Share Your World From 5-31-21

Posted on June 2, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

I feel like I have been struggling for perspective these last couple of weeks. I have been managing to keep up with blogging just about everyday with my Digging Deeper Devotionals, but somewhere along the way I felt like I lost my writer self. He got swallowed up by my pastor self. Honestly what I know needs to happen is these two fellows have to figure out how to harmonize within my soul and become one writer-pastor-self or one pastor-writer-self.

This week I have pulled away from the church in order to work on my writing. I have come to a place in the woods called the Grain Bin.

This is a writing and praying break away and a restoration of the slow, constant, intentional rhythm I have been trying so desperately to keep.

As I sit down to my afternoon tea and writing session, I am warming up with a writer’s exercise called SHARE YOUR WORLD. This is a challenge I have been participating in for years and it is a good way to get the juices flowing and even to restore the juices when a three hour morning writing session has sucked the juices away.

Melanie has asked her weekly questions and I have answered them below. So read on and then hop on over to Sparks From A Combustible Mind by using either of the underlined links to see how others answered.

Here we go:

QUESTIONS

What activity instantly calms you?

There are many: Prayer, getting alone in a grain bin, writing, sipping coffee while looking at water….

What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve done lately?

Renting a Grain Bin in the middle of nowhere and coming here to do nothing other than write and pray. I think I need to do this more often.

If people receive a purple heart for bravery, what would other color hearts represent? (Example yellow heart = cowardice)

Green Heart= Life Giving Heart

Orange Heart= Heart Of Fire

Red Heart= Heart Of Healing

White Heart= Heart Of Purity

What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done or witnessed someone else do?

I think one of the bravest things I have ever witnessed someone do is to watch my sister go as a single woman to a foreign country to be a missionary.

GRATITUDE SECTION (Always optional)

How do you show gratitude to the people you respect?

What a powerful question! Again I think there are lots of answers to this one: By thanking them, by giving them preferential treatment, by giving them time.

Share Your World From 5-10-21

Posted on May 14, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

I am finally getting around to taking part in this week’s SHARE YOUR WORLD CHALLENGE. I love this challenge where Melanie asks us five questions and in answering them we share our world. My answers to this week’s questions are down below. So when you have finished reading here please click the underlined link above and see how Melanie’s other contributors have answered.

What do you believe but cannot prove?

That Jesus is soon to come and establish His Kingdom on the Earth. Of course my not being able to prove it will be a temporary situation if I am right.

Do animals have morals? Exclude human beings from the equation please.

Not our morals for certain. They after all didn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there are certain rules they live under according to the Word of God.

The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. ³Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

⁴“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

⁶“Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind. Gen. 9

Is there inherent order in nature or is it all chaos and chance?

Oh! There is an order in nature. God is a God of order. That said the creation has been subjected to a frustration by the power of sin now coursing through it. That is the power we call chaos.

Where is your least favorite place in the world?

There are several places I have visited where I had a very bad time. My experiences have colored my feelings for these places:

Las Vegas

Salt Lake City

New Orleans

Gatlinberg

7 Unusual Things to Do in Gatlinburg TN and the Smoky Mountains

Feel free to share something about the seasons that makes you smile!

Share Your World 4-19-21

Posted on April 19, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

It is time for the weekly challenge where our hostess, Melanie, asks five questions and in answering them we all SHARE OUR WORLDS.

I have been participating in this challenge for years and every week it gives me a fresh perspective on blogging. Thank you Melanie for carrying on this wonderful tradition for the blogosphere!

THE QUESTIONS:

What was the last TV show you binge-watched? If you don’t watch TV (congratulations by the way) what’s the last thing you binged ON?

I think it has been a while since I binge watched anything. I don’t generally have a full day to devote to television watching (though I probably would if I could). I tend to watch a couple of shows a week and one of my new favorites is “Kung Fu”. I am also really liking “Atlantic Crossing” on Masterpiece theater. I never get to watch these shows when they are actually on so I watch them on demand usually at 9 at night on a Thursday or Friday.

All that said, we have one television in our home and it is usually on. My mom likes to watch old murder mysteries and so we watch old episodes of Monk and Matlock, Magnum and the Mystery of the day over and over. I tend to catch them at breakfast ,lunch and supper. So I guess you could call that binge watching.

What’s your most prized possession and why?

I guess I would have to say The Vicarage, which is my family home.

If you had the time and inclination, what would you volunteer for?

Time and inclination? So that assumes I currently have neither but would like to have both. I think it would be fun to have the time and vim and vigor to volunteer for a trip to outer space.

Do you think that humans will ever be able to live together in harmony?

Yes. I believe that day is coming….Isaiah 2 says….”And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth ^[a]the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. ⁴And he will judge ^[b]between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Of course this harmony will not be achieved by the efforts of man but by the work of God. Still whatever the source it will happen.

Share something uplifting with everyone. It can be some writing or an image or photo you like! Thanks!

Share Your World 2-15-21

Posted on February 16, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

Share Your World is a weekly challenge I have participated in for…gosh… 7 or 8 years now at least. It is hard to believe I have been a part of the blogging community for that long. In some ways I still feel like a real novice at this work and am just really discovering my wings.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PART OF YOUR ON-LINE COMMUNITY?

Anyway one of the things I like about this challenge is that it lends itself easily to one of my blogging goals, which is to inspire community through conversation. This year my number of hits has gone down, but the number of deep conversations I am having with people has gone up. It has been very nice to see this sense of community deepening with those of you who choose to read and comment on my blogs.

Anyway here are this week’s questions and my answers toward starting conversations with you all….

Do you feel you ask enough questions or do you settle for what you know?

I know I definitely do not ask enough questions. It is something I am trying to remedy…but I have to admit I am not very good at it.

When did you fail to speak up when you feel you should have?

This is a close cousin of the last question. I feel like not asking questions and not speaking up have the same root. ….Fear of other people’s opinion. As I look at what God’s next steps are for me I know that these things are going to be essential skills to develop further.

When was the last time you felt lucky?*

I don’t know that I consider luck as a part of my life. I do consider myself blessed. Blessedness understands that everything that comes, good and bad, is taking me down a God-ordained pathway that leads me, ultimately, to God’s plan for me, which is my created purpose and ultimate fulfillment of being. Blessedness understands that resisting the difficult things, because I want only easy things, only slows the process of receiving and achieving God’s plan. Blessedness embraces what is before me as a part of something larger which is both good and benevolent.

What is a boulder?

Feel free to share your gratitude with everyone!

I am so grateful that the Franklins got to join us for church and for supper on Sunday! I am also grateful to have the first pictures of my new grand baby in South Korea!

ONE THREAD IN THE GRAND TAPESTRY.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PART OF YOUR ON-LINE COMMUNITY?