February 2011 Blog Posts (43)

Ready For the Road Ahead

            No matter how long you stare at the picture below, your brain will tell you that the smaller circle pattern has a larger center and the larger circle pattern has a smaller center.  In reality, it's an optical illusion.  Both centers are the same size.  Optical illusions are brain teasers.  Some are geometric, like the one below.  Others are illustrations which have hidden objects, or subjects that change…

It seems that in just about every religion created by people, either in fiction or the real world, any masculine deity has a feminine counterpart.  For every god there must be a goddess to act as counterpoint and consort.  Yet, the one religion that comes from God to man portrays God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one, using masculine pronouns and masculine relational identities.  There is one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  There is no need for a goddess, because God is…

ADONAI said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, and tell them that this is how you are to bless the people of Israel:  you are to say to them,

             ‘May ADONAI bless you and keep you.

              May ADONAI make His face shine on you and show you His favor.

              May ADONAI lift up His face toward you and give you peace.’

              In this way, they are to put My Name on the people of Israel, so that I will bless them.”…

ADONAI, GOD, gave Adam this order: “You may freely eat

from every tree in the garden except the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil.  You are not to eat from it,

because on the day that you eat from it,

it will become certain that you will die.”

-         Gen 2:16,17

               Today, people examine facts and their beliefs are founded on it.  Their…

Yesterday, I attended a funeral for a older gentlemen who passed away suddenly. I barely knew him. He and his wife had recently come to the church and were just beginning to find their places of service. In fact, he had taught a Bible Study class on Sunday, felt bad, and had a stroke on the way to the hospital. He never recovered. I went to the service to support my mom who had taken the death hard.

His service was a celebration.

I cried my eyes out throughout…

Ready For the Road Ahead

            Outside my kitchen window there hangs a small birdfeeder filled with a homemade suet mixture.  A number of birds like to visit this feeder throughout the day, but, the most consistent patrons are a pair of Downy Woodpeckers.  It's always fun to watch them maneuver their way across the feeder.  As the suet gets lower, they must find some pretty acrobatic poses in order to keep their balance while feeding.  Many…

                                                      Wait patiently for the LORD!

                                                            Wait confidently for him!

                         -Psalm 37:7

            We live in a world filled with impatient people.  Current advancement in technology only

       serve to push everyone to hurry up more.  We can be reached at any time, anywhere via email or direct mobile to…

My husband and I were just talking about free will and how it is a common theme in Science Fiction for a group of explorers to come across a perfectly peaceful, happy, well-ordered society where there was no free will.    The explorers want to "liberate" the poor people, and, in the process of introducing free will, totally ruin the society.  He then asked me if I would like to love in a society with no free will.

I replied that heaven will pretty much be the ultimate utopia…

Last week my friend Rick Howerton opened up his new blogwith a post entitled: "When to Abandon a Small-Group Member." Here was the full text of his post:



     Never! There is…

    

     No sin to too decadent

     No opinion too controversial

     No revelation too disturbing

     No sickness too time consuming

     No need too costly

     No conflict too intense…

 Sometimes I get discouraged.  I make plans but they don’t turn out quite as I had hoped or expected.  A friend disappoints me.  My job feels mundane.  In spite of praying and waiting (and occasional bouts of whining), I’m still single.  My body reminds me every day that I am indeed growing older and slowing down.   I long for more out of church.  More out of life.  Something richer.  More meaningful.  Less lonely.  I wonder, “Am I wasting my life?  Have I missed God’s purposes for…

I fell today on the stairs in my house. Unfortunately, that's not really an unusual occurrence. I have had several falls before and I guess they'll continue. Today's seemed different to me.

I was carry a load of sheets downstairs in one hand and a partially filled cup of coffee in the other. One of the sheets dropped out of my grasp and tangled around my foot. With the cup of coffee in one hand and the laundry in the other, I didn't have a chance . . . I missed a step, hit my…

Last week I was meeting with one of our pastors about my passion for Discipleship.  In a prior meeting, I had shared some things with him that caused him to go away with a check in his spirit about whether I would be okay with the leadership structure at my church, so he brought that up and we discussed it.  I was open and honest about some trust issues that I have because of abuse of authority in other churches  and acknowledged that there was some healing that yet…

Commit your way to ADONAI;

Trust in Him, and He will act.

He will make your vindication shine forth like light,

The justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

                                            -Psalm 37:5,6

            Have you been waiting for a long time for the answer to your prayer?  Does it seem like GOD has not heard you or has forgotten about…

Ready For the Road Ahead

             One time while visiting Cape May, Jeff and I saw a print in a gallery that we just had to have.  It was a photograph of a lighthouse off the coast of France, well known for the stormy waves that crash upon it each day.  A photographer in a helicopter had captured one of those waves as it smashed around the base of the lighthouse while the lighthouse keeper blithely looked skyward  to see what the noise was all about.  One glance at…