Soaring

Sometimes the soul soars higher than the physical body can match! This is one of those songs for me. To hear it click on the link at the bottom

Verse 1
Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature
And all created things
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man
You were here
Before the world began

Verse 2
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders
The world has ever known
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth

CHORUS
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Verse 3
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Verse 4
keep on blessing me
over and over and
over and over and
over and over again
over and over and
over and over and
over and over again
above all again
above all.

Click below to hear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Sn5rV6oM0&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=MLGxdCwVVULXdvTRA9tM7Q6kPskCLNWRPP

Kairos Prayer Vigil

We will be praying for the next three days for a prison ministry at Valdosta State Prison and those involved. Our friend, Bob Ellis, from Nashville, GA is one of the persons involved. Please pray for the safety of the 41 volunteers bringing an important message of hope and salvation to men in prison. Pray for the receptivity of all involved to the movings and workings of the Holy Spirit that souls will be brought to repentance and salvation.

Delight yourself in the Lord

"Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart."Ps 37:4 "Delight yourself"...be filled with the joy of the Lord. When I think of this phrase, I see in my mind's eye a young child twirling in the joy of the moment. That second part sounds pretty good, too: "...and He will give you the desires of your heart." Unfortunately, taken out of context it sounds like God becomes some cosmic Santa who is obligated to heap on us whatever our self-centered little heart desires. Not quite! Read in context: "Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him…" (from Psalm 37 NIV).

Birthday Inspiration

http://www.birthverse.com/mybirthverse.cfm To find and claim a special Bible verse for your daily inspiration, go to this website and enter your birth date and month. This was mine. "1 John 3:24 NIV Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." You are a child of God, His treasured possession. He created you in His own image. He chose the day for you to be born. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. Cherish your birthverse. BIRTHVERSE consists of 366 verses chosen from the 66 books of the Bible. Each verse correlates the chapter and verse with its month and day."

Shine, Jesus, Shine

At church this morning, this was one of the songs we sang,
"Shine, Jesus, Shine".

Click below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr5Y63bDNNg

It reminded us of Christopher Grayson, a friend from Morehead City, NC. For those who do not know Christopher, he is a young man in his twenties with two parents who are definitely committed to the fact that children are a blessing from God. They "walked the walk" in caring for their parents in their latter years as well as with Christopher.

Christopher was born with multiple birth "defects" (according to medical thinking). His parents were told to institutionalize him and try to have another child. The prognosis said he would never see, hear, walk, talk or live!! Instead, John and Roo took him home "to raise."

Although it's been a tough road at times punctuated by multiple surgeries and masses of medical emergencies, his twenty plus years have blessed hundreds. His church families (multiples because his dad is an Anglican pastor)embraced the family,celebrating every milestone and sharing every crisis. Christopher did walk with aid for a while, he does talk, see and hear and has a lively sense of humor. He goes fishing with his dad. Together,they "run" marathons (John runs pushing Christopher in his wheelchair). At last report, John continued to take Christopher with him to visit homebound parish members. Christopher might not remember his alphabet but he never forgot a prayer request.

He graduated from Carteret Christian Academy and brought joy to his classmates. After his graduation, John and Roo took Roo's mother to live with them when she could no longer live alone safely...thus finding themselves with two wheelchair bound persons in the household. Still their joy continued and Daisy and Christopher were always included in all they did. After Daisy went to be with Jesus, Roo was a tremendous encourager for me as we took care of my stepfather and mother in their final illnesses. Another song we sang today was this one,

"May Those Who Come Behind Us Find Us Faithful"...a second reminder today of the Graysons.

Click on the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRK2Y1cZaME

Could you not tarry?

Larry Lea in Discipline and Discovery: Learning the Joy of Prayer (1990) offers these suggestions on how to handle offenses against you:

(1) Don't curse it.
(2) Don't rehearse it.
(3) Don't nurse it.
(4) Disburse it.
(5) Trust God to reverse it.

Pastor John Grayson taught a whole series on this theme. It really changed the way I viewed offenses.

Proverbs 25:21-22 "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,and the Lord will reward you."

Romans 12:19-20 "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads."

6 Steps to Purity

These six steps come from Discipline and Discovery by Albert E. Day (1988). I've copied these 6 steps onto the blank pages of every Bible I have owned since the late 80's.
1. Avoid anything which lowers inhibitions (drugs, people, locations);
2. Set a watch on the door of your eyes;
3. Guard your imagination;
4. Do not run toward temptation;
5. Restrain your indulgent curiousity ; and
6. Let your thoughts dwell on what to do not what you shouldn't (Phil 4:8).

Here in America We Still Trust in God

While I don't normally enjoy country music, the words to this song spoke to my heart. Thank you, Lisa Gates, for introducing me to it."

The Most Powerful Force

"The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest."

Albert Einstein

Which way would you receive the most money:

a penny doubled everyday for a month or

$1,000 a day for the rest of your life?

At the end of a 31 day month, the penny doubled

would have grown to $21,474,836

while the $1,000 a day would yield you only $10,737,418.

That's one form of compounding.

Another form of compounding happens if interest is added to a debt balance and the loan payments are not sufficient both to reduce the loan balance and pay the interest that is due. The debt balance never shrinks. That's what happens with revolving charge accounts such as our national debt.

That is why the Bible admonishes us against being in debt.

Prov 22:7 "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

Romans 13:8 "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."

True North

True north is a geographic line pointing toward the North Pole. Its direction is unchanging and is invaluable to sailors for charting their course. It is marked in the sky by the location of certain constellations: reliable, trustworthy.
The people in Japan (visitor, resident and citizens) have demonstrated the "true north" of their moral character following the worst earthquake in their history followed by a mammoth tsunami. As though that destruction of lives, livelihoods, and homes was not sufficient, a nuclear accident followed.
Through all that and, thusfar, two weeks of almost continuous aftershocks (a bland reference to additional earthquakes), the people in Japan (visitors, residents, and citizens) have conducted themselves with humanity, calm, and dignity. Evacuated to crowded, unheated shelters with inadequate food, water, and medical resources; they continued resolutely in making the best of the available resources: proud island people to the core. The morning after their first night in unheated shelters (in the midst of winter), videos show the evacuees rolling up their bedding without complaint. The shelters were just as immaculate after a night of hundreds sleeping head to toe as they had been when the people entered the night before. There was no wailing or screaming. Instead, they dutifully picked up after themselves, comforted others and offered whatever assistance they could.
Despite the tension of sleeping through a night (and subsequent days) of aftershocks (a nice name for additional earthquakes), of accepting the fact they might well never again see loved ones, these people remained calm, collected and thoughtful of others.No looting, no pillaging, no assaults on the weak, no stealing or damaging of property.
Even the Japanese government and press have demonstrated a true north character. The government officials of Japan resisted the opportunity to play the blame game. Japanese journalists reported the facts calmly to the extent they had information. No one pushed a panic buttom.
Here in the U.S., young people kicked in windows of cars they did not own to demonstrate their ire at the prospect of increased university tuition costs. Educators prowled through publicly owned buildings attempting to disrupt legislative processes, leaving behind millions of dollars of damaged marble surfaces and providing the worst possible example for their students. Elected officials, whose political party had lost a recent election, fled to neighboring states like sulking children, not only abdicating their responsibility to their constituents but attempting to disrupt the democratic processes of governance.
All this demonstrated more than they realized the warp and weft of their moral fiber.
It was not always thus in America. In 1900 during the great Galveston hurricane, in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and heroic rescues from the Twin Towers in 2001 were moments of triumph in America. During each of those calamities, we in America showed a different moral fiber than our more recent history suggests.
I pray we will recapture it.
Meanwhile, half a world away, people whose lives have been altered beyond calculation went quietly, calmly and with dignity about the business of salvaging what they could, enduring what they must, bearing each other's burdens. It was ever thus with island people.

Who's in charge?

No matter what group you become a part of, there's always that one person who stands out as a leader. Strangely enough, sometimes the person who stands out is not the person who is in charge. The person in charge often is just that person who is willing not only to make decisions but to follow through on those decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes. Sometimes we can get so caught up in "following" that person that we forget Who really is in charge.

On our first anniversary, my husband gave me a plaque which has been hung in a prominent space ever since. I cross stitched its message for our children and for several of my friends. It really puts every situation into its proper perspective.

Christ is the Head of this household,

The Unseen Guest at every meal,

The Silent Listener to every conversation.

Insanity

Insanity is continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different outcome. Insanity is concentrating on what we should not do, rather than what we should. Insanity is expecting God to "bail us out" when we violate His Word.

It amazes me that God trusted us with "free will," the ability to make choices! There have been those times when I've wondered why in the world He would trust me that much! That usually followed my having made the same mistake more than once.

As a child, I was such a pleaser! I wanted to please everyone: parents, teachers, friends, neighbors. It wasn't until I discovered Philippians 4:8 that I was freed from "remembering all those rules." There is was!! Later, I found Ps 37:4 and there it was again!!

The actions we repeat most often are those on which we focus our attention.

So, if we focus on what we are not supposed to do, we will do more of it. If we focus on what we are supposed to do, we will do more of that! It is so simple!

When I became stepmother to two teenagers, it was next to impossible to tell how much impact that philosophy could have with them. A few years later, when my husband and I became foster parents, I applied that idea. We focused attention on the behaviors we wanted. I carried it over, a few more years later, when I began to teach elementary school. It worked there, too!!

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable--if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise--dwell on these things." Phil 4:8

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Ps 37:4