"SUNDAY'S COMIN'"

A well known famous sermon, by Tony Evans, is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He sermonizes then ends every thought with "it's Friday, but Sunday's comin'!"  I'm a movie buff and a visual learner so Christian movies speak very loud to me.  I was looking for one of my favorites of all, BEN HUR, not only the movie, but also the book.  I can still recall the moment, when I was in my finding "old" books mode, which I had to give up when I told everyone, myself included, no more gifts or purchases if it has to be dusted or kept.

I opened an old worn out copy of BEN HUR and noticed for the first time the title page states:  BEN HUR then down below, "A tale of the Christ."  What?  I was dumbfounded.  I could remember every phase of the story that transformed my life in one way or another, but that the whole book was about Christ.  Missed that fact completely!  The reason why I wanted to watch the movie again is because it was Good Friday and the crucifixion scene in that movie always moves me to tears and a serious consideration of just what Jesus has done for me and my sin.

It is still not available any place except to rent - that says volumes right there.  I try not to pay since so many movies are available to us for free.  Anyway another movie that also has moved me in reference to Christ and how important He is to me and I wish was to the whole world is RISEN.  I am always very moved by this movie, so I bought it.  Now I can watch it whenever I need a reminder of just how marvelous Jesus actually is. 

The lead actor, Joseph Fiennes, as the Roman Centurion, makes me feel and see everything he experiences.  When he sees the RISEN Christ in that movie, well if we could travel in time, that is one place and moment I want to be.  It is to believe that because He lives, not only will we also live but it is to know we will live with Christ for all eternity.

First we are to be amazed by the truth that our God is a living God who never dies.  We do not have to worship at a place He might have been buried or a temple that bears his image.  We just have to look into our hearts and souls and believe without a shadow of a doubt that He is with us through His Holy Spirit all the time. 

Second, we have to know that we have been saved through faith as the Word tells us in Acts 16:31 "And they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your house."  Also the Word tells us again in Romans 10:9 "...that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved."

Third, we are to know we repent of our sins and know they are forgiven and pray to stay repentant from that day forward.

Fourth, we need to be grateful for this truth and this life and live it out for others speaking the good news in anyway we can.

I can only wish you all are as blessed as I am to be in a church that truly worships in praises and celebration that the Lord is living and real and the only one to follow.

God bless hoping you have a kingdom filled day.

LIFE IS CHANGE - BOY IS IT!

I've decided that I am not defeating old age as much as it is wearing me down.  This ache or that pain and yet another specialist to see.  This is not only time consuming but taking money I do not have.  Still I face each day with a hope that never fails me.  Loving the way God says it in His precious Word: Lamentations 3:22-24"The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him."

I decided to just keep on going and handle each challenge, pain, illness or whatever as it comes.  I awake each morning with a determination and a prayer trusting the Lord is with me through it all.   I have great expectations and live very full, busy days.  I fall into bed exhausted at night pleased that I have done all that was expected of me.  I hate the hours going by too fast and running out of day long before I am finished with what I had wanted or was enjoying doing when the clock strikes 11PM or midnight.

I think being busy is a great deterrent to getting or feeling old.  Deciding to keep on doing our daily chores i.e. laundry, cooking, cleaning, changing sheets - ugh - to that, reading, writing, spending time with friends, going to Bible Study and church - I could go on and on - are all helps to thinking ourselves young in spite of emotions or feelings telling us something different.

Just reading what I'm writing is making me feel younger already.  It is definitely that old saying, "Mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." (Charles Lyell) Wishing you all a fresh new look on your life and a great week.

2nd BRIGHTEST FULLEST MOON

I get very excited about full moons.  Not quite sure but it is a time of wonder as one of the Creator's most awesome designs or scientific fact that it goes around and we turn and it does this or that at different times over the months or year.

2019 is going to have three - three - extra bright moons in it.  I didn't know the one in January was actually brighter than usual.  But now I know about this month so I have set two alarms to remind me to go outside and watch it on Tuesday night (19th).   It is called a Super Snow moon - even that makes it sound so exotic - doesn't it?

My granddaughter is in Panama country studying in the rain forest and her pictures of ants and bees are not at all like the ones we see here in the US.  She sent a video of leaves moving along the ground in a bunch and there were ants underneath transporting them to a particular place where they need to be.  How people cannot believe in a Creator above us all who can think of such things as ants not only working together in a group but knowing exactly what to do and where to go.

She is studying a particular bee for her paper.  It is a 3-inch gorgeous iridescent green color.  A color that only a Master Designer could ever create.

I am rejoicing in my life these days because I am feeling better each day and believing, no matter what, my good feelings are going to continue and defeat any bad or physical problems that may happen.

I continue to wish a money tree would grow in my yard to take care of the constantly frustrating need for it, but I dare not worry since the Dear Lord admonishes us to look at sparrows and lilies and see how well He has taken care of them.  Surely He loves us even more than those, so I trust in His loving kindness knowing full well He will provide.

I don't "need" money to bask in the beauty of the 2nd brightest moon this year or in an insect whose color outshines - literally - any color on any painter's palette.

No, there is just way too much to be grateful for and to enjoy in this whole wide world so that is the choice I make.

"God's in His heaven; all's right with the world." Robert Browning

What is Defeating Whom?

I call my blog "Defeating old age" because I thought I might when I began this blog.  But time changes all things including that. At the moment I definitely feel that old age is defeating me.  I want to stay positive and strong and healthy.  I want to defeat a winter cold in less than 4 or 5 weeks which it will soon be.

I fear old age is out ahead right now - can't smell or taste, nose still running, cough still wheezing.  But one way to get back in the running is to very simply never give up, never lose hope and never stop believing that "this too will pass."

Another way is to remember all I have to do is just get up if the Dear Lord wakes me each morning and grants me another day.  The next thing I must do is get out of bed, make it, and start in on the day's chores and expectations and be ready for all the wonderful surprises the Good Lord brings my way.

There are days when He doesn't bring me anything new or wonderful, just the same old routine.  But even in that if I sit down and consider all that my life holds, I can weep.  I have so much to be grateful for in the most boring day of all.  It will still be in a home with my daughter who loves and honors me so.  It will still be a place that keeps me warm if I'm cold, cool if I'm hot and a refrigerator and cabinets filled with food if I'm hungry.  I will still have things to write, emails to answer, books to read, a favorite TV show to watch or a card to make, painting to paint, jigsaw puzzle to finish or start. I could go on and on really.  Life is just so full and rich no matter what.

When I saw the movie, "Slumdog Millionnaire", it struck me how people live the life they are given.  It certainly wasn't their choice to be born in the slums of India but the two brothers in the movie lived that life and survived, well at least one did.  It made me consider if we believe in an Almighty God who is the Creator of all living things, as I do, well it all fits into His glorious plans.

We will never understand why an Incomprehensible God actually makes the choices He makes in our lives, maybe one day we will.  In the meantime, I always thank the Dear Lord for where in the world and time and family He chose to let me born.

The life we have is the one uniquely designed for us and part of it, sad to say, is aging and now that it has happened to me in more ways than I could have anticipated, I must deal.  Defeating old age is going to be a constant decision to never give in or out and do whatever it takes.  So that is exactly what I am going to do.

ANOTHER YEAR GONE

Well we begin a new year 2019 and even though my 76th is no different yet - my hope in it all is that it will be.  I am convicted NOT to beg merciful Jehovah Rapha to come and heal it all - even though I do, of course - but rather pray over and over again each day, "Dear Lord, grant me grace sufficient to accept and surrender totally to it all.  And to rejoice in each new day."

Pain is my krypton and I'm a real wimp about it which means whatever aches I may be bemoaning, they are very little compared to the real harsh pain others live with all the time.

Joni Earickson Tada has a BEYOND SUFFERING BIBLE that the Lord led me to buy when it first came out.  It definitely can put me  in my place when I need it.  It is also most encouraging and informative about why there is suffering in this world.

I do know this and believe fervently that each day the Lord wakes me up is the day I must do all I can to please Him and to serve Him.  In my life this will mean being there for my loved family and friends and doing whatever I can to encourage and comfort and enjoy any time spent for and with them.

I pray that 2019 is a wonderful year for us all and that we have many surprises and adventures in store.

What's Defeating Whom?

I call this blog, "Defeating Old Age" thinking that I will write about the wonderful and many ways I am doing just that.  And for a moment in time, I thought I was doing just that.  Then my 75th year arrived with its aches, pains,  total exhaustion, bursitis or so they diagnosed and an overall feeling of "what's the use" of any of it?

I'd like to write that it all worked out and by the end of the year it was back to my feeling great, strong and spry.  Not at all-just the opposite.  My new 76th year has begun even worse than the last.  Obviously it can't be "bursitis" is I still have the same aches over a year later in spite of shots or meds and the fact that now my right leg is just as bad as the left.  In addition, I now have to deal with a c-pak with oxygen, swollen left ankle and my blood pressure rising for no apparent reason.  I've taken the same med to keep it regular for over 30 years, so it is a mystery as to why it now is high and getting higher all the time.

Apart from not knowing any good reasons for any of it yet,  I seem to be beginning a year as  defeating as the last. UGH, double UGH!

Now, I must agree with my Dear Lord and His precious Word that we are to rejoice and be grateful in all things and even though I determine to do so. He knows as I do too, I'm not.  I pray the words wanting to believe I am obediently meaning them, but He can see my heart, my mind and real feelings about it all.  I am miserable and hate every minute of every painful step I take.

So I spend the rest of the day begging His forgiveness knowing that I have it even before I ask.  And just as every morning of last year, so it goes this year, as long as He chooses to wake me each day, then I will get up, dress and do whatever is on my schedule to do and accomplish.

I determine - at least - if I cannot be truly grateful or rejoicing that I must not complain, whine or fret about any of it to anyone.  I've only shared it here to state that for this moment in time I am NOT "defeating old age."  But, again, as long as the Dear Lord wants to give me another day in time then I am determined and pray believing if not for His merciful healing of it all inside and out, then for His strength sufficient and grace abundant to make me triumphant in it all.

One More Tick of the Clock

I was considering that my grandchildren really have no idea of what "clicking" clocks are, except perhaps as historic memorabilia.  They have no idea of "ringing in the New Year" with Guy Lombardo nor do they have any attraction or recognition of that type of music.  I was listening to Frank Sinatra one day and my granddaughter's remark was "Grandma, what are you listening to, he can't even sing!" 

As life keeps on going we see some changes that are better than before - I actually like digital clocks rather than annoying ticking keeping  me awake.  I like the idea of solar energy rather than the mess of cords that are all around my bed especially with the addition of all the C-pak paraphenalia. The list is long, but my real concern for this blog is about old age aches and pains.

My 75th year was such a physical disaster that I could not wait for it to end and I would throw it out with the trash and never look back.  I hoped and planned on Tuesday, August 14th to awake to a brand new feeling of energy and happiness to be alive and ready for anything.

Alas it is not so.  My 76th year has begun and offered me so far a new set of concerns.  Not only do I have to try to adjust to a C-Pak - they say you do - but I won't believe it until it actually happens.  Now it is very hard to sleep, it hurts, not breathing through my mouth is almost an all night stay awake forcing my lips to stay shut impossibility, the tubing is falling in my face - it goes on and on.  But I also have my left leg joint pain in my right leg too now and it seems to be much worse as the night goes on and it burns down into the feet.  It also hurts to walk or bend down to lift things.

To top that all off for some reason after 30 years of normal blood pressure readings on the same dose med, my blood pressure is very high and getting higher every day.  We are trying a new med to see if it helps.

So, of course, I have been bemoaning all this to the Lord trying to explain to Him that I do not do well if He asks physical trials of me. I've managed the financially strapped one pretty well for the last 50 years and remained totally trusting and strong in my faith.  When my dear daughter went through some very hard trials of her own, I also felt Him near encouraging me that she and I would both survive and be the better for it all.  It is just pain that seems to do me in.

This morning as I stood up from bed, pain beginning, I grumbled all the way to the bathroom.  Then as I leaned down to pick something up, the pain worsened, but I realized very clearly I was not supposed to be grumbling or complaining about it at all.  I was supposed to be thanking the Dear Lord and rejoicing in all that He is asking of me every minute of every day.  And so I determined then and now to do this.  With every ache or high blood pressure reading I am going to thank the Dear Lord and rejoice in all of it believing that His purpose is good and when or if He wants me to know or understand any of it, He will reveal it in time and if not then I will just accept, surrender and be glad.

I just love it when I know the Lord and I are in tune with one another.  Lo and behold I sit down to this morning's devotion and which psalm do I read but Psalm 136 :1

O give thanks unto the LORD; 
for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (KJV)

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever. (ESV)

Both translations are wonderful and make my point perfectly.  So I am going to pray, hope and remain grateful every day of my "new" year of life,  and in spite of aches or ailments I will be faithfully rejoicing at all times.