Thank you, Donald Sterling.

Interesting thoughts of taking a negative like Donald Sterling’s racist comments that we abhor and using them to give us positive things to offset them. Great Christian attitude Jim!

365 Days Later

Thank you Donald Sterling for reminding all of us that words matter.  Thank you for reminding us that we absolutely have the right to free speech in our nation.  And that freedom brings with it the right of others to respond in whatever way they see fit.  Thank you for reminding us that there is ignorance left in this world.  Thank you for reminding us that we have so much work to do.

This extremely obvious form of racism will perhaps pull back the veil a bit from the underlying racism that exists so much in our global society today.  I am talking about something bigger than an NBA owner expressing his soul-deep racist thoughts.  I am talking about our ability to see the suffering of those of other races, other regions, other religions, other societies and simply turn a blind eye.  This racism is far more damaging than the…

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Blessings and Relaxation= Bubbles!

What a blessing we can find in some of the simplest activities–especially if we have been deprived of them for a long while!  This evening I found myself just wanting to kick back and relax.  No tv or other noise.  Just peace and quiet and time to meditate.  Hmmmm, so what  did I decide to do?  Bubble bath!!  Yes!!!

I love bubble baths!! Relax in a hot tub, with sweet smelling bubbles in the water, a book and I’m happy.  Candles would have been a nice addition but I was content without them.

Okay now you are probably wondering why on earth is this silly woman getting so excited about something so simple as a bubble bath?  Yes, I might wonder myself if I read it elsewhere. But there really is a good reason–I have been limited to just taking showers for quite a while due to my recent knee surgery and prior to that,  easily getting in and out of a tub was very difficult to maneuver.  Now the scar is healed and though it was not real easy to sit down and then stand up afterwards, I did it!

I read a book for a bit, but mostly lay there thinking and meditating about the many blessings in my life.  I decided this bubble bath definitely made the list of blessings God has provided for me and I began to think about Bible verses that talk about rest and relaxation.  There are quite a few in there just on first glance alone, but I felt led first in one particular direction.    For the past couple of days I have been reading in 1 Kings, the stories of Solomon.  Naturally, when I think of Solomon, the next thought is Proverbs.  So I looked up verses there first and found this one>  Proverbs 19:23 ” The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”    Exactly how I feel right now—rested and content.  I know that is from the Lord.

From there I looked for other verses and like I said, found many!  In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  What a wonderful promise He makes to us and what a blessing that He always keeps His promises.

Along with rest and relaxation comes Peace–what a lovely word and yet another lovely blessing!     Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And now that I am relaxed, content, feeling peaceful, it is time for sleep which I feel will be easily gotten, unlike some nights, and that is a blessing I can be very thankful for!

Psalm 4:8 In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Good night all!  Many blessings to every one of you!

 

 

 

We Need God in America Again!

We DO need God back in our country! It is well past time for allowing the 14% of naysayers rule the other 86% of us folks! What are you afraid of?

My Good Time Stories

Photo Credit: Watson Creative Media

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, First Chief Justice John Jay
Names synonymous with the spirit of our country, the founding fathers of the U.S.A.

Over 200 years ago they shook off the chains of tyranny from Great Britain by divine call. Citing 27 biblical violations they wrote the Declaration of Independence “with liberty and justice for all.”

But something happened since Jefferson called the Bible the cornerstone for American liberty then put it in our schools as a light. Or since “Give me liberty, or give me death,” Patrick Henry said, “Our country was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

We eliminated God from the equation of American life thus eliminating the reason this nation first began…from beyond the grave I hear the voices of our founding fathers plead “We need God in America again.”

Of the 55 men who formed the Constitution…

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To be your self – Ralph Waldo Emerson

A great accomplishment, indeed!

He is Risen!

Clip art copyrighted by Bobbie Peachey,
http://webclipart.about.com

Matthew 28:6

King James Version (KJV)

⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

As this week has progressed, the week so well-known as being Holy Week, so much has been written in many of the blogs, in the way of scripture lessons, beautiful poetry, devotions, etc.    All that I have read has been a blessing to me and some I have reblogged to share with others.   I’ve thought that I, also, should be writing something as well, but despite the myriad of thoughts and ideas that wandered through my head, I just felt I could not pin it down to a few meaningful words without being in danger of copying the words of others or making my words interesting enough to be a blessing to others.  As I went through my day, I kept it on my mind  and I prayed for the Lord to guide me on what to write or if I should not write anything at all.     I guess you probably figured out He did not like the second option of writing nothing!

I have thought over and over of what Christ suffered on Good Friday and why He would do that willingly, why God would give His only son up for us.   Would you agree that it is indeed mind-boggling to say the least?   I cannot speak for a father’s feelings, but as a Mom, I cannot even fathom giving up one of my children as a sacrifice.  I dare say most fathers would be feeling the same way.

Our answer is found throughout scripture, but most well-known to us all is John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  He did this because He loves us so much!   John goes on to say in verses 17 and 18:

¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  ¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Because of the great sacrifice of the crucifixion of Christ, those who believe, who have asked Christ into our hearts, who pursue a relationship with him,  have been adopted into God’s family!   How wonderful is that?     A few days ago I was reading in Romans 8 and wrote another blog post about it.  I was led back to that passage again but different verses that specifically talk about the Father’s adoption of us.

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ¹⁵ For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ¹⁶ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: ¹⁷ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Wow!  What a blessing that is!  I cannot imagine why any of us would not want to accept that love, that gift, that blessing from God and have the knowledge that when our time on earth has been completed, we will live in eternity with God, with Jesus Christ!

Have you asked Jesus to come into your heart?  What better time than during the celebration of the greatest event in Christianity, the basis of Christianity, the Resurrection of our Savior?   I urge those who have not yet done so to pray the sinner’s prayer and settle the issue once and for all where you will go after you die.  I did and I can say I have never been happier!     Life is not perfect, but God never promised us it would be.  However, I know that He is with me always when I go through any trials and He provides what  I need in His perfect timing!

This is just a few simple words from my simple mind but I hope that even the simplest of thoughts can be a blessing to you.   Happy Resurrection Day to everyone!

 

My Sinful Heart ~ NaPoWriMo (Day 17)

I just had to share this wonderful poem with everyone! What a blessing! Thank you Skye!

Broken male culture – Part 5 – Forgiveness

A wonderful, well written piece on forgiveness! Despite the title of it, it is not just for men. It’s good for all of us! Forgiveness is something that frees us from a lot of pain and distress that gets in the way of our happiness.

unhiddenlight

If knowledge is gained through experience, I should be pretty familiar with the subject of forgiveness. I have had much to be forgiven for in my life time & have also had much to forgive. Some connected, some disconnected but all necessary & all small steps towards what I feel is finally some sort of real mental health, peace & stability. That is not to say I have life figured out, but I am fully connected to the One that does. Nor is it to say I don’t continue to do things out of my stupidity that will not require some form of forgiveness again. Sinning out of brokenness is one thing, sinning out of stupidity is another, connected, just as bad in the eyes of God, yet somehow different. The knowledge that I have made a mistake comes so quickly now, without prompting (or desire to know sometimes), I…

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God loves us!

This morning I started out thinking that as I read my Bible and did my devotions I would begin work on a post on a totally different subject that has been on my mind and coming up in things I have read of late, that subject being about how He is a light unto my path. After chatting with a friend, I was led in a totally different direction.  She mentioned that she was about to read Romans 8, and I thought immediately, why not?  I will join her in reading it also!   My friend was pleased and her wish for me is that the Lord would meet me there and give me many blessings.   Her wish was a good one!  I did indeed receive many blessings from that passage.  Thank you my dear friend!

I have found that chapter to always be a good one to read, filled with reminders of how much God loves us and what He has done for us to show His love.  I felt with this being Holy Week leading up to Resurrection Sunday, it was especially a great one to read again!  It talks about how the purpose of the Coming of Christ  was that the law might be fulfilled.

² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

³ For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

⁴ That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

A note found in my NKJV study Bible states that believers gain the righteous standard of the law by being in Christ and walking according to the spirit.

This chapter is filled with many blessings, all reminding us that we are the children of God!  As children of God, we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ!  What a wonderful promise!

In verse 24 and 25  it says we are saved by hope that we cannot see.  He adds that if we could see it then what could we hope for?  If we hope for what we cannot see, we do so with patience.   Patience is a great character trait for all of us to strive for.

Quite often, we are not sure what to pray for, what words to use, how to pray.  However in this passage we are assured that we have the Holy Spirit intervening for us  and taking our prayers to the Father.  He knows always what it is that we cannot put into words, what our prayers are.   I find great comfort in that blessing because many times I feel lost about how to pray, what to pray for.  Thank you Holy Spirit for knowing my heart and my mind!

In verse 28 we have yet again another wonderful blessing!  ²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  He follows that with these additional words in verses 30-32.

³⁰ Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

³¹ What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

³² He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

On Sunday as we celebrate His Resurrection, we know that Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for us.  Someday, as believers, we will join him.  What a wonderful blessing and gift!

Last, but by no means least, I received a blessing from the ending verses of this wonderful passage.

³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Praise the Lord for all these wonderful blessings and more!  His love for us and his grace and mercy are all gifts I treasure; we all should treasure as believers.

Thank you again to my friend for leading me to this chapter of God’s word today!  I have been pondering it through my day and felt the blessings and God’s love and had real peace in my heart all day that will be there whenever I think upon these and other verses.

Be careful what you ask for…..

This devotion from my friend Skye really grabbed my heart and give me so much to ponder on as we lead up to Resurrection Sunday. I felt I had to share this with everyone!

Broken male culture – part 1

Lot of good sense in this piece.

unhiddenlight

I don’t recall now exactly what the trigger was, but at some point back in December I wrote 3 poems on what I call broken male culture. Rather than just throw them on my blog I had been intending to write a couple of pieces to book end the poems. Well, intending has taken a long time to materialize into doing, but here we go, on Palm Sunday of all days I am beginning my look at the down side of today’s western culture.

So what do I mean by broken male culture? Look around, it’s not hard to see, men everywhere failing as fathers, struggling with their demons so much that industries have been created just to satisfy their craving for medication. Sure, you could say well that’s just life, not everyone is the same, it’s not hurting anything etc etc. The problem is, it is hurting, it is…

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