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.

Roma Downey:  ” When I was on “Touched by an Angel” we used to say that coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.

“The voice I look for speaks through my heart.  It’s less of a head voice – all my fears & doubts come through my head but it comes to my heart.  A deeper knowing”.

John 10:27:  my sheep hear my voice & I know them & they follow me

1 Kings 19:11-13:  it may be a whisper, but you can hear it.

Heb 4:7:  today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts

Habakkuk 2:1:  I will watch & see what He will say to me

Be still & know that I am God…Ps 46:10:  I have a hard time being still to listen to the voice of God because I have so much “racket” going on in my head.  God does not scream to get our attention, he usually whispers!  He speaks to us in many ways: the Bible, creation, people, impressions, etc.  I have found the best time for me is early in the mornings when all is quite & still. I will get up & fix myself a cup of coffee, crawl back in bed, pray & start reading the Bible, but before I start my reading, I pray that God will still my thoughts, & open my heart to receive whatever He wants me to receive from His word.  That works for me but each of us has our own way approaching God.  I also ask for God’s wisdom & guidance throughout my day.  It’s an effort for me sometimes to get up early but if I don’t, I find I miss that time spent in His presence.

Proverbs 14:12. There is a way that seems right to a man but it’s end is the way to death.

Jer 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare & not for evil, to give you a future & a hope.

Proverbs 16:20 commit to the Lord whatever you do, & your plans will succeed. 

Choice – not chance – determines humans destiny.  Every choice you make has an end result.   Zig Ziglar

When I read quote by Zig Ziglar, I said to myself “very true” indeed.  I wish I could take back some of the choices I have made in life.  True, our Lord can take my wrong choice, help me as I untangle the cobweb of the choice & teach me a lesson from it.  But, I first had to come to the end of myself & surrender all to Him before the cobweb could be mended.  The right decision would be to ask for his guidance & direction before jumping into the spider web.  I guess I am afraid of what He may say,”aye” or “nay”.  Because, I want it my way – “aye”!  God did not make us robots but gave us a free will to make choices.  I have learned even through some of the wrong decisions I have made, the Lord my God took the lemon & make lemonade.  But not before, I went through the “ugly” of the choice.

Charles Spurgeon warned:

“Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.”

When I read this, I can hear my mother saying, “Coppi, you cannot run away from your difficulties because you have to take yourself with you.”  So often in my life, I thought if I could be somewhere else, a different environment, far away from where I was, I would not hurt or have to face the pain I was enduring.  My mother’s wisdom was correct, I can’t run away from me.  1 Peter 5:7:  let Him have all your worries & cares for He is always thinking about you & watching everything that concerns you…….Ps 55/2 Give your burdens to the Lord & He will take care of you.  Not easy for me as I find I have the habit of picking up “the sack of potatoes” & dragging them around with me again.  Take them, leave them & trust Him to carry you through whatever your concerns are….it might not be tomorrow or the next day, or the day after, but He will do it. In His time.

Col 1:17. He himself is before all things & all things are held together in him & that we are now reconciled to God by the sacrifice & death of Christ….

There is a protein molecule in the human body called “laminin”.  Laminin is a cell-adhesive protein molecule that literally holds us together.  This molecule is in the shape of a cross.  I googled laminin & was so excited to view and read about a protein molecule in our body & reflect on the fact that the very cells of our body that hold us together are in the shape of a cross. I listened to Louie Giglio & would recommend all to click on his Website & listen to him.  You will be blessed I promise.  Ps 139: We are indeed fearfully & wonderfully made…I read & quote “the human body is the most complex & unique organism in the world, & that complexity & uniqueness speaks volumes about the mind of its Creator – every aspect of the body, down to the tiniest microscopic cell, reveals that it is fearfully & wonderfully made.”  

Now, let this wonder fill you up….I did!

Phil 4:6,7. “Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer & supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts & minds through Jesus Christ.”

Above scripture is one of many scriptures I wrote on a piece of paper when I was facing Cancer of the kidney back in 2011.  I went to my Bible concordance & looked up scriptures on healing.  I wrote them down & read them daily.  Went through that bump then came the diagnosis that they found Cancer on my sacrum. Another bump in the road.  Out came my scriptures.  Now, I was told the kind of Cancer I have, multiple myeloma has showed up again on my right clavicle.  I will start treatment on it as soon as my insurance company approves drug they are going to administer.  As soon as I got the diagnosis, I dug out my tattered paper of healing scriptures & started reading them & allowing the words to sink into my soul.  The peace of God that passes all understanding. shall keep your hearts & minds……peace.  The world can not give it to you….only God.

It is now 2022 and I just returned from seeing Dr Moreb, who has been my doctor since 2011.  He said my markers are great and I am still in remission and thinks I will live to be 100.  Lol. I am aware of the many other cancer patients who have not been blessed with a good report,  and that saddens me.  I do not know the “whys” in life and why all the suffering.  I have to leave that in the hands of a Sovereign God, and trust Him.  Easy “no”.  I only know in my own life, He has been the one who carried me through the valleys up to the mountain tops.  I would not have made it without my faith and trust in him.

“Prayer makes the darken’d cloud withdraw;

Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;

Gives exercise to faith & love;

Brings every blessing from above”……

If you are around me any length of time, you will hear me say..”prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness not his reluctance.  I have embedded those ten words in my mind because they were very meaningful to me when I went through a very difficult time in my life.  In 1997, I can remember being in Corpus Christi, TX feeling like chicken little, the world falling down on my head.  It was during that period I came upon God’s willingness not His reluctance.  I prayed diligently for Jesus to guide & direct my steps, & gradually He pulled me out from under the rubble.  In didn’t happen overnight but His peace covered me until I could stand strong in Him.

But we cannot assume that [God] feels about us the way we feel about ourselves—unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely. In human form Jesus revealed to us what God is like. He exposed our projections for the idolatry that they are and gave us the way to become free of them. It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us just as we are—not in spite of our sins and faults (that would not be total acceptance), but with them. Though God does not condone or sanction evil, He does not withhold his love because there is evil in us.  (Brennan Manning’s book, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging).

So why do we fear for our needs.  Why do you stress over the foundational cares of this life while your heavenly Father is seated on his throne? The truth is that until we experience for ourselves both the goodness and power of our heavenly Father, the truth of his provision will only ever feel like a heady, theological principle. Until we experience firsthand the character and provision of our God, fear will remain. (Greg Denison First 15 Aug 2, 2018)

1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Until we know because we know that we are truly loved by God for ourselves, we will never know the freedom and abundant life God offers us.  I speak from my heart because that has been my quest in life.

Just a thought by coppi

I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.”

Psalms 16:7-8 NLT

Awakening at 1:30-2:00 is annoying to say the least, but that is also the time that many of my ‘what to do is solved’.  “Even at night my heart instructs me”.  The Lord is with me even at night leading and directing my thoughts.  I will awaken Tom, my husband, not at 1:30-2:00, but in the morning and say “I got the answer to what I was praying about – amazing but true.  James 1:5: If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  He doesn’t care if I ask him early in the morning because he is right beside me….he never leaves me.  His promises are true and this is one of them.  “I will never leave thee or forsake you”.  (Heb 13:5).  Even at times when I feel he is not there….he is but he is carrying me through the thickets.

I love testimonies as they build faith and hope.  The following testimony was sent to me by one of my readers.  I met her at the Cancer Center.  We sat side by side taking “drips”.  She was taking a chemo drip and I was taking something to build up my bones.  We got to talking and sharing.  I added her name to my list of Just a Thought readers and through them we kept in touch.  Yesterday, I received the following testimony from her.  It blessed me, and I knew it would be a blessing to you, so I asked if I could share it with you.  I loved her reply.  “Hi Coppi , yes , of course you may !!!!  Please do, this needs to be shared .  Jesus is everywhere we need him to be .  What a life changing blessing I will always hold on to.”   Following is her testimony:

“I will be  a 3 year , stage 3 , breast cancer survivor on January 29th !  I want to share something with you.  One day when I was receiving chemo , a woman was seated not so far away from where I was sitting.  She kept looking at me.  When I got up to leave , she stopped me and said she was sorry for staring at me but wanted me to know she saw Jesus sitting with me while I was getting my chemo.  She said she couldn’t help herself to keep looking at what she was seeing .  She wanted me to thank  Jesus everyday for healing me, which of course I do ,sometimes many, many times a day.  This has most certainly changed my life .  I break down in tears of joy every time  I think of that day.   I love our Lord with all my heart.  Not a day goes by that I’m not thinking of him and praying to him.  It is so nice to read your messages that you write .  Thank you for sharing them with me and so many others !”

Yes, Jesus is everywhere.  He lives within our heart.  We are his ambassadors.

“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. Craig Denison 1/21/21)

I read this today and it ‘rang a bell’ in my soul.  My emotions at times take control of my being.  I feel, like Craig Denison-states, that what I am feeling is truth when it is not, but it feels that way.  Of course, those feelings are like a conundrum in me.  I want to run away and hide from the world when in essence, they are only my emotions working overtime.  I have a promise book that I keep close, and when I feel out of sorts, I will read scriptures from it which are truth.  They will help me put my emotions in check with the truth of God’s  word.  This has helped me deal with my run away emotions and put me back on the path of joy, peace, love, and happiness.  Uncalled for emotions can cause a needless ‘swamp’ of unhappiness and grief, which can be corrected by the renewing of your mind through scriptures.