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.

Hebrews 4:7. God announced through David, today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts…

Have you ever heard God’s voice?  Do you want to?  I certainly did & tried every facet I could think of to hear His voice.  I would read the different ways ministers & people heard him speak to them…..being the person I am, I would do exactly what they said they did.  Nothing.  One example I shall share with you….Ruth Carter Stapleton (Our past President’s sister), had purchased a piece of land & built a beautiful lodge thereon near Dallas, Tx, where I lived.  It was to be a place where people gathered to work out deep seeded areas of pain in their life. Oh yes, I definitely signed up but I did not want to stay in places near the lodge.  I was  going to rent a room in a motel…be by myself & really seek God & try to hear His voice.  I did.  I sat in that room nightly all alone while everyone else was mingling with others.  I prayed. I mediated, & sat still, which is very hard for me to do.  Nothing.  The gathering was nice but I left without the reason I was going for….to hear God’s voice.  Years later and many tough goings & being terribly weary, I found myself with my head on my desk praying about something I did not want to do….I heard “you won’t have to”…I jotted the date down & reason I was praying. Sure enough it never happened.  Then I sat & thought about my journey in life – yes, I was guided by a very quite & still voice starting at the age 7 when I heard standing in a room in our old farm house…”go kneel & pray by your bed & I will filled you with my Holy Spirit”….I obeyed & it happened.  I guess sometimes the Mighty Lord does move in the miraculous but for me, it’s in the unexpected times, I feel this urging in my being…..I am here guiding you…..don’t harden your heart….listen sometimes I speak very low……..listen.  

Ecclesiastic 11:5…As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things.

The wind blows where it wishes, & you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.  John 3:8

Just a thought by coppi

When all is not, God is—“I AM WHO I AM.” When all is lost, God remains— “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.” The LORD, alone, is God.

Kethoser (Aniu) Kevichusa September 3,2020

“Unhappy is he who depends on success to be happy. For such a person, the end of a successful career is the end of the line. His destiny is to die of bitterness or to search for more success in other careers and to go on living from success to success until he falls dead.” — Alex Dias Ribeiro

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C. S. Lewis 

“The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances…….” Henri Nouwen 

One definition of control:   To order, limit, or rule something, or someone’s actions or behavior: If you can.  I have been in control situations, and I am sure I have  control in my behavior.  When we are not in control, one thing is for certain. God is always in control. The Bible teaches us through various scriptures how there is nothing beyond the control and will of God here on earth. He controls leadership even when they aren’t submitted to Him.  

I am a Christian, but I am also a human being.  I had a friend years ago, who wanted to know more about my walk with Christ, and asked if I would open my home for Bible teaching. I did.  I had many excellent Bible teachers come through my home and share wonderful teachings of God’s word. This went on for three years.  Many of my golfing and bridge players would come. My friend wanted to keep it small – just among us. It never happened, because that to me was wrong.  I guess I became under her control as what I should be as follower of Christ. I felt smothered and I wanted to be free to enjoy life. She wanted me to be shackled under rules and regulations- I grew up under that and did not want to go under it. Anyway, I wanted to be free to sing my own song, speak my own language, and dance my own dance. She did not like my decision and told me so. I loved my friend, and being a sensitive person, and a people pleasers, my life was in a mixed-up way. I finally turned everything over to Jesus, and let him handle it.  Truthfully, it wasn’t an easy break; I would have handled it differently.  God’s ways are not my ways for sure.  Today, I look back at that time in my life.  I went through a lot, but I am beginning to understand the love of Jesus, and learning to dance my own dance.  

Max Lucado:  ” God gives us more by going deeper than we ask.  He wants not only your whole heart – He wants your heart whole.  Why?  Hurt people hurt people.  Think about it why do you fly off the handle?  Why do you avoid conflict?  Why do you seek to please everyone?  Might your tendencies have something with an unhealed hurt in your heart.  God wants to help you for your sake.”

The other night driving home from a restaurant, a man in a van kept cutting us off.  We tried to ignore him but to no avail.  The next thing I knew he was besides us, rolled down his window & threw a cup full of gooey stuff at us.  We ignored him as it is dangerous to react to someone’s anger.  I looked in the rear view mirror & he had pulled over & beckoned us to stop & say something.  Ignore him, I said.  We did. As we did nothing – just driving home.  I wondered if this person had some unhealed past hurt he never dealt with….”I have always said when one stuffs feelings, they eventually will come out….”  Much better to have a confidant that you trust & talk it out or write a letter to Jesus & tell him about your hurt feelings……I promise you, you will feel better.

Just a thought by coppi

Ephesians 3:20 in the New International Version says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Isaiah 55:8 in the New Living Translation says: “`My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD.

My husband and I were watching the movie “I Can Only Imagine”tonight.  It was a true story of the life of Bart Millard.  He was with a Christian rock band MercyMe and was the lead singer.  The lyrics for  which Bart Millard wrote in just ten minutes.  Needless to say, but I cried many times during the movie.  Why?  Bart grew up in a very dysfunctional home. His father was very abusive to his mother and him.  His mother finally left for good after a very abusive night of fighting. Bart was left with a very angry man, who constantly abused him physically and verbally. I never was abused physically or verbally by my mother, but a mother trying to raise ten children by herself with very little income, I guess the dysfunction was from that situation and outside of the family unit.  We were fine when we reached the time of high school, but not so in our early schooling.  We went to country schools and were in the community of Germans. At that time, not being German (even though my father was German) and poor, we were mistreated by the other kids.  When you are young and vulnerable, it does make a hole in your soul.  I am a HSP (highly sensitive person) and being so was hurt by words or indifference.  To help me through all this stuff, I signed up for a course in “A Way Out”.  Through this teaching of ‘why the pain’ and being honest with a group of others who were there gave me understanding of ‘why the pain’. Anyway, then I had understanding so I was able to meander through the other difficulties I faced in life.  I have said this before in my “Just a thought by coppi”- and will reiterate again “If I didn’t have my faith and hope in Jesus, I do not think I would have climbed through the difficult times.  Watching this movie brought the vivid memories back and the tears flowed.  Tears:  Jesus gave us tears to wash away “uglies” in our life and He blocked them by putting forgiveness in our souls – I can only imagine  how He did that, but He did. 

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭34‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Do not worry about tomorrow, God is already there”.

Worry and fear, the demons of the mind.  Why?  The Bible explicates “Do not worry” – ““Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 NIV

‭‭There are many scriptures in the Bible about not to worry but to trust in God   I love to read the life of Charles Spurgeon, a man of prayer and faith.  He believed what was written in the Bible and his life reflected his belief, trust, in the scriptures.  “Thus Spurgeon emphasized what the state of our hearts must be when we pray. ‘You must draw near to God … either in a lowly sense of His majesty, or in a delightful consciousness of His goodness, or in a ravishing sense of your own relationship to Him, or else your prayer is as worthless as chaff…”. Prayer, in Spurgeon’s experience, was the intertwining of his life with that of his heavenly Father in humility and in the certainty of his relationship with Him through the Son. Prayer was not only ‘power’ and ‘sweet converse’ with God, but it was also the means whereby daily needs are brought to the Throne of Grace.”  What I gleaned from my readings of Charles Spurgeon’s life is that he did not worry, but if a problem occurred for him, he immediately went to God in prayer. 

I certainly cannot compare myself to Charles Spurgeon, but I do know through my life if i didn’t trust Jesus to get me through what I was going through, I would not have made it through the valley of worry.  The words above “do not worry about tomorrow, God is already there” were given to me many years ago by a man moving me from Oklahoma back to Dallas,Tx to face all the hurts I left there when a marriage of 32 years failed in despair.  It was not easy, but in my weakness I leaned heavily on His strength.  Yes, I still worry, but I journalize my fears and pray for Jesus’s help.  It helps me to keep going.

Dear Lord, help me to recognize Your presence, not just in grand moments, but in the quiet background of each ordinary day.

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

—Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”

—Mother Teresa

Some of my favorite times is when i go to bed at night, and close my eyes, and listen to music sounds pulling on the strings of my heart.  I find myself engrossed in the sound and thus I start a prayer time for all requests to pray for ones who have asked me to pray for them.   Listening is something I have to work on – the God I found doesn’t yell, He whispers so listening is imperative for me. “He will rejoice over me with the sound of music-as is recorded in Zephaniah 3:17”- music is healing and good for the soul, and I believe in heaven there will be angelic music awaiting our arrival. 

Just a thought by coppi

The brindle cow would have lived til now:

If only she’d saved her breath.

But she feared that her hay wouldn’t last all day:

And she worried herself to death.

We can either trust God or worry.  I don’t know why it’s so easy for us to worry, and so hard to trust; I wish it were the other way around. If you find yourself falling into this rut, remember that God is faithful.  He never fails,and He is never late.  As the old hymn says:

If you trust and never doubt, 

He will surely bring you out.

Take your burdens to the Lord,

And leave them there.

I read this today, it rang a bell in my heart:  Why?  I guess I find worry is easier than trust. 

““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I awaken this morning with fear hanging over my shoulder, because I had a bad dream that pushed joy out of my heart and filled me with fear.  When that happens to me I go to my recliner and with a cup of coffee and pick up a pen and pencil and journalize my dream and fear that have engulfed me. I then pick up my Bible for comfort – there is where I find a scripture that lights up my life.   My life is tainted by my past experiences and sometimes the buried thoughts come forth in dreams.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts” says the Lord – I recommend reading the entire chapter of Isaiah 55, you will find joy and healing in His word. I did. 

Just a thought by coppi

Oftentimes we take feelings of loneliness, rejection, shame, and guilt and believe that they must be truth. Truth isn’t found in our emotions, but rather in the word of God. Our mind is the gateway to our emotions. We feel the way we do because of what we perceive and believe. If we engage in the process of renewing our mind to God’s word, our emotions will get in line with truth. You and God are one. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to change that. May the truth of Scripture guide you into a lifestyle of centering your life around the union already available to you in Christ.  (First 15 Oct 20, 2017)

2 Cor 5:7 – for we live by believing and not by seeing

I oftentimes quote Craig Denison words in First 15 as when anything speaks to my heart, I want to share it with my Just a Thought readers.  I have no idea if his words ‘ring a bell’ in your heart, but if not, they are truth to ones that need to be reminded of the power of the word of God.  Our minds are the battle field of Satan and if he can get us to believe his tormenting thoughts, he will get a foothold on our emotions and cause us much grief.  In Roman’s 12: 2 – “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think”. In Ephesians 6 the scriptures speak of putting on the whole armor of God to protect us from the fiery darts of Satan.  I am aware that many ones don’t believe there is a devil but if you believe the word of God, then there is no getting around him.  He is not a little devil in a red suit with a forked tail but a fallen-prideful angel who wanted to rule the earth and was thrown out of heaven with all the other prideful angels.  He now is running rampart in the fallen world consuming people through their minds if they allow him to.  Quote Billy Graham: There are two great forces, God’s force of good and the devil’s force of evil, and I believe Satan is alive and he is working, and he is working harder than ever, and we have many mysteries that we don’t understand.

Enough said about the devil – our Mighty God is more powerful and defeated him at Calvary!