Lottery Ticket

The New York State Lottery had a big winner last month. Big. Millions of dollars big. It was confirmed that one person—no sharing involved!!—bought the winning ticket a couple of days before the drawing. The only problem is that the winning ticket is lost.

Now, if it were me, if I had knowingly bought a lottery ticket and there was even a small chance that it was the winning piece of paper, I would be searching high and low for it. I would check every pocket of every pair of jeans I owned even if I hadn't worn them in years. My purse would be dumped out and all the contents would be sorted through. I would clean out the dryer's lint catcher even if that meant only finding pieces of the ticket. Nothing would keep me from searching for it.

That reminds me of a parable that Jesus told in Luke 15. In His story He shares three different situations where something is lost and how the owners go about looking for them.

The first is the lost sheep. The shepard has 100 sheep in this flock and one goes missing. When he finds the absent one, he breaks his legs and “he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” (v. 5-6)

The second is about a woman who loses one of her ten coins. She hires an overnight cleaning crew to come and search the house high and low looking for it. She finds the misplaced money and “calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’” (v.9)

The final story is about losing something even more serious and heart breaking. This story is about a man who loses one of his sons. One day the man's younger son asks his dad for his inheritance so he can go away and “live the good life.” He runs off to Vegas (OK. OK. Maybe not Vegas) and squanders away all of his money. His dad's money. He wakes up one day to discover he is broke. He is hungry. He is desperate.

The son realizes his predicament and wisely chooses to move back home. His dad, of course, welcomes him home with open arms. Actually it was more like “his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (v. 20) And I am sure he picked up his phone and called all of his friends to inform them that his son had come home and it was time to rejoice. Then he got on Face Book and posted “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” (v 23) and invited everyone over to the biggest backyard BBQ he had ever thrown.


All of these examples Jesus gives us is to remind us of how He feels when a lost soul is found. When someone puts their trust in Him and His power to save them from hell. Each illustration given is a glimpse of how we are to rejoice when one of our loved ones comes to know Jesus. How we are to be searching for the lost ones. High and low. Across the valley. Under the bed. Across the street. At the grocery store. Or even in the next cubicle.


We need to search for those who don't know Him. Then when they become believers we are to call all our friends, rejoice, and have a party. Just like I am sure the owner of the missing lottery ticket will do when he finally finds it.

What a Deal!

February 15^th is one of my favorite days of the entire year. Yes, I said the 15^th, not the 14^th. That is because I can get flowers, chocolate and balloons at half price. Yes, the retailers over-purchasing is my reward.

Moreover, I really like the sales after any major holiday. I usually find amazing offers on sweaters and jackets the last week of December. The day after Easter brings on my beloved Cadbury eggs. November 1^st fills the candy jar for the entire year. I love half price anything!

Then, of course, there are even better sales. Kohl's often has some of my favorite clothes marked down 50-70%. Hobby Lobby seems to always have one of their store's sections marked down by 88%. I frequent Good Will stores because I know it won't cost much. And if I am really lucky, the item I want is half off their already incredibly low prices. That's a deal!

But, of course, free is even better! But you have to be careful. Just like the saying goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Most of the time “free” does not always mean you get it for nothing. Sometimes it means you have to buy one at full price to get the second free—usually referred to as BOGO sales. Or the door-to-door salesman will offer you a free estimate only if you choose to have his company fix anything they find wrong. Recently, we won a “free” cruise for our anniversary to find out that we “only” had to pay about $1000 in hidden fees and taxes. Sometimes free can really be expensive.

But I do know something that you can get for free. Genuinely, free. It has been offered to all of us at no cost. No hidden fees. No taxes. No fine print. A gift for the taking. And the best part is that it is not only free it is also wonderful. I guarantee the best gift you will ever be offered!

“But God gives his people a free gift—eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Eternal life! That is way better than a box of chocolates or discounted roses. Getting to live in heaven forever, for free. That is an amazing deal. An amazing grace.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the (free) gift of God” Ephesians 2:8

If you don't have this gift yet you need to put it on your wish list. Ask someone about it. Call your pastor. Call a friend. Call me.  You'll be glad you did. Then after we get eternity taken care of we will go find some other great deals.

The Flight

This crossed my desk today.  And being that I am way too tired to come up with a blog of my own, well... I thought I would share it with you.  Hope you enjoy.

A 50- something year old white woman arrived at her seat on a crowded flight and immediately didn't want the seat. The seat was next to a black man. Disgusted, the woman immediately summoned the flight attendant and demanded a new seat. The woman said "I cannot sit here next to this black man." The fight attendant said "Let me see if I can find another seat." 

After checking, the flight attendant returned and stated "Ma'am, there are no more seats in economy, but I will check with the captain and see if there is something in first class." About 10 minutes went by and the flight attendant returned and stated "The captain has confirmed that there are no more seats in economy, but there is one in first class. It is our company policy to never move a person from economy to first class, but being that it would be some sort of scandal to force a person to sit next to an UNPLEASANT person, the captain agreed to make the switch to first class." 

Before the woman could say anything, the attendant gestured to the black man and said, "Therefore sir, if you would so kindly retrieve your personal items, we would like to move you to the comfort of first class as the captain doesn't want you to sit next to an unpleasant person." Passengers in the seats nearby began to applause while some gave a standing ovation.

The Eulogy of Annie Smaller

This is the first installment of a series that I started on January 5, 2012.  You might want to go back and read that one.  Scroll down a little.  On the left hand side there will be a list of previous blogs.  Click on January.  Then click on Pre-U's.  I hope you enjoy the read.  Then get out there and tell someone how much you love them before you loss them.

The Eulogy of Annie Smaller

Pre-U Series; Volume 1

Annie is one of the most caring and giving people I know. She not only would give you the shirt off her back, she would drive to the store, buy you a pantry-full of food, fill up your gas tank, scrub your floor, make you dinner and put the kids to bed with a smile on her face and no shirt on her back. She is simply amazing.

No matter what time of day—or night—she will come running to your rescue. I know. She has done it for me. After knowing Annie for a couple of yeas we had to do just that. We had to call her in the middle of the night to come rescue us. It was the night of our car wreck. I my panicky moment of understanding the severity of the wreck I could only remember one phone number. Hers. She immediately woke her husband (I am sure that didn't go over well.), loaded up her kids and came to our aide. Of, course she did. That is the kind of girl she is.

Not only does she come running in times of need she is also right there if we need something at home. She often comes over to help me prune, plant or pick my flowers She lets me know when she finds a great sale on something she knows I might need. She calls to check on us if we miss school or church just to see if there is anything she can do to help.

And as if helping out her friends isn't enough, Annie has several jobs in which she is serving others. She is the director at a retirement home where she assist the elderly. She works at the local flower shop where she makes funeral arrangements for grieving families. She is the MOPS coordinator where she loves on and helps guide young moms. She often goes home to her aging parents to help them take care of their house and yard. All while raising two young boys.

And if that wasn't enough, she uses her spare time to volunteer at the church. She goes in and does random jobs like folding bulletins, cleaning up rooms or organizing a luncheon. But her biggest task is coordinating all the meals for families in need. And that is only the jobs I know about.

Yes, Annie is a busy and wonderful person. We should all strive to be more like her. I am proud to call her my friend.

Who's Here?

I have been journaling in this blog for a some time now. I have discovered that I thoroughly enjoy sharing my life with this form of media. I find myself thinking of how to connect events in my life in a blog for others to enjoy or even learn from.

One of the most interesting things I have come to discover is who is actually reading my written ramblings. And who isn‘t. I have no way of knowing who actual reads the entries. I only can track how many have read it and on which days.

I have been stopped before by people that I had no idea were reading this blog that comment on something I wrote. While there are others who I write this blog for who just haven’t had time to read it yet. I do, however, have fans that are always complimenting me on something here. (Thanks Tylers!)

The trouble is that I am surprised at who has and who hasn’t read it.

So it got me to wondering. Do you think this is how it is going to be the day we get to heaven? Are we going to be surprised by who’s there? Or better yet, who’s not? Are we going to look around and wonder, “How did you get in here?” Or worse yet, “Where is Jack? I thought for sure he would be here.”

Kind of makes me sad. Not knowing. Maybe I should be more direct with my friends and family in asking them if they know the true and living God. The God who can forgive us of our sins. The only One who can guarantee our place in heaven.

Maybe you should too. Maybe we all should. We should be asking everyone we know if they know Him. And if they don't we can introduce them to The Forgiver. The Redeemer. The Savior.

It will give us something better to do than read read (or write) blogs. That's for sure.

My Birthday..sort of

Thirteen years ago today I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I can honestly say that I am a new creature. (2 Cor 5:17) I traded in my drunkenness for the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18) and my promiscuity for love from One. (John 16:27)

I am God's child. (Gal 4:7) I am a co-heir of Christ. (Romans 8:17) And I have life eternal. (Titus 3:7)

Because of all of that I have hope.

But when I was first introduced to the Bible I wasn't quite so hopeful.

Before I became a Christian, at the ripe old age of 26, I had never personally owned a Bible let alone read one. My parents did, however, own a Bible when I was young. Of course we did. We went to church—at least twice a year!

I distinctly remember that our Family Bible made a wonderful flower press because of its enormous size. And a great centerpiece piece because it sat in the middle of our coffee table. But to open it up and read it was nothing that even crossed my mind.

So when I accepted Christ as my Savior I decided that I needed to start reading the letters that He wrote to me. Some dear, dear friends bought me my first Bible but warned me that it wasn't necessarily a book that was read from cover to cover.

Dully noted.

So the next day I called the associate pastor at my new church. I explained I was a new believer. I owned a Bible but didn't know where to start. He agreed that the Genesis-to-Revelation approach was not the best. He simply stated I should start in The Gospels.

Great. Thanks.

With that I hung up the phone and opened the Holy Writ and flipped through the pages to find The Gospels. And I flipped. And I flipped. And I flipped. Then I cried. I couldn't find it. So I did what an intelligent woman would do, I checked the Table of Contents. It was not there. No where in the list of seemingly 100 names of books was there one titled The Gospels. Oh no! Did I have the incorrect Bible? How could it not be in this one? What was I doing wrong?

I quickly called the pastor back. I calmly stated that my particular Bible did not include a book called The Gospel but if he had a page number I would try to find it.

He chuckled. I did not.

He then proceeded to tell me that the first four books of the New Testament where called The Gospels and that they were written by four different men that knew Jesus. Of course I thought they were called the “Knew Testaments” because the authors knew Christ. But I later learned that was incorrect also.

To clear things up, he suggested I start my new quest in the Book of John. I thought that sounded fine. I remembered seeing a book by that name. We hung up with each other again.

I opened my trusty book. Wasting no time I turned immediately to the Table of Contents. There it was. John. Four times!! Are you kidding? Four Johns? I knew it was a popular name but give me a break! Which one did he mean? Some were numbered. One was not. Was I supposed to start with number one? Or was the one without a number the prequel?

At this point I was weeping. Uncontrollably. How could I be so stupid? I never thought trying to read God's Word would be so difficult. But it was.

After several more conversations with a now weary pastor, I made it to the correct page. I sat down (hours after I had begun) and read my very first chapter. I was confident that now that I had the proper starting point all would be fine.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Here's what I read:

John 1

The Eternal Word

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.


What?! What ever happened to “Once upon a time...” or “It started out to be a cold and rainy day when...”


To say that I was confused is an understatement.


Luckily, I made my way through it. God gave me wonderful teachers and understanding friends to come along side of me. They taught me not only how to read the Bible but answer my endless questions of how and why things happened or didn't happen. He placed me in countless Bible studies which gave me a desire to read and learn more.


Now I am in The Word daily. I can't imagine not. I find that it is the best way to have a conversation with The True and Living God. And I still use that same Bible that was given to me...even if it doesn't have a book called The Gospels.

Long Live the King!

Author's Note:  This blog was written last October when we went on vacation.  I, however, just found it in the "needs to be posted" folder.  Enjoy.

Dagnabit!!! I brought the wrong one. How does this happen?

After weeks of planning, preparing and packing for vacation, I thought I had everything our family of six would need. I filled suitcase after suitcase full of clothes for the week. I made sure everyone had clean socks and underwear. I grabbed all the toothbrushes. I remembered to get a collection of “travel activities” including but not limited to various movies to watch, books to read and pages to color. We were all set.

At the last minute I decided I didn't want to take my big bulky study Bible. Instead I found another one and took it off the shelf. So upon choosing which blessed book to bring on our journey I simply snatched the smallest one.

I realize that there are several people around the world that have never owned and will never own their own Bible. I, however, am truly blessed in that we possess various versions and numerous copies of God's Word. We simply have dozens copies of the Holy Writ.

So what are the chances that I would end up hundreds of miles from home. Miles away from my piles upon piles of my beloved Bibles—to discover that the one I selected was The King James Version. Really? I brought the most difficult one to read.

Is it still Holy Scripture? Yes. Will it have all the verses I need? Yes. Was it written in English? Well..that is debatable.

And trust me when thy tellest thou that when thou readist words written for the king of James in a language that was used centuries ago, thou doesn'tist want to readist any furthermore.

I think I would have been better off if I would have retrieved our Santa Biblia. I can translate “Hesus te amo” much easier than this.

Long live the King! (But, I, for one, am glad that King James is dead.)