Tag Archives: mama

A Little Here a Little There

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Every once in a while, mama would take me to the five and dime in Salem Oregon. We would walk through, buy a few things, and then she would take me to the tiny restaurant. I always had a hot chocolate. I was too young to remember what she always ordered. I suspect it was coffee. And didn’t she loves her coffee.  
We didn’t go there on Monday. Or any other day during the week. It was always on Saturday. But I remember when that changed. And I remember it made me happy.  

One time we went there on a Sunday! I remember the year when America broke it’s pact with the sacred day. And yes it made me happy.  

It was a small change in the fabric of America. But it was a dynamic change that introduced all these things we see today.  
They didn’t love God enough to even give him a time of rest from all their greedy pleasures. And once they took the small step, seeing he did nothing, they went on to gain more for themselves.  
I grew up despising God’s ways, just like I’d been taught. And I see how ashamed I am of the life I led. But here I am writing about the reason why America is so messed up. My testimony is that God has come to me to love me despite the things I did. And by the end of this writing you will see why that’s important.  
Every time someone turns away from God a little, a little more turning away is coming. I remember the year America turned away a little and I have seen it plummet from there. They are not finished turning away a little more. I wish I had a better word for the people of my own country. But they don’t offer any further truthful choices.  
I don’t want to leave today’s writing as if on a sour note. I want to leave a specific encouragement: return to God and he will return to you. Throw off the teachings of society and return to the things that are good.  
I know the odds. But It is right to say the following. It is not too late for America if they will strive to return to God. And isn’t this a strategic time? I have it on good authority that Donald Trump will be a just president. Justice will be his focus. What an opportune envelope of time for America to reach to the God of justice.  
As a nation we may well be finished. I can’t say I trust my fellow citizens ambitions. But I didn’t write this primarily for the nation. The primary purpose of this writing is every individual who will read it.  
What is the first and greatest commandment? Isn’t it that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our mind and with all our strength and with all our will? Then we will be able to love our brothers properly. 1, 2…… not 2, 1. Get the Commandments in order. Or the chance of anything changing is nihil (A Latin word meaning nothing).  
Don’t just know about him. Come to know him. As long as we are ashamed of him he will be a shamed of us. Brothers and sisters, I assure you that matters.  

Love is Life

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Two roads diverged, in a vast wilderness. From the womb they went separate directions. Unknown to her, the mother gave birth to a broken heart.  

One was full of love and nurturing, and never ceased to be straight. As soon as it could stagger, the other road turned a crooked difference away.  


Mama and her son.  


From time to time the roads would intersect. But the traveler wore a knapsack full of deviance. Worn and tattered as it was, he had no intention of laying it down.  


When he would come near, mama would speak with every resource she had. “I love you. Come home and love me.”


Sometimes he would stay. But he never could love his mother. Eventually he would go back on his crooked path. Eventually the flood of tears would come to mama.  


Again and again and again and again, sorrow broke her heart.  


The mother died alone. A few decades later, the son also died. Estranged in life, estranged in death, estranged from each other for eternity.  


The horror of this story dragged on for 40 years. And the horror of the story is forever written in stone.  


How many billions of times must this story be written!

……………………………


The point of the story may be hidden from most who read it. If you understood it before now you are one of the very few.  


Nothing can change the will of a man to love. No words, no deeds, no pleading, no promises, no rewards, nothing. If a man will not love willingly he will not love at all.  


And if anyone had told the man, “You should go home and love your mother”, he would’ve been filled with indigence. Isn’t pride lord over deviant hearts?


Isn’t this the plight of our God? So willing to embrace ALL humanity. So deeply craving to be loved, so that he can give Life. But in almost everyone, he is considered a last resort. He’s just a place of warmth, security, familiarity, food, clothing, and trinkets.  


He promises eternal peace to those who love him. But like the man who could not love his mother, greed for the things she would leave him when she died is not the same as love while she was living.  


There are no words I can say. There is no deed I can do. There is nothing outside of a person that can change the will of anyone to love God. We either love him or we don’t. And if we don’t we never will.  


No promise of reward, no threat of destruction, no encouragement from our brothers, nothing. Salvation to glory forever rest in the will of every person. God is willing, are we?


And by this I am struck with amazement, even in myself.  


“Many are called but few are chosen.”