An unlikely song was running through my mind, turns out it was "A Groovy Kind of Love" by Phil Collins! The line that was stuck in my mind was "When I'm feeling blue all I have to do is take a look at you and then I'm not so blue". Then the line "He restores my soul", from Psalm 23 came right along with it. Odd. We all have certain triggers that, we know for sure, will make us feel better, or push you into the doldrums of depression. Funny that sometimes you actually choose to be depressed, you turn on that old song, you know the one, read an old letter or look longingly at a picture from the past. Choosing to be happy is not the easy path, but it is the one that leads you out of "the pit". Last week, just for a few moments, I chose the former path and sure enough, within moments I had dissolved into tears, why do we do it to ourselves? Reading the Psalms you can see the pattern the writer follows, from deep despair to giving God the "sacrifice of thanksgiving" because "God dwells in the praises of His people". Psalm 23 finds him in a wonderful place, and verse three says: He restores my soul and leads me in paths of righteousness for His names sake. Here are the definitions of "restore": return to its original or usable and functioning condition; regenerate: return to life; get or give new life or energy; give or bring back; repair: restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; bring back into original existence, use, function, or position  When you consider the meaning of that word, you can see that to have your soul restored is a big deal! You can start all over again, erase the bad, depressing moments, become brand new! When you look in the face of Jesus, the words to my  mindless song even make more sense..."When I'm feeling blue, all I have to do is take a look at you, then I'm not so blue." Or another you might identify with more: "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."  Think of a silver candle stick, when it is tarnished it becomes black and you can't see the beautiful shine. All you have to do is take polish and rub it back to it's original shine and glory. May be that you are just a little tarnished and need to be polished, or if you are bent, you might have to face the fire of the silver smith! Malachi 3:3(a) He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. This says to me that He will not SEND me to the fire alone, but will sit there and work with me while I am in the fire, being refined, purified and made an honorable vessel once again. If you want to start over and get rid of your old baggage, offer yourself to Him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), and quit trying to crawl off the altar, face the fire and be restored to your former glory! Steve Green said it well: "Bring back the glory, won't You show us what life is for, bring back the glory, make us lke You once more. Bring back the music, the trust and the wonder that's just like a child when he's never known pain, bring back the glory, the glory again." 

Enjoy your holiday, offer the sacrifice of praise, allow yourself to be restored, thank a soldier and Be Blessed!

Someone sent pictures to my email that were made during the Viet Nam War. One picture in particular captured my attention, stirred my soul, made me sick to my stomach and angry, all at the same time. It showed an emaciated child squatting on the ground, you could see that death was not far from him. Behind him was a vulture, at leasst giving him the courtesy of dying, before he devoured what flesh was left on his pitiful bones. The caption said the photographer that snapped that picture commited suicide soon after he had taken it. I saw other pictures of people from WWll standing behind fences with their fingers reaching through,begging for help, knowing their destination was the death chamber. But there is one picture that I remember from my school days, it was Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. It is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. Of the six men depicted in the picture, three were killed during the battle. I thank those men for standing up for me, protecting my rights and freedoms with their life's blood. Viet Nam comes closer to home as so many young men that I knew went and fought in those jungles, and whatever you think of the outcome, they were there to defend our honor. I thank them for giving their time, efforts, in some cases their sanity, and their lives to protect and defend me. My voice is small, and unless this obscure article is read, no one will know that I appreciate their efforts, but it makes me feel better to at least say it to you, and hopefully you will also speak out and say your own thanks to someone who has served in the defense of our America.

Jesus hung on a thankless cross to defend and protect our freedom of salvation, our right to have an eternal home in the heavenlies, to have healing and help with our asking. I thank Him for giving His life for me, for saving me, for healing me. As our young men left homes protected and loved by parents to go into war zones, Jesus left the comfort of heaven to face the war zone Satan planned for Him on this earth. As I did not earn my salvation by any acts of righteousness, I have not earned the protection by any man or woman that has ever served in the military. The Marine's "Semper Fidelis" says it for all branches of the military and for our Savior, "Always Faithful" Be blessed!

(This morning I was rubbing my cornbread pan with salt and oil, and remembered this devotion, I had to put it here again, too good not to have a rerun! Enjoy! ) It's so old that I don't ever remember it not being in the kitchen, it was my mother's before it was mine. It is heavy, the outside has blackened from years of use over gas flames, but the inside of that pan is slick, seasoned, perfect for making my cornbread. I have a coffee mug, bought, while on a very wonderful vacation with my children, at the Disney Brown Derby Restaurant. It is my favorite mug and my morning coffee does not taste the same from any other cup. There is an over-sized tee shirt, old and sporting some thin places, definitely ugly, but it is my favorite sleep-wear. There are some letters from the far past that I have put away and carefully take out occasionally, to read. I own several Bibles, but my fave is my old Dake, pages, worn and coming apart, but that Bible always knows exactly where to open anytime I reach for it. What is my point? These old, ugly, worn items make me feel good, comfort me, work when I need them to work. Everyone in the house knows that there are two things you don't touch, they are the scissors I cut hair with, and my cornbread pan. I have a set of Rachel Ray  pans, orange handles,soft to the touch, bright and shiny, but when I make cornbread I reach for the old pan. The reason this is important to me is that sometimes I feel like the most ragged, ugly, useless person in God's Army. I feel I am the one that is put under the cabinet to hide when company comes over, like my cornbread pan. No matter how ugly it is, if I want to make a pan of bread, I  reach under the stove, turn the flame on under it, bringing it to the point that when I pour the batter in, it immediately sizzles and browns the bottom so that when I slice it, it will slide right out without sticking to the sides! Looking at the men Jesus chose to walk with Him I think they all look more like cornbread pans than shiny new cookware. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31  (The Message)Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."  King James says it this way: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; I don't mind being the old, ugly, blackened pan that is hidden from public view, if when God wants to do something special, He will reach under the cabinet and use me, knowing that everything I have gone through in this life has made me seasoned and ready for use. I want Him to be able to count on me, to know that I can take the heat and serve up whatever He wants me to do. What better calling in life than to be God's cornbread pan? Can't think of anything right this minute!

Be blessed, pray, get seasoned!