Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi – written in 2015

A light house does not blow fog horns but it only shines.  

When I read the above I thought of our walk as Christians.  Does our life reflect the light  of Jesus.  St Mark 4:21: and he said unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick?  A candle beams its flickering light so we may find our way in the dark as does the Lighthouse.  As Christians we should let our light shine & walk in the light of Christ.  We need not blow fog horns but just shine & let the Holy Spirit beam through us.  Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord……i grew up in a very legalistic religion & if we did have a little light, it was totally blown out with dos & don’ts & lots of fear. 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God….10: herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us & sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4 is filled with scriptures of love.  The pendulum swings both ways but should be in balance.  I guess my desire is not to be a fog horn but a flickering light for our Lord.

Just a thought by coppi

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” 

“My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, Lord, I am coming.”

Psalms 27:8 NLT

You can know that you need solitude for one reason—Jesus needed it. All over the New Testament we see examples of Jesus going off on his own to pray. One example, Mark 1:35, tells us that Jesus, “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark . . . departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.  Greg Denison First 15 2/10/18

15 2/10/18

Richard J. Foster said, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.

Being still is something that alludes me.  My engine starts churning early in the morning with “you gotta  – you gotta” and out comes my list of “you gottas”. Then I think ‘you didn’t take time to be still, read, pray, and listen’.  I stop.  Put my list away and start my daily devotions.  My list is put away, but my mind will not let me forget my list of what I have to do that day.  I pray “Lord, how can I stop this habit and be with you the time needed.  I know my day is much better when I do”.  Now, what I try to do is arise very early in the morning before the day starts.  I take my reading materials and prayer list and find a quit spot to be still and alone with Jesus.  I need that time.  It’s important to me.  If Jesus needed to be alone with God, I certainly need to be alone with Him. (Ps 46:10)

A Simple Act Of Trust

O Lord, all you ask of me is a simple “yes,” a simple act of trust, so that your choices for me can bear fruit in my life. I do not want you to pass me by. I do not want to be so busy with my way of living, my plans and projects, my relatives, friends and acquaintances, that I do not even notice that you are with me, closer than anyone else. I do not want to be blind to the loving gestures that come from your hands, nor deaf to the caring words that come from your mouth. I want to see you as you walk with me and hear you as you speak to me.

my prayer. The above written by Henri Nouwen.

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” 

“My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, Lord, I am coming.”

Psalms 27:8 NLT

You can know that you need solitude for one reason—Jesus needed it. All over the New Testament we see examples of Jesus going off on his own to pray. One example, Mark 1:35, tells us that Jesus, “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark . . . departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.  Greg Denison First 15 2/10/18

15 2/10/18

Richard J. Foster said, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.

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Being still is something that alludes me.  My engine starts churning early in the morning with “you gotta  – you gotta” and out comes my list of “you gottas”. Then I think ‘you didn’t take time to be still, read, pray, and listen’.  I stop.  Put my list away and start my daily devotions.  My list is put away, but my mind will not let me forget my list of what I have to do that day.  I pray “Lord, how can I stop this habit and be with you the time needed.  I know my day is much better when I do”.  Now, what I try to do is arise very early in the morning before the day starts.  I take my reading materials and prayer list and find a quit spot to be still and alone with Jesus.  I need that time.  It’s important to me.  If Jesus needed to be alone with God, I certainly need to be alone with Him. (Ps 46:10)

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Just a thought by coppi

Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

The question isn’t simply, “Who can be against you?” You could answer that one. 

Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, and exhaustion. Calamities-confront us and fears imprison. Were Paul’s question, “Who can be against us?” we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them. “From MaxLucado The Lucado Inspirational Reader

For every crucifixion, a resurrection is waiting to follow – perhaps not immediately but the possibility is there.  Quote from John Ashcroft book ‘Lessons from a Father to his Son’.

I use to have a hard time with the “IF God is for me” because I wasn’t so sure at times He was, but the next verse reads “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Romans 8:32.  I have now replaced the IF with “SINCE God is for me” – I like that better.  I had a dear friend at Adams Golf tell me “Coppi, you have made lemonade out of some of the lemons that were thrown your way in life” and my immediate thought was “Since God is for me, I was able to face the fears, calamities, and foes and not let myself bog down underneath them”.  Not easy, but SINCE He is for me, calamities, sickness, hardship, inflation, etc can be released to Him.  For every crises there is a resurrection.  It might not be immediate but it is possible.  I think of how horrible the crucifixion was for our Lord and what He endured for us, but then I remember the glory of His resurrection and what all He accomplished for us….”Grace glorious grace, at the cross you called it finished, Grace wonderful grace at the cross all my sin is covered”….crucifixion but then came the resurrection!  That is the way I handle the lemons thrown my way in life because I know a resurrection will come!

I’m no eagle, Lord, just a sparrow, who is thankful for Your help in finding the right doors of service.  Daniel ShanIn  

“In the Bible, sparrows are used to illustrate God’s care for even the smallest creatures, emphasizing that even seemingly insignificant things are known and loved by God.”

Jesus, I commit my life to you.  Guide me through the deep water-current that washes over me.  Make my crooked path straight, and help me to walk through the right doors of service.  I feel like I have a second chance on life.  It’s strange to me to be in the same life style I had before.  The only difference is I am not the same.  In my other life, it was hard for me to say “no” to people, which resulted in a lot of stress, and getting caught into spider webs.  One morning as I was having breakfast on the patio,  I watched a spider diligently working her web.  I thought I remembered I tore it down yesterday, and here she is at it again.  I felt the same way.  Doing and not being webbing-doing over and over again.

Jesus loves me unconditionally – that is something I had to learn.  I thought I had to earn love from people as well as Jesus.  I am thankful now to give Jesus the reins in my life, and let him be the eagle and me be the sparrow.  All I need to do is build my life/nest around the truth of the Word of Jesus and find my home around the altar of His word. 

That is not complicated- it’s resting and listening to the sound of sparrows peacefully in their nests. 

“Gratitude… claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.” – Henri Nouwen

Speak gently in my silence.

When the loud outer noises of my surroundings

and the loud inner noises of my fears

keep pulling me away from you,

help me to trust that you are still there

even when I am unable to hear you.

Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:

“Come to me, you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest . . .

for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Let that loving voice be my guide.

Amen.  – Henry Nouwen

Just a thought by coppi

“I hope the morning sun continues to remind you: you are worthy of new beginnings. It is okay to not know everything and know that you are still being guided right where you need to be.” – Morgan Harper Nichols

Everyone deserves the chance to be known for who they are, not who they appear to be. That’s the way God views people. (Janet Denison)

To be fully known for who we are and still be loved is the essence of acceptance of yourself.  But it is a risk.  You have to be vulnerable, and that is not easy to do.  The funny thing is, you have to take yourself everywhere you run.  That’s what my mother used to tell me when I wanted to run from pain.  Insecurity was a dark cloud that was/is a problem for me.  I built a wall around me that no one could penetrate – not even myself.  It wasn’t until I took a course titled ‘A way Out’, years ago, that I began knocking bricks off my wall.  I was in a class with many prominent people and I wondered why are they here, but when they took off their masks and let us see their hurts, insecurities, etc, they were just like me – ‘hurting’.  Being vulnerable, I am sure wasn’t easy for them, but being accepted, warts and all; they/me made a giant step into new beginnings.  It did for me.

—C.S. Lewis

“Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and temperance is love in training.” — DL Moody

Jesus is the “Light of the World 

”Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.“

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭62‬:‭5‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I love to read the Psalms.  King David was so vulnerable in them. He would cry out in his anguish and be very joyful in praise and song when happy. He knew where his hope came from.  “Hope is commonly used to mean a wish: its strength is the strength of the person’s desire. But in the Bible hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.”  A song I have sung many times in my life is:  “I’ve anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest, I’ll sail the wide seas no more; the tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep seas. Jesus I’m safe evermore …”  “Being anchored in Him is my refuge, rock, and fortress…” and truly “He is my HOPE!”