"Narrow" Minded

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13,14

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:24

Can you imagine someone telling me I’m narrow minded? Yeah, well, I thought may be. I know my blog posts sound very opinionated at times, but my view of the world is wider and broader than it has ever been. My view of truth is much more narrow.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought the past week about why the way to heaven in narrow. I’m not sure I can tell you why, but I do know the key to get through it. If you go back up to the beginning of Luke 13, in verse 5, Jesus said, “…….unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” And then in 2 Corinthians 7:10 it says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” I like the way Matthew Henry explains true repentance and this verse.

“Sorrow according to the will of God, tending to the glory of God, and wrought by the Spirit of God, (repentance) renders the heart humble, contrite, submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life.”

During our 10 years in Romania, they called us “repenters”. The priest would tell his people that if they repented they would go to hell. What a shame. Repentance is the key that opens that narrow gate that leads to Christ.

So if repentance “renders the heart humble, contrite, submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life”, what is the unrepentant heart like? Prideful, indifferent, rebellious, disposed to sin and to keep on sinning. No wonder the way is broad that leads to destruction, all of these things come so naturally don’t they?

 

 

Tell Me a Story

My dad told me a story a couple of weeks ago about when he was a boy and I think it’s worth repeating. He’s quite the storyteller, so I won’t be able to do it justice, but I would like to try because it bears testimony to just how fast a culture can change. Dad used to tell my kids stories. Some of them he made up and some of them were traditional favorites that he told like he knew the characters personally. My kids called them “Papa stories”.

He started out something like this, “You hear people talk about east Texas in the 1940’s and 50’s, about how many people, especially in the rural areas, were poor. When I think back, though, I really don’t remember that many people having it all that hard………… except for us. Now, we were poor. Yeah, we were poor.”

My grandma didn’t marry my grandpa until she was 30. My grandpa was a circuit preacher. My dad called them Ma and Pa. They married in their thirties and had 5 children. Ma had a stroke and was paralyzed on one side afterward. She had been a schoolteacher in her younger years. Pa tried everything to make ends meet and put food on the table. He tried tomato farming for a couple of years and kept my dad home a lot from school to help him with the planting. One day, my dad’s teacher, Mrs. Malone, sent a sealed envelope home with my dad and told him to give it to his ma. He said he wasn’t sure what it said, but ma got red in the face and picked up her Big Chief tablet and wrote out three pages (front and back) and put that letter in an envelope (unsealed), and told my dad to give it to Mrs. Malone when he got to school. Dad got about halfway to school and decided he had better take the letter out and read it. “I was glad I did” He said. Ma had written three pages on the trials and hardships of poor people in rural east Texas and how families had to work together to make it. Then at the very end, she wrote, “And besides all that, he really doesn’t like to go EVERY day, anyway.” He took the letter and buried it in a field, but said he had wished many times since then that he would have kept it. What a treasure that would have been. I would have loved to have read it. I never even got to meet my grandmother. She died before I was born, but stories like these help her to live on.

Two Kinds of People

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who like to look at boats on the water from the shore, and those who like to look at the shore from boats on the waterJ

Me? I love to be on the shore. I love the sound of the waves lapping the shore. I love to watch the pelicans hovering right above the water and the sandpipers waiting for the waves to go out so they can run and dig their bills in the sand. I love building sandcastles with motes and flags. I love letting my feet sink down until it’s hard to get them back up again. I absolutely love flying a kite on the beach. I love walking down the beach looking for shells and walking at the edge of the water and dodging the waves (or not). I love lying in the sun looking out at turquoise water. (my favorite color) I even love water sports that are done “from shore”, snorkeling being my favorite.

My husband on the other hand has had a love affair with boats since the day he was born. The son and grandson of commercial fishermen, he grew up on the water and in boats. He loves fishing from boats, whether it’s in a river for bass, a lake for croppy, the bay for flounder, the gulf for tuna, or the Caribbean for the catch of the day. Once when we had our family at the beach for the day, he took one of the kayaks out past the last breaker and had two rod holders with a fishing rod in each. He caught a shark on each rod, reeled them in, put the rods back in the holders and rowed them to shoreJ Of course his newest love is sailing. He loves to go out on the sailboat where the goal seems to be to get as far from shore as possible. As Joe Banks would say, “…away from the things of man.”  

All that to say that sometimes life gets interesting when you are planning to get away for a few days. But the key is just like in most of life; we compromise. One thing is for sure, as long as we are together, life is good whether we are on the shore or in the boat. Jack Johnson says it very nicely........

Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

Mmm, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're     together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Multigenerational Vision

Multigenerational Vision

Why do we do what we do? Why do you get up in the morning and go to work or cook breakfast or clean your house? As we get older the words of Solomon ring in my ears, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”              Ecclesiastes 12:8-14

 So, no matter how meaningless or monotonous life may seem at times, I must find my fulfillment in following after God and his word. The more I read His word, the more I realize that God has the big picture, and I can only see part of it. Everything about me is so finite. If it really is “all about me” as many people say, then why would I imagine, dream, build, or work for anything? My husband did a job for an older couple a few years ago. They were very well off financially with a big house, lots of land, cattle, and were “living large”. The woman was in her early 40s and aging very beautifully. The man was quite a bit older and talked with Rob one day about the fact that he regretted that they had decided not to have children because he had no one to leave his fortune to. When I heard the story I was sad, but we are seeing it more and more.

One of the things I love most about our church and community is the multigenerational vision. The fact that everything we imagine, dream, build, and work for, is for future generations. We want them to know God and follow Him with their lives, to fear God and keep His commandments. I can look back to my parents and my grandparents and see a heritage of faith. Not that they were perfect, but that they loved the Lord and taught their children to follow Him. I’m so thankful for that, and want my children and my grandchildren, and my great grandchildren to have the same thing.

Your word, O Lord, is eternal;

it stands firm in the heavens.

Your faithfulness continues through all generations;

you established the earth, and it endures.

Your laws endure to this day,

for all things serve you.      Psalm 119:89-91

 

I Hope You Dance

Have you ever noticed with small children how natural dancing comes. Our 2 yr. old granddaughter begins to move as soon as she hears music.

When I searched the Bible for verses about dancing it seemed that dancing was a celebratory custom. Being raised a Baptist, dancing was definitely not a part of my childhood, except for a year of tap and ballet when I was about 7. And since I was definitely not ballerina material, my parents looked for other interests for me thereafter. 

Psalm 30:11Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; 

Psalm 150:4

Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

Although, I read this and know that dancing is a good thing, since I wasn't accustomed to it as I grew up, I'm not really comfortable with it now. But I can honestly say that I feel like I'm missing out on something. We have mourned the fact in our church that as a people we have lost the ability to celebrate. We don't know what it truly means to come together and have a real celebration. Dancing was just part of what they did during Bible times to "make merry", but I think it was an important part.

A few years ago when our kids were teens at home they told us that some of their home-school friends met with a group of senior citizens in town for square dancing. We decided to go as a family and it was so much fun. Later on, our children started doing some ball room dancing. Most of the teenagers and young adults in our church enjoy dancing and I am hopeful that may be one day in the not so distant future, dancing can once again become part of our celebrations. 

In Ecclesiastes 3 where it speaks of a time for everything, it says that there is ..."a time to mourn and a time to dance..." 

Spring Cleaning

There has been much to do around the Blume house for the last couple of weeks because the weather has been just beautiful. We've all been outside picking up the yard, raking leaves, cleaning out the flower beds. My thoughts have turned to spring cleaning the inside of the house. There are just a lot of things that don't get done all winter and then as soon as we have a pretty day the thought comes, "I have got to get those curtains down and beat those rugs." So what is it that gives us the urge to spring clean? I was wondering that this morning. At our house, we have a window on the south-east side in the living room. I looked up Friday and the sun was shining through that window illuminating every dust particle in the air and on the furniture. It was as if all of my little dust bunnies had come to life at once and were dancing around in the light.
Someone had asked me about Lent a couple of weeks ago and if I believed that it could be redeemed as something useful for us to practice or glean lessons from. I get the idea that Lent to Catholics is sort of like spring cleaning at the Blume house. First comes the celebration of Mardi Gras and caution seems to be thrown to the wind. Afterward, Lent is observed, which to my understanding is a time of sacrifice and self examination. Wiki says it is a time of penitence.

Here is my conclusion. If we could examine ourselves daily and be repentant as soon as we realize that we have sinned, our lives would be much simpler. Barney Fife said, "Nip it in the bud. Nip it!" If we don't catch problems when they are small, they seem to grow rather quickly. Just like those dust particles floating through the air become big fuzzy dust bunnies if you neglect to clean for a couple of weeks.

Community Quotes

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.  ~George Bernard Shaw

"Independence"... [is] middle-class blasphemy.  We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.  ~G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion, 1912

A machine has value only as it produces more than it consumes - so check your value to the community.  ~Martin H. Fischer

A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.  ~Richard Whately

A community is a gathering of minds, talents, ideas, hobbies, interests, and of good friends. We come together to worship, work, play, eat, and help one another. Can there be anything more pleasant than sharing your life with people that you love? – Kriss Blume 

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up. Ecclesiastes 4:9,10

Tea Party

When we first moved here, I began having tea parties with my neighbor and her little girls. There were just a few of us, but it was such a nice way to relax and visit, and it gave the girls a chance to play dress up, drink out of pretty tea cups and pour tea from a teapot. This week brought beautiful weather and spring was in the air, so we all decided it was definitely time for a tea party. The only difference now is we have more people which means more food, more tea, and lots of fun.

For those of you who homeschooled, you may remember this little poem from A Beka Kindergarten. It was one of my favoritesJ

The Tea Party                                                                               Elizabeth Rose

I had a little tea party 
This afternoon at three. 
'Twas very small-
Three guest in all-
Just I, myself and me.

Myself ate all the sandwiches, 
While I drank up the tea;
'Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me.

~Jessica Nelson North

And here is my recipe for a lovely tea party.

Girls of any age (boys can come too)

Good Food

Flavored Teas

Pretty Tea cups and Tea pots

Dress up clothes and Big floppy hats

Sweet smiles and lots of laughter