A Good Sermon

Today we listened to THIS sermon and I thought it was so good. If you've got 45 minutes to spare and would like to, take a listen.

A Wonderful Summer Day

Two Different Jesus’s

It seems that in religion today, as long as you believe in Jesus, well everything is just fine and we can all get along and worship together, no problem. I just have one question about that. Which Jesus?

There’s the Jesus who loves everybody & died for everybody (even though not everybody will be saved). The one who desperately hopes all will accept him and be saved. The one who failed to accomplish what he really wanted to accomplish.

Then there’s the Lord Jesus who loves his people and died to save them (and everyone of them WILL be saved). His death was completely effectual. In fact, his death is the only reason they will be saved. He is the victorious king!

These really are two different Jesus’s, I believe. In the first one, what makes the difference in a person’s salvation is the person themselves, their decision to accept him, their work. In the second, what makes the difference is the Lord Jesus alone.

I do not believe God will accept a salvation in which a person makes the difference. Just as he would not accept Cain's sacrifice because it involved a work of his own. --But God most definitely WILL accept a salvation in which Christ makes the difference. Just as he accepted Abel's sacrifice because it was a blood sacrifice and picture of Christ. Christ will always get all the glory in the salvation of his people. Always.

Which Jesus do you believe in?

My Friday

It has been so windy here lately, but this morning for a few hours it was pretty calm. Yea! So I got out my bicycle and went for a ride. I only went five miles though. For some reason lately, I just don't feel like riding my bicycle. I get on it and go a few blocks and am ready to come back home. I don't want to get too far from home because I'm afraid I will get tired and then I can't stop until I get all the way back, so if I stay close, I can quit just about any time I want. --And it seems I WANT very shortly after starting. I don't know what's up with that.

Anyway, Corbin & his cousin, Max came over for a few hours this morning after my short ride.

They played outside with Lilly and took turns on the swing.









Mason worked from 6:30 until 1:30, then went and got a haircut, and has been on the computer all afternoon.

Doesn't his haircut look nice?? I think so.





*

How Very Strange

Something very odd (to me) happened last week. My mother died. You might say, “Odd, how? People die all the time.” And yes, I know they do, but I’ve never had my mother die before. I stood by her bed with my siblings and watched her take her last breath. It felt so odd to be doing such. It happened exactly as the nurses said it would, those last couple of hours. Her breath got shallower and shallower until it finally just stopped. Several times she would stop breathing completely for a few seconds, then start again. Each time I would think, “….this is it. She is gone.” But then, she would start up again. A couple of times she made a loud gasping noise. But her breaths just got shorter and shorter and shorter. When they couldn’t get any shorter, they stopped. The nurse listened to her heart and said, “Her heart has stopped now. She is gone.” How very strange it all felt.

I kept talking to her as she was dying because people say the hearing is the last thing to go, and that she could hear me. I really don’t know if I believe that. In fact, I think I lean towards not believing it, or that if she could hear me, she probably couldn't make sense of what I are saying. My mother was on lots of pain medication and was talking out of her head some before she went unconscious, for one thing, and I guess I think that with all that was going on in her body, she probably couldn’t process very clear thoughts at that time anyway. But, I don’t know. I could be wrong. She may have known exactly what was going on around her. I just don’t think so, ....but that’s just my opinion.

I dreamed the other night that my mother was alive again, and was in the same miserable state she was in before she died. “Oh no,” I thought, “I don’t want this. I would rather her be gone and out of her misery." --I’m glad she is pain free now.

But I will miss her. Heck, I've only known her for 52 years! And she was a lovely, sweet lady. She loved me very much, I know she did. And I loved her too.

When I was in Tyler last week, Dorothy my stepmom gave me some bulbs to plant. They were Daffodils, Red Oxblood Lillies, & Red Spider Lillies. Today I got out and planted them in the back yard out my bedroom window. You can't see them all because some are just bulbs. ---Hopefully they will all come up.

Thanks Dorothy!


*

Working Hard

Here's what I've got Bo out doing today:












And here's a front yard shot where he's finished already. Remember the trees we bought not too long ago. They're putting on leaves and doing good!











*

Move On Down

I need to do a blog post to get that annoying picture to move on down, but I don't have much to blog about really. My forehead IS healing nicely and my black eyes are about gone, thank goodness.

Here's a funny picture of Lilly taking a nap out in the sun in the backyard.










And here's a cute one of Corbin & his friends. We took them to Palo Duro Canyon again for hike a couple of weeks ago.











*

Aaaaccccckkkkk! Who Is That Woman???

*

God's Justice

This morning I was driving along listening to a sermon on the radio from a local Baptist Church here in town, a BIG Baptist Church here in town. The preacher was talking about the parable of the workers in the vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16. In presenting the story about paying all the workers the same wage, the ones that worked all day, and the ones who came in the eleventh hour, the preacher had this to say, 'The Lord is not just. He showed grace to all the workers, but he is not just.' He repeated a couple of times that God is NOT just.

Huh?? The Lord is not just? I must say, I just cringed as I listened to the man say this, because I believe the Lord is completely just. Completely. In fact, I rest in that justice, that he will always do what is right.

God sent his son, the Lord Jesus to this earth to die for the sins of his people because he IS just and and his justice demands that sin be paid for. And once the sins are paid for, God's justice demands that he accept the people that Christ died for because they no longer have any sin. They are as perfect as Christ, because God sees us 'in Christ.' He is our substitute. And because of God's justice, he can never change his mind or loose even one of those Christ died for because there is no reason to punish us. What a wonderful blessing and a comfort to know.

Because of God's justice, those Christ died for can rest easy. If God wasn't just, we would have much to worry about. I believe and rest in God's justice.

Here I am, and no, I didn't join a motorcycle gang or anything. A week or so ago when Whitney was moving, she gave Mason this little exercise wheel dealie.






.....And today I thought I would give it a try. Haha. Big Mistake. BIG mistake. I got down on my knees and gave it a push. Whoops! It took off so fast... my forehead hit the hardwood floor HARD. I was stunned for a few seconds, then felt something warm running down my face. Blood. Oh my gosh. I stumbled into the other room and looked in the mirror. I had a 2.5 inch gash on my forehead, it wouldn't stop bleeding, and my neck was really hurting too. What to do, what to do. I was at home alone. Bo was in Gruver, Mason at work. ......OK. I knew I needed stitches because it was a nasty looking gash. I got a wet rag and held it on the cut and drove myself to the Urgent Care center. Mason called in the mean time, and met me there, and Bo left the feedyard and started heading this way.

Yes, you definately need stitches, the Dr said.

Ugh, what about the scar, I asked.

Well, we could try using glue instead of stitches. Hopefully that won't leave as bad of a scar, but you will have a scar.

Great.

So he glued me up, bandaged me up, told me to watch for signs of a concussion, said I would have a sore neck for several days, and sent me home.

Didn't I just run my face into the garage door back in January??? Boy, oh boy. Seems I'm on a mission to destroy my face or something. Hopefully this is the end of that mission.

I got two monitors on my computer at work. Yea! I'm so excited.





*

A Sad Tale

Today I picked Corbin up from school and I noticed he had a new haircut. It was really short and looked so cute.

"Hey, I like your haircut," I said.

"I might as well tell you right now Grana..... I got in trouble today and had to go to the office," Corbin said, with a big tear in his eye.

"Uh, oh. What happened?"

"We were in the library taking an AR test and my friends and I started whispering to each other, asking and telling the answers. The librarian heard us and sent us all to the office, and we each got a swat by the principal, and it hurt. Then they called Daddy and told him, and he said I would get in more trouble when I get home. I'm just so scared because Daddy told me not too long ago that the next time I get a spanking, he will use a belt. I've never had a spanking with a belt before, only by his hand."

Talk about a heartbreaking tale! I wanted to scoop him up, hug him, and tell him it's OK, I'll tell Daddy not to spank you. Of course, I would never do that and even think he needs to be punished in order to teach him never to do such again, but you know, he's my baby. LOL. We talked the rest of the way home all about how cheating is wrong, and whatever punishment Daddy and Mommy choose is warranted, and I hope he learns a good lesson, etc., etc.

When Jenny came to pick him up, he really started to cry and told her the whole story again. She had already talked to Cody, and told Corbin that Daddy would give him a punishment when he gets home.

Sniff, sniff.

I don't know what happened after that, but hopefully it wasn't too bad. And hopefully Corbin will not cheat on a test again anytime soon. Bless his sweet heart.

"The Price of Discipline is Always Less Than the Pain of Regret." ~~Nido Qubein

I found this quote today and I really like it. I don't know who Nido Qubein is, but I think that's a great quote!

We Have New Trees!

When we were in Tyler last weekend, we bought two trees at the Texas Tree Blowout in Canton. Woo Hoo!

Bo planted them this week. One is a Chinese Pistachio and the other is a Purple Leaf Plum. Don't they look nice?? (You may have to use your imagination, since one doesn't even have any leaves on it yet.)

Regrets, Responsibility & God's Sovereignty

Something I have been thinking about today is regrets. Do you have any? I do, but I also believe that all things are predestined to be just as they are, so then how do I reconcile the two, regrets and predestination? Why would I regret something if it happened just as God predestined it to happen? And I know that God always knows best.

The Apostle Paul went about killing christians before his eyes were opened to see the Lord Jesus. Surely he had regrets about that and the people he influenced. You could say maybe he reconciled his regrets by knowing that the christians just went home to be with the Lord (and they did, I believe), but what of the left behind family members? What about children that lost parents because of Paul's destruction and then grew up and never came to know Christ because they didn't have that parent around to instruct them. Maybe I'm reaching a little bit here, but that sounds like a reasonable regret for Paul to have to me, .....even though it was the Lord's will.

This is somewhat like the correlation of reconciling God's sovereignty with our responsibility. We are responsible, yet God is sovereign over all things. This has always puzzled me a bit, even though I believe both are true. It can seem to make sense that if we are responsible, we then must be free. Vincent Cheung, a man that I like to read sometimes, says we are responsible because God is sovereign, NOT because we are free.

This is an interesting quote from Vincent Cheung in his article 'The Author of Sin':

Moral responsibility (or accountability) has to do with whether God has decided to judge us; it has no direct relationship with whether we are free. In fact, if we were free from God but not judged by God, then we would still not be morally responsible (or accountable). In other words, moral responsibility does not presuppose human freedom, but it presupposes divine sovereignty. We are responsible not because we are free, but we are responsible precisely because we are not free.

I have to read that a few times to rap my brain around it, but it helps me to understand. We are responsible because God says we are, like it or not. God can do whatever he wants to do. He is the creator and we are his creatures.

Romans 9:17-21 says:
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Oh, may he be pleased to have mercy on me.

Three Boys & A Dog

Today Corbin & his friends, Lam & Quan came over for the afternoon. I just had the best time having them here. It was a gorgeous day and we stayed out in the backyard the whole time.

It got to be about 7:00 pm and I said, Well, I guess I better take you boys home.' One of the twins said, 'Oh do we have to? It's just so comfortable here.' LOL. So cute.

Lilly is worn out tonight. They kept her hopping. (literally).

Grandkids are so fun.

My Morning Coffee Thoughts

My sister gave me this cup a couple of months ago. It says Granna on it because that's my 'Grandma name.' I drink my coffee from it most mornings and I like alot. I like it because it's easy to drink from and has a nice handle to hold on to, but mostly I like it because while I'm drinking from it, I always think about two people that mean so much to me: Mary Ellen, who gave it to me, and Corbin, my grandson.

Mary Ellen is such a kind and thoughtful sister. She is a good friend and she makes me feel loved and cared about. I appreciate that so much, and Corbin, well, he's my most favorite grandson in the whole world!

Just thought I'd share that this morning, as I sit here drinking my coffee from my special cup. Have a great day!

Clarification

OK, you know in my last post when I said: I went to the gym and walked 3 miles on the treadmill at 6.6 miles an hour and worked out some on the other equipment, and as I was leaving, I noticed that I didn't feel tired at all and kept wondering if the treadmill pedometer was right.

Well, I've been to the gym twice since then and I now know that the treadmill pedometer WASN'T right. I didn't walk 3 miles at 6.6 miles per hour. For one thing, I wouldn't be able to WALK 6.6 miles an hour. The treadmill would be going too fast to WALK. I would have to RUN at that speed. LOL. I probably walked like 2 miles at 4.5 miles an hour that day.

I knew that was just too easy, too good to be true. But...... what I said after that is still true. I was and am still feeling very good, lots of energy and in a very good, optimistic mood, and I'm loving that.

I have been dieting since Tuesday, eating around 1,000 calories a day. I know what most will say, .....why are YOU dieting?? I am pretty thin, but I have gained 5 lbs since Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I think if I don't do something about it now, it will slowly begin to creep up again, then before you know it, I'll have 20 lbs to loose. I lost 20 lbs about 5 years ago and have worked hard to keep it off. It really does take a life change to loose weight and KEEP IT OFF. You can't just diet, loose the weight, then go right back to eating the same old way, I have found out, .....much to my chagrin because I LOVE to eat, and my downfall is chocolate and sweets. I love, love, love sweets.

Anyway, I was reading that antioxidants are such good anti-aging foods, so I have been trying to eat alot of them this week (since I AM beginning to get up there in years). I've been eating lots of sweet potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes & blueberries, and avocados. Plus I have not had a Diet Dr Pepper since Monday, and I've been drinking lots of water. Today I noticed that I had alot of energy and really felt good. I can't remember a time that I have actually noticed feeling much better while eating certain things, but I have to say that today I did notice that. I went to the gym and walked 3 miles on the treadmill at 6.6 miles an hour and worked out some on the other equipment, and as I was leaving, I noticed that I didn't feel tired at all and kept wondering if the treadmill pedometer was right.

I just wonder, could it be the foods high in antioxidants causing me to feel so good today? (I really didn't feel bad to begin with). Or is it giving up the Diet Dr Pepper's, or drinking alot of water? (I can't say that is a permanent thing. I like my Diet Dr. Peppers). Or is it just in my head?? I don't know, but hopefully I can continue with my good diet and keep feeling this good!

It ain't easy to eat 1,000 calories a day. Ugh. I'm hungry alot, but I keep telling myself that when I do eat normally again, I get to almost double that. Yea!