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.

In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning says, “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.” May you come to the awareness of how deeply you are loved by your God today. May you allow God to love what you have deemed unlovable in your own life. And may Zephaniah 3:17 be a foundation on which you experience the overwhelming joy that comes from God’s inexplicable love for you.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”Zephaniah 3:17

“Every choice you make is a step toward or away from the person you want to become. No single choice will get you where you want to go. Only repeated steps over time in the same direction will move you forward.” — Shane Parrish

Zephaniah 3:17. Is a passage I have committed to memory.  

Just a thought by coppi

“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

“Each step you take brings you closer to home.  Before you know it, you’ll enter the City.  You’ll hear your name spoken by those who love you.  And maybe, just maybe—in the back, behind the crowds—the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and…applaud.”  Max Lucado 6/1/19

Yes, that’s one of our Lord’s promises that we will see our loved ones again.  Not only my beloved family and friends, but also my dear little pets who loved me and I them.  I believe there will be a lot of rejoicing and love among the redeemed – it will be quite a celebration of joy and delight.  But I also want to see Jesus and His nail print hands applauding and hear his voice say “welcome home”.

I once heard a speaker say, “There’s a garden in the ashes of your life.” He was referring to all the nutrients found in the soil that lays beneath what we think is our ruin. I pray this Guided Prayer gives you the courage to believe that God has both the desire and the capability to restore and rebuild the ruins of your life for your good and His glory. (Ryan Tomlinson )

I read the above last night.  I loved what I read and wanted to share it with my just a thought readers. 

A. W. Tozer said, “God dwells in His creation and is everywhere indivisibly present in all His works. He is transcendent above all His works even while He is immanent within them.” May you go about your day with the knowledge that God is near to you. May creation declare to you the limitless love of your Heavenly Father.

Every part of creation, from the smallest of insects to the mountains in all their grandeur, proclaims the unspoken glory of God. Every living creature, rock, grain of sand, and mountain stream was created for a specific purpose. In the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, we discover God’s faithfulness and provision (Matthew 6:28-30). With every sunrise we are reminded of Jesus’ imminent return (Psalm 19:4-5). And with every gust of wind we are beckoned to live our lives as people of the Spirit (John 3:8). Job 12:7-10 says, “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” Are you allowing God to teach you through his creation? Are you taking in the unspeakable mystery and majesty found in the work of God’s hands? Or are you merely passing by these beautiful, intentional poems written on the pages of leaves, blades, and dirt by the hand of your heavenly Father

I love nature.  I grew up on a farm in Fredericksburg, Tx, and my life was surrounded by the the wonderful works of God’s creation.  I always felt God was dwelling in His creation and thus dwelling in me. Many scriptures in the Bible make reference to the hand of the Lord creating everything in our creation.  “God is always speaking to you. Every piece of creation declares to you the depth of God’s love, power, faithfulness, and nearness. Will you afford yourself the opportunity to stop and listen? Will you make space to open the eyes of your heart to receive the beauty, creativity, and love of your heavenly Father faithfully displayed before your very eyes?” (Craig Denison)

I guess one of the reasons I took up golf was it put me out into a wonder of nature.  Through my life of golf, I played in the sunshine, rain, gusts of wind blowing around me like a hurricane, and even a mist of snow.   As age has caught up with me, I now choose to go out and play golf only when the weather is nice.   God is everywhere and if He dwells within our heart, we take Him with us wherever we go; we are beckoned to live our lives in the Spirit. 

Just a  thought by coppi

“Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself.” — Brennan Manning

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139‬:‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Opinions from others and myself keep me from looking to the mountains from where my help and love come from.  If David, a lowly shepherd boy would have listened to the opinion of King Saul and his army as well as Goliath, he would never have killed the giant, Goliath, but David looked to the God of Israel, and his opinion of himself was “yes, I can”!  – “God, will be with me”!  And, He was.  So, Coppi, rather than being stymied by your own opinions of yourself, and others, replace them with God’s opinion of you.  That is hard for a people pleaser, but it’s one that I am embracing and trusting my Lord to help me with – “I can’t but He can”.

Just a thought by coppi

“O Lord, I know now that it is in silence, in a quiet moment, in a forgotten corner that you will meet me, call me by name and speak to me a word of peace. It is in my stillest hour that you become the risen Lord to me.”  (Henri Nouwen)

I love this, because sitting still is not easy for me. I am blessed when I do.

Just a thought by coppi 

Ps147:3 plainly says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” God longs to meet you at the place of your wounds and provide healing today.

Wounds come in all shapes and forms – health, death of loved ones, old hurts from long ago. loss of assets, divorce, abuse, and whatever is hidden deep within you.  The slightest of a thought can bring it forth or it can happen consciously before your eyes with little warning; wounds that change your life.  BUT Jesus! Scripture says “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds”.  I know because I have been there many times in my life and I wondered why my wounds still encapsulate me.  I just know in Ephesians 6:10-18 it says, “… Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”  We live in a fallen world. Ugly happens.  Do I have the answer – nope I do not.  I only look up to Jesus and say “help me”.   He does. 

Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi

“Hope is what makes you look outside the window to see if it’s stopped raining… Hope is why you buy your jeans a little tight… Hope is why you get out of bed in the morning, and why you dream at night. Hope is what makes us believe that things can only get better. Hope is what keeps us going.” ― Jodi Picoult  

“Love doesn’t come with an on-off switch. It’s made of too many threads of memory and hope and heartache that weave themselves into the very core of who you are.” ―Martina Boone  

“The tears of grief and the tears of joy shouldn’t be too far apart. As we befriend our pain, we discover that resurrection is close at hand.” – Henri Nouwen

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

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Love above quotes….wanted to share with my readers of Just a thought by coppi.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬.  “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬.  “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

As I read the above, I thought of the renown actress Delores’s Hart who gave up her successful acting career and marriage to become a nun.  I guess the words in ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬.,  “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” is something she wanted more than the lights of Hollywood or marriage.   To be honest, I thought myself how wonderful that would be – no more troubles, etc  I would have to deal with in living, but I also know I would miss the joys I experienced in this life.  Anyway it was a passing thought. Lol

Following is a short synopsis of Dolores’s Hart decision and how God used it to help others:

Mother Dolores Hart walked away from her life as an actress and engagement to marry Don Robinson, in Hollywood to become a nun in Connecticut, she thought she had put acting behind her forever, but God  had a different plan for her, and used her talents and decision to shape the development of The Gary organization.

Preparing for the upcoming talk at Fairfield has caused her to look back over the last 40 years or so of her Benedictine life and to marvel at how her life and that of her monastery have been shaped. She sees how her vocation as an actress has come to a full and gratifying expression through the mysterious development of The Gary – The Olivia.

The Gary-The Olivia is a home for quiet contemplation, a vehicle for positive change, and ultimately, a holy place. Mother Dolores has come to realize that she can help young people discover their own vocation in Christ through the medium of theater. “Theater can lead to spiritual transformation,” she said. “Every year when we stage a play, I see some type of transformation happen in certain actors,” she said. “That’s because the theater calls on actors to be grounded in their body and the truth of their feelings and who they really are. This causes people – young people who have never been on stage and older individuals who know the stage well – to see clearly, to see, perhaps not in full form quite yet, their vocation in life and the path that they must forge. Those who really understand acting know you have to be in touch with your own truth, and this truth is rooted in God.”

Just a thought by coppi