Tag Archives: scripture

Seeing God in Each Other

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It is a well known fact that no one has ever seen God…or is it? Sometimes I get caught up in the whys and hows of the Bible and have always been intrigued by Genesis 1:27 about God making man in His image. 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

The Bible then goes on to describe how God is in us. The following scriptures taken from the NIV (New International Version) attest to just that:

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:12

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 1 John 4:15

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you...2 Corinthians 13:5

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (Jesus) John 14:20

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 1 John 3:9

And finally:

New Living Translation
But Jacob insisted, “No, if I have found favor with you, please accept this gift from me. And what a relief to see your friendly smile. It is like seeing the face of God! Genesis 33:10 (Jacob speaking to his brother, Esau)

Here’s looking at you, God!

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Happy Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living With a Capital “L”

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Here is what I learned from Dr. Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries, on February 19th. He said, “You’re young and useful at any age if you’re still planning for tomorrow.”

Some of the ways to plan for tomorrow begin with a capital L. 

Learning…learn something new every day; I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; Psalm 32:8

Loving…love is the best feeling in the world; 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 says it all.

Laughing…laughter is having an internal massage; A cheerful heart is good medicine…Proverbs 17:22

Leaving…your past behind. Don’t live with your junk. (Dr. Stanley)

Longing…long to know your purpose in life and then fulfill it. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28)

Looking…your best. You feel your best and do your best when you look your best. (Dr. Stanley)

Labouring…working…You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Psalm 128:2 NIV

Leaning…on the Lord…Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5

Listening…to God…Whoever has ears, let them hear. Matthew 11:15 (NIV)

These are just a few of the ways we can live with a capital L. It’s what I learned on February 19th.

 

 

 

God is Where You Are

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Wherever we are in the world, there is a church. Whether you attend or don’t, enjoy your Sunday because God, being omnipresent, is not only in a church he is wherever you are. 

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:11 (NIV)
Beautiful sunset over gothic church St. Peter and Paul in The Litice suburb of Pilsen. Aerial view to romantic citiscape in Czech Republic, Central Europe. HDR (warm filtered) photography.

Beautiful sunset over gothic church St. Peter and Paul in The Litice suburb of Pilsen. Aerial view to romantic citiscape in Czech Republic, Central Europe. HDR (warm filtered) photography.

Living With Pain

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Pain, whether physical, emotional or psychological, can be debilitating to those who suffer it constantly. Life is full of pain but there are ways of tolerating it or overcoming it, if not eliminating it completely. Below are a couple of prayers, quotes, scriptures, that I have found helpful over the years; especially The Great I Am prayer. Along with good medical treatment and continuous searching for cures, may the following be helpful to those who are in the grip of pain on a daily basis.

Prayer for pain to vanish

Dear God

I know only you can help this pain vanish away. I plead for peace and serenity as I fight off the pain I am feeling. Send your hand down to me and fill me with your strength. I cannot take this pain any longer without your help! Release me from this hold and restore me. I trust in You to give me the strength to get through this. I pray that the pain will be gone! It will not hold me down because I have the Lord on my side.

Amen

Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, have mercy on me. I have found this one-line prayer to be hugely beneficial when repeated several times in succession.

“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ― Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. James 5:14 (NIV)…(I would add to the opening sentence, “or in pain?”)

There are many ways to deal with the pain in our lives and sometimes we just need to be made aware of the spiritual help that is available. Pills are good…Power is better. Be healed.

Photo de Cardinal Cottage.

 

Why Don’t We Get It?

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In his inaugural speech today, President Trump quoted from Psalm 133: How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in harmony! He went on to say,”We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.” Read that sentence again…”We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.”

And yet, out on the streets, some of these same people he was talking to and about were pursuing violent protests, having no interest whatsoever in solidarity. They were smashing shop windows, causing havoc in whatever way they could. What gives them the right to do that? What are they thinking?

And yet, who are we to talk? Does not this same thing go on within our own borders and indeed, our own walls? Do we speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly or even think of pursuing solidarity, togetherness, peace, harmony, unity; whatever it takes to make our world a better place? Unfortunately, all too often the answer is…not really.

It came to me today that whoever would not watch and listen to the upcoming inauguration with an open mind would be missing something. And then it came to me that whoever does not live life with an open mind would be missing even more.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in harmony! Why don’t we get it?

Accepting a Challenge

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Today, (I’m writing this on Sunday evening), I was challenged to take our choir’s anthem, “What Does the Lord Require?” and blog about it. The song comes from a scripture: Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

So, here’s the challenge. How about if we ask what we require of each other.

Would we not require justice as defined in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary: the quality of being just, impartial, or fair.

Would we require kindness? Wikipedia says this about kindness: Kindness is a behavior marked by ethical characteristics, a pleasant disposition, and concern for others.

And if we don’t believe in walking humbly with our God, would we not at least want to walk humbly with each other? I experienced walking humbly in Whistler just over a week ago when due to deep snow and icy conditions, my steps were guided by my daughter and daughter-in-law, one on either side of me.

Walking humbly with each other takes on the characteristics of protecting from hurts, offering comfort, being supportive, forgetting self while uplifting others…these are just some of the ways we can walk humbly with others.

Today I was required to accept a challenge and it makes me happy to know that there are many ways to look at words, whether they are in a song, sermon, scripture or sentence, and humbly learn a lesson from them. Are you up to the challenge of doing justice, loving kindness and humbly walking with your God or your fellow people? I believe that most people do so on a daily basis…and those who don’t?

 

A Rumble Seat Ride

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Only car buffs and/or oldsters like me will know what a rumble seat is. As a youngster, it was special fun to ride in the rumble seat of my uncle’s Model A Coupe. The car was born in 1931 I think, and I came along on this day in 1937. I was all of four years old when Uncle Walter tossed me gently into the outside back seat of the car and told me to “stay put”. (And he thought I would go where?)

And now I’m in the rumble seat again, travelling the final miles on the highway of life.  Although the road has not always been smooth with its bumps, detours, hills, and valleys, it’s been a wonderful journey. I’m hoping my road map has many miles left as I coast along in the rumble seat of life.

One of my favourite scriptures is Psalm 128:6 “May you live to see your children’s children…” I have lived to see not only my children’s children but my children’s children’s children.

Little did I know that a four-year-old me would ride that rumble seat into my eighth decade of life. TYG!

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intelligence vs Intelligence

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No, that’s not a typo in the title. I once wrote about a ninety-year old gent who likes to study logic. Well, this word, intelligence, keeps popping into my mind and makes me wonder just what is it…or what defines it?

Do I have the answer? No. But what I do know is that Intelligence supersedes intelligence. An i.q. test is said to measure one’s intelligence. An extended education obviously increases one’s intelligence. But, (in my opinion) Supernatural Intelligence is the source of both of these. Supernatural Intelligence brought the cosmos, and along with it, our world into existence. And, so, here are you and I.

We are all born with a certain degree of intelligence…some more, some less; and whether or not we have nurtured it by the above means dictates to what degree our i.q. measures.  I am on the lesser end of the scale, having been a high school drop-out with no desire to pursue higher education. Many members of my family have BA’s, MA’s and even PHD’s, for heaven’s sake; very intelligent people. That said, I have successfully managed to raise a fine family, own a business, and publish a book. How? By calling upon that Higher Intelligence, that Supernatural Intelligence which has always been, for me, only a prayer away.

“Don’t let your intelligence get in the way of intelligence” translates into “don’t let your intelligence get in the way of Intelligence.”

Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is what is proper, pleasing, and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NSV)

..”continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” It’s such an intelligent thing to do.

 

When Will They Ever Learn?

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Peter, Paul, and Mary’s hit song of 1962, “Where Have all the Flowers Gone” came on my music channel today. It brought tears to my eyes realizing that in all these years we still haven’t learned.

We haven’t learned to stop the killing…killing of our fellow human and killing of our environment. We haven’t learned to forgive, or how not to carry a grudge. We haven’t learned to love unconditionally, to pray without ceasing. We haven’t learned to say “I’m sorry” and mean it, nor have we learned that doing nothing to reconcile a situation is the same as promoting war instead of peace.

Most people who write these kinds of songs are thinkers, and in their own way are reaching out to the world through their words. But is the world listening? When will we ever learn, oh, when will we ever learn?

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. Titus 3:1

Life and Death

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It is a sad time for many people who have lost loved ones very recently. No one can know the depths of another’s grief; no one can feel another’s aching feeling of loss; no one can bear another’s pain.

Life and death are caught up in each other’s shadow, in that death is a part of life and life is a continuation of death. Christmas is a very difficult time of year to have to face this reality. But then, is there ever a good time? I think not. Loss is loss whenever it occurs.

It has saddened my own heart to hear of the recent passing of two lovely ladies; one I have known for over sixty years, and the other I met just a few years ago. Both were, and are near and dear to their families and close friends. Both have left a gaping hole in the hearts of many.

Ecclesiastes says it best in chapter three, verse (1) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: (2) a time to be born and a time to die, (4) a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,. (NIV)

Laughing and dancing will not be on the agenda of some of us this holiday season, but we will honor the lives of these two ladies and be sure to include them in the memories of Christmases past.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4.