THE DIRTY DOZEN

They were truly the "Dirty Dozen" before Jesus got a hold of the disciples.....
Now, weren't they?
Becky

TAPS 'N' REVILIE

Ya know, I think if Christ had died in today's time,we could be playing "Taps"......
"Day is done;Gone the Son"
.......but then, we could just as soon play reville,three
days later too, because it was time to rise, for He was now with the Father above!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I'm listening to my wonderful music on Christmas Eve, and just thinking about You,Lord.....
Wondering what it's like in Heaven on Christmas Eve?
Oh, to be with You,all the time,Lord.
Inexcelsius Deo.......It never ceases to amaze me,Lord, that You could have gone through what You did,for me.
You must have loved me so very much.
I will never be able,in a million years,to tell You, just how very much I appreciate what You did, or how very thankful I am.......
Words just can't express it!
You mean so much to me.
I hope this will be a good New Year for You too,Lord, and that many of Your children will be found, and come home to You....
It's sad, when You have a child and they go off on their own, and don't come back home.
I hope and pray,in 2008, that many of Your children will come back home to You,Lord.....
Becky

I REMEMBER MAMA

David and I watched the old black and white movie, "I Remember Mama" again,tonight. Such memories......
I can still recall watching this movie for the very first time, with Grandmother Bouterse in her trailer,back in the early 50's.
Irene Dunne's Norwegian accent was alot like Grandmother's Dutch accent, and it brought back such sweet memories of her in that humble little trailer.
Especially the scene,where "Mama" was furiously mopping the floor, while her little daughter lay so sick in the hospital. "Mama" made the statement, (when questioned why she was mopping),that "there comes a time when you have to get down on your knees." She knew what she had to do,to relieve her heartache and frustration over her daughter being so ill.
We know what to do, in order to relieve our frustration, and heartache if we'll just do it!. We don't have to do the mopping either.....
We just have to get down on our knees, and pour out our heart to Him...Then,just let God mop up all our worries and sins in one fell swoop......
Becky

HAVE OR NEED?

It's quiet today,Lord, and I am tired.
I still have so much to do.
Help me,Father,to be still, and know that You are God.
I don't need anything else.
What I have to do,
And what I need to do,
Are two entirely different things,sweet Lord....
Becky

FUNNY,ISN'T IT?

Isn't it funny,how God speaks to each of us? I know how different we each are,so He uses different ways to reach us.
For me,I am a visual person,so He uses all kinds of things I can relate to, but that would make no sense to somebody else, who might be another type person. I could give you so many examples,(if I could just remember them) of how He touched me,at just the right time, but unless you were a visual person,it wouldn't be the same. The three days I stopped by to visit with Lynn and Bill Ashton,before he died, was a perfect visual picture. God knowingly cared for me then, because He knew I would be at Edisto, when Bill left this earth and went home to be with the Lord....
and then, to have me to watch the Mark Twain movie, with the words, that spoke right to my heart for comfort.
What a visual picture He painted for me, allowing me to heal, away from all my friends....
Oh, what a glorious God we serve! To top it off, He has given me a very dear friend in Lynn.
I have a pretty good visual God too!
Becky

INQUIRING MINDS

If inquiring minds always want to know........
Then, why can't they want to know about Jesus?
Becky

THE END & BEGINNING WORD

God's final word was Jesus!
Jesus is our beginning word!
Becky

WOW!

I was talking to my brother,Jeff on the phone today,and he was told me something that happened to him when he was 20 years old. He is now almost 70!!
Seems Jeff was following a friend home one day, when a young boy ran out in front of Neil's car and was hit and killed. Jeff watched Neil climb under his car to try and reach this little boy. Jeff calmly walked over to the car, and knowing the parents would be coming at any moment, he cleaned the boy up, as best he could, before they arrived and saw their son...... He said it was horrible, and that was 50 years ago.
He said God gave him the strength he needed for that moment, but when he got home,he went to pieces!
Can you imagine living for 50 years with that memory? Only God could give you a peace when something like that happens. It gave me that peace, when David Jr. died, and knowing what happened to him.
It did for Jeff, after having seen what he saw.
Isn't God something?
Becky

**For those of you who are concerned about removing evidence from the scene of an accident.This was all taken care of, and done with the authorities approval after the fact!

HEAVEN,MAN& EARTH

As a young girl,I spent alot of time,working with my mother in garden club activities. We were always involved in shows and fairs of some form or another.She finally became a Master Judge,in her later years,but her love of arranging flowers and gardening were her primary interests.I enjoyed entering our Lake County Fair and Flower Show, and even won a tri color ribbon one year!When I left Aiken,my garden club,(Sunshine) made me an honorary lifetime member.......
One of my favorite ways of arranging flowers was the method known as "Heaven,Man & Earth". This procedure was the tallest grouping of flowers coming straight up from the container, (or frog), and was known as "Heaven". The next tallest that came up from the "frog", was known as "Man".It usually went out to the side a little bit.Finally, the last, and shortest of the three, was "Earth".This grouping stayed closest to the frog.
When your flowers were put together this way, the whole arrangement seem to stay in balance better. There were other ways to arrange flowers,such as using a crescent shape, but this was my favorite.....
This is the same way we are, in our lives too.
If we will arrange God above us, as the headship of our lives, keeping us below Him, then we can always depend on our feet being firmly planted on the ground!
......and with Him,we will definitely win the Grand Prize!
Becky

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas!
This is my Christmas greeting to you......
I reflect on all the happenings in my life since moving to Beaufort.
David and I moved into our home,out here in Seabrook,and I fell in love with being on the water.
One of the first places I was told to go, was by my pastor from New Covenant Presbyterian Church(PCA) in Aiken. He told me,that the closest church,to the way we believed, was called Community Bible Church.He told me,that they believed in scripture as being the infallible word of God, and that was good enough for me!
Well, the first Sunday I attended,I met Pat Youmans,who introduced me to Norma Qualls,by way of Doyle, and the rest,as they say,is history.....
I spent alot of my time at Curves, and doing things with my neighbors,but the pull from my church family was so strong.
I have spent some time on stage with the Prime Timers(haha), and furnished Beaufort Memorial with some laughs during my hip replacement.I think I preferred the Surgery Center, for my rotator cuff surgery, and where my dear neighbor,Susan Gooding, took such good care of me. I did manage to meet Alice and Harold Cross,though, while at Beaufort Memorial, and that was delightful.....such treasured friends!
All in all, since we moved to Beaufort in 2003,I have come to treasure my friends so very much.I have some of the dearest friends in the world in Aiken, that I will never forget.I have some all over,in other places that I can't ever forget too.
I think God has given me that gift of accumulating friends wherever I go.
My friends are one of my richest treasures in life!
This Christmas, as we celebrate our greatest treasure,Jesus Christ......
may you each be blessed with the spirit of His Eternal gift....
I love you all.
Merry Christmas! (and forget all that Happy Holiday stuff!)
Becky

THE END & BEGINNING WORD

God's final word was Jesus!
It was our beginning word.....
Becky

BREADBONES

As a little girl,growing up in Florida,I would spend many a night, with Grandaddy and Grandmother Ray.They were my southern grandparents and sticklers for manners.Grandaddy was deaf as a doorknob,but my sweetheart!At every meal, he would always have a plate loaded up with slices of bread.He said that the bread was to dissolve the fishbones, incase we swallowed them. Even if we didn't have fish, the bread was always there. I guess we were gonna catch a bone from something!
Anyhoo,I thought about this funny little quirk of his, and how he loved his bread......
I also thought about how our Lord and Savior is also the Bread of Life, and if we will partake of Him and His word, we too can dissolve those cantankerous old bones of contention that keep welling up inside of us!
Becky

20/20

I got my very first pair of contacts, back in the ninth grade, and they fit so well, that I wore the same pair for thirty years!
Every now and then, though, something would get into my eye, that felt like a grain of sand....
Boy, did that hurt! I'd try to put saline solution or water in my eye......anything to take care of the pain, and to get it out!
Sometimes sin creeps into our lives,like this too. It pops in where it is most uncomfortable, and we can't get it out!
We try all kinds of remedies to make us feel better, but they never take care of the real problem. The best solution for sin, isn't a saline solution, but the "Word Of God" solution.....
His word is full strength, and more powerful than any two edged sword, and will cut it right out!
I did have pretty blue eyes, with those contacts, though....
Becky

TWAS THE NIGHT B 4 CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas,and all through the stable,
Mary and Joseph didn't truly understand what was happening......
But they were trusting in God.
The shepherd's didn't really understand what all was happening.....
But they were trusting in God too.
Even the wisemen didn't fully understand where they were headed......
But they were trusting in God just the same.
Herod understood that a King had been prophesied to come and reign.
He was trusting in only himself, to solve that problem too.
Isn't that always the way it is? The ones that should know, are surprised, and those who aren't sure, are looking!
This Christmas Eve,let's open our hearts, and get them stirring for our Lord and Savior,Jesus Christ.....
May this Christmas Eve,"The Night Before Christmas", welcome this wonderful Savior back into our hearts, so that it will be "The Night Before "More of Christ."
Woo Hoo!
Becky

LOOK AT THE SUN

Oh,look at the sun going down in all its glory. I'm so sad to see it go. The aura of its afterglo, will be felt by all for a long time to come, but then when the sun rises in the morning,I will know that the world will be straight once again.....
As it was with our Lord, it was a sad time to watch the "Son" go down. The aura of His afterglo would be felt by many for a long,long time.
Joyfully, this "Son" would rise three days later, and gloriously reign in Heaven above, and the world would be straight once again.
(It will really be straight, when He comes to take us home with Him!)
Becky

RECYCLED & REDEEMED

Driving home today,I passed a sign for the solid waste recycling center. I thought about how all of us are really God's "solid waste" human's, and how He has given His only Son as the redeemer for our sins.
Christ did one better.
He took us and "recycled the sinner", all in one!
He redeemed that solid waste human, by the shedding of His blood, and we became new creatures in Christ.
That's the Redeemable Center, for the Recycled Sinner!
Becky

MARY IN A MARTHA WORLD

I think I finally figure out why my Grandmother Bouterse had it together all the time!
She was a "Mary",in a "Martha" world!
That kinda explains it,huh?
Becky

A LITTLE GIRL AT HEART

I was your little girl,along time ago,Lord. I loved You,so very much. I walked with You and talked with You,....... all the time.
Why,Lord,I even rode my yellow wooden, stick "Cisco Kid" pony, every where with You. Remember,Father,how Debbie and I always dressed up at Christmas, as Mary and Joseph and walked around our driveway, to the make believe stable? We loved to do that for You, sweet Lord.
I haven't always done the things I should,Lord, and I know that must make You sad....... As I've gotten older and have children of my own,I appreciate You and what You did for me, so much more.
I love You even more now, but even though I'm 60,I'm still Your little girl, at heart!This is my prayer of love to You, loving Father.......amen.

THIS IS COOL!

This is cool,folks!
He left the splendor of His Home in Heaven,to come down to us on earth, as a baby.
All this,in obedience to His Father's will.
Oh, that we could be in such obedience to Him today......
It amazes me,to think that even some 600 years,before Jesus arrived as as baby, the prophet Micah fortold of His arrival in Bethlehem. What's even wilder, is that God provided him with the exact continent; the country; the district, and even the city, that we know as the city of Bethlehem of Judea.
How much more specific could someone be,on the exact birthdate of a King, 600 years before they were born?
Is our God not awesome,or what?
Not only was our God, an "In the beginning,God..."
but also "throughout our entire life and Eternity God!
He will always be our world without end, and will always be our "Merry Christmas", and just think.....
We get to spend it with Him too!!!
Becky

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

As I fixed my White Chicken Chili,to take to the beach this next week,I thought about all the ingredients that go into making it such a neat dish!
Shoepeg corn;Great Northern beans; oregano;chicken;....lots of different goodies. Then you can top it off with sour cream and cheese,to make up one delicious soup!......Yum!
The body of Christ is like that too......
We're all different, but when we're stirred together,under the direction and love of our Lord,we blend together to form a beautiful picture of what our Savior looks like.
Yep! I'd say we are lots of different goodies, and as many different types of people,as there are letters in the alphabet. I guess we could be called a great bowl of Alphabet Soup!
Becky

CAN'T BEAT THAT

Lord,I am so humbled that You would use me.....yes even me,to give Your thoughts to.
Sometimes,I ask why? Then,I know You will use whomever You wish.You have taken this,Your child,and given her one of the desires of her heart, by writing journey's about You.
You give me these journey's, in such exciting and creative ways!..... I may be curling my hair,sweet Lord,and You will give me one of Your thoughts.If I don't write it down the first time,You will get bolder with Your presentation to me!
I have to laugh, Lord,because I usually get Your message now, on the first go-round!
You have chosen me for a reason,Lord, and I thank You.I am doing what I love to do,writing all these fun journey's Lord,which right now,is sitting in the sun at Edisto,writing about the "Son" and talking to the "Son"
Can't beat that Lord.......
Becky

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

So much to do.......
Is the table set for everyone?
Is the meat ready to come out of the oven?
Where are the place cards?
Are all the gifts out?
Should I move this,or leave it out?
Aren't they here yet?
Are the roses in David juniors stocking still okay?
Would you get the phone please?
Oh,I think they're here!
Hurry! I see them!
Oh dear, the floor is dirty.......I needed to sweep it!
Come in! Christmas Gift! Christmas Gift!

Am I ready for all this confusion Lord? There really isn't all that much to do.
Lord,if I let myself remember what Christmas is all about.If I remember to be a Mary this Christmas, and not a Martha......
This is my gift to you,this Christmas Day, and this season......
................................................................................................................
That you may enjoy this wonderful day, and time of year, as Mary did......
At the feet of Jesus.
Instead of at the feet of the world.
It can be dirty, hectic and stressful at the feet of the world.
Being at the feet of Jesus, is clean;content and so relaxing.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Becky

O HOLY NIGHT

I love my memories of the different holidays! I really do!
Growing up at Christmas was like clockwork in the Ray household. We had a huge mirror over our fireplace in the livingroom,where Daddy always painted an elaborate nativity scene on it, every Christmas.....
It was stunning too!
My brother Michael always drove up to the Ocala National Forest and cut down our Christmas tree, and it was always perfect! We read the Christmas story and as a little girl,I walked the nativity figures around the room,to their correct places in the stable.
The one memory that stays with me the most though,is my Mama singing "O Holy Night" on Christmas Eve at church.
She had a beautiful soprano voice..... Oh, did she ever! I think a little bit of Heaven must have touched her on Christmas Eve, because as she imparted those words to our weary world,through that song, we seemed to understand,that our world did indeed lay in sin and error,pining for Him to appear......
.....and that one day,we would be able to rejoice, because it truly would be a "Holy Night"!( or day)
Becky

SWEET LORD

Sweet Lord,in Your merciful strength,please answer those who cry out to You in pain and in distress.Send them help from Your sanctuary, and hide them in the shelter of Your abiding wings. With Your righteous right hand,lift them up and out of this trouble they are in,dear Father. If there is a reason, that they are in need of this trial right now,sweet Lord, then suffer them not above that they are able, but give them the grace to handle it. Lift forth the bounty of Your strength and walk side by side with them, as they partake of this pain, and allow them to praise Your name while so doing. Let them exalt in Your strength,O God,for when we are weak,You are strong.
Let us praise Your Glorious and Merciful name,amen.....

NOT SEEN....BUT KNOW!

The fog,this morning at Edisto,is a picture of what I think Christ meant, when He said "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen."
I am hoping in faith,for my "sun" to come out today.
In faith,I know,that my "Son" will be there, whether the "sun" is there or not!
Becky

NANNEE NANNEE BOO BOO

A cat may have nine lives......But then it dies.
I get two lives..........................forever!
Nannee Nannee Boo Boo!
Becky

TIME TO GO TO SLEEP

Someday,my Heavenly Father will say to me:"Becky,it's time to go to sleep." I will probably say to Him,"Just a litttle while longer." He'll probably say something like:" Would you like for me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"
Yep, that's probably the way it will be, when I close my eyes for the last time,on this earth!
Becky

MY EYES ON YOU

I will keep my eyes upon You,Lord, while I am in the midst of this furnace of afffliction.It isn't a fun time for me,Lord, but You must have a purpose for me ,Lord,in my needing to go through this.I must have to go through the fire, in order to come out on the other side, without the dross.
Help my eyes stay focused on You,Lord, while I must travel through this, knowing that I will come through it, a far better person, than before I went in....
Stay close Father!
Becky

LASTING GIFT

This Christmas,give the gift that keeps on giving.....
Tell someone about Jesus!
Becky

LASTING MEMORY

There's a special area of land in Aiken, which was deeded to the city, and set aside,and can never be developed. It's mansions, instead, are glorious and regal Magnolia's, along with some mighty gorgeous Oaks.There are reflecting pools and shadowy paths to walk upon.....
During December,this whole area is covered with hundreds of thousands of tiny white lights, which seems to illumine the gardens, so much more, than in the daytime.
It's the sameway, with us, as Christians.
We can sort of "Ho Hum" our way, on our walk, or we can let God's light, really shine down on, and through us...
When it does, the illumination we get, and the reflection we give back will make a lasting impression!
Becky

MY ROCK

O my rock and my deliverer,You continually turn Your ear to me, when I call upon You in my hour of distress, and You save me. You are my tower of strength and my rock of refuge, to which I find shelter.
Hide me in the shelter of Your wings, where no harm will befall me, and let Your righteousness trickle down upon me.
Yes,Lord,with You,I feel shelter and strength.....
Becky

STRONG TOWER

As Rick, and Pastor Carl, were talking about the Strong Tower Campagn ,today, on the radio, they made mention of moving their strong tower, to make it even stronger, and hoping to receive the funds to do just that!
Afterwards,I thought about how glad I was, that our "REAL" Strong Tower, will never budge!
Becky

QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

This one bears repeating,folks!

As I drive through Yemassee, heading back to Aiken,I often see Queen Anne's Lace along the side of the road.It is so pretty to me, and it looks so elegant and graceful as it sways in the breeze. I would love to plant some in my yard The sad thing though, is that beautiful plant isn't a plant at all! It's a beautiful weed! A weed is something we are suppose to pull up and discard, before it takes over......
Sin can be like that "beautiful" Queen Anne's Lace.
It can be appealing, and seem lovely to look at.
Sometimes,it will entice you to take it home with you and let it grow with you.
If you stay in the Master Gardener's Manual, though, you will see this plant, for what it is.....a nasty 'ole sin, and how God's word will uproot that sin and destroy it, before it has a chance to choke the life out of you.....
This is one weed you want to get rid of, as soon as it pops up!
Becky