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.

“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Psalms 30:5

“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!”

Psalms 30:11-12 NLT

I looked up tears and following is one of the many blessings tears bring to us:

Tears aren’t just water. The liquid layers that make up tears are a lot more like saliva. There’s a lot swimming around in there, including oily lipids, metabolites, electrolytes, enzymes, and even hormones.  God is a good God, but there are times when I am in the throws of sadness, I wonder where he is.  Last week my family was discussing my oldest sister who is going through many trials with her health and truly is not able to stay in her home.  However, she is insistent that is where she wants to be and does not want to be in a nursing home.  I certainly don’t blame her for that as when I visit nursing homes, I come away totally depressed.  And, if I am truly honest I think I will end up there someday and I would prefer the Lord to take me home to be with him eternally.  However, we do not know what the future holds but we do know who holds the future.  As I have said many times before, do I know the “whys” of life – I don’t.  I don’t understand many things and I ponder how could a good God let those things happen.  I also know there are two forces in this world – one being the devil who is evil and the other is God who is good.  Yes, there are questions but I will leave all my doubts and those questions in the hands of Jesus and trust Him because our God is weaving a pattern that we will not understand ‘until we get home’.

“Rather than fixating on what we cannot know, it’s better to focus on what we can. Henri Nouwen: “The real enemies of our life are the ‘oughts’ and the ‘ifs.’ They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now.”

“If I would have done that or I “ought” to have done that have been nemesis in my life and have caused angst for me.  There are many “ifs and “oughts” I should have done and thought about, but my problem was I was trying to do so much that I never felt I zeroed in on one and truly enjoyed it.  I had to finish one ‘ought’ and speed off to the next ‘if’.  I have a portfolio that covers a spectrum of the many things I have done and accomplished, but in all honesty, the sad thing is I don’t remember any joy connected to them.  I do believe I was running from pain and I covered the pain with doing.  But all of that is an ‘if’ now.  And, when I was in the ‘if’ mode, I was thinking about the ‘oughts’ so as you might guess, i never stopped to smell the roses 🌹.  But when the trials of life come, things change, and I had to stop and get into the moment to survive.  Real life took place in the here and now, and that is where it should be.  In the moment.  Enjoying the fragrance of the smell of roses.🌷🌷🌷

Paul asks the question in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

The question isn’t simply, “Who can be against you?” You could answer that one. 

Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, and exhaustion. Calamities-confront us and fears imprison. Were Paul’s question, “Who can be against us?” we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them. “From MaxLucado The Lucado Inspirational Reader

For every crucifixion, a resurrection is waiting to follow – perhaps not immediately but the possibility is there.  Quote from John Ashcroft book ‘Lessons from a Father to his Son’.

I use to have a hard time with the “IF God is for me” because I wasn’t so sure at times He was, but the next verse reads “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Romans 8:32.  I have now replaced the IF with “SINCE God is for me” – I like that better.  I had a dear friend at Adams Golf tell me “Coppi, you have made lemonade out of some of the lemons that were thrown your way in life” and my immediate thought was “Since God is for me, I was able to face the fears, calamities, and foes and not let myself bog down underneath them”.  Not easy, but SINCE He is for me, calamities, sickness, hardship, inflation, etc can be released to Him.  For every crises there is a resurrection.  It might not be immediate but it is possible.  I think of how horrible the crucifixion was for our Lord and what He endured for us, but then I remember the glory of His resurrection and what all He accomplished for us….”Grace glorious grace, at the cross you called it finished, Grace wonderful grace at the cross all my sin is covered”….crucifixion but then came the resurrection!  That is the way I handle the lemons thrown my way in life because I know a resurrection will come!

A cosmic game of hide and seek is often how many view the search for God. “Where are you?” is the question that echoes throughout the ages as human beings seek for God in a vast universe often filled with inexplicable mystery- Margaret a Manning Oct 19, 2020

Have you ever wondered where God was when the storms of life blow into your life.  I did.  And, as I read the scriptures in the Bible I note that the Apostles did too. Not only the Apostles, but the prophets, Kings, and the Israelites.   No one is exempt from problems.  Why God do you hide your face from me when I am in need?  Where are you?  How long before you answer my prayer?  These are just a few questions thrown toward God.  His answers are not always the way we want, but He will answer your prayer.  It may seem like forever before you see a glimmer of the answer, but it will come.  I went from different training periods in my life before I realized the importance of my answered prayers.  Yes, training is difficult, but the end results is the catalyst God is after.  He wants you to know Him and His love.  He wants a relationship with you.  

Gal 6:4 let everyone be sure to do their very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work done well & won’t need to compare himself with someone else.

Gee, do you ever feel inadequate?  I am an avid reader of devotions.  They make me think & want to know more about Jesus.  But when I write “my just a thoughts”, I feel very inadequate.  When I play golf with someone who makes my game look very “sad” I wonder why I even play.  I then have to have a “good” renewing of my mind.  I play golf because I love being out & being with my friends & I write my thoughts from my heart & experiences in life.  I read: “Lord, when I feel tiny & insignificant, lost in vastness of everything, remind me that in your eyes I am special.  Special is being true to yourself – who He made you to be….satisfaction comes from doing your best, not comparing yourself to others.  Jesus help me to be me.

Just a thought by coppi

“Our tendency is to feel intuitively that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are. As we sink further into pain, we sink further into felt isolation. The Bible corrects us. Our pain never outstrips what he himself shares in. We are never alone. That sorrow that feels so isolating, so unique, was endured by him in the past and is now shouldered by him in the present.” — Dane Ortlund

enough said…….

But his death, (Bourdain) coming just days after the suicide of the beloved designer Kate Spade, is at least as noteworthy for another reason: how powerfully it speaks to the discrepancy between what we see of people on the outside and what they’re experiencing on the inside; between their public faces and their private realities; between their visible swagger and invisible pain. Parts unknown: That was true of Bourdain. That was true of Spade. That’s true of every one of us. (Excerpt taken from Apple news – June 9, 2018)

“Courage is fear that has said its prayers”.  Excerpt from:Hamlin, Rick, “pray for Me”

Where are you; full of fear, anxiety, depression, or hopelessness today? Know that the path to faith in those areas is paved with fresh revelation of God’s faithfulness. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” Your God will always be faithful to you. You can trust him with any problem you are going through. He longs to work in your favor.  (First 15 Greg Denison June 11, 2018)

I understand fear, anxiety, and when you think you are not enough.  Through my years  of adolescence and school years I could not speak and if I did I stuttered but yet I put on this “happy face” that all was okay when inside I wanted to run away and cry.  It took me years of praying, going to different programs geared for helping people face their fears.  “A Way Out” was one.  Learning to put my trust in God for help and guidance.  It was a journey but our God is faithful; He will help you.

Just a thought by coppi’

I was led to believe that doubt is the opposite of faith.

But the older I get, the more I realize that couldn’t be further from the truth. I recently saw an amazing quote from Cole Arthur Riley of @blacklituries that said, “Doubt is not a threat to faith: it’s faith that has finally taken off its mask.” Rachel Denison 6/23/21

“As God’s people, we’ve got to become comfortable with holding doubt and belief in tension. God never once asked us to be anything more than human. He doesn’t even have one unrealistic expectation of us, though we have many for ourselves and others. And when we shy away from the questions, when we hide our truest selves from others and the Father, when we numb out and silence the doubt

within, we are left pretending. We are left stagnant, never moving forward, and we strip our faith of the mystery, beauty, and wonder it was always meant to hold

May you know that you will always be met by love no matter how it is you approach him. You can come before him just as you are.” 

” Everyone lives in a prison of one kind or another, but true freedom can transcend the stone walls of any confinement, & one’s spirit can soar like an eagle if the individual lays aside earthy problems to think on heavenly things”.

“Feelings come & go like clouds, but the hills & stars abide”.

“You are not what you feel, you are what you believe”.

“Let your expectation come from God”.

Confinement, feelings, and expectations can definitely imprison us with fear & torment.  But if we trust in the Lord with all our hearts & lean not on our own understanding, He will guide us to His perfect love, which casts out all fear. 1 John 4:18.  Our feelings are tainted by all the happenings in our life & if we put our trust in them, we will surely be in despair.  If we want to soar with the Eagles, we must put our trust & hope in the One who overcame the world, Jesus.

Strong Christians see God in both the good & the bad.  The mature believer sees God not only in pleasures & palaces, but also in the barnyards & stables of life. (John Maxwell)

Just a thought by coppi

Wise men follow the star but the star did not lead them to a palace but a barnyard.  I have often wondered why bad things happen to good people but it does.  I, myself, have walked through many barnyard experiences and wondered why but being a Christian or good person does not eliminate me from the pain of living.  Mt 5:45 – for he makes his sun to rise on the evil & the good, and: sends rain on the just & the unjust.  Let us never become exclusive by imaging ourselves the only recipients of grace.  How could grace include everyone but them without losing its essential meaning?  Yes, we will have barnyard undergoes – I call them them the valleys but I also know there is mountain top experiences too.  I have encountered them both but when i reached the top of the mountain, I realized I was carried by the Savior who was born in a manager, a barnyard, but became the Savior of the world.