write or rong

I was proofreading one of my girls writing assignments today and stopped to snap this picture because it's a great visual of what has been on my heart lately.

We need to LOVE.

Love is a word that is thrown around left and right.  From where I am currently sitting in my living room I can see the word, "Love" written on decorations in four different places, varying from a bookshelf to hanging on the wall.

Love is an important word to me.  I may misuse the proper way it was meant to be defined when I say statements like, "I LOVE this taco."  But to me I am not meaning the same thing as when I say, "I love you" to my family.  I LOVE deeply and have a problem of letting go.  I think that is why losing loved ones is so so difficult for me. Once you enter my life you are loved, it is not perfected yet but that is the ultimate goal of my life on earth.


In Matthew 28:37-40 Jesus simplified things for us by saying:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.


What LOVE is defined by scripture in 1 Corinthians 13:4-9

Love suffers long and is kind;
Love does not envy;
Love does not parade itself;
Is not puffed up;
Does not behave rudely,
Does not seek it's own,
Is not provoked,
Thinks no evil;
Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth
Bears all things,
Believes all things,
Hopes all things,
Endures all things.
Love never fails.


Love can also hurt, as in Hebrews 12:5b-7, 11 (remember we are all imperfect and make mistakes)

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons;
for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?


Oh, there is so much more I want to write, but since it is and has been raining for two days my kids are having an intense wrestling match upstairs above my head.  I should check on them...

But before I go let's stop pointing out how wrong others are, instead encourage them to seek the one who created LOVE.  If we don't show the way by example who will?

"The God of all creation is watching us.  He is pleased with us.  Do you know they way you move His heart?"  
Misty Edwards lyrics from Only a Shadow here

Heartiness vs. Heartlessness Towards Others

Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
April 1

"It is Christ...who maketh intercession for us."
"The Spirit...maketh intercession for the saints."
Romans 8:34, 27

"Do we need any more argument than this to become intercessors -
that Christ "ever liveth to make intercession";
that the Holy Spirit "maketh intercession for the saints?"

Are we living in such a vital relationship to our fellow men
that we do the work of intercession as the Spirit-taught
Children of God?

Begin with the circumstances we are in -
our homes, businesses, our country, the present crisis
as it touches us and others -
are these things crushing us?

Are they badgering us out of the presence of God and
leaving us no time for worship?

Then let us call a halt, and get into such living relationship with God
that our relationship to others may be maintained on the line of intersession
whereby God works His marvels.

Beware of outstripping God by your very longing to do His will.

We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities,
consequently we get so burdened with persons and difficulties
that we do not worship God, we do not intercede.

If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the
worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God
but despair in our own souls.

God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity,
and unless we are worshipping God,
the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly,
to give them a text like jab of a spear,
or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go.

A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord.

Are we in direct line of the intercession of Our Lord and of the Holy Spirit?

God's Masterpiece

My cousin shared this video with me. It's such a great reminder of what is important in God's eyes.

Be the masterpiece you were created to be. For there is NO ONE else like you!

confession article

This article was from a friend on Facebook.  It makes you think and pray for mercy.  We are in need of a change!

--------------------------------------------------------------
My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein (CBS Sunday Morning 2008)

Question

Mouhmoud Ahmadinejad president of Iran "I like to retaliate by burning a book that you Americans hold dear, but the only book you care about is Facebook."

About.com had a statistic that 85% of Americans are Christians.

What is wrong with this picture?

Get in the WORD if you LOVE God as you say you do. The Bible is His love letter to you. http://www.youversion.com/ has many "plans" so you can read through the Bible in whatever time frame you would like. And it's free.

Monday thoughts

After 3 trips to lay J back in bed early this morning, I'm tired and he's asleep. Not the best way to start a Monday... So, I checked my email which lead me to facebook. Maybe I should change the option not to email me with notifications anymore. Often times facebook make me sad because of all the hypocrisy ( 1-a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess 2- a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude) .

Where are the true believers who are striving to live wholly for the Lord? Where are the believers who are daily crucifying the flesh, who are satisfied with what they have and are saying no to the bigger and better things?

What and who are you living for?

"I have one life to live and all I have to give to YOU is love" Misty Edwards

"I was made to love You and be loved by You" Misty Edwards