Bye-Bye August Heat

Think night temps not much different from day temps.
Think neglected backyards.
Think cicadas chattering shrill noises back and forth in the trees, all day long.  (See the shell of one attached to the little cement stand?)
Think shields inside car windows.
Think quiet, empty streets void of activity.
That's south Texas in August.
It's more than hot.  Plants may not know it, but they are headed for trash heaps; their burnt edges give telltale signs of an unquenched thirst.
I try to have mercy...if it comes to mind.  Yesterday, I rose early enough to water the brown grass before the sun could give last rites.
I have to say, I am never sad to see summer go.  High temperatures get the best of most people, so that even sun lovers are writing farewell notes in the sand.  Actually it's kind of melancholic. Beaches rejected for classrooms and picnic baskets for lunch kits.  The change is inevitable.
Down here, though...the season begins in March - at least for me.  Beaches are still empty and the cold water welcomes my toes.  We are months from that, with fun in the meantime. Still there is something about looking on that horizon - always good things to come.

This was one of those early Spring visits.

Until we meet again...

Ladies' Prison Visit

Recently I was asked to sub for a friend at a women's prison. (Almost a year has passed since I had last been there.)  It was raining.  The prison is over an hour away and the trip takes me through several towns and lots of countryside.  It's always a great drive because the freeway is bare of traffic.  I can set my cruise and do just that...cruise.
Railroad tracks run parallel on the left side heading out and the right side coming home.  Somehow it seems fitting for them to be near prisons - along with cornfields, barbecue, and farmers' markets.  They crop up in the long stretches of isolation in bunches.
It is different teaching prisoners than visiting them.
There is no vehicle or personal search when teaching as there is when I visit my brother. Visits only allow for keys, glasses, and I.D. When teaching, I can bring keys, glasses, bible, and paperwork, pen/pencil, and always I.D.  I sign in through locked doors and then pass through more locked doors with buzzers to indicate when. The wardrobe color is white, if that is a color.  (I am not allowed to wear white, by the way, lest I be mistaken for an inmate.)
I can remember having butterflies the first time I went. The unknown can be intimidating.  As the ladies began to trickle in, I met them individually and found that they were just like me...women making it through life one day at a time...and I loved them. This visit was no different.
Some come to class out of boredom, some come for credits to shorten their sentences.  Some come to learn more about a Savior who loves them right where they are.  There were thirty-one in class and I did not recognize any faces from the year before. But they knew me.  My friend had prepared them ahead of time.  Another friend was there to help me.  We watched a movie that day called "Grace Card." Forgivenss was the main message and it was obviously a much needed one because the tears flowed. My friend pulled some tissues out of her bible to pass around. (I must remember to pack some in my bible, too!) A female guard sat and watched the movie with us, laughed with us, and seemed to be the one they turned to for permission to go anywhere.
The room we used was a large one, and doors on each side led to other rooms, so that people came and went all during class. One woman passing through on her way out stopped to ask me to pray. Another was sobbing from news her mom had died. She wondered where her daughter would live without her.
I had to put this ministry on hold last year, but I'm hoping to return on a regular basis.  I am usually just a helper.  The process is simple. The ladies sign in and give me their 'lay-ins' - a kind of permission slip - and then find a seat in the room.  I take homework from them and hand out more. Pencils are valuable and sometimes never make it back into the box. Something so ordinary and simple suddenly becomes precious.
The only thing I am giving them is my time, some hugs, and prayer.  I can do that.
There are all kinds of prisons, even some of our own choosing. Christ came to set captives free. That is news worth sharing, and that is the message some are waiting to hear.
Romans 10:14-15  But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 

Dominoes and Choices

I don't play dominoes much, but sometimes it's fun to set them up and knock just one over to see the effect it will have on all the others.  If I do it just right, each will change its position in one way or another. We tend to think of falling dominoes negatively, when really it's just cause and effect.
Our choices, like dominoes, can set into motion a variety of events. One falls with every decision we make - therefore catapulting us (or others) in a new direction. We may not like where they lead us, but again, we are one decision away from change.
Dominoes have been falling since the Garden of Eden. We are all just ordinary people making every day choices.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9   What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 
Yikes!  What a depressing, but oddly comforting reality.  God is not surprised by or unaware of the results of our choices.

We cannot control all that happens to us or even around us. We are, however, accountable for how we deal with things. Every event in the world can be turned to good for those that love the Lord and seek to magnify His name.
Every event.
Just remember that the next time destruction hits. Your response is also a choice.  Make it a wise one.

They Sow the Wind

We were on our way to see my brother when I saw this field.  I was ecstatic, so Tommy stopped for me to take some pictures.  I think this was actually prison property.  Perfect.

Hosea 8:7  For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it. 
Sowing wind seems futile...much less impossible.  I guess growing grain that has no head is purposeless as well.  Yet, even if it did produce, God would have others devour it.  The Israelites would not benefit from their toil and labor.  They sowed folly and reaped destruction.
Hosea 8:8  Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel. 
Israel rejected all that God had asked them to do and decided to change the way they lived. They were useless because they had lost favor with God.
Hosea's life was a picture of God's wooing His people and them/us turning their/our backs on His abundant love and provisions.  He was the last prophet to warn the Israelites of God's judgment before they were taken into slavery...again.
The Old Testament is full of pictures of the Father's love for His children and of His promise to bring a Messiah.  We are a flawed people that need a Savior.  A heart that rejects the Lord is without hope. God offered them the richest land, victory in battle, and blessings without number - if they obeyed His laws.  God offers us the same: Riches, victories, and blessings.  They may not all be visible, but they are promised to all those who believe.

We must look beyond the pastures that this world has to offer and keep our eyes fixed on that prize that is closer today than it was yesterday.  Let's learn from Ephraim's mistakes. Anyone can sow the wind.

Hosea 10:12   Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 

Coolest Coffee Shop Never Heard Of - Sycamore Grounds

My two young friends, Madi and Tori asked me to meet them at a coffee shop in Pasadena after they got some new do's.  It was recommended to them and Tommy had been there as well, and all opinions shouted, YES!!  I am not a coffee drinker at all, but I can always manage to find a yummy treat to swallow.  So, here are the pix of my buddies and our hangout.  They are off to college, but we plan to meet there again in the Fall and sit outside.

Tommy said this place is hoppin' most of the time.  He comes to plug in and work on his computer.  Great surroundings!

Tori and Madi and their new looks.  Beautiful!
(I always tell Tori she looks like Mary from Downton Abbey.)
See you in the Fall, girlies!

In Hosea and Beyond the Cross

Hosea 7:8   Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. (There's that cake again!)
When the Northern Kingdom (Ephraim) broke from Judah, they embraced other peoples along with their gods. They made for themselves a new place of worship, in a more convenient city (Bethel) - not wanting to cross over to Jerusalem in order to make their sacrifices - and they allowed men to be priests who were not from the tribe of Levi.  They ignored God and His commandments and directions.  One sin leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another until there is only one decision left to be made: Repentance.
1 Kings 13:32 - 34  For the saying that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass." After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.  
Are we not guilty of the same? Do we not lower the standards God has set in place because it calls for extra effort to do it right? Are there things from which we should abstain? Okay, I just pulled three cookies out my my freezer to munch on, finished those, and went back for more - without a second thought! (Sadly, this is not the first time.  I am a repeat offender.)
We break from what we know is right and choose what is easy, what is 'calling our names', what is popular, what is yummy.  We elevate and serve the god, 'self'.  Our decisions are based on lies that lead us far from what we know is true and right.
It's an undisciplined road that leads to temporary satisfaction.
Hosea 7:14-15  They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. 
As I continue to read the book of Hosea, I see me.  I have been unfaithful, ungrateful, and embraced other loves.  Even on the other side of the cross, the sin is the same and the answer is the same: Repentance.  But I need not make any sacrifices to gain my forgiveness.  Jesus did that for me.  His death was the final and perfect sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God.
I am not finished with Hosea, but I skipped to the end to show you God's goodness to His people.  He is now and forever will be faithful to His children.
Hosea 14:8-9  O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. 
...and leave those cookies alone.

Cakes of Raisins

This is my beloved carrot cake.  The raisins are just ordinary.

Hosea 3:1   And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."

I love this cake, but I am not sure He was actually speaking of cakes of raisins when He said  'other gods and love cakes of raisins.'
So, what did He mean?  (Hold on.  I need to look this up.)

One commentary says it this way: the love of flagons of wine. Literally "of grapes," or perhaps more probably, "cakes of grapes" or dried raisins.  Cakes were used in idolatry.  The 'wine' would represent the excess that was common in idolatry.  The cakes denote the sweetness and lusciousness, yet still the dryness caused by seeking anything but God.  Israel despised and rejected the true Vine, Jesus Christ with His works of grace and righteousness, and they 'loved the dried cakes" - the observances of the law - which, apart from Him, were/are dry and worthless.
Got it?  Anything that comes between us and God, be it actual appetites for food, or the hunger that comes from our desires in the flesh - materialism, lust, greed, and power, is a misdirection of our love and praise. (Yes, I think you get it.)

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.
This is not the first time I have read Hosea, but each time, God shows me more and more of His truths and how I need to apply them.  That is the beauty of Scripture.  It reveals the heart every time.
Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.