Days like this...

"Galige aro be, fom liba fofoljelfe for ruttwifon ftull: ty bem horer him, melrifet till. "
" Galige aren F , nar menniftorna forfmaba odj forfolja eber oth faja allt onbt emot eber,
ijuganbe for mina ftull."

Some Things Are Hard To Consider........ and life goes on.

Who's Who?

Wow! The past six weeks of my life have been VERY busy, both physically and emotionally. My every emotion of my being has been pushed to the max. NOT FUN! At this time in my life to have the full realization, that being a Christian is not always easy or pleasant, having that realization exploded all over me at once, was very painful.

To lift up my head and "focus on things above.." , and Trust in The Lord....was NOT HIGHon my list of things to do. To quit, to cry, to engulf myself in anger and thoughts of revenge?, and SCREAM was.

I`m not naive. I`ve been through rejection and "wrongsuffering" oftentimes in my life. I`ve been falsely accused, and verbally abused (yeah really), but this.......this was all Hell breaking loose...SUDDENLY!

I rode the waves, the gigantic forboding waves....through the gamut of the onslaught,.........miserably. Finally, being destitute of any feeling, finally numb to it all...I was..defeated???

Woah, wait a minute, depression, discouragement, isolation, defeat..this is NOT from God. Myhead went up...so did my spirit.

My mind was flooded with The Word of God..My Comforter filled me ...PEACE. I`m NOT DEFEATED,

MY ENEMY IS!

What?

The Holy Bible states that, "God is Love". Love is , when you actually love someone as much as you love yourself. When you want " good things" for someone as much as you want " goodthings" for yourself, that is love. When you care about some one as much as you care about yourself, that is love. Wow, that`s a tall order! Where can you get that stuff? We are really too self-caring and too self-centered to come up with that. You get it from God. "God is Love "

Church, Churches and Churching

Most of my adult life, my friends have been church friends. However, I have not been attending my usual church, or any church at all for some time. Therefore, I don't see many of these people except for now and then and I do miss that.

Like every other Christian that I know, I do maintain my walk in Christ Jesus, but then I am outside of the body, and also missing fellowship, which is important and this is not good.

Obviously, I am having some church problems. I have strong needs to belong. I already do belong to the church, the "body" of Jesus Christ; and that means that I do belong to every Christian church, but I need to have the realization of belonging when I am there and "in church." That is the part of belonging that I am missing. That is the congregational part.

In pursuing this matter through prayer and meditation in the Word, I have realized that congregations are usually one of two types. There is the type of congregation that functions in UNITY or the type which functions in UNIFORMITY.

Those which function in UNITY function together to FULFILL God's purpose. Unity brings with it freedom to function in like-purpose with a diversity of God-given personalities and gifts. Churches which function in UNITY permit the Holy Spirit to move freely in service. "Where the Spirit, there is liberty." That is GRACE.

Then there are the churches which function in UNIFORMITY. Those which function in this way, funciton together to MAINTAIN God's purpose. (Which is already immutable without our help.) In these churches UNIFORMITY stifles diversity and God's Creative Flow. Service becomes a territorial matter. That is LEGALISM.

So, I need to belong in a congregation which functions in unity of purpose.

Certainly, I don't need to belong to a membership of people who are as perfect as I am.

That would be boring.

There's a quiet place
I like to be
Where the Lord imparts
His way to me
A place where I can
Safely lay
Out my thoughts
A place to pray
He gives assurance
That He sees
And works things out
Just for me
To help me over, through
or in
Any problem, trial, sorrow
Or sin
Thank You, Lord.

uh-h-h-h...

Housecleaning is drudgery,...ironing stinks,
...for how many years now, and I still am
not really domestic..I`d rather go out and play
...still...it gets done......eventually!

(I love dots,... my Daughter said 3 per is sufficient)And life goes on.

smiles & streetlights in perspective

Have you ever spent a whole day smiling? I don`t mean "grinning like an idiot",but rather smiling at people that you come in contact with throughout the day.Well, I`ve had to work on that in recent years and find it thoroughly en-joyable.

You see, when I was very young: pre-school through Kindergarten, 1st grade,2nd grade,and 3rd grade,(which was a big chunk of my life at the time), I wasextremely Myopic.

It was a time in which "child developement" was not a particularily importantdemand on a parent , not as researched a subject as it is today. Kids werehere or there, a nice thing to have around, but not a terribly interesting subjectto the public in general. My folks never seemed to notice that I had a visualproblem and I sure didn`t know it either.

Looking back now though, there certainly seemed to be some strong indicationsof "some kind" of problem; such as the fact that I certainly seemed to be worriedabout the "Moon". It was so gigantic! ...and it actually turned out that the "Moon"that I referenced was a streetlight which shone through our frontroom window atnight. At one time , being in a department store with my mother, I stood by amannequin for a long time, wondering why my mommy wouldn`t speak to me.

There were a lot of these types of instances. It all made me quite anxious and in-secure and be fore long my face kind of froze in that expression. Since then I`ve alwayshad that kind of...serious...almost stern look.

I eventually was introduced to eyeglasses. That helped, however I then realized thatthat people actually looked at me or , God forbid, watched me....and my face just gotworse. It not only was that, but those darn glasses attracted balls on the playgroundat school. I heard about that...a lot.

So you see, I have had to work on a friendly presentation by smiling. It`s a greatthing when used correctly.For example: you don`t smile when someone is tellingyou about their pet Poodle`s sprained ankle or that someone`s sweet, favorite AuntMarigold just died. Rather,just regularsmiling at your co-workers, or at the clerk in a store, or a parking attendant.

You can give a lift to someone else by smiling as well as a lift to yourself. It`s a short mo-ment of fellowship with mankind...so SMILE! It puts things in a proper perspective.

morbid thots...

On Netscape this weekend, and then again on NPR`s "Wait, Wait,...Don`t Tell Me", I read/heard an interesting article on a male`s response to the female`s voice called: "Why men don`t listen to women." Of course, I was already vaguely aware of this male response. It seems that men, being men, can quickly use their hinder brain for listening to menwhich doesn`t require much effort. However, women have a different tone and rythmn(described as musical), and it requires more brain power and a differenttype of thinking for a man to listen to a woman`s speech...................,which begs thequestion: What about Women? Do women listen to men?...or do they not listen to men?AND BY THE WAY: WHY? isn`t the female brain (mind) explored? Are we thatSCARY? Perhaps a look at " both sides of the same coin " on this subject, might prove interesting . I mean a serious "sit down and think ",real objectivity. We might then....come up with another interesting thought .....Do Males and females project?

Really!

The Lord`s Day. A time to reflect on God`s Creation, on His Provision , His Love, His Mercy, and on His Son Jesus Christ. It is because of God`s Provision, Jesus Christ,that we have actually become sons and daughtersof the Living God, that we will have eternal life after death, and that we havehelp for and with our lives here on earth. It is so important to belong to God.It`s important to acknowledge what His Son, Jesus Christ, accomplished forus as he shed His Blood at Calvary.Some people say: "Where was God forme when...?". If you don`t know God nor acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord,then why & how is it that you complain about what He does or didn`t do for you?That`s like not belonging to Blues & Blue Shield ( or whatever ),and yet expectingto receive benefits from them. STRANGE. Or like saying you belong toThe Rotary, and never supporting it or attending meetings. Yet, all of us dofreely receive God`s Benefits in some fashion or another: the breath of life in us,the sun , the moon, the stars, the seasons, the oceans, lakes & rivers,plants & allliving things. REALLY!

here & there

Gray, chilly thoughtful Saturday....here`s some classic family quotes:
eldest: "hi.........................." ( it`s been a lo-o-o ng time )
2nd: " this is your 2nd most favoritist daughter..." (ok)
3rd: " Hey...no Really!.....It`s a Great deal ! "
4th: " I just called to say.....Hey, that`s the name of a song, ha! " ( three times now)
5th: " ...What the heckle ! "
Husband: "...yeah, I know ........." (um-hmm )

These days, living in a way too quiet household, I`ve begun to listen to Public Radio as a source of entertainment, while doing projects and chores. They really are a quite biasedliberal bunch, (especially during an election year). Oftentimes their political and religiouscommmentaries grate on my ears. However...They have other excellent, and varied spotswhich are truly interesting and entertaining. In this past week I have heard news and/orother programs as varied as: The Iran situation with the UN, their request for im-proving their nuclear facility in Netahn. According to the broadcast, Iran already hasenough turbines,and other nuclear material way in excess of the need for further imple-mentation. They could do excessive nuclear damage in the way of weapons and bombswith what they already have. Then, I heard a copy editor , writer of a new book , onnew descriptive terms for wind velocity. Also a comentary on the now archaic "Lobotomy",a Quaker Nude summer Camp for boys, and a contest for the "Hairiest Male in LA"...the prize for which was: a $2,500 gift certificate for permanent hair removal. The human comedy never ceases. Then there is the famous "Prairie Home...whatever" with Garrison Keiler (sp?),"The Car Guys", and "Wait, Wait, Don`t Tell Me " on the weekends, not to forget gourmet cooking,travel, written sequences from several authors and political, medical, millitary, film critics, andmany other issues. And life goes on.

...and today?

Give me a green, sweet Spring,
Or a colorful frantic Fall
Or even a weary, white Winter
...A Glaring, smoldering Summer
I do not like at all.
...and today? cloudy, dry, windy...75 degrees...Perfect.