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.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears – Antoine De Saint

Ps 56:8 – Hold you…..weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning..

Ps 56:8 you have kept count of my tossing, put my tears in your bottle

My flesh & my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my portion forever…. 

As I read the above scriptures & sayings, I thought why does everything seem to magnify during the night?  I speak for myself, if I am overly concerned about something, you better believe it, when I turn the light off at night, my concerns become bigger than life.  Tears & fears overwhelm me until I get a grip and pray “Jesus, I have laid this problem at the foot of the cross…I keep picking it up again…I ask your forgiveness…please know I believe in you and your mighty power.  Take this concern.  Give me your peace, love, & guidance….I am your child & I take refuge in you.

Morning comes & joy does comes in the morning….so hold on…..weep no more.

“Here’s a question every angry man and woman needs to consider: How long are you going to allow people you don’t even like — people who are no longer in your life, maybe even people who aren’t even alive anymore — to control your life? How long?” – Andy Stanley

Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as having said, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” 

These quotes spoke to my heart today. I thought I would share with my followers….maybe they will  do the same for you.

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

Quote: Ed Grinnan

“Is it any wonder, Lord, that when I force myself ahead of you, my way becomes so difficult”….

Enough said.

Quote: Ed Grinnan

“Is it any wonder, Lord, that when I force myself ahead of you, my way becomes so difficult”….

Enough said.

Just a thought by coppi

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever. . . .(Psalm 73:25–26)

Enough said……………….

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever. . . .(Psalm 73:25–26)

Enough said…………………..

Mt 7:12- Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.  This is the essence of all that is taught in the law & the prophets.

Mt 7:1-do not judge others, & you will not be judged.  For you will be treated as you treat others.  The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

The standards in the Bible sometimes are difficult to do & my flesh rebels.  Yet again, as I read & re-read the above scriptures, I did note the dos that is required of me, but I also noted they were put there for my good.  If I do to others what I would like them to do for me, that’s for my benefit.  As, if I do not judge others & treat others with disgust, I will will not be judged in the same way.  In the Bible there are standards to live by – some, I will say to myself, I don’t like –  I will throw it out.  But, no, all are there for my benefit – the flesh says I will do it my way; the spirit says yes, Lord, I know your way is right & for my good, I will follow.  Life is full of choices.  Believe me, I have reaped from wrong choices I made; but thank God I have a redeemer, Jesus, who has & will lead me out/through them.  Lord, give me wisdom & knowledge to make the right choices in life.  Thank you for the Bible & it’s directives.

“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.” – Ernest Hemingway

“Reach for the moon—even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.”

I am an advocate of going back into my soul and rooting out any “leftover’s” of hurt still lingering there.  I am big in journalizing , going to Jesus in prayer, and talking to a trusted friend about a lingering hurt in my life.  It was many years ago and I had returned to Dallas after spending a year In Oklahoma to try and face the demons I left in Dallas  and start over.  At that messy time my then husband had completely destroyed my life with his scam, leaving me with an over-the-top shame and with ‘who I thought were friends’ (that delighted in blaming me for his felonious actions). Plus, the repercussions of bankruptcy produced angry creditors, etc.  It was a total disaster, but I had to return to the city I loved and face the influx of shame of a situation I had no idea about, but was swept into because he was my husband.  I returned and found a wonderful job at Adams Golf.  The employees at Adams Golf became my family.  My immediate family had nothing to do with me, or if they did, I never heard from them.  I was alone.  I divorced my husband who was a pathological liar, which I could not live with, and found it hard to think he would cause such trauma for mankind including me.  Several years later I re-married and thought maybe my life would take a turn for the better, but the sad thing was the man I married was not who I thought he was.  Life was difficult being married to him, but I remember my mother made a comment to me one time “If you make a bed, you must now live in it”.  I did.  Joe became ill and was put in the hospital not expected to live.  I had gone up to see him after work and I guess all the pressure I was under caused me to break down.  I stood in the corridor of the hospital, and I could not stop crying;  During this breakdown I heard one of the nurses say “doesn’t she have anyone”?  I was alone except my special friends at Adams Golf.  I will never forget them-ever.  Anyway, I say all this because I thought I had dealt with all that pain and hurt, but I find a root is still inflamed in my soul.  To uproot something, I must dig it up by talking about it, praying, journalizing, to not let this bit of past darkness put out the light brightly shining in my life today.

Thank you for listening.

“God makes an amazing promise to us in Philippians 4:6-7. Scripture says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” How incredible! If we will make our requests known to God in prayer, giving our burdens and anxieties over to him, then he will swap those burdens for a guarding peace that surpasses all understanding. How much do you need his peace today? What areas of your life feel burdened? What do you feel anxious about?” (Craig Denison 2/3/19- First 15)

When I read above scripture this morning my mind raced back to the year 2011.  That year was filled with sorrow. I had lost my husband, I faced two surgeries, and was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.  I was lying on the couch in my home writing scriptures of healing, hope, peace, and love on a sheet of paper.  I still have those scriptures and have encased them in a plastic cover.  Every night before I go to sleep, I read them.  The first scripture on the list is Philippians 4:6-7.  I made requests – lots of them, and still do.  God was my source and still is.  Tom, my husband of now, tells me I need to re-type all those scriptures on a clean sheet of paper so they will not deteriorate, but I say “no”.  I pinned them by hand every time I found a scripture that spoke to my heart.  The page of scriptures is yellow, areas covered in tear stains, and edges are torn, but each and every stain are a reminder of a time in my life that I leaned heavily on Jesus and the promises in the Bible.  I still do.  He is my anchor amidst the storms of life.

Yesterday a nurse was preparing me to get ready for cataract surgery. They were running late so she asked me to come into a room with her so she could go over all the questions, etc they ask before surgery.  When it got to my age, she looked at me startled and said “surely you are not the age listed on your fact sheet”. “Yes I said -but age is a number, it’s how you feel that counts”.  She then said “what do you do to stay young”.  Since I am a follower of Christ I always look for a window of opportunity to witness the love of Christ to a person.  My response was simply:  “I try to take care of the temple Jesus lives in, me, by feeding my inner man with God’s word as I would my outer person nutritionally.  She was from another country and immigrated to the United States years ago.  She, too, was a Christian and spent time witnessing to me, which I enjoyed.  The one thing she said, that struck a chord with me was that people of the United States should read what the Bible says about how God warned the people of Israel to stay away from worshiping idols, etc and doing their own thing and forgetting about him.  She said “God had great patience with them, but they would not heed His warning”.  She said she was concerned the Americans were doing the same thing as the Israelites.  My thoughts drifted back to what my dear mother would say (she has been gone many years now) “When you take God out of a country, it will fall” and I can’t help but think we as a nation are headed that way.  

My cataract surgery was successful and I am on my way to seeing much better, which I am grateful for; but I pray and wonder about our nation and what we stand for:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

May we change our direction….I pray so.

Just a thought by coppi