Tag Archives: God

God’s Gain

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Our loss is God’s gain. Yesterday, we lost another wonderful member of our congregation. Joan was a true servant of God, wearing oh, so many hats, as she went about quietly seeing to many matters of our church. She was a friend, advisor, chief cook and bottle washer on many occasions, a money manager, a session member, a choir member, and the list goes on. As well as being so many things to her church family, Joan was a wonderful mother, grandmother, and devoted sister.

Psalm 116:15 says it well, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”.

I’m sure Joan is marching with all the other saints in heaven as we, her friends and family, take comfort in the fact that our loss is God’s gain.

Rest in peace, Saint Joan, rest in peace.

Among the Gods

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Almost a year ago I posted, “Only One God . Period”. I still believe that. However, this morning I came across the following in my daily devotions. “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;…”  See that? “Among the gods…” So, perhaps it is not good to be so adamant about one’s beliefs, but, at least now I can see the other side of the argument…”there is more than one god.”

For me, though, there is only One God among the gods. Period.

Hymn of Promise

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Sometimes we just cannot help sharing something that touches us in a profound way. That’s how I feel about this hymn. The words are truly so promising and deserve to be pondered as well as sung.

Hymn Of Promise

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

What a beautiful promise!

 

 

 

That Darned Ark

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The story of the flood and Noah’s ark (Genesis 6-9) appears to be giving a lot of people a lot of trouble.

For instance, how could a loving, caring God drown the whole world except for one man, his family, and a pair of every species of animal…just enough to repopulate planet earth.

Is it purely allegorical and if so what is allegory? Here is one explanation from the internet.

Allegory Definition 

Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events.It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell a story with a purpose of teaching an idea and a principle or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of its use is to preach some kind of a moral lesson.

So, I kind of see it as God creating this beautiful planet filled with beautiful people and other creatures for the purpose of living in harmony and good will, and expecting them to be thankful and obedient to him in return. After all He’s the parent…we’re the kids.

Isn’t that what we expect from our children? We provide them with love, shelter, food, clothing, lessons for living life, and in return we expect co-operation, respect, obedience…not to mention a reciprocated love. Who of us hasn’t punished, or threatened to punish a wayward child for not living up to their end of the bargain? Except we don’t go as far as God is depicted to have done.

So, I’m thinking that whoever wrote that story, supposedly Moses, had a vivid imagination, a keen (if not warped) sense of justice, and pegged God as someone not to be tangled with. In other words, is the story of the flood one big empty threat…just like the dad who told his son, “Don’t touch that (whatever) or I’ll chop your hand off!” Really? Is it simply meant to make us pay attention to what is expected of us in God’s world?

The sad part about the people who let the flood story stop them from reading any further is that they missed the beautiful ending to the story…the part where God promised he would never do anything like that again and sent a beautiful rainbow as a sign of that promise. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing that rainbow in the clouds (Genesis 9:13).

So why am writing about that darned ark? It makes me sad that so many people are missing the rest of the story, God’s story, and all that it entails for our earthly sojourn, simply because they cannot let go of that segment with all it’s depicted horrors. All I can say is read on…you don’t know what you’re missing.

 

 

Exploring Spirituality (Part 2)

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As promised yesterday, here is the second part of Inna Segal’s internet article on spirituality.

. Connection

People who say that as you become more spiritual, life becomes more serious; have a lack of understanding of real spirituality. The more connected you become to the spirit within you, the lighter things get, as you develop an ability to laugh at yourself more and to recognize that this world is a playground for exploration.

You also realize that joy, happiness, fun and laughter are integral parts of your life and are necessary for your overall wellbeing.

2. Fun

I would often say that healing has to be fun for it to work. The more fun something is, the less resistance we have to experiencing it. When there is no resistance, life, wellbeing, joy, wonderful opportunities and abundance can flow effortlessly into our lives.

3. Freedom

The more spiritual you become, the more freedom you feel to be yourself and to allow others to be themselves. Your need to criticize others, dramatically decreases and compassionate understanding takes its place. You will also become softer with yourself and the people around you. You may even find yourself drawn to people you would usually have little interest in. Thus, you unlock the gates to the most fascinating, expansive, delicious connections with others and love, care and sweetness you could only dream of. Synchronicities become a regular phenomenon and life becomes a real adventure.

How fantastic would it be to wake up every day and know that anything is possible? You may meet a person who will change your life, receive an amazing job offer, discover an important piece of information, receive a positive surprise or have a deep spiritual experience.

4. Mystery

There is a well-known saying that ‘spirit works in mysterious ways.’ Wouldn’t you want to be part of the mystery, knowing that everyday holds an opportunity to transcend the ordinary and enter the realm of the extraordinary? The most beautiful thing is that you don’t have to work out how things will happen, just be open to amazing opportunities entering your life.

5. Different perspective

As you come into a spiritual communion with your Divine essence, you begin to attract people into your life, who will have a deeper connection and an understanding of who you are and what is important to you. Thus, you may expand your circle of friends, from people who are close to your age and your experience of life, to people from all walks of life who will offer different perspectives than what you know.

Integrating spirituality into your life is a unique process, which requires time, connection with yourself and deep and profound exploration.

A way that you know that you are moving forward in your life is that you feel that you are growing and expanding.

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” ~ John Lennon

As I said yesterday, I believe we can glean little nuggets of learning from other people, no matter what path they are on. It is one of my pleasures in life to explore spirituality.

 

Exploring Spirituality

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There is an abundance of things to write about but they don’t always come to mind when a writer needs them. So we go searching for something to write about. Or, like me, sit in a chair and say, “Okay, Muse, let’s write something.” God, Spirit and Jesus also get this request from me on many occasions. Yesterday I went searching, and found the following.

It is about spirituality in our everyday lives, which came about by researching this topic. Following is an article I found. It is on the Internet and was written by Inna Segal in December, 2013. Some may think I am straying from my Christian principles here but I believe everyone has some nugget of worth to teach and as long as we remain open-minded and true to our beliefs, each nugget could enhance our spiritual lives in some way. The article is called “The Benefit of Integrating Spirituality into Your Daily Life”.

“In order to experience everyday spirituality, we need to remember that we are spiritual beings spending some time in a human body.” ~ Barbara de Angelis

Exploring your spiritual, deeper, more mysterious side can be one of the most exhilarating experiences of your life. Spirituality can give you clarity, vision, and guidance where you had confusion, disappointment and lack of purpose. It can awaken your senses and arouse your intuition.

Spiritual truths can answer many important questions and give you the ability to see things beyond the surface. Everything begins to take on a deeper significance and your choices no longer stem from ignorance of the universal spiritual laws.

Rather than blaming everyone and everything for what you do not have you begin to examine your thought patterns, emotions, behaviors and overall ways of relating to the world. You become aware that as you shift your perspective, your experience of the world can transform speedily and drastically.

I think this is a good start and tomorrow I will post the rest of her article. I think you’ll like it…or not.

My own spirituality does, and always has come from the “still small voice” of God, through prayer, scripture and worship…and I never know from whence that voice will come.

 

A Dream is Just a Dream

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One of my grandsons told me about a recent dream he had about me, but before I tell you what it was I have to explain that I have always had a penchant for angels and freely talk about how much I love and believe in them. Also, one of my favorite quotes is With God All Things are Possible (Matthew 19:26) and most people know this about me. So, here is what my twenty-five year old grandson told me about his dream.

“Nana, I had a dream that you died and I was crying, but then I noticed that I had a tattoo on my shoulder. It was angel wings with the words All Things are Possible.”

I don’t recall him saying so, but I think the tattoo made him feel a little less sad that I had died. I asked him if he was going to go and get the tattoo. “No, not yet,” he replied.

It made me happy that he shared that dream with me, and we followed up with a lengthy conversation about many other things.

It could be said that a dream is just a dream unless it is a nightmare, but I have had many meaningful dreams throughout my life and have written about them freely in my book, MY PRECIOUS LIFE.

Does anyone have any thoughts on dreams? I’d love to hear them.

 

 

What About Cain and Abel?

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Sometimes I wish I had studied theology instead of bookkeeping. There are so many Bible stories that confuse me, like the one a friend reminded me of this morning… the biblical brothers, Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. These boys were the first fruits of Adam and Eve, their parents.

The scripture says the Lord looked with favor upon Abel but not on Cain, and this made Cain angry; angry enough to kill his brother. It was the first murder ever committed on earth.

My friend posed the question, “If God looked with favor upon Abel, why did God let Cain kill him?”

My question is, if God looks upon us with favor…and we’re told he does…why does he allow bad things to happen to good people?

We have a dear friend and church member whose cancer is spreading even though we took the advice of James 5:14 and had the elders pray over her and anoint her with oil. Instead of getting better, her condition deteriorated to the point where the cancer has reached her brain.

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalms 119:130

I am a simple person, Lord, and need understanding of James 5:14; and while you are at it, what about Cain and Abel?