If Christians had ever been brave enough to make Christ alive, nobody would now be saying that Christianity is dead.

— Winifred Kirkland

Part of our vacation was spent at Oklahoma City.  We enjoyed the sights of the Riverwalk through Oklahoma City.  By far it is one of the most beautiful downtowns I have been to.  We enjoyed eating at Zio’s Italian which overlooks the Riverwalk and then the river wraps around to Bass Pro Shops.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

Last week, we went to Bass Pro Shops in Oklahoma City.  We were looking at the boats just for fun, that is not in the budget for our household.  However, Bass Pro Shops provided us with the answer to our dilemma.  See Picture Below:

If she only knew:)

Last night in Bible study, we briefly talked about the power of God’s Word.  It has the ability to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  God’s Word is living and powerful.  The Bible has the ability to penetrate your heart like no other book.

This morning in my devotional time, I was reading in I Corinthians 10 and one of the verses arrested my attention.  In many of my writings here, I will share a verse and then discuss the verse.  Today, however, the verse needs no explanation.  It is one of those that slap you in the face and make you think.

I Corinthians 10:21-22, “²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. ²² Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

Whose table do you spend more time at?  God wants you only at His table!

“Sin lives in a costume; that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth. Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty. Gossip does its evil work by living in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as a servant heart. The pride of always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom. Evil simply doesn’t present itself as evil, which is part of its draw. You’ll never understand sin’s sleight of hand until you acknowledge that the DNA of sin is deception. Now, what this means personally is that as sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. … We’re all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good.”
—Paul David Tripp

HT: Between Worlds blog

While on vacation last week, Josh and I went to hike at the Chickasaw National Refuge in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  It is a beautiful park, full of woods and hills, nestled in the town of Sulphur.  We decided to take a familiar hike along the creek that runs through the park, about a two-mile trek.

As we came to the cut-off to head back to the car, I decided for us to take a different route to the bottom of the hill and then back up.  I wanted to see the scenery down hill.  As we made it to the bottom of the hill, we made the decision to follow the road back to our car.  That 2 mile hike turned into a 5 mile journey.  We took the long way!

I am always in the mood to take pictures when we hike, about 3.5 miles, I put up the camera and “hoped” for the car to appear around any curve.  It finally appeared about a mile and half later, when we wrapped around that final bend, we found the trail again.  The car was within minutes. 

Have you ever gone the long way?  Hindsight tells us, if you don’t know what is along the road, go back the way you came.

I woke up early this morning with a question rolling through my mind and penetrating my heart.  “What are you living for?”

So, “What are YOU living for?”

While on vacation last week, Josh and I toured the Oklahoma State Capitol.  I was quite impressed, to say the least.  The architecture and the decor was top-notch.  In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, the capitol went through a major renovation to restore it to the original design.  This meant that a complete remodel of many portions of the building brought it back to the way it was originally designed.  The House and Senate chambers were redone.  In 2002, they added the dome on top of the capitol.  This was a multi-million dollar project.  The dome was in the original plans but the state ran out of money.  To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the capitol, the governor wanted to have the dome put on.  The dome was added before the anniversary date.

Among the capitol’s artwork, were paintings of two of my boyhood heroes, whom, I found out, are native Oklahomans.  Mickey Mantle, the great Yankee’s Slugger, and Jim Thorpe, believed to be the greatest athlete in the history of America.  Seeing those paintings brought back memories from my childhood, although I was not alive during their playing days.  I can remember a few school reports done on those guys.

All in all, we were impressed most by the State Supreme Court Chambers.  It was absolutely beautiful.  After leaving, the Oklahoma Capitol, we made it a goal to visit all of the capitols of our nation.  That is quite a goal but maybe, we can do it in our life time.