End of an Era

Oh, the memories! This weekend, I had the chance the roam the halls of the old Pampa Middle School, where I attended sixth through eighth grades. The school will soon be torn down to make way for a new housing development. The developers had a huge garage sale there on Saturday to sell off the old equipment and furniture that was abandoned when the school closed three years ago.

The building was packed wall-to-wall with bargain-hunters and onlookers. Like me, a lot of the people went there to relive old memories.

Besides desks and lockers, which seemed to be the most popular items at the sale, there was a lot of memorabilia about the school. The library had pictures and yearbooks and even some old trophies. I can't imagine why they were left behind, but they were all up for grabs. There was a bulletin board with some of the items found inside the lockers — hall passes and football ribbons and, yes, old love notes! (Remember passing notes in class?) It brought back a lot of fond memories.



My dad made this mosaic of the school mascot in the 1980s.

The school holds special memories for me. It's only two blocks from the house where I grew up and where my mom still lives. Believe it or not, I used to walk to school back when I was still able to walk. That seems like so long ago!

Dad taught at that school. He was the seventh-grade art teacher there for more than 20 years. In one of the hallways near the auditorium, there's a tile mosaic that Dad made back in the '80s. I remember he spent hours arranging the hundreds of little tiles to form the school mascot, "The Patriot." The mosaic is still mostly in tact, although a few of the tiles are missing and the edges are chipped.

I don't know what will happen to Dad's mosaic now. Like everything else, it probably will be torn out and hauled away when the new housing project is built. Some people call that progress. But I think it's a little sad. It's the end of an era, and I'm going to miss old Pampa Middle School. I'm glad I got to go back for one last look at the place. Soon, all we'll have left are the memories!

Political Observations

Hillary Clinton must have been injured more seriously than we thought when she fainted back in December, giving her a concussion. Not only did it make her forget everything she knew about the deaths of four American heroes in Benghazi, Hillary's fall obviously knocked the sense right out of her!

Hillary "came out" with a video this week endorsing same-sex marriage. She previously opposed gay marriage. So why now? Why did Hillary flip-flop on the issue? It's simple political expediency. She is positioning herself for a run for the White House. She knew she better get on board in backing same-sex marriage now, so the party faithful will support her in 2016.

Hillary had to change her position. Support for same-sex marriage now is embedded in the party platform. Other leading Democrats, like goofball V.P. Joe Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who are also contenders in the next presidential race, already voiced their support of gay marriage. Hillary is just following the pack.

I'm disappointed over Hillary's reversal. Even though I disagree with her on virtually every political issue, I respected her as someone who has strong convictions and stood up for her principles. Now, after caving in to pressure on gay marriage, it looks like she's just another typical politician, who will do or say anything to get elected.

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Hillary isn't the only one who has lost their way on the gay issue. Republican Senator Rob Portman also changed his view about gay marriage. His son is gay, and Portman says he now believes gays should have the right to marry. I understand he loves his son and wants to support him, but this isn't the way to do it. Portman is supposed to be a "good conservative" Republican, but he's wrong on this issue. I won't support any candidate or party, Democrat or Republican, that goes against the biblical view of marriage. 

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Who needs enemies when you have "friends" like Obama? Barack Obama went to Israel this week for the first time since becoming president. He put on a good show for the cameras, but he's not fooling anyone, especially Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu. Obama is the most anti-Israel president since that nation's founding. Pray for Israel and Netanyahu!

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There's a war on Easter. School districts and cities across America are holding “Spring egg hunts” and similar events, omitting the word “Easter” from calendars and public announcements. These eggheads want to ban Easter, like they want to ban Christmas. Both holidays are rooted in the Christian faith, making them easy targets for attacks. For Christians, Easter is a day to remember Christ's death and resurrection, and we should celebrate it. So let me be the first to wish you all a HAPPY EASTER!

Beyond The Walls

Beyond the walls of our houses.... Beyond the walls of our offices.... Beyond the walls of our churches.... Beyond the walls lies a great opportunity. It's the opportunity the share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

 

God has commanded us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.... and make disciples of all the nations.” I wondered how I, a believer in Jesus Christ, can fulfill this commandment. I likely will never travel the world. So what can I do to take the Gospel into the world?

We have the chance to share Christ everywhere we go. God wants to use us to touch the lives of our unsaved friends and family, our neighbors and even strangers on the street. He wants to use us to change our generation.

This means stepping out and leaving our comfort zone. It means going beyond the walls of familiarity. For me, I like to cling to the familiar, to find my comfort zone and dig in. I don't like change, and I don't like to go beyond the walls I have set up around me. But God is wanting to break down those walls and take me to a new place. Scary? Yes! But if we will just step out of our comfort zone, God can do amazing things.

We must be willing to take that first step. Often, we're just one step away from the next truth God wants us to learn about Him. That's why we can't afford to stay where we are. We must go beyond the walls to take the Gospel to the world around us.

When Jesus called James and John, they were on familiar territory, doing what they were comfortable doing — repairing their fishing nets. But they couldn't stay there and follow Jesus. Mark 1:20 says, "Without delay, He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat and followed Jesus."

They had to leave their comfort zone to fulfill their destiny. That's what God asks us to do. We must leave our comfort zone and trust Him. We can't be satisfied to stay where we are. We must dare to dream and dare to step out. Every great accomplishment began as a dream in somebody's heart.

God wants to take us a deeper dimension in Him — one that will stretch us. But we must be willing to step out and go beyond the walls.

Ready For Battle

This is war. We are in a spiritual conflict. It can be described as a warfare of faith that we, as Christians, must fight our entire lives. Our enemy is Satan, and he is out to destroy us any way he can. We fight against the powers and authorities of this world, and God has given us the weapons we need to win the battle.

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."

When we come to Christ, we think our battle against sin is over and that we won't struggle with sin anymore. The real fight is just beginning, though. Our old sinful nature remains within us even after we are saved, and we must resist that nature. Satan is our deadly enemy, and he's waiting to trip us up.

We must choose every day whether we will follow our sin nature or turn from it and obey God. The Bible warns that those who follow the sin nature cannot inherit God's kingdom. The sinful nature must be resisted and put to death through daily warfare.

We wage war against sin and temptation, not in our own power, but with spiritual weapons. The apostle Paul gives the call to arms and lists the weapons of our warfare in Ephesians 6:14-17.

It says, "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

By putting on all of God's armor, we can be assured of withstanding our enemy's attacks.

Our victory has been won by Jesus himself through His death on the cross. Jesus won the battle against Satan, disarmed the evil powers and redeemed us so we could be free from sin. If we use the weapons we have in God, we will win.