I am not a proponent of celebrating national holidays in the church. So, when July 5 rolled around and the title of Pat’s sermon was Let Freedom Ring, I was a bit dismayed – and, I must admit, surprised! Really? A sermon on the 4th of July?
Thankfully, I had jumped to a wrong conclusion. The earth was still in alignment, and my pastor was still preaching Christ, and Him crucified! Pat’s sermon was on the freedom from sin purchased by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
I highly recommend it – and I’m not biased at all…. much??
I’m just saying…
Much to the chagrin of husband, Barry, I am a collector. Not just a collector, oh no! I am an “Overachieving Collector”. We OC’s do not just collect one thing – we collect several. I am not the most overly achieving of the OC’s – I only collect about 5 different things….mostly. 
Let’s see – there’s depression era glass (milk, carnival, vaseline, etc.),Goebel Hummels, eclectic wine glasses, calendar towels, AND vintage Sunbeam Mixmaster Mixers.
I have collected Mixmasters for the last 5 years. It started because of my mother’s turquoise, 1950’s era model 11 mixer. My father bought this for her in 1956 – while she was pregnant with me. It is the only mixer my mother owned until the day she died, which happens to have been in February of this year. Up until today, I owned a model 5, a model 9 and a model 12. Today – after a failed attempt in May, resulting in a shipment containing a mixer and bowls in about 200 tiny pieces – I am the proud owner of a turquoise model 11 mixer. Not only that, BUT it has turquoise bowls – something my mother’s did not (and never did) have. 
Mom’s mixer is still humming merrily along in my cousin, Leeann’s, kitchen. She had always wanted that mixer, and Mom had always promised it to her. I’m happy she has it, and I know she loves it as much as I. But today I feel as if another bit of “memory making with Mom” has come home. And that makes me happy – to the point of tears.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My Richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my prideSee from His head His hands His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crownOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly liveOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly liveWere the whole realm of nature mine
That were an off’ring far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my allOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly liveOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly liveLove so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all
and the beauty and the shame
in the glory of His nameOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly liveOh the wonderful cross
Oh the wonderful cross
All who gather here by grace
draw near and bless your name
I have three slow cookers (read “crockpots”). So, when I told my hubby I wanted to purchase this slow cooker, he did that “smirk while rolling eyes” move that he sometimes does. This appliance will be replacing the others – which will now head for “Garage Sale Stardom”.
You may have realized by my slow cooker count, this is not a revolutionary concept to me. As the mom/step-mom of 6, I have used this type of cooking for many years – especially when I was still a full-time working woman. When I was a single mom of twins, I had a small crockpot that I used in my studio apartment in Chicago. At that point, the boys were small and not eating my cooking. When I moved to Florida, and the boys were now toddlers with hollow legs, I “upgraded” my crockpot (while still keeping the old one!) to the next size up. Then came Barry, his three children, and our child together. Well, you can imagine that this all came with a 6 qt. slowcooker. Especially now that we were looking at FOUR boys with hollow legs!
The thing is, I use(d) all of them. Sometimes big is too big, and sometimes small is too small. There is that “Thank you, Papa/Mama/Baby Bear, this is just right!” size for each thing I cook. And the thing that totally drew me to this – besides the idea of only storing “one” appliance – is the fact that the base allows for wattage adjustment for each size. So, low for the 2 qt. bowl is lower than low for the taller 4 qt. bowl (etc., etc., etc.). That will make for less scalding and more flavor!
Even now that we are down to only our “baby” at home, there are return visits by children and grandchildren that call for different size dinners. So roll those eyes, hubby – Mama’s got a brand new “bag”!!
I’m just saying…
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasureHow great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to gloryBehold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocing voice,
Call out among the scoffersIt was my sin that helf Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I knoww that it is finishedI will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast inJesus Christ
His death and resurrectionWhy should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
(REPEAT)
Lyrics by Stuart Townend
The press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
James Fenimore Cooper, American author (1789-1851)
“Man of Sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Words and Music by Phillip P. Bliss
The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media’s hands yesterday — both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.
William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.
Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death.
Gov. Sarah Palin
::crickets chirping at the White House::
Words of truth from Michael Reagan – May 7, 2009 (weekly column).
If some media reports are correct — a dangerous assumption nowadays when media skepticism has given way to unquestioned Obama worship — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the GOP needs to abandon nostalgia for the Reagan era.I’m inclined to doubt the accuracy of that report since Jeb Bush was probably the best governor Florida ever had, and one who clung ferociously to the Republican principles exemplified by my father, Ronald Reagan.Even if he did say something silly like that, my argument with him and Mitt Romney and the other participants in the so-called listening tour is not about my dad, but about the absurdity of a listening tour designed to tutor Republican bigwigs on what the public really wants from government,My short answer to that question is that I want the government to get the hell out of our way and let us act like the free people our founding fathers wanted us to be, and not like subjects of an all-knowing, all-powerful federal government.The listening tour is nothing but Republican gimmickry. The reality is that had they been listening over the past four years of the Bush presidency they would have seen the disaster of 2006 coming and they would have seen the catastrophe of 2008 coming.
Instead, they turned a deaf ear to the Republican conservatives not only on Capitol Hill, but to those out across America.They lost in 2006 and 2008 because they stopped listening to the “nostalgia” for the conservative principles which guided my dad’s administrations.They receded backwards to the principle of losing elections, a habit that gripped the GOP until Newt Gingrich came along and showed them how to win congressional elections by standing for something, and my dad showed them how to win gubernatorial and presidential elections by championing the principles that made us the wealthiest and most-powerful nation in world history.The lesson they taught was that you don’t win elections by saying “me too,” and trying to substitute a Republican version of big-government, wild-spending quasi-socialist agenda for a Democrat big-government, wild-spending quasi-socialist agenda.Democrats know how to be socialists, Republicans don’t. They can only try to imitate the real thing, so you end up as Benito Mussolini, half-socialist and half-capitalist, and not as Joe Stalin, socialist all the way to the death camps of Siberia.If the GOP listeners want to know what the conservative majority among voters want and are thinking about, all they need to do is listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and — in all modesty — Mike Reagan.Our voices are the voice of the majority of Republican voters and open-minded independents. We don’t have tens of millions of listeners every day because we have a message that contradicts the opinion of our audience — we have such a vast army of listeners because they recognize that we are echoing their own opinions and telling them they are right in thinking as they do.They recognize gimmicky when they see it. Watching TV this morning, I saw a pornography star who is running for the United States Senate announcing that she is on — guess what — a “listening tour,” to learn if voters want her to make the run for Capitol Hill. It seems Republicans aren’t the only ones using gimmickry these days.If Republicans had really been listening, they’d still be in control of the House and Senate and there would be a Republican in the White House.They didn’t listen then, and they aren’t listening now. If they start listening, what they’ll hear is a demand that the Republican Party get back to the principles and beliefs embodied by Ronald Reagan, and get back to the principles of genuine conservatism which echo Thomas Jefferson’s sage advice that a people who fear government cannot be free, but a government that fears the people is a government where the people are the masters and the state is their servant.Finally, it isn’t nostalgia for the Reagan era we need to forget, but the big government, wild-spending of Jeb Bush’s brother George’s administration.
©2009 Mike Reagan. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.
for an outreach of love perpetrated by my children!
From the cake from daughter, Crysta (along with numerous other lovely gifts) to the wonderful necklace from daughter (from Barry’s previous marriage), Amanda
to the various phone calls and text messages from sons….
all of these things made my first Mother’s Day without Mom not only bearable, but joyful and full of love!
Father, You know every emotion – every feeling – I will feel. You have moved mountains, and Your very word tells of our ability to move mountains in faith!
In Your predestination of me, You knew this would be a very difficult time for me – and You held me closely to Your bosom. You loved me so much that You moved my children to step up to the plate, in subtle ways, to comfort me
There is no thing You cannot do, and there is no thing You will not do for Your beloved. I cannot sing Your praises enough – I cannot give You enough glory for Your love.
I pray You will accept this offering of praise from me – and I pray it in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
