​Several months ago, Bill and I traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to help our Truckstop Ministries work a booth at the Great American Truck Show. It was an experience of a lifetime for me.  It was my first truck show to ever attend and it exceeded all of my expectations.  Hundreds of booths filled the Exposition Building.  Items to buy ranged from food to makeup to 18-wheelers with sleepers.  You could walk for hours and still not see everything that was there. However, more amazing to me than seeing all this “trucker stuff” was seeing the six to eight inches of snow that fell during our time in Kentucky.
Being from Louisiana, I had seen snow but I had never experienced that much snow at one time.  At home, we may get one or two inches, but it usually melts before the day is over.  A few times, we have gotten enough snow to build snowmen and have snowball fights. But because the snow was not very deep, we would usually end up with little pieces of debris mixed in with it. If you were really careful, you might scrap up enough clean snow to make snow ice cream.
However, this Kentucky snow was different.  It was soft, yet it would still stick together.  It was thick so it covered the ground below it perfectly.  The snow didn’t melt for days due to the cold temperatures.  It was beautiful!  It made everything look clean and pure.  I felt like a little child at Christmas time.  I couldn’t wait to go outside, play in the snow, build a snowman, and throw a snowball.    My first thought was that this is what David was talking about when he said in Psalm 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”  And again in Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
As Christians, none of us are perfect.  We all have sins. We all have areas of our lives that need improvement.  In fact, in Romans 3:23, we are told that we all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But thankfully, we also have the gift of repentance.  “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
According to Webster, repent means to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life.    Repentance wipes our sin away and makes us white as snow.  You no longer can even see the sin because it is completely covered by the grace of God. The sin is gone.  It’s been blotted out.  Just as the snow that I witnessed in Kentucky covered up all the blemishes on the ground, grace covers up all our sin when we truly repent.
Sometimes, however, we confess our sins, but we don’t turn from them.  We continue to repeat those same sins over and over.  A true confession has not taken place.  And just like the snow that covers the ground in Louisiana, you see the change for a little while but then it goes away! Before you realize it, you are right back to making the same mistakes that you made before.  Only with the help of Christ can you confess your sins, turn from your sins, and once again be made as white as snow.
This is Nana Nancy, Let Jesus be YOUR Guide as you enjoy YOUR ride!

Several years before Mike, my first husband, passed away, he planted six or seven blackberry plants out behind an old shed of ours.  He weeded and watered these plants daily, making sure that they took root so that they could grow into healthy berry vines which produced many berries. He had been given these plants from a dear preacher friend of ours and it was very important to Mike to keep them alive. Plus, he was really looking forward to gathering his crop because we really liked to eat homemade blackberry cobbler with Blue Bell ice cream.
These plants did take root and they did grow.  But Mike didn’t live long enough to see the fruit from his work.  The plants didn’t start producing until the summer after Mike passed away.  So although Mike did all the work, it is his family that has reaped the benefits.  We have certainly enjoyed them every summer since they started producing.  As a matter of fact, this summer, my children and grandchildren have been picking four cups of berries almost every day. Amazingly, Blakeleigh, my six year old granddaughter wasn’t even born when Mike planted the plants.  But now she may be just the one who enjoys them the most, whether fresh off the vine or baked in a hot berry cobbler.  We have all enjoyed several delicious berry cobblers (thanks to Erica) and there are several bags in the freezer so I am sure we will be enjoying them all winter.
Thinking about how we are enjoying the fruits from what Mike sowed, I am reminded of what the bible tells us about reaping what you sowed.  In Galatians 6:7 it says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  Job 4:8 continues with “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” When we consider these verses, we tend to think of the wicked things that men do. We believe that if one does wicked things, he will pay for it sooner or later.  In fact, in Hosea 8:7, it is written, “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” This verse tells us that men will reap much worse than what they sowed.
But what if we turn this around and think about it from a positive view?  What if we consider all the good deeds a man does?  In Hosea 10:12, is says, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”  Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”  Luke 6:38, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”  So this tells me that if we go through life doing good things for other people, we will be rewarded.  We may not see the harvest now, but there will be a time of reaping.
I am also reminded of the song ‘Bringing in the Sheaves,’ written by George A Minor.
Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Notice the third line, Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping.  Although Mike didn’t live to see the harvest from what he sowed and he probably never even thought about how what he was sowing was going to benefit his children and grandchildren for generations to come; I know that he would be rejoicing over the outcome.  We need to realize that in life we have this very same chance.  Things that we do today, whether good or bad, big or small, will be affecting and influencing others.  And even though we may not even realize the significance of what we are doing, and we may not even realize who or how many people will be affected by our deeds, we are sowing seeds that we will be reaping from one day.  Will we sow seeds that will produce blessings, or will we sow seeds that bring about a curse?


This is Nana Nancy, Let Jesus be YOUR Guide as you enjoy YOUR ride!

Bill and I were riding our motorcycle late one afternoon.  We were riding south so the sun was to our right.  As we rode, our shadow followed us along on the left side. I watched this shadow for miles and it never changed.  It was a simple black silhouette, an outline of our shape.  From just looking at this shadow, you could not tell much about us.  You could tell that there were two riders on the motorcycle but you couldn’t distinguish any of our other features.  You couldn’t tell what color we were, what gender we were, what race we were, how old we were, or what our marital status was.  You couldn’t look at our shadow and determine our financial class or our education level.   In fact, had there been other riders, all of our shadows would have been very similar, varying only in size and shape.  The thought occurred to me that this must be how Jesus sees us.  In his eyes, we are all equal. Just as all of our physical faults were hidden by the shadow of the motorcycle riders, all of our sins and shortcomings are hidden by the shadow of the cross.


And then last Sunday, I listened to a preacher and he used filling out an application as an illustration for his sermon. When you fill out an application, you are asked to put yourself in various categories.  For instance, you have to choose your race, your sex, your marital status, your age, your income category, your level of education, etc.  You basically have to give a description of your physical body and perhaps even your socioeconomic background.  Someone will review your application and then a decision will be made as to whether or not you qualify for the desired position. Basically, you will only be chosen, if you have all the right qualifications.


As I compare these two totally different scenarios, I am so thankful that Jesus looks at us more as a shadow than an applicant.  He is not interested in our physical qualities or our social status.  We all look exactly the same to Him. We are all his children and we all qualify to become a Christian and spend eternity in Heaven with Him.  In reality, if he did have an application for us to fill out, it would only have one question on it.  You wouldn’t have to identify your race, your gender, or your age.  Actually, you wouldn’t have to give any of your personal information, you would simply have to answer this question, “Do you believe in and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?”  Yes or no?   Just as it says in John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. And again in John 3:15, Jesus said, “That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”


So what will your answer be?  Can you say without a shadow of a doubt that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as your personal Savior?  The choice is yours, just as George Strait says in his song, “Check yes or no.”


This is Nana Nancy, Let Jesus be YOUR Guide as you enjoy YOUR ride!