I Get To. . .

We have a special treat every Sunday afternoon when we come home from our Chapel Services at a local nursing facility.  Glen makes homemade pizza.  He makes the dough, he makes the sauce, the pepperoni is freshly sliced in our kitchen as is the cheese piled high on top.

This pizza is my very favorite in all the world to eat.  I have had incredible Chicago pizza (which I love.)  I have had great New York pizza.  But given the choice of eating either of those and eating my husband's pizza I would, without hesitation, choose his.

One of the things I love about this pizza is the process, which begins the moment we come home.  (Actually, Glen makes the dough early in the morning even before we leave.  This allows the dough time to rise sufficiently.)

While Glen works the dough, I prep the pan applying a thin coat of olive oil.  The oven is turned up to 500°.  I slice the pepperoni and Glen shreds the cheese.  Then we both begin assembling the pie.  Glen applies the sauce (because he knows if I did it there would hardly be any on the pizza.)  He sprinkles a light dusting of spices brought to us from France by our daughter Marie on her recent trip there.  The cheese is piled high and the pepperoni applied.  Of course the pepperoni and the cheese must have a "quality assurance test" to make sure they are worthy of being put on our pizza.  I prefer that to be my job.

One of my goals in this process is to have any tool Glen will need at his hand when he needs it and to remove, wash and dry any tool after it has been used.  I love it when, just as the pizza is sliding into the oven, the last dish is dried and put away.

We have done this so many times now, there is hardly any need for conversation.  We both know what needs to be done, which activities we will each perform and then we just do it.  We mutually enjoy the activity.  This is what my friends didn't understand.

I was telling them about this incredible pizza that is worth burning the roof of your mouth each Sunday, and they said, "You have to do that much work each Sunday just for pizza?"

What they didn't understand, our pizza is not a "have to"  it is a "get to."  We surely don't have to do it.  We could easily pick up a pizza from any number of pizzerias along our way home.  Or we could pay $5 for a frozen one.  But the outcome, the pleasure in the eating, would not nearly be the same.

We "get to" create this pizza for the joy of eating it, for the joy of our daughters eating it with us, and for the enjoyment the process of it's creation brings mutually to us both.

This reminds me so much of our walk as Christians.  There are things the Lord has called us each to do.  Sometimes we will be tempted to see these things as "I have to," when the truth of the matter is they are clearly "I get to" things.  I know when we do services at area nursing facilities we receive so much more blessing than we could ever give to those dear ones.  

The change in attitude, the choice to see it differently, changes our whole outlook, our focus and our experience in the matter.  We choose to see things not according to the physical, temporal view, but according to the spiritual, eternal view.  In doing so, we enter into His joy and pleasure in doing those things which He has called us to do.  It becomes not a solitary, individual event, but an event shared with the Lord who strengthens and enables us to do His will.

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 

worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 

While we look not at the things which are seen 

but at the things which are not seen; f

or the things which are seen are temporal; 

but the things which are not seen are eternal."  

2 Corinthians 4:17,18

Diesel Fuel

My father passed away seventeen years ago, but even now when I think of him I remember a scent that was a combination of diesel fuel, Vaseline hair tonic and garlic.

He was a Marine engineer and spent his life in the engine room of tugboats.  He didn't have to tell anyone, though, that he worked on diesel engines.  The smell just seem to exude out of his very pores.  His hair, his clothes and his skin had absorbed the odor.

For those who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior and who consistently follow a walk with Him through time in the Scriptures, prayer and fellowship with other Christians, don't usually have to blatantly tell anyone they are Christians.  His attitude of humility, kindness and love will exude out of them because His Spirit lives within them.  If that is not the case, then there is a problem somewhere along the line.

When we become Christians the Bible says we are become "new creatures."  The old us is passed away and we enter a life characterized by walking "in newness of life."  We may not always choose to walk by faith in this newness, but our choices do not change the fact of the matter.

Let us pray that our lives will always "exude" those qualities of our Lord's Holy Spirit who indwells our own spirits.  May we, by faith, make those choices which reveal to the world the great work of a new creation which has been wrought in us.

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him:

Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, 

as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."

 Colossians 2: 6,7

Delightful Surprise

When we entered the chapel at a local nursing facility where we do ministries, a surprise in the form of a couple and a gentleman were sitting in the front pew.  They were no strangers to us, in fact, one sight of them brought big smiles to our faces.

Yvonne and her husband, Whaddie, as well as Bob Williams, were there to surprise us.  We have known these dear Christians for years.  How we came to know them, though, was through difficult,  and often for them,  painful circumstances.

Yvonne's mother Adel had been in this nursing facility for years and they attended the chapel services together each Sunday until Adel's passing to be with the Lord.  Whaddie was often present with them, though his work obligations sometimes kept him away.

Bob's wife and also his sister were residents there at the same time and he also attended the services with them.

To say that Bob and Yvonne came to the services is not sufficient.  They ministered to everyone in that nursing facility.  Bob would frequently go up and down the halls bringing other residents to the chapel for our church services.  Yvonne spoke to everyone there, met their needs in anyway she could and just generally loved them all.

Time went by and eventually Adel, Bonnie and Pat all passed on to be with the Lord.  The days of having Yvonne, Whaddie and Bob in our services were gone, although they have been known to pop in for a visit every now and then, but never all together.

As it turns out, Bob has briefly been in this nursing facility for rehabilitation while we were on vacation and is looking forward to his discharge this week.  He called Yvonne and Whaddie and arranged for them all to be at church to surprise us.

It was so touching for us to see them again, but I was also aware of the fact that the only reason we even knew them was because they had loved ones who were in difficult, painful circumstances.  Out of the pain these wonderful care-givers experienced, they ministered life and joy and comfort to everyone around them.  These dears trusted the Lord, and the abundant provision of grace and joy and comfort He shed abroad in their hearts they were able to turn around and share with others.

Theirs was a special blessing to share with others, one born out of pain, as is the comfort our Lord shares with us "abundantly above all that we ask or think."

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, 
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, 
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 
2 Corinthians 1:4

Face to Face

Face to Face

by Mrs. Frank A. Breck

Face to face with Christ, my Savior, 

Face to face—what will it be, 

When with rapture I behold Him, 

Jesus Christ who died for me. 

Face to face I shall behold Him, 

Far beyond the starry sky; 

Face to face in all His glory, 

I shall see Him by and by! 

 Only faintly now, I see Him, 

With the darkling veil between, 

But a blessed day is coming, 

When His glory shall be seen.

Face to face I shall behold Him, 

Far beyond the starry sky; 

Face to face in all His glory, 

I shall see Him by and by! 

What rejoicing in His presence, 

When are banished grief and pain; 

When the crooked ways are straightened, 

And the dark things shall be plain. 

Face to face I shall behold Him, 

Far beyond the starry sky; 

Face to face in all His glory, 

I shall see Him by and by! 

 Face to face! O blissful moment 

Face to face—to see and know; 

Face to face with my Redeemer, 

Jesus Christ who loves me so.

Face to face I shall behold Him, 

Far beyond the starry sky; 

Face to face in all His glory, 

I shall see Him by and by! 

We have some friends in Northern Georgia whom we have only known by email.  For about fifteen years Peggy and her husband Bryan have received Glen's daily email devotional, The Special of the Day. . .From the Orange Moon Cafe.  Now and then circumstances and issues presented opportunities for communications between us. Over the years we have come to know their family as they have come to know ours, all by long-distance.

That is until last week.  When we realized our trip to Tennessee for hiking would take us near their city, we suggested a long over-due meeting.  Peggy would not hear of a simple "meet and greet" and instead opened up her house and her hospitality for us to stay with them for two days.

Now, those who know me know I am basically shy.  The thought of meeting someone for the first time, much less staying with them, can cause me to expect awkwardness.  But one moment with Peggy & Bryan brought only fellowship and camaraderie.  

I liked Peggy instantly and found her open and honest heart to be something to which I was drawn.  She was an incredible encouragement to me in ways she will never know.

 She and I have such similar beliefs, thoughts and sensibilities.  It was not as if we were meeting each other for the first time, but as if we had known each other all our lives.  Her husband Bryan is as perfect a match to her personality as Glen is to mine.  Our three days were filled with wonderful times of sharing the Lord with each other.  I left refreshed, encouraged, challenged and uplifted.

This experience, and the beautiful old hymn "Face to Face" remind me that there is another meeting which awaits those of us who are Christians.  The day will come when we will see our Lord face to face.  

As with Peggy and Bryan, this won't be a time of awkwardness or discomfort.  It will be simply meeting Someone we have known all our Christian lives.  We will be blessed by His Spirit, His love and His faithfulness.  We will find we have the same beliefs, sensibilities and goals because it is the Father's purpose to conform us to the image of His dear Son.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 

and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: 

but we know that, when He shall appear, 

we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."  

I John 3:2

"But as it is written, 

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 

neither have entered into the heart of man, 

the things which God hath prepared 

for them that love Him." 

1 Corinthians 2:9