Category Archives: faith

Parched Lives No More…

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Sundays are for resting…

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Jumping off the crazy spin of life.

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Settling into the “He looked at everything and said this is good and on the seventh day He rested” rest.

Allowing our lives to be watered with the great YES that gave us life…

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Entering into the streams of ever flowing thanksgiving and alloing it to water the past week, the gift of the day and the rest given, and all that the week ahead contains.

Sundays heal our parched lives.

Remember…keep holy the Sabbath.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28

Signposts…

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A wise person once told me…

“Leave every place behind better than you found it.  Leave a bit of beauty.”

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In a world that mars Beauty by twisting the beautiful into the ugly and promoting the ugly as beautiful.

Our vision has become distorted.  Deceit saturates truth.

But the Love of God is written on our hearts…

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 And the strength of the Spirit within can bring forth beauty and truth through us.

Leaving bits of beauty behind…

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Untangles the knots of the enemy’s destruction.

Bits of Beauty can be as simple as…

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A smile, a kind word, a hug, a generous act, a song, a single flower…

Bits of beauty left behind paves the way…

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A signpost on the road to heaven.

Be a Beauty signpost this weekend.  Leave bits of beauty behind you for others on this trail home.

“From Zion God shines forth, perfect in beauty.” Ps 50:2

Messengers Among Us…

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Friends…true friends…are the greatest of gifts.

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A true friend gives a bit of his/her golden heart…

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May we return the blessing.

A true friend is strong when we are weak…

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May we return the blessing.

A true friend reminds us to look towards the light when all seems dim…

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May we return the blessing.

A true friend offers to lend us his/her Hawaiin shirt when we just have to “get outa’ here”, but usually encourages us to stay put and persevere.

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May we return the blessing.

A true friend knows how to make us laugh when we’d rather cry…

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but sits with us through the tears when they start to fall.

May we return the blessing.

A true friend is a messenger among us showing us the love of God and pointing to us the direction upward and beyond.

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May we return the blessing.

Messengers among us preparing our way….may we return the blessing.

Messengers among us…gifts from God….

Let us thank those messengers among us in our lives…

And may they return the blessing.

“I give thanks to my God always, remembering you in my prayers” Phil:4

Song in the Heart…Part II…

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There is a tribe in East Africa where the birth of a child is marked not on the day of the physical birth, but the first time the child is a thought in the mother’s mind.

Aware of her intention to conceive a child with a particular father, the mother goes off alone and sits under a tree.

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There under the tree she sits and listens until she can hear the song of the child she hopes to conceive.

Once she has heard it…

She goes back to her village and teaches it to the father so they can sing it together as they make love, inviting the child to join them.

The mother sings this song to the baby in her womb. She teaches it to the old women and midwives of the village so that at the miracle of birth the child is greeted with this song.

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This song is taught to all the villagers so when the child falls or hurts himself they sing this song to comfort.

This song becomes part of the marriage ceremony and at the end of life, loved ones gather around the deathbed and sing this song for the last time.

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If all creation sings God’s praise, then we too sing praise from the depths of who we are. We do have a song in our hearts….we came into this world in a love song of heavenly praise. Discover your song. Assist others to do the same. We will be a symphony of praise to the Lord.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”  Col 3: 16

A Song in the Heart….

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Sundays are for singing…

What is the song in your heart?

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We all have one…sometimes buried underneath the busy-ness of our everyday lives.

It’s a tune that no one else can sing but us.

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Dare to ask, what is the song in my heart, Lord?

Teach me the tune, Holy Spirit…

so that I may join my voice with the choirs of heavenly angels whose song echoes into the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

If we but slow down…and listen…

we will learn our part of the love song that a myriad of souls are already singing here and above.

This tune of love.

Discover it within…walk in it…find peace in its melody.

“Let everything that has breath give praise to the Lord. Hallelujah!” Ps150:6

 

Litmus Test…

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What is the Litmus Test for Love?

“Love is Patient”…

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Am I?

“Love is kind”…

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Am I?

“It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated”…

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Am I?

“It is not rude, it does not seek its own interests”…

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Do I?

“It is not quick tempered, it does not brood over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.”

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Do I?

“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” …

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Do I?

“Love never fails.”

Have I?

“But when the  kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” Titus 3: 4-7

We have much to be thankful for!

Hangover?…

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Thanksgiving Hangover?…Great!…Please read on…

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Turkey leftovers stored in fridge for turkey sandwiches later…

The “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” sighs after the last bite of pecan pie have ushered us into the official hustle and bustle of the holiday race.

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Quick thank you’s have sped us into frenzied gift buying.

Is this really what it is all about?

Was our giving thanks only as deep as the ladle in the turkey gravy?

In 1621 an incredible first chapter for our country was written…

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The truth that all good things come from above and the recognition of this erupted into the first Thanksgiving.

Abraham Lincoln many years later in 1863 grounded us in the soil of this gratitude by declaring Thanksgiving a national holiday.

Where are we now?

Let us live a Hangover of Thanksgiving and Praise.

One heart at a time living a hangover of thanksgiving and praise can cause many to look upwards and beyond.

Want to transform the world?

Slow down and walk in thanksgiving and praise.

Paul knew the secret (Acts 16:23-34)…

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It was praise and thanksgiving that broke open the prison bars.

Please join me in living the Thanksgiving hangover.

“Enter the temple gates with praise, its courts with thanksgiving.  Give thanks to God, bless his name; good indeed is the Lord, whose love endures forever, whose faithfulness lasts through every age. ” Ps 100: 4-5

Can You Pinch More Than an Inch?…

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Love is Sacrifice…

The two words can be used interchangably.

I love you….I Sacrifice for you.

Love pinches…Sacrifice pinches.

Love takes a bit of our heart….And gives to another.

Love calls for Obedience. Obedience to God’s Law of Love.

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Look carefully at the word Obedience.

See the 3 letter word within?

DIE…

To be Obedient is to Die to self…

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To Die to self is to Sacrifice…

To Sacrifice is to love…

Jesus left us an example.

So…today…

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Can you pinch more than an inch?

“I give you a new commandment:  love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.  This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if  you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Feel the Burn…

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Love…

the word…overused and misunderstood.

Love is not based on feelings…

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stars in the eyes, sweaty palms, Hollywood hype feelings.

Love is not even based on understanding,

for as hard as we try we cannot ever fully understand each other.

Love is acceptance.

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Otentimes acceptance is uncomfortable….it goes against the grain.

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But it’s in the uncomfortable we begin to love.

Love is loving the unlovable and that is where true virtue begins.

Let’s look more closely at the uncomfortable in our lives…

there’s room for love there.

Let us stretch ourselves and feel the burn of our prides convicted and our very selves challenged.

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We have to give up to win!

That’s when we truly begin to love.

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FEEL THE BURN!

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your STRENGTH.”

Mark 12:30

Mint Julep Optional…

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What is PEACE of mind…How do we live it?

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Spanish Moss is common in the southern United States.

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Oak trees draped with hanging moss paint a picture of peace and tranquility.

Evoke images of Southern belles, all afternoon picnics, and croquet games.

Mint Juleps optional.

Spanish moss is very beautiful…

but it grows in nooks and crevices of the weakest branches of majestic hundred year old trees.

Blocks the sunlight from feeding the leaves that surround it.

It does not kill, but yes, further weakens.

Our minds can become full with random thoughts, distracting thoughts, busy thoughts, purposeless thoughts, empty thoughts…

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Our minds become weak with the heaviness of them.

Thoughts drape up on thoughts shutting out the light from above that guides us and sustains us.

Begin to weaken our will, our walk.

Let not the moss grow in weakened areas of the mind.

Relax, slow down, rest…

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Mint Julep optional!

Let the light of Godly, purposeful, affirming thoughts fill your mind.

Anything else is mere moss.

A light filled mind is a PEACE filled mind.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you. ” Phil 4: 8-9