Yes, where are we now since a killer virus surfaced to destroy lives? Most have tried to adapt, but easier said than done for many. Frustration seems to abound. The highways near my home have become racetracks, shopping pains us to go, restaurants are too risky, professional sports have no longer home and away games — all is fan-less and fun-less — rebellious people spew hatred in newly invented ways. Blame has become popular, as has varied verbal sewage — slander, jealousy, envy, threats. Many unfortunately have shown their true colors and have declined in popularity with the general public, hearts are being revealed — some ugly ones but also some beautiful have come out of their closets. Coping and adaptability also go up and down the grid. Depression rising, so it’s ill effects of addictions and suicide are gaining in number. A true Christian seeks communion with The Divine.…
Category: <span>Personal God</span>
Peter fished: “Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. Matthew 4:18 He walked on the water: “Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. Matthew14:28-29 He spoke well: “Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 He rebuked the Lord: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” Matthew 16:22 He queried Jesus: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Matthew 18:21 “Behold, we have forsaken all,…
When disappointments would come my mother would say, “its not the end of the world.” Since those days I have had many “end of the worlds.” Perhaps some of us are having a doomsday even as we write — a grand parent, mother or father, even a son or daughter have gone away. Friends, Jesus is the glory and the lifter of our heads. Psalm 3:3 Robert Nathan wrote his poetic cry: God of pity and love, return to this earth, Go not so far away, leaving us to evil, Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth. Death like a dog, runs howling from his lair; His bite has made men mad, they follow after All howling too, and their demoniac laughter Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer. Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day, Come with the…
J.B. operated as a spy of the K.G.B. in America during the cold war. A brilliant intellect, J.B. was especially chosen, trained and then sent. In America his skill developed in his ability to merge unsuspected into society; he worked, attended university, married and parented a child. At a time when J.B. would be recalled to his homeland, he discovered a problem: he had fallen head over heals for his newborn daughter. The love for her grew so great during her early years that he refused to go back; he made up a brilliant excuse, and stayed. This man, whose testimony is heard in churches, was later introduced to Jesus Christ, whom he received gladly. Love did it. Can we underestimate the dynamite called love? Bursting forth on the stoic intellects of men and women, love, in all of its purity, excitement, joy and exchange, overpowers the heart and soul,…
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…” Proverbs 20:28, “Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.” Romans 14:4, “…to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.” A person stands, is upheld, and his rational service is founded, in something he does not deserve. Paul the Apostle beseeches men, by the mercies of God… William Newell comments, “We must believe that these divine mercies have persuasive powers over our wills.” “It is not that we can move our own wills; but that faith in God’s…
“The survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem, left in Judah after the banishment of their fellow countrymen to the Euphrates, seemed, for the time, overwhelmed by the calamities that had befallen their nation. The Temple they had thought invulnerable was burnt to the ground; Jerusalem, in which they had gloried as “the joy of the whole earth” was a waste of blackened ruins. The town gates seemed to have sunk into the ground; the roads to Zion, once thronged with pilgrims, lay untraveled; no concourse gathered outside the walls, for gossip or business; even the walls themselves were thrown down, the jackals haunted the holy hill!” “For ages past every event in their national history, whether glorious or sorrowful, had been commemorated in the lyrics handed down from generation to generation. The defeat of Pharaoh, the triumph over Sisera, the death of Saul and Jonathan, the overthrow of the northern…
” For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Our lives are hidden lives, we are with Christ, and we are with Him in the Father. Who is to call into question the Chosen ones of God? God justifies. He declares them legally righteous. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and rose again, and He is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. Who can separate you from the love of God? Tribulation or imprisonment or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Romans 8:33-34 All is actual in the place of “dead and hidden.” All is legally ours, but what about in our experience? The plan of God goes to work. “According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for…
Love, with heat and moisture, irons out a wrinkle, mends a broken heart. It even unifies a division, straightens a crooked or double mind. An animal may respond to love, so might a tree; these have some form of life in them. But, a man or woman cannot survive without love! The sophisticated psyche of a man checks his barbaric side. He remains cool. He would like to run amok all over the planet, but stifles his urges. Then he is told of “liberation” and feels cheated and hypocritical. He begins to explore his dark barbarism, but has no understanding of its depth. He senses that the cost for “liberation” will be rejection from the sophisticates, but the feeling of “free” empowers him forward. He affirms his rights of individuality; becomes more and more barbaric. He wonders where love has gone, but he has forsaken its initiation; he has chosen…
Dreams of falling are quite common — Off cliffs, buildings, down ravines. I just reviewed five web-pages of over 100 web-sites which claim to give the meaning of the “falling” dream. Psychology, Astrology, Christianity and even Hollywood all weigh in. Seems to be an obsession with the meaning of “falling” dreams. In contrast, the Bible teaches in Jude 24, ” (He)… is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” What’s up? Blaise Pascal observes the condition of natural man: Inconstant, bored, anxious. Young people he describes as: all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future. He says: “We think playing upon a man is like playing upon an ordinary organ. It is indeed an organ, but strange, shifting, and changeable. Those who only know how to play an ordinary organ would never be in tune on this one.…
South Africa has the deepest hard rock gold mine up to 12800 feet underground. At such depths the heat is unbearable for humans, and air conditioning is required for the safety of the workers. Wikipedia On average it takes 10-20 years before a gold mine is even ready to produce material that can be refined. Long before any gold can be extracted, significant exploration and development needs to take place, both to determine as accurately as possible, the size of the deposit as well as how to extract and process the ore efficiently, safely and responsibly. www.gold.org.n.d. What can we learn? “It may be hard, dark or hot, but we clever humans have ciphered grabbing and stacking gold and gems. Grabbing wisdom tells a different story and we faint while getting it, because wisdom shows itself a “different animal.” We fail wisdom mining even though time money and great sacrifice…