Dad, Bobbi & Keys to the Kingdom

Yesterday a co-worker called in to the office.  She stated she would be late as she couldn't find her keys.   Later in the day she called back in.  She said that her husband had put her keys in a silly place thinking it would be funny.  Unfortunately he forgot where that place was.  Eventually they did find the keys and she sent him promptly to town.   I am sure the reason was because she didn't want to go to jail for murder.

This reminded me of a time my father lost his keys.  At that time my oldest daughter and I were staying with my parents temporarily.  My husband had taken a job in a nearby state and I was 7 months pregnant.  Bobbi was about 20-21 months old at that time.  Dad needed to go somewhere and couldn't find his keys.  My parents, my sister and I tore the place apart looking for the keys.  We could not find the keys anywhere.  As you can probably imagine, it is quite futile to ask a toddler if they know where grandpa's keys are at.  I think we'd pretty much given up hope of finding them.  I do not know why my father thought of doing it, but he decided to look in the trash.  He found his keys.  I hadn't thought of that for many years, but that fond memory was brought back courtesy of my co-worker's husband.
So what are the keys to the kingdom?  Generally, this phrase refers to Matthew 16:19. "King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be what has been bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be what has been loosed in heaven."
God is a good God and a good Father.  All gifts come from Him.  He cares about us and gives us the tools we need for this life.  This gives the believer great authority.  With great authority comes greater responsibility.  Responsibility in a crude form actually means response to God.  How we respond to God determines the amount of authority we have and we can walk in.  It also sets a precident.  We can bind whatever is already bound in heaven.  Ditto for loosing.  This doesn't mean we can loose wickedness as wickedness is not loosed in heaven.  Also Jesus stated He only did what He saw the Father do.  What we as a believer loose or bind must be in the will of the Father.
I believe that it is time that the body of Christ rise up and take up that authority.  We will be judged for our apathy.  It is time to move.  Armies move.  Living things move and grow.  The church has grown stagnant.  A fresh wind of the Spirit is blowing.  The harvest is here.  It's time to go out into the world and preach the gospel. 

Honor & Respect

Tonight I went to the wake of a man (Jack) in our church.  For those outside of New York, the wake is going to the funeral home.  I am friend's with Jack's wife and have spoken with him on many an occasion as well.  It was a real shock to hear he was dead.  I had just seen him on Sunday.
It's strange how a person is touched by death.  For people like me, it makes me think.  I thought of my children's other grandfather (Groff-- who is still alive).  As I thought about Jack and my children's grandfather one word came to mind with both.  That word is respect.  These are men who lived their lives before God.  Jack loves to praise God.  I use the present tense because I believe that he is present before God.  I believe that Jack is enjoying God and mixing his voice with the multitude around the throne of God saying "Holy, Holy!  Worthy is the Lamb" and much more.
I believe at the end of life, what will matter is how I lived my life before God.  I don't believe He will ask what so and so thought about this or that that I did.   I want to hear "Welcome good & faithful servant!  Enter into the joy of the Lord".  I am certain that is what Jack heard.  I am going to miss Jack, but I know that he is rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.

The Rifleman

For some time, my husband and I have been watching the oldie tv stations like Me TV, This etc.  One show that I really like is the Rifleman.  Watching an episode today, I was thinking of the devotion that Mark McCain had for his dad Lucas.  Nothing stood in Mark's way when his father was hurt.
That is the devotion we should have for our Heavenly Father. 
My father wasn't exactly a rifleman, but he did hunt every year with some of his friends.   I remember antlers and even a deer hoof or two.  My mother canned some of the meat.  The deer meat helped to keep my family alive.  Dad would go to Franklin, PA the first day of deer season to hunt with his buddies.  Seems like a lot of dads buddies were named Bill.
One year things changed.  We didn't know what happened for many years.  My father didn't bring home a deer.  Strange things started happening.  His gun jammed one year.  It's been a while so I don't remember it all.  Dad never got another deer.
My younger sister had begun to pray that dad wouldn't get a deer.  God answered her prayers.
I want to have the kind of devotion to God, that Mark McCain had for his earthly father.  I want nothing to ever stand in the way of my love for God.  I want to be like the shunamite woman in the Song of Songs.  I want to satisfy His (God's) love.  I want to spend the rest of my life growing closer to God.

Celebrating Life

When I was 13, my father went to preach at a church where his father had also preached.  Actually, if my memory serves right, Grandpa Miles Stewart helped to build Reash United Brethren Church.   By build I mean, he helped to lay the blocks and build the building.  However, I am sure he also helped to build the church (as a dwelling place for God) as well.  One of the things that was done back in the day, was testimonies.  One night one of the elderly ladies had a cute testimony.  She was telling how she liked the sunshine, but she also liked the moonshine.  She actually used the word moonshine.  However, she wasn't referring to bootleg liquor but to the light the moon gives off as it reflects the sun.   Everyone got a real chuckle out of her testimony.  She was a very sweet and kind lady.  I have fond memories of her and of the Reash U.B. Church.
What is really amazing is that our Heavenly Father created the whole universe, and He did it with such precision.  He set it up so that the earth would sustain life.  If earth were closer to the sun, we would burn up.  If the earth was just a small amount further away we would freeze.  God places the earth in exactly the correct place.  Then God gave the earth a moon.  The moon has so many functions, that it could fill a book on the facts alone.  Think about a dark night when the moon is behind a cloud.  The cloud moves and all a sudden there is light.  Certainly not to the degree that the sun gives directly on the earth, but light nonetheless.  Often we do not realize the amount of light a small light source gives.
My father used to tell of when he was in boot camp.  This was back in World War II.  They took all the soldiers out on a very dark night.  Far away, they had someone light a match.  The lesson for the soldiers was to take care, as a small amount of light can be seen a great distance away.  The point I am trying to make is that even a small amount of light is light.  Jesus said that "You (we) are the light of the world."  You may not think your little candle makes a difference in the world we live in.  But it does!  Don't hide your light under a basket.  You may catch the basket on fire.

Navy Beans

Today I started thinking about navy beans.  I don't know why.  Sometimes, usually after we had a ham, my mother used to make navy beans or navy beans with ham.   I really didn't care for navy beans.  Perhaps they grow on a person.  Mom would soak the navy beans for a long time.  After a certain amount of time, she would boil them.   As I mentioned before, my family likes to tell stories.  Then it would be time for the stories of the depression.  Dad would comment that they used to eat navy beans every day.  He'd tell of how there was a time when he didn't care if he never saw another navy bean.   I don't remember him ever complaining when my mother made them.
My children will likely remember a time when they ate far too much rice-a-roni, pasta-roni, hunts pudding cups and cracker jacks.  Rice-a-roni may be the San Francisco treat, but in Tucson, it grew tiresome.  We had a time when money was tight.  Partner that with their mother's couponing and we had more pudding cups (as well as the other items) than we wanted.   One halloween we gave out pudding cups.  Yet I digress.
Our Heavenly Father asked His people to do things in rememberance.  When the Israelites were going to leave Egypt, He had them sacrifice a lamb.  They had specific instructions for the Passover meal.  They were instructed to do this every year.  There is a significance in remembering.  Jesus, when He observed the rememberance of the Passover meal told His disciples to do this "In rememberance of Me."  This is why Christians take communion. 
There are other times when Father God had His people do things in rememberance.  When the Israelites crossed the Jordan river, each tribe was to take a stone from the river.  These stones were piled on the other side of the Jordan. 
In Genesis, we see that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt after she looked back.  She had been warned to "not look back".   Jesus in Luke 17:32 said, "Remember Lot's wife."
Remember what God has done for you.  Be sure to tell your children.  To bring it full circle, I remember my father quoting the verse from Psalm 37:25, "I have been young and now I am old.  I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread."  My father may not have always had "what" he wanted to eat, but he has always had food.   I can make the same statement.  We may have eaten rice-a-roni and Hunts pudding cups, whereas dad's family made due with navy beans.  We never went hungry.
I am thankful to my Heavenly Father and to my father.

Truth & Righteousness Will Prevail

One of the stories my father likes to tell is of something I told him after school.  One day I told my father, "I learned something at school today, Dad."  He replied, "What did you learn?"   I stated, "I learned that if you tell the truth you don't have to memorize it."   I don't remember what happened that day at school.  However, the concept is true.  If you tell lies, you better remember what you told and to whom, or else risk being caught in a lie.
Recently I have read several books by Rick Joyner.  I am going to include a short quote from his book The Apostolic Ministry.  "The raising up of a victorious church, demonstrating for all time to all of creation that truth will prevail over lies and righteousness will prevail over iniquity, will be the completed job of the apostolic ministry."
This is something I am really looking forward to.  A day when the truth is spoken.  A day when righteousness prevails over sin.   I can hardly imagine it, but it is definitely desireable.   There are days when I get upset because of the number of lies I hear in a day.  Some of my clients tell tales that rival the folk tales that are in children's stories.  Anyone who watches the "Nightly Lies... er News" is well able to understand how easily lies are spewed out.   At times, I wonder how they can tell those lies, doesn't their consciences prick them at all?  It's bad enough to tell one person a lie, but to get on television and lie to millions of people all at once? 
The gospel literally means "good news".  I love good news.  I love when people tell the truth.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but through Me."  John 14:6.  Our Father, God, sent Jesus to make a way for us to come into restored fellowship with Him.  What could be better news than that?  Jesus was sent, but He also laid down His life.  No one took His life, He laid it down for us.   What love God lavished upon us.   He didn't give a little dab, He lavished His love on us.

Abba, Father & Daddy

When my family gets together, you can bet that stories are going to be told.  I'm not talking about fabrications.    More like, "Do you remember when....?"  Both my mother's side and my father's side of the family love to reminisce.   From the time I was little I especially, liked to hear about Blackie.  Blackie was the dog belonging to my father's neighbor when he was growing up.   My dad's family called their mother "mama" and their father "Daddy".   I hadn't really given that a lot of thought until today.   I guess I get my penchant for formality from my mother's side of the family.  I always like to hear my aunts and uncles talk about "mama" and "daddy".  I didn't get to know either of them very well.  My paternal grandmother died when I was about 9 and my grandfather died when I was about 10 or 11 years old.    My older sister, Lee, remembers them much more as she was able to spend more time with them.

God, our heavenly Father, allows us to call him "Abba Father", which some translate "Papa God".   Galatians 4:6 says:  "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."  For those of us who are born of the Spirit, God adopted us into His family and He wants us to know that He considers us sons and daughters.   He entreats us to cry out to Him.  Again in Romans 8:15 it says "For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, " Abba! Father!"
In this world we have problems.  Cry out to your Papa God,  He is waiting to hear you.  He will never reject you.

Seems Like Yesterday...

Seems like yesterday I remember hearing my father say, "Boy time passes quickly.  Seems like yesterday that you were just born".  When I was a kid or even a teenager, I didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about.  Time does pass and soon I had a daughter, then two, then three daughters.  I quickly joined Dad with the "seems like yesterday that Bobbi (or Beth or Britt'ny) was born.  Of course often Dad would say that it seemed like yesterday that I was as little as one of my daughters.
More time has passed and now my girls are in their 20's.   I feel a little like my father when I say that it does not seem possible.   Time has passed, they have grown.  While they have gotten big, have expanded their horizons -- their are still my little girls.   Ok,they are not little, but they are young.
I often wonder how Father God sees us.  Psalm 139 makes it pretty clear that He is involved in our lives.   This Psalm is pretty detailed in how God took care to create our innermost being.  He thinks about us a lot.  The sum of God's thoughts of me or of you are more than the grains of sand.  That is mind-boggling.  I think that sometimes God, the Father says to Jesus, "Hey, look at my son or daughter, did you see that?"   I believe that God is our biggest cheerleader.  
I have no way to verify it, but I believe that God looks down at us and smiles.  I believe He says, "wow! Look how he (or she) has grown."

The why ... for those who need to know.

This blog is to honor my Father and my father.    My Father is my Heavenly Father God, creator of Heaven and of earth.  My earthly father is Thomas Miles Stewart, affectionately called Tommy by his friends.  I call him Dad.
The Bible says that we should honor our parents.  For some time I have pondered how I could do this in a non-traditional sense.  This morning I caught the idea that I can honor both my Father and my father. It was largely through my mother and father that I learned about my Heavenly Father. This is something I have always been very thankful for. I always wished I could create in my children a love for God that was created in me. Perhaps that has been accomplished as there is no way of measuring such things.
My parents taught me about Father God at a very young age.   Now that I am older, this is well-ingrained into the very fabric of my being and truly a part of my DNA.  I do not even come close to measuring up to the name of a "Christian" (Christ-like one), but like the Apostle Paul, I press on toward the goal.