Who Am I

grandboy

A Riddle for the day:

"The Lord created me first of all, the first of His works, long ago.

I was made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began.

I was born before the oceans, when there were no springs of water.

I was born before the mountains, before the hills were set in place, before God made the earth and its fields or even the first handful of soil.

I was there when He set the sky in place, when He stretched the horizon across the ocean, when He placed the clouds in the sky, when He opened the spring of the ocean and ordered the waters of the sea to rise no further than He said.

I was there when He laid the earth's foundations.

I was beside Him like an architect, I was His daily source of joy, always happy in His presence."

Who am I?

(Answer found in Proverbs 8:22-30)

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Sugar

my favorite son-in-law, Stephen



"How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103)

As a youngster, Daddy's pet name for me was "Sugar." One day I told him, "I'm gonna be a lawyer like you when I grow up and the name of our practice can be Watson, Watson, and Sugar."

And now that "Sugar" is a memaw, my worst enemy is... You guessed it! Sugar.

Want a better 2019, beloved? Consume less processed sugar and feed on the sweet Word of God. It's the healthy thing to do!

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In the Goal

grandboy



"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus!" (Philippians 3:14)

He shoots and ....

He's in the goal!

Our greatest goal for 2019 should be pressing on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Are you in the goal, beloved?

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Happy Birthday, Jesus!

grandboys



"Sing a new song to the LORD!
Sing to the LORD, all the world!
Sing to the LORD, and praise Him!
Proclaim every day the Good News
That [Jesus] has saved us.
Proclaim His glory to the nations,
His mighty deeds to all peoples.
The LORD is great and is to be highly praised!"
(Psalm 96:1-4)


Happy birthday, Jesus!
Merry Christmas, one and all!

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Christmas Eve Gift

Granddaddy, brother Mark, and me
Christmas 1958

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter." (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

My phone dinged at 5:30 this morning - a text from our youngest saying: "Christmas Eve Gift!"

I thought my granddaddy started the tradition, but actually the Christmas-Eve-Gift exclamation can be traced back to the 1800s in the southern United States. The person being told "Christmas Eve Gift!" is expected to give the person saying it a small gift - traditionally candy or nuts.

Whatever your traditions, beloved, may the Lord bless you and yours with a very merry Christmas. 

Christmas Eve Gift!!! J

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Back to the Manger

Piper's shenanigans

"They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the Baby, lying in the manger." (Luke 2:16)

Every Christmas season at our daughter's house, Piper, a little, brown sheep, wanders from the flock and gets into mischief while the children are nestled, all snug in their beds. One night this year, she rode the "shoe-shoe" train, but Christmas morning, Piper always finds her way to back to the manger.

Beloved, will you find your way to the manger this Christmas? Jesus truly is the reason for the season!

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Numbered Days

My 40th birthday,
April, 1996



"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)

See that cute seventeen-year-old in the middle of this picture snapped on my 40th birthday? Well, today is his 40th birthday! My, my. Time does flies like a Peregrine Falcon. Happy birthday, Rhett!!

The 90th Psalm of the Old Testament is a prayer of Moses acknowledging the eternity of God and frailty of man. Moses prayed:

Lord, You have been our dwelling place

in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever You had formed the earth and the world.

Even from everlasting to everlasting,

You are God...

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,

and like a watch in the night...

The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away...

So teach us to number our days,

That we may gain a heart of wisdom...

Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us;

And establish the work of our hands; 

Yes, establish the work of our hands.

"Everyone needs to take inventory regarding how they are spending their days. A day is like a dollar: it can be spent wisely or foolishly, but once it is spent, it cannot be spent again."  ~ Dr. David Jeremiah

So, beloved, how are you spending today?

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The Subject of Love

Grandboy and Pompa from Honduras

"Love is patient and kind." (1 Corinthians 13:4)

It's only to be expected. When studying for a Bible study, God gives opportunities to "practice what I'll preach." Currently, I'm studying the biblical meaning of love. 

When our Ben was a first grader, he came home with his report card and proudly announced, "Mama, I got an 'A' in everything but acting." 

"What's 'acting?'" I asked.

He replied, "It's the way you act." 

First Corinthians 13:4-13 clearly defines love not as a feeling but as behavior - the way we act:

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance... Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."

Beloved, what grade are you earning in the subject of love these days?

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Exercise

Grandboy's cross-country race
(boy in black and gold)

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Romans 12:1)

This older this ol' gal gets, the more effort it takes to keep my motor chuggin' along with just the right balance in diet, exercise, and sleep. However, although physical exercise is valuable, spiritual exercise in godliness holds value for this present life and the eternal life to come (1 Timothy 4:8).

Spiritual exercise includes: 

• daily confessing my sins to God and receiving His forgiveness and cleansing,
• daily feeding on a rich diet of God's Word and truth, and
• daily offering myself to Jesus for His service - my hands, my feet, my words, my mind, my eyes, my ears, my time, my treasures, my abilities, my all.

Beloved, looking for a good New Year's resolution? Try putting spiritual exercise at the top of the list for 2019. 

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Three Lessons from the Wise Men

"They entered the house and saw the Child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." (Matthew 2:11)


Yesterday, from the story of the wisemen in Matthew Chapter 2, Pastor Dino Rizzo of Church of the Highlands preached three simple yet profound lessons offered by the wise men:

1. HUMILITY - The wisemen bowed down.
2. A HEART OF WORSHIP - They worshiped the Christ Child.
3. GENEROSITY - They opened their treasures and gave.

Beloved, can you even imagine the profound difference in our world if we all simply walked as the wise men in humility, worship, and generosity? So, please, help us God!

Full message, "The Gift," available at:
 churchofthehighlands.com

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Harmony

grandgirl a few years ago




"How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in harmony!" (Psalm 133:1)

I LOVE this picture of the grandgirl a few years back. Just wish I could remember what she was saying and who she was "straightening out."

A good word for this Christmas season is HARMONY. I opened Larry Stockstill's daily devotion this morning and read: "Harmony is a choice to sacrifice one's personal agenda for the greater good of the 'team.'" Then I opened my Promise Book devotional and read: "Live in Harmony" followed by:

"Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud... Do not be conceited. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:16,18)

"May God, who gives patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other - each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other." (Romans 15:5)

"Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." (1 Peter 3:8-9)

"Minimize friction and create harmony. You can get friction for nothing, but harmony costs courage and self-control." ~ Elbert Hubbard

Beloved, may your family walk in harmony like a well-tuned orchestra. ~ Jill 

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Stranded

grandboy

"...Once far away from God... separated from Him by our evil thoughts and actions... He rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins." (Colossians 1:21,13-14)

Yesterday, the grandboys and I found ourselves stranded in make-believe woods - helpless with no hope of escape! So, we gathered firewood...

other grandboy

trapped rabbits and quail, and roasted them over a hot fire.

Made hickory-nut stew...

and brown-leaf salad,

and desperately longed for rescue. The End.

Hmmm... that reminds me.

Yesteryear, I found myself stranded in the fallen, real world, helpless with no hope of escape! So, I just did the best I could and desperately prayed for rescue. And God so loved me, that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, who rescued me out of darkness through His ultimate sacrifice - death on a cross - and brought me into His marvelous Kingdom of Light. And that's the end of my beginning. 

Beloved, are you stranded or rescued?

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Decorated Hard

grandboy

"Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion." (Romans 12:11)

Yesterday, when the three-year-old grandboy saw our

Christmas tree, his blue eyes grew wide and he exclaimed, "Oh, Memaw, you decorated hard!"

Beloved, whatever our hands find to do this Christmas season, let's work hard for the Lord and serve Jesus with heart-full devotion.

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White as Snow

photo by my Rebecca

"LORD, if You kept a record of our sins, who, O LORD, could ever survive?" (Psalm 130:3)

This morning, I awoke remembering an old, Fanny Crosby hymn that Mr. Williams, our church youth choir director in the 1970s, taught us:

Though your sins be as scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Thought your sins be as scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they be red like crimson,

They shall be as wool!

Though your sins be as scarlet

They shall be as white as snow,

They shall be as white as snow.

Stanzas two and three go on to say: Hear the voice that entreats you. Oh, return ye unto God. He is of great compassion, and of wondrous love. He'll forgive your transgressions, and remember them no more. "Look unto Me, ye people," saith the Lord your God. 

On this fourteenth day before the birthday of Jesus Christ, remember, beloved, "the LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love... For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as  the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins [by the blood of Jesus] as far from us as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:8,11-12)

O come let us adore Him!  

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I Believe the Story

Christmas Express
(grandgirl on stage, 3rd from right)
grandboy amongst the left-side choir)

"And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn." (Luke 2:6-7)

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is traveling to Indiana for the midwestern grands' annual children's choir musical. This year's production, Christmas Express, is the tale of a workaholic Christmas-skeptic who lands in the "JOY" car of a train headed to to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The fellow passengers "just happen" to be Christmas-zealous children.

When the "scrooge" asked the kids if they really believe the whole angel-shepherd-baby-Jesus story, they answer enthusiastically, "Yes! Every word!"

I believe the story. Every word. Don't you, beloved? And if we whole-heartedly believe that Jesus is the reason for the season, shouldn't that make a King-sized impact on the way we talk and walk and love and forgive and tell the story to others?

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Nomads

our "nomad tent"

"Friends, this world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cosy in it." (1 Peter 2:11)

After discovering that our big, ol' house needs some major repairs, I prayed, "Lord, help me not worry or fret. This house belongs to you and so does our bank account. Please order our steps and accomplish Your good purposes for Your glory," and then I read: 

"Those who trust in the LORD are like Mt. Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people." (Psalm 125:1-2)

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"Remember, you are no more than a nomad here on earth looking forward to your own country - a better place, a heavenly home - a heavenly city God has prepared for you." (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Beloved, take the nomad perspective and TRUST in Jesus, the Savior, Master, and Lord of heaven and earth.

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Snippy

us
Sanibel Island
Valentine's 2018



"Love is patient and kind." (1 Corinthians 13:4)

Shame on me, I got a little snippy with Superman this morning, and then opened my Promise Book devotional and read:

"A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire" (Proverbs 15:1) "Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13)

A "good wife" reminder from the Father, who knows best.

Tongue check, beloved. Is yours sharp or gentle?

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For the Love of God

super grandboys

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments..." (1 John 5:3) And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." (I John 4:21)



I kept two of my grandboys yesterday afternoon, and while they napped, I studied: "Lord, please teach me more about loving You."

"Study my beloved John," He whispered.

John was among the first four disciples Jesus called to follow Him and would be the last man standing of the twelve after Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. He penned five books of the New Testament including the in-your-face teachings of First John and mind-blowing prophecies of Revelation. And how did John love Christ well? 

• By loving the One who loved him first. (1 John 4:19)
• By abiding in the Savior, His Word, and His love. (John 15)
• By demonstrating His love for Jesus in loving others. (1 John 4:21)
• By sticking with Jesus through thick and thin - even exile to the prison island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and testimony of Jesus, the Christ. (Revelation 1:9)
• By eagerly awaiting the Lord's return. (Revelation 22:20)

This Christmas season, beloved, let's love Christ well by loving others well. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with His people. Amen.

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The Holy City

our mantle



"Pray for... Jerusalem." (Psalm 122:6)

Jesus came as a babe in a lowly manger to Bethlehem; He will one day return as King to Jerusalem, and God's glorious presence will bless His people and the holy city. 

I confess that a few Santa decorations sprinkle our home, but Christ is the heart of our CHRISTmas - the perfect season to pray, as God instructed, for Jerusalem:

"Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces." (Psalm 122:6-7)

Beloved, let us pray.

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