It has been a busy couple of weeks.  Especially since getting back from vacation.  Lots of mail and other things to sort through.  Too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Yesterday, I put together new bookshelves and moved them in the office.  I had to hurry home to clean up for our Light For The Lost Banquet last night, so I had no time to clean up my office yesterday.  When I came in this morning, it was a mess.  You couldn’t see the bottom of my desk.  It was buried with mail, junk, files, junk, books, and junk.

This afternoon, I cleaned house.  I sorted through everything and now, the once buried desk, is now clean.  What a feeling!

Life is often like a desk that is buried with stuff.  We try to make headway, but things continue to be piled on.  Before we know it we are buried under.  Pressures weigh us down.  Hardships surround us until we feel like we can’t make it anymore.  That is when Jesus comes along and begins to pull the stuff away.  He begins to lift the burdens and to help us see the light at the end of the tunnel.

When life gets too hard and you feel buried under, remember Jesus was once buried but now He is alive and well.

If Christians had ever been brave enough to make Christ alive, nobody would now be saying that Christianity is dead.

— Winifred Kirkland

Part of our vacation was spent at Oklahoma City.  We enjoyed the sights of the Riverwalk through Oklahoma City.  By far it is one of the most beautiful downtowns I have been to.  We enjoyed eating at Zio’s Italian which overlooks the Riverwalk and then the river wraps around to Bass Pro Shops.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

Last week, we went to Bass Pro Shops in Oklahoma City.  We were looking at the boats just for fun, that is not in the budget for our household.  However, Bass Pro Shops provided us with the answer to our dilemma.  See Picture Below:

If she only knew:)

Last night in Bible study, we briefly talked about the power of God’s Word.  It has the ability to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  God’s Word is living and powerful.  The Bible has the ability to penetrate your heart like no other book.

This morning in my devotional time, I was reading in I Corinthians 10 and one of the verses arrested my attention.  In many of my writings here, I will share a verse and then discuss the verse.  Today, however, the verse needs no explanation.  It is one of those that slap you in the face and make you think.

I Corinthians 10:21-22, “²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. ²² Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

Whose table do you spend more time at?  God wants you only at His table!

“Sin lives in a costume; that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, which is part of its draw. You’ll never understand sin’s sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. … We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good.”
—Paul David Tripp

HT: Between Worlds blog

While on vacation last week, Josh and I went to hike at the Chickasaw National Refuge in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  It is a beautiful park, full of woods and hills, nestled in the town of Sulphur.  We decided to take a familiar hike along the creek that runs through the park, about a two-mile trek.

As we came to the cut-off to head back to the car, I decided for us to take a different route to the bottom of the hill and then back up.  I wanted to see the scenery down hill.  As we made it to the bottom of the hill, we made the decision to follow the road back to our car.  That 2 mile hike turned into a 5 mile journey.  We took the long way!

I am always in the mood to take pictures when we hike, about 3.5 miles, I put up the camera and “hoped” for the car to appear around any curve.  It finally appeared about a mile and half later, when we wrapped around that final bend, we found the trail again.  The car was within minutes. 

Have you ever gone the long way?  Hindsight tells us, if you don’t know what is along the road, go back the way you came.

I woke up early this morning with a question rolling through my mind and penetrating my heart.  “What are you living for?”

So, “What are YOU living for?”