Tag Archives: Bible

Home is Number 5

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cell phone

We were sitting around the dinner table when the subject of numbers came up. Addressing my husband I joyfully said, I know what number I am -number 2. To understand the very special meaning of that statement, please read one of my most popular blogs, “Second Place Love.”

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “You are even number 2 on my speed dial.”

That surprised me. “I thought home would be number 2 and my cell would be number 3,” I replied.

He pulled his phone from its case and turned the keypad toward me. The number 5 is in the center of my phone, he explained, so home is number 5 because everything revolves around home.

I already knew that my husband’s life revolved around his family, but to hear this little tidbit just blessed my socks off because I love the imagery of it.

Dear reader, no matter how strong our prayer lives are, there will always be those times when we need to ‘speed dial’ the LORD. After all, urgent matters can arise very quickly. When they do, (and even when they don’t) it is good to know that our Heavenly Father is already right in the center of our lives, where He belongs.

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2

Second Place Love

They Surrendered All

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When is the last time you sang the beautiful hymn I surrender all?

handcuff

…I surrender all — I surrender all — all to thee my blessed savior, I surrender all!…

Did you wholeheartedly mean it? Did you pause to ask yourself, ‘What am I willing to surrender for Jesus?
And equally important, what am I not willing to surrender?’

John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman answered these questions with their lives. They were not martyred but choose instead to sell themselves into slavery for the remainder of their lives. Leaving their comfortable homes, their families and their freedom, the two departed Copenhagen in 1732 for good.

These two men spent the remainder of their lives as slaves in the West Indies where they became missionaries amongst their fellow slaves. Why they did so was proclaimed in their final words to their sobbing families as the ship departed: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!”

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12,13

These men sacrificed their very lives in service to their King. I must ask myself, would I be willing to do the same? Would you?

Old Paths

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path

The young man at the thrift store was quite serious when he said, “Oh my, you don’t see many of these anymore.” I had to chuckle. It’s not like I was purchasing an eight track player; it was a telephone, and it wasn’t even a rotary.

I don’t know about you, but technology is moving way too fast for my comfort – or my comprehension. Of course, I do enjoy my laptop, but this is honestly the most technologically advanced piece of equipment I own, and seeing that today’s electronics age even faster than doggie-years, it is pretty much a relic already. As far as cell phones go, I did finally move up to a $20 flip phone for my $15 a month pre-paid plan, but that was only after I dropped my last one on the floor and gave it a concussion. My children actually laughed at that one because it had an antenna –no, I am not kidding.

What can I say? I would rather be a Flintstone than a Jetson.¹

When it comes to my faith, I feel the same way. Clearly the church, as a whole, has elected to trade in their “antiquated” methods of reaching the lost for the flashier, “technologically correct” gizmos and gadgets, but as for me, I’m sticking with the prophet Jeremiah on this one:

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16).

I happen to believe the “old paths” are the best ones, and hold to the old adage, “if it aint broke, don’t fix it.” Besides, I get plenty worn-out trying to figure-out all this new stuff, so I relish the chance to find rest anywhere I can! Speaking of which, it is time for me to go read some Scripture on my iPad. Nah, I’m just kidding; I’m going to go read my Bible from an actual book, like they did in the good-old-days.

Blessings.

¹For those of you who live outside the United States, and have never seen the Flintstones or Jetsons; these were both television cartoons from the 1960’s. The former represented a family living in the primitive Stone Age, and the latter represented a family living in the futuristic Space Age.

pencil lady

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Too Heavenly Minded?

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stairway

Through the years I have heard a few preachers say that we can be “too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” Modern translation: Radicals need not apply. When I read my bible, however, I find numerous accounts of “radical” servants of the Most High who turned their worlds upside down with their passion for God and His kingdom.

The first sermons of Jesus recorded in scripture were about the kingdom of Heaven. In fact, everything He taught, every miracle He performed, every body He healed, even His death on the cross, were all about the kingdom of Heaven. Who amongst us would ever think Him to be so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good? And we are supposed to be imitators of Jesus Christ aren’t we?

No, I don’t think it possible to be too heavenly minded. In regard to God’s instructions, scripture commands that you impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:7)
In other words, all the time!

Furthermore, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalms 1:2)

Why is he blessed? When a man meditates on God’s word, he acts on God’s word. It is the heavenly minded who does this world the most good –that which lasts for eternity. The more “radical” believers are, the more likely they are to turn this world upside down for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.

So then, can a believer be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good? Again, I don’t think so. I doubt that is what we should be asking anyway. Perhaps we should be asking the opposite:

Can a person be too earthly minded to be of any heavenly good?

–just a little food for thought.