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Archive for the category “Miracles”

11 Aug 2014

faith walk

This is a faith walk. Everything you do must be done by faith in Me. If you keep your eyes focused on Me, you will not fail. I know each thing you must face, because I have already faced them for you. So, My child, do not be afraid. I will not let you be harmed. I will guide you every step of the way. My right hand will protect you. Know that I have prepared the way for you. Just trust Me and press on through.
– Shearon Hurst

Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known THIS DAY that thou art God of everything, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again.
(vs 36-37)
– Buell Kazee

Faith is the basis of all works in us. Absolute surrender of all self-sufficiency and resourcefulness of self, and absolute faith and trust in God to do something for us, is the attitude a believer must take. Ever it is the question, “Can you believe?” All things are possible to him that believeth.
– Buell Kazee

Posted in Adventure, attitude, awareness, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, commitment, confidence, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Life, Love, Miracles, soul and spirit, success, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

06 Aug 2014

“Whatever the past has been, you have a spotless future.” — Unknown

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Beginning, Burnign Bridges, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Losing, Miracles, mystery, Solitude, soul and spirit, strength, success, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

01 Aug 2014

what you see is what you are

Our only blindness is our own lack of fascination, humility, curiosity, awe, and willingness to be allured forward.
– Richard Rohr

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Blessing, Choice, find art at pinterest, Glory, Life, Miracles, mystery, nature, soul and spirit, thankfulness, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

30 Jul 2014

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message. – Malcolm Muggeridge

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She
Invites us to lay our eyes level with her
Smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its
Plain.

—Thoreau

The raspberries
in my driveway
have always
been here
(for the whole eleven years
I have owned
but have not owned
this house),
yet
I have never
tasted them
before.

Always on a plane.
Always in the arms
of man, not God,
always too busy,
too fretful,
too worried
to see
that all along
my
driveway
are red, red raspberries
for me to taste.

Shiny and red,
without hairs—
unlike the berries
from the market.
Little jewels—
I share them
with the birds!

On one perches
a tiny green insect.
I blow her off.
She flies!
I burst the raspberry
upon my tongue.

In my solitude
I commune
with raspberries,
with grasses,
with the world.

The world was always
there before,
but where
was I?

Ah raspberry—
if you are so beautiful
upon my ready tongue,
imagine
what wonders
lie in store
for me!

“Raspberries in my Driveway” by Erica Jong

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Blessing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Happiness, home, inspiration, Life, Miracles, moment, mystery, nature, Today, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

27 Jul 2014

full

Although I watched and waited for it every day, 
somehow I missed it, the moment when everything reached  
the peak of ripeness. It wasn’t at the solstice; that was only
the time of the longest light. It was sometime after that, when 
the plants had absorbed all that sun, had taken it into themselves 
for food and swelled to the height of fullness. It was in July,
in a dizzy blaze of heat and fog, when on some nights
it was too hot to sleep, and the restaurants set half their tables 
on the sidewalks; outside the city, down the coast,
the Milky Way floated overhead, and shooting stars 
fell from the sky over the ocean. One day the garden 
was almost overwhelmed with fruition:
My sweet peas struggled out of the raised bed onto the mulch
of laurel leaves and bark and pods, their brilliantly colored 
sunbonnets of rose and stippled pink, magenta and deep purple
pouring out a perfume that was almost oriental. Black-eyed Susans 
stared from the flower borders, the orange cherry tomatoes 
were sweet as candy, the corn fattened in its swaths of silk, 
hummingbirds spiraled by in pairs, the bees gave up 
and decided to live in the lavender. At the market, 
surrounded by black plums and rosy plums and sugar prunes 
and white-fleshed peaches and nectarines, perfumey melons
and mangos, purple figs in green plastic baskets, 
clusters of tiny Champagne grapes and piles of red-black cherries 
and apricots freckled and streaked with rose, I felt tears 
come into my eyes, absurdly, because I knew
that summer had peaked and was already passing 
away. I felt very close then to understanding  
the mystery; it seemed to me that I almost knew 
what it meant to be alive, as if my life had swelled 
to some high moment of response, as if I could 
reach out and touch the season, as if I were inside 
its body, surrounded by sweet pulp and juice, 
shimmering veins and ripened skin.

“A Warm Summer in San Francisco” by Carolyn Miller

Posted in attitude, awareness, Blessing, Change, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, grace, Habits, Happiness, Life, Love, Miracles, moment, mystery, receiving, Smile, success, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

24 Jul 2014

safety vs. joy

That our God would only be safe if He were dead.

But He is the Living Word and His Word is a flashing, double-edged sword and He doesn’t write Himself into neat five-point outlines but He is like the wind — and He speaks in parables that subvert and poetry that ignites and metaphors that jolt and there is nothing safe or small or stiff about Him.

That’s what I am thinking as I scrub smudge marks off cupboards, try to wash away all these marks. Thinking what the Beaver said of Aslan:“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.“Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

There is nothing safe about the Christ who rent the veins and the veil to save us — He is Divine and He is Dangerous and He is Detonating. He is no tame lion.

What did Randy Alcorn say and in the most Scriptural sense? “It’s dangerous faith in our untamed Savior that leads us to the joy we crave.“

And what the world desperately needs is more dangerous disciples of an unsafe God.

He is wholly unsafe and He’s the untame lion whose claws tear into the scales of my thick sins and the ripping away of everything filthy dragon can feel like a burning right through to the heart. I need His perfectly dangerous ways.

Real love is never safe.

Because grace is a dangerous thing and too often those who speak the most about grace are the most graceless of all.

I am just beginning to learn it and see it painfully in me: The modern-day Pharisees focus on avoiding sin and not on ardently loving our Savior.

What all us Pharisees need to experience is this: Ardent love for your Savior is the most direct path of sin avoidance.

What all us Pharisees need to experience is the mystery of the whole of holy Scripture and real crazy love.

“The holy wild is always pervaded with mystery,” writes Mark Buchanan.

Maybe faith isn’t as much formula as the mystery of being drawn to, surrendering to, the overwhelming love and will of the most dangerous Reality in all the universe?
– Ann Voskamp
read full blog at http://www.aholy experience.com

On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…

…that safety is not the thing you should look for in the
future. Joy is what you should look for.

Security and joy may not come in the same package.
They can…but they also cannot.
There is no guarantee.

If your primary concern is a guarantee of security,
you may never experience the truest joys of life.
This is not a suggestion that you become reckless,
but it is an invitation to at least become daring.

Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, courage, Faith, find art at pinterest, fun, Glory, Gospel, grace, Gratitude, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, music, mystery, Passion, power, soul and spirit, Trust, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

21 Jul 2014

evolution

I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking God to do His work through me. –Hudson Taylor

Faith, Not Feelings, Pleases God
by Rick Warren

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” (Job 1:21 NIV)

When you are a baby Christian, God gives you a lot of confirming emotions and often answers the most immature, self-centered prayers — so you’ll know he exists. But as you grow in faith, he will wean you of these dependencies.

God wants you to sense his presence, but he’s more concerned that you trust him than that you feel him. Faith, not feelings, pleases God.

The situations that will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job. On a single day he lost everything — his family, his business, his health, and everything he owned. Most discouraging for Job was that for 37 chapters of the Bible, God said nothing!

How do you praise God when you don’t understand what’s happening in your life and God is silent? How do you stay connected in a crisis without communication? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they’re full of tears? You do what Job did: He fell to the ground in worship and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21 NIV).

Tell God exactly how you feel. Pour out your heart to God. Unload every emotion that you’re feeling. Job did this when he said, “I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak” (Job 7:11 TEV).

He cried out when God seemed distant: “Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house” (Job 29:4 NIV).

God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, and questions.

Describe a time when you have felt God’s presence in your life.
Think of another time when you wanted to feel God’s presence but didn’t. Did it change your response to God? If so, why?

This devotional is based on the current Daily Hope radio series at http://www.rickwarren.org

…when we hope in what God has promised – commanded – our hope is the same as certainty.
– Craig Groeschel

Posted in action, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, Change, Choice, Faith, find art at pinterest, Gospel, grace, Growth, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, mystery, soul and spirit, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

07 Jul 2014

full

It was just a jug of water
I took with me to the well

the stranger asked me for a drink
I choked on my reply,

why would I give you water, sir
when I am thirsty, dry?

and then he said
if you give to me
I will fill your cup
with things you’ve never had before
yes, I will fill you up

then I cried
here’s my cup
fill it up
fill it up
Here’s my whole jug of water
fill it up
Lord
fill it up

take the heart of my devises
make it new I recognize it
needs to know your love

take this life of broken chances
use it now for your devices
and let me share your love

it was just a blue sky summer morning
as I started to the well

then this stranger spoke my life,
the whole world stopped –
I choked on my reply,

how do you know me so well, sir
oh tell me, who am I?

and then he said
if you give to me
I will fill your heart
with things you’ve never had before
yes, I will fill you up

then I cried
here’s my heart
fill it up
fill it up
Here’s my whole heart, my life
fill it up
Lord
fill it up

as the sun set that evening
everything had changed
and my heart it was singing
all my life was rearranged
everything is different now
this strangers my best friend
Jesus came to live with me
I am loved
I know it’s true
this end is the beginning
this beginning is the end

AL 7/7/14

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Proof, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

06 Jul 2014

how does your garden grow?

Pull up some radishes for dinner,
my mother said.
They grow next to the house under your bedroom window.

Afraid I’d pull up something other than a radish
I gathered a sister, a brother
and we knelt in the dirt
under the screened window

looking

at what we thought
to be a radish.

Its leaves so new so green
our hands so hesitant so unsure

we reached and pulled

earth clung
to our fingers
to the fleshy roots
quivering in the sun

we pulled up radish after radish
handing them
a bouquet
to our mother.

She no longer cares for radishes.
My sister, brother and I tend our own gardens.
But I wish everyday
to kneel again
under that window

to feel new and green
hesitant and unsure.

“Radishes” by Susan B. Auld

art by watercolor artist, Mary Lou Peters
http://www.maryloupeters.com

Posted in action, Adventure, awareness, home, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, soul and spirit, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, Vulnerability, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment

02 Jul 2014

1 Comment

end…now begin new again

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
—Matthew 11.28-30

Jesus teaches no doctrine; he extends an invitation.
He preaches no creed; he offers a relationship.
He does not discuss theology; he practices a way of living.
He offers no reward, but his presence.

He invites us into the Great Work of being souls,
the Great Work of loving the world.
He promises to be yoked with us.

He offers the paradox of the labor that is rest,
the yoke that is freedom,
the burden that is light.

His Word is not an order, a threat, a pronouncement,
but a promise, an opening, a desire for us:
“Come to me.”

The burden we bear into the world
at his side
is not heavy; it is light itself, the light of God.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in action, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, beloved, Burnign Bridges, Change, Choice, courage, Death, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, healing, Letting Go, Life, Losing, Love, Miracles, Trust, www.pinterest.com

life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Miracles”

faith walk

“Whatever the past has been, you have a spotless future.” — Unknown

what you see is what you are

Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message. – Malcolm Muggeridge

full

safety vs. joy

evolution

full

how does your garden grow?

end…now begin new again

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