Christmas Virus…WARNING…

image via from the heart of j

image via from the heart of j

WARNING……WARNING: CHRISTMAS VIRUS

Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.

Some signs and symptoms of The Christmas Virus:

A tendency to:      think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past  experiences

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

A loss of  interest in judging other people.

  • A loss of  interest in interpreting the actions of others.
  • A loss of  interest in conflict.
  • A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
  • Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
  • Contented  feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
  • Frequent attacks of smiling.
  • An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
  • An increased  susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

Please send this warning out to all your friends. This virus can and has affected many systems. Some systems have been completely cleaned out because of it. (Author Unknown)

SPREAD THE GIFT!

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Receive Anew…

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As your heart, like the manger, receives anew the birth of Christ, may you give Christmas away to all who cross your path the whole year through.

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“It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you… yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand. ” Mother Teresa

Abundant Blessings of His Peace and Joy to you and yours!

Merry Christmas. Joy to the World, the Lord has come.

From, The Heart of J

Garment of Grace…

image via fromtheheartofj

image via fromtheheartofj

Mercy is to touch the hem of His Heart…

Mercy infuses…Mercy transforms…weaving one into the garment of His extravagant Love.

The gift received…becomes the gift given.

With the mantle of mercy one is wrapped, drawing all of life under this garment of grace.

Covered under the cloak are those occasions of forgiveness…not that they are forgotten, not an agreement with what was said or done…

But the loose threads of the hurt are carefully rewoven into the garment of grace…in trust…

That one is “filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body”…

All for a purpose…all for God’s glory.

“And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.  And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.  And be thankful. ” Col 3:14-15.

Mercy received becomes mercy given.

Gift to Me….

image via photo.byu.edu

image via photo.byu.edu

Through wordly eyes we see fragmented bits and pieces of a person…

But to “heart-know” as God sees…

We see instead a blend of all that was…all that is…and all that could be…

the broken…the open…the healed…

in a whirl of beauty that strikes one’s own heart with the words of Jesus….

“Father, they are your gift to me.” (John 17:24)

 

Allow Yourself to Be Loved…

After a month sabbatical there is an important truth that I have learned….

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Allowing yourself to be LOVED

By HE who is LOVE….

Draws others to HIM.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.  No one has ever seen God.  Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. ” 1 John 4:11-12

This Man…

This man was scourged, crucified, and killed;

But an unspeakable love resurrected Him from death and from infamy;

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It placed Him in a glory of love that never weakens and that finds in Him peace, honor, and joy even to the point of ecstasy.

This man was pursued by an inextinguishable hatred in His suffering and in His tomb;

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But He asked for apostles and martyrs to His name in every generation, and there has been no age without them.

image via leecadden.com

 

This man is the only human being ever to have founded a kingdom of love on the earth;

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And this man is you, O JESUS CHRIST!

(Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire +1861)

Have a blessed Easter Week…May you rest in the joy and peace of His resurrection glory and be an apostle in His name!

His Eyes Meet Yours…

Jesus looks down from the cross…

Scans the crowd…

image via journeylikenoother.com

His body racked with pain and drenched with blood.

His eyes meet yours…

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What does His gaze say to YOU?

Die with Christ…so that you may LIVE with HIM.

(We know the end of this story don’t we, and we rejoice in the knowing!)

“Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.” Is 53:4-5

Peace Be With You…May I Wash Your Feet?…

“When the Lord of the world comes and undertakes the slave’s task of foot-washing…

which is an illustration of the way He washes our feet all through our lives…

image via theheartofpastormatt.wordpress.com

We have a totally different picture.

God does not want to trample on us, but kneels down before us so as to exult us.

image via turnbacktogod.com

The mystery of the greatness of God is seen precisely in the fact that He can be so small…

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Only when power is changed from the inside, and we accept Jesus and his way of life, whose self is there in there in the action of the foot-washing,

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Only then can the world be healed and the people be able to live at peace with one another.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

image via news.va

“If I therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” John 13:14-15