Wonders of the Season

This morning after Christmas I woke to the scene of fog and frost on the trees. The clouds are dark and dreary. Not at all a welcome sight to wake up to. But today something else caught my eyes. The welcome sight of a craftsman at work.
The weather reports give all manner of weather across the country. Most times I am concerned over them, especially when I have things to attend to. But not today. On this blustery morn I am able to enjoy the panoramic view that is before me. We didn't get the promised snow we were warned of. That doesn't concern me.
For the true beauty of the season is in the snow itself. High intense winds carry the snow far and wide. In those first moments after the snow has fallen it's white blanket covers everything. The trees branches, bushes, the landscape around us. Before we venture out into the world making our mark upon the freshly fallen snow with all that white snow covers all things.
We are able to see it's freshness, feel the newness of the morning when the world wakes up with the first rays of the sun it gives us it's true beauty. Spread across the world before us we can see the master craftsman hands at work. The winds sculpting the landscape in ways that are truly wondrous.
It's those first moments that give us the best memories to enjoy. Like a freshly blooming flower in the spring we can take it with us to enjoy the whole day through. Long after it has melted away we are able to recall it like a breath of wind taking us back to that moment to enjoy once again.
It's said the best things in life are free. Opening our eyes to the wonder of the winters beauty crafted by the master is free. There is nothing like it in life. It is a blessing for us to behold. Give thanks for the blessings in your life today and everyday.

David

This week we finished our study on the life of King David.
David is an imteresting figure of the bible. He had a remarkable life. He started out as a simple shepard tending his fathers flocks playing a harp when he was first chosen by God to become king of a great nation.  His was a  simple heart full of love for his God and duty to his people.
He had to suffer many trials and suffering to fulfill the destiny to which he was called. His first trial of his faith came when he willingly chose to stand before all Isreal to chalenge the giant Philistein Goliath . Before Sauls great army  David stood before Goliath armed only with his slipshot and few well choosen stones. His only army was a prayer on his lips to defeat the giant who dared to mock God.
Faith, devotion, and love saw David bring down a giant before his peolpe. Truist in a higher power saved him and guided him all his life. But still he was a man. A man with all the weaknesses of all people during our lifetimes.
King Saul became Davids father-in-law best friend to his son Jonathan. A friendship that lasted the test of time. The longest most enduring friendship.  Jonathan didn't care for the thrown of Isreal. He realised early on that David had been choosen by God to succeed his father. He loved as his own soul. A friendship that brought them closer than brothers.
Jomathan didn't agree with his father pusuing David through the long years across the desert lands. But a dutiful son followed his father. Where David loved his God and followed him unto the end of his life. Saul turned his back on God. God regretted having made Saul king because he no longer walked with God.
What a bitter end came of his life.
God allowed and evil spirit to enter into Saul which guilded him the rest of his life. God only allowed this to happen because Saul made a concsious decision to no longer follow the will of God or listen  to his devine will for his service as the king of Gods chosen people.  His end came in battle after consulting with the witch of Endor.
That is never a wise choice. Once we make that final choice to walk away from God deny his love and fellowship to be part of us we have then left ourselves open to the winds of fate to claim us and take from all things that matter. Saul couldn't beare the loss of his sons in battle before him. And since no other sword in battle could pierce his armor Saul then resorted to the only thing he had left. He took his own life by falling on his own sword.
The main focus of the study this week was not of David and Saul. But of David and one of Sauls soldiers. Joab. A ruthless man who cared not for God or love of King and country. But for self, Which lead to betrayal.
David was stilll a man with all our shortcomings, so his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband and dedicated servent Uriah started David's life on it's ultimate downfall. Though God had forgiven David of his sin. God had set in motion events that would later play out to betrayal and murder within his own house.
Joab seeking only what was best for himself failed to awknowledge that he didn't know what was best. He sought only self interest glory and praise. What he got in the end was his own death at the word of Soloman. David's son and God's chosen heir to the thrown.
The price for rejecting God is high. God forgives us of all our sins. There is no sin that God will not forgive as long as we seek him with an open and repentant heart. His grace will cover a multitude of sins.
The only sin God cannot forgive is the sin of turning away his holy spirit. When we choose to openly deny God we greive away his love. His longing to welcome us back into his loving and gracious presnce. We seperate ourselves from God then there is nothing he can do for us. The winds of fate will be free to set upon the most greivous of all things the devil desires to thrust upon us.
So many lives are lost when they choose to walk away from God and his loving and forgiving spirit.
No life is ever a perfect row to hoe. But in Gods hands we find the much easier to bare because we are not walking the streets alone. God promised to walk with us. At our side throught the fires of strife. The wieght never sets up a permenant wall before us. God takes so much upon himself for us that we truly are blessed to know just how much love it has taken for us to stand at the feet of God.

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Faith - One of Gods gifts

Often we see things differently than as others do.  Todays study was of the twelve spies who scouted the land for the people of Ireal. How differently the two groups saw things in the land of Canaan. One group saw themselves as victorious possesors of the land. Able to overcome the oppressors in one mighty attack. Crushing all opposition under they're feet. By Gods hand they could accomplish all that God had promised.

The others claimed total defeat. They saw only that the cirrent owners of the land as exceeding prosperous. Not willing to allow intruders to conquer them. They would rather tuck in they're tails and run back to Egypt and slavery than trust the God who delivered them.
 
Why the different views?

Faith.
 
The remainder of the chapter of Numbers 14 shows us how a lack of faith and trust for God and all his great mercy and the miracles they saw brought about the defeat they saw. Caleb believed all that God had promised. He was ready to go forward and crush all opposition under his feet. Just to take the land God had promised.
The rest  of the people God was ready to strike down  with  great  pestilence and hardships  because  of  the  lack  of  faith.  They  denied  God  and  all  the  great  miracles he  did  for  them  since delivering them  out  of  bondage.  They  were  ready  to  return  to  that  bondage  then step forward in  faith and trust in  a  loving  God  who  delivered  them  from  captivity. 
Faith.
It is a wonderful thing.  Built in a heart of love open and willing to see and accept the things that are far off as if they were already in hand. That is faith at work.
One Gods great gifts for man. 

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Lessons of Paul

We just finished this last quarter on the study of the book of Romans. I always like to reflect on the things I feel the Lord has opened my heart and mind to see in the study. Paul is such a hard man to understand. But such a great preacher. His was a unique gift the Lord used in a very special way.
Of all the deciples Jesus trained for his work only Paul was trained in the ministry. He was trained to be a Jewish  leader but the Lord needed him for something more.  While Jesus was amung us here on Earth the two men never met.  But Jesus never lost sight of him.
The fear of Jesus brought the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin and the Rabis to seek his life. The fear was of the change that Jesus death would bring to they're way  of  life.  It  would  bring  an end to  the  life  and  service  of  the  temple  that  had  been  in place from  the  time  of  Moses.  It was  change  they  did not  want.
We first learn of Pail at the stoning of Steven. A young man choosen by the deciples to replace Judus who betrayed our Lord for a bag of gold coins. Steven was a dedacaded young man who spoke before those men in the temple of the truths they refused to hear. When they stoned him he never stoped his praise to the moment of death.
The one most noted for his death was Saul. Given the charge of percecuting the new christian movement in the land. When he met Jesus on the Damascus road his heart was forever changed. He had been given a new purpose. A new life of service for the Lord and the growing ministry in those early days it desperatly needed.
Paul was chosen to bring the new and the old teachings together. For our benefit his gift was the greatest we have seen. For only Paul had the education and the ability to teach the world not only what the old writings taught but to bring to the world as Jesus sacrifice fulfiilled would be to the world for the rest of time utself.
At the moment of Jesus death the vail on the temple between God most holy place was divide opened because it was the moment that ended the old animal sacrifices for our redemtion. That was the one thing the Jewish leaders feared. They feared they would no longer be needed to continue the work they had been given to do.  They refused to change. Refused to accept Jesus as Gods own son. The very Messiah they had so long been expecting.
Pauls teachings were not easy for them to accept. Fact is they have never accepted it. Paul never stopped teaching the world what Jesus death ment for a lost and searching world. Jesus was the one who brought heaven closer to us. No longer a need for the vail of the temple to seperate us from God the Father. Jesus is the way to the Father.
The book of Romans was the first book Paul gave us. His teachings were so mater of fact. Many even today have a difficult time understanding them. But when we do we are all the more richly blessed for it. Paul is a blessing to our faith. His insights at bridging the truth of the old testament and the teachings of Jesus to the new way of life through salvation by faith is enduring. We still see the benefits of Pauls teachings.
We are so richly blessed by his teachings. So many lives sacrificed to preserve these writings for our times has never been more important then now.
 

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People to admire

One of my favorite people of the bible has to be Daniel. He had an extraordinary life. When we first read of him he was being taken away captive by the Babylonians. As a young man he was put in the kings service trained as an adviser to the king for the rest of his life.
He stood firm for the Lord right from the start. By refusing to eat from the kings table he was able to prove that God's diet was the right diet for people. He and his three friends came away 10 times wiser than all the other boys. For which the king honored him. His next test came when the king had a dream that he needed interpreted.
No one could give him the answers he wanted he threatened to kill all his advisers. Daniel came forward requesting time to pray to his God for the answers he sought. What a stand he took. Right from the start he gave God the glory for the dream and it's interpretation. For a time they honored God for giving them Daniel and his interpretation of the dream.
But it didn't last long.
Bowing to idols is never the way to honor God. Our devotion must always be totally on HIM and ONLY FOR HIS ETERNAL GLORY. How soon they forgot that. After Daniels friends Shadrack Me shack and Abinedego were put into the fiery furnace and survived. They honored God with more respect.
Until the night Babylon fell. A night of drunken revelry, mocking the Most High Daniel was called again to interpret the cryptic writing on the wall by a bodiless hand. The finger of God writing that message of the fall of Babylon predicted one hundred and fifty years before any of them including Daniel himself were born.
Daniel not only read them the interpretation then he was made witness to a prophecy being fulfilled in his very presence. That night I'm sure he prayed all night uncertain what his fate would be come the dawns light. His faith never wavered. His habit all his life had been to pray three times a day on his knees. Window open toward his home land.
Even the day his pray life came under fire. Under penalty of death he remained steadfast in his devotion to his God. When those evil men could find nothing else to accuse him for, they attacked his love for his God.
A night in a den full of hungry lions was what awaited him. Was he afraid for his life?
Yes.
Did his faith falter?
No.
Daniel stood before the Persian King that night steadfast in his faith boldly declaring that if God choose NOT to deliver him from the death they were about to give him, his faith would remain as firm and bold until the life was taken from him.
He was so courageous in that moment. So tall and unshaken by the cruel hand of man that his Love for God provided for him that night.
A night in the presence of one LIKE the son of God. Had shut up the mouths of those hungry lions that night. He had nothing to fear for God was with him.
That is amazing. A man simple and humble. Love for God out weighted his fear of man.
What an honor. But God was not finished with him yet. He was about to receive his biggest most astounding revelation of his life.
God had given Daniel the vision of the last days.
He was so terrified by the vision that Daniel fasted and prayed for the meaning of the visions. A week went by before the angle of the Lord, Gabriel was able to come to him and tell him with firm devotion just how much HE, Daniel was loved by God.
Not to fear the dreams he saw for they were not to be fulfilled until the far distant future of man would these things come to pass.
Daniel would be sleeping with his fathers and not have to witness those terrible things he saw in his vision.
Why do I admire Daniel?
For his devotion to God. His love of God to stand before his accusers with such unwavering love and unshakable resolve in his devotion to stand FOR GOD not matter what the hand of man had waiting to strike him down.
Through it all he had the greatest blessing any mortal human being ever got from ones creator.
A once in a lifetime blessing out of the mouth of God himself.
Daniel was Greatly Loved by HIS GOD. Even the angles honored him for that respect.

Times now call for us to stand like Daniel. In the face of adversity, to stand like Daniel. Tall, firm and with the deepest of commitment not to falter.
A tough lesson for us to learn in this day and age. But indeed one worthy for anyone who loves the Lord our God.

First rains

The rains do wonders for bringing in the flowers and growing the trees. There  is something  special in the first rains. The long winter's sleep needs that fresh new rains to awaken them. it seems almost magical to see those young leaves burst forth from their shells. Reaching and grabbing for the suns rays and the warmth that is in them.
The rain clouds darken while they let go of their full load of rain. so much contained in those clouds. They have traveled a great distence across those skys. The wind carrying them to collect with other clouds to join  some place in need of the life giving load they carry.
We complain about the bad weather they bring.  We are bothered when those storms turn violent. The damage so often over shadows the simple welcome  falling  of  the  much  needed  moisture.  The life  giving  water  that  is  so  vital  to  our lives. Water sustains us. Feeds us in more ways than we realize.
But for the wonder of it all we so often forget just how prescious water is.
The first rains of the new season are the most amazing. For the first new seedlings, to the flowers, grass and the like vegetation that envelops our wonderful world. We so often take it all for granted. never taking the time to see the beauty in it's awaking a sleeping world. All life on this world is connected. We all came from the hands of the one same creator.
We may give him different names. Worship in different ways. Believe in him in different ways.
But in the end there is still ONLY ONE LIVING GOD. CREATOR OF ALL THINGS.
His love abounds in the blueprints he put inside all that he created. 
Enjoy each day. Take pleasure in the newness of the spring awakening the sleeping world around us. 

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What I like in spring

Spring is so amazing. All around us we see new growth bursting forth in the warm weather. Today I see the trees bursting forth with the new leaves. So small and fresh. The first colors of green so bright and full of hope. As I drive by I see trees in the distance have a green around them. No leaves yet to give it life. Just the early growth that makes them look as thou they are waking in the early days of spring.

The birds have returned. Robins are everywhere. Hunting in the fields and yards for nesting material for the new nests that will be their homes for the summer. They are wonderful at scavenging the ground. Nothing on the ground goes unnoticed. Ever leery of cats. The natural predator, ready to take to flight the first signs of danger. The safety of the trees are home and haven to the birds.

The grass is springing up early. So fresh and full of color. The new blanket of green is so inviting. The earth worms, for all one could say of them, are indeed the ones to get life flowing in the earth below. They burrow tunnels under the roots of trees and vegetation stirring up the soft earth to ready the soil to provide all that will sustain the life forms above.

So carefully was this world created. All things in they're place. All set to awaken on time to start the life cycle over again. Our world is so full of such wonders, such beauty. The life that fills this planet is such an amazing place to behold.

Life. So fragile and precious.

Spring. Life begins anew. Take time from your daily routine to see what is alive and all the beauty that is being born in the simplest things.

cry for the unborn

Saturday I heard a most disturbing news report. In all the craziness of late with our Senators and legislators searching for cuts in the federal and states budgets they have a made a very serious colossal error. With all they're budget cutting madness to the medical care for the majority of those unfortunate people to not qualify for regular insurance. They now have decided to terminate the medical care to the unborn.
It seems they no longer recognise the unborn as living beings. I know they have argued that issues for years. Debating over whether or not when life begins to satisfy the matter for abortions. But now to take this step to Deni medical care to the unborn to the millions of couples in the world who actually do want their babies.
This spells disaster on unprecedented scale. Why worry about abortions any more. Denying medical care to the unborn in dangers not only the life of the child but the mother as well. They raised awareness for decades on how vitally important prenatal care is for the health of both mother and child. So many have been lost without medical care. Now that it is so widely available across the country. To suddenly have those funds cut is unthinkable.
And for what?
All to save some 800 million dollars in states funds. That should really be read to say 800 million lives lost. Not to abortion. Not that many babies have been killed by abortion since it was legalized in '73.

Clearly no one is thinking of anything any more. The numbers are staggering. Not even Hitler killed that many people in the twenty years he was in office during the war, did he kill that many. We know 6 million Jews murdered we called it genocide. What do we call this? The end of our own future.
We have been dealt a much more devastating blow. We cry of how unjust the Health Care reform is towards us. Which truly is a divesting blow to all the freedoms our country has fought and given it's dearest blood to preserve. But this is much worse.
With such numbers like these, 800 million dollars is really 800 millions lives lost. Mother's carry the child for nine months until it is born. With no medical care for the unborn child and no care for the mother then that is two lives lost. Sometimes in the case of multiple births that could be three, even four, or more lives placed in unnecessary danger.
All to save 800 million dollars in state funds.
That is what is criminal. Placing dollars before the unborn endangers the future of our own race. 800 million lives lost really means we have put OURSELVES ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST!!!!!!

That is something we really need to think about.

I read an article today about how good it is to have pets. I love my pets. They are such a joy to have. They're comfort and companionship is truly priceless.

From the first moment we decide to look at them when they are babies we are touched by their hapless cries and struggles to get out of the box they are in. We become taken in by them when we look into those young eyes wanting us to take them home. Once we do we begin the long process of bonding with them.

They depend on us to care for all their needs. From feeding them to getting the shots they need to stay healthy to caring for them when they get sick. In return we teach them what we want them to be for us. Our companions.

It's been asked if there will be pets in heaven.

When God created the world he gave the care of the animals to Adam. Not only did he name them all but he was given charge over them. Then the animals were not afraid of man. They trusted people to care for them, we walked with them knowing there was no need to harm man and that man would not harm them.

When sin came to the world the first animals were killed to cloth the man and his wife. God made the animals to fear us forever after. Now we must earn that trust. At a time now when we seek to take the lives of so many animals throughout the world. Is it any wonder why the need is there for the animals to fear our kind.

We have the promise that there will be a time when the world will be made new. That sin will finally see it's end. And the damage it has wrought will be cleansed forever when the cleansing fire purifies this ravaged world. When the promise is fulfilled that we will see our long lost loved ones again.

The new world could not be complete without the animals. The defense need will no longer be needed. So we can walk and run with the animals again. The pictures that have been available of this scene could not compare to how wonderful life could be then.

animal talk

Watching the original Rex Harrison version today for the first time today. When I was a kid that movie was a big deal. Many people liked it. It received many awards and things. What I liked about it was the main plot. Actually talking to the animals.
We all know that's impossible. Still some progress has been made in that area. The movie Congo showed how people taught gorilla's to talk with sign language. Chimps have learned to sign with their hands and with matching pictures.
I love animals. My cats and I don't use any such thing to communicate. With us it just seems to be more of body language type. I some times know what they want by the mows and some of the other sounds they make. Their most common way to tell me when they want something is when they jump on me. Or rub up against my legs.
Simple but it is effective.