BE OF GOOD CHEER

Funny how things work together, is it not?

Earlier this week my post was about the text for our sermon on Sunday (Acts 27). For some reason it really stayed with me.....Well, read my this morning's devotion from Streams in the Desert by L. B. Cowman.....

"There are degrees to faith....

....The first phase believes when there are favorable emotions, the second believes when there is the absence of feeling, but this third form of faith believes God and His Word when circumstances, emotions, appearances, people, and human reason all urge to the contrary.

Paul exercised this faith in Acts 27: v.20 & 25:

And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. (v. 20)

Not withstanding all this Paul said,

Wherefore, Sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told to me. (v. 25)

May God give us faith to fully trust His Word though everything witness the other way." -C.H.P. (from Streams in the Desert, July 21)

Be of good cheer...

-Mug

NO QUIBBLING...

"Do all things without murmuring (or grumbling....or complaining) and disputing."

-Philippians 2:14

May Your Day be filled with a

Plethora of Pizzazz and Rollicking Razzle Dazzle!

-Mug

...As We Dance through Life...

TO HALLIE....

And the Rest of Us as We Dance through Life

In early October 2007, my sister was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She began chemotherapy rather quickly, so by December her hair was beginning to fall out.

So I wrapped up the above two paintings and left them on my sister's porch along with a poem that I wrote for her....only it turned out to be speaking to me also and maybe even to you:

Hair and hats.....hats and hair...

The "dance of life" to the music of prayer.

The music of prayer is sometimes just music...

...When one can barely hold on and is about to 'lose it'.

But if we can make ourselves listen...if we hold on 'real' tight,

The music of prayer guides us through the dark night.

Sometimes the music signals the entrance of others...

...to add to our 'dance'...all our 'sisters and brothers'.

God is the 'Conductor'...He directs the song;

Our job is to dance ...just to 'play along'.

As we dance to His music, we follow His plan;

...He shows us the steps as we hold onto His hand.

So...Hairless with hats...or hatless with hair...

...The Holy Spirit guides us ALL through the music of prayer.

-Mug

P.S. Hallie has finished her chemotherapy and her radiation; her hair has grown back; she's gone back to running marathons (or maybe half-marathons...and wins them for her age division - she's 45years old) whenever she can, is engaged to a wonderful man, and is currently cancer-free:)

Have a lovely day!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT....

Oswald Chambers always makes me think.....

....and I am learning - I think- that God cares not so much whether I teach school or own a little folk art gallery...These are small things to Him. It's the little things that are BIG to Him....Am I walking with Him minute by minute and obeying him in the DAILY things of life? ...Am I learning (like Paul) to be content in whatsoever state I am? (Phil. 4:11)

The devotional for today in My Utmost for his Highest by Oswald Chambers begins with this verse:

And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side.....Mark 6: 45-52

and says this:

...What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that i depend on Him and on His power now. If i can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process - that i see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because i see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying God.

And he goes on to say...

...If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present....

Hmmm....I have spent many years...and tears..."stewing" over what God's will for me is....His ultimate will is for me to learn to be content in whatsoever state I am, and I can only do this if my whole being is focused on Him. I am beginning to have fleeting moments of this....very fleeting....almost intangible...they flutter and flitter on the edges of my being and then go away...

Thank you, Lord, for those fleeting moments.

-Mug