I spent Thanksgiving Day alone. Circumstances just worked out that way. DH (dear hubby) was deer hunting, kids working.
I slept till 10 a.m. and then piddled around the house. In the early afternoon, the sunshine lured me outside to repot some house plants and save some hanging baskets of plants through the winter. I have two varieties of spider plant or airplane plant, one plain and one striped. I potted up some "babies" of them, separated a bromelaid, repotted a Christmas cactus and amarylis but I have very little hopes of them blooming this year.
I have a new ZZ plant. Don't ask me to spell the real name for it--that is why it is referred to as the ZZ plant! It only needs watered once a month. Any more frequently and it turns yellow and dies. I combined two plants into one larger pot last week, watered it to settle the dirt and already one stalk is yellow.
Hoping to save an angel-wing begonia, I cut it way back and repotted it.
There is something special about having your hands in dirt.It is a God-given desire to grow things.
Some people think that God cursed Adam when He threw him and Eve out of the garden. God told Adam you will have to work and earn your food by the sweat of your brow. Gardening or farming is not a curse though. It is a blessing.
God was the first gardener after all. He planted the garden of Eden. (see Genesis 1)
Friday, November 26, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
Am I a native American or not?
I was born in Oklahoma., raised here, born of parents who were both born in Oklahoma and raised here. They were born of parents who were born in Missouri and Oklahoma and raised in Oklahoma, clear back to the late 1800s.
I am a native Oklahoman. And I am a native American. But I am not born of an Native American (Indian) tribe; well, sort of. My paternal grandmother claimed to be a quarter Cherokee on her paternal grandmother's side, although that family was not listed on the Dawes Indian rolls. So we have no proof of it.
Grandmother's two sisters married full-blood Cherokees and all of their children are on the rolls. So my distant cousins are native American.
In a way, I am a native American. A native is one who is born and raised in the country. And an American is one who is born and raised in America, so how does that relate to a "native American" being defined as a person of an Indian tribal heritage.
I understand the desire to differentiate those of that origin, but I also wish to be known as a native American myself.
I am a native Oklahoman. And I am a native American. But I am not born of an Native American (Indian) tribe; well, sort of. My paternal grandmother claimed to be a quarter Cherokee on her paternal grandmother's side, although that family was not listed on the Dawes Indian rolls. So we have no proof of it.
Grandmother's two sisters married full-blood Cherokees and all of their children are on the rolls. So my distant cousins are native American.
In a way, I am a native American. A native is one who is born and raised in the country. And an American is one who is born and raised in America, so how does that relate to a "native American" being defined as a person of an Indian tribal heritage.
I understand the desire to differentiate those of that origin, but I also wish to be known as a native American myself.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Routines or Ruts
ROUTINES OR RUTS
Fall could be as much work as spring, but I am not used to doing much yard work in the fall. I have worked outside the home so many years, but now that I am retired and have time to do stuff like that, I don’t even think about it. Raking leaves? I raked last year’s fall leaves in the spring. After all, if hubby mowed, it would grind them up into nice mulch. The problem is that I don’t have a fall yard routine.
I have recently developed an evening kitchen routine, doing the dishes, wiping down the counters and lightly sweeping the floors before shutting off the lights. It is a joy to get up to a clean kitchen every morning.
Some churches have removed rituals and liturgies from their worship, replacing hymns with choruses, pipe organs with guitars, a full choir with a worship team. Other churches hang onto hundred-year-old rituals of worship, which the present-day worshipper cannot relate to.
Rituals and routines are part of Christianity. After all it was Jesus Himself who said at the last supper, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19. The problem is rituals can take the place of a vital personal relationship with Jesus.
Instead of committing our hearts and lives to Jesus, a ritual allows us to go through a show of commitment. Instead of burying our old selves in water baptism and rising from the water into new life, we just get wet. Instead of singing with our hearts to the Lord, we mumble through unfamiliar and meaningless words to a tune that is too high for the common voice to sing.
Of course, the answer to this dilemma is following the Lord in the Christian life with our hearts and not our minds. As we go through each ritual of the church, whether singing, water baptism, commitment, we should keep our focus on the Lord.
Make Jesus Christ the center of your worship experience, so the routines will not become ruts.
Fall could be as much work as spring, but I am not used to doing much yard work in the fall. I have worked outside the home so many years, but now that I am retired and have time to do stuff like that, I don’t even think about it. Raking leaves? I raked last year’s fall leaves in the spring. After all, if hubby mowed, it would grind them up into nice mulch. The problem is that I don’t have a fall yard routine.
I have recently developed an evening kitchen routine, doing the dishes, wiping down the counters and lightly sweeping the floors before shutting off the lights. It is a joy to get up to a clean kitchen every morning.
Some churches have removed rituals and liturgies from their worship, replacing hymns with choruses, pipe organs with guitars, a full choir with a worship team. Other churches hang onto hundred-year-old rituals of worship, which the present-day worshipper cannot relate to.
Rituals and routines are part of Christianity. After all it was Jesus Himself who said at the last supper, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19. The problem is rituals can take the place of a vital personal relationship with Jesus.
Instead of committing our hearts and lives to Jesus, a ritual allows us to go through a show of commitment. Instead of burying our old selves in water baptism and rising from the water into new life, we just get wet. Instead of singing with our hearts to the Lord, we mumble through unfamiliar and meaningless words to a tune that is too high for the common voice to sing.
Of course, the answer to this dilemma is following the Lord in the Christian life with our hearts and not our minds. As we go through each ritual of the church, whether singing, water baptism, commitment, we should keep our focus on the Lord.
Make Jesus Christ the center of your worship experience, so the routines will not become ruts.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
jewels from the word devotional 11-06-04
SEASONS CHANGE
Warm days, cool nights. Rainy days. Leaves turning autumn colors. I love the seasons of the year. Can’t say which I love more. Each has its own special treats.
Seasons change. Nothing stays the same. We are born, we live, we die. Some have called it futile, but there is a peace in knowing that each season follows the one before. When seasons are disrupted, it causes confusion and uncertainty.
When we have a warm spell in the winter, nature sends forth buds and leaves, which are killed by the next freeze. A late freeze in spring kills the fruit on trees. 14 inches of snow in March when gardeners are preparing their soil for planting is not normal.
Here, of course, I am speaking of weather in the Heartland of America—Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas. I don’t know about weather and seasons in other parts of the country. And I can’t even guess what it is like in other parts of the world, like Australia or Africa.
Genesis 8:22 NKJV says “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” This was a promise from the Lord. Noah came out of the ark after more than a year and built an altar to the Lord God Jehovah, sacrificing burnt offerings on the altar. Then the Lord spoke to Noah, making a covenant of blessing with him. God promised never to destroy all the earth with a flood again and as a sign of His promise, He set a rainbow in the cloud.
This promise included the seedtime and harvest, winter and summer. There is something very reassuring in knowing that while the seasons change, they will always remain. As long as there is an earth, as long as the earth remains, there will be seasons.
I was young, I became a teenager, married, had children, had grandchildren, growing older, become satisfied with my 90 years on earth, and then lay my life down to go be with my Saviour and my Lord Jesus Christ.
Seasons change, seasons remain, as long as the earth remains, this is God’s promise to me.
Lavon Hightower Lewis
Email me at llewis2138@sbcglobal.net
To read more devotionals, go to http://www.jewelsfromtheword.org
Warm days, cool nights. Rainy days. Leaves turning autumn colors. I love the seasons of the year. Can’t say which I love more. Each has its own special treats.
Seasons change. Nothing stays the same. We are born, we live, we die. Some have called it futile, but there is a peace in knowing that each season follows the one before. When seasons are disrupted, it causes confusion and uncertainty.
When we have a warm spell in the winter, nature sends forth buds and leaves, which are killed by the next freeze. A late freeze in spring kills the fruit on trees. 14 inches of snow in March when gardeners are preparing their soil for planting is not normal.
Here, of course, I am speaking of weather in the Heartland of America—Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas. I don’t know about weather and seasons in other parts of the country. And I can’t even guess what it is like in other parts of the world, like Australia or Africa.
Genesis 8:22 NKJV says “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” This was a promise from the Lord. Noah came out of the ark after more than a year and built an altar to the Lord God Jehovah, sacrificing burnt offerings on the altar. Then the Lord spoke to Noah, making a covenant of blessing with him. God promised never to destroy all the earth with a flood again and as a sign of His promise, He set a rainbow in the cloud.
This promise included the seedtime and harvest, winter and summer. There is something very reassuring in knowing that while the seasons change, they will always remain. As long as there is an earth, as long as the earth remains, there will be seasons.
I was young, I became a teenager, married, had children, had grandchildren, growing older, become satisfied with my 90 years on earth, and then lay my life down to go be with my Saviour and my Lord Jesus Christ.
Seasons change, seasons remain, as long as the earth remains, this is God’s promise to me.
Lavon Hightower Lewis
Email me at llewis2138@sbcglobal.net
To read more devotionals, go to http://www.jewelsfromtheword.org
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Morning thoughts
Awoke this morning with a blasting headache, over the bridge of my nose and forehead--typical signs of sinus headache. So I took a generic pill with aspirin, acetaminophen and caffeine and a dose of pseudophedrin and slept a little longer.
While I was dozing off again, the thought came to me what miracle drugs aspirin and acetaminophen are. Before 1950 or so, these twins were unknown. It boggles the mind to think of how people suffered with no pain killer. How did they bring down a fever? ( That is a rhetorical question. I know that they bathed the patient sometimes with alcohol to bring a fever down. There were also herbal things used for this.)
God is so gracious to give us herbs and medicines for our health.
We have so much to be thankful for.
While I was dozing off again, the thought came to me what miracle drugs aspirin and acetaminophen are. Before 1950 or so, these twins were unknown. It boggles the mind to think of how people suffered with no pain killer. How did they bring down a fever? ( That is a rhetorical question. I know that they bathed the patient sometimes with alcohol to bring a fever down. There were also herbal things used for this.)
God is so gracious to give us herbs and medicines for our health.
We have so much to be thankful for.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Rainy day thoughts
Sleeping in on a rainy day is such a cliche, but that is what I really wanted to do today, since the rain created sweet music on my bedroom roof. But UP and 'AT 'EM is the theme of today.
Have you ever thought that cliches become that way because they are true. Well, mostly true.
Good things come to those who wait.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
God helps those who help themselves.
No, the last one is not true. God helps those who throw themselves on His mercy and proclaim, "I am nothing without you, Lord. Help me today to do your will. Empower me to do what you have called me to do. I can't do it, I am not able without you."
Have a blessed day, leaning on the Lord.
Have you ever thought that cliches become that way because they are true. Well, mostly true.
Good things come to those who wait.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
God helps those who help themselves.
No, the last one is not true. God helps those who throw themselves on His mercy and proclaim, "I am nothing without you, Lord. Help me today to do your will. Empower me to do what you have called me to do. I can't do it, I am not able without you."
Have a blessed day, leaning on the Lord.
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