Daily Devotional Tidbits - April 22-30, 2012

The Word for You Today

1.  “Have High Expectations of God”

• I will…tell you…things you do not know.  (Jer 33:33)
• God is not impressed with our strengths, nor is he limited by our struggles.  He wants to do more through us.
• We should always respond in faith, trusting Him, not ourselves.

2.  “Pray for Christians Under Attack”

• Remember those…who are mistreated.  (Heb 13:3)
• If you are not willing to die for Christ, are you even able to live for him?
• Invest your time and talents for the cause of Christ, and start by praying for those going through turmoil and trauma.

3.  “Keep Trying”

• Well done, good and faithful servant.  (Matt 25:23)
• Learn from your mistakes and keep on going.

4.  “The Truth about the Truth”

• You desire truth in the inward parts.  (Ps 51:6)
• It is human nature to lie and cover up:  The heart is deceitful above all things.  (Jer 17:9)
• We blame it on the environment and how we were raised, but in reality we were born with that sinful nature, thanks to Adam and Eve.
• Can God trust us to be honest?

5.  “Courage”

• “Come, follow me”, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  (Mk 1:17)
• Jesus sometimes asks us to leave the security of the known to follow Him into the unknown.
• To keep growing in faith, we must take each step of obedience that is placed before us.
• Rise up; this matter is in your hands…take courage and do it.  (Ezra 10:4)
• There is a greater power with us than with him.  (2 Chron 32:7)
• Courage is what establishes you as a leader before others.
• A leader asks “What needs to be done?”, and then proceeds to do it.

Sparkling Gems from the Greek

1.  Matt 27:32-35

·  Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.  And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.   After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

2.  Matt 2:50-51

·  Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit.  At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart,

·  When Jesus gave his last breath and died, the curtain in the temple that guarded the holy of holies was torn in two.  This symbolized that now, because of the blood of Jesus, everyone can approach the throne of God anytime…not just the high priest once a year.

·  No longer were sacrifices needed to atone for sin, for the blood of Jesus covered sins of those who believed in Him.

·  We can now present our worship and our needs boldly to God at any time, for the Holy Spirit is now our Intercessor….not a priest.

3.  John 19:38-42

·   Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

·  The spices were extremely costly, and much was brought to cover the body of Jesus.  This was how Nicodemus showed his love for Jesus.

·  If others witnessed how we spend our money, would they see Jesus as our priority?

4.  John 20:3-4

·   Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

·  If you want to be closer to Jesus, get up and start    moving toward Him.

5.  John 20:11-13

·  Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.  “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.  “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

·  The purpose of the cross is that we can be put back in a right relationship with God.  Jesus finished the work of redemption on the cross…He paid it all.

·  Jesus is our Shepherd and as His sheep we know His voice…we must follow Him and obey Him.

  

Route 66 Road Trip Day 5 - Albuquerque, NM

Spring Break 2012 Route 66 Road Trip

Day 5 - Albuquerque, NM

Monday Morning, Day 5 of our Route 66 Road Trip.  We had landed in Albuquerque (ABQ), New Mexico for a few days, visiting with our son and daughter-in-law and seeing the sights, particularly those associated with Route 66.  We did take the opportunity to sleep in this morning, making it a lazy morning after being up early and on the road the other four days.  The girls and their dad and I played a game of Junior Trivia Pursuit, and had lots of laughs.  The girls beat us!! 

We had stayed at a Route 66 icon motel in Tucumcari (Blue Swallow…see Day 3-4), and now we were going to eat lunch in a Route 66 Diner, an icon in ABQ.  We drove by a Giant Alert! first…a lumber jack on top of a Vietnamese restaurant.  I was also fascinated with the adobe type houses we passed as drove into downtown ABQ.

We were meeting our ABQ son for lunch at the Route 66 Diner, and had a little time to spare, so we drove around the town a bit, and snapped a few pictures.  The Kimo Theatre on Central, the main drag of town, also Route 66, was built in 1927 and is a showplace still today.  It is done in Pueblo Deco style.  We didn't have time for a tour, but I’m sure it would have been something to behold. 

The Route 66 Diner was very impressive…all that it was talked up to be.  This was a hamburger and malt joint right out of Happy Days.  They had quite a variety on the menu, and we all selected what we wanted, but for sure we all had malts!!  To get a feel for the décor, I have to insert quite a few pictures here.  Enjoy!!

Don’t you just love that counter!!  The only thing that I thought was missing was individual juke boxes on each table where you could insert your coin and pick your tune.  The big juke box worked, but I remember the table top juke boxes.  Anyway, lots of cool stuff in this diner, and great food besides!

After lunch we went over to the University of New Mexico campus for a little walk.  Sandia Mountain kept looming in the background…what a sight to behold! 

Oldest granddaughter was more interested in the pond, the ducks and birds, and the plants in the portion of the campus we were on.  She took lots of pictures of nature for her scrapbook.  I am including one of cactus plants…very pretty.

We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Natural History.  I am not much of a museum person, and since this one promoted evolution, I was anxious to move on.  I kept thinking how I wish I could take the girls to the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, to give them the other side of the coin…the truth in which I believe…God created the earth, animals, humans, and has given man a creative mind and abilities.  So…here are a few pictures from the museum…they did have good displays.

  

  

  

It was time to go back home and order pizza for supper.  Then we watched the Disney “Cars” movie for the second time, now that we had traveled some of Route 66.  It was fun to point out the different scenes or items that we could recognize from our trip thus far.  After the girls were in bed, Grandpa was left to babysit while the rest of us took a Route 66 Cruise at night to see the neon lights along Central.  We did quite a bit of driving around, as the traffic was not busy downtown at night as it was during the day.  I loved the colorful lights!

This ends Day 5 of our Spring Break 2012 Route 66 Road Trip.  As the lights fade away, catch some winks, and come back next time for Day 6 – a trip to the Capital City of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Route 66 Road Trip Day 4, Tucumcari, NM to Albuquerque, NM

Sunday Morning, Day 4 of our Route 66 Road Trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico and home again.  We spent some time in Tucumcari driving around the town and snapping pictures…it’s such a neat town, sort of like an oasis in the desert.  It’s probably the widest spot in the road between Amarillo and Albuquerque.  We had to replace a fuse to keep our cooler going, and thank goodness this town had an auto store and Kmart open on a Sunday morning.  We grabbed some donuts in a grocery store for breakfast, for those of us not crazy about pop tarts or rice krispie bars (snacks in the van). 

New Mexico is a land of mountain peaks and sage brush.  Route 66 traverses 400 miles across this type of terrain, very interesting to a Midwesterner.  Even more interesting on this morning’s travel was the high winds.  Without much foliage to cover the dirt, we headed into and through a dust storm, so thick you couldn’t see too far ahead.  It was hard to capture in pictures, but here’s a few that give you a sense of the NM scenery as well as a dust storm.

  

 

Along the way we stopped at Cline’s Corners, in business since 1934.  It’s the largest gift shop in this part of the country.  We took time to browse a while.  You can see how windy it was…the customer was holding onto his glasses so they wouldn’t blow away.  The Indian Chief in front of the store is an icon from Route 66…but not exactly a Giant Alert!

 

By the way, I have to insert a couple of pictures from a Rest Area stop we made in Texas on Saturday.  I missed them in my last post.  There are two rest areas along I-40 west of Amarillo, one on the west bound side and one on the east bound side, that are designed with Route 66 and the earlier era in mind.  I loved their décor.  What’s even more interesting is that the bathrooms are actually tornado shelters.  When I heard about the recent tornadoes going through that area, I wondered how many travelers stopped and waited it out in the bathrooms at the rest areas.  My son pointed out that while waiting, you could look at the pictures on the wall of previous devastating tornadoes, in case you wondered what might be going on outside.  I will have more pictures on our return trip blog.  I just loved the colors, styles, and glass blocks, not to mention the two girls who posed for me!!

We were meeting our NM son and daughter-in-law at Tijeras to take a detour up the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway, through the foothills of the Sandia Mountains.

  

We went through a couple of ghost towns of the old west, Madrid and Cerrillos.  We stopped at the Casa Grande Trading Post, which housed the Turquoise Mining Museum and petting zoo.  We spent some significant time here. 

 We didn't go on into Santa Fe, part of the pre-1937 loop of Route 66.  We saved the Capital City for another day trip.  We had a Sunday Dinner appointment we needed to make.  Paul’s sister lives on Sandia Mountain, and a turkey dinner was being prepared for us in mid-afternoon.  They have a few dogs, cats, horses, coyotes…they live on a mountain ranch.  Oldest granddaughter was very captured by these animals, as she usually is.

As we were finishing eating a snow and sleet storm came in, blowing sideways, and we were told we better get down off the mountain while we could.  So we left and headed to Albuquerque.  I wish I had taken a picture of Miss Holly, the van.  After she had come through a wicked dust storm and was coated in brown, she was blasted with ice pellets and ended up being polka-dotted.  Most vehicles were looking that way though, so we fit right in.  Miss Holly got a bath the next day.

Our son and his wife put us up for a few days.  My whole family was together, and when this happens I am in high heaven on earth…these are the most precious times I could have.  We had lots of fun together, and the girls started working on their Route 66 scrapbooks.  They will finish them this summer when they come to visit Grandpa and Grandma.  I will give you the details of our Albuquerque visit in my next Route 66 blog.  See you then!!