peace on earth

We sometimes get so wrapped up in all the hype and the traditional messages of Christmas that we neglect to look any deeper than the superficials. Today I want to think about the idea of Peace. Get your bibles and follow along. (don't ever just read a devotion or a message and accept it flat out without looking in your own Bible at the surrounding verses to see if the writer or speaker is using the scripture in context..)

One of the things we hear most about during this season is the concept of Peace. The message of Peace on Earth is bandied about freely by every religious or even semi-religious person. It is of course a popular topic and the thought of those angels singing about peace on earth and good will is overwhelming.

But we generally apply the message differently from the way it was spoken. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2: 13 - 14

We take it to mean that men on earth are going to have peace and good will toward each other. And while those who have experienced the redemptive power of Christ do have that peace and good will toward all their fellow men, it is not something the common man experiences or ever will experience outside of Christ.

So what was the message of the angels? They were glorifying God and stating His intentions toward the men of earth. Jesus came to bring peace and good will extending from the Father to men. One translation says "Glory to God in the highest [heaven], and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased " We see by this more clearly that the peace of God rests upon those with whom he is pleased. He offers it to the entire world, yes, but only those who receive His Son's offered Salvation will experience it. We must understand this concept or we will come up against one of the so called "contradictions" of the Bible.

The peace of which the angels sang is that peace which Jesus came to bring to the hearts of His Own. Until Christ's coming the hearts of men across the world had been in turmoil with sin and confusion and spiritual darkness. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and to instill in them His Peace. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: John 14:27 These are the people to whom that angels' song was dedicated.

So when we say, "I bid you peace" we are bidding men the peace of the spirit. In this world [we] may have tribulation . . . but [He] has over come the world! Tribulation and conflict will always exist in this world. Let's bid men the salvation of the Father that brings peace in this earthly body. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

jerky

Last summer as we were coming back from NM, we discovered a fantastic brand of jerky. Rachael picked up a single package in a Love’s travel stop. It was so good that when we came to the next Love’s she got a whole pound of it! It is honestly the best jerky I’ve ever had. I followed the web link on the package and just ordered a pound for us. Do you know how much dried meat you get in a pound!! Lots. Probably what would be several pounds of raw meat.

Now I want to tell you about it because I had a piece for breakfast and enjoyed it so much I want the world to know. Well at least the few people who read along here.

If you’ve never had jerky, real jerky, good jerky, you are missing a treat. Most of the stuff we get in stores around here is glorified lunch meat. It is chopped and compressed into uniform slices (sometimes even shaped to resemble a piece of natural meat) and dried. Some brands are shoved into little casings and sold a beef sticks. I guess there are brands that are real jerked meat, but most of them aren’t. I guess if you are starving it’s okay, but if you don’t like it, I don’t blame you.

Real jerky is real meat, trimmed of fat and sliced very thinly roughly cross grain and marinated briefly in a curing solution-usually salt. Originally it was sun dried or smoked over low fires. It isn’t really cooked exactly, but it doesn’t taste ‘raw’ either. The object is to dehydrate the meat quickly to retard any bacterial growth. Well-made jerky could be stored for weeks under dry conditions and will feed a person for many meals.

Jerky has become a popular snack food, but originally it was designed to be a method of storing vital nutrition and calories for periods of shortage or travel. You can’t toss a handful of real jerky in your mouth and chomp it like you do chips or popcorn. It is much too hard and tough. This is part of the reason why the processed and pressed types of jerky were developed. They are quicker and easier to consume. We are into instant gratification in our snack foods. Jerky doesn’t fit the bill.

I had a stick of jerky for breakfast this morning. I don’t know how much it weighed. It was a very thin slice about four inches long and an inch wide at its broadest part, but it tapered to points on each end, conforming to the shape of the natural muscle strip. I wondered, as I was stripping the thin shreds of fiber from the larger piece, how much the piece would have weighted in it unprocessed form. It took me about twenty minutes to eat the whole piece with my coffee.

You have to tear off a tiny strip of muscle fiber and hold it in your mouth until it is saturated enough to chew, so it takes a while. But when I finished that little strip of jerky I felt as satisfies as if I had eaten bacon and eggs. That’s the difference between real jerky and the processed stuff from the corner convenience store. It is a meal.

If you want good jerky I recommend you try Robertsons’ jerky (http://www.beefjerkynow.com/) They offer a variety of meat products including ham bacon and sausage. Check out the website and then try the jerky. If their ham and bacon are as good as their jerky, they are well worth the cost.

And if you’ve never eaten jerky or didn’t like it when you did, try a piece of Robertsons. It is almost like eating your mama’s roast in dehydrated form.

lonesome gods

This morning while I was waiting for Michael’s eggs to finish boiling I was reading a Louis L’Amour book called ‘The Lonesome Gods.’ There was a statement in the chapter I was reading which made me stop and think. I probably don’t have the quote quite right but the character said, “Every culture has their gods that they worship, but their power has waned because no one is lighting fire on their altars any more.”

Now without going in to a discussion on false gods etc, the last part of this was what had an impact on my mind: “…their power has waned because no one is lighting fire on their altars any more.” At first thought we might say that the whole picture is false, and it is. But my mind jumped from pagan altars to the altar of God and how the priests of the Old Testament observed scheduled times of worship and offerings. Their actions kept the power of God operating in the lives of the entire nation. So do our individual actions maintain the demonstration of God’s power in us.

In the lives of men and women today, the power of God has waned because they no longer offer sacrifices on the altar of God. Most people offer nothing at all and even those who profess Christianity neglect to make any regular offerings to God. Sometimes, most times, people tend to think of God as some powerful being who sits far off on the circle of the universe just waiting for us to ask for something and then he is supposed to miraculously grant it. Now I know that the Power of God is independent of any offering or recognition we might offer, but how the power is demonstrated in our personal lives is directly proportional to the offerings we bring to His Altar.

Our first sacrifice must our entire being offered in repentance and love, then our daily sacrifices must be brought before Him. David said, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. When we neglect to give Him the offerings of prayer and service, His Power in our lives is diminished-not by His wish, but by our own actions. We stem the flow when we cease to offer our sacrifices on His altar.

It is no wonder that men today refuse to acknowledge the power of God. They don’t see it demonstrated because they have “ceased to light fires” upon His Altar. We must keep the power of our God strong and active in our lives by living the life He requires of us. We must draw closer to Him through the reading of His word and our prayers. We find repeated reference linking prayer with the offerings of incense and the fragrance of the sacrifice ascending to heaven. Paul tells us to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. These are the fires we must burn upon the Lord’s altar.

II Chronicles 16:9 tells us that the Lord is seeking for people toward whom He can ‘show himself strong.” But in the same breath it also says that He does it on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. We already know that the way the Israelites kept their hearts perfect in His sight was through the offering of the sacrifices and although the sacrifices have now become spiritual, we still keep ourselves perfect before Him by the offering of our daily sacrifices. We must keep the fires burning in order for His Power to be demonstrated in our lives.

Hmmm. I’ll bet Louie L’Amour never intended to preach me a sermon with those few words in a book meant for entertainment…

mean people

Last night for the third time in two days— twice in one evening!—our gate was opened. And an open gate is a wholesale invitation to Gabriel and Maxim. In the year we have lived here the gate has been left open once or maybe twice— by negligent service men reading the utility meters or doing lawn treatment. Now in only a couple weeks or ten days they’ve been open five times!

One evening I was sitting here waiting for them to finish their business outside when the neighbor guy knocked on my window. He had one of the little dogs in his arms! He had come out to go to class and the dogs met him! The gate was open! A couple days later Rachael put the dogs out the back, then stepped outside the garage door to do something in front. And here came Maxim to meet her! And Mica was coming around the corner! Now we had these three events in the last two days.

Someone has to be opening the gates.

This last incident, the twice in one day and once the day before, coincided with a strange happening. I was sitting here all quiet and busy when I heard someone rapping on the front window. Mica barked fiercely and of course there was a regular chorus in here. It happened twice, once a rather long series, then a shorter couple of raps. I couldn’t figure out what was going on but I did get up to go see what it was. Nothing. By the time I got up and moving the dogs had settled down and all was quiet. I puzzled about it for a few minutes then dismissed it.

Now in conjunction with the open gates I’ve given the incident a little more weight. Those who keep track of this sort of things say this is a prime time of year for burglaries. People are busy and rushed. Most houses are brim full of gifts under trees, in closets, sitting on the table to be wrapped. Owners are hurrying to do this and that so locking doors is frequently overlooked or they are consciously left open while people are carrying stuff in and out or running across the yard to the neighbors. Garage doors are left open. A little drive through a high-end neighborhood every couple days quickly makes it apparent where people are home and when. In times of absence it is no problem to make and entrance to load up on small transportable items. If you were ‘casing a joint’ (lol too much Mike Hammer!), if you are casing a joint and you go up to the window to look in a seemingly empty house with a huge tree in the front window the best way to tell if there is a dog is to rap on the glass. If a huge black dog, or even a tiny cute one, comes barking you know the dog will have to be dealt with if you are going in to lift some expensive items. How better to deal with a dog than by leaving a gate open on the side of the house where it would seem that no one would notice until too late! No dog, no bar to breaking in. I think the incidents are all related! Okay. Now I’m paranoid.

At any rate, R & M have tied the gate shut. Not any great deterrent to opening, but at least it will take a bit longer to loosen, or even cut, than simply flipping a latch. And if that happens we will know it wasn’t an accident.

The worst part is that when the dogs were out at 10:00 the other night, Maxim evidently got hit by a car. He came hurrying home to Michael with his tail tucked in. Michael has never had pets so he isn’t real good at reading dog body language, but as soon as he brought him in to me I knew something had happened. He hurried over to the corner beside the cat tower and laid down kind of scared looking. I thought maybe Michael had gotten after him, but then he cried a bit and began licking his leg. Sure enough when Rach examined him he had a cut leg and still has a swollen and hurting shoulder!

Gabriel got a personalized trip home in the arms of the guy down the street. Thank the Lord for ID tags!

If we get robbed it won’t be the dogs’ fault

winter quiet

I’m sitting here listening to quiet Christmas music and playing facebook games. It is so quiet and peaceful. I love my room here at Rachael and Michael’s house. They have made it so comfortable for me. It’s cozy.

The wind is blowing hard outside and every so often there is a blast of dead leaves or water drops against my window. I can see the top branches across the way moving pretty vigorously in the wind, but down here on the ground, the bushes just outside my window are barely moving. But it all makes me seem more cozy -- especially the blasts of leaves against the window. Of course there isn’t even a draft in here, but those leaves let me know how nasty it is outside. It was 44 degrees when I got up at 5:00 AM and the weather man says it is 50 now. Pretty warm for December! Our local weather station also does a “feels like” temperature and THAT says 38. That is more in keeping with what it “looks like” outside too. I’m glad I’m in here watching the wind blow.

It occurred to me to wonder just where all the leaves are coming from and whee they are going! They are big leaves. They look like buckeye leaves or horse-chestnut leaves or hickory-big spear head shaped leaves. They come blasting through between our house and the lady next door. All the leaves were off the trees all around us. And this being Westerville, with lots of property conscious people, the fallen ones had already been all raked up. Not only that, I don’t remember any buckeye or chestnut trees around us anywhere close. I think there is a hickory tree just behind us, but it’s been empty of leaves for weeks. Wherever those leaves are from and wherever they are going, they are certainly doing it all in a rush!

My little Gable is snuggled up between my leg and the chair arm, snoozing away. Maxim is sleeping among the pillows on the bed and Sebastian is curled up in his own bed, which is on my bed. Everyone is sleeping soundly. That’s quite a different story from what it was at ten o’clock when they had their potty break. The blowing wind made them all invigorated! They came jumping and tearing across the yard like the wind was pushing them. They bounced in the door and the first words out of my mouth were “Settle down!” They are funny.

DirtyFace is the only cat visible at the moment. I have no idea where Cloudy and Andy are. Andy likes to sleep behind my chair or under the table beside it. Or maybe he’s in his ‘apartment’ house that Michael brought him. (Michael complains that he doesn’t like cats, but he’s the one who always buys them super-sized toys!) Cloudy is probably in his closet bed.

All’s quiet in my world.

and now Christmas!

Now we enter the Christmas holidays.

I love Christmas time. I like the colors-red and green against white with the punctuations of gold and blue sparkles. I like the lights, all colors and all combinations. I like the sounds of Christmas songs everywhere. I hope for snow and cold crisp air every year. I like the decorations everywhere. I like the nativity scenes with shepherds and wise men mixed indiscriminately at the manger. I like the Santas in the department stores. I like all the fantasy surrounding the reindeer and the North Pole and the elves’ workshops. I like reading the Christmas story from Luke. I like reading the story of the ‘Littlest Angel.” I like reciting “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house…” I even like the feelings of joy and good-will that seem to be generated whether true or false. I like the opportunity to give gifts to those we love and even those we think kindly of but neglect to acknowledge mostly. I like it all.

But every year I’m confronted with two sets of people who are both very militant in their feelings about Christmas. One group insists that we should not participate in Christmas celebrations at all because they are Pagan. The other group is affronted and angry because people are taking Christ out of Christmas by saying ‘happy holidays,’ and refusing to allow nativity scenes on public grounds. Both groups are missing the whole point of Christmas.

To those who say we shouldn’t even participate in Christmas I say, “Who other than the People of God who have been redeemed should be rejoicing in His Birth! We of all people should rejoice at His Birth!" Yes, I know the Baby didn’t redeem us, but the Man He grew to be did! His Life as a Man could never have happened had he not been born as a real baby and grew as a human, “subject to like passions” as we are.

The angels in heaven saw fit to rejoice and celebrate His Birth. The Lord hung a new star in the heavens to honor of it. The Magi traveled hundreds of miles to honor Him. Why is it wrong for us to celebrate it?

Why not observe it when the rest of the world does? The time opens wide the doors for witnessing about His Life and Death and Salvation. Give gifts with the Love God demonstrated in giving His Son. Rejoice with the elation of the angels and show good-will to all. Yes, we should demonstrate those feelings all year, I know that. Consider though: God loves us always and gives us good gifts always, yet He chose the birthday of Christ to demonstrate it especially, over and above other times. We need to do the same.

When those who call themselves the People of God are so nasty, yes, nasty and mean spirited, about the evil of observing Christmas they deny the very thing that makes us able to triumph over our flesh. The fact that Jesus was born and lived as a Man, is our example and an assurance of our ability to live the same way through His Power. It is something to rejoice over, not a time to pull righteous robes around our shoulders and cause friction and hard feelings. We destroy our message and witness with this kind of attitude.

Self righteousness creeps in so easily sometimes. I guess what strikes me as most deceptive about the position is that many times the ones who are so oppositional to celebrating Christmas have an “Appreciation Day” that they celebrate with their family and friends, ‘so the kids won’t be left out.’ Phooey! How hypocritical can we be?

Then there is the second group who go around bemoaning the fact that society is ‘taking Christ out of Christmas.” That is about as foolish as the first position. Once again their very attitude is belying the message they are trying to present. So what if people don’t want to say ‘Merry Christmas” ( I don’t like the idea of ‘making merry’ at Christmas anyway. It represents drunkenness and debauchery to me. I say “Happy Christmas” ) If someone says, ‘Happy Holidays” we can still put Christ right back in there and say “Merry Christmas.” But no, too often people preach a little sermon that falls on deaf ears because of the nastiness that creeps into the speech. They leave no witness at all.

We tend to forget that no one knows the exact date of Jesus Birth. The Catholic Church early on arbitrarily picked the date to celebrate Christ’s birth so it would coincide with the pagan winter rites. There is nothing sacred about December 25th. Why fuss? We want to promote good will to men, but then we turn right around and get all offended over celebrating His Birth! There’s just something very wrong with that attitude.

Others get all offended with someone who writes “Xmas.” They have “crossed out Jesus.” But an ‘X” was the symbol from early times for Christians and Christ. Why not use it for an opportunity to present Christ? They have already called more attention to Him by using the X than they would by just writing “Christmas.” Don’t be offended, rejoice! A door has been opened.

Someone griped to me the other day that people were calling the “Christmas tree” a ‘holiday bush.’ Again they were offended because it was taking Christ out of Christmas. Dear me! Do they know where the Christmas tree came from? Early pagans would cut branches of ever green and bring them into the house to be decorated with bright bits of metal and images of their gods. Even Jeremiah decried the pagan practice of bring in a tree and decorating it. Don’t get all hyped up because someone calls it a holiday bush. If you want to regard that beautiful erection in your living room during December each year as a Christmas tree, that’s okay with me. It has that meaning TO YOU. I think Christmas trees are pretty too, but again there is nothing sacred about the Christmas tree. They are not holy symbols. They are purely decorations!

On whichever side of the issue you may stand, be very careful of your attitude. Satan is using one of the most glorious events in human history to tear apart the Church and destroy its witness to the world. Instead of being a loud and abrasive noise, try being like Paul in the pantheon at Athens. He could have taken a nasty attitude from several directions. He chose rather to ignore the wholesale deception and evil all around him and seized the opportunity to preach Christ. He could have attacked their beliefs on all sides instead he stood up and said, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

However you stand regarding Christmas don’t get all wrapped up with defending and attacking and standing for. What a fantastic time of year to have an influence. People will listen now who might not listen at any other time of year! Just do like Paul and declare Jesus!

Thanksgiving is over

Whew! Thanksgiving is over.

For a retired lady with a very restricted life, it was a very busy time—mostly because it was busy for the people around me. Rachael and Michael (R & M) both worked up to the very day and Rachael had to work on Thanksgiving Day from 8 to 5. We had a very good day anyway. She made the cranberry salad Wednesday evening and I made the dressing and turkey on T-day.

We had broken up the bread while the cranberry salad was making and Thursday morning I chopped the veggies for the dressing and heated the broth to put together the dressing. That baked in the morning. Then about 3:00 I got the turkey ready. We had an abbreviated turkey this year. Rachael had a turkey breast in the freezer for months that she wanted out of there. But I like dark meat! So she bought a couple turkey legs and we had breast and legs, kind of a strange looking turkey. We still had more than enough turkey for us.

Michael invited the neighbor kid over for dinner on Thursday night. His grandparents recently came to live with his family and although Josh is going to school and was working full time up until just last spring, they are very critical of him. They had also been criticizing his dad who has a very good office job, but currently is hobbling around on a broken foot. He works full time, but the foot naturally limits his work at home for now. Anyway the grandparents were complaining that Josh and his dad were lazy and never did anything. Josh was very upset and rather than stay inside and cause even more trouble he was outside. Wise young man, if I do say so. So we had dinner with him and watched the football game. A typical American Thanksgiving.

(By the time Josh went home after the football game his mother had arrived home. She is a nurse and had been called in to work on Thanksgiving morning--:( I think maybe that was part of the grandparents’ problem. Her work disrupted the holiday. But by the time Josh went home she had talked to the grandparents and settled them down. Poor Josh. )

Rachael had to work again Friday morning and so did Michael. The two of them were planning to leave for Pittsburg for a wedding the same evening. They were both hustling around all evening but had everything together by about six o’clock. They left here and arrived in Pittsburg at nine something.

That left me alone for the weekend. I told some of my friends that I got to be a grown-up for three days! Better yet, I had all the Thanksgiving leftovers to myself! Now for some people that might be a Major Ugh, but I love cold turkey and cranberry salad and that was the major part of our leftovers. There was also a big pan of dressing, but I didn’t make much of a dent in that. I’d done enough carbs at dinner. So from Friday’s dinner to Sunday lunch I had turkey and cranberry salad! Mmmm. I took a brief break on Saturday morning to have fried eggs and a slice of ham, but lunch was back to turkey! I was so stingy with it that I only shared little bites with the dogs!

And my blood glucose readings stayed well under 120! Mostly they were between 98 and 107. That's pretty good for a holiday full of high carb foods.

So Thanksgiving is over for another year.

Thank you, Lord for all your blessings. In spite of the economy, my kids all have good and stable jobs. We all have good health. My grandkids are growing. My dogs are healthy. My cats are beautiful. My room is cozy and so inviting. My son calls me almost every morning. I have people here that I can do a little for when I start their coffee and put their eggs on to boil before work. I can be a witness for the Lord through the internet even though I can hardly get out at all. Life is full and it is good.