“Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” (Joel 2:12-13)
WHAT WOULD GOD HAVE YOU MOURN FOR TODAY?
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Quote Of the Day 2-10-16
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Chilly! Chilly! Cold! Cold!
Worship Wednesdays 2-10-16
I am taking a cue from my friend Ben Nelson and am incorporating worship into my blog. Ben runs WORSHIP WEDNESDAYS.
So when you have listened here hop over there for some more devotional reading and worship. Happy Ash Wednesday!
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In Other Words: I Could Not Couldn’t Do It
It is time once again to write a piece for Patricia’s In Other Words Challenge. The challenge is to write a piece of flash fiction from a quote she offers.
Here is the quote:
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”
Henry Ford
My offering is below and you can find Patricia’s other contributors at the underlined link above.
I Could Not Couldn’t Do It
By JE Lillie
I have known moments in this journey when I was certain I couldn’t do it. I have wanted to pack my bags and leave so many times. I suppose no one would blame me if I did.
When I was about ten we had this wealthy neighbor. Her name was Anna. At the time, I thought she was about two hundred years old but she was only about sixty. My difficulty with telling her age wasn’t that I was afflicted with the “old person ceiling”, which makes young people think everyone over twenty-five is ancient. Anna’s life made her old before her time. Somewhere along the way she had begun to medicate the pains of her heart with whiskey, but it didn’t work to heal what was broken on the inside. Each year found Anna a bit older and a lot meaner.
Anna needed a maid having lost the will to clean for herself. My mother took the job. I was young but not so young that I couldn’t see the toll it took on Mom. Many times she came home from Anna’s in tears.
I suppose had my father been alive he would have told my mother to quit the job and that would have been it. But life had a lesson to teach me in Dad’s absence so Mom kept working at Anna’s, if for no other reason than to teach me that you cannot give up on people.
Mom never complained about the work. She never missed a day. Anna never got better but that wasn’t because Mom didn’t try. When Anna had her first stroke Mom began working more to make sure Anna ate like she was supposed to. I don’t know exactly when I realized it but at some point I came to the knowledge that Mom was not working for Anna because of the paycheck. Mom worked for Anna because she loved her.
After Anna died people met Mom at the funeral and called her a saint for “putting up with Anna”. Many told her that for years they had been concerned because they felt Mom was trapped in the job. Invariably they asked her why she had stayed and reminded her that she could have at any point just said that she couldn’t do it anymore.
To this day I can still remember Mom’s response. “Anna needed help whether she wanted it or not. I thought about quitting once and that week Father Sweeney preached a message I shall never forget from Philippians 4:13 called,”I Could Not Couldn’t Do it.” After hearing that sermon I just couldn’t say I couldn’t help, because really I could.”
I think about this story everyday as I am helping Mom out of bed, as I am getting her dressed and brushing her teeth, as I am helping her on the toilet or helping her in the shower. Alzheimer’s is a devastating disease. It feels like it is beyond me, but I could not couldn’t do this. Thank you Father Sweeney.
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Close Of Day Meditation 2-9-16
In this morning’s DIRECTION FROM MORNING SCRIPTURE, I asked the question,
What are the differences between being a slave to sin and being a slave to righteousness? I have been meditating on that question all day. As I close out the day I wanted to share with you some of the differences I have come up with.
- A life enslaved to sin is bound by evil motives. A life enslaved to righteousness is bound to the law of love.
- A life enslaved to sin is constantly fighting the battle against shame. The life enslaved to righteousness is grounded in confidence and peace.
- A life enslaved to sin is constantly trying to outrun guilt and judgment. The life enslaved to righteousness rests in innocence.
- A life enslaved to sin must indulge the flesh with instant gratification because the present is all it can hope for. The life enslaved to righteousness does not need to indulge the flesh instantly because it has all the time in the universe, being promised eternal life.
- A life enslaved to sin knows only silence from God. The life enslaved to righteousness hears God’s voice in ever increasing measure.
- A life enslaved to sin must work for its own provision because it has cut off God’s supply line. The life enslaved to righteousness has an open supply line to Jehovah Jireh and shall know the Lord’s provision continually.
- A life enslaved to sin will eventually see sin eat up all the riches it amasses. The life enslaved to righteousness shall know superabundance without end.
WHAT BENEFIT IS THERE IN THE LIFE OF SIN?
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The Keys To Presence Pt. 3
We have been discussing four keys that unlock the presence of God in the church. So far we have discussed:
HOLINESS
AND PRAYER
Today we are moving on to discuss the third key which is UNITY.
Psalm 133 SAYS
1 How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.
This thing called unity is like the anointing. The anointing brings the authority and according to verse three of this powerful little psalm it brings the blessing of God. Unity is needed in the body in order to walk in the anointing, blessing and presence of God. In short the church MUST HAVE UNITY IN ORDER TO BE EFFECTIVE!
So what is unity?
Well the adverb used in verse one is “Yachad”. It means together. It means united.
The verse could be translated “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people stand together.”
Unity does not require perfect agreement. It requires a common cause. I may not see eye to eye with everyone in the church all the time but when we get together on Sunday mornings to worship God all our differences go out the window so that I can focus on the One I came to worship with my brothers and sisters. I can push all my disagreement aside because worship is not about me or them. It is about God.
One of Satan’s biggest weapons is in making us think that we can only be united with people who think just like we do. If we really think that way we might as well stop going to church altogether.
Unity comes at a price. That price is to stop thinking your ideas of the way the world works are the best ones and that only people who think exactly like you can be part of your club.
While that is true unity does require a solid foundation and that foundation is Christ and Him crucified, risen from the dead, coming to reign in eternal power and glory. That frankly should be enough ground for us to stand together and see the power of God ushered into our midst powerfully. Requiring anything else is just pride.
Listen, I am not saying that we cannot disagree. Every family has its disagreements but at the end of the day family puts its disagreements aside to work towards a common goal. That goal in our case is building the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Once we stand together to accomplish that, the presence of God will not be able to be held back.
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Tehillah תְּהִלָּה Tuesdays 2-9-16
So Tehillah or תְּהִלָּה is the Hebrew word for “Song of Praise”.I am really feeling lately that I need to be sending His praise out into the blogosphere. Our world needs to be lifted up. Nothing does that like worship.
Let’s build a culture of worship together!
Link your own posts of praise to this post in the comments section if you’d like. Here is mine:
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Color Your World: Goldenrod
Our COLOR YOUR WORLD CHALLENGE TODAY IS GOLDENROD. Click on the underlined link to see how other photographers interpreted the shade.
Here is the shade we are shooting for
And here is my interpretation. 
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My Daily Walk 2-9-16
Today is turning out to be a full day of meetings and paperwork. But I am determined not to miss my daily walk. I may not be able to go into town for a jaunt but nothing is stopping me from 20 minutes of laps around the church parking lot.
Here are some photos from my laps around the lot.
Lillie-Put 