"What are You Sleeping On?"

It’s kind of funny how we change over the years.   Our perspectives on certain things change dramatically.  When I was 5 or 6 years old and I was told it was time to go to bed I used to hate that.  Who wants to go to bed?  Who wants to go to sleep.  Not many 5 year olds get excited about "bedtime".  But now I’m in my 50’s and bedtime is something I look forward to.  Now I like sleep, I need sleep, I spent big money to get a good mattress that will give me the best possible sleep.  I would like to think this change has come about because I am wiser now and see the value of sleep, but reality is this change has come about because I’m getting older.   Sleep is good..  To little sleep is unhealthy, to much sleep leads to laziness, but the right amount of sleep - priceless.  

People have a hard time sleeping sometimes.  One of the major factors is stress.  Their minds won’t shut down. There is to much to do, to much to think about , who has time to sleep.  Who will take care of things if I go to sleep? That’s a good question.  Do you have a theology that allows you to sleep?  Here is a great verse to memorize on those nights when sleep alludes you.

“Psalm 121:4  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Behold, he (God) who keeps Israel (you and I) will neither slumber nor sleep.  I don’t know about you but I find that very comforting.  God does not sleep, He does not need to sleep.  God never takes a break from watching over us.  He never takes a day off or hires an assistant or farms our keeping out to someone else.  He never sleeps, He who keeps you is always awake, so get some sleep.  He knows what’s going on in your life better than you do, so get some sleep.  

There is one other thing we need to consider as well.  Sometimes we think if we don't’ do something it won’t get done or when we go to sleep God’s work, or God's care for me comes to a standstill.  Please remember this important principle.  God is not in heaven pacing back and forth waiting for you and I to wakeup so he can start running the universe again.  God works even while we sleep.  God doesn’t panic every time we take a nap. God is sovereign, God is in control, God knows our frame and that we are dust, God knows we need sleep.  God is working all things for good while we are awake and when we are asleep.  God is keeping us when we wake, when we work, when we walk and even when we sleep.  God doesn’t need me to help Him keep the stars in their orbits, so get some sleep. 

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.”  Psalm 4:8

What a wonderful promise.  “You alone, O LORD, make be dwell in safety”  therefore I will both lie down and sleep.

We often lie down and worry, lie down in anger, lie down and pace back and forth in our minds, lie down and get discouraged, lie down and lament our circumstances, lie down and ask why me, lie down and stare at the ceiling etc.  

A good nights sleep is a gift from the LORD to his children who trust in His sovereign and loving care over them.  Cast all your care upon him for He cares for you and the one who cares for you never slumbers or sleeps.  

Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God…”  Is it not true to say also that without faith it is impossible to get a peaceful nights sleep.  Worship the Lord by trusting Him when you lay your head on your pillow at night.  Say thank- you for sleep, thank-you for keeping me, thank-you for saving me.  

What are you sleeping on? The greatest mattress in the world or the most powerful sleeping pill will never give you the rest David talks about in these verses. So lie down and go to sleep “for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety."  Is who or what you are trusting in allowing you to sleep peacefully?  Maybe what you are sleeping on needs to be exchanged or re-examined.  When I trust in the LORD I can lie down and SLEEP peacefully and restfully knowing that the LORD alone will make me dwell in safety. Whether your 6 or 96 that is a wonderful promise to sleep on.

Thanksgiving Attitudes

Give Thanks.  Seems like an easy thing to do.  Have a holiday set apart for such an occasion.  But are we truly thankful.  There are several verses in the Psalms which exhort us to give thanks.  

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.  Psalm 9:1

Give thanks, whole hearted thanks, nothing left out, nothing held back.  Thanksgiving is really about attitude isn’t it.  Are you having trouble giving thanks in every circumstance as Paul exhorted the church at Thessalonica to do. 1 Thessalonians 5;18

Thanksgiving with the whole heart flows from these attitudes that take root deep in our hearts.

Humility - we don’t deserve the blessing we enjoy, give thanks.  Proud people are not thankful people.  It is hard to give thanks if you think you deserve everything you have. 

Brokenness - Aware of our own sinfulness we are thankful for God’s grace in giving His son to die in our place on the cross. Brokenness is the doorway to true thanksgiving. 

Dependance - we depend upon God for everything, we are not self made people. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture and without him we can do nothing.   Give thanks 

Prayer - A thankful heart is a praying heart. 

Contentment - God’s care for us is perfect.  God will take care of us.  Discontented people are seldom thankful people. 

Peace - God is in control, we can rest in that control and give thanks. Anxious people are not thankful people.

Worship - The Lord is good and his steadfast love endures forever, give thanks.  Thanksgiving and Worship are inseparably linked in Scripture. 

Watchfulness - Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.   I’ve been watching the news for the last two hours and I am reminded of what Paul said in Colossians 3:1-3- If our eyes are earthbound we will have a hard time giving thanks.

Faith - without faith it is impossible to please God  Hebrews 11:6.  We believe that God is in control and that all things are working for our good and God’s glory.

Rejoicing - rejoice in hope, in Christ’s forgiveness, in God’s work in your life and fellow  believers.  Thanksgiving should be a time of rejoicing.  God is in control.

Service - Serving the Lord is an expression of thanksgiving.  'Serve the Lord with gladness...'  Psalm 100

Hope - Has your hope given way to despair?  Is your hope in government?  Is your hope in yourself?  “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.”  Giving thanks in hope, assurance that we have a home prepared in heaven, God is in control, our sins have been forgiven in Christ.  Do you have such hope?  Hebrews 6:18-20

I’m sure there are more attitudes to add to this list. But let us this thanksgiving and every day Give thanks with our whole heart.  Are you having trouble giving thanks? Check your attitude.

Psalm 79:13  But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
Psalm 86:12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
Psalm 92:1  It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
Psalm 97:12  Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

"Don't Take Candy From Strangers!"

This is a phrase kids have heard for a long time.  I’m sure they heard it numerous times a few weeks ago during Halloween.  My parents used to tell me that all the time.  Not exactly sure why.  I’ve never had a stranger offer me candy.  When I was growing up I couldn’t even get people I knew to give me candy let alone strangers.  Obviously in our day, this is good advice for any parent to give their children because sadly you cannot trust everyone.  There are actually people who deliberately taint candy and we have to protect our children from them. 

We don’t want our children to eat candy from strangers, but what about the advice and counsel they get from strangers?  Are we as determined and deliberate in our attempts to warn our children about the things strangers may tell them?  Listen to their advice but don’t eat their candy doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense does it?

Children need to learn how to be careful who they take candy from and they also need to be discerning in who they take advice from. 

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. (Proverbs 14:15 ESV)

To paraphrase using our candy illustration - the simple eats candy no matter who gives it to him., but the prudent or wise checks it out first.   Sadly there are people, they may be well meaning, but people who will give your children advice which can harm them.   We need to teach our children how to think. 

In order to do this we need to teach them the Bible.  We need to give them the truth so they can see the errors so prevalent in the thinking of the world today.  Proverbs says in 1:10 if sinners entice you do not consent.  That means a child has to learn how to evaluate what they are being told.  They have to have a frame of reference.  That frame of reference needs to be the truth of the Word of God.  It is up to us a parents, not the school or church, but us as parents to give them this instruction.  There are some very deadly truths wrapped up in some very attractive and appealing packages specifically designed for kids.  Hollywood is a master at this.  The music they are listening to makes it even deadlier because music tends to weaken and deaden our ability to process the words we are listening to.  We listen to people sing things in their lyrics that if the music was turned off and they were just saying those words to us we would turn and walk away in disgust.  Satan is an angel of light and he knows how to package lies.  He will sometimes come disguised as a friend, using flattery and kindness to get your child to take a bite, but hidden beneath the surface is the poison of sin and bondage. 

So help your kids be as careful in choosing who they take advice from as they are in who they take candy from.  Be as concerned about what they put in their bodies as what they put in their heads and hearts. Help them to learn to give thought to their steps.  We do that by taking thought to our own steps as parents.  Where are you headed?  Where are you going to end up if you keep on going down the path you are currently on?  

The simple believes everything.  If that describes your child, they need to learn wisdom, they need to learn what this book will give them, they need learn to be prudent, wise, discerning.  They need to learn the fear of God.   They need to know Jesus Christ, walk with him and live for him.  He will guide their steps, he will watch over them and protect them.   

Memory Lane's "Million Dollar View"

His name was Arnold Smith, his wife’s name was Ruby.  Most people knew them as just Arnold & Ruby  I had the honor of knowing them as gramps and grammy, they were my grandparents, my moms mother and father.  They lived on a farm about 9 miles from where we used to live..   He was a potato farmer. He used to plant around 60 acres of potatoes and for many years milked around 15 - 20 cows.  As you drove onto his farm the farmhouse he was born and still lived in was the first thing that would catch your attention.  The other attention getter was a big Barn and on that barn was s sign someone had given him years ago-

"Million Dollar View"

My grandfather’s farm was situated on one side of a valley and as you looked across the valley it truly was a beautiful "million dollar" view.   He was a quiet man, gentle, and soft spoken.  He had one tractor for most of his years on the farm,  he eventually got another to add to the fleet towards the end of his farming years. He had one car,  never owned a pickup,  had one  truck that could haul 50 barrels of potatoes and the necessary machinery to take care of the land. 

I got to go up to their house and spend many many memorable times on that farm.  As a little child, around 7-8 years old, I remember laying in bed in the morning.  I'd hear gramps get up around 4 to milk the cows, then come in for breakfast around 7, and then go back out around 8:30 to start farming the potatoes.   There was one particular sound on that farm I will never forget.  I can still hear it today just a plain as day, the sound of that old "H" tractor starting up first thing in the morning. It meant one thing, gramps was going out to work in the field and if I hurried I would get to go with him.  So I’d grab a quick bite to eat  knowing it took a few minutes to get the machinery hooked up, then I’d run out and ask if I could go with him.  He was a grandfather so he had to say yes and he always did.

I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on that tractor with him.  There wasn’t much room on those old tractor seats. I’m sure it would have been far more comfortable for him to go alone ,  but he would take me with him anyway.  

Then one day, It happened.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  One spring day he was tilling up the ground getting ready to plant in a field just above the farmhouse.   I was about 12 or 13 riding with him when he stopped the tractor, got off and said he had some work to do at the house and then in the barn.  He then said to me words i’ll never forget. “you can finish tilling the field”.     Alone on the tractor - WOW - I eventually stopped smiling but I’ll never forget him walking down that hill out of sight , it was just me and the tractor.   I’m sure he probably watched me from somewhere.  But it was a day I will never forget. 

For the next 6 or 7 years until I went to college I spent hours working on that farm .  One of the special times back then was harvest time.  Potatoes were still picked for the most part by hand so the farm would have all kinds of annoying, lazy kids around “picking potatoes” to earn some cash for candy.  Inevitably at some point the machinery would break down and there would be a great cheer from all the kids.   I’m sure my grandfather was sometimes frustrated with his machinery but I never once saw him lose his temper.  

My grandparents didn’t have an easy life.  They had two babies die shortly after they were born.  They never talked about it much but you could tell they knew what the word “heartbreak” meant. 

That is the stuff I remember as a child  and young adult.  As I grew older I began to think about some of the other sounds I heard when I was on the farm.   Every morning around 7:00 AM   you could hear these noises coming up from the vents in that old house. Voices, hard to make out, but definitely voices.  What were they doing?   So I’d tip toe downstairs to see what was going on and there on there knees were my grandparents praying.  They did this every morning.  

My grandfather  was a farmer, but farming wasn’t his life. When people remember my grandfather, when I remember him, it is never for the legacy he left as a farmer.   He wasn't’ trying to leave that kind of legacy.  When I remember my grandfather I remember the kind of person he was,  not the kind of farmer he was.  He attended a little Pentecostal church just down road from their home. He served as a deacon for 50 years.  My grandmother played the organ there for 50 years even though she could’t read a note of music, she played all the hymns by ear.    Gramps loved that church and went just about every time the doors were opened.   I’m not sure if he ever taught a Sundays School class or ever preached a sermon  but his home was a place where you would always find young people and young adults and they were always welcome. 

I remember at his funeral one of the former pastors, a young man at the time,  standing up and talking about my grandfather.  He said  that when he pastored there the church was little and didn’t have much money.  On a few occasions the church could not afford to pay him. He then said that even though no one knew my grandfather would come and pay his salary out of his own pocket.  My grandparents didn’t have much and that would have been  a huge sacrifice to do that.  I remember sitting there hearing this thinking to myself -wow. 

You see my grandfather never taught me how to be humble - but he showed me the value of being humble. 

He never taught me how to be generous - but he showed me the value of being generous.

He never taught me lessons on how to live life in the sight of God - but he showed me the value of living such a life.

Never taught me the importance of being with God’s people and going to church, prayer and Bible study -  but he showed me the value of it by the way he lived.

My grandfather impacted hundreds of people simply by being a man of integrity on the farm, in the church, in his home .  No matter where he was or who he was with he was the same person.  Same was true of my grandmother.  After he died - were going through his clothes and I was looking through the pockets of one of his jackets and found this letter that was written to him by one of the young people in his church who had grown up around him,  picking potatoes on his farm - seeing him in the church - being in his home. She wrote this when she was 40 years old and gave it to my grandfather about a year before he died.  He kept in in his jacket.  This is what it said...

“Dear Arnold and Ruby,  Many times I remember all the things that we have shared, such as ice cream & camp; singing your home, cutting seed and the time by brother AL and I spent in your barn rolling barrels, picking rocks, and of course all the church activities.  It seems to me that you have always been. As a child, I watched you and listened and heard your testimonies.  As a pre-teen, teen-ager and young adult, I was molded spiritually by your words, attitudes, actions, love and prayers. Sometimes we go through life never knowing of the positive influence we’ve been in another’s life.  This message is a small attempt to make you aware of how I care for and appreciate you both.  Several times when I’ve questioned, doubted, fallen, and been discouraged, your faces have come before me and been a real uplift and encouragement.  It s my desire that I will be able in some small way to influence my would positively as you two have, I love you .  

The reality for me as I look down memory lane at my childhood is this.  My grandparents house is gone,  the barn is torn down,  and the Million Dollar View sign is gone. 

But I now realize that the million dollar view was not what you saw as you looked OUT my grandparents window - It was what you saw when you looked IN my grandparents window.

The million dollar view was their lives! 

May we give our kids and grandkids such a view.    The memory of the righteous truly is blessed...