Grandma was right about much more ...

Grandma wanted me to be right too ...right with God.

How is that done?  By what I do??

Was reading from John, Chapter 15, about abiding in Him ...that His joy shall remain in us.

I know there are certain cultures, at least depicted in movies & on TV, where a person is indebted to you for life ...if you save their life. They view it as a form of gratitude and obligation.

The joy of being saved from eternal damnation, as a result of the death of Jesus on the cross is no small thing. Ray Comfort describes putting on a parachute in his example of putting on Christ ...as to say, "taking up the cross daily", as Luke puts it. Ray describes a man boarding a plane ...being asked to put on a parachute to "improve his flight". But, the parachute is heavy & cumbersome, especially in the cramped area, not even being able to sit comfortably. People begin to laugh at the man with a parachute on. (I've only flown a few times, but never did I wear a parachute ...and I would have probably laughed too ...though to myself.) Not only is the man's flight not improved, it begins as the worst one he has ever been on ...and he throws off the parachute. He does not feel the joy he felt he was told he'd have.

But, suddenly, something happens!!

They are flying over a mountain, and something dreadful is going wrong. They no longer have any fuel.

The plane is not going to be able to land safely ...and suddenly, everyone wants to scramble for the parachute he had thrown off. The only chance of survival is to have that parachute, and take the leap of faith.

We look at Matthew, Chapter 25, where there were those who were also out of fuel. And though we can get the message Jesus is telling us with the "likened" aspect of the story, we do not have to go to buy for ourselves. It's not about us, it's what He's done for us. Jesus has already purchased it for us ...all we have to do is accept it, and not throw off the parachute we are given which will guarantee us a safe landing.

Grandma always felt it was important to have a positive attitude. When we approach anything, our attitude can affect how we perceive it ...and that goes for reading the Bible also. If we look through a lens of disbelief, we will look to what we feel are contradictions.

Picture this ...a young son, doing some schoolwork, reading his Beka Book.  Schoolwork does not bring much motivation for the majority of students ...and naturally, perhaps the future value of it is not fully understood or realized. So, it's hard to be optimistic ...but, Beka drew a little humor to a pessimistic view: "A pessimist is one who feels badly when he feels somewhat okay, for fear he will feel worse if he ever feels generally good."

Yes, our attitudes and perspectives on various facets of our lives does matter greatly towards how we proceed through this life. 

So, in that way, does it matter what we do?

Of course it matters what we do ...we are supposed to try to do right.  But, if we do wrong ...there are those wrongs that are helpful and those that are thoroughly destructive. 

Thomas Edison was an inventor, and the trial and error of doing things wrong brought him closer to eliminating those options and getting closer to what was right. 

But, there are wrongs that we know are wrong ...which we do anyway, and those choices do harm to not only us, but also to others. Yet, it does not forfeit the deal. God is always waiting for us to return to Him. He wants us to learn, eliminating those wrong options.

It's difficult to get the sin out of us, but we can work at it ...by asking Him to work within us, or work it (the sin) out of us.


You can take me out of the country, but you can't take the country out of me.  How does that old song Glenn Campbell used to sing go, "Country boy ....you got your feet in L.A., but your mind's in Tennessee; lookin' back ..."??

Okay, looking back ....it could be Lot's wife.  Or it could be the mumbling people in the desert with Moses. 

With the latter fact, they had witnessed and experienced miracles to the extent that any person living today could likely not fathom ...yet, they began to reflect back to what they had during the good years, as they perhaps saw them.  The vision of where they were going was not an enduring vision.  They needed guidelines to help get the Egypt out of them.

I don't want the country out of me ...they are good memories.  I wasn't there, but can't imagine things were so great in Egypt after the Pharaoh whom favored Joseph died.  The guidelines they needed, which we all still need, were the Ten Commandments.  And they were rewritten a second time ...because they weren't received too well the first time.  Or more accurately, they didn't even seem to be presented ...as it seemed Moses felt his role was one still guided by his emotions. Emotions caused difficulty in his youth, and emotions seemed to keep him from being able to enter the Promise(d) Land.  Yet, he was not denied the eternal promise ...as Jesus would allow Moses to be seen, along with Elijah, in a mountain, by three of the disciples: Peter, James, and John.

But, what I want to focus on now, is not just the witnessing and experiencing of miracles as a basis of belief ...but, also the necessity of something else as effectually influencing our growth.  Mind you, it does not affect our salvation ...but, go back to the horse.  If the horse is drowning, it is time for action ...while a couple things can be reserved for conversation the next day: Either the horse was saved, or it was not.

Yet, if the horse is alive the following day ...the question may become one of asking about the quality of the horse's life.  Our salvation is different. We are led to the Living Water ...and we are saved because of His sacrifice for us ...yes, clearly it is Jesus.

And we should also realize that we are much like those that were in the desert with Moses.  They were mumbling.  They had greatly seen what God had done ...and they were, in truth, saved from their previous condition.  But, they also had to allow a change within themselves ...that was so much a part of them.

The people with Moses experienced something that was much like what they were doing themselves. Their complainings and biting comments were not that much unlike the quick strike of a serpent or snake. And they got bit by snakes.  To live, they had to realize that something else had to die.  

It was depicted by a brass figure on a stick ...and for them to truly live, they had to look upon that brass snake.  It was by obedience ...which they were much lacking. And the brass figure was much a result of their brash comments. But, it also seemed to be sort of a symbol. A squirming snake does not balance itself on a stick ...the only way one will get on a stick, is if it is dead.