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.

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Ps 27:13-14

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Psalms‬ ‭27: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Mt 6:9-13 and Luke 11:-11-4

I have come to give you life, and give it to you more abundantly. John 10:10

Jesus wants us to have joy and happiness in this life.  We do not have to wait until we get to heaven. There are many scriptures in the Bible on the joy of the Lord to back up His desire for us to be happy on earth as well as when we get to heaven. Growing up with too much wrong teaching, I was unaware of all what the Lord wanted for me. It wasn’t until I picked up the Bible and started searching scriptures myself for truth. I also sought out Bible-teachers, who didn’t teach fear, but kept  the pendulum swinging in the middle of the scriptures.   I also did what Jesus said to do “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Mt7:7.  I will add, I have not arrived totally from misguided teachings, but Jesus has been faithful in opening doors for me to find His love and joy right here on earth as well as in heaven. 

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”—C. S. Lewis

Lord Jesus,

Help me in this moment to set aside all that has preoccupied me today.

Take away the many fears that rage around me. Take away the many feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem, and let me be shaped by you, the Lamb of God.

Help me to enter more deeply into your silence, where I can listen to you and hear how you call me, and find the strength and courage to follow you. I ask you to be with me as I listen to your word and come to a deeper understanding of your mystery of calling me to follow you.

Be with me now and always.

Amen.(Henri Nouwen 

Enough said. 

Following is a word from Max Lucado on July 20, 2018 

Jesus repeatedly escaped the noise of the crowd in order to hear the voice of God! Which presupposes a decision on his part.  I need to get away…to think…to calibrate my course. With resolve, he pressed the pause button on his life.

Richard Foster hit the mark when he wrote,  “If our Adversary can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.” The devil implants taxi meters in our brains.  We hear the relentless tick, tick, tick telling us to hurry, hurry, hurry, time is money—resulting in this roaring blur called the human race.

Follow Jesus into the desert.  Accept your Master’s invitation to  “Come aside by yourself to a desert place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).

Most of my life I have been a human doing – not a human being.  I am trying to change this.  When I read Max Lucado’s thought today, I liked the words ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness’ so I am going replace my words ‘doing and being’ to these words.

I choose to believe the Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses.”

Voddie Baucham quote 

“A Persevering God. There is still more irony regarding God’s mercy to us: He gives us a second chance so He can use us. God is not finished with us just because we failed. Our second chances are often God’s way of allowing us to have more significant usefulness in His redemptive purposes in His world.”

“It’s as if all of heaven had watched Peter fall — and it’s as if all of heaven wanted to help him back up again. “Be sure and tell Peter that he’s not left out. Tell him that one failure doesn’t make a flop.” Whew! No wonder they call it the gospel of the second chance.”

I feel as though I have been given a second chance in my life’s pursuit of happiness by turning my life over to Jesus, and asking Him to take the reins of my heart, and then to change the course of my direction to be a better person to all walking in and out of my life.  Our lives can change in a moment of time.  Mine did many times.  Some were mountain top experiences, others weren’t so great;  I floundered around in the hallow sequestered by fear and unknowns, but kept my eyes upward on Jesus until I was able to crawl out of the valley. I will admit I learned in the valley, and I definitely felt I was given another chance to apply my “learnings” to my new change.  

A valley is a low-lying area of land between hills or mountains. Valleys can be formed by rivers, glaciers, or erosion.  My life felt as though it was formed by erosion of self, but Jesus is faithful; He can redeemed the self, and give it a second chance.  There is no selection of people ; His love reaches all. I think about Hager.  • Hagar is revered by Islam and acknowledged by Hebrew and Christian traditions 

• Hagar is the matriarch of multiple Arab tribes 
• Hagar gave us the term “El Roi”, which means “the God who sees” 
• Hagar’s story reminds us that God sees and cares about us, no matter who we are or where we are 

I am so glad God is a God of second chances- redemption of our souls is an example of His second chances.  We can come to Him with a repentant heart, and ask for forgiveness, and He wraps us in His love of second chances.   What a blessing He gives us. 

John 17 is a chapter which I felt was given to me years ago when I was in  Albuquerque, NM, studying a new technique in art.  I usually did not get home until late.  I would immediately go take my bath and go to bed. But, before going to sleep I would read a chapter in my Bible. John 17 was the the one that I was impressed to read.  I do not know about you, but,myself, I always wanted to know I was loved as much as God loved the Jewish people as well as he love the chosen disciplines.  Even though I knew He sent His son, Jesus, to be the lamb slain before the foundation of earth.  He, Jesus, was sent to earth to become our way back to God.  I knew all of that but I still looked for every scripture in the Bible for reassurance. The above scripture was one of my findings – “Is not for them alone”.  Jesus was sent for mankind.  He was our “ladder” that Jacob saw leading to heaven.  He loves us – all of us.  I am climbing that ladder and by His grace will eventually get to the top.  That’s what the scriptures relate and I believe in them – and that settles it. 

“It is such comfort to drop the tangles of life into God’s hands and leave them there.”
—Anonymous

I made a comment last night to my husband about a quote I have heard and used many times in my life – “you can walk as spotless as a white lamb and be shot for a black crow”.  My husband said, “I have never heard this”.  If you have never experienced this before you are blessed.  Gossip is cruel and damaging to one’s character.  

I know in my other life of disappointments and heartbreaks, my fake friends thought I was a white lamb, but when my life turned around, and crashed, I became meat for the fodder and I was a black crow.  I had one friend who stood up for me.  She said, “If you think she would approve and be part of her husband’s scam, you did not know her.  Well, I was not, because of what he did to others, I too was a victim of his. I am simple – I trusted people, especially my husband.  That was a grave mistake.  Anything he put in front of me telling me it was something it was not, I signed.  Needless to say, but I signed everything we had accumulated away.  I can remember saying to him on one of our investments. “How much did we make on it, and He said “Coppi I would never do anything to hurt you”, knowing he had cashed it in and either spent it gambling or using it for his Ponzi scheme.  I am an insecure person, so all my security was wrapped up in my husband words of deceit. What a mess I ended up in. Today I read a wise text image that said, “I asked Jesus why He was taking me through troubled waters.  He answered, “Because your enemies can’t swim.”  Yes, Jesus is my constant companion—-my insecurities, fears, longings, my heart I have given to Him; I can trust Him and His Word and His promises and the tangles of my life. 

Just a thought by coppi

“God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage.

“Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of community with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life.

Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:16-21 NLT – You must pay close attention to what they (prophets) wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.”

When I open the Bible to read, my prayer is Jesus’, if it’s only one word or phase in this chapter, please shine a light of understanding on it.  I don’t want to read words, I want  Christ the Morning Star to shine in my heart and give me wisdom and knowledge of what he is saying to me so that in the dark places of my life, your words will guide me until the day dawns and together, you Lord and I, have walked through the thlipsis of the hard place in my life.

Romans 10:1-3 – Dear brothers & sisters, the longing of my heart & my prayers to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.  I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.  For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself.  Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

“Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law”….In my reading and meditation this morning in Romans 10, I kept returning to “refusing to accept God’s way……”  I am aware of what Paul is saying that he longs for the children of Israel to know it’s by grace they are saved, not works, but i thought God in my ordinary journey of life, i often refused to accept your way & chose to do it my way.  Am I ignorant of your guidance – do I know you – what is it in me to think I know better than you.  Is it unbelief or is it “I want it my way”.  Because when I go my path, I end up in the pig pen until I come to my senses & pray & return to your wisdom & guidance through the scriptures.  Charles Spurgeon says it wonderfully – ” Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, & you walk among those lilies, & yet you behold him not.  He is accustomed to walk through the glades of scriptures, & to commune with his people, as the father did with Adam in the cool of the day, & yet you are in the garden of scripture, but cannot see him, though He is always there.”  As Elisha prayed for his servant when they were surrounded by the enemy “open his eyes Lord that he may see you & your protection.” – now I pray, open my eyes Lord that I may see my Savior, present with me & His direction & love for me.  Quote Max Lucado “Don’t waste your failures by failing to learn from them.  Rise up!  God hasn’t forgotten you.  Keep your head up.  You never know what good awaits you”……and, that is Good News!

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’” Isaiah 6:1-7

I had a dear friend, she is dead now, but this was one of her favorite scriptures.  She loved the part where it says “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”  I think we all carry guilt from the past and wish we could have a retake, but that part is in the past and not to not retrieved: guilt will raise its ugly head and the regret is overwhelming for me.  My theory is journaling the wrong and going back to the source with forgiveness, if possible,  and for sure going to the Lord asking Him to forgive for the sin.  He does not touch my lips with a coal but he removes the guilt  and my wrong/sin is atoned for.  

Quote from Matthew Henry’s commentary: “A glimpse of heavenly glory is enough to convince us that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Nor is there a man that would dare to speak to the Lord, if he saw the justice, holiness, and majesty of God, without discerning his glorious mercy and grace in Jesus Christ. The live coal may denote the assurance given to the prophet, of pardon, and acceptance in his work, through the atonement of Christ. Nothing is powerful to cleanse and comfort the soul, but what is taken from Christ’s satisfaction and intercession. 

Jesus is our Jacob’s latter to God.  We are now able to come before him with our filthy rags – sin – and ask for forgiveness and he will atone all our filthiness into “clean filthy rags”.

“It’s impossible to un-ring a bell”

I read this today & thought how true.  Many times I have done & said things I wish I had not but the bell was rung.   James 3:5. Even so the tongue is little member, & boasteth great things.  Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.  Help me Jesus to ring a bell of love.