Back to Judas...and temptation

I think I'm going to start looking for references to Judas in the New Testament. My faulty memory tells me that, other than when the disciples are listed by name, we don't know that we encounter him, except at the Lord's supper and the betrayal.

I wonder why it has been so hard to accept the fact that Satan could enter into a follower of Christ. Satan tempted Christ Himself. He tempts us all, each and every day. I thought back to the first mention of temptation, when Satan tempted Eve. Remember how she told him that they had been forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Up until that moment, everything they had done had been good, no question about it--because they didn't have a clue what "good" meant! Everything in that garden was put there for their benefit and enjoyment. God had given them one rule--just one. "Don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Until that moment, there had been no reason for 10 commandments, Mosaic law, or codes of Hammurabi--that was it. One rule.

And Eve broke it. Why? Because Satan tempted her into using her human brain (also a gift of God, by the way) to try to think through a situation that didn't need thought. She did not need to think about this, folks. God told her, very simply, "Don't do it." But just like a child, she had to try to figure out WHY God had told her this, and WHY shouldn't she do it. She probably already had learned that if you ate too many kumquats, you didn't feel good the next day--natural consequences. If you ate too many persimmons, you couldn't whistle. If you took a nap in the poison ivy--oh, wait, maybe there wasn't any poison ivy in the garden. So Eve probably already knew a few things she shouldn't do.

But this one thing that God had told her she MUST not do--that was a different matter. 'I wonder why I shouldn't do that. I wonder what that fruit makes you do. It looks good--I've recovered from the kumquats and the persimmons--I didn't die. And then Satan told me, surely I won't die--what's death, anyway?' And Eve chose (remember she had the freedom to choose--she probably chose to eat that last kumquat that day) to eat of the tree. Her curiosity got the better of her. And then she told Adam to try it. And he chose to do that.

So why is it difficult to believe that a Christ-follower couldn't be tempted? We don't know the specifics of Judas' temptation, like we do about Christ and Eve. Think, folks. There are ways that we as Christ-followers could be tempted to do what Satan suggests. What if he were told that by the betrayal, he could further Christ's kingdom? Remember, he knew those scriptures...or at least he may have. He probably had at least heard that the Christ must be betrayed, that the Christ must die...and he may not have come to grasp the fact that Christ's kingdom would not be earthly. I believe there might have been a way that I could have been tempted...how about you? Talk amongst yourselves, and share your thoughts on this. Love to all, and God bless.

SS Sidetrack of the day

Okay, today's lesson was on John 17, the prayer of Jesus after the last supper. We started discussing Judas Iscariot, and what was his final outcome. I guess I might have been under the impression that Judas would be burning in Hell through all eternity for actually betraying the Son of God.

Then I started to think about Judas' part in Jesus's ministry. He is seldom mentioned by name when Jesus is talking about the disciples, yet we know he was one of the twelve. When Jesus commissioned the twelve to go out and witness, Judas went with them. Judas was there when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, he was there when Jesus fed the five thousand, he was there when Jesus calmed the angry storm...He witnessed a lot of healings, casting out of demons, saw the money changers driven from the temple...

Do you suppose that Judas made a u-turn after he betrayed Jesus? We know that he took the 30 pieces of silver back to the temple and attempted to return it. When the priests wouldn't accept it, he flung it on the floor and then went out and killed himself. Many of us have heard of death-bed confessions; the thief on the cross was told that he would be in Paradise with Jesus. Some of Jesus's last words were "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I wonder if Judas might have been one of those folks Jesus was asking God to forgive.

Just a sidetrack, but it left us wondering today. Love to all, and God bless.

My chance to help

I just got an opportunity to help an African orphan! My daughters' friends, the Prossers, are in the process of adopting a little girl from Africa. They have a pretty novel idea on how to start raising money for airline tickets--I'm going to help them with this. You might want to check out this link and see if you could possibly help, too. Love to all, and God bless.

Tonight's insight

I've been having a problem lately with internet stories that I hear and can't follow up. These aren't the urban legend stuff, but rather stories about particular children or families who have been affected by tragedy, much like the Australian blogger who had been separated from her husband by the horrific wildfires down there.

Tonight at supper, I talked for a while to our youth pastor's wife. She and her husband just adopted a child from China. I've been following their story on their blog, as well as from updates we receive at church. Recently she posted a link to pictures of other children in China who are awaiting adoption. I wanted to adopt them all! She said she knew how I felt.

I told her about a blog post I had seen with a link to a video about a couple of small children in Africa. These children had polio, which had left them paralyzed from the waist down. They were just lying in the sun, on the dirt, in the middle of a very small village. No one seemed to be interested in them or their needs. Then a third child, who appeared to be a little older than the two, showed up with a bucket of water. She had walked over two miles to fetch back some water so that she could bath the two children, who were her brother and sister. She carefully washed them and then put their clothes back on them.

The folks who made the video found out that this older child was only 8 years old. Why she was the one who was responsible for the care of these children, we don't know. What they did at night, if they had a home where they were taken in, we don't know. The film crew were investigating the details and were going to see to the care of the children. I told my son in law about this video this past weekend. He said there were many children like that in his home country.

Folks, my heart is hurting from seeing stories like these. I told the pastor's wife that sometimes I think the internet is a curse! I get worried about these little folks, and there is NOTHING I can do for them. So very, very sad. She told me she felt internet was useful, as it allowed us to know about things like this--and maybe there was something we could do.

Then, at prayer time, I had what I call a revelation. By feeling so helpless in this situation, I was limiting the power of God. I felt God could only do what I was able to help him do, that if I could not help him physically in this situation, there was nothing He could do. Me, the one who is always talking about how we mustn't limit God to our human abilities! It dawned on me that when I prayed for these children, God used my prayers to help them. He found workers around them, much like the big sister with the bucket of water and the film crew, to meet their needs. Maybe the reason I am seeing all these things now is that God wants me to be more of a prayer warrior and NOT to doubt His ability to meet the needs of His children!

Anyway, that's my take on the matter. I still want to know what happened to the woman in Australia, the children in Africa, and if the children in China will be adopted, but I also know that I can pray for them and all the other little children and hurting folks in the world. That the power of prayer is much greater than my human appreciation of it.

I will keep praying, and never doubt God. Love to all, and God bless.

Afghanistan

If you're wondering about the purpose of sending troops into Afghanistan, read Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I just finished them last month, and they have changed my thinking in a big way.

A prayer request from Australia

It's not a small world, is it? So much going on, so many folks suffering...Today I was skimming through my email and opened a letter from a quilting site. There was an interesting link, showing a pyramid doorstop--nothing I was interested in making, but still, there might be something else on the woman's sight. So I clicked on home...

I guess you're like most of us, you've heard bits and pieces of news lately. I just happened to hear, this morning, about a series of wild fires in Australia. We have a little interest in Australia around here, because of David sitting on a jury that tried a case involving Australians several years ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the story, though.

Well, this blog with the pyramid doorstop was written by a woman in Australia, from the state where the wild fires were taking place. And she was living this experience that I had just heard about on the news. And her husband might well be one of the 130+ people who were either dead or missing. She had no news as to his whereabouts. Her eight-year-old son was with his grandparents in another city, and she was sitting close to what used to be her home, trying to stay sane, and hoping to get some word about her missing husband. I don't really think her name is important at this point, but if you want more details, here is her blog.

I am continuously amazed at the way God connects me to folks who need prayer--someone I don't know, half a world away. The poignancy of her situation really got to me as I skimmed over a few older posts and saw a picture of new coffee mugs she had just purchased a few days back, one that said Princess, another that said Stud. That day, those mugs were worthy of posting. Now I am following her blog to see if Stud is still alive.

Do you find yourself forming connections with folks around the world, folks you've never met? Love to all, and God bless.

Update: Tuesday morning, when I went to check on these folks, the blog "All it took" had been removed. I'm not sure what happened there, but I do pray that Stud was found, and that soon life will be moving toward normal for their family.

Yes We Can

I spend too much time fooling around with simple video games and the like. This week, AARP had one that was right up my alley. If you would like to help our new president "put the pieces together," click here. It took me two tries, but I finally accomplished it. I know you can do better than that. Love to all, and God bless.

Almost February

Monday is one of David's favorite holidays, Groundhogs Day. He is one of the few people I know (personally--I know there are folks in PA) who celebrates the 2nd of February. He even hangs a stocking and encourages the other folks at work to do that, too. He has yet to have someone take him up on it.

We have ice here, much, much ice. And snow--more snow than usual. I have not been outside the door of this house since Monday! I started to write since Tuesday, but after careful review, realized I didn't go out on Tuesday either. David even stayed home from work on Wednesday with the sanction of the company. They were not going to run the line, so he didn't have to be there. We talked a bit about the olden days, when we had a mortgage payment, car payments, and kids in college--he would have gone in then, for sure. He could get out--after all, he got home okay on Tuesday, didn't he? I remember one day years ago when he was carpentering, and he got all the way to Lexington before he decided to turn around and come home. Yes, the main roads were clear, but if he got into the subdivision, he might not have been able to get out again.

Lexington is really suffering from the ice storm of 2009. This one isn't as bad as the one of 2003, probably because Lex lost a lot of trees and limbs back in '03 so there weren't as many to fall this time. However, folks are without power.This time, the storm got as far south as Berea (and maybe beyond). Folks in Madison County are without power, unable to get around--much like Lexington in '03. We haven't yet had a problem with power outages, probably because of underground utilities in our subdivision. For sure, the power company probably wouldn't have been here by now if we had. Today was the first day the road has been plowed since Tuesday. Plowed, and a large pile of snow in front of our house. I can't help but think how the kids would have delighted in "snow mountain"--I remember how much they loved the dirt mountains in the neighborhood where houses were being constructed.

All in all, I guess we're doing okay. We have food, milk, an untouched loaf of bread, and heat. We'll have to get out to the grocery today, though--we're out of raisins and bananas. At our house, that's a serious outage--I don't know what David would do without his 3-5 bananas a day! And I refuse to eat my oatmeal without raisins, or at least canned peaches--and they're gone, too. I had hoped to make it until next Wednesday (Senior Citizen's Day at Kroger's), but I guess I'm going to have to break down and go over there. Oh well.

I hope all my readers are well and warm--Love to all, and God bless.

My own private amber alert

If there's anyone out there in cyberspace reading this blog today, particularly anyone near my home, please tell David to contact me! I have no idea where he is, and, as he himself would say, it's a plum puzzlement! Love to all, and good night.

Update: David showed up a couple of minutes after I posted this--he had been out to supper with a couple from church. I don't think it would have bothered me so much, if I had been home--but since I was in San Antonio, I was really concerned about him. Anyway, all's well that ends, isn't it?

Any suggestions?

I am leaving for San Antonio next Tuesday. This is the first time I've flown since 9/11--Heck, it's the first time I've flown in the last decade and a half! I'm not much of a traveler. I know one way to fly happily, and that involves alcohol. Help!

Celebrate!

Merry Christmas, folks!

Thanksgiving update

Thanksgiving was nice. We had company from the trip to the Wigwam until last Saturday, and we all managed to get along. It used to be, I would dread something like that, but this year...We even had short-notice company a couple of times, and I didn't retreat to either the bedroom or the computer room. I guess I'm growing up!

Three of our kids were home; two were in Chattanooga, and the grandkids were with them. At Christmas, we anticipate all seven being here at once. I'm already working on baby-proofing the house!

I'm trying to think of ways to make the Christmas visit even more relaxing. I figure I'll plan a menu--I have a friend who does that--and try to stick to it, as well as a schedule. Some of my children still have no concept of the amount of time that is involved in something as simple as shopping or going to the gym, so I figure I'd better schedule that stuff ahead.

The bazaar will be over this Friday. Probably until then, I won't do anything in the blog line rather than read other folks' stuff, although I have a post in mind I might get to this week. This is the week of prayer for foreign missions in our denomination, and I heard a marvelous testimony on Friday that I've already shared a couple of times. Just wait, it's coming.

Love to all, and God bless.

Wigwam Village

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

The above lines are from the poem Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. My dad used to recite it to me as a child. This weekend, David and I spent the night in the wigwam of Nokomis, at Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky. Well, actually it may not have been the wigwam of Nokomis, but it surely was a wigwam.

We had been by the Wigwam Village motel in Cave City several times in our married life. I even knew a woman who had stayed in the motel, when she went to Bowling Green to visit her son at Western Kentucky University. We had sometimes talked about staying there, but it seemed the occasion had never arisen.

Last weekend, we arranged to meet our children, Ann and Daniel, halfway between our home in Kentucky and theirs in central Tennessee. We decided Bowling Green might be a good meeting place, and David suggested we book a wigwam. What the heck, I thought, why not!

It was after dark when we got to Cave City, and for a while we were afraid we wouldn't find the motel, but we did. It was probably also the coldest day of this winter to date. You of the far north who read this don't know Kentucky cold, and you from the south haven't experienced it recently enough to appreciate how cold it was last Friday night--dropping down to the 20's, at least, and maybe even lower.

The office at the motel was closed when we got there. Folks had to register at the owner's home. He met us at the door wearing a coat and gloves. I went inside to sign paperwork and found his home very well heated, despite his winter get-up and his little daughter sitting curled up under a blanket on their couch. We got the key to our unit and went to explore.

When we entered our wigwam, it was cold. Bone-chilling cold. There was a big steam radiator in the room, but apparently it hadn't functioned recently. Instead, the interior of the wigwam was heated with a 1-foot square space heater. The thermostat was set at 58, and I don't believe it got much over it all night--sometimes I doubt that it ever had been there. We had a double bed, one chair, a small table, some open shelving, a small bathroom, and a television. That was it. Not even two chairs, not even a Gideon Bible. Slightly underfurnished, in my opinion.

Let me tell you something you probably already know. Linoleum floors get COLD in the winter. Did I mention there was no carpet? Let me tell you something else. Commode seats in unheated bathrooms are cold, too! Neither of us even wanted to think about taking all our clothes off to take a shower, so I have no idea if there was hot water.

After taking a look around the room and checking out the television--yes, there was cable! Thank goodness!--we went out to find batteries for the remote and to warm up with ice cream at the Dairy Queen down the street. Then we came back to the room, got every blanket we could find and piled them on the bed, put on our long flannels and hopped in. We didn't get out again until the next morning, when the sun woke us up. No alarm clock, no telephone, but we weren't sleeping soundly enough in that cold room to stay in bed very long.

With the exception of the lack of heat and sparsity of furniture, it wasn't a bad stay. I would go there again, especially with children. There is a certain charm to sleeping in one of those little round rooms. I would want to go when it was a little warmer outside, though--like at least in the 70's!

If you go to Wigwam Village, ask for Unit 13. I know there are batteries in the remote--David duck-taped them in before we left. Don't look for a refrigerator, but your drinks will stay cold without one--they'll chill well enough on the floor. And watch your head when you go to the bathroom--David whopped his at least once!

Love to all, and God bless.

More prayer requests

Ya know, maybe I ought to start a blog with just our prayer requests on it!

Both of these requests are for my "children". These two folks, though not born to me, are so dear to me that I consider them my own. I hope that you are blessed with folks like that in your lives, too.

The first is Jenn, our third daughter. Jenn has her own blog, and she has posted information about her situation there. Jenn and her family are in need of prayer right now for a number of reasons. Please pray for them.

The second is Chao (Sam), my second son. Chao is a nurse in Lexington. He has been our friend for at least four years, and I have "adopted" him, since his family is in China. Chao and his wife, Ting, have a precious little boy, Alex. Alex is four years old and has been diagnosed with autism. Currently Alex is living in China with his grandparents in order to attend a special training program there. Chao is living in Lexington, and Ting, his wife, is living in Montana, where she is doing medical research. Chao just got back recently from a visit to see Ting. They "visit" regularly with Alex on the computer--thank God for things like Skype!

Chao just learned that Alex has pneumonia. His immune system is extremely weakened, and they don't know why. The medication they are giving him to treat the pneumonia is making him sick to his stomach--just not a good situation in any way. Chao is very worried about his precious son. He told me he would be willing to give his whole immune system to Alex, if it would make him well, and knowing how Chao feels about Alex, I know he would do it.

Please pray that Alex will be healed, that this family can be reunited, and pray for Chao's parents in China, Rue and her husband, who are taking care of precious BaBa so far away from his parents.

I am thanking you in advance, as I know you are folks who know the power of prayer. Love to all, and God bless.

Prayer requests

Hi, folks. You all know that I believe very strongly in the power of prayer. Today I have two specific requests, and I would appreciate your prayers for these two items.

The first request is for the healing of my cousin, Libby. Libby is the closest member of my family to me right now. She lived with our family for a couple of years when I was little, until her marriage (when I was eight or so), and then lived near us for several years after that. Since then, she has been a very important person in my life. She was (and is) my go-to person, the first one I call when things are rocky in my life. She is a devout Christian, one of the most welcoming people I know. She has opened her home to my family and friends on many occasions. We are always invited to her house for the holidays--any of the holidays, from Christmas to the 4th of July.

Right now, Libby is in Baptist East in Louisville with an undiagnosed digestive ailment. She was in ICU for a day or two, but has been upgraded to a regular room while they do testing to see what is wrong with her. My specific request is that they find the cause of her inability to digest food (and that they are able to treat it!). Please pray for Libby, her precious husband, Dexter, and the rest of their family (six children, numerous in-laws, grandchildren, and a great-grandchild).

My second request is for Daniel and Annie (my son-in-law and daughter) as he attempts to gather the paperwork necessary to apply for his permanent green card. We consider Daniel a very special part of our family, and we want him to be able to stay near us in this country for as long as he wants to do that.

Thank you in advance for your prayers! Love to all, and God bless.

He LIKED it! Yay, Kenny!

Some of you may know the commercial starring little Mikey, who would eat anything. That's the reference in the title, although it has nothing to do with eating.

I have a friend named Kenny who has an artificial eye. I have known Kenny for years, and I didn't know this about him until this summer. Most of my loyal readers know I work at the hospital as a "pink lady" four or five days a month. The last day I worked, the day before Halloween, the hospital gift shop was selling all their Halloween stuff half-price. I had a look at the junk and found one item I really liked. It had been a hot seller, and there were only two left in stock. The woman running the shop said the kids really liked this particular item. I bought one, intending to give it to one of my sons-in-law (which I did).

I took it back to the front desk and showed it to the lady I was working with. She laughed at it and asked me who I was going to give it to. I told her--she thought that was pretty cute. As I sat there, I thought and thought about the poor leftover item back in the store and decided I had to have it too. When I told her what I was intending to do with it, she said, "You wouldn't."

Well, tonight when we were at church, David asked me, "Don't you have something for Kenny?" I sent him back out to the car to retrieve the item. He came back in and handed it to me. I went over to Kenny and said, "I have something for you--you might be able to use it sometime." He took one look in the bag and laughed and laughed.

Okay, so you're wondering--or maybe you're smart enough to figure out already--what was in the bag. A sticky, gooky artificial eye.

Kenny's wife came up then and shared this story with us. Another man who attends our church also has a glass eye. He had been a basketball coach for a good portion of his adult life. One night, he felt the refereeing of the game had been pretty biased against his team. Towards the end of the game after one particularly bad call, he walked out onto the court, plucked out his false eye, and handed it to the ref. "Here. You need this worse than I do." Then he walked off the court.

Love to all, and God bless.

I finally voted for a winner!

It's been years since it happened--I used to say that the one way you could be assured your candidate would LOSE the election was to get me to vote for him/her. I was a lot like the character in Doonesbury who would go into the voting booth, and you would hear the sound of a flushing commode. That's me--I kept flushing my vote. Folks, I even voted for Ross PirRow!

But THIS year, we all got it right. Not just me, but America! I loved reading Mrs. All Roro's comments about the election. It's great to know that born-again Christian evangelicals weren't ALL swept up in the McCain/Palin madness, that I wasn't the only one who believed in Obama.

Congratulations to all of you who voted--as our friend in LaGrange used to say, "You done good!" Love to all, and God bless.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear Jennifer,
Happy birthday to you!

Curious George and I hope you have a good birthday. As you hear so often, "your card is in the mail!"

It's a mystery to me!

Yesterday, I got to spend a nice, quiet day at home. That doesn't happen very often, folks, despite the fact that I'm retired. The only thing on my agenda was a trip to the grocery store, since we had run out of bananas and were almost out of pop. (The bananas I could do without, but pop--that's a different matter.)

I finally got around to the place where I was ready to go to the store. When I looked in my purse for my keys, they were not there. I took everything out of the purse--every blessed thing. No keys. Nowhere, no how, no keys. My little suede pouch was missing, too, but I wasn't concerned about it. I only use it to hold nail clippers, and I had seen them on the couch. I went out and looked in the car, to see if by chance I had left them there. Nope. There was the slightest possibility that we might have driven to church with them in the trunk--nope, they weren't there either. Phooey.

I waited for David to get home from work to ask him if he had any idea where they were--like maybe he had pocketed them in the car, or he had seen them in some unusual location. Nope. We tore up Jack in the living room, even to the point of tilting back the hide-a-bed to see if they were there. Nope. I told him perhaps they were with the prescription I had filled on Wednesday, since I wasn't sure where it was, either. We located the prescription, out in the kitchen, but no keys. No keys on any flat surface, anywhere in the house. After walking around like beheaded chickens, I finally said, "Let's go to Orient Express and eat supper. I'm too flustered to try to cook." So we did. And no, we didn't find the keys there, either. (Of course I wasn't looking for them there.)

This morning I went out into the kitchen after David had left for work to fix my breakfast. I saw my purse sitting on the table, where I had left it. For some reason (now, I'm not sure what it was), I looked in the purse and saw the little suede pouch that I keep my nail clippers, mirror, and lip balm in. That was weird, since it had been missing the day before. When I picked it up, there were my keys. I was astounded. I had very carefully looked in that purse the day before, and neither the keys nor the pouch had been there. I figured David had located them before he left for work, and stuck them in my purse as a surprise.

With that in mind, I went to exercise class, to K-mart, to the podiatrist, and to the grocery store. Then I took home the small roast and au gratin potatoes I had gotten for David as a reward for finding the keys. I waited for him to come home.

When he got home, I asked him where he had found my keys. Here's the mystery, folks--he didn't find them. He figured they had been in the purse all along. I know they hadn't. Where they came from, I have no idea. I wish they could talk, so they could tell me where they went on their "explore". I guess I'll never know.

I hope all your mysteries have as pleasant outcomes, even if they leave you, like me, wondering what the heck happened! Love to all, and God bless.

Rahab the Harlot

This is one of my favorite characters, probably because I like the feeling of saying something like that in church. Rahab the Harlot. Well, actually, this is not a photograph of Rahab, but of Miss Kitty (the actress Amanda Blake). I don't think it EVER occurred to me as a child that Miss Kitty was, in fact, a harlot! There was a reason she lived over the saloon, there was a reason she dressed the way she did, there was a reason the cowboys kept going upstairs, there was a reason there were a number of fancy bedrooms upstairs...

This is a busy couple of days for me in my retired day-to-day existence. I went to a hospital auxiliary meeting this morning, got there early to chat and trouble-shoot with the bizarre committee and stayed late to help a volunteer who was working the front desk by herself. Now, other than cooking supper and washing choir robes, I'm finished with today's stuff.

Tomorrow, I have to give the Bible study at WMU on poor Rahab. For those of you who aren't familiar with her, she was (according to some Bible manuscripts) an innkeeper in the ill-fated town of Jericho. She hid some Israeli spies from the Jericho militia who intended to put them to death. In reward for her hiding them and subsequently helping them to escape from the walled city by letting them down over the wall with a rope, she and her family escaped the carnage following the fall of Jericho. I'm not sure what my focus is supposed to be on the Bible study, but I've always admired the fact that God was able to use someone like Rahab to do His work. Her job was not honorable--we would consider her a major sinner--yet she was important to God's plans for His creation.

There are more appointments tomorrow afternoon--Retired Teachers' Association meeting, flu shot (and possible chest x-ray), and the Tuesday night English class. I predict tomorrow's supper will be nothing fancy, maybe even something at a restaurant.

Take care, folks, remember that God can use you no matter what your occupation or background is, love to all, and God bless.