Monthly Archives: September 2014

And when they are older,…

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Amen!

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Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. (Proverbs 22:6)

     

While rearing teens has never been easy, it seems that each year it becomes harder and harder.  And as our society becomes more high-tech and information is nearly instantaneous, many of the difficulties that used to begin in the teenage years are now starting in the pre-teen or middle school years.  Kids have access to things that they simply aren’t ready to handle.  So they struggle to appear to be in control, they make bad decisions and act out.

I was a teacher and a coach for nearly 40 years and a youth pastor for 20 years and I thought I had faced most of the issues of drugs, smoking, drinking, sex, pornography, divorce, abuse, eating disorders, run-aways, suicide and general rebellion.  My wife and I counseled individual teens and teen groups, biological children and…

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Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge; Week 30

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To see other odd photos go to:

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/09/21/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-week-29-2/

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This photo was taken on the street wheremy sister lived, boetenmaakestraat (or something close to that). Apparently the city comes in every few years and slices the sycamores back to these little “who-tree” shapes. The people of the city are very happy because then the magpies are discouraged from roosting and doing their duty all over the cars. It looks weird but beats a daily car wash.

Heaven Pt. 155: Holding On For the Promise

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

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I will listen to what God the Lord says;
    he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
    but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
    that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
    and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
    and prepares the way for his steps” Psm 85: 8-13 NIV

The future of the Children of God is a glorious one indeed. Eternal life  in the light and presence of the One True God. John the Revelator when writing of it said,

“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Rev. 21:1-5

But in this world of toil and care it is sometimes easy to get our eyes off of the eternal promises and onto the trouble of the moment. It is for this reason the Psalmist felt the need to warn his readers “but let them not turn to folly.”  Folly is easy to fall into when spiritual myopia causes us to see too much of the trouble in the moment and not enough of the treasure in eternity. The cure is to hold on to the promises and to remember just what it is we are holding onto faith for. We need to keep the finish line (or the lack of one as this is eternity we are talking about) firmly fixed in mind as we face the troublesome bends in our current road.

Christian, just keep going. This momentary light affliction ( and it will seem just that when we see Jesus) will pass. You are a part of eternity. Hold on to that today!

Share Your World 2014 Week-38

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

This week’s questions that open our community conversation can be found at:

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/09/22/share-your-world-2014-week-38/

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Go to Cee’s  page and see how some of our other friends have answered the questions.

Here are my answers:

If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?

I think I would be a giant redwood. As I understand it these trees may be the biggest things in the forest but they have very shallow roots and the only way they stand up to the storms of life is by interlocking their roots with other redwood trees. If I had to be a plant I would like to be one in fellowship with other plants.

If you could have a servant come to your house every day for one hour, what would you have them do?

Oh gosh that is a hard one but right about now I would have them take an hour a day to get all the projects around the house done that are being neglected because of my fall work schedule.

If you could have an endless supply of any food, what would you get?

Assuming I could still buy and eat any other kind of food I wanted I would opt for an endless supply of coffee from around the world.

What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)?

Since my dad owned a restaurant one of my first money-making jobs was dishwasher and bus boy.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful to have had another wonderful weekend with my C.cada friends and this week I am looking forward to the Toy Town Fall Fest. It’s planning crunch time!

“When the answer Is simple, God is speaking.” (Albert Einstein)

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I am so glad God kept it simple for us!

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2 Corinthians 11:3 – But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Getting to know God through Christ should be–and is–simple.  Simple enough for little children to understand.  Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:13-14)

So let’s summarize the basic plan…

How it started

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (Genesis 1:31).

How it was supposed to be

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful…

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Religion or Relationship

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I choose relationship. The certainty that my restored relationship with God through Christ brings is something I would never trade for any work or ritual of religion.

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There are many religions in this world,

but there is only one relationship.

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What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it – we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are…(1John 3:1)

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There are many possibilities in this world,

but there is only one certainty.

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“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. (John 3:16)

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Your choice:

Religion or Relationship

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