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Recently, I was talking with one of our friends at church about "...when I was a kid..." growing up in central Kansas.  In my early childhood the winters were long, the snow was deep and walking to school was the only way to get there.  I don't think school buses had been invented yet!  The summers were hot and Mom would not let us go swimming "until" we learned how to swim.  Didn't make sense then and still doesn't.  So, we would go "swimming" in a small creek that ran through a cow pasture and played in the water without clothes, except our shorts (underwear).  I don't know how we explained how they got muddy to Mom.

While we were talking I told him that wheat does not grow as tall as it used to because it was chest-high back then!  Figure that out!  It is fun to think about the old days, but there are not very many of us who would like to go back to the "good ole days."  Many of our children do not know what it means to live where you had “4 rooms and a path.”  Or you had to carry water into the house for drinking, for cooking, and for bathing.  For the Saturday night bath, the water was heated on the kitchen stove.  Then cold water added to it, and everybody used the same water.  Guess who got to take their bath last? The kids!  Now when I think about it, I wonder IF everybody smelled the same way by the time it was "bath time"?

For Christians, many of us think about the olden days when the old time songs were sung - often all in the same key - and in every service, testimonies were the same by the same people, but still there seemed to be more togetherness than there is nowadays.

Methods change and should change, but the message of salvation must remain the same. 

There are athletes who prepare for championships of all kinds.  From the basketball season that will close in a few weeks, baseball has begun, football will soon, hockey, tennis, golf, summer Olympics and others as well.  We want to complete the journey we started when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior by "getting saved" or "born again" as recorded in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”  That message will forever remain.

 And... I believe Paul the Apostle had that in mind when he penned these words about obtaining the "prize."  "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:13-14 NASB

Training is necessary IF we are to reach our goal. It is an everyday thing that we must apply ourselves to do. Nobody can do it for us!  At times it takes something drastic to "make" us do physical exercise. For spiritual training Paul said to young Timothy in I Timothy 4 and verses 8-11 "...For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe. These things command and teach." 

Ya see in verse 8 I was looking for an excuse NOT to exercise because '...it won't do any good anyhow' and in my heart I know better.  Right? Right!

So, it doesn't matter whether the wheat doesn't grow as tall as it used too, (probably does) or the snow drifts are not as deep as they used to be, (probably are) but the summers are still hot as they used to be and as believers in the Lord Jesus, He is still the same yesterday, today and forever!" (Hebrews 13:8)

The old chorus tells it like this:  “Only to be what He wants me to be, every moment of every day; yielded completely to Jesus alone, every step of this pilgrim way: just to be clay in the Potter's hands, ready to do what His Word commands; only to be what He wants me to be, every moment of every day.” (by Norman J. Clayton, 1938).

                                                Keep me true, Lord Jesus, Keep me true!  12-Apr-07

Life is filled with memories!  Some good, some bad; but we all have memories we enjoy thinking about.  The poet writes about them.  The songwriter creates lyrics and melodies about them.  Grandparents linger around them.  Realistically, we are creating memories every day we live!

Last fall two of our great-grandchildren, along with their mother, came to deliver some flower bulbs grandma had bought.  There were 32 of them, including tulips, crocus, daffodils, well, just a nice mixture.  So that afternoon to help pass the time we went out and planted them.  Why? Because we wanted to enjoy the results when springtime came - and we are!  Thanks to Jaden and Jaxen for helping us make memories!

As parents and grandparents our goals should be to help our little ones to be much like the bulbs we planted with the expectation of having flowers to enjoy every spring.  Only recently our youngest grandson enrolled in a trade school in Austin, Texas.  Doing so required him to move there and set up his first apartment with a limited amount of furnishings to begin life on his own.  Branin has started his own memory book as an adult, and his parents are doing the same, along with his sister.  Remember, life is a book of memories and we are adding to it every day.

Are you aware the Bible is just that and more? This is one of the reasons it is so important to memorize scripture and according to the Psalmist in Psalm 119:11, “…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”  Notice the last few words “…that I might not sin against You.”  Most of us do not spend enough time “hiding His Word in our hearts” to give us power to live the life of victory that is possible for everyone.  The gray matter we possess, at least I think we possess, needs to be used to supply all the help we may need to succeed.

During my years in the U.S. Navy and in Bible College we were not only encouraged but required to memorize portions of scriptures that have to do with salvation and soul-winning.  At Mother Layne’s Hospitality Home for servicemen and women, Dad Rattan taught us the principles of witnessing and every Wednesday night at Bible Study would assign us a verse for the week.  I value these precious memories he and Mom Rattan help create in me. 

At SCBC (Southern California Bible College), located in Costa Mesa, our Personal Evangelism professor assigned us many more as life-long assignments to further our efforts to win the lost to Jesus Christ.  {SCBC is now Vanguard University.}

For people who are over 50 a common phrase is “…remember when?” Remember when the kids were small?  Remember when we planted that tree or bush?  Remember what it was like before dial telephones?  Or TV?  Or better yet, remember what a typewriter is?  My list could go on and on. 

Like the flower bulbs my great-grandchildren and I planted, keep planting the Seed of the Word into your life to create a living memory on your relationship with Jesus, our Lord.

“My HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and righteousness…

On Christ the solid ROCK I stand…!”   Ah….Memories!  30-Mar-07