my thoughts

Prayer for God's Children

2006-12-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

Our Heavenly Father--who loves us and formed us and from whom nothing is hidden:

I ask for your covering and that you would bestow favor and honor upon your children. Please protect us and help us not to give up or give in to what appears to be easier. May we encourage each other "daily, as long as it is called Today" to hold onto the hope you have given us in Christ Jesus "so that none of [us] may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Heb. 3:13).

May we hold onto our courage and faith so that we will value your Word and live by its wisdom (Heb. 3:6, 4:2). May we rise above our companions because our heads are anointed with the oil of your joy (Heb. 1:9). So that we will press on in our suffering with loud cries and tears, having confidence that you will hear us in our reverent submission and bless us with entering your rest (Heb. 5:7-8, 4:1).

Let us fix our eyes on you so we may fulfill our calling (Heb. 3:1) and partake of our inheritance in Christ who is our High Priest and has covered us with his blood (Heb. 4:15-16, 7:24-25). Let us not harden our hearts to your voice, but encounter your Spirit at every turn through nature, through dreams, through people, through activities...May each draw us nearer to you as we see your truth revealed by our eyes of faith (Heb. 4:2).

In your Holy, Awesome name I pray,

Amen

2006-11-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

Like the mist pulls a veil over the forest trail
So the circumstances of life pull a veil over truth

Once so sure in the direction to take
Once so steady in the choices made

Now my vision is clouded
My steady gate has crumbled
As I stumble in my faith.

Was the picture clear before
Or did I just imagine--

Have I heard God's voice
Did I act with His passion

I stand alone
There is judgement on all sides

I am reaching through the air
Hoping to grasp one small token of reality

I am searching in truth for the eternal
Where my heart can rest in peace.

"All those who hope in the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait on the Lord"

As I wait for his deliverance
I must continue forward--

Seeing with my heart more than my mind
The direction I must follow

And though I am afraid
I must trust in his protection

As my Father wisely guides me
Through the mist
To the inheritance that is mine.

My Whole Dependence

2006-11-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

My joy is not dependent on "Happy Endings"
My peace is not dependent on knowledge
My hope is not dependent on circumstances
My strength is not dependent on my own ability

My joy
My peace
My hope
My strength
Are wholly dependent upon my Lord

Seeing Life Through Rose Colored Glasses

2006-11-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we don’t understand the circumstances of our lives, especially in the difficult moments. But we can trust God even when we don’t understand because He sees the beauty in it—the pot of gold at the end of rainbow, so to speak. He sees our lives as only the true artist can.

Consider the illustrations of three different artists~

The first artist paints a rose so real that you think if you reached out to touch it you would be able to rub it’s velvety petals between your fingers.

The next artist paints a picture of a rose as well, only his style resembles more of a cartoon rose.

The last artist splashes a cacophony of colors together and puts one blotch of red in the middle, calling it a rose. Most people that stop to study the painting only see a spot of red on the canvas and miss the beauty that the true artist sees of a single red rose taking precedence over all the other colors.

Each artist paints the same picture with a different technique, a different style…a different viewpoint. In order to understand the beauty, one has to view each piece of are from the perspective of the artist.

Perhaps in the moments of pain and uncertainty, we can try to see beautiful red rose of the blessing taking precedence over our sorrow and fright…the greatest blessing being God’s faithful love that heals all wounds and gives peace beyond understanding.
He is the true artist of our lives. Sometimes he paints pictures of beauty so stunning it takes our breath away. Other times He seems to paint pictures of chaos. But one thing we can count on, He never leaves His artwork void of beauty. Sometimes we need to look the lenses of the master artist.

Perhaps instead of first asking "why," we should don a pair of rose colored glasses and ask "where" the hidden blessing is. Then we might see beyond the pain to take comfort in the beauty of His provision, His strength, His joy and the special symbols of His love that He paints into each one of our lives. If we let God help us see our lives through his eyes, we’ll be able to see the rose of beauty whether it’s one of velvety petals or a blotch of color on a canvas.

Jeremiah 29:11-14; Isaiah 61:2-3,

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you…to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."

Loving by God's Grace

2006-10-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

I love by the grace of God. I have learned from him how selfless and never-ending real love is.

Loving someone so deeply and completely isn't easy and it even causes pain. It's like your heart strings aren't your own. They are connected to the one you love. You hurt when they hurt and you expereience joy when they are happy. What you want almost becomes obsolete because you want this person to reach all the heights God has for them. You want them to succeed and not give up. You do everything you can to remove barriers. You desire to protect them even though you know that sometimes they need to experience pain in order to learn and grow. Their life personifies a really good book--you can read it a hundred times and notice something new about the storyline each time you read it.

You never really know a good book completely, no matter how many times you read it. That's why you enjoy reading it. It's the same with people and relationships. People are not static. We are ever changing, ever learning, ever developing. We want to be known. We want to share with someone who is genuinly interested what is special to us, what makes us unique, what we dream of.

When a relationship grows stagnant, it is because one person or the other has become complacent in believing they know the other person completely and there is nothing else to learn about them...they stop reading.

Loving someone means you never let the cover of their story get dusty sitting on the shelf. You frequent his or her story so many times that the evidence of your love is seen in how well worn their pages are. You work for an intimate, positive, life-giving relationship because you love someone enough to never stop reading their story.

"He who is in love is wise and becoming wiser, sees newly everytime he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why do we hate death?

2006-10-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Death isn't always an enemy. The death of a bad habit or an evil agenda or even a terrible person, like Adolf Hitler, is a good thing. For someone who is going to Heaven, death is a good thing. Heaven is a far better place than any experience we could have or any accompolishment we could make here on earth. Heaven is a place where there are no tears or pain, only love and joy. We should want this for our loved ones.

Maybe death isn't always an enemy. Perhpas the real sadness that comes from losing someone is the pain we feel for ourselves and not the person who is gone. We miss the place they held in our lives and what they brought to our days. When the young die, we mourn the dreams that they never lived and the accomplishments they never achieved. We mourn that they were not able to experience having a family of their own, having grandchildren and retiring. But if Heaven really is perfect, what could they really be missing by not being here? Maybe what we really mourn is that we didn't get to see them live out the dreams we saw for them and experience with them the joy of their achievements.

No one is guaranteed any number of days. Even the destiny of our own children is not ours to decide--it has already been decided. We are in each other's lives to love and sometimes that means letting go. God has a special purpose for every life He creates and it's not related to the number of days or even minutes that a person lives. That's why it's imporatnt to live everyday like it is your last--loving deeply, speaking truth, laughing, crying, showing anger at injustice; giving of yourself--your energy, time and talents; not allowing fear of failure to keep you from experiencing something new; not living for your own pleasure, but living to bring pleasure to another.

We will experience joy and peace in living this way because at the end of each day we will have done our best to make a lasting difference with whatever that day offered. We will have given love, inspired hope and opened doors for others to make a positive impact on lives they encounter along life's road. That's more what life on earth is all about.

Heaven is perfect and there is only happiness there. That's where our lives will truly begin. We will still experience pleasure and accomplishments in this life. We will still find enjoyment in things and relationships and this is as it should be. The beauty of God is not diminished by the pain of this world. But we will truly be able to enjoy the beauty of life when we live not for our own pleasure or gain, but to make a difference.

"If you build relationships based on what you can do for them, then you don't have to worry about anything for yourself. That stuff will take care of itself." ~Unknown

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds then. Ar eyou not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God lothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you...so do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?'...seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. " Matthew 6:25-33

I Am Beautiful

2006-10-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

I want to live in faith
I want to grow in grace
I want to be beautiful

And for your heart to shine
On my face and say
"God is love"

I want to stand and stay strong
Even when "they" don't agree

Because I know

My faith is not misplaced
My choice to live
Does not go unnoticed

Just like the little sparrow
My Father looks on me with love

He sees me--

Naked I stand
And to Him
I am beautiful

Just Around the Bend

2006-10-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

A dream, a hope not yet realized.
A promise waiting to be fulfilled.
It's just around the bend, a rainbow bright and sheltering.
So, I wait.

Hopes expectant for the joys to come.
For all the time I wait, I'll be blessed a hundred fold.
It's just around the bend, a rare pearl made just for me.
So, I wait.

Long day, my hopes wan.
Will it ever come?
It's just around the bend, I hear.

This dream I have is so near.
But only in God's time will it be blessed.
The why is not important.
The how is not my concern.
The when I will not know until it happens.
But the peace of knowing it will come is mine,
For all God's promises are true.

Even if my dreams don't come the way I thought they would,
They will come,
They are there,
Just around the bend.

A Glimpse of Grace

2006-10-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

One day, I asked God to let me see the world through his eyes. So, he opened his hands and bid me come see what they held.

But when I looked, I saw so much pain that I cried, "No more, Lord! I cannot bear to see!"

He closed his hands and when I looked up to his face, I saw tears in his eyes and I understood the depth of his love.

"Father, forgive us for breaking your heart." I whispered.

Then I said, "Please, let me see again. I am ready now to see the world through your eyes."

And when I looked again, I still saw pain and suffering, but I also saw comfort and healing. I saw hatred, but also love that soothed fiery souls. I saw the ugliness of death, but also the hope brought from the beauty of a sunrise.

"Wow, God! You let me see that, yes, the world is not without pain and death as you planned it to be. Yet because you love everyone of your creation and you want to give everyone a chance, more than one chance, to accept the life you offer and be loved forever by you, you let the world go on. But you do not leave it void of hope and joy."

"No, in your grace, you have given us glimmers of eternity in the beautiful sounds of a symphony, in the stunning colors of a sunset, in the faithful kisses of a beloved pet, in the warmth of a friendly smile..."

"All around us there are gifts of heaven that you have allowed to stay on earth amidst the dirt, pain and despair--the greatest gift being your Son, Jesus. Thank you, Father."

I saw the world through God's eyes that day. I didn't see less pain, but I saw more hope.
Although I may become discouraged at times and want to give up, I cannot. God has not said it is time. There are souls waiting to be loved by their merciful Creator and he is waiting to love them. As long as I am alive, I must live to love.

"God, fill my heart with the unfailing love you have! Give me grace to stand and courage to stand against evil. Help me to see the beauty you share everyday. May I see the world evermore through your eyes and may I never stop loving until you call me home to eternity."

"Beauty enters your heart through all the senses, and the beauty grows stronger when more than one of the senses is involved." ~Thomas Kinkade