Author: admin

Back in the 90’s I worked as a landscaper for Ouachita Baptist University. One hot, dry summer, like we are experiencing in central Arkansas at this time, I was introduced to water retaining gels and surfactants. When the soil really gets dry, it won’t absorb water. There is a change in the molecular structure of the soil so water is repelled. That effect was demonstrated to me at a landscaping seminar. The man took a clear glass with dry peat moss in it. He poured water on top of the peat moss. The water just sat there. It was not soaking in. He then took a bottle of surfactant and squeezed out a good long squirt into the water. You could see how the water instantly started soaking into the dry peat moss. The “wetting agent” did the job at the molecular level, allowing the water to soak in. I was also introduced to water retaining gels that could be mixed in the soil to absorb moisture that the plant could draw on for an extended period of time. The crystals looked like rock salt, but when they swelled with water they were like large ice cubes of clear jelly. This was also used as an aid in the landscaping operation to help plants with getting water in hot, dry seasons.

Many people experience being “dry” spiritually. Their walk with the Lord is uneventful and mundane. They go to church but do not really experience the overflowing joy and solid peace that is portrayed in the Word of God. They don’t experience miracles like Jesus and the early church demonstrated. They feel trapped in life with no hope of change. Dry. No water to be had. But, there is a holy surfactant that can change all that. It is to get before the Lord in your “prayer closet” and lay out your life to him and ask him to do the work in you by the power of his Spirit to fill you with his Spirit. Jesus said if you are thirsty and come to him, he will give you living water so you don’t thirst again (John 4:14; 7:37-39). That is a wonderful promise. Plus, that same Spirit coupled with the Word, will be a constant source of thirst quenching life which you can draw on daily. That is your holy water retaining gel. If our religious doctrine or thinking does not allow us to pursue God for his fullness as he has demonstrated in his Word, then we need to change our thinking and our doctrine and just believe and follow the Word of God. It is either that, or we will just be like that glass of peat moss with the water just sitting there, available, but not soaking in. We remain dry as a bone while all the time, with just one good soaking of the Holy Spirit, we could be experiencing abundant life. Jesus freely gives the abundant life and power of the Holy Spirit.

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Barb’s three girls and their husbands regularly get together at our house to play Mexican dominos. It is a relaxed time of visiting with one another catching up on current events of each one’s life and whatever else. The particular set of white dominos we have (which reminds me, I might go shopping for another set today), offers the double blank with an ever slightly grayish cast of color, depending on the light and the angle you are looking at it. This is not normal, and it is not good. Since the double blank is the highest value of domino in the game, if you get stuck with it at the end of the round, you have 50 points against you. So, when everybody chooses their dominos for the round, everybody is being very careful to not choose the double blank. However, sometimes it is chosen for a hand because, like I said, sometimes the light at that moment and the angle you are looking at the dominos allows you to choose it without meaning to. Plus, since the color difference is so slight, I think your eyes get “color weary”, and all the dominos start looking slightly grey. Anyway, it can be frustrating sometimes, and we have not gathered to be frustrated, so I might make the investment for a new set, hopefully with the colors of the dominos all being exactly the same. Then, the whole group of players will all have the same chance to either get the double blank or not without the careful picking and choosing.

Life has its grey dominos. There are people, events, situations, and places that can be 50 points against us in a big way. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray daily, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” and to “watch” (Matthew 6:13; 24:42). Sometimes the angle we look at things and the cast of the light and being color weary can be leading us to make choices that will count against us if not properly dealt with. The value of walking closely with the Lord Jesus, feeding on his Word and drinking of his Spirit daily, is that he helps us see things clearly and make proper choices. Then, if we have chosen poorly, he can help us play out that hand according to his way and his wisdom. It all goes back to daily dependence on him. If we employ his help by committing our life to him and establishing a relationship with him on a daily basis, then we have that daily assistance that he offers. He gave his life for us to be freed from sin and to walk with him. He allowed his body to be broken so we could be healed and made whole in every way. In a daily communion with him, remembering what he has done helps us play out the game of life avoiding the pitfalls of the double blank. The key is daily Word and Spirit.

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Cypress vines are a beautiful lacey vine with little red star shaped flowers. They self-sow readily making them invasive to the landscape scene, but if not wanted, they can easily be pulled with the weeds and grass that is growing in the bed. On the outside of the dog pen fence I have a treated 2×6 board serving to reinforce the bottom of the fence. Some of the seeds from last year’s vines fell along the outside of the fence beyond the board some 6 to 10 inches away. Also, right by that area there is a slanted wooden ramp covered in outdoor carpet. As I observed the cypress vine seedlings starting to come up, at first they grew straight up for 2 or 3 inches. Then over a period of days I watched as the little seedlings started leaning over toward the fence some 6 to 12 inches away. The ramp was closer to them, but for some reason, they leaned toward the fence. I continued to observe in the next days as they stretched the 6 to 12 inches over to the fence and started climbing the fence. Soon, as with last year, the fence will be covered in cypress vines and its beautiful little blossoms. The vines do not get to be all that woody and tough, so at the end of the season, they will easily be stripped from the fence and we will be ready for next year’s crop. The question is, How do those vines know to go up and over to the fence instead of toward the ramp, a support that is actually closer to them? What makes them reach in the direction of the fence instead of the ramp? They grow from the ground through mid air to one or the other, the fence or the ramp, and not one vine is going toward the ramp. You know that if the God of the universe has a plan for the little cypress vines for them to prosper, don’t you know he has a plan for our prosperity? Jesus taught us to trust him, “Take no thought” or “Do not be anxious” about things of life, but know that your heavenly Father cares and has good things for you (Matthew 6:24-34). As Jesus and the early church demonstrated, God will heal all who come to him believing, he will deliver from the oppression of the devil, he will even raise the dead unto his glory. It’s all in the Book for us to read and apply to our lives by faith in Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever whether you and I believe it or not (Hebrews 13:8). God will guide us daily in this life, but we need to be born again, baptized in water and in the Spirit, and learn to be led by the Spirit in order to hook up with his perfect plan for us. Following Jesus leads us into God’s plan and eternal prosperity.

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Squirrels on the bird feeders has always been a constant source of irritation to my wife. I invented a device that keeps them out while preserving the looks and the function of the bird feeders on the shepherd hooks. On one, the inside barrier wires I used were of a light, 14 guage copper and after about three years of keeping squirrels out, one of the smaller, more persistent squirrels was able to push its way through and get to the top. He thought he was hot stuff. Now he could just shimmy his way right up that pole and get through and eat away. We watched the show for a couple of days, then I used some other type wire and he could no longer get through. Was he miffed! Up and down the pole, up and down, he was doing all he could, but now he could not get through. Then, he went to another pole that had a device that was a shorter design, and eventually he figured out a way to jump from the bottom of it to the feeders. I made a couple of slight adjustments on that one, and now all the feeders remain squirrel free.

Sometimes there are persistent forces coming against us to rob us of what is rightfully ours. Peace, joy, health, healing, power to live victoriously and abundantly in this life – these are just a few things that can be gnawed away from us. We can just sit back and watch the show, or, we can do something about it. If we are going to effectively deal with issues, we need to approach it in three ways. There is a spiritual dimension that needs to be addressed, there is an emotional/mental dimension of it, and there is a physical dimension of it. The first thing we must assess is what does God’s Word say about it? What is God’s way in the matter? Prayer and declaring the Word into the situation is the first step. Next, we make whatever personal mental/emotional adjustments needed. Sometimes this requires a choice for forgiveness of self or of others. Third, what physical adjustments need to be made? Is a change of diet and lifestyle needed? Are there meds that should be taken or left off? If a physical check up is needed, why delay? Why just sit there and watch the show of physical health or spiritual health being taken from you? The good news of Jesus is that he came to give abundant life for our spirit, our soul, and our body, but it requires some cooperation of our part. It requires for us to make some adjustments in the way we believe, and in what we do, or in what we don’t do. It requires choice. We either choose to watch the squirrels get through and eat away at our life, or we take a three-fold stance to make adjustments in our life and win. God will always help us to win.

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Memories are powerful influencers. Our family over the years was not one to call and talk to each other every day, or every month, or even in a year’s time. This year I determined to change that. I now make it a practice to call my elder brother, Richard, who lives near Atlanta, GA once a month, usually somewhere in the first part of the month. Mom, Dad, Sis, and Joe have passed on, so now it’s just us. We both enjoy catching up on our latest escapades and activities. Richard is twelve years older than me, and I have always looked up to him. When I was about seven and he was in college, he would let me hang out with him. I knew a lot of his friends and he took me a lot of places around town. He had an old beat up Ford pickup truck in those days that had no doors on it. It was cold weather and he took me with him on a trip down toward Gurdon to see somebody about something. When we returned home, I was so cold and stiff, he had to come around and lift me out of the seat of the truck and carry me in the house. That incident stuck in my mind ingraining a picture in my mind of a caring brother. One day I learned that his favorite color was green. From that moment until now, my favorite color is green. When I shop for shirts, I find myself always gravitating toward the green shirts. The positive influence he stamped on my life endures to this day – and I’m now 71. One time he said when it is raining, you should never go over 55 mph since the possibility of hydroplaning increases dramatically at speeds faster than that. You know what I think of every time I am driving in the rain? Yep. I remember that statement Richard made.

When we walk in a relationship with the Lord Jesus and we “hang out together with him”, he has a very positive, lasting influence on our life. Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Jesus wants to be our ruling Lord so we can hear his guiding word for our good, but he also wants to be the friend to us who is even closer to us than a brother. Not only does the influence of Jesus in our life afford peace, joy, consolation, and a joyful, confident anticipation of spending an eternity in his presence. He also provides supernatural strength, healing, and health if we will remember, believe and apply his Word and Spirit in our life. Daily communion is all about remembering what Jesus has done for us. By hearing and remembering his Word and yielding our life to his Spirit, we can enjoy his supernatural power and loving care for us daily. By calling him and talking, we can enjoy his continued positive influence in our life.

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We have two little twenty pound terrier type dogs who are brothers, Waylon and Willy. Barb saw Waylon by the shop, and with one look into his eyes asked him, “Waylon, what are you guilty about?” It looked like a leaf hanging from his mouth. Upon closer examination, we discovered what we saw was a little baby bunny hanging out of his mouth. I gently took the little rabbit from him. It was still very much alive, apparently unharmed except for a small scratch on its back leg. I said to Waylon, “Waylon, show us where you got this. Take us to the den.” We stood there. I repeated the command. Slowly and sort of sadly, going against everything in his nature, Waylon started walking toward the back line of the property, along the path through the woods, to a tree near the back line. He went up to its base and just stood there looking down. Sure enough, there was the hole down in the ground, lined in fur and leaves, with two other baby bunnies in it. With much petting and reassuring praise to Waylon for his good work, I returned the captive back to its little den and covered it with leaves. I have kept an eye on them each morning and each evening for days now, and the mother rabbit has continued to care for the bunnies. At this writing, the baby bunnies are about ready to hop out of their little confinement to get out and make it on their own.

It was very obvious that Waylon was doing something he knew would not be pleasing to his master. Guilt was written all over him. When we are carrying guilt, we are not really happy. It gnaws at our inner being. That is good. That means we can do something about it. If there is no gnawing, that means there is no conscience concerning natural and wrong. The good news is that as we find ourselves to be guilty, we can relinquish our natural way to our Master and he will go with us to the source of guilt to make things right. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been offered once for all so that as we find ourselves guilty, we can lay it all out before him for resolution. Guilt brings a nagging burden that we carry every day. When we take ownership of what we have done wrongly or harmfully, the Master will work with us to make things as right as they can be made. Sometimes consequences cannot be reversed. The one little bunny was dead a couple of days later. I removed it from the nest for the two others to continue to grow. We must give our burdens to the Master and make sure it does not happen again. He will help us stay in line. The key is to commit our lives to please the Master and to trust him to take care of things beyond our ability.

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Cleaning up some very large bamboo cane along the creek that borders our property, rewarded me with some very fine splinters in one of my fingers. It happened to be the same finger that I shot a nail through, and into the next finger, a couple of years ago. And, a couple of days before I got the bamboo splinters, in that same finger I had already gotten a couple of splinters off an old door I was sanding. The finger painfully swelled and needed surgery to really fix it, but I opted for the antibiotic only from the medical field. After preparation for self-surgery – alcohol, sharp knife, etc., I realized the one set of splinters was broken off too deep for me to deal with, and the bamboo splinters were too fine to even be seen, much less to be dug out. Plus, the pain to dig around so deep – it was way too much. So, I just let it go and continued with the antibiotic. Now, with the month or so that has passed, that finger has a hard knot within it. No doubt, the flesh has encapsulated the cane splinters as the defense mechanism God has set up to deal with such neglect of remedy. Now, there is no pain, just a knot a little less than the size of a black-eyed pea in my finger. I guess it will be there till my dying day.

Here’s the deal. In life we get splinters between us. We’ve all been stuck and we have all stuck somebody with a harsh word, a misunderstanding, a misdeed, and on it goes unlimited. We can go to the heavenly Father and deal with it his way, or we can just let it go and get calloused over the matter. God’s way to deal with offences is that we each humble ourselves before God and before each other. We are to lay the cards on the table of how we either gave offence or were offended. We are to confess our faults one to another. Then, we are to pray for each other. According to the Word, this is what brings about a healing (James 5:14-16). The offence, the splinter, is not just internalized and calloused over. It is removed and real healing takes place, because our mutual trust is placed in God who is the healer. This is how the Master Physician handles it. We might make a shallow apology and live in a calloused condition, but doing it God’s way brings complete healing. Complete healing is better. The offense, the splinter, being calloused over, is a condition of hardness. We want to remain tender toward God and toward each other. Doing it God’s way helps us to be sensitive to God’s needs and desires and to each other’s needs and desires. Jesus Christ paid for us to have overflowing abundant life. Abundant life is living in peace, joy, harmony, and with a mind to love and help one another.

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A little over ten years ago I rescued a couple of pups out of an eight foot deep dry well that was under an old house. Their breed is unknown, but they have strong similarities to a Cairn Terrier and a Portuguese Podengo Pequeno. Whatever they are, they have been my little furry buddies for these years. They did live in the house when I lived in Arkadelphia with free access to the fence enclosed yard via doggie doors. It was discovered that pet dander was causing breathing problems with my wife. So when we moved to Benton, I built the little boys a house. They are twenty pounds each, so I built a house in proportion to their size. It has wall to wall carpet on a thick foam pad. It has a padded sleeping box inside, and I have provided both a heater and an air conditioner to take care of seasonal extremes. All the padding and carpet is easily changed out from time to time as they become soiled. Their little house is raised with an open dirt “basement” underneath so they can lay in the cool dirt under the house in the hot summer time and still see what’s going on around them. They have a lookout deck positioned so they have full view of the back yard and a view of the driveway and street that goes in front of our house. Their house is in an approximately 12 x 12 fenced yard, joining to one of our storage sheds. I try to turn them out to walk them twice a day for good health. Their names are Willy and Waylon, and they will sing a tune when they start chasing one of the rabbits that hang out in the back yard.

Every day I see a picture of God’s love in action. I provide for them everything they need, and I am greeted with unbridled love and joy. They know I won’t hurt them and I will protect them and rescue them when they get in trouble. Their training is by word repetition, and reward. Displeasure is shown when they do those things they know not to do. God’s love for us is such that he has provided abundance of all we need through his Son, Jesus Christ. He will never do bad things to us. Satan, flesh, and life itself will do that. Sometimes we get ourselves in trouble. But God’s love is there to rescue. We can be confident in that. When we know our loving Father, we trust him, knowing that together with him we can make it through. When we submit to his discipline, we are free to “run in the yard” in liberty. When we walk with him by his word and in the power of his Spirit, we experience unbridled love and joy in daily life. It is not a chore to walk with him. It is the highlight of the day. Father God is a wonderful master.

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Barbara’s sister, Betty, vowed she would not get on an airplane under any circumstances. Betty would not even get on a Ferris wheel! Her husband, Dewayne, started having classic symptoms of a heart attack. Betty and Dewayne live way out in the country, a 40 minute drive into Little Rock. With the 911 call, it was decided he would be air lifted to the hospital. The helicopter landed in the pasture behind their house, and as they loaded Dewayne and made preparations to depart, Betty was invited to go on the helicopter with Dewayne. Betty’s reply was this: “I’ve been by his side for these sixty two years, and I am not going to be apart from him now.” With the assistance of the pilot and the medic, she stepped on one’s bent leg while the other one steadied and helped to lift her right into the co-pilot’s seat. They strapped her in and away they flew. She did fine with the short flight to the hospital. They got them safely to the hospital and Dewayne is doing well. We visited with them a few days after the incident after they went back home, and got the whole story in full detail.

The power of love will enable us to do things that we thought we could not do. We have watched Betty stand by her man in many incidences for many years. She stands before all as a faithful wife and a faithful believer in the Lord, who reflects some of the same love that God has for us all. The Bible says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. When we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit to overflowing, as Betty did at an early age, we have the love of God dwelling in us. While our natural love might fail, God’s love in us will never fail (1 Corinthians 13: 8). It is God’s strength that resides in us by the Spirit of God to enable us to do the will of God and overcome natural fears and inhibitions. The Bible says this love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). This is the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit to overflowing. This was demonstrated on the day of Pentecost with the first church. They were hidden behind closed doors for fear of those same Jews who had killed Jesus. After they were filled with the Spirit, with no fear, they boldly confronted the Jews and all the gathering people with the good news of the resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Through the infilling of the Spirit and the operation of the love of God in supernatural healing power, multitudes of people were reached with the gospel and lives were changed for the better. This is the answer for our world today – our hearts and lives changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit of love.

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Life is like a coin given to us. How we spend or invest it determines the return received. That coin has two sides. On one side is the Almighty, All-knowing Sovereign God, whose name is “I AM” (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58). With God is his supreme purpose, plan, power, and his unlimited provisions. He is the One True God to be feared and reverenced as such. The secret things belong to God but that which is revealed belongs to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law he has given (Deuteronomy 29:29). That brings us to the other side of the coin – Man’s Responsibility. We are responsible to get all the knowledge and provisions of God that we can. He has provided full salvation in Christ. To neglect or only get part of what God has for us is in Christ is to deny ourselves abundant life now, and eternal rewards hereafter. God has revealed that we are to be born again by the operation of his Spirit working in our lives revealing the love of God and the finished work of Jesus on our behalf (John 3). In our commitment to follow Jesus, we are to be baptized, immersed, in water just like Jesus. To live out the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven, we are to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and give ourselves to learn to be led by the Spirit in everyday life. God has revealed there is one Body in Christ in which Jesus Christ is Lord, with a singular mission to get the good news of Jesus out to the whole world (Isaiah 52:7, 8). There are over 30,000 denominations of Christianity, yet we are one Body in Christ. Through Christ we are one coin with God. That is awesome! We experience results of being one with God’s purpose, plan, power, and provision, by keeping our focus being on Him instead of on particular religious views and practices. In this way our lives exhibit his love for us and his power working in our lives. With our focus on him, his Word, and his Way, we remain true to him instead of denying him by an infinite number of religious distractions (Acts 2:38, 39; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 4:1-7). This is the coin given to us to either spend on ourselves or invest in the kingdom of God. If we spend it on ourselves, we only get what we spend it on. The good news is if we invest our life in the kingdom of God, not only do we get abundant life to enjoy here now, but we also have an exponential growth of eternal rewards laid up in heaven. The apostle Paul is still winning souls for Jesus today through his focus on God and his writings. He invested his coin wisely. We can do the same. It is never too late to start a fresh walk with God.

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