Just a few random thoughts about God

Tags

calling, character, comfort, family, lost causes, love, Love of God, relentless pursuit, unconditional love

1. How freeing it is to apprehend that God uses every circumstance (even though He does not cause them all) in our life to develop both our character and our calling (purpose!)

2. God is all about family. He is the good, good Father, and we (every human being) are fully and unconditionally loved by Him. (thank you Chris Tomlin) That’s it! Our purpose as human beings is so simple … yet we mess it up all the time. Our individual calling (purpose) is simply to receive the boundless love of God, then share it with each & every person we encounter. Simple!

3. Since God is all about family, He sees no rejects, no losers, no lost causes. Since the beginning of time, He has desired a family. His desire is for ALL to join His family to share His goodness and His love, and since the beginning or your life and mine, He has been working to bring us into His family for the purpose of loving us. That’s it! No rules. No obligations. Only love! But … such unconditional love is so foreign it frightens most of us. Why?

4. Perhaps the most difficult concept to understand @ God is that He is much more concerned with our character than our comfort. He works continuously to craft each of us into unique billboards that radiate His love, so all may come into His family. It is God’s love that comforts us,  corrects us, compels us & challenges us to share the love we so richly & abundantly receive. God is forever motivated by love, and so, too, we, as God’s sons and daughters are compelled to  act out God’s love in our own lives.

5.”What if you rejected everything about God that wasn’t God and accepted Him for who He is — God for you?”  This is from a powerful little book entitled, IF, by Mark Batterson
How much of what we attribute to God ought to actually be attributed to the words, attitudes, or deeds of certain believers? The single most radical concept of God is that He chooses in every case to love each person, AND He  continuously moves heaven and earth to draw each one into His forever family. Unfortunately, none of us get it right … even most of the time,but He never stops drawing us. e never stops teaching us. He never stops lov

Why not ask Him about it?

🎶 Good Good Father 🎶

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PREPARE!

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America, faith, God, INTERCESSION, People of Faith, politically incorrect, prayer, truth, WAR ROOM, work

If you are paying attention to life and events around our nation and world, it is clear, something is coming. Something uncomfortable … unpleasant … uninvited. Are you prepared?
I am not necessarily talking about stockpiling food & water, although there is no harm in that type of preparation. I’m  more concerned with a general attitude.

9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men!
Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”

Some might have heard of the new film in theaters at the writing of this, War Room. This is the preparation I speak of. This is the greatest weapon believers have against the riding tide of selfishness and lawlessness.

Prayer. I am not talking about “bless me” prayers, but prayer that is violent against all that stands against our God and Creator. (Eph 6:10-20, Matt 11:12) We have been silent and ineffectual long enough! There is a time to turn the other cheek, but now is the time to take a stand, as unpopular or politically incorrect as it may be. It is God we should be concerned with pleasing, not man.
As we approach a turning point election, I challenge all people of faith to pray against the surge of evil that challenges traditional Biblical values in our nation and work diligently together to stem the attack on our families, our faith, and our freedoms, for the sake of our children and the children of the nations!

♫ Born Free ♫

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Be for Work, Born Free, choices, freedom, job's report 2014, jobs, NO JOBS, Obama fail, opportunity, Use it or lose it, work

AMERICA is unique, not so much for her FREEDOM, but for her Source of Freedom (GOD) and what that Freedom has come to mean culturally i.e. OPPORTUNITY to WORK. There are other nations, other societies, that experience some degree of freedom, some even seem more FREE than America. So, what’s the big deal? What makes American Freedom different … EXCEPTIONAL?

Find another civilization in history that has …

• drawn the number of immigrants the USA has in the past century and enabled them to improve their lives.
• produced as much increase and improvement across the board – technologically, scientifically, agriculturally, humanitarian-ly, and even spiritually.
• allowed virtually complete mobility physically between states and economically from min wage to billionaire to those willing to push through the obstacles

Recent policies have diminished the OPPORTUNITY for work … for self-improvement. Increased taxes and regulations punish small business success, and “NO STRINGS handout” availability reduces the incentive toward WORK! In the process, however, our freedoms are exchanged and lost.

Your Freedom is yours to do with as you please. You can use it to build or to destroy. You can use it to give or to take. You can use it to find happiness or misery. You can use it to help others or help yourself. Your Freedom is yours to do with as you please. Use it or lose it!

Be for Work

By Mona Charen · Jan. 10, 2014

“John F. Kennedy broke some sort of record for stating the obvious when he noted that “life isn’t fair.” More evidence for the unfairness of the nation’s evaluations of presidents emerged in a recent Washington Post poll showing that, five years after he returned to Texas, George W. Bush is still blamed by 50 percent of Americans for the current state of the economy. Only 38 percent hold President Barack Obama responsible. The lesson for future presidents appears to be: You may be one of the greatest humanitarians in the history of the world (as Herbert Hoover arguably was, and as was Bush in some ways), but if you’re in office when a financial crisis hits, the public will blame you forever.

The press and academia have provided explanations and justifications for the economy’s sluggishness during the past five years – rationalizations that tend to exonerate Obama for the fact that, for example, annual growth remains very low by historical standards, and the labor force participation rate has dropped every year since 2009. It is now at the lowest level since 1978. We’ve been assured that the aging of baby boomers accounts for the high numbers leaving the labor force. But as Michael Strain notes in National Affairs, the labor force participation rate for the ages 25-54 cohort has hardly recovered at all since 2009 – though the recession officially ended in June of that year.

The Obama administration frequently cites economists who argue that recoveries from financial crisis-induced recessions are slower than those from other recessions. Economic historians Michael Bordo of Rutgers University and Joseph Haubrich of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland have produced data for recessions going back to 1882 and find that recoveries from past financial crises were more than four times stronger than this recovery has been.

Obama has proclaimed, one loses count of how many times, a pivot to jobs. Apparently, that theme is passe. He’s now pivoting to inequality. Any more pivots and he’ll be doing a pirouette.” Read more HERE

ReDirect: A Reason for Giving

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action, caring, common sense, COURTESY, Good Samaritan, help, humanity, neighbors, thoughtfulness

It does no real good at this point, to dwell on the enormity of negative aspects of the Obama Administration. The extent of his disrespect for America and for the American people, whether they/we acknowledge that disrespect or not, is inexcusable. Nevertheless, it appears, at least for the present, that our hands are tied. So, beating the dead horse of his outrageous crimes, lies, and deceptions seems more of a distraction from all that is GOOD, all that is holy, and all that is AMERICAN … for me.

I will continue to write about whatever is on my heart, but I expect it to be more God-centered. Of course, it will still flavor my love for this nation and her people, but I choose to look for the GOOD. It may be harder to find than the bad, but I will find some and share it here in the hope that we will all be inspired toward improvement, toward a higher calling, toward genuine service.

On that note …

[WATCH] Why Has This Man’s Viral Video Restored a Little Faith in Humanity?

Go and do likewise!

That the World My Know …

Tags

Christ's love, GOD’s love, love, real love, unconditional love

Command, not request!

This has been a busy few weeks in my little world. Included has been a deep heart issue: LOVE!

I’m a mom, and there is no more satisfying and challenging position (career) in life (except perhaps fatherhood!) My kids are all adults, but that doesn’t mean I stop being their mom. In fact, it seems as they grow and mature, so does my role as their mom! The hard part is redefining LOVE in accordance with my role as mom to adults!

As believers, we are COMMANDED, not requested, to love one another as Christ loves us. That is quite a tall order! First, we have to accept that Jesus loves us more than words can express, more than any human can possibly apprehend, more than our finite brains can even imagine. That is LIFE! But accepting Jesus love as truth is just the beginning! We are to love one another the same way … even FAMILY … even the absolutely unlovable!

This revelation shook me! It seems like common sense, but … how many of us really treat family with the kind of love Jesus pours into each of us continuously? I tend to try to control my kids’ lives! I confess! I am always right, and of course, I know better then they do what is best for them, right? 🙂 It was a “loving” smack across the face when I realized I was putting MY expectations, MY dreams, and MY plans onto them. THAT isn’t Christ’s love!

Strangers are much easier to love! We don’t have to see them often and deal with their imperfections routinely. Family we do! We are commanded to love one another as Christ loves us … in spite of our bad habits, inherent weaknesses, bad choices, and frailties!

Not so easy … but if we practice appreciating the best in each of our family members, our friends and co-workers, maybe … just maybe they will see Jesus in us!

Who are We Now? Who will We be in a Decade?

Tags

America, American Identity, American moral decay, Benghazi, build, care, caring, Christianity, Common Core, Egypt, good or evil, IRS, islam, It's TIME!, Judaism, leadership, morality, morals, NSA, right or wrong, seniors

Reclaim it or lose it! It’s up to us!

Who are We Now?

To stand by silently while we look at the face of evil in full display before our very eyes is the very essence of condoning the evil being perpetuated.

If ever there was a time for decent people to stand up and be heard, this is it. We are assaulted on every front with compromise, corruption, and cowardice. Those we elected to represent us are not doing so, but rather working their own agendas at our expense.

We each in our own private agony seek a way to turn our nation back to her Foundation. But what can one man or one woman do against the blind hordes?

CARE!!!

Why do American families feel the need to put their Seniors away in “care” facilities?

Why do African-Americans try to emulate the gangster culture, then wonder why the neighborhood crime rate goes up?

Why do young girls, pre-teen girls (and boys), feel the desperate need for a boyfriend, to be “sexually attractive” and sexually active and we say, ok?

Why do we look the other way for marital infidelity, pedophilia, drug or alcohol abuse, even shoplifting?

WHO ARE WE? We used to understand that kindness, integrity, honor were good things. Now, we look the other way. We lock ourselves behind the walls of our little (mortgaged?) castle and think we’re immune. We even know the famous quote about evil being the result of what happens when “GOOD” people do nothing. Have we connected the dots yet? We’ve done NOTHING for decades and evil, perversion, corruption, degradation … moral decay has swept across this land.

So … who are we? Who do we want our CHILDREN to be?

Re-Defining Personal Freedom
and our National Identity

I have listed a number of articles below, each spotlighting an error, a bungle, a wrong turn. I know it sometimes seems hopeless, but I honestly believe we are making headway one American at a time. I also believe we can only lead the way if we know where we’re going. It’s one thing to tear apart the policies of the President. It’s another thing to know where we need to go. One answer: the CONSTITUTION!

• Story of teacher convicted of rape makes the case for school choice
• Scalia: SCOTUS shouldn’t ‘invent’ new minorities
• Confused and Adrift
• Missouri Banned the Wrong Clown
• Benghazi: No One Is Accountable
• Egypt’s Brotherhood as beleaguered as its leader
• More Single Moms Have Never Married
• Common Core: Reinforcing Failure

It’s time we reach out and CARE for one another again. Fear has gotten us no where! It’s time to care about our Seniors and the riches of wisdom and experience they can share with us. It’s time to care about the children who spend their days in daycare or poor schools and what they’re learning. It’s time to care about the growing corruption in Washington DC, and take a stand for who we want to be 10 years from now. It’s time to get beyond Democrat or Republican and embrace one another as AMERICANS! It’s TIME to stop pointing fingers and start using our hands to help build the America we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren … One American at a time! IT’S TIME!!!

TRAINED FROM BIRTH

Tags

education, goals, honor, life, morality, poetry, purpose, SGT Sanchez

Although still recovering from his injuries overseas, Sgt. Sanchez insisted on leaving his electric wheelchair to walk the flag down Main Street, U.S.A., saying “If it’s for the colors, I’ll walk”

I was born at a time when freedom was honored,
Trained from birth to be a productive adult,
Emotive and intuitive, pensive and strong,
With many gifts and talents, among them, the gift of thought.

Back in those days, Parents and Teachers actually taught;
We learned how to read, how to interpret and think,
To see life’s difficulties as training for coming events,
Fodder for the cut and paste adventures in Life.

I just don’t know how things got twisted around,
And comfort and ease became watch words and goals,
Is nothing worth working toward, nothing innately prized,
And what about morality – Is it all about fast pleasure?

I weep and I mourn for our culture of leeches,
Unwilling to work – unable to dream,
But able to kill, to rape, and to languish
Without a purpose, without goals, without freedom.

Oh people, my friends, don’t you see what’s going on;
Don’t you feel the manacles tighten with each handout received?
Don’t you sense the great insult: always underestimated,
Coddled and indulged as lies wrap around and around?

Hear me and break free; please open your hearts,
To think for yourselves as the valued creations you are;
Yes, masterpieces of ability and bundles of talent,
Nobility untried awaiting Truth to break you free.

** For Inspiration Monday via Bekindrewrite

WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE?

Tags

Building, character, choices, Creator, goal, Inspiration Monday, life, source, treasure, values

WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE?

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
From all that Life has poured into me thus far:
The good, the difficult, the fun, and the not-so-much fun;
The true riches of this world are incorruptible.

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
Nuggets of golden wisdom wrapped in pain,
Compassion born of struggle, and patience from grief,
Still joy and rejoicing come freely in the morning.

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
Paper lies unfold and fall away along with phantom pain,
But gratitude flows unchecked, persistent, and random,
Like the flight of a butterfly through a bountiful garden.

What is the treasure that germinates in your heart?
What dream or trial or endless rage?
What is the Source or Goal of your heart?
What is our Creator building deep inside you?

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good;
and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:45 NKJV

Check out Inspiration Monday @ BeKindRewrite’s place!

THERE’S A CATCH

Tags

anti-anxiety, choices, consequences, decision, Don't worry, life, Matthew 6:25-34, poetry, Seek first, truth

FUTURE MEMORIES float around us,
Waiting for us to grab hold;
Waiting for choices to be decided,
Waiting for definition.

But there’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
Baggage surrounding each future memory,
Unseen, unheard, and often untold.

Each day is a canvas left to conquer;
Colors are chosen, but there is no order,
It’s up to me to choose the object,
And bring order to the colored chaos.

But there’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
What is the price for each future memory,
Unseen, unheard, and often untold.

What is the Framework and where are the boundaries?
What defines my life’s direction?
What are the goals, the prizes, the treasures
That define the goal of my life.

There’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
Out of death comes life; and out of pain, there’s joy,
And FREEDOM in borne of TRUTH.

Run toward the TRUTH, the love of God among us,
The birds of the air or the lilies that bloom,
They don’t worry, or strive, or fret;
They just Run toward the TRUTH of GOD’s LOVE.

Matthew 6:25-34

Inspiration Monday: future memories

What is God’s plan for His Church in These Troubled Times?

Tags

END TIMES, Fishers of men, light, love, Love of God, Salt, The Church, Troubled Times

What is God’s plan for His Church in These Troubled Times?

• First, God’s Church is defined as all who call on the name of Jesus to be saved from their sinfulness by Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection. Denominations, local assemblies, or groups (including the Roman Catholic church) are each PART of the whole. In addition, there are millions of believers who no longer go to a local fellowship, but rather they gather together randomly at local restaurants, parks, or private living rooms. ROMANS 10: 1-13 NASB




• Second, we (God’s Church) are to grow up into the likeness and image of Christ by letting the Holy Spirit teach us God’s ways and God’s nature and equip us to be Salt and Light to a world in darkness thirsting to be free. Like our physical muscles need exercise to grow strong, so our spiritual muscles require exercise to grow and develop into useful gifts and skills. It is our responsibility (and joy) to be equipped via the Holy Spirit residing within us, and prepared for whatever path God leads us to follow. Ephesians 4:11-16 NASB




• Finally, our day to day life is to reflect the love of God we have received, even as a mirror reflects the image of the one gazing into it. God has stamped each believer with His own image, and that image is what draws the lost, from the farthest corners of the globe, to Jesus. Obviously, we cannot do this in our on design, our own intelligence, our own wisdom, or our own compassion. We just can’t, because it isn’t our intelligence, our wisdom, our plans, or our compassion that can open the understanding of one still blinded by sin. Only God’s love can rent that veil. We carry that love, if in fact, we have received it, and that allows us – empowers us to reflect it, to let it flow through us out toward the lonely, the broken, those in despair, lost in the darkness. Every place we go … to work, to shop, to play … we carry the Love of God. It is not given to us to hold, but to share, and that requires courage and faith! 2 Corinthians 3: 15-18 AMP

As the days grow darker, Light will become more needed, but it will also become more visible (or it should!) We must allow God to continue to cleanse and purify our hearts and minds so the Light will be clear and bright. God, by His Holy Spirit, does the work. All we must do is let Him!

My experience tells me most local congregations spend more time, talent, and money on their own “aquarium,” rather than on training and equipping “Fishers of men!” Jesus said that the way the world would recognize His people (and thereby HIM) was by the way we LOVE one another. Is that not our Primary Mission? To draw all men (and women) to God? John 12: 31-32 NASB; John 15: 9-17 NKJV

34 I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.
35 By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples,
if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].
John 13:34-35 AMP

THIS, then, is God’s plan for His Church, to LOVE … to Love one another and appreciate our differences, to love the lost, to love sinners (like us!), to love them FROM the darkness INTO the Light!

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession”
… WHY?
“so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him
who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 Peter 2:9 NKJV

No finger pointing, no condemnation, no name-calling, no back-biting, no slandering, no judgement!!! THAT is God’s job, and He judges via mercy. LOVE is the Mission of the CHURCH. Not soft, sentimental, mushy love, but strong, decisive, empowering, freeing, UNCONDITIONAL love that ONLY flows from God the Father of all mankind! Nope, not easy. Only way we can do it is by the LOVE of God flowing THROUGH us … If we run out, we know it wasn’t God’s love, but our own. Come on, CHURCH … LOVE!!!!! The lost are waiting … Let’s get fishing!!!