GR8ADVENTure

2012-01-19T10:40:00.003-05:00

“I do not understand the mystery of grace --

only that it meets us where we are and

does not leave us where it found us.”

- Anne Lamott

Wherever you go....................

2012-01-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
~Confucius

2012-01-06T11:27:00.001-05:00

Continuing this GR8ADVENTure with my beloved! Celebrating Epiphany! From the East - the (epiphanela) "appearing" of Christ, to the West - traveling afar to welcome Christ, offering our gifts!

2011-12-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

Don’t think that love, to be true, has to be extraordinary. What is necessary is to continue to love. How does a lamp burn, if it is not by the continuous feeding of little drops of oil? When there is no oil, there is no light and the bridegroom will say: “I do not know you”. Dear friends, what are our drops of oil in our lamps? They are the small things from every day life: the joy, the generosity, the little good things, the humility and the patience. A simple thought for someone else. Our way to be silent, to listen, to forgive, to speak and to act. That are the real drops of oil that make our lamps burn vividly our whole life. Don’t look for Jesus far away, He is not there. He is in you, take care of your lamp and you will see Him.” ~~– Mother Teresa~~

Something is on the Horizon

2011-11-29T12:49:00.001-05:00

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God's [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.”

Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

Princess Charlotte Loves the Snow!

2011-11-23T15:24:00.001-05:00

For All That We Have & More!

2011-11-23T15:10:00.001-05:00

MASS. MARKET: FDA’s move is last call for local beer company

2011-07-27T11:57:00.000-04:00

MASS. MARKET: FDA’s move is last call for local beer company

REflection!

2011-04-07T07:53:00.002-04:00

There is in many hearts a yearning for the firsthand experience of the presence of God. Many people are tired of religion reduced to social action, group therapy, or theological analysis. They wonder where the wonder went.

Robert Raines

REflection!

2011-04-05T07:35:00.000-04:00

Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine.

C. S. Lewis

Thought For This Day!

2011-02-11T07:27:00.000-05:00

What a pity that so many people are living with so few friends when the world is full of lonesome strangers who would give anything just to be somebody’s friend.

Milo L. Arnold

REflection

2011-01-24T10:09:00.000-05:00

The Hound of Heaven calls me to enter into a relationship with Him through which I will find that service is freedom, weakness is strength, humility is power, obedience is liberty and losing life is finding new life. Such apparent contradictions turn the world’s wisdom upside down; but whenever, timidly and tentatively, I respond to this call, I find a rightness, a truth, a congruity and a peace which passes understanding.

Mary Frances Wagley

REflection

2011-01-17T15:14:00.000-05:00

Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness, but a life in the world. It is not an idea in the air, but feet on the ground, going God’s way. It is not an exotic to be kept under glass, but a hardy plant to bear twelve months of fruits in all kinds of weather. Fidelity to duty is its root and branch. Nothing we can say to the Lord, no calling Him by great or dear names, can take the place of the plain doing of His will.

Maltbie D. Babcock

Happy New Year My Beloved

2010-12-31T23:01:00.000-05:00

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Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T22:21:00.000-05:00

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2010-12-31T22:06:00.000-05:00

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Most People Think

2010-12-31T12:25:00.000-05:00

Most People Think:

Happy are the pushers: For they get on in the world.
Happy are the hard-boiled: For they never let life hurt them.
Happy are they who complain: For they get their own way in the end.
Happy are the blasé: For they never worry over their sins.
Happy are the slave-drivers: For they get results.
Happy are the knowledgeable men of the world: For they know their way around.
Happy are the trouble-makers: For people have to take notice of them.

Jesus Christ Said:

Happy are those who realize their spiritual poverty: They have already entered the kingdom of reality.
Happy are they who bear their share of the world’s pain: In the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it.
Happy are those who accept life and their own limitations: They will find more in life than anybody.
Happy are those who long to be truly “good”: They will fully realize their ambition.
Happy are those who are ready to make allowances and to forgive: They will know the love of God.
Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings: In the end they will see the ultimate Reality, God.
Happy are those who help others to live together: They will be known to be doing God’s work.

J. B. Phillips

Beauty Will Rise

2010-12-08T21:36:00.001-05:00

REflection!

2010-12-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

This was written by Mother Teresa and is engraved on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta:

“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.”

REflextion

2010-11-25T08:28:00.000-05:00

For all Thy ministries,-

For morning mist, and gently-falling dew;

For summer rains, for winter ice and snow;

For whispering wind and purifying storm;

For the reft clouds that show the tender blue;

For the forked flash and long tumultuous roll;

For mighty rains that wash the dim earth clean;

For the sweet promise of the seven-fold bow;

For the soft sunshine, and the still calm night;

For dimpled laughter of soft summer seas;

For latticed splendour of the sea-borne moon;

For gleaming sands, and granite-frontled cliffs;

For flying spume, and waves that whip the skies;

For rushing gale, and for the great glad calm;

For Might so mighty, and for Love so true;

With equal mind,

We thank Thee, Lord!

John Oxenham

REflection!

2010-11-03T16:11:00.002-04:00

Patience with ourselves is a duty for Christians and the only humility. For it means patience with a growing creature whom God has taken in hand and whose completion he will effect in his own time and way.

Evelyn Underhill

REflection!

2010-10-01T21:18:00.002-04:00

Reflect that true humility consists to a great extent in being ready for what the Lord desires to do with you, and happy that He should do it, and in always considering yourselves unworthy to be called His servants.

Teresa of Avila

REflection

2010-09-20T19:20:00.002-04:00

Faith faces everything that makes the world uncomfortable- pain, fear, loneliness, shame, death- and acts with a compassion by which these things are transformed, even exalted.

Samuel H. Miller

REflection

2010-09-10T18:41:00.000-04:00

It is not darkness you are going to, for God is Light. It is not lonely, for Christ is with you. It is not unknown country, for Christ is there.

Charles Kingsley

REflection

2010-09-06T09:39:00.002-04:00

The impulse of love that leads us to the doorway of a friend is the voice of God within and we need not be afraid to follow it.

Agnes Sanford

REflection

2010-08-26T10:38:00.000-04:00

We die on the day

when our lives cease to be

illumined

by the steady radiance

renewed daily,

of a wonder,

the source of which

is beyond reason.

Dag Hammerskjold

Thought for the day!

2010-07-16T09:58:00.002-04:00

A soul cannot live without loving. It must have something to love for it was created in love.

Catherine of Siena

Reflection

2010-07-06T14:28:00.002-04:00

When two caring people who are committed to each other wrestle with the inevitable hard times that confront every married couple in a spirit of kindness and tenderness and forgiveness, miracles do happen.

Dale Evans Rogers

Reflection

2010-07-02T17:06:00.000-04:00

We grasp for truth and lose it till it comes to us by love.

Madeleine L'Engle

Work in Progress!

2010-06-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

Thought for the Day!

2010-06-25T22:03:00.000-04:00

Tolerance comes with age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Proof of Who We Are!

2010-06-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

The proof of who we are in Christ isn't how many folks have come to the Lord through us. It isn't how much we've contributed to the Lord's work. It isn't how sweetly we've sung his praises. It is, pure and simple, how we have loved each other.

Gayle Roper

Happy Anniversary to my Beloved!

2010-06-17T08:08:00.000-04:00

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Reflection: Do we really want to be like Christ?

2010-06-16T07:08:00.000-04:00

Shut out suffering, and you see only one side of this strange and fearful thing, the life of [humankind] man. Brightness and happiness and rest- that is not life. It is only one side of life. Christ saw both sides.

F. W. Robertson

Reflection

2010-06-03T07:46:00.000-04:00

God doesn't build a fence around his children to protect us from the suffering common to all humanity. It is clear from the Bible and from the lives of Christians in every generation that God uses suffering in some form in the life of every believer.

Martha Reapsome

Reflection

2010-05-26T18:43:00.000-04:00

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. It does not enable us to escape evil. It makes us unfit to face evil when it comes. It is the interest you pay on trouble before it comes.

Corrie ten Boom

Reflection

2010-05-25T22:19:00.000-04:00

May the strength of God pilot us.

May the power of God preserve us.

May the wisdom of God instruct us.

May the hand of God protect us.

May the way of God direct us.

May the shield of God defend us.

May the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world.

May Christ be with us.

Christ before us.

Christ in us.

Christ over us.

May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and forever more.

St. Patrick Breastplate

Reflection

2010-05-18T19:31:00.000-04:00

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne Williamson

Each & Every Day!

2010-05-11T06:40:00.000-04:00

Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.

C. S. Lewis

Dave Gibbons, Shane Claiborne, Brenda Salter McNeal at Exponential 10

2010-04-21T23:08:00.000-04:00

2010-04-03T20:25:00.000-04:00

The angel rolled away the stone from Jesus’ tomb, not to let the living Lord out, but to let unconvinced outsiders in.

Donald Grey Barnhouse

Reflection

2010-03-09T20:46:00.000-05:00

My son, now will I teach thee the way of peace and inward liberty. Be desirous to do the will of another rather than thine own. Choose always to have less rather than more. Seek always the lowest place, and to be inferior to everyone. Wish always, and pray, that the will of God may be wholly fulfilled in thee.

Thomas Kempis

Are We Leaking?

2010-03-08T12:15:00.001-05:00

We know people who have been “converted” many times. Every time there is a church revival they go to the altar and get “saved.” One minister told of a man in his congregation who had been “saved” seventeen times. During a revival meeting the evangelist made an altar call for all who wanted to be filled with the Spirit. The man who had been converted so often made his way toward the altar again. A woman from the congregation shouted, “Don’t fill him, Lord. He leaks!”…Those who become “unconverted” were never converted in the first place. C. Sproul

A Magical Night to Remember for the Knights

2010-02-24T19:20:00.002-05:00

A Magical Night to Remember for the Knights

In honor of Sir Ricky the Relentless

http://www.wickedlocal.com/marshfield/features/x1650252031/A-Magical-night-for-the-knights

The Magical Moon Foundation held a charity dinner dance, “A Knight to Remember,” Feb. 20 at the Shaw’s Center in Brockton. The event was a benefit for the Marshfield-based foundation, which was founded by local artist Donna Green, and was held to honor Ricky Hoffman’s bravery. Ricky, an 11-year-old boy, lost his battle with brain cancer last November.

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE

2010-02-23T08:08:00.001-05:00

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE

The best and sweetest things in life are things you cannot buy;

The music of the birds at dawn, the rainbow in the sky.

The dazzling magic of the stars, the miracle of light.

The precious gifts of health and strength, of hearing, speech and sight.

The peace of mind that crowns a busy life of work well done.

A faith in God that deepens as you face the setting sun,

The boon of love, the joy of friendship. As years go by,

You find the greatest blessings are the things you cannot buy.

Patience Strong

True Education!

2010-02-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy them- not merely industrious, but to love industry- not merely learned, but to love knowledge- not merely pure, but love purity- not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice.

John Ruskin

Thought for the Day!

2010-02-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the Holy Scriptures.

John Herschel

Are All The Children In?

2010-02-04T21:54:00.000-05:00

ARE ALL THE CHILDREN IN?

I think of times as the night draws nigh

Of an old house on the hill,

Of a yard all wide and blossom starred

Where the children played at will.

And when the night at last came down,

Hushing the merry din,

Mother would look around and ask,

"Are all the children in?"

Tis many and many a year since then,

And the old house on the hill

No longer echoes to childish feet,

And the yard is still, so still.

But I see it all, as the shadows creep

And though many the years have been

Since then, I can hear my mother ask

"Are all the children in?"

I wonder if when the shadows fall

On the last short earthly day,

When we say good-bye to world outside,

All tired with our childish play.

When we step out into that Other Land

Where mother so long has been,

Will we hear her ask, just as of old,

"Are all the children in?"

Unknown

We Can Not Do It Alone!

2010-02-03T17:56:00.000-05:00

This is the unique element in the gospel, which tells us that what we could never do, God has done. We cannot climb up to heaven to discover God, but God has come down to earth, in the person of his Son, to reveal himself to us in the only way we could really understand: in terms of a human life.

J. N. D. Anderson

Reflection

2010-01-31T16:21:00.000-05:00

Be much with the solid teachings of God's word, and you will become solid and substantial men and women: drink them in, and feed upon them, and they shall produce in you a Christ-likeness, at which the world shall stand astonished.

C. H. Spurgeon

Today's Musing

2010-01-18T11:09:00.002-05:00

A story is told of old Thomas K. Beecher, who could not bear deceit in any form. Finding that a clock in his church was habitually too fast or too slow he hung a placard on the wall above it, reading in large letters: ”DON’T BLAME MY HANDS - THE TROUBLE LIES DEEPER.” That is where the trouble lies with us when our hands do wrong, or our feet, or our lips, or even our thoughts. The trouble lies so deep that only God’s miracle power can deal with it. Sin indeed goes deep, but Christ goes deeper. The Elim Evangel

Shame On You Mr. Robertson

2010-01-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

Shame on you Pat Robertson .....“Satin - Haiti Pact”..... What a horribly painful statement to say about a people in extreme suffering as they watch what remains of their country and kin crushed by natural disaster, while hundreds of thousands of children of God lay broken,buried, and some fighting for their lives, under the rubble of devastation. Mr. Robertson you should be ashamed of yourself.

As a follower of Jesus, it breaks my heart to try to understand how this man could make such a statement. This man does not know the same God I know, the God who created all of humanity, the same compassionate God whom I share in a relationship. How can a person, who makes statements that claim the very thing that divides people from those of faith and a man who claims Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ will come again, speak believing his self-serving theology, call himself a Christian?

It’s a palindrome!

2010-01-02T14:32:00.000-05:00

It’s a palindrome!

Thoreau never had one during his lifetime. Neither did George Washington nor Albert Einstein.

Today in the United States, which uses the month/day/year format for dates, there is a rare chance to celebrate a palindrome date - 01/02/2010 - which reads the same forward as it does backward.

Happy Birthday Colleen!

2010-01-02T09:56:00.002-05:00

To You Girlfriend!
Colleen Klose McCall
Oh Happy Day!
Happy Birthday, Special Treasure

God gave a gift to the world when you were born—
a person who loves, who cares,
who sees a person’s need and fills it,
who encourages and lifts people up,
who spends energy on others
rather than herself,
someone who touches each life she enters,
and makes a difference in the world,
because ripples of kindness flow outward
as each person you have touched, touches others.
Your birthday deserves to be a national holiday,
because you are a special treasure
for all that you’ve done.
May the love you have shown to others
return to you, multiplied.
I wish you the happiest of birthdays,
and many, many more,
so that others have time to appreciate you
as much as I do.

By Joanna Fuchs
X's & O's
I love you!

Life Choices

2010-01-01T11:12:00.001-05:00

It is not in life's chances but in its choices that happiness comes to the heart of the individual.

Unknown

The whole life of Christ was..........

2009-12-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

The whole life of Christ was a continual Passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day. And as even his birth is his death, so every action and passage that manifests Christ to us is his birth, for Epiphany is manifestation.

John Donne

Thought for the Day!

2009-12-29T10:11:00.000-05:00

I know well there is no comfort for this pain of parting: the wound always remains, but one learns to bear the pain, and learns to thank God for what He gave, for the beautiful memories of the past, and the yet more beautiful hope for the future.

Max Muller

Life is not given to us that...........

2009-12-16T17:02:00.000-05:00

Life is not given to us that we might live idly without work. No, our life is a struggle and a journey. Good should struggle with evil; truth should struggle with falsehood; freedom should struggle with slavery; love should struggle with hatred. Life is movement, a walk along the way of life to the fulfillment of those ideas which illuminate us, both in our intellect and in our hearts, with divine light.

Giuseppe Mazzini

The Happiest Marriage!

2009-12-12T09:57:00.001-05:00

The happiest marriage is where both parties get better mates than they deserve.

Unknown

Take It All In!

2009-12-12T09:54:00.001-05:00

There is nothing in the Bible that benefits you unless it is transmitted into life, unless it becomes a part of yourself, just like your food. Unless you assimilate it and it becomes body and bone and muscle, it does you no good.

Henry Weston

IN CHRIST WE HAVE

2009-12-08T20:05:00.000-05:00

A love that can never be fathomed;

A life that can never die;

A righteousness that can never be tarnished;

A peace that can never be understood;

A rest that can never be disturbed;

A joy that can never be diminished;

A hope that can never be disappointed;

A glory that can never be clouded;

A light that can never be darkened;

A happiness that can never be interrupted;

A strength that can never be enfeebled;

A purity that can never be defiled;

A beauty that can never be marred;

A wisdom that can never be baffled;

A resource that can never be exhausted.

Unknown

Set Sail!

2009-12-08T08:01:00.000-05:00

To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail and not drift or lie at anchor.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Wealth

2009-12-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

Wealth is a pre-payment for a task to be performed.

Jay Kaufman

2009-12-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

The Christian has to live in the world, but he must draw all his resources from outside of the world.

Donald Barnhouse

2009-11-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

The argument for the risen Christ is the living Christian.

Winifred Kirkland

Out of These Tears Beauty Will Rise!

2009-11-09T08:49:00.005-05:00

As Steven Curtis Chapman shares his personal psalm out of the deepest pain of loosing his daughter, Maria, "Beauty Will Rise" resonates heavy in my heart as I travel through this GR8ADVENTure trying to understand "It's All Yours God" My tears of love soak the ground as I work through my deepest pain for the loss of such a beautiful boy snatched from this earth after only 11 years. He shared his daily life with me for the past 4.5 years, My Lil Prophet Ricky. I know you are in the arm of Jesus waiting for the ones you love...... "This is not how it should be, this is not how it could be, but this is how it is and our God is in control. This is not how it will be, when we finally will see we'll see with our own eyes, He was always in control. And we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God and we will finally really understand what it means. So we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God while we're waiting for that day.This is not where we planned to be when we started this journey, but this is where we are and our God is in control. Though this first taste is bitter, there will be sweetness forever when we finally taste and see, our God is in control"

There’s No Faith Like That of Children.

2009-11-04T16:41:00.000-05:00

There’s no faith like that of children. They know that God is quiet and calm and wonderful- big and interested in them, and kind. Their requests of God usually are reasonable and honest, modest. They seldom ask for more than they deserve. They know of no reason why the world, in fact, shouldn’t be mostly good.

The Leader

What are our worst sins?

2009-11-03T18:25:00.000-05:00

What are our worst sins? They are chiefly our lost opportunities to grow in wisdom and in nobility of character. They lie in our failure to develop our fullest and best powers given to us by God. They are our missed marks:

The time we wasted.

The education we neglected.

The curiosity we stifled.

The adventures we by-passed.

The excitements of a child which we ignored.

The human relations we treated with indifference.

The entertainment we mistook for culture.

The freedom we left unsupported.

The causes that we scorned.

The books that we did not read.

The wonderful world that we did not penetrate.

Charles Shulman

Prayer

2009-10-23T08:10:00.000-04:00

Prayer is aspiration. The self-satisfied disregard it. They who reach for higher things find it a necessity.

Prayer is a discipline. They who seek meaning and purpose in life discover it a wise teacher.

Prayer is an art. We perfect it through practice.

Gradually, the interval between prayer and deed diminishes - until, at last, all life becomes a sanctuary.

Alvin Fine

God says!

2009-10-20T18:23:00.000-04:00

You may say: but, God says:

It’s impossible, All things are possible. (Luke 18:27)

I’m too tired, I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Nobody really loves me, I love you. (John 3:16 & John 3:34)

I can’t go on, My grace is sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:9 & Psalms 91:15)

I can’t figure things out, I will direct your steps. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I can’t do it, You can do all things. (Philippians 4:13)

I’m not able, I am able. (2 Corinthians 9:8)

It’s not worth it, It will be worth it. (Romans 8:28)

I can’t forgive myself, I forgive you. (I John 1:9)

I can’t manage, I will supply all your need. (Philippians 4:19)

I’m afraid, I have not given you a spirit of fear. (2 Timothy 1:7)

I’m always worried and frustrated, Cast all your cares on ME. (I Peter 5:7)

I’m not smart enough, I will give you wisdom. (I Corinthians 1:30)

I feel all alone, I will never leave you or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

because I care…

The Back Pack Ministry International

Change the World One Rock at a Time!

2009-10-19T22:17:00.011-04:00

Join Sir Ricky on his mission, a personal mission to change the world for the better by collecting heart shaped rocks to make a Path of Love for children with cancer in the Magical Moon Garden of Hope. Ricky has been my student for 5 years & for the last 3 years has been battling a brain tumor. Currently Ricky is at home receiving hospice care. Please go to the link and let this become your mission! Make the difference in the lives of many children in the future by making Ricky's mission a reality today!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at beachcomber10@verizon.net

http://www.themagicalmoonfoundation.org/ricky/BrochureRicky.pdf

"Look Not Behind Thee"

2009-10-15T08:27:00.000-04:00

So many of us are blinded to all that is beautiful in life by some ancient hate, fear or sin which haunts us throughout our life. Like Lot's wife, we cease to be human. We dry up like salt and become petrified, imbedded in the ugliness, fright or pain of the past. "Look not behind thee," for behind thee lies Sodom and Gomorrah; before thee the land of promise.

Ahron Opher

2009-10-12T17:47:00.000-04:00

No candle which God lights was ever meant to burn alone.

J. C. Ryle

Fill Our Hearts & Mind

2009-10-01T07:31:00.002-04:00

It is impossible to be too preoccupied with God, and it is only as we fill our hearts and minds with him that we become melted out of our likeness and moulded into his.

John Blanchard

Beauty So Ancient and So New

2009-09-25T08:09:00.000-04:00

Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved you! For behold you were within me, and I outside; and I sought you outside and in my unloveliness fell upon those things that you have made. You were with me and I was not with you. I was kept from you by those things, yet had they not been in you, they would not have been at all. You called and cried to me and broke open my deafness; you sent your shafts of light to shine on me and chase away my blindness; you breathed your fragrant breath on me, and I took a breath and now pant for you; I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you; you touched me and I have burned for your peace.

Augustine of Hippo

2009-09-21T16:33:00.001-04:00

One midnight, deep in starlight still,

I dreamed that I received this bill:

“( . . . . . . . in account with Life):

Five thousand breathless dawns all new;

Five thousand flowers fresh in dew;

Five thousand sunsets wrapped in gold;

One million snow-flakes served ice-cold;

Five quiet friends; one baby’s love;

One white-mad sea with clouds above;

One hundred music-haunted dreams

Of moon-drenched roads and hurrying streams;

Of prophesying winds, and trees;

Of silent stars and browsing bees;

One still night in a fragrant wood;

One heart that loved and understood.”

I wondered when I waked at day,

How- how in God’s name- I could pay!

Cortland Sayres

2009-09-17T08:24:00.001-04:00

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

Leonard Ravenhill

Reflection

2009-09-09T16:04:00.000-04:00

I need the opportunity to free my mind of sorrow, personal concerns; to see my world through the mirrored reflection of holiness. I need a time of prayer to leap beyond what is limiting in me as a person, to rediscover what is important and what is trivial, to take counsel with what my tradition stresses as the living faith. I need prayer.

Albert Silverman

2009-09-06T07:50:00.001-04:00

Some people want to be vaccinated with a mild dose of Christianity so as to be protected from the real thing.

William Culbertson

2009-09-05T07:33:00.000-04:00

Keep me, Lord, from ever hardening down into the state of being just another average Christian.

A. W. Tozer

2009-09-01T13:43:00.000-04:00

God doesn’t want to keep changing your circumstances; he wants to change you.

J. Sidlow Baxter

Make-Up-Kit!

2009-08-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

A dear old Quaker lady was asked to explain her obviously youthful appearance, her appealing vivacity, and her winning charm. She replied sweetly, “I used for the lips- truth, for the voice- prayer, for the eyes- pity, for the hands- charity, for the figure- uprightness, for the heart- love.” How’s that for a make-up-kit?

Abraham Besdin

Truth Of Our Existence

2009-08-25T11:07:00.003-04:00

Just as a door testifies that it had a carpenter and a coat testifies that it had a weaver, so does the existence of the world testify that it has a Creator.

Akiva ben Joseph

First, nothing.... but God, the Holy Spirit in the mix, and the Word!

(Genesis 1:1-2)

God takes mud from the ground, and moulds the neccesaries into the shape of humankind. Then God gently breathes life into the shape and humankind starts living!

(Genesis 2:7-9)

"Being Changed!"

2009-08-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

However holy or Christlike a Christian may become, he is still in the condition of "being changed."

John Stott

Let there be.............

2009-08-22T10:27:00.000-04:00

Let there be spaces in your togetherness.

Kahlil Gibran

2009-08-18T15:06:00.001-04:00

No Christian is where he ought to be spiritually until the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ is being reproduced in daily Christian life.

A. W. Tozer

A Christian

2009-08-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

A Christian is the world’s Bible- and some of them need revising.

D. L. Moody

GR8ADVENTure

2009-08-18T14:14:00.001-04:00

The Christian life is the only true adventure.

Wilfred Grenfell

Believers

2009-08-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

Believers are not hired servants, supporting themselves by their own work, but children maintained at their Father’s expense.

Horatius Bonar

Hospitality!

2009-08-13T11:49:00.000-04:00

Hospitality is one form of worship.

Jewish proverb

2009-08-13T11:07:00.003-04:00

We tire of those pleasures we take, but never of those we give.

John Petit-Senn

The Way of the Cross

2009-08-04T11:33:00.000-04:00

The Way of the Cross winds through our towns and cities, our hospitals and factories, and through our battlefields; it takes the road of poverty and suffering in every form. It is in front of these new Stations of the Cross that we must stop and meditate and pray to the suffering Christ for strength to love him enough to act.

Michel Quoist

Romans 10:17

2009-07-29T09:00:00.001-04:00

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17 NIV

2009-07-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

Albert Schweitzer

A person's worth

2009-07-27T09:05:00.002-04:00

If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilization, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilization, compared with his, is only a moment.

C. S. Lewis

2009-07-20T21:23:00.001-04:00

Humanity is one in Christ

2009-07-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

Humanity is one in Christ, men are branches of one vine, members of one body. The life of each man enlarges itself infinitely into the life of others, the communion of saints, and each man in the church lives the life of all men in the church; each man is humanity. He belongs not only to that part of humanity which, living on earth at the moment, stands before God in prayer and labor, for the present generation is only a page in the book of life. In God and in his church there is no difference between living and dead, and all are one in the love of the Father. Even the generations yet to be born are part of this one divine humanity.

Sergius Bulgakov

Reflection

2009-07-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

There is a moment in every man’s life when he has to make ready for a departure, and at last the moment comes for him to leave his earthly home, and to give an account of his labor. May every one of us then be able to say: I have not darkened immortal souls with suspicion or fear, I have been frank, loyal and trustful; I have looked those who did not share my ideals straight in the eyes and treated them with brotherly affection, in order not to impede the carrying out of God’s great purpose, in his good time- a purpose which must bring about the fulfillment of the divine teaching and command of Jesus, “that we may all be one.”

Pope John XXIII

Thought for the day!

2009-07-15T12:28:00.000-04:00

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death is but a crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

William Penn

Meditation

2009-07-12T14:54:00.001-04:00

You can give without loving, but you can not love without giving

- Amy Carmichael