Category Archives: Religion and Spirituality

A Reflection…

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Who do you look like?

image via amazingdata.com

Like your mother? Like your father? Like your Great Aunt Bessie or your Uncle Troy?

Genesis 1:27 says, ” God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.”

We favor our Heavenly Father.

image via inheaven.name

In the depths of who we are…Yes we favor our Heavenly Father.

For we are stamped with His Divine image.

Gaze deeply into the mirror…Ponder the whole of you…

image via invitinghome.com

Know that YOU are a reflection of Him, your Heavenly Father.

Now live your life in confidence of this truth…

You are a Son or Daughter of GOD!

Your Proud Papa…

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Think of all the ways you profess your faith….

openly whenever necessary…sometimes in words, mostly in actions.

image via delmelinscott.blogspot.com

 

Think of all the ways you confidently bear witness to your faith…

spreading it to those who cross your path.

Think of all the ways daily you acknowledge Jesus before others.

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” ( Matt 10:32)

Therefore you, who acknowledge Jesus before others, know that the Father acknowledges you!

Your heavenly Father, your Abba, sees you not just as part of a crowd…

image via biometricsyou.com

 

He knows you intmately, individually, uniquely.

As children often seek attention from their earthly fathers…

how glorious to think that Jesus speaks of you to the Father.

(Yes, we know the Father knows all, but sometimes to cultivate joy and gratitude from the heart, we need to become that little child again).

Jesus at the right hand of the Father speaks to Him of you!

You are a topic of their conversation.

Receive this joy deeply of how proud your Heavenly Papa is of you…

Let it sink within adding fire to your steps of charity.

Yes, you have acknowledged Jesus before others…and He has acknowledged you before the Father.

Your Heavenly Papa is proud of you.

He sees you. You are not just hidden in a crowd.

image via prariedaze.com

 

You are His child – a son or daughter of God.

May this day you know the powerful embrace of love that comes from your proud heavenly Father.

image via grahamtomlin.blogspot.com

 

Encircled…

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“Behind and before You encircle me and rest Your hand upon me. ” (Ps 139:5)

image via achildofgod2010.blogspot.com

Oh God you are my PROTECTOR.

“Behind and before You encircle me and rest Your hand upon me.”

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Oh God you are my STABILITY.

“Behind and before You encircle me and rest Your hand upon me.”

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Oh God you are my FOUNDATION.

“Behind and before You encircle me and rest Your hand upon me.”

image via trainer.kim.com

 

Oh God you are my SUPPORT.

“Behind and before You encircle me and rest Your hand upon me.”

Like the seamless garment Jesus wore upon the earth…

I am encircled in Your love. Clothed in Your presence.

“Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.” (Ps 139:6)

Will You Be My Valentine?…

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image via onehearthomes.com

Will you be my Valentine? Will you be my friend?….which is to say…

Will you let me give you my unconditional Love? Will you accept my peace for your tired and worn self?

Will you receive my mercy and forgiveness? Will you believe in my Love when everyone else has gone away or given up on you?

Will you be generous enough to take my love to others when they need you?

Will you be bread to the hungry, love to my needy, hope to my desolate?

Will you trust me to always companion you? Will you lay down your life for me?

image via willysamson.blogspot.com

Will you be my Valentine? Will you be my friend?

I listen to the invitation…I look within and find “yes” answers in my own February heart.

image via christart.co.uk

“Yes” because of dear friends who have graced my days with love.

Their hearts are plainly flesh and earthen, yet they touch me to Your goodness.

Their hearts are weak and wounded, yet they mend the torn in me.

Their hearts are tired and troubled, yet they’ve time to give me rest.

My friends are loving pathways leading home.

Home to where You are. Oh Lover of all hearts.

And so, I respond humbly, gratefully,

“You know everything.  You know I want to be Your Valentine.”

(Joyce Rupp)

“He said to him a third time, “Simon, son of  John do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” John 21:17

Chocolate covered twinkies and strawberry fudge from the kitchen of fromtheheartofj

 Happy Valentine’s Day!

Glimpses of God…

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image via fromtheheartofj

 There are so many ways to RECEIVE God’s LOVE…

Divine love notes fill our days.

Do we notice them?

image via fromtheheartofj

Do we ponder all those seemingly coincidences that catch our attention?…

Coincidences that really are “God-incidences”?…

Glimpses of God peeking through our everyday.

RECEIVE His LOVE and be transformed.

“Your love is before my eyes; I walk guided by your faithfulness.” Ps 26:3

Wrestling…

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Have you ever noticed the greatest blessings come after the darkness of faith?…

The darkness of a night wrestling with God?

image via wrestling-with-god.blogspot.com

Prideful, false self grapples with God…

as He forms us into our real identity…

Rescuing and reclaiming us as His child.

The night…the wrestling…and with the new dawn of light…

image via incourage.me

 

The Blessing.

In the wrestling…is the Becoming.

In the becoming…is the blessing.

Blessing given to then go forth and bless.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.” Jer 17:7

The Word…

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Lord, who can grasp all the wealth of just one of your Words?

What we understand is much less than what we leave behind…

image via en.wikipedia.org

Like thirsty people who drink from a fountain.

Your Word, Lord, has so many shades of meaning, just as those who study it have many points of view.

The Lord has colored His Word with many hues, so that each person who studies it can see in it what he loves.

image via epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com

He has hidden many treasures in His Word, so that each of us is enriched as we meditate on it.

image via burlesonisd.net

The Word of God is a tree of life that from all its parts offers you fruit that is blessed.

image via colonialchurch.org

It is like that rock that is open in the dessert, which from all its parts give forth a spiritual drink.

(Ephraim the Syriac, Deacon from the 4th century)

“Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.” Ps 119: 105

Have a blessed Sunday.

Just a Grain of Sand?!….

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Professor Gary Greenberg who holds a PHD in Biomedical Research from the University College in London recently spent 5 years searching the globe for sand grains to photo. Using tiny accupuncture needles he sought to to find and arrange the most perfect specimens. Once found, he magnified them 250x real life.

What did he find?….The photos will amaze you!

Each grain of sand….a tiny treasure…

Each grain of sand….a true work of art.

Each grain of sand…an infusion of God’s creative genius.

Each grain of sand….unique and original.

“For you make me jubilant, Lord, by your deeds; at the works of your hands I shout for joy.  How great are your works, Lord! How profound your purpose!” Ps 92: 5-6

Heavenly Father, how great and wonderful are your works. If just one grain of sand bespeaks your artistry in ways unsurpassed, how much greater the beauty of the human person. Each a tiny treasure; Each a true work of art; Each an infusion of Your creative genius; Each unique and original. Give me eyes to see beyond the flesh to the magnificent work of art in each person that crosses my path. Magnify my vision to detect the glorious reflection of You in those I  meet. Through Christ, Our Lord Amen.

Beyond the Dot to Dots…

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Man between the lines…

image via coloring_crafts.com

We are mind, body, soul and spirit…not just the sum of what is seen exteriorly.

But when sin entered the world man was fractured into parts no longer whole.

image via jbowikipedia.org

The world continues to promote the broken man…

“Live for yorself”…”discover the fountain of youth so you can always look young”…”if it feels good do it”.

And in our relationships we often relate to others in this broken way.

But Jesus came to put all the pieces back together.

image via purgeport.edublogs.org

Sparks fly when we relate to to others as the whole person they are before us.

image via gamedev.net

 

We are seeing them as God sees them and speaking to them in their wholeness even in their brokenness.

The transfiguration is a reality to us.

We are men and women beyond the lines….beyond the dot to dots.

image via choosemylife.com

Lord may I be given the grace to see the dignity of the whole person in myself and before me.  Let my eyes not remain fixed on the broken pieces but on the Glory of the Divine Image before me.”

Epiphanies of Life…

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image via science.discovery.com

 The Epiphany.

The star that sheds just enough light so that we can take one more step and then we must look to the star again.

So like our lives that we, too, live in exile and fear, but also in HOPE.

So emblematic of the strangeness of Christianity; its inconcongruities and contradictions.

Never what we think its going to be, never what we think we want it to be.

Always a fresh twist, a new pain, a new joy.

Always a God whose ways are not our ways.

Always, just when we think we’ve found a foothold,,,

The order to flee to Egypt.

“Heather King”

May your 2012 be filled with daily, wonderful. and glorious epiphanies of God’s extravagant love for you.

HAPPY EPIPHANY