Month: June 2019

Your words I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you.      Psalm 119:11

Movie fans always seem to choose a special scene, phrase, or “ism” that is used in their favorite movies.  It’s funny, but when our family is together, all you need to do is mention a certain phrase, such as “Are you serious, Clark?”, and we call up cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation.  We still laugh in spite of ourselves.  Folks might change the words around a bit, but you still get that visual image of the scene and the movie.

I did some research on some of the more famous lines in movies, and it is surprising how some of the words we think were spoken actually were not.  Take for instance Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.  Bogart never  actually said, “Play it again, Sam.”  The only time a similar phrase  was used, it was said by Bergman when she said, “Play it, Sam.”

The phrase, “Just follow your heart and believe, and you can do anything,” has been associated with Christian sayings, but it is actually from the Song of Disney.  The verse “Direct me in the path of your commands for there I find delight” (Psalm 119:35) is the closest thing to the old saying.

People quote This too shall pass,  and most of us assume it was said by Jesus, but it’s not in the Bible.  The closest thing is 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature;  the old things passed away, behold new things have come.

The one I hear most often is God helps those who help themselves which  I just assumed must be from the Bible, but it’s not.  It seems that it originated in ancient Greece, but Benjamin Franklin gets most of the credit for using it.  Proverbs 13:4 is one verse in the Bible that might be the inspiration:  The sluggard craves and get nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

The mind will believe everything you tell it.  You have to feed it the right information or you’ll end up believing anything you read or hear. It’s interesting how we seem to just adopt sayings and assume that they must be inspired by God.  If we all spent as much time learning scriptures as we do learning lines in movies, we’d make God’s job a lot easier on this earth.

Arthur Fletcher said  the mind is a terrible thing to waste.  We should all strive to know the difference between “isms” and fact.

Have a nice day!  (First appeared in the 1948 film, A Letter to Three Wives)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and forever.  Hebrews 13:8

Randy and I grew up in different home towns, and each of us had special friends there.  We both went to college at Georgia, and we each had special friends and relationships there.  After we married, we moved for school and for church appointments approximately seven times, and we each had mutual as well as different friends in each place.

We have been most fortunate to make life long friends, and we cherish each and every relationship.  There are friends close by that we love as family, and we know the ties that bind us are strong.  However, there are those unique friendships which withstand the test of time, distance, and separation which seem to have a quality all their own.  When we get together with these folks, it’s as though time has stood still, and we take up right where we left off years ago!  It’s comfortable and easy, it’s fun and relaxing, it’s full of laughter and tears.  We know them so well that there is no need to try and impress each other, we just love and celebrate our time together.

I think God would want that kind of relationship with each of us, so what is the secret to that kind of relationship?

The story is told of a college professor whose beautiful life was a wonder to his students.  Some of them desired to learn the secret to his life, so they sent someone to hide in his study to observe his evening ritual.  When the professor came home, it was late and he was tired, but he spent an hour reading his Bible.  Then, he lowered his head to pray, and he was heard to say, “Well, Lord Jesus, we still have the same old relationship.”  What a great thing to know that God is unchanging!

There are so many times when I neglect my Bible study and my prayer life and substitute trivial things.  It comforts me to realize that when I return to my Bible and my prayers, Jesus is waiting for me and offering the same old relationship.  The relationship is comfortable, loving, sustaining, exciting, fascinating, peaceful, and strong.  It makes me realize how much I miss it when I neglect it.

Just as we cultivate and sustain personal relationships, above all else, we should cultivate and sustain our relationship with Christ.  He becomes more real to each of us when we spend time with him.  Talk with Him just like you would a dear and trusted friend.

Now, let’s have a little talk with Jesus; Let us tell him all about our troubles;             He will hear our faintest cry, and He will answer by and by                                             Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning,                                                               You’ll know a little fire is burning and                                                                                     You’ll find a little talk with Jesus makes it right.                                                                    Just A Little Talk With Jesus   The Statler Brothers

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life.  Romans 2:7

Persistence is defined as continuing firmly or obstinately in a course of action despite difficulty or opposition.

Nature and the many ways God has everything working amazes me! Randy’s grand mama had a big board outside her kitchen window, and she fed the birds every morning with out fail.  If she was late, they would sit and chirp loudly until she fed them.  They wanted their breakfast!  They were persistent. The other day, a wren was trying to build her nest inside my porch eaves.  I love the birds, but I didn’t want the nest there, so every time she would bring nesting material up, I would take it down.  In twenty minutes, it was back. This went on for a day or two with her persisting.

That same day as I was walking the dog around the track at Dickerson, a golfer who practices there regularly was hitting golf balls.  A flock of geese had landed on the grass right where he was hitting the golf balls.  I sent our dog to run the geese away, and then I asked him, “Could you not get the shot close enough to scare them away?”  He said, “Nature is persistent.  They know I’m not that good of a shot.”

I began to think about just how persistent I am about the wrong things sometimes.  I try to solve problems on my own, make decisions without asking for God’s help, and try to control my own circumstances and their outcome.  I can be relentless!

Out of the blue the other day, I began to hum the tune of an old hymn entitled, All The Way My Savior Leads Me, and it occurred to me that God had sent this to help me give up some of my persistent ways.  Every word speaks of another kind of persistence, reliance on God.  The song goes like this:

All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside?                                             Can I doubt His tender mercies who through life has been my guide?                         Heavenly peace, divinest comfort; en by faith with Him to dwell                                For I know what e’er betide me, Jesus doth all things well.   Fannie Crosby

Jesus leads us if we will only be as persistent in following Him as we are in trying to do things ourselves!