Wisdom & Understanding

It was the Christmas season of 1969, and I was home from college on break and working part time at J. C Penney as a gift wrapper/clerk. I took my lunch break and decided to go to the drugstore and get myself a soda.  All of my life up to that point I had attended segregated schools in my hometown. However when I went away to college, it was in a town that with recent marches and sit-ins, there was considerably a lot of changes. With those changes there had also been tragedies and lost of some lives, and as a student I was the beneficiary of the price paid. In my college town, my room-mates and I could go downtown and eat at the KFC or  drink at the public water fountain that no longer had signs for "colored" and "white". I remember us giggling to ourselves and feeling special after going into a public bathroom and walking out without someone yelling at us.  It was with this attitude that I went into that drugstore that day, not a smug attitude, but an attitude of co

Not a very fun title, saying that "we are without an excuse" may bring back memories of your high school math teacher telling you this when you didn't have your homework, or your parents saying this to you after you did not do your assigned chores, but watched TV instead.  Or even as an adult, you really don't want to hear this from your boss or even a friend when you haven't met the goal or completed the favor you were asked to do. But it is what it is, if you don't follow and commit to the requirements, rules, and standards...then we are without excuse... That is what resounded in my mind and heart as I was reading the book of Deuteronomy today. A friend, Pastor Abie, suggested that we read the book of Deuteronomy  a couple of weeks ago, so that we would be familiarized and be able to follow along better with his current teachings on the Book.  He is an excellent teacher and was doing such a great job, I felt at first like "I've read that book bef

"You saw me before I was born.   Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out   before a single day had passed." Psalms 139: 16 Recently I was having a conversation with one of my sisters about 5 o'clock in the morning at the kitchen table. We only get the opportunity to see each other physically about once a year, so we make every minute of our visits count. In this conversation about how God has worked in our lives, I told her my "conversion" story (probably for the umpteenth time);  how I remember being at a point in my life, where I knew I needed something more in life. It was many years ago, but I can still see it as plain as day in my head...me sitting in front of the TV, late at night, my husband and son already upstairs in bed. The TV evangelist asking if anyone wanted Jesus to come into their hearts...make them new, and me bowing my head and praying along with him. When I prayed it was not just mumbling words to me, I rea