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What you will be
62 Views
08/30/06
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As I gazed up at the mountains, I was awed by their majesty;
I bowed my head and asked myself, "Why should He care for me?
I am not great like the mountains that tower so high above,
What is there about me that God can find to love?"
"Father, I am not strong like the wind that makes your tall trees sway,
I cannot sing sweetly like your birds; will you love me anyway?
But most of all, I am simply me, and often have cause to fear,
In spite of all my weaknesses, do you promise to be near?"
With eyes closed tight against my tears, I wished He could hear me pray.
Then I felt His Spirit tell me, "Child, look up, I have something to say.
"You are simply you, the spirit I love, a part of my great plan.
I put you here to learn of life and to return to me again."
"You are more beautiful to me than the loveliest mountain I made,
And your strength exceeds that of the wind's, so do not be afraid.
I love you not for what you are, but for what I know you will be.
I am always beside you watching you grow, you are very special to me."
A smile touched my lips - I knew it was true, my Father had always been there.
Giving me comfort and blessings and love and my own special talents to share.
So I do my best to make Him proud. I am not afraid, for you see,
He loves me not for what I am, but for what He knows I will be.
-- Author Unknown
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"The Force is with us"
28 Views
08/30/06
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"To fear is to hate. To hate is to go to the darkside." - who can forget this famous line from Yoda,
The wisdom of this phrase is that the moment we fear, we tend to hate many things: ourselves, other people and the circumstances around us.
Then we start hating, indifference sets in and our conscience becomes callous and the ?force? of faith is stifled. Fear is the enemy within! Our interior life is first destroyed by the fear of the unknown, the unaccompanied and the uncontrolled. But God sent Jesus to the rescue! Our faith in Him becomes the ?force? we need to live a victorious life! We need not fear the unknown because He is omniscient! Nor the unaccompanied because He is omnipresent! Nor the uncontrolled because He is omnipotent.
John Maxwell said that if we read the whole Bible, we?ll discover that the prerequisite to God?s miracle is a problem.
Therefore, we rejoice when we encounter difficulties because the Force is with us and will deliver us.
Again something we just need to be reminded of... I got this from my daily messages from Bo Sanchez...
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The Burden
41 Views
08/01/06
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THE BURDEN
"Why was my burden so heavy?" I slammed the bedroom door and leaned against it. Is there no rest from this life? I wondered. I stumbled to my bed and dropped onto it, pressing my pillow around my ears to shut out the noise of my existence.
"Oh God," I cried, "let me sleep. Let me sleep forever and never wake up!"
With a deep sob I tried to will myself into oblivion, then welcomed the blackness that came over me.
Light surrounded me as I regained consciousness. I focused on its
source: the figure of a man standing before a cross.
"My child," the person asked, "why did you want to come to Me before I am ready to call you?"
"Lord, I'm sorry. It's just that... I can't go on. You see how hard it is for me. Look at this awful burden on my back. I simply can't carry it anymore."
"But haven't I told you to cast all of your burdens upon Me, because I care for you? My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
"I knew You would say that. But why does mine have to be so heavy?"
"My child, everyone in the world has a burden. Perhaps you would like to try a different one?"
"I can do that?"
He pointed to several burdens lying at His feet. "You may try any of these."
All of them seemed to be of equal size. But each was labeled with a
name.
"Why there's Joan's!" I said. Joan was married to a wealthy
businessman. She lived in a sprawling estate and dressed her three daughters in the prettiest designer clothes. Sometimes she drove me to church in her Cadillac when my car was broken.
"Let me try that one." How difficult could her burden be? I thought.
The Lord removed my burden and placed Joan's on my shoulders. I sank to my knees beneath its weight. "Take it off!" I said. "What makes it so
heavy?"
"Look inside."
I untied the straps and opened the top. Inside was a figure of her Mother-in-law, and when I lifted it out, it began to speak.
"Joan, you'll never be good enough for my son," it began. "He never should have married you. You're a terrible mother to my
grandchildren..."
I quickly placed the figure back in the pack and withdrew another. It was Donna, Joan's youngest daughter. Her head was bandaged from the surgery that had failed to resolve her epilepsy.
A third figure was Joan's brother. Addicted to drugs, he had been convicted of killing a police officer.
"I see why her burden is so heavy, Lord. But she's always smiling and helping others. I didn't realize..."
"Would you like to try another?" He asked quietly.
I tested several. Paula's felt heavy: She was raising four small boys without a father. Debra's did too: a childhood of sexual abuse and a marriage of emotional abuse. When I came to Ruth's burden, I didn't even try. I knew that inside I would find arthritis, old age, a demanding full-time job, and a beloved husband in a nursing home.
"They're all too heavy, Lord." I said. "Give back my own."
As I lifted the familiar load once again, It seemed much lighter than the others.
"Lets look inside." He said.
I turned away, holding it close. "That's not a good idea," I said.
"Why?"
"There's a lot of junk in there."
"Let Me see."
The gentle thunder of His voice compelled me. I opened my burden.
He pulled out a brick.
"Tell me about this one."
"Lord, You know. It's money. I know we don't suffer like people in some countries or even the homeless here in America. But we have no insurance, and when the kids get sick, we can't always take them to the doctor. They've never been to a dentist. And I'm tired of dressing them in hand-me-downs."
"My child, I will supply all of your needs... and your children's. I've given them healthy bodies. I will teach them that expensive clothing doesn't make a person valuable in My sight."
Then He lifted out the figure of a small boy. "And this?" He asked.
"Andrew..." I hung my head, ashamed to call my son a burdeen. "But, Lord, he's hyperactive. He's not quiet like the other two. He makes me
so tired. He's always getting hurt, and someone is bound to think I abuse him. I yell at him all the time. Someday I may really hurt him...."
"My child," He said, "if you trust Me, I will renew your strength. If you allow Me to fill you with My Spirit, I will give you patience."
Then He took some pebbles from my burden.
"Yes, Lord," I said with a sigh. "Those are small. But they're important. I hate my hair. It's thin, and I can't make it look nice. I can't afford to go to the beauty shop. I'm overweight and can't stay on
a diet. I hate all my clothes. I hate the way I look!"
"My child, people look at your outward appearance, but I look at your heart. By My Spirit you can gain self-control to lose weight. But your beauty should not come from outward appearance. Instead, it should come from your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in My sight."
My burden now seemed lighter than before.
"I guess I can handle it now." I said.
"There is more." He said. "Hand Me that last brick."
"Oh, You don't have to take that. I can handle it."
"My child, give it to Me." Again His voice compelled me. He reached
out His hand, and for the first time I saw the ugly wound.
"But, Lord, this brick is so awful, so nasty, so.....Lord! What
happened to Your hands? They're so scarred!" No longer focused on my burden, I looked for the first time into His face. In His brow were ragged scars --as though someone had pressed thorns into His flesh.
"Lord," I whispered. "What happened to You?"
His loving eyes reached into my soul.
"My child, you know. Hand Me the brick. It belongs to Me. I bought
it."
"How?"
"With My blood."
"But why, Lord?"
"Because I have loved you with an Everlasting Love. Give it to Me."
I placed the filthy brick into His wounded palm. It contained all the dirt and evil of my life: my pride, my selfishness, the depression that constantly tormented me.
He turned to the cross and hurled my brick into the pool of blood at
it's base. It hardly made a ripple.
"Now, My child, you need to go back. I will be with you always. When you are troubled, call to Me and I will help you and show you things you cannot imagine now."
"Yes, Lord, I will call on You."
I reached to pick up my burden.
"You may leave that here if you wish. You see all these burdens? They are the ones that others have left at My feet. Joan's, Paula's, Debra's, Ruth's..... When you leave your burden here, I carry it with you. Remember, My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
As I placed my burden with Him, the light began to fade. Yet I heard Him whisper, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
A peace flooded my soul.
-- Author Unknown
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He is the potter, we are the clay...
98 Views
06/26/06
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There was a couple who used to go England to shop in a beautiful antique store. This trip was to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.
Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked, "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."
As the lady handed it to them, the tea cup spoke.
"You don't understand," it said, "I have not always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay.
My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone,' but he only smiled, and gently said, 'Not yet!'
"Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!', I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, 'Not yet.'
"He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then....then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. 'Help! Get me out of here!' I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, 'Not yet.'
"When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. 'Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better,' I thought.
But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Oh, please; stop it, stop it!!' I cried. He only shook his head and said. 'Not yet!'
"Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up.
"Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, What's he going to do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said 'Look at yourself.' And I did.
"I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!'
"Quietly he spoke: 'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.'"
God knows what He's doing in each of us. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.
So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink", try this:
Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down, and have a little talk with the Potter.
-author unknown
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Reflection
49 Views
06/20/06
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"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow."
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With God by your side, you never have to be alone......
127 Views
05/31/06
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Sometimes life sends us changes we've never contemplated, problems we'd just as soon do without, and inconveniences that we'd rather not have to deal with.
It can feel as if we are wandering in a barren desert.
It's during these "desert" experiences of our lives that God, in all His faithfulness, opens up His heart.
He quenches our thirsty souls, revives our parched hearts, and leads us to a higher place where peace and joy and love will be ours forever.
On all the long journeys your life leads you on, please remember....
you'll never walk alone.
-Lind E. Knight
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Someone's watching over you...
49 Views
05/25/06
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Someone's watching over you with the greatest love.
Someone wants you to be happy, safe and secure;
Someone considers you a wonderful individual and cares about your needs.
Someone's making blessings for your benefit right now-like sunshine for those rainy days and rainbows to remind you of the promise up ahead.
Someone's watching over you especially today.
And He will take good care of you.
-Barbara J. Hall
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You're a Special Person in God's Eyes
50 Views
05/25/06
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On the day you were born..
God held the stars
Within his hands
And watched as they twinkled and shined.
He tried to find two of the best He observed,
But He couldn't quite make up His mind.
Then suddenly two of them danced in the air;
And the rest of them took to the skies.
On the day you were born,
You were blessed with the stars that were chose
To shine in your eyes.
-Desiree Derosier-Kaczor
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Just a thought.......
37 Views
05/19/06
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"When you love someone, you give your heart away and when you give your heart away you're giving them control, not just your heart but you're mind as well.
So be careful who you love, because the one you choose could be the cause of your happiness or despair in life."
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