Graves' This and That

Several years ago when Tommy Teague was our pastor at our church, he used an Advent wreath with 3 purple candles, 1 pink candle, and 1 larger white candle.  I don't recall the Sunday, but a purple candle was lit and the procedure continued until the week of Christmas, the large white candle was lit. By then, all the candles were lit. It was a mystery to me, and I wanted to know. Then, a teacher friend of mine, posted her Advent wreath on Facebook.  Finally, I made my own Advent wreath after some Googling.   There is no "rule" about the color of the candles.  In Googling Advent wreaths, I found that several colors and even all white was used. On December 3, the first candle is lit and it symbolizes hope .  On the 10th, the second candle is also lit and it symbolizes peace .  On the 17th the third candle, a different color, pink in my case, is also lit and it symbolizes joy .  On the 24th, the fourth candle is lit and it symbolizes love .  On...

The Apostle Paul is such a stout heart!  As I read from chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, I come away with rich solid food for the day.  In context of these verses, Paul is speaking of sexual immorality, but I am thinking there are some greater applications than just sexual immorality.  I find that the applications can be directed toward any of the sins which control  ME/us.  Any sin which CONTROLS me is actually an addiction.   Paul's declaration: "Everything is permissible for me-but not everything is beneficial.  Everything is permissible for me-but I will not be mastered by anything."    I love love his HUGE truth:   "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God?  YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN; YOU WERE BOUGHT AT A PRICE.   Therefore honor God with your body."  1 Corinthians 6:18-20  Paul further encourages in chapter 7, "Be careful, however, that the e...

Presently, I am reading in 1 Corinthians 3.  The intro:  "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly-mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you-are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere men?" Did Paul ever hit the nail on the head in A. D. 55 and one may think that he is speaking in 2017.  I well recall the inconvenient "spit-up" times with each baby...on the way out the door, in a hurry, and no time to change clothes.  Oh the fragrance of soured milk! I challenge each of us today to be willing to look inward and NOT at everyone else.  Do I ever just spew milk on my listeners because I refuse to ingest the solid food of the Word of God?  I think that our social media is that case in point...only we have softened the ...

  In my readings, I enter into 1 Thessalonians.  I find that death, heaven,  and Christ's return for His Christ followers were as much a mystery to the hearts of AD 51 believers as it is for us in 2017.  Paul gives his disclaimer to the readers of that age and to us.. "Brothers, we do want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope."  He commands us to "be alert and self-controlled."   As you, I have experienced the earthly deaths of loved ones.  The holidays and special events, and especially the first year of a loved one's home-going, the heart is very responsive to the absence.  The absence is not silent! The impact of the loss is not meant to shatter our faith, but to build us into confidence and faith in our Lord.  Paul wanted us to encourage one another with the truth that this present life with all of its joys, sorrows, and death is not the END to life but really....f...

   Paul concludes chapter 5 of Galatians with the command: " Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit .  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another."  At our salvation, God placed within each of us, the Holy Spirit.  He lives within us to teach, to guide, to reveal Truth to us, to empower us to live as a Christ follower, and to illumine the Truths of God's Word that we might understand and be willing to walk out in our daily lives IN ALIGNMENT TO THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD.  I well recognize my behavior which is contrary to the Spirit of God because it is very obvious and in chapter 5, Paul names the contrary behavior:  "sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, fractions, envy, drunkeness, orgies, and the like."  Thank you Lord God, that all of our sins are nailed to Calvary, and we too died with You to them.  They n...

    I follow a reading of my Bible from a chronological program, and I have been "pulled" from Acts to the book of Galatians. Paul has asked an intriguing question in chapter three, " You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?  Before your every eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you.  Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort ?" False teachers had infiltrated the early church telling the Gentile Christians that they could be saved if they adhered to Jewish law.  Basically, salvation received and maintained by good works.  What Paul is really questioning:  Who has put the evil eye on you to cause you who were saved by grace and NOW, to think that you must move into perfectionism to maintain your salvation? To all us recovering perfectionists, perfecti...

  James is one of my favs in the Bible.  I love his practicality and his clarity in speaking what is right and what is wrong.  No guesswork in reading James.   In James 1:19, he reminds, " My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry; for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." In our culture today, their is such negative anger expressed in much of the media and the social media.  It seems like "feelings" have been become fact and reality.  Truth does not seem to be the standard, but rather, how one "feels" about a subject or an object. Truth has been bought and sold on the whims of greed and what accommodates one the best.  I especially view it among the younger generations...and they do have validity in their anger, but have not chosen or do not know how to express it appropriately.  Have we elders, older than 20-30 years old, modeled ange...

While reading the book of Acts, I have been directed to read the book of James as I read chronologically.  James was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus who was not a believer during the life time of Jesus.  (John 7:5)  With the physical crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, he became a believer. James was present on the Day of Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:14.  He later became the pastor of the early church at Jerusalem sometime in the 40's AD.    It is amazing that as much as  people enjoy knowing people of power, popularity, and prestige and casually brag about the relationship, James in his greeting to the reader of his book, identifies himself, as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ".  Servant in this passage is the Greek word, doulos, a bond-servant, voluntary in his case, but one with no regard for his own personal interest.   Hegesippus, a second century writer and historian wrote and des...

God commands Ananias to find Saul and minister to him in Acts 9, "Go!  This man is my chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles, and their kings and before the people of Israel.  Then I will show him how much he must suffer for My name."  I wonder if in those three days of blindness, groping, and feeling his way in the room where Saul is staying if God revealed to him how he is going to suffer for the cause of the gospel? Does he have any understanding of what his "buy-in" to salvation in Christ Jesus will cost him? At the end of chapter 9 because of Saul's bold  preaching, the Jews conspire to kill him and his followers lower him in a basket over the wall in Damascus.  In chapter 13, Barnabas and Saul, whose name in the Roman language is Paul, are sent to Cyprus to preach in the synagogues and to the Gentiles.  No confrontation occurs, but in chapter 14, they are in Lystra and after the healing of a lame man and bold preaching, the Jews foll...

  When I encounter an unpleasant circumstance in my life, I am learning that my perception and my emotions will determine how I will choose to respond to the circumstance.  As I prepared my reading in Acts 12, I had written beside the events of Acts 12 a quote by Alan Redpath, "Keep your chin up and your knees down, we're on the victory side!"  This is a "by faith" statement that refuses to look at the circumstance from emotions only.   Herod Agrippa is now "King of the Jews".  He is the grandson of Herod the Great who reigned during the birth of Christ. After his death,  Herod Antipas comes to reign.  With his death, (?), Herod Agrippa is reigning.  He is partly Jewish and uses his ethnicity to its fullest advantage.  He has already had James, the brother of John murdered.  It is so pleasing to the Jews, that now, Simon Peter has made the "Hit List" to be the next victim.  Peter's preaching and miracles have given strong tes...

We read in Acts 9 of Saul of Tarsus "breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples" and find him moving into Damascus where there were many who belonged to "The Way". They were to be taken captive and travel back to Jerusalem. Miraculously, Saul is saved on this journey when he is confronted with the Lord Jesus.  Saul is blinded by the PRESENCE of Jesus and his entourage takes him to the home of Judas.   See him groping and trying to make his way in the home of Judas, feeling and stumbling.  Can you imagine the cacophony of emotions that are bombarding Saul?  The Lord God has a plan....always and a purpose.  He touches the heart of Ananias and instructs him to go to Saul.  Ananias gives his logical disclaimer to God, as if HE, the Divine Knower may not have the info that Saul is in Damascus to arrest and take captive the saints and return them to Jerusalem, more than likely for a "religious trial".  Hear God's reply to Ananias, ...

   In all four of the Gospels, and now Acts, I have seen continual confrontations with the religious Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the chief priests.  They have seen the miracles and the mighty works of our Lord, and have now seen the works of the disciples in Acts, and the response to TRUTH is the same: denial, jealousy, even murder.  We have seen John the Baptist murdered at the whelm of Herod,  Jesus is murdered by the same group, and now I come to the preaching of Stephen.  Stephen is reported to be a "man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit."  For his preaching, Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin...the counsel chambers and court of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The sacred record describes those who are sitting in the Sanhedrin looking intently as Stephen, and the author, Luke, add, "and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel."   Stephen has an audience as he preaches from Abraham to the crucifixion of the Lord.  The...

I continue to wonder from the blog yesterday about forgiveness.  Like you, I too have wanted my hurts validated, but I also wanted the freedom from the hurt and any negative emotions about it.  The real enigma is that I wanted to be free of any unhealthy emotions, but yet, I had a tendency to hang on to the hurt.  Of course, I had gotten the last mile, foot, inch, even centimeter out of it, hating to mention that the hurt may have happened EONS ago.  The question really seems to become, HOW LONG DO I WANT TO HANG ON TO UNHEALTHY EMOTIONS? Do I really want to believe the lie that I am a victim and helpless?  In the mentality of Dr. Phil from television, "How's it working for you?"  Really, how is hanging on to the hurt working on and against you?  We each get to decide if the carrying of the hurt and calling it to remembrance and ripping off the scab promote healing, spiritual health, and wholeness.  I understand hurts, betrayal, disappointment, an...

Having finished the four Gospels, I intend to move on into the book of Acts.  Before I go on,  though, I wanted to address a concern I have as I look at my prayer list and pray for several individuals.  As I look at the list, I see in some lives very valid hurts which may or may not ever have been reconciled or been confronted for resolve and healing.  As a result, self-deception may set in, and the root of bitterness moves in to become a stronghold and may not be recognized by the individual. But at the mention of a name or memory, which has been pushed deeply into the recesses of  the sub-conscious which is a very familiar method of dealing with hurts, the emotion surfaces...usually anger.   In Googling, not looking for a "spiritual definition", I found this definition from charminghealth.com, "Bitterness implies frozen form of latent anger and resentment.  Bitterness is being constantly hurt by a memory and is holding on to a hurt until it has a h...

In completion of the readings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it has been so interesting to see how the spirit of fear drove actions against the Lord Jesus.  The religious feared Jesus for his teachings which they considered blasphemy.  They were so fearful that they were willing to plan to kill Jesus since His popularity arose with the raising of Lazarus.  They would have taken Him captive then, but they were fearful of the great crowds following Jesus. Luke records that Pilate and Herod, though they feared Jesus for their own political sakes and what the Roman government would do to their little "kingdoms" had been enemies. Fear drove them to unite as co-hearts since they must remove Jesus, THE THREAT, from the center stage of their political world. Fear was the compelling motivation for Peter's denial of Jesus and most of the other disciples moving into hiding.  Fear drove Judas to betray Christ because he could see his dreams of a new king and being a part of...