Is there anything about you that's not perfect?

By whose standard?

God's standard is perfection...NONE OF US ARE!

He created us because He IS love. You got THAT right! Love is not just a feeling. Unrequited love is; but true love, in all it's forms must be expressed and be reciprocated. God created us because He loves us perfectly. Everything He does is perfect, even though it doesn't look like it to us sometimes. He created us with the capacity to love Him in return, but also with free will to not love. Yes, that's what being born in sin means. He gave His people a commandment to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. 

So how do we love Him with all of our heart? We must get the number one commandment right. We reach back out to Him as He reached out to us by sending His Son to show how much He loves us. You see, being perfect, He cannot align Himself with sin or those who practice it  (that's everyone who was ever born). So, before even creating the first people, He made a plan, and that was it...to send Jesus to show us what was possible if we reach back out to Him. It started with His love and overwhelming desire to express it and receive it from us in return. He then makes us new, like a newborn baby with the potential for perfection. This is being "born again". He does not punish us, but punished Jesus, who willingly took it, instead. He makes us His child and teaches, protects, provides for, raises and LOVES us to become like Himself when we leave this life. Even though in this life, we will still mess up, we have been adopted by a perfect Father. He may discipline us in this life, but He will never separate Himself from us. We will be with Him forever, as long as we choose and never stop choosing Him! to Our IDENTITY is His child who keeps growing and growing. He knows we are weak! He gives us His strength! He picks us up when we fall, heals us, guides us and gives us every good thing we need.

  

 You may have heard of even clung to the Bible verse "God is love". This is true. A little later in the chapter, it also says: "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins." That's right, sins. It's a word translated from an archery term that means "to miss the mark". So there is right on and not so right on. God is also the judge of how close we are to the mark. In addition, it says: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him (or her), and he (or she) in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us." That sure seems simple to me!

Other scriptures are about how God hates. Here are a few:

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

1. Haughty eyes

2. a lying tongue

3. hands that shed innocent blood

4. a heart that devises wicked plans

5. feet that are quick to rush into evil

6. a false witness who pours out lies.

If it is true that God loves us, but also hates and judges, why? Just the things I listed, not to mention, stealing, worshipping something or someone other than Him, sexual missing of the mark or dishonoring our father or mother and more are attitudes and actions that are harmful to us and to others. He's the perfect Father Who only wants the very best for His children. In actual fact, He wants to make us His royal, children, not tyrants, but Servant Kings and Queens like His Son! Boy, MY hand is up on some of those things! So, what's a person to do?!

Go back to the simple truth stated above and make sure you've got it right. If you do, then there is now NO eternal condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. Then you will begin your spiritual journey and have many more questions. He'll always be there, sometimes in His other children to go with you through whatever lies ahead. Some questions He will answer. Others, He will just remind you to trust Him. It's an amazing, sometimes painful thing to watch the sights and circumstances along the way with Him. It's spiritual life! I hope you celebrate it today!

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Don't think you're going to make it through the day or night?

I recently had a crisis of faith. I picked up "Peace and Plenty" by Sarah ban Breathnach, and began to read how she came back and rebuilt her life from a crushingly low point.

I hope you'll get a copy of this very comforting book and maybe make yourself a checklist like mine from what you glean. Some of the lines are from other sources that have also helped me. Some won't make much sense without reading the book; but I'm happy to elaborate on any of them. Just get in touch with a comment.

I'll tell you about a few of them now.

Put your date on the "Good Morning!" line

Worry tomorrow is my personal bad habit fix. It came from Sarah's book. Whatever habit you're wanting to break, just decide to stop it for today. Tomorrow, you can see how you did, and decide again...just one day at a time. It took me about a month to get in this habit, and WORKED! Worrying does no good, and I found it was possible just to put it off!


"Who you are in Christ" is taken from a list I can send you. Each day, you write one and remember it throughout your day.



Good Morning!________________________________________________

Worry tomorrow

Pray for financial grace

Meditate 2 X

Who you are in Christ ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Peace and plenty today

You woke up! You are meant to go on. Your purpose today_________________

________________________________________________________________

Lord, what am I doing wrong? What should I be doing differently?

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

For Meditation and Energy work                    The Magic of Charm

To your energy –                                      Never petty or petulant

Protect it                                        Genuinely interested in people and

Guard it                                            and activities

Defend it                                        Portrays radiance that magnetizes

Cherish it                                       Is the true essence of beauty

Be kind to it                                   Personality grows with the years, does

Be supportive of it                             not fade

Nourish it                                      Reflects individuality, intelligence and

Bless it                                            warmth of spirit

Give thanks for it                           Is self-disciplined and thoughtful

Good Night!

Get up happy, thankful for the promise of a new day’s possibilities!

      One money task/day – get organized

     Be well-groomed

      Face the day without fear, pray for a day of financial grace

     Put the past behind you. I’m blessed, and today holds peace and plenty for me and mine

     Do a good deed (make it a surprise if possible)

     Work on a hobby for 20 minutes

     Do one thing a day to make your home more pleasant

     Do one thing you’ve been embarrassed to do in the past.                 
   Read at least 15 mins./day
       Wish well and pray for someone you dislike

1 Smile and look at people

1 Analyze guilts and fears and check for reality – 5 mins
       Clean up a job you’ve been putting off for a long time

      GIVE IT TO GOD! DON’T IDOLIZE YOURSELF

       Resolve to stop a bad habit for one day
       Laugh at your own mistakes, then forgive yourself.

1 Physical, emotional, spiritual, mental

SCORE__________________________________________________________

One thought that brings comfort or encouragement for me or mine.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Well-spent moment_________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Gratitude, Simplicity, Order, Beauty, Harmony, Joy

G______________________________________________________________

S_______________________________________________________________

O______________________________________________________________

H_______________________________________________________________

B_______________________________________________________________

J_______________________________________________________________

I made it through the (day, week, month)!

_______________________________________________________________

God and Country

If I live to an average age, I may be able to vote in six or seven more U.S. Presidential elections, max.

The last election of Donald Trump was the first time 40 years for me to abstain from participating.

I started out barely 18 (recently changed from 21) voting for George McGovern. Of course! I had discovered that Nixon was a crook. Should have been my first clue.

After that, I voted for Jimmy Carter.  “If you’re not a Democrat before you’re 30, you have no heart!” After all, he was a Sunday School teacher, and Baptist, and I was a rededicated Baptist Christian. DING DING DING…second clue!

While raising three children in the next few years, I learned that I had to participate in mid-term elections Congress in order to make my voice heard. It was all about saving the traditional family, work/life balance and education for our children for me. “If you’re not a Republican after you’re 30, you have no brain.”

A friend at our church introduced me to The Spotlight newspaper during that time. It rocked my naïve political world, introducing me to populism and revealing much shocking history of lies perpetrated on the public by what was called the Shadow Government. It’s recently being called the Deep State. Then, of course, there was Ross Perot. Again, I saw that there was a new “savior” in the political world, although I professed that Jesus was my own personal one. I had begun to see it wasn’t the person so much as the system, with its two parties, as broken…if not evil. So my anti-vote was cast.

Then came William Jefferson Clinton. Evil people within evil systems was really beginning to worry me now, especially with young children we were raising! My prayer life was getting its super strong foundation because God IS God! Wink. I still thought that voting harder and smarter was close to as important as praying harder. “God, save my children from an adulterous, lying president!” Hence, George H.W. Bush and family, son of Preston Bush, wife related to Aleister Crowley, former head of the C.I.A…Deep Government Shadow State much? Nazis and witches and spies, OH MY!

9/11 – a new day that will live in infamy. A reign- (in) of terror. Hordes of pagans bent on, praying to their god for our destruction, and sacrificing their own lives to accomplish it. Thank the Lord God Almighty, by their own might and not by His Spirit! I was ready to sacrifice my own for my children if it was needed. I was not afraid!...but was I? No, not afraid to die, but for my children to die. Fear not, says the Lord. Oops…and anyway, what’s this about Building 7? Merchants of fear lurk.

Are you starting to see, to wake up as many now say?

“It’s time for a black president. Hooray! Savior and uniter!” Ummmm. Oh, and Mexico needs guns fast and furiously! We could give them ours so Sandy Hook never happens again!

The love of money is the root of all evil. Back in the day, it was “we need Perot, the business man”. Now it’s don’t get Berned, and no time for women. Father of lies thou art not fake! Thy name is Media.

Seeing any clearer now? It’s not just a cliché…it actually IS our salvation. No matter WHO’S President, or Senator or Congressperson or Judge, Jesus is KING!

Christmas 2016

Families and friends come and go, Christmas celebrations change, but the One we celebrate stepped out of eternity. He always was, He is present with us now if we invite Him to be. He never changes, and He will be the King of Love for eternity future. He is also the King of Angels, King of Kings, Wisdom of wise men who come to worship, Good Shepherd of the poor shepherds, in fact, the one Who cares for us silly, weak sheep, so easily getting lost, Child to the childless, Brother to the fatherless. His Father is our Father when we go to our home in His heart of our adoption. Yeshua, Jesus, Issa, Lord, Master, full of the Holy Spirit, pure, perfect, not like us, but came here to be, veiled in flesh, so that we could one day be like Him and be with Him and our Father Who are so worthy of our worship...forever.

There went August, and there went Summer!
Now it's September. It will always be bittersweet for me now. There will be 9/11, our grandson's birthday and our son's wedding anniversary. For their sakes and for future generations, I post this with prayers of gratitude that my children have been spared the personal horrors of war, and that peace will reign first in hearts and then on Earth. Please, Father.

I know I'm stepping on some toes by posting this; however, I must be honest with you all. This is what I've come to after 35 years of watching current events, studying scriptures and listening for the voice of the LORD. I, too have loved "God's people", and I still do. I have accepted and "believed" that it is God's will that none should perish while at the same time accepting that His "people", including some in His ecclesia could support the slaughter of millions. I've almost always leaned towards being a "peacenik". The mama bear in me came out as my children were born, and I certainly believe in self-defense. 9/11 disturbed me as much as it did anyone; BUT now I have to ask myself, "WHO are God's people if He wishes that NONE should perish?" Please do not take this as a judgement of anyone who has or continues to serve in the military. I am so grateful for the peaceful life I and my children have lived. I give God all the credit for it, and maybe He has used some of you to provide us with it. Maybe not. I pray that swords will start to be beaten into plowshares more and more. My disclaimer about the following...I would have used the name "Churchians" instead of "so-called christians". Remember, that "Christian" was a derogatory name given by their enemies. He still says it almost exactly as I believe to be true. I pray that we will all be strong and of good courage, full of love and wearing our shoes of the gospel of peace in the days to come.

"I have realized that It baffles me how many so-called "christians" are in support of Israel when it comes to the coming war on Syria... there are 2 million christians in Syria who will be murdered by american and Israeli weaponry in a contrived war that only benefits the Cabalists that control Israeli & US foreign policy...
This is where the rubber meets the road... Do folks really believe that Christ-rejecting jews are more important in God's eyes than the 2 million christians in Syria... or even more valuable than the millions of arabs who haven't heard the Gospel as of yet...?
Dominion Theology has poisoned your minds and calloused your hearts if you believe that any military action in Syria will benefit Christ... in fact, attacking Syria will bring such a severe blowback against Israel that ALL the jews, arabs and gentiles that currently live there will be in the crossfires...
How can you support an US/Israeli "interventionist" foreign policy that pre-emptively attacks a nation that is struggling to stay upright amidst US/British/Israeli supported "rebels" that are murdering entire villages and cannibalizing the victims..?
This isn't a "civil war" happening in Syria... it is foreign mercenaries and religious islamist zealots being exploited by western powers to justify invasion as a "response"... Wake UP and realize that your sentimentalities are being exploited by sociopaths...!"
Elliot Ridgway.

The Big Reveal!!

After last week's excitement with our Erin being in the hospital (she's home now and we're believing she's on the mend), I was drained in every way, so finishing our bedding was pushed back.

Today's the day!

After many Pinterest and other decorating site visits, the bleach pen with our initials won for the pillows. The little plum one was made from a Goodwill Ann Taylor blouse (not my size!) with the cute ruffle cut off to make the flower. I have some left, and plan to make at least one other pillow using it.

There's a much lighter and cooler feel to our bed with the natural colored linen...so much more comfortable for summer!