Birds of a Feather repost



Courtesy Free Photo Stock

 Each spring, we have an invasion of birds wanting to build their nest on our porch steps.

They have favorite places and return each year to an overhang on one side of our house, and on the projection at the back steps.  They seem to seek out the crook in the downspouts because their nest is then semi sheltered there.

A couple of the nests remained all through the winter, and yesterday we viewed a sparrow inspecting the nest for possible reuse.

Sparrows have a life span from 4 to 7 years, so this bird could be from previous years. 

A Google search informed me that they often will use the same nest if it is in good condition, with some minor alterations.  Usually they are happy with the old habitant.

It is always fun to observe the mother bird resting on her nest and it seems all too soon, she is flying in all directions gathering food for her young ones.  Their tiny beaks open wide as she approaches. 

Before long, these same teeny little babies will fly away and be on their own.

 

I am reminded of one of our Bible teachers who drew a tiny bird with open mouth on the black board.  He remarked that many Christians are like these baby birds. 

 

Mouth open wide to accept any teaching, or doctrine placed there by their trusting leaders. 

 

Our teacher went on to say, those baby birds will accept BB shot if it is placed in their mouth, and it might even kill them or make them very sick.

When we as Christians listen to our Pastor or a preacher on TV or even read a book, or a magazine article, we must be watchful and be on our guard to match up what we are being taught with the Holy Scripture.   What does the Bible say about this?

I can remember years ago, hearing my Pastor relay a teaching he had heard at a conference. 

 

Something in my spirit went screech, like fingernails on a blackboard.

It had something to do with the Pastor being our authority and we were to obey the Pastor even if we felt he was wrong.  

Now I must confess that I have a streak of rebellion, but this did not set too well with me.  My Bible tells me to be led of the Spirit and to obey God. 

 

If a teaching causes you discomfort, it is very possible that you need to place it on the shelf and not accept it for the time being. 

 

Later when you examine it again, you may discover that it was indeed false teaching and you will discard it all together. 

 

Also I might suggest that you not return to the book, TV program, or even the church where you heard this error. 

 

Shared with Nantawa Bennett at Happy Friday

Be Angry and sin Not

 

This post is linked to Peter Pollock’s One Word Carnival The word is; Anger and the thought is to “Let It Go.”

Angry Mother
courtesy free clip art

A chapter from my next book Rescue the Stories Book Two

Be Angry and sin Not

Counting to ten is an old fashioned method used to help control your temper.  By the time you get to ten, supposedly you have cooled off and can remain calm again.

My Pastor’s wife taught me how to control my children from fighting or not sharing, by counting aloud, slowly to ten. 

I watched her in our church nursery with her two boys, and when they misbehaved very softly but surely she began her count to ten.

I was amazed at their response to settle down, and I told her so.  I also remarked that I was going to try this very soon with my own children. 

Often I was angry with them, and perhaps the count to ten was also for me.

My Pastor's wife suggested that first I threaten them with a punishment if I ever get to ten.  Provided they changed their behavior early enough they were home scot-free. 

It is not a sin to be angry at evil and un-justice.  However God desires that we control our anger and not be quick to loose our temper and carry it too far into destructive behavior.

Jesus was angry with the money changers in the temple.  He was upset with their greed, and their disrespect for God’s house.  That day He put on quite a vivid display of Righteous Anger. 

It is not a sin to be angry, but do not hold on to it over-night.

If you personally are having issues with anger - - Please count slowly to TEN!

Ephesians 4:26  Don't get so angry that you sin. Don't go to bed angry.

Ephesians 4:31  Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Don't yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude.

 

This post is Shared with Laura at The Wellspring

Also shared at shared at: Tell Me a Story

  

The Butterfly Effect



image courtesy photobucket.com

 

From Wikipedia: “In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings weeks before.”

Gleaning from Pastor Jerry’s sermon: We have been experiencing seasons; from Christmas to Lent, to the cross, to the resurrection and soon to Pentecost. 

Small changes in events created the differences in the life of Jesus, and each change fulfilled prophesy.

There are times in our lives that a small happening can upset our world.  Our five senses can’t account for everything that occurs.  Often our understanding demands answers that are short in coming.

To the followers of Jesus, everything that had happened did not make sense.  It all was beyond their limits of reasoning. 

The women believed the angel, even though they did not yet see Jesus, and they ran to tell Peter and the others, that Jesus has risen. 

Jesus made several appearances, first to Mary in the garden, then to ten of the disciples, with Thomas absent. 

Later he appeared to all the eleven, where he told Thomas to thrust his hand in his side and into the nail prints. 

Then he walked with two followers on the road to Emmaus, and finally he appeared at the beach where he had prepared a breakfast. 

Each time the followers wondered it this was really Jesus.  Finally they believed.

Peter was overwhelmed and under a lot of stress.  He decided to do something that he enjoyed, and that was to go fishing.

At times when we are under tension from the pressures of life, perhaps we need to take a break and so something that is fun for a change. 

At the beach, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” This question was asked three times; perhaps a form of forgiveness for the three times Peter denied Jesus. 

Feed my Lambs, Feed my Sheep, Feed my Lambs, was what Jesus told Peter. 

Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” which caused the disciples to become “Apostles.”  Later their small efforts would multiply with the butterfly effect.

None of the disciples were expected to do it all.  They were only to do as they were instructed by the command to “Go and tell.”  Their efforts were anointed by the Holy Spirit and multitudes came to believe in Jesus.

Do we recognize Jesus when he speaks to us?  We can’t do it all.  We are only to do what our Lord asks of us.   May we be faithful in what he has called us to do!

This post is shared with Charlotte’s Spiritual Sundays

Our Garden

Our Hope !
courtesy photobucket.com

 

SEEDS for the Garden - - -

 

A few weeks ago, we filled two aluminum pans, and some left over containers from a six pack of flowers with potting soil.   Holes were punched in the bottoms of the pans so they could drain.

Inside the two pans full of potting soil; we emptied a packet of tomato seeds.  They are beginning to sprout, but the tomato plants are very tiny.  There are so many that we will need to find someone to share them with. 




Seeds sprouting - photo by Hazel

In the six pack, we placed some squash seeds that we had saved from last summer.  One is poking through and two others are almost ready.

While I was watering our seeds, I noticed our bushes of Viburnum all across our back fence are in full bloom.
 

Photo by Hazel

In a sheltered spot a pink bush is also in full bloom.  I am not good with names of plants, but you might recognize the pink bush.


Pink Bush photo by Hazel

On Sunday, I will break off enough from both of these bushes to make a nice bouquet for church.

Lemon Blossoms - Photo by Hazel

Also my two lemon trees are blossoming and smell so sweet.  I snapped a photo and hope you can see the bees that were tasting the nectar.  They are in the center of the photo.

Garden Spot photo by Hazel

Robert has rototilled our area where we will plant, and he will do one more run soon. 

I hope you can see that my chard on the left of the photo is doing well and is ready for another cutting.

It is amazing how a dead seed can come to life and bring beauty, smells, and delicious food for our lively-hood.  The dead will come alive!

I am reminded that God has promised us that the dead “In Christ,” will rise first, and then we who are alive and serving Jesus will be caught up with them in the air to meet our Lord.

 This post is shared with Ramona at Friendship Friday The theme is Gardens.

Also shared with Ann’s Food On Friday site.
You can find many hints and recipes. 

 

Glasses for the Baby

 

“Don’t sit so close to the TV,” I instructed my three year old son. 

When I placed him on the sofa, he tilted his head downward and rolled his eyes up to look at the TV. 

“Something is not right with his eyes,” I told my husband.  “I will make an appointment to take him to the eye doctor close by.

“This boy needs a specialist,” said the doctor, “And I there is an excellent specialist with offices in the Fruitvale Medical building.”

After making a new appointment, off we went to visit the specialist. 

The doctor asked him to show with his hand which way the fingers on the letter E were pointing.  The doctor twirled the small eye glasses on the machine until he was happy that this would be a correct prescription for our son.

Then he positioned the machine so that our boy could look through it at me. 

Our boy began to smile real big, and I said, “What are you smiling about?” 

The Doctor made an astonishing statement as he said, “He is seeing his mother for the first time.” 

 

Doctor continued, “Your son could not see his own feet in front of him.  That is how bad his eyes are.

At Sunday school, he suddenly became interested in the pictures and the stories about Jesus.

Those early glasses were quite thick, but he no longer ran into things as he played. 

A growing boy often needed new frames so we made regular visits to the specialist, for adjustments to his glasses. 

As time went by, and Junior High school was near, Doctor suggested that perhaps for cosmetic reasons, we should consider contact lenses.  “He is old enough to take care of contacts,” said the doctor.

That was a good choice, and it caused our son to feel better about him-self.

The thick glasses were used in the evenings at home to give the eyes a rest, but all in all the adjustment to contacts were fine.

I am reminded that there is spiritually another world that we cannot see that is brimming with angelic beings. No eye glasses on earth will reveal these angels that are protecting us, but they are real and active in their ministry.

One day, our spiritual eyes will be opened and we will be able to view angels and Jesus face to face. 

In the mean time we can pray with Paul:  Eph. 1:18-21 that - - The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹ And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

²⁰ Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹ Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:  :-)

This post is shared at: Tell Me a Story

And with Laura at The Wellspring

Also linked with Jennifer Dukes Lee at: Tell His Story

What Happened?

Touch Jesus, He is Alive
courtesy photobucket.com

 

Today I gleaned from Pastor Jerry’s sermon, as he mentioned in that time and era, there had been many who preached and claimed to be the Christ, but as they died, they were soon ancient history. 

Preachers come and go.  Jesus was dead and the Romans and his enemies were assured that he also would soon be forgotten. 

The disciples were fearful and discouraged, and they felt all was lost.  They had put much energy into following Jesus, and now they expected his body and the other two bodies to be thrown outside of the city into the land fill where the wild beasts were... 

However, Joseph came and begged the body of Jesus so he could place him in a borrowed tomb.  With a final thrust of a spear into his side, the soldiers were satisfied that Jesus was dead, so they allowed Joseph to take his body.

Pastor Jerry read from John 20:19-31 regarding Jesus appearing before his disciples after His resurrection.  What happened to give the disciples a restoration of their faith? 

Jesus showed them his hands, feet and side, and they marveled that they could touch him.

Then Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” 

Thomas was not with them, and he refused to believe unless he could see and feel Jesus.  When Jesus appeared to them eight days later, Thomas was shocked as Jesus offered him to thrust his hand into his side and other wounds.  Oh my Lord and my God, cried Thomas, but Jesus said, now you believe because you have seen, but blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.

The disciples began to preach and teach the message of Jesus the Savior and many accepted the Good news.  Those in authority were angry and warned the disciples not to preach in Jesus name, but their reply was, we cannot stop, for we must obey God rather than man.

These disciples and many other believers were willing to lay down their lives, for reality. 

Think about it, if Jesus’ resurrection was a scam, who would be willing to die for a lie? 

Christians today receive the message of Jesus and in ways personal to each one, Jesus reveals himself to them.

Many Christians, through out our world today are martyred, persecuted and are being slaughtered.  What happened to give them this faith? 

The simple answer is because Jesus has made himself known to them in truth as a risen Savior.   We too are witnesses to the fact that Jesus is alive.  Rejoice, He lives!

This post is shared with Charlotte’s Spiritual Sundays

 

More Wonders, Surprises, Blessings!

-Devotional encouragement by Guest Roy Lessin,

sharing from his blog Meet Me In The Meadow

 

 

More Wonders, Surprises, Blessings!

Cast your net,
with all the might of your faith,
into the waters of His will.

Send it deep into the sea of His promises,
into the waters of His abundance,
into the depths of His supply.

As you do, you will gather-

more wonders than you have ever seen,
more surprises than you can ever imagine,
more blessings than you can ever hold!

They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. John 21:6

The Lord Is Your Life

Press On
Stay Strong
Keep Believing
God has Great Things ahead for you!

Love the Lord your God,
listen to His voice,
and hold fast to Him.
For the Lord is your Life.
Deuteronomy 30:20

 Devotional encouragement by Guest Roy Lessin

NO FREE LUNCH (repost)

No Free Lunch
courtesy photobucket.com

 

Free Stuff!  I am a big sucker for all stuff free!   I should have known better - - - but when I noticed an offer on Face Book for a “Free Subway Sandwich,” I innocently took the bait!

Eagerly, I filled out all the information until I got to the part where I needed to make a purchase.  These were just a couple of offers that seemed like they might be interesting. 

Headlong, I plunged into the abyss!  

Now I am fully away that the offer for $500 to spend at Target or some other store was a come-on!   Yes, a SCAM!  However, I had not suspected a small free sandwich.

Quickly, I tried to back out, to escape, to get out of there, to cancel, and to repair any damage done, but I was locked in!  Too Late - - - Looks like the Devil ate my lunch !!

NO free sandwich today for me!  That is not the end of the story!

The very next day my e-mail In-Box brimmed with forty e-mails, asking me to earn extra income, to take courses for job training!  They wanted me to learn to be this or that! I received offers to buy engagement rings, apply for bankruptcy, meet singles, get a high school diploma, and the list went on and on.

At first, I opened each one and requested at the bottom to remove my name.  I don’t believe that worked, as evidenced the next day in my overflowing In-Box.

This was out of control; eighty new spam messages filled my in box! 

 
Horrible! I couldn’t believe it!

Using “Block mail” has never worked for me, because the senders simply change to a different name.  What does work is using the method provided by my e-mail server where you can “bounce” unwanted mail.  Using this tool causes the message to go back to the sender with a notice that says, “Undelivered mail, recipient unknown.”  I can bounce groups, so I now gleefully bounce and bounce and bounce!

Each day for the past several weeks, I have been bouncing groups of forty to eighty e-mails.  Hopefully the advertisers will get the message soon!

From heartache to pure havoc, people get themselves into all sorts of predicaments.  How do we get into these types of messes?  “Without knowledge my people perish,” the Bible says! 

Well, I have some knowledge now, and when this is finally over, I hope I will never need to repeat this again!

Now YOU also have knowledge, so please learn from my mistake, and proceed with caution if you are ever offered a FREE LUNCH!

This post is linked with Ann Kroeker’s  Food on Fridays  

 

 

Asking Permission



Courtesy free clip art

There was a step that Robert was not anxious to go forward with, but it needed to be done. 

He had to ask my father’s permission to marry me. 

Prior to coming to this point there was someone else that he needed to ask permission.  He needed to ask my Heavenly Father if he could marry me.

It seemed like he was gone a long time as he went into the church to pray.  I waited in his car for him to come back.

Soon he returned with a look of joy on his face.  He said to me, “I told God I was willing to give you up, if it was not His will, but God said, I can have you.” 

I don’t know why I hadn’t prayed about this.  Probably because I just took it for granted that God had brought me Robert and that was it.

Now it was time for Robert to face my earthly father.  My dad had already told me that he could probably get Bobby a job on the railroad, which would be a steady income instead of the sporadic roofing work he was doing.  In those days we called him Bobby.

I told Bobby, please be kind but refuse to accept the railroad job, because it would mean working evenings and on Sundays and missing church.

All went well, and my Dad was happy to have Bob take me off his hands.   He agreed to walk me down the aisle and to help with the finances for the wedding.

The first few years for Bob and me was a financial struggle. 

I remember once borrowing a dollar from my mother so I could purchase some hamburger.  I was so embarrassed when I paid her back that I vowed never to ask my parents for money again.

Bob went through the roofing apprentice program, and took what work was available. 

Some of the older roofers knew Bob would hold his own and carry them too, by taking the most of the work; so they would request that he also be hired. 

One of the contractors noticed how fast and experienced Bob was and offered him a permanent job.  When it rained, they did repairs or worked on the boss’s cabin.

Later his boss helped us go into business for ourselves and times were not always easy but God was our partner and supplier.

As you approach new directions in life, it is a good thing to ask your Heavenly Father’s permission and to follow the steps he desires you to take.

This post was shared with Paula at Wednesday Welcoming Spirit
Also shared at: Tell Me a Story
And with Jennifer Dukes Lee at: Tell His Story

 

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

courtesy photobucket.com

Richard Carlson wrote the book Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and its all small stuff.

Matthew 23:24  ^“Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”   In other words, they make a big to-do out of the little things and let the big things escape.

Jesus warned us to leave the small things aside and pay close attention to the larger truth.

Most of us love tradition.  The white wedding and the march down the aisle, the pomp and ceremony at church.  The exchanging of gifts at Christmas and we could make a long list.

To be honest we realize that a lot of what we celebrate as Christians is tradition, such as December 25, for the day Christ was born.  We understand that this date is not the real date, but as we follow tradition, and use that date in time to remind us that Jesus was born to live and die and live again.

As we examine Easter and the dates we celebrate as Good Friday and Easter, we understand that again we are following tradition, and using these days of the week is a point of remembrance and celebration that Jesus Lives today!.  The Bible is clear that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week - - which we celebrate as Easter.

 
If we are a thoughtful person, and study the Jewish laws and customs, we will understand that there were two Sabbaths, a weekly and preparation for the Passover Lamb sacrifice.

Many scholars have pointed out that Jesus probably died on Thursday the day of preparation for the “Passover Sabbath.” Jesus was to be the Passover Lamb. 

 

Using this time line would then give Jesus the THREE days and NIGHTS in the tomb, and allow him to rise from the dead early on the first day of the week.

I tend to believe this is the case, but listen - - should we fight and argue over this “small stuff?” 

What is important is that all was fulfilled in Jesus and he is not here for he has risen as he said.

There are organizations who love to find fault and tear people and ministries apart.  They also enjoy pointing out these minor details and call all who do not change their thinking that they are heretics.

I refuse to subscribe to the websites of those who criticize and call certain ministers wrong because they have a large following and are bringing people into the kingdom.

These sites that stir up strife and pull down beliefs are usually extremely angry and the Bible warns us NOT to follow an angry man.

A careful reading of the Bible will reveal to us the truth.

This post is Linked up with Michelle’s Hear it on Sunday