Saturday, August 26, 2017

The Need to Pray

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http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1388395




            As I monitor the news app on my tablet, read the daily newspaper, watch the television news stories, and see life unfolding around me, I feel the need to pray even more each day.

            You know the stories of which I speak. Have we, as a people, truly talked to God about these horrendous issues? Have we lifted those who live around us to the LORD? Do we do it on a daily basis?

             Can we eventually stand before God and claim to love our neighbors when we talked negatively about them? When we spread personal information of those around to yet others?

            Friends, we need to get ourselves right with God, on His terms. We might think we are right with God, but the determining factor is what He thinks.

            It is not our place to judge anyone. That is God’s role. Let’s learn to lift those we meet up to Him for Him to deal with. Before we sit in judgment, we should remember, “There, except for the grace of God, go I.”


This post comes, in part, because of a Bible study’s discussion and some conditions that happened in our neighborhood this past week.


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Do We See Unity?

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https://www.gracechapel.org


But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
Matthew 12:25 (NKJV)
        As I watch the events of our nation unfold, I wonder are we united in our stand for what is right? A friend said something recently in Sunday school that got me to pondering this idea of our lack of unity. Her thought was because we see a large crowd gathering for an event, we will see a major disruption of peace.

        We have seen peaceful daily events turn into disasters. Demonstrations have turned to crime scenes. Police stops have turned deadly. Innocent lives have been taken. We have seen citizens demonstrate against authority in small towns of our nation because of their dislike of the way a situation was handled.

        Let’s consider what Jesus said. He had just cast out demons. Some of those in the crowd claimed He couldn’t do that unless He, himself was possessed by the devil. Jesus knew their thoughts. He then told them the words in our focus verse. He states it very well. He says, every kingdom, every city, and every house that has division will fall victim to disaster.

        We have seen marriages break up because of things that may have been fixable at one time. Cities have sections of town that are areas where newcomers are advised not to frequent. In my lifetime, I have seen nations break apart because of internal strife. I will concede some of those nations were under totalitarian rule and eventually broke away from that larger nation as it seemed to crumble.

        As I see it, we need to ask Jesus to step in and guide our leaders, national, international, state, and municipal, and even those in our homes. We, as a people, need to return to God.


        Please pray for our world, our nations, our states, and cities and our families.



Monday, August 21, 2017

Our Summer Time Activities



            The saying, “Summer time and the living is easy” almost describes our lifestyle. We recently went down to see our son. We went on Friday afternoon and stayed two nights down there. After our son got off work, he came to our motel and he and I went out to eat. Hubby had already gone across the county to our friend’s pond to do some evening/night fishing.
            Saturday morning, Hubby and I drove down to a neighboring town, intending to do some antiquing. It had been a while since we have done this. What we found was a change in the make-up of the town. Several years ago, we found six antique stores, this time we found one antique mall. Here’s what we found in that one store. This basket has a movable bucket bailer on it. We had never seen one like it before. It sits on our coffee table.
                  

            We saw another one-of-a- kind creation, at least we thought it was. Neither of us had seen anything like it before. Shhhh! I bought it for our son for Christmas. It is a glass Large Mouthed Bass. When I tried to get a picture of it, Hubby said it needed a lot of color. He suggested filling it with M&M’s. (Of course, Hubby is a chocoholic.) It was difficult to get a picture. This is about my fourth try.



Across the street from us is the Community Gardens. Our neighbor has done this project for three summers now. This is the first year the rain has not ruined the crops. I noticed she added some color on the privacy fence on the garden’s west side. I asked permission to take these pictures. She has bird houses and flowers along the fence.
 

Mostly we are trying to keep comfortable in this heat and humidity. I am also working on some marketing of my book and casting a short play for Thanksgiving. Also I am working slowly on a play for Good Friday 2018. Both these plays are for our church.Plus trying to do some of the usual things we have to do.

God Alone

  Jesus and the children at our church's prayer walk.          I will both lie down in peace and sleep;  For You alone, O LORD make ...