Share Your World 2015 Week 21

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

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Last week was absolutely massive! With our Fellowship Network Council Sunday through Tuesday, teaching on Wednesday and speaking engagements Friday and Sunday, add in a wedding, visitations and pastoral appointments and I come to this Memorial day pretty knackered but very happy to be participating in week 21 of Share Your World! Check out how others spent their weeks by clicking the icon above and going  to Cee’s site.

Our hostess addressed the questions a little differently this week. Cee says :

 I came up with a new way of doing Share Your World for this Week.  Begin making four lists and have at least four items on each list.  You can choose your lists out of the ones I have listed below.  Have fun.

  • Favorite Songs
  • Favorite flowers or plants
  • Favorites types of tea
  • Favorite types of animals
  • List of favorite blogs
  • Stuff that makes you laugh
  • Movies to cheer you up
  • Favorite actors/actresses
  • Good restaurants to eat at
  • Best desserts
  • Games to play with friends
  • Fun things for a rainy day
  • Books I want to read
  • Things I want to have in my home (paintings, hot tubs, book cases, big screen tv etc)
  • Places worth shopping

Favorite types of tea:

We were actually discussing this just this evening. Summer is upon us and most of my family switches over to ice coffee in the heat but I just can’t do it. Coffee should be hot! But I can do iced tea. I especially like herbal sun teas. My favorites are:

Lemon Balm or Lemon Grass

Mint

Lavender (although you should not drink this very often as lavender can become toxic in the body)

And Chamomile

List of favorite blogs:

This is a really hard one. I read so many blogs and each for different reasons. I will pick four this week and if we ever do it this way again I will pick four more. I suppose I could just list them all but that would be a veeeeeeerrrrry long list.

I love Cee’s Photo Blog. I participate in so many of her challenges and they do really challenge me.

One of my favorite haunts in the blogosphere is Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Addicted To Purple. I especially love her Friday Fictioneers segments.

For devotional reading two of my favorites are Another Red Letter Day and Tom Raines, Affirmations of God.

My favorite dessert:

I love a homemade cheese cake anytime.

And in the fall there is nothing like pumpkin roll.

One of my all time summer favorites is Orange fluff

And at Christmas, Shtollen or fruit cake!

Movies that cheer me up. 🙂

I love movies that inspire heroism and teamwork. I also have a thing for superhero movies.

I loved Avengers: Age of Ultron. When the Scarlet Witch made her choice to be part of the team and to  help Hawkeye, I shed a tear.

I laughed a lot through Guardians of the Galaxy. “We are Groot!”

Sahara doesn’t qualify as a superhero flick exactly but what a rollicking ride that was

And I think National Treasure has to make this week’s list.

 

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 for so many wonderful opportunities to preach and teach last week. I am also grateful for the many wonderful connections I made at Network Council. This week I hope to get some time to work on the gardens and to start my next writing project in earnest.

The Great Vowel Debate

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Keep the main thing the main thing.

Ken Knowlton's avatarartistdayapart

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. (II Timothy 2:23)

Image result for arguments                   Image result for arguments about god's existence

Inn 325, one of the biggest theological battles in the history of Christianity was over a vowel.  Is the Son of God of “similar substance (homoiousios) or of the “same substance” (homoousis)?  The argument threatened to divide Christianity.  Roman emperor Constantine brought 220 of the chief bishops in the church to meet as the Council of Nicaea.  The ensuing argument was so passionate that there were actually fights that broke out between supporters and opponents of this question.  The Council eventually decided that the Son was the “same substance” as the Father.  The council lasted for nearly a month.  Was he “like” or “the same as ” God?  What a waste of time!

When we of the “modern” age look back as this, the whole issue seems ridiculous.  Yet how many of us…

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Quote

The Forever Space

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Linger.”

The Post has asked us to Tell us about times in which you linger — when you don’t want an event, or a day to end. What is it you love about these times? Why do you wish you could linger forever?

I love to linger in the place of prayer. To find that space where the troubles of the day just melt away in the sweet presence of Jesus, is to find life’s greatest treasure.

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While all prayer must eventually lead to action, I think most of us act to quickly and pray to hesitantly. It is not until I have refreshed my harried soul that I can safely come out of the place of prayer and into the fray of ministry.

It is not just the unburdening of my soul that draws me to this place. It is not just that I can freely express myself without fear of judgment or retribution; It is that even as I speak, He answers. Prayer is not a monologue shouted into an empty universe. It is a dialogue framed in the intimate whispers of lovers.

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I do not hesitate to leave the place of prayer out of fear of losing my space in line at the throne of God. Prayer is  an unending connection, a communion that always is and always shall be for the believer. It is the place in this world where we touch forever, where time and need are all washed away in the flow of the river of God. The thread of that tributary can be found in every moment and in every place. In one sense I never leave prayer or at least I am never more than a stone’s throw away. Yet even knowing I can always come back  I hesitate to step away from prayer because in that place I know forever and I understand grace in ways my time in this world makes me forget.

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Either/Or?

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Keep your conscience clear!

Ken Knowlton's avatarartistdayapart

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the expression either or is used to refer to a situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible.  Today’s world has become a place of countless decisions for each of us. 

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       Image result for either or

I remember that as a child there always seemed to be that there were only two possibilities for each decision;   right or wrong, black or white, in or out, yes or no, hungry or not hungry, good or bad, behave or misbehave.  It was easy to know the difference by how my parents reacted to whatever I said or did.  That was the beginning of developing my conscience–that little voice inside my head that reacted positively or negatively to what I did or said.  Now it even influences what I think.  Or at least it’s supposed to.

As an adult, we face…

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Shall We?

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Beautiful verse from Deb.

debbestillandlisten's avatarDebBe Still and Listen

I am part of C.cada (Cornerstone Christian Artist Day Apart) and we are having an art show on June 20, 2015 in Winchendon, Massachusetts.  We were given the theme “dancing with joy”.

For those that do not know what C.cada is, it is a community for Christian artists to get together and practice their art form whether it be writing, painting, pencil drawings, water-color,  photography, wood carving, musical/instrumental, fabric art, etc.  Pastor J- Joseph Elon Lillie over at Lillie-Put  is the founder of C.cada  and if you would like to see other artists from C.cada including our founder go to artistdayapart.com.

  This is my take on dancing with joy!

Shall We?

by Deb Maciorowski ©

I’ve been waiting for you!
I yearn for you to be mine!
Shall we dance?

Feel the wind as I lift you up.
Oh, how I long for you!
Come, dance with Me?

Feel the warmth of My…

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Share Your World 2015 Week 20

Posted on by under For Family & Fun

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Hey folks! Here we are at Share Your World once again. Do you realize we have shared over 1/3 of 2015 with each other already? Time flies when you are having fun! If you click the icon above it will take you to our hostess Cee’s site and from there you can have your world enlarged by entering into the community of sharing she provides.

Here are this week’s questions and my answers.

What is the most important thing that you ever learned? (I bet it’s not something you learned in school)

The most important thing I ever learned was, that God so loved the world ( and me) that he gave his only son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for my sins ( and the whole world’s sins) so that if I would believe in Him  I would not perish but have everlasting life ( and that also goes for every other man woman and child on the face of the planet). Every other lesson in life is defined by what we do with that truth.

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What feeds your enthusiasm for life?

9But if I say, “I will not mention his word

or speak anymore in his name,”

his word is in my heart like a fire,

a fire shut up in my bones.

I am weary of holding it in;

indeed, I cannot. Jer. 20:9

 

https://youtu.be/5pwbDo1ef9M

What’s your most memorable (good or bad) airplane commercial or private flight?

The first time I visited my sister in The Netherlands I flew Iceland air into Keflavik. Our lay over was about two hours and I remember looking out at the beauty of Iceland and thinking that someday I would return to explore this place that looked a bit like the moon to me.

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If you were a great explorer, what would you explore?

Iceland.

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

I am so grateful for the wonderful Network Council I just came from. I am looking forward to teaching my class in the Minor Prophets tonight and preaching on Sunday morning a message called “For God and Country.”

God, Pastors and the Calling #calling519

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

I am just returning from our network pastor’s council. So much wonderful work was done this weekend. Our fellowship ordained 21 new pastors from Southern New England including our very own Youth Pastor here at Cornerstone Rev. Brad Hackett

Cornerstone Church - Winchendon's photo.

Our Lead Pastor and Presbyter Rev. Barry Risto and newly ordained minister Rev. Brad Hackett

During our missions banquet an offering was taken to support three large projects being tackled around the world by missionaries from our Network in Southern New England. 180 churches joined to raise  $121,000.00 for projects in Indonesia, India and Mozambique! And the District Youth Director made an appeal to our Network Pastors to help my sister raise the budget required for her vehicle when she returns to her mission in the The Netherlands.

Today the council was rounded out as we began what is going to become a year-long discussion about “being called by God” the title of the seminar was #calling519 (its Twitter designation)

Here are some quotes from the day

WHAT IF GOD IS TELLING YOU TO STAY WHEN EVERYTHING EXTERNALLY IS TELLING YOU TO GO?- SCOTT GIORDANO

WHEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES SHOUT “GO” BUT GOD CALLS YOU TO STAY, THE STAYING IS THE GOING.- SCOTT GIORDANO

INSTEAD OF PRAYING FOR A WAY OUT PRAY FOR A WAY IN.- SCOTT GIORDANO

FINDING THE GREAT ASSIGNMENT IS NOT NEARLY AS EASY AS HEARING THE GREAT CALL.- BRIAN KROGH

IS IT POSSIBLE TO LIVE OUT THE CALL OF GOD WITHOUT EVER MAKING IT TO THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID? BRIAN KROGH

THERE ARE ASSOCIATE ROLES AND POSITIONS. THERE ARE NO ASSOCIATE CALLS.- BRIAN KROGH

THE CALLING IS NEVER ABOUT SAFETY. SALARY PACAKAGE, PRESTIGE, TITLE, SELFISH GAIN OR PERSONAL GRATIFICATION. THE CALL IS SIMPLY ABOUT FOLLOWING GOD.- SELWYN BODLEY

MOVE IN GOD’S POWER AND AUTHORITY. LEAVE YOURS AT HOME.- SELWYN BODLEY.