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FIREFLY
It's twilight; The owl glides fast. My body-light beckons; Sons of Adam stroll past… [@more@]
I blink on in mystery; I hover in flight. My lantern shines richly; I herald the night…
My purpose is steadfast; My will never bends. I shine for the glory of Christ and His friends.
(Inspired by the fireflies and owl while walking on the Tucker Woods Trail at twilight, June 18, 2007. Motivated to write by Jonathan Eubanks.) by Michael D Hughlett, Nacogdoches, TX, June 20, 2007 Editor's Note: I wrote the prayer for Father's Day last Friday and wanted to add a poem I had as well. But I kept feeling like God was saying to wait, there is something else coming to put on. So all week-end I waited, and sure enough, Sunday afternoon Tura called and said she had wrote something. She hadn't even read the prayer posted on Friday, but true to how God likes to work, it goes right along with it! Enjoy…
Our Father's Heart
The Father's heart is to sow seed in fertile ground. To rest in the fruit of a bountiful harvest. A father toils and sweats only to fret over what might be. He does what he knows to do and then he is helpless in hoping. [@more@]The Father's heart is to be the source of all provision for His children; sustaining them in meat and drink; clothing them more than all of nature; surrounding them with the shelter of His arms. A father works from daylight to dark. Sometimes it's enough but the need is never-ending. The responsibility is a fearsome taskmaster that some cannot submit to. The Father's heart is to instruct His children in all His ways, to bring discipline to their living that they may walk uprightly and honorable before all men. A father struggles to live right and teach his children the things he can. He isn't the image that he should be and so neglects the lessons. The Father's heart is to discipline His children in what is best for them. To draw them close, by His conviction, and lovingly put them on the right road as they repent. A father's heart is frustrated at the failure in his children and he strives harder to control the situations that bring them pain. His own weakness is more than he can confront and so rises up in wrath. The Father's heart is to protect His children from their enemies and all the storms that blow and billow, to guard them from the wolves in sheep's clothing and the traps along the highway. A father's heart is broken in the struggle to keep his children out of harm's way. Sometimes he is blown off course and deceived by the wary wolf. His children are then left to their own devices. The Father's heart is to affirm His children, to delight in their talents and share in their joy. He smiles at their pleasure, and hurts when they are wounded. He heals. He sets things right and gives them freedom to pursue their destiny. A father wants to know his children, but finds disappointment in what he does not understand. He know not his own destiny and is jealous over theirs. His hands are helpless to heal and sometimes cause more hurt; but he holds them all the tighter. The Father's heart is to leave an inheritance to His beloved, a posterity that is everlasting. He rest in their love and they in His. A father leaves what he can. Some fathers just leave. There is no rest. Most of us have "a father". We can all have "The Father". Thank you, Father, for all those fathers who are trying to be what you have called them to be. They are the foundation of the family. You are a Father to the fatherless. You are a firm Foundation.
written by Tura Zapata Thank you, Father God, for showing us what a real father is meant to be. For being a father to the fatherless. For being the ultimate parent that we can hold to and learn from. For your unconditional love and mercy! And thank you, Father God, for all the men who have walked in your Spirit and have been fathers both physically and spiritually! Who have set their hearts after you, despite the opposition. Help us not take you or them for granted, but always be mindful of the gifts given to us by you through them. We speak encouragement and a blessing over each father, and pray your will be done in their lives. Amen and Amen! So, yeah, I joined the crazy world of Sudoku! I didn't want to – it's not like I don't have enough to do already…[@more@] And lining up numbers in a row didn't seem to be that exciting – just more like work. (I'd rather solve a cryptogram or do a word puzzle.) For those who haven't succombed to its lure yet, it's a puzzle of lining up a set of different symbols in a row, column and square, all without repeating one of them in the same row, column or square. Oh, and there are already some of the symbols placed in the puzzle that cannot be moved. Most popular are numbers 1-9, in nine rows, nine columns and nine squares, set up like a tic-tac-toe grid. Now, I have a purpose for talking about this, and no, it's not about how addictive it can be (I just found another place online to play) or how much time you can waste without knowing it (one hard sudoku can take several hours to solve! And Ok, just admit it, once you start, you have to finish it even if it kills you!) But no, as I was working on one, I realized how involved we get in life trying to line everything up exactly. Every word, every motion, every move, so that every circumstance comes out perfectly — for us — and how when it doesn't or something comes out of the blue and hits us — we break down with "oh, if only I had…" or "I should have…" or "I shouldn't have…" or "I ought to" and the perpetual "WHY? What did I do wrong?" or even "What did I do right?" And what about when we don't see results right away to prayers, seeds sown and lessons we thought we had learned, or efforts we've made to "live right". What I saw was that when we make a move: put a number 5 in a certain box, on a certain line, in a certain column, in a certain square — what are the results? Everything in the entire puzzle changes, even the choices for your next move. Especially if you have a box where it could be a 3 or a 5, and the row next to it would be the opposite, the 5 or the 3. And depending on which one you choose it could change everything in every square, row and column! Agrh! That's the part I hate! But God says, "Hey, the puzzle is life and you're not the one in charge! You weren't even in charge of which numbers (or factors) that were first placed in the puzzle. And you're only looking at a limited part of the whole! And believe it or not, you can't foresee the outcome of every single moment and move that is made no matter how smart or intuitive you think you are! And guess what? This is, like, the super-mega-collossal-bukus-huge gigantum sudoku! Which means everybody is playing on the same board! And everything is constantly changing! And no – you don't have to beat the clock or you lose, permanently!" "Just relax — I designed and set the puzzle into motion. Get to know me. I can see how every move spins on every other move! I have it all under control! Get to know me and sometimes you can see through my eyes! Hold my hand and let's go, trust me! Keep moving, but take your time and trust that I can make all your moves count toward the final goal. Just stay in the game, that's your role, and let me take care of mine own!" Wow, get to know Him! Trust Him and stay in the game! "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him. The one who called us by his own glory and goodness! Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them, we can be a part of his divine nature and escape the corruption in this world caused by our evil desires. For this very reason, we've got to keep on making every effort to add to our faith. (Trust is a big word!) We need to add to our faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love! Now, if we possess these qualities in increasing measure (by getting to know Him, trusting Him and staying in the game), they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if we don't take time to let God develop them in our lives, then we are being nearsighted and blind (without the benefit of seeing through His eyes), and we've simply forgotten how we were also cleansed from our past sins. So, guess what? Be even more eager and excited to make your calling and election (your place and purpose on the board) sure and stable. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!" (2 Peter 1:3-11) So, Get in! and Stay in the game – and have fun! Luv in Him, vjbear Grace is the favor of a surperior to an inferior. It is the spiritual manifested in the realm of the natural. It is supernatural! It is our union with God by the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist put it this way; "This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all recieved, and grace for grace." (John 1:15-16)[@more@] Grace- favour, acceptance, precious; all this is undeserved and comes from God. Ephesians 2:8 says "For by Grace are you saved, through faith not of works lest any man should boast." As Christians, we are quite familiar with this Grace. But, what is Grace times two; or Grace added to Grace; or Grace to the second power, or grace for grace? It's life more abundantly! This is the season of multiplication. We need to know that God is not limited to our earthly systems of mathimatics, measurements or time. He is eternal, without beginning or end. Jesus Christ is God's manifested grace to us and in us. In the last portion of 1 John 3:8, it says " For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." He has destroyed the enemy of poverty, sickness and sin! The book of Ezra records the return of the exiles to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple of God. Ezra 3:10-13 tells us when the foundation of the new temple was laid, all of the people shouted with a great shout. But there was in actuality two distinct sounds. There was loud weeping from those who remembered Solomon's temple in all of its glory and there were shouts of joy from those who had yet to see the temple of God. Tears for what had been, and joy for what was begun, culminated into one sound that shook the stronghold of the enemy. In Zechariah, at the completion of the temple, God gives Zerubbabel a word. "Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of Grace, Grace to it!" (Zechariah 4:7) It was the sound that would bring down the stronghold of the enemy!
God's grace or favor is shown through out the Bible as He anointed different individuals and brought about the nation of Israel. It became manifested grace as He watched over the children of Abraham; and for all of us, in the person of Jesus Christ. There was Grace in the old covenant. There is Grace in the new. In Hebrews, Paul tells us "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." (Heb. 11:39-40)
Jesus is the Word made flesh. He was with the children of Israel in the wilderness. He was their spiritual meat and drink. He is our salvation. That great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews added to those of us in the new covenant. A better covenant, a better view, a greater Grace!
Grace! Grace! Grace complete in Him. Written by Rev T Zapata Ok, this is from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes: (It's raining outside as Calvin and Hobbes are looking out the window.) Calvin: Can Hobbes and I go play in the rain, Mom? Mom: No. Calvin: Why not? Mom: You'll get soaked. Calvin: What's wrong with that? Mom: You could catch pneumonia, run up a terrible hospital bill, linger a few months, and die. Calvin, looking back out the window: I always forget. If you ask a mom, you get a worse-case scenario. Hobbes: I had no idea these little showers were so dangerous! A woman telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling. She said, "Terrible, my head's splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy." Very sympathetically the caller said, "Listen, go and lie down, I'll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is Sam?" "Sam?" the harried mother gasped, "Who is Sam?" "My heavens," exclaimed the first woman, "I must have dialed the wrong number." There was a long pause. "Are you still coming over?" the mother asked hopefully. Editor's Note: This is from a dear friend of mine that I don't get to see or hear from very often. I just wanted to thank her for taking time out to write for us. Change My Heart, O God I want to share my heart about the things that God is sharing and dealing with me about. In October of 2006, I got the news that my mother was in the hospital after suffering either a seizure or stroke. She was on a ventilator and could not talk. My sister, Ismay, and I and my husband, Bob, took off on a Friday evening and drove nonstop to Lubbock to see her. I was very reluctant to go, because I was afraid that she was playing a cruel joke, just trying as usual, to control her children. You see, the last conversation that I had with her, she was being mean and unreasonable, so I hung up on her.[@more@] My relationship with my mother had been rocky all my life. I never quite lived up to her expectation of how to live. My job, place I lived, my friends, and especially the way I chose to worship God was never right. My parents were Jehovah's Witnesses for over forty years. As a teenager, I could no longer live with the lies and half-truths, the feeling of not being good enough. I felt that if I couldn't be good enough, I might as well have as much fun as I could. That kept me going for a few years. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my daughter, Lauren, that I made the decision to raise her to know the truth about God. When I was first saved, that was it, I was saved. When I finally had the nerve to tell my mom that I had been saved, she really was hurt. My first thought when I saw my mother connected to all the tubes and monitors was unbelief. How could that be my mother? This was the moment that I realised how much control she had in my life. How could that be? I had been a born-again Christian for so many years, even being in leadership, everyone looked at me as a mature Christian. I really had to face some truths in my life. Later that same day, as I stood at my mother's bedside and held her hand, the Lord spoke to my heart. "I am Lord." I knew in that moment that I had to let go of my mother. I had to let go of the idea that I could ever please her. I want more than anything to please God. Jesus died for my sins so that I could be free from any human opinions. Yes, I realise that I am no beauty queen and sometimes I make unwise choices, but there is a plan for my life and God sees what I can accomplish. There is a choice that all Christians must make. Is Jesus just your savour or is He Lord of your life? I have heard many people say how much they are looking forward to heaven when God will change them into the image of Jesus in a twinkling of an eye. Yes, I look forward to heaven! But, for now I want God to change my heart a little each day. This way, the twinkling-of-eye-change won't be so drastic! It is not really a hard thing to do. All you have to do is let God know that it is what you want. If you sincerely have the desire, He will do all the hard work. God has been showing me for quite a while that there are millions of sham-Christians in this country. There are people who go to church every Sunday, who have no clue who Jesus and the Father are. They don't even want to talk about the Holy Ghost…they think of Him as a joke. There is a wide open mission field right here in this country. Please, don't stop giving money to missions overseas, but recognise the responsibility that we have to not just tell others about the sacrifice of Jesus, but to also live the life of a redeemed Christian. I will always treasure this event in my life, because I not only had the chance to tell my mother good-bye, but a chance to strengthen and build my relationship with my God. Joan Zurn, Texas, USA From 1928 through 1942, children in schools in America learned to know the voice of Walter Damrosch, the host of 'Music Appreciation Hour', a radio broadcast from NBC. He taught thousands of boys and girls to know and love music. Classes stopped at a certain hour, the school radio was switched on, and then his familiar voice was heard: "Good morning, my dear children." [@more@]They then enjoyed a half-hour of beautiful music, and he would tell them the meaning and the message within the music. One day, Mr. Damrosch was asked by the headmaster of a school to come and talk to the boys and girls. He sat on the platform and the children fidgeted, for he was an old man, and they knew that old men very often make long speeches. The headmaster let him introduce himself. Mr. Damrosch stood up and smiled, but no one knew him. Then he said, "Good morning, my dear children," and immediately the whole room was in an uproar. The children clapped and cheered. Mr. Damrosch said, "And why do you cheer? You do not know me." "Yes we do, we know your voice!" And then, a mother of eight children was once asked if she had any favorites. "Favorites?" she replied. "Yes, I have favorites. I love the one who is sick until he is well again. I love the one who is in trouble until he is safe again. And I love the one who is farthest away until he comes home." Jesus said that is what God is like. God is a Divine Parent whose love never stops, a Parent whose love will never give up. You may stop loving God, but God will never stop loving you. You may run away from God, but you will soon find that your legs are too short. You can't get away from God. And that is not a threat, but a promise! God is out on every road where people, like sheep, get themselves lost, earnestly and tenderly seeking them and calling them back home. If we are sheep, do we know our Shepherd's voice? Do we know with whom we belong? Rev. Chuck Bratz, Texas, USA Hey, check out our new updated site! Isn't it great! It should make it much easier to move around in and enjoy the articles. And it is much easier for us to put them on the site to start with (Which means we'll be more likely to get new ones on more often!). We appreciate all the patience everyone has shown while this has been going on.[@more@] There are a few more updates to happen in the near future. One is that the archives will be up and running which we haven't had in the past. Then you can catch up on any subjects you missed. Last year was our first year and we did very well, even though we kind of fizzeled out half way through the year. Part of the problem was that it was all very new to most of us making it more difficult to actually put the content on the site. (The webmaster has been very longsuffering with our attempts at learning how to manuever in cyber space!) Another problem was having enough material to update with. We thought we had so much all ready to go, but to keep it fresh it must be changed pretty often and we ran out of content quicker than expected. Thanks so much to our readers who have stayed in there through all this and to everyone who is checking back with us again. A great big thanks to bluecastle.us for providing the space and technical support, especially to the webmaster and the new updates. And to our LORD for His grace and mercies that are new every morning! We're excited about this year and everything the LORD has planned for us all. And we hope that we'll be a blessing to you along the way. Just wanted to see if my new picture showed up. |
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