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.

Ps 91…….Those who live in the shelter of the most High will find rest in the shadows of the Almighty this I declare about the Lord.  He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;  He is my God, and I trust Him….

Psalms 91 was my mother’s favorite – I think she made it a practice to read everyday & claim the promises therein.  My mother had great faith & believe me she needed it.  She reared ten children by herself on a small farm located outside of Fredericksburg, Texas.

My father died from lung cancer caused by mustard gas used in World War 1.

I too love Psalm 91 & all the protection God provides in it.  As I was reading it one morning this week, I thought I am going to commit it to memory – so I have started!  My mind swirls around in many directions these days so I find it is not as easy to do as “yesterday’s”….but it’s worth the effort to have all those promises planted in my heart.

David, a shepherd lad and a King, knew where his source of refuge was so he wrote about the God that helped him guard sheep, kill Giants & fight battles so we would know where to go when we too face the battles of our life.   The promises of God we can stand on ….As in my deceased husband’s bible, I noted he had written over Ps 91 “covering”…yes, Standish, we all need God’s grace & covering……….& love.

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” — Rudyard Kipling

I have been stymied by my own fears most of my life.  Fear was a dark cloud looming behind me.  I told myself as long as I hide behind this darkness and not turn around and face the fear of whatever was holding me captive; light was blocked.  Do you know how hard that is when you live under the circumstances of low self-worth and thinking that accomplishments is the way to acceptance.  If you fail in what ever it is that has a grip on you, devastation moves in like a tsunami and if you succeed, the pain that comes from struggling to learn something hard followed by the delight in knowing that I can still surprise myself through learning is satisfying.  It’s a dichotomy.  “The division of two things that are completely different:   The dichotomy between what people think they are and what they do.”  To simplify me, I had to dig up the root that was choking my life.  Face the reason, acknowledge it, work at uprooting it, (I am a believer in Christ) and asking Jesus to help me move on with Him as my guide and director.  I gave up being the ambassador of my life.  I wanted to walk in light – not darkness.

Just a thought by coppi 

Elijah Meets God at Horeb

“He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

(I Kings: 19: 11-13)

Silence alludes me.  I try.  I get up early daily.  I have plans to sit in my recliner and be still and allow silence to engulf me.  Maybe I am still for thirty seconds before my accumulated thoughts start drifting in. You have to do this – did you do that, and before long I am doing and not being.  My dear friend, Stan Carter, would get up at 4:00 A.M. daily,  grab a blanket, wrap it around him, head out to their screened-in-porch, close his eyes, and mediate in silence.  Whenever I visited him and his wife, I was so impressed with his consistency and desire to be in God’s presence, I would say to myself – “When I get home I am going to do this”.  Stan would say to me “Coppi, when you start the mornings being in the presence of God, you will be amazed how smoothly the day goes by”.  Stan is in heaven now, and I am still working on being still and silent in God’s presence.  Winston Churchill’s famous saying ““never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in……”.  Is my mantra as I preserve to be with God in silence.

I have done a painting expressing solidarity – a tree all alone on a mountain top reaching out to God in silence.  It’s done in pastels with many colors which are examples of the many ways we are pulled from being alone with God in silence.

Painting will follow later……

Just a thought by coppi – written 2016

As blind Helen Keller said, “I am only one, but still I
am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do
something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

By unknown author:

One SONG can spark a moment,
One FLOWER can wake the dream,
One TREE can start a forest,
One BIRD can herald spring,
One SMILE begins a friendship,
One HANDCLASP lifts a soul,
One STAR can guide a ship at sea,
One WORD can frame the goal,
One VOTE can change a nation,
One SUNBEAM lights a room,
One CANDLE wipes out darkness,
One LAUGH will conquer gloom,
One STEP must start each journey,
One WORD must start a prayer,
One HOPE will raise our spirits,
One TOUCH can show you care,
One VOICE can speak with wisdom,
One HEART can know what is true,
One LIFE can make a difference.

May that life be yours. You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14)

Sheep have strength in numbers; when one wanders off and is separated from the flock it becomes an easy target for predators. In the same way, we think we know better and wind up in all kinds of situations God never intended for us! Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away”. 

Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to show that the Kingdom of God is accessible to all, even those who were sinners or strayed from God’s path. He uses the example of a shepherd (God) who has 100 sheep and one goes missing. (Luke15:4-7)

Psalm 23:1–3 tells us that the shepherd meets the sheep’s every need: food, water, rest, safety, and direction. When we as believers follow our Shepherd, we, too, know that we will have all we need. We will not lack the necessities of life, for He knows exactly what we need (Luke 12:22–30).

In Psalm 23:3, the Hebrew word translated “paths” means “well-worn paths or ruts.” In other words, when sheep wander onto a new path, they start to explore it, which invariably leads them into trouble. This passage is closely akin to the warning in Hebrews 13:9: “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” The apostle Paul also alludes to this idea in Ephesians 4:14.

My painting of a sheep is done in pastels of many colors. I use all different colors to illustrate the different ways, we as sheep, can stray off course from the path God leads.  In our world today there are so many temptation alluring us that the choices we take lead us wrongly.  We need a shepherd to use his staff to turn us back on the path of righteousness.  Following are some of the sins God detests:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

My prayer is that my Shepherd, Jesus, will use His staff and guide my life away from the wrong choices I might/and have taken in life,  and will restore my soul with His love, joy, and peace.  These are definitely some of the bright colors reflected in my painting. 

Just a thought by coppi

  Isaiah 58:11 says, “And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Sheep have strength in numbers; when one wanders off and is separated from the flock it becomes an easy target for predators. In the same way, we think we know better and wind up in all kinds of situations God never intended for us! Isaiah 53:6 says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away”. 

Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to show that the Kingdom of God is accessible to all, even those who were sinners or strayed from God’s path. He uses the example of a shepherd (God) who has 100 sheep and one goes missing. (Luke15:4-7)

Psalm 23:1–3 tells us that the shepherd meets the sheep’s every need: food, water, rest, safety, and direction. When we as believers follow our Shepherd, we, too, know that we will have all we need. We will not lack the necessities of life, for He knows exactly what we need (Luke 12:22–30).

In Psalm 23:3, the Hebrew word translated “paths” means “well-worn paths or ruts.” In other words, when sheep wander onto a new path, they start to explore it, which invariably leads them into trouble. This passage is closely akin to the warning in Hebrews 13:9: “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” The apostle Paul also alludes to this idea in Ephesians 4:14.

My painting of a sheep is done in pastels of many colors. I use all different colors to illustrate the different ways, we as sheep, can stray off course from the path God leads.  In our world today there are so many temptation alluring us that the choices we take lead us wrongly.  We need a shepherd to use his staff to turn us back on the path of righteousness.  Following are some of the sins God detests:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

My prayer is that my Shepherd, Jesus, will use His staff and guide my life away from the wrong choices I might/and have taken in life,  and will restore my soul with His love, joy, and peace.  These are definitely some of the bright colors reflected in my painting. 

Just a thought by coppi

  Isaiah 58:11 says, “And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”

Just a thought by coppi

Mark 6:51 “Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed.”

“The thing is that when we follow Jesus, He calls us to a life of doing things that are impossible without Him. He calls us to a life of jumping out of boats and believing that He will do the rest. It’s called faith.” Guidepost: Mornings with Jesus

“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

Just as He said He would. Mt 28

Just a thought by Coppi

“I choose to trust what I don’t understand to the God who does.”

Truly, I have had to say the above quote many times in my life because I do not understand the many goings-on in my surroundings. My mother used to say to us when we would ask about something we did not understand and why a good God would allow that to happen – “God is weaving a pattern, and you will understand it in the great by and by”. As I watch the news and see all the tragedies that I do not grasp and probably will not in this lifetime, I remember what my mother said and the scripture in Isaiah 29:16 – “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”? (NLT). So to sum it up, i guess I will know and understand when my life is over and I stand before our creator and view the entire pattern he has woven. Until then I choose to trust what I don’t understand to the God who does.

Just a thought by coppi 

In his book The Furious Longing of God, Brennan Manning describes a method of prayer that has helped me greatly in learning what it is to enter into God’s presence. He says to pray this simple prayer: “Abba, I belong to you.” As you inhale, pray the word “Abba.” As you exhale, pray, “I belong to you.” This idea of breathing and praying is an incredible depiction of what it is to receive the presence of God. He is nearer to us than the very breath that fills our lungs, and he will always respond to our desire to be filled with him. May this practice of God’s presence fill you with a greater awareness of how real and near your God is to you today. (First 15 – Sept 22,2017)

He never moves….we do.