without a cause

It was a simple Face Book game-- What old western outlaw are you?  Some of the outlaws were not familiar to me, but the one I came up with was.  Billy the Kid: Rebel with out a cause.
"I'm thinking of going to preaching school," my husband lobbed the subject out into the air one day when I least expected it.

"No," I said, "I don't think that's a good idea.  I can't see me as a preacher's wife, and I doubt anyone else would either, besides.... "
To say I was taken by surprise would be an understatement.    We had been married maybe three years.  We lived in a large early 1900's two story farmhouse situated at the end of a long lane.  Having been farming for most of our three years of married life I couldn't imagine selling out and leaving for parts unknown. 

Preaching school?  No, no. Someone has this scenario wrong...I'm sure I don't fit into people's regular mold of a preacher's wife...but indeed my husband persisted--once he gets an idea in his head it seems it's hard to change the course.

Many years later it is still one of best decisions we have made.  We learned many things, saw many new sights, made a variety of friends.  Looking into the future from back in the 1970's we could never have forseen the many paths we would travel--what a blessing that was.

Matthew 6:34  "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

How many times have I wished I could look into the future 'just enough to know--is this a wise choice?', however, we aren't given that option.  Truly we don't want to be in control of our future to that degree.  It is best when we acknowledge the wisdom of God, and leave the panorama of the future events to his arrangement. 

Ecclessiastes 6:12  "For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?"

Our lives here are short compared to eternity, and what do we accomplish?  Love, hate, good, evil, these cycles happen many times in this life.  Stress- how many times do we feel the squeeze of the stress from this life?  It can come at any time, from many different areas.

  Ecclessiastes 11:10  "Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity."

Many is the time older people sigh and say, "Oh, to be young again.  To be young again, and not have all these sorrows and burdens."  How soon they forget the stress of being young.  Of being at an age when choices are setting them up for the sorrows and burdens of being older.  It is at that young age when they are often not wise enough to make decisions, but they do any way.

And young people are sighing to be older.  Enough has been said to young people, telling them to enjoy being worry free.  I wouldn't impress them with enjoy being worry free.  I would tell them to get their life in order first with God.  If you get that step right, the rest of the steps will be much easier, and although you will still more than likely make a few turns that you will need to make U turns from, they should not be serious blunders. 

Ecclesiastes 12:13  "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14)  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

No, I probably will never fit into someone's mold of how I should look, act, feel, or many other pegs.  I will probably always be that rebel but not a rebel without a cause.  Our cause is set out in the scriptures:

Romans 5:8  "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9)  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10)  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
                                                         Halalujah! What a Savior!

Life is made~

Life is made through choices.  Many humans live their lives as if doing the immediate will get them to where they wish to be.  They live as if their wants and desires are the most important things in this world.  Then they are surprised that as they approach middle to old age to find dissatisfaction with their lives.
Choices...How many of us remember being seventeen, eighteen, maybe even twenty-five years of age?  Maybe younger, or older--no matter what age a person is--unless they are a baby of course, no matter what age we can remember some choices that turned out not good.  Usually it ended with at least a reprimand from someone in authority. 
 Genesis 30:1  "And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die."
What has changed from parent-child relationships of the past compared to the same relationship of today?  Children are not always considered the blessings that they once were.  Many couples are no longer choosing parenthood, and many parents heave a huge sigh of relief when they survive the teenage years.  I believe there are a number of reasons for both of these symptoms, but most of the reasons are self inflicted.  Do we as parents actually believe that past generations had children that were somehow different than children of today?  No, humans still have the same wants and needs now as they did in the past.  The reason we dread raising children and especially teenagers is because adults have lost control.   The teen years are a traumatic time of  life, and our society has lost the pattern for dealing with human nature in more than one area, but tragically this area in particular.
My number one advice to parents is, deal with teenagers the day they are born. If as a parent you have not done a good job when they are babies, you've lost the teenager years.  Not that a parent can't do remedial work the moment they realize they have done something wrong.  A parent has to begin where they are, and an honest attempt, no matter what age a child is, is better than never trying at all.
What should you teach babies--soon to be teenagers?  Teach them God...not just about God.  Take time to teach them about the wonders God has created all around us in nature.  Teach them about God's Word, the Bible.  That should lead into God's love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another.  Teach them the first commandment:   Mark 12:30  "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."  And the second Mark 12:31  "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
They need to learn respect--not just for their parents, but their grandparents, elders, and Godly leaders.
Deuteronomy 7:13  "And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb,"
 All children are a gift from God--so, teach them to love others and themselves according to God's way.  Teach them self-respect.  As they learn these things, teach and guide them to make right choices through their younger years.  If you teach them during the younger years to love, to value, to listen to your guidance, through your words and actions, the teen years will go much smoother.
The crumbling foundation of our social system which has been hacked almost to death by our government--past as well as present-- has continued to hasten the demise of our families and their structure. The empowering women mentality has not empowered women, but has encouraged an  increase of fatherless homes, and left women/mothers as single providers.  However, babies, children, and young adults/teens need their fathers returned to them.  Women need the father to be what
God meant a father to be.  They need the father to lead the family and be an example worthy of following. 
When the adults go through life walking rough-shod over everyone else and everything else, acting like selfish children, their children won't know how to live and make right choices either.  Adults-- men and women-- need to step up and make the right choices so they don't find themselves at the mid life or older realizing they have wasted their years, and trained up another generation that will do the same thing--waste their years as well. 
The pattern from ages past has been slowly erroded into generation after generation of ineffective parents and a dysfunctional society.  This pattern can be restored, changed back into a strong family unit.  Families of a strong husband, his wife, children, grandparents, all working together.  Children from birth to teenagers are all in a very emotional time of their lives.  In these times they need more than ever a steady home life, they need the assurance of a loving family.  They need the assurance that some things are right, and some things are wrong and the knowledge of what and why these things are what they are.

Hebrews 6:14  "Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee."
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Deaf, Dumb, and Blind...

There was a song, and if memory serves me at all, it was named 'The Pinball Wizard'.  It has been a long time since I have heard it, and memory is a poor staff for me to lean on, however...

 Have you ever felt like someone who is locked in their own world because they can not communicate?   On occasion most people have days that we feel like the Pinball Wizard--deaf, dumb, and blind. Living as it were in a world that goes on its way around us, and we're not able to move past a certain point. Like a bad dream, that doesn't end, it just goes on, and here we are--stuck.

The radio announcer Paul Harvey often used to tell a modern day parable called the parable of the birds  at the Christmas season.  The story goes that a man's wife and family went every year to a Christmas eve celebration at their church, but he decided he just couldn't go.  He couldn't believe the God becoming man story...  On Christmas eve after he bade them farewell a flock of birds flew against the side of his house during a snow storm.  He put on his warm clothing, turned the lights on in his warm barn, and attempted to shew them into the warmth and safety of the shelter, but to no avail.  After trying many different approaches he decided they were afraid of him, and if he could only become a bird in order to show them the way, to let them know he meant only good to them...
(the full story can be found under paul harvey parable of the birds).

2Timothy 4:16  "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge."



Paul before Nero--what a distressing situation to be in, and all forsook him.  This was not the the way he had envisioned his trip to Rome.  Yet as with Joseph in the Old Testament it looked to be a bad situation, but God used it for good. 
2Timothy 4:17  "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion."
As the Apostle had written some time before--"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2Corinthians 12:9  The Lord stood with him and strengthened him.  Apostle Paul had the blessing to draw nearer to Christ, the word of the Gospel was preached, and the Gentiles had the blessing to hear it. 
2Timothy 4:18  "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.  And at the last Paul was preserved unto the heavenly kingdom. 

Sometimes as we travel through the pea soup of life we become so wrapped up in the everyday living we fail to see the large panorama of events.  Communication is valuable to a point, but like the Pin Ball Wizard sometimes we have to close out those who would distract us from our focus, and watch those whom we allow to influence us. 

As with the parable of the birds, God is always wanting the best for us.  He doesn't want us to suffer needlessly.  Some things that happen are like the polishing cloth and an abrasive paste.  They make the finished product into something much more valuable.  It brings out the best in our character.
1Corinthians 3:13  "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

Like as the Apostle Paul was tried by difficult situations often in his life Christians are as well, and we must stay the course.  We must be faithful.

Revelation 2:10 "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Halelujah~ what a Savior!