Traveling Towards Home

Sometimes in my Christian walk, I am accused of being legalistic or dogmatic, meaning the accuser thinks I am just checking off a 'to-do' list of how to get to heaven. I remind myself (and them, if they listen long enough) that as we keep God's commandments (the perfect law of liberty, as it states in James 1:25) we do so according to God's stipulations, not our own. It is not a card-punch system, as if to say, Well that is out of the way for today! But it is a life-style. God is able to change the heart when we come to Him in truth, and we do His will out of love for Him and to share that precious story with the lost. Many times I've been accused of being unloving in that, or legalistic, as if we are able to define these words by our own standards. Although it hurts, especially when coming from someone I care deeply about, I remind myself that God sets the standards. If someone perceives my quoting scripture or sharing what God requires for salvation, is t...

Today we visited at two nursing homes in town. It is always a pleasure, because, no matter how we sound, someone claps, or at least thanks us for coming. They are not applauding our beautiful singing. They just love having us come, sing songs they remember and maybe share an encouraging word, a pat on the back or hold their hand for a moment. The cookies are an added treat, but I think even without them they would love our visits. This time, we had our 2 eldest grandson's with us and that was the best. These older people who may not see many but their elder companions at the home, see these little faces and want to talk to them, to hold their hands. The boys were good to shake hands, say thank you for all the compliments and the four year old even helped to pass out treats. Most of those greetings brought smiles. But I saw a few sad faces, looks of rememberance of their days when their own children and grandchildren were small, and the knowledge that they now might not come...

Recently, a friend told me of watching her son parachute to the earth from 10,000 feet. She proudly described his perfect landing. Even after 34 jumps, it was only the second time he had been able to land on his feet. I do not know a lot about skydiving, but I do know I've never had an urge to jump from a plane. As I listened to her, a thought came to me that perhaps seems like a 'no brainer.' But if he wanted his parachute to open, he must pull on the chord. Then as I read on the subject, I found out there is a safety feature on modern parachutes so that if the diver does not open his chute by a certain altitude it opens automatically. That's not very technical I know, and if I were more adventurous I'd actually try this to see how it works. Think I'll just take the experts word on this. Some people believe our spiritual life is like this parachute. All they must do is say 'I believe' and their spiritual 'parachute' opens. You know, if I...