself, and that is a shallow shelter. 

A number of years ago we used to watch an astronomy show that gave the coming week's highlights of the night time sky.  The final line was always, 'and keep looking up'. 

We need to keep that thought in mind as we consider.  We do have a shelter that is much greater than ourselves.  We do have a rock that is higher than ourselves.  We do have a God that is able.

Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,"

2Timothy 1:12  "For which cause I suffer also these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day."
                         Hallelujah, what a saviour!

ta da...

1Corinthians 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7) Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

This reference in I Corinthians is said of the children of Israel at the time when Moses led them out of bondage. As they waited for Moses to return with the ten commandments they lusted and turned to idolatry, but...

Throughout this time period, as I teach my Bible class, we emphasize what the problem was.  All that these people could do was murmur and complain.  Did they have a reason to be unhappy?  Certainly they were going through some tough problems, the problem was how they handled the situation. What happened to them was written for us to learn from. The Old Testament gives us examples of good and evil.

"Well, I DESERVE this..." even if it may not be the best thing (for us) to have, we want it! And 'rose up to play?' That describes this society to a T...this is a society of 'play'. Just watch T.V. commercials. The television and the media are masters at making people feel like they deserve things, things that --in reality--they neither deserve nor need.

The book of Judges ends with: In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.(Judges 21:25)
They did what was right in their own eyes...hmm sounds much like what we have today.

"Well," the talk show host begins, "I received this email...-strong women will not vote for Santorum or Newt.- Now, why do you suppose they won't vote for Santorum or Newt?" After a pause, and apparently after listening to another person's opinion, he offers his thoughts. "Strong women feel Santorum and Newt are a threat to them--"
Santorum has only one wife, but he has seven children, (exclamation mark here) and of course Newt is really only a threat if you're married to him, but...

A strong woman?  Excuse me, but a strong woman is not one that fears a strong man.  A strong woman is not one that swoons over some one just because he excites her emotions.
Christians--not just men, but women should be 'strong'.

Ephesians 3:16  that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
Ephesians 6:10  Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

As G.K. Chesterton said:   "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 

It takes a strong individual to put aside their wants/desires and replace them with what God wants/desires for them and their life.   Yet what do we most admire in life?  Is it the individual(s) that just go with the flow.  The people that go along to get along?  Usually it is an individual that does the right thing--or what we perceive to be the right thing.

A strong woman indeed.  What do we perceive as a strong woman?  

The office woman says to a co-worker, "You know, Mabel (name changed here) will be in this afternoon..." and the co-worker's response?  "Well, I guess I won't be...".   Do we perceive witchy women to be strong women?  

Strong women are women that --whether in authority or not-- holds to her convictions of right or wrong.  She doesn't need to be the center of attention; she is quiet and respectful of others.  They do not need to be 'bossing' other people, but they know how to be in control of themselves.  They know how to make others feel good about doing what they should do.

1Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 

Christians are God's possession, they need to act that way.  In reality if we got what we deserve it would be punishment.  We deserve no better, but thanks be to God we have the ability to choose life, and blessings in Jesus.  It is a choice however. It isn't like a beauty pageant where you line up, and everyone jumps up and down in anticipation, and then someone gets the crown, .   We must choose it, and live it.
Christians must be strong, stay strong, and live strong...Do not murmur, nor complain, do not wallow in the sins of this world, lusting after things that are not fit for the pigs of this world--come ye out from among them... 1Peter 1:15  but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; 16)  because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.