Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are afraid. – Eddie Rickenbacker
God endorses the confusion and even outrage that we feel when mysterious things happen.
Philip Yancey
More Philip Yancey
This is a good word for me as I approach 2015. I am heading into many things which are outside of my comfort zone. How about you?
Today the Daily Post has asked us… We cry for lots of reasons: sadness, pain, fear . . . and happiness. When was the last time you shed tears of joy?
You can find other answers at
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/happy-happy-joy-joy/
My answer….
I am not much of a weeper. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually wept outright. Heart of stone this one…really. But I do have to admit that I teared up walking my daughter down the ailse at her wedding rehearsal. By the wedding I had fully composed myself. I had to after all. I was singing and there is nothing worse than crying to ruin a good wedding song, but as I walked my little girl down to meet her groom on that rehearsal evening it suddenly struck me this was me walking with my baby girl on her last night as a single woman. I suppose some choose to look at that as sad but I think of it as a moment of poignance and wonder. She chose a good man. She chose a good future. Some day I may even be a grampa and they have suggested the name Bopa for me. I guess I could be a Bopa. What do you think?
I walk Melanie down the aisle.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
What are you looking for?
Vintage Dilbert
December 31, 2001
What’s exciting about life is that every morning offers a brand new day with unlimited possibilities. Yesterday’s mistakes and regrets belong to yesterday. Today is a clean slate, a chance to start over, to do or become anything you want, a chance to go for it! So, jump into life with both feet! Go forward, head held high, expecting the best…you may be surprised at how often that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Author Unknown - Please comment if you know the author so credit can be given
Peter Marshall
Not to us, Lord, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
2 Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
4 But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them…
May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth he has given to mankind.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
those who go down to the place of silence;
18 it is we who extol the Lord,
both now and forevermore.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 115: 1-8,15-18
Our God is in Heaven! He came to Earth for a time but even then he was not fashioned by the hands of man but by the hand of God in the womb of a woman. He was not fashioned out of wood or stone. No Pinocchio is our God. He was born. He walked among us for a time as a man. He lived. He breathed. He did miracles. He taught. He died. He atoned. He rose again. And He ascended to the right hand of God the Father where today He is making intercession for us. Our God is in Heaven and He has offered us the Earth.
The good news of the gospel is not just that Jesus did all those things historically but that today those things He did can affect us personally; They can change us and give us powerful lives. They can affect us, that is, if we will put away the things that draw us away from our created purpose, which is praising the Lord. They can affect us and change us if we will give up our idols.
Psalm 115 draws a pretty clear line between praising God and worshipping idols. Those who praise the God of Heaven are given the Earth to rule (remember Jesus said the meek will inherit the Earth). Meanwhile those who put their praise towards idols become just like them: mute, blind, deaf, nonsensical, unfeeling and ineffective.
Now on my side of the pond we haven’t yet gone back to melting gold into gods but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things here in the States we value, or worship more than Jesus.
Paul the apostle wrote, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:1-5
Here we just don’t give our gods names. I’m not sure that makes us more righteous than the ancient Greeks or Polynesians. Maybe it only makes us less creative. At any rate as I look to 2015 I am seeking the Lord and asking Him to show me anything I worship, value or fear over Him. That third item is interesting because I find that in fearing things I can also come to worship them.
Pray with me will you?Let’s together put our trust in the God Who is in Heaven and Who would give us the Earth!
I read this this morning and thought it was awesome!
Just a spoonful of sugar….
Placebos work!
A person wants to lose weight, so she takes a pill before every meal. It’s advertised to suppress her appetite. She doesn’t know it, but the pill has no medically proven appetite suppressant. It’s sold as a “food supplement” and it’s made of inert ingredients, mostly sucrose and natural coloring derived from beets. Still, she definitely feels less hungry after she takes it. She eats less and loses weight. (This is a true story about a supplement produced in Europe in the early 1990’s, told to me by the woman who worked on the team which invented it. They made a lot of money for their company).
What’s going on?
It’s the mysterious placebo effect. An immaterial thought acts on, and changes…
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I have often heard it said that good writers are good readers. Reading is for the soul what food is for the body. So in 2014 I decide to keep track of what I read:
Here is my 2014 reading list
The Revelation of Jesus Christ- St. John
Isaiah- Isaiah
The Navigator- Clive Cussler
The Runes Of the Earth- Stephen Donaldson
The Gospel According to Matthew- Matthew
The Artisan Soul- Erwin Mcmanus
Ezekiel- Ezekiel
Toward Daylight- Tracy Lee Karner
The Gospel According to Mark- John Mark
The Gospel According to John- St. John
A Divine Revelation Of Hell- Mary K. Baxter
A History Of Silence- John Boyne
the Seal- Adriana Koulias
The Book Of Psalms
The Hawk Of May- Gillian Bradshaw
The Gospel According To Luke- Luke
1 Peter- Peter
The Book Of Hebrews- Author Unknown
Astonished- Mike Erre
Colossians- Paul
2 Peter- Peter
Philippians- Paul
The Kingdom Of Summer- Gillian Bradshaw
Humility- Andrew Murray
In Winter’s Shadow- Gillian Bradshaw
Totem Book 1: Scars- C Michael Lorion
The Thwarted Queen- Cynthia Sally Haggard
The Book Of Proverbs- Solomon
Prophetical Priestly Ministry- Darius L. Salter
Ecclesiates- Solomon
Resistance- Martin Lake
Wasteland- Martin Lake
Song Of Solomon- Solomon
Broken Pieces- Charles Hamlett
Jeremiah- Jeremiah
I Will Be Near To You- Erin Lindsay McCabe
Don’t Go- Lisa Scottoline
So tell me what are you reading?
Are you ready for spiritual battle?
So many times I find myself in the middle of a battle before I even realize I’m in one and boy, does that put me at a disadvantage! I need to go into training. Let’s just say a soldier wouldn’t go off to war without first preparing him or herself for battle, right? I’m no expert of war by any means but doesn’t it make sense that the commanders of the army would try to defeat the enemy on a smaller scale first before declaring war.
My eleven year old son, Tom absolutely loves anything to do with WW II. I once asked him why does he like it so much and his answer was,
“He had to learn as many war strategies as possible.”
I said, why?
His answer was, “So I can fight the enemy, of course!”
Soldiers aren’t just put on the frontline to fight for their country they…
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Peter Marshall
Lillie-Put 