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.

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 

Great thoughts by great people…..just a thought by coppi

Acts 24:16

“I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”

“Honesty is more than the words we say. It’s a posture of the heart. We weren’t made to try and be something we’re not. God never asks us to keep up appearances. He longs for us to have the courage to be vulnerable. He longs for us to be so founded in his unconditional love that we live honestly.” (Craig Denison)

Ezekiel 37:1-14 NIV. The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Have you ever felt like a bag of dry bones with no life.  You are alive but existing from day to day.  Standish, my deceased husband, and I had attended a Christmas Eve service in 2010 and afterwards as we were crossing the street to our car, we were hit by a SUV driven by a young man who was texting and was preoccupied with his phone.  Standish was killed and I was unconscious for sometime  and thought to be dead,  but lived.  The year afterwards was filled with sadness  – grief, surgeries, cancer, etc.  I was alive, but dead inside.  Dry bones!  Length of time in the valley of dry bones I don’t remember, but what I do recall is when the Lord put breath back into this lifeless body and I started to live again.  Then my long time request to find God’s unconditional love became realty.  I guess it was a tiny ‘spark’ of what Job went through but at the end of it Job said: “I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you” (Job 42:5). Job sees God—and that is enough.  

Just

Just a thought by coppi

Romans 4:13 – faith as Abraham. Clearly God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham & his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.

Faith that is a big word for me….I want to see first – it’s much easier – I guess one would compare me to doubting Thomas. “I want to see the nail prints in his hands & the wound in his side. I want to put my hands into those wounds, then I will believe Jesus rose from the dead”. As I read above scripture “right relationship with God” popped off the pages. Relationship is the key. To know anyone, one must spend time with them. Faith & trust will developed as we spend time together – sharing, being who we are, no masks, open & honest. It is the same way with God.

Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi

2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Get your eyes off man and keep them on Me. Follow Me and you can have a close relationship with Me too.” People will disappoint you, just as you will disappoint them. But Jesus will never disappoint you if you keep your eyes on Him.

God moves among the casserole. (Bowie Stevenson)

Sure I am disappointed and hurt when a ministry’s leader falls under the ‘curtain’ of sin. In my many years of life I have seen more than I would like to mention, but I must remember they are human, not God, and probably are attacked by the forces of evil for reaching people with the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ more than the usual. My mother’s famous quote to me was “eat the meat and spit out the bones”, which is what I labelled the wisdom of a mother. I was one that wanted to see God and when a minister brought the word of God alive in my spirit, I focused on him/she too much and I guess when they show their humanity, my image faded into great despair and disappointment. Keep your eyes on Jesus – not man, and you will never be disappointed. “Eat the meat and spit out the bones”…..

Just a thought by coppi

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40:1-2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.”

ISAIAH 42:16

Just a thought by coppi.    

Ezekiel 35:10 – whereas the Lord was there

Jehovah Shammah: “The Lord is there”

“How often Satan shoots his arrows against our faith, but our faith defiles the power of hell’s fiery darts; they are not only turned aside, but they are quenched upon its shield, for “the Lord is there”…”

Sometimes when life gave me lemons & i wondered how do I make lemonade out of this situation, I would utter “Lord are you there”.  Today, as I read different happenings in the Old Testament when the saints were facing the “ites” of war & all seemed hopeless, Jehovah Shammah showed up & was there.  The “ites” of life come, they discourage us, try to destroy us, make us want to give up and the list goes on & on.  And, yes, sometimes I do have questions as to the “whys” but when it is all said and done, I come back to the one true source for me “Lord you are there”.

Just a thought by coppi

Prodigal……“a person who leaves home and behaves recklessly, but later makes a repentant return.”

“In the prodigal son in Luke 15, the father greeted him with love.  His older brother with contempt and anger. I ask-who would you prefer to greet you when you returned home after wasting your life away?”

I have read Luke 15 many times and have heard sermon’s on it many times too.  I love the way the prodigal son was forgiven by his father, but I never thought much about the elder brother except he was not pleased with the way his father welcomed back his wayward son.

After reading the quote above about who you would prefer to welcome you back the father or angry brother, Luke 15 echoed something I never had given much thought about.  I certainly would not want the older brother, since I was raised in a legalistic church, I thought God was my angry brother.  I remember a time when I was attending a bible school, Christian Word Ministries, a friend of mind and I were talking about how we certainly wanted to go to heaven, when she said to me “Coppi, you and I, will never relax about getting in the pearly gates until we hear them slammed behind us”!  We both laughed, but to be honest, there was great truth in that statement.  I have come a long way since that time in my life – Why?  I have turned from just listening to different ministers who taught fear in lieu of grace and started reading the Bible myself picking out the many scriptures on grace and love.  I have journalized my true emotions to Jesus and prayed for Him to show His love for me.  It’s amazing how many scriptures there are on grace and love.  In fact, that is the reason Jesus was crucified, died, and rose again so that we may live eternally with him.  He became that prodigal son’s father who ran out to meet his wayward son with love and grace.  He told his servants  “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate.”  That is grace wrapped in forgiveness.  Nope, I do not want the Elder brother to welcome me – I want my father who will enfold me in His love and grace and say “welcome home, Coppi, my wayward child”.

2023

Just a thought by coppi

Truly this was the son of God.  (Mt 27)

All throughout Scripture God reiterates a consistent, powerful metaphor: light and dark. Scripture depicts the darkness as that which is without God and light as that which has God in it. (Craig Denison)

When I read these words this morning in Matthew, my ears perked up as I am reminded of our world today.  In my opinion, in seems our country has drifted far from the words “In God we trust”.  I have said this before in my writings what my dear mother use to say “When you take God out of a Country, it will fall”.  And, as I    see what’s going on in our country and  world, I wonder if once again we are faced with unbelief and “there is no God”.  The Old Testament and the history of the Israelites will confirm what happens when one goes their on way and not following the ways of God.  When we crucify God and decide He is no longer needed or alive, we base decisions on human beliefs.  

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Cor:3:16

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14

Good and evil. Light and dark.  We must accept that both light and dark exist, that we can engage with both, and learn what it is to choose light at every turn.  May we open our eyes to the darkness/evil in our world and not let evil overcome the light and wisdom God gives us to make right choices.  We know from scriptures/God’s word what happens when we go our own way.  My prayer is that we awaken to the evil going on before it’s too late and our words will not be: “This was God and we chose evil over good”.  We crucified Him.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:34‬ ‭NLT

“Do not fear tomorrow, God is already there”…..

Much is written in the Bible about not to fear and not to worry but to take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.  Trust him.  He will help you.  It’s not easy, because in today’s world with the News Media and Internet spreading much negativity –  it’s hard to keep fear and worry away.  One thing I do is avoid as much of the News and negativity I can, but I don’t want to ‘bury my head in the sand’ and just ‘skip around in the Lilly pads”.  I am aware of what’s going on.  As I said before, prayer is my secret weapon – the weapon I have used and still do in my life.  Throughout the Bible, you will find that it records all happenings – good and bad, but the good report is our God wins.  He is a mighty God, He lives within me, He delights in me, He calms all my fears with His love, and He rejoices over me with joyful songs.  Zephaniah 3:17.  He loves me and calms my fears….That is something to zero in on and put in my/your memory bank.

Just a thought by coppi – 

Believe – tucked between believe is the little word lie.  Who is the author of lies & strive?  Who wants to destroy our lives & take the joy out of living?  Who comes as a thief in the night to torment us?  

“Don’t think of Satan as a harmless cartoon chearacter with a red suit & a pitchfork. He is very clever & powerful, and his unchanging purpose is to defeat God’s plans at every turn – including his plans for your life”. Billy Graham

“The devil has more temptations than an actor has costumes for the stage. And one of his all-time favorite disguises is that of a lying spirit, to abuse your tender heart with the worst news he can deliver…”William Gurnall. 

“Surveys report that many believers do not believe that Satan even exists.  If this is true, then the Bible isn’t true.  Satan would have us reject his reality nothing more than a comic book character because he has continued the battle to be like God……..”

I speak for myself and in my opinion, the devil would like to destroy you and the Kingdom life that Jesus died & resurrected for you to have.  He defeated Satan at Calvary so we might have life & have it more abundantly.  James 4:7:  submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil & he will flee from you.  Eph 6:11-16 put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against…his lies.

BELIEVE. ….