Old Song Says it All

"Ain't God good, to give us so many blessings,
undeserving, that's what we are,
we ought to praise Him,
love and thank Him,
a little more today,
and a whole lot more tomorrow..."

I remember that song from my childhood,
and I can remember at some of our old church singings,
after someone would testify of God's goodness in their life,
someone else would break out in this song,
and everyone would join in.  

Our God is very good to us, and I'm so thankful that in His inspired,
living Word, He is the one who first taught us-

"In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 
1 Thes. 5:18

It isn't a new idea to thank Him in all things.
It is His will for us, the blood bought,
born again, we who are in Christ.

"Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name:
the upright shall dwell in thy presence."   Psalms 140:13

We who have been born again are always in His presence,
we do not have to perform rituals to know or to try and
experience Him, we are in His presence forevermore. 
He has promised us-
"...I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Heb. 13:5b

We simply abide in His truth, we take Him at His word,
and we do not put our faith in the words of those who
draw us away from His sound, faithful truth.

His words alone are pure-
"The words of the LORD [are] pure words:
[as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
Psalm 12:6

His words can be trusted.


He is holy, and whatever He proclaims to be holy,
that alone is holy.
Who are we to name or deem something as holy?
We look to Him to define what is holy.

"Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill;
for the LORD our God [is] holy." Psalms 99:9

Our Lord God, who is holy in all His ways, He has not
left His children alone, to try and figure out our lives.
His word reveals all that we need to know,
He has not left us in the dark, He has brought us into-
His marvelous light,
His shepherding,
His parenting,

His truth,
His goodness,
His righteousness,
His way,
His life.

He alone is good, and my heart is overwhelmed.

53. . . 55, seriously???

No, no, I'm not trying to remember how old I am,
at least not today anyway.
I will admit there are times when I actually do forget
just how many years I've existed on this planet.

Should I have admittedly that to the world?
Maybe some things are better left unsaid.

Anyway~
back to the numbers,
can anyone guess just what these numbers might mean?

I'm ecstatic, ECSTATIC I tell ya',
I mean those numbers have my head swimming!

Here in our neck of the woods,
in this here little ole' town where we exist,
we are expecting something rather nice...

DRUMROLL please!  d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

We are going to be blessed tomorrow with a high near
53*
and the following day,
55*!!!

Imagine cymbols crashing, people cheering, clapping,
and me jumping for joy!

And Mr. Farley, my old Mr. Farley,
wagging his tail very exuberantly,
with a huge thud sound as it pounds the ground!

Mr. Farley gets very happy when the temperatures warm up,
because that means he'll see me outside.
He loves it when I'm outside, it gives him something to do
other than sleep all day
or lay there staring.into.the.abyss.

He will come and lay close to me,
whatever part of the yard I may be working in,
and watch me, and grin, and wag his tail.
Yes, my dog grins, and sometimes he even talks to me.
He tells me things like-
"I love food!"
"Don't you think I need a snack?"
"Why do you keep asking me if I'm hungry,
I- am- ALWAYS- hungry!!!"

I love it when the weather gives us a break from the cold here
where we live.  It's just the way it is, freezing cold,
then a little warm up, and then back down, up, down...
I believe this pattern helps me make it through the winter
a little easier, than if I had to live with below
freezing temps for weeks on end.

I'm really not very much fun when I'm cold,
I'm so sorry to have to admit that.  

The past three mornings Mr. C and I have been enjoying the morning song of Mr. Cardinal as he sings from the tree next to our kitchen window.  He is out there even before the sun rises, and it sounds as if he's sitting close to the bird feeder,
just singing his little heart out.
Oh how I love hearing the birds singing their bright,
cheerful songs, those God created songs,
that no man can match, what a blessing for my ears! 

Because of the warm up, I'm making my list of things to do,
some things I'd like to accomplish outside, the next two days.

And that brings me to another confession-

 
Those Christmas decorations are still sitting on the bench,
out front, for all the world to see, along with the candy cane,
stuck in the ground (just a smidgen' of it showing in the pic).

#1 top priority on my to do list for tomorrow
(this will make Mr. C so very happy)-
to clean and put up the last two Christmas decorations,
before our neighbors start calling us rednecks.
For shame!
I should have put them up long ago, but... but...
I honestly have no excuse at all, except for the fact that
I did not want to deal with them
while it was
cold
or rainy
or windy
outside,
where these items have been since Dec. 15th,
SHAME!


But I will take care of this tomorrow, if the Lord allows it.

53*...55*!!!

I will feel the sun on my face, what joy!

I pray you all have a very blessed day in the Lord today!

"While the earth remaineth, 
seedtime and harvest,  
and cold and heat, 
and summer and winter,  
and day and night shall not cease."   
Genesis 8:22

Caution

My last two posts have been very light-hearted.  I have much to be thankful for, and love sharing funny moments, and joyful memories with others.

Today I feel the need to throw out a caution.  We can never be too careful these days.  Here in America certain spiritual practices are being introduced into mainstream Christianity, and there really aren't many warning, examining, or guarding truth, the truth we know that is established in God's Word, the Bible.

I can remember early on, when I was a young mother, a woman at a church we used to attend would tell me, there's more to be had.  She would say this, and like dangling a carrot out in front of me, she would entice me, making me wonder what she was talking about.  She seemed so good, so close to God, and I thought I could trust anything she would have to say on spiritual matters.  Come to find out after a very long period of time listening to her, great confusion and finally much Bible study on my part, I learned that what she was offering was a discontentment in my walk with Christ and a path to experience things that some had deemed spiritual experiences, but were actually in direct opposition to God's will for His children.  Ever since then I have learned to examine everything in light of scripture.  If we do not, we are not prepared to stand against lies when they come our way.

For several years now, I have been researching and reading about what is going on here in the states when it comes to the New Age mysticism creeping into the Christian/Evangelical churches.  There are faithful watchmen on the wall warning, and showing plainly in scripture why these things are wrong, but too many Christians do not know their Bibles well enough to recognize or stand against the lies that are creeping in and they are believing anyone who sounds "holy", or closer to God than them.

Many well-meaning Christians have ignorantly embraced prayer practices that are not taught in God's Word.  This is only a starting point, the contemplative prayer practices.  If one is serious, and wants to know the roots of this, where it began and who promotes it, one can soon learn and know for a fact it is not what our one true God of the Bible has ordained for His children.

Once trusted speakers and authors are dabbling with New Age mysticism and their prayer practices, and are writing about their experiences, making things sound so good and so holy.  We have to do our research, we have to know where a person is coming from before we trust their teaching.

If someone sounds really good, really enticing, ask yourself what they are enticing you to?  Check out what influences them, what they read, what they have studied.  If they share quotes from different people, find out who those people are, find out what they stand for.  We are living in a day where we cannot be too careful.  How are we to guide our children and prepare them for the future if we ourselves are not aware of the false teaching that is abounding and creeping in from all angles? 

First and foremost, know your Bible, know it, it's not enough to just read it, we must know why we believe what we believe.  If we have allowed things in our own lives, practices or habits taught to us by an author of some book, have we made certain that scripture has given us the same information?  Why are we so trusting?  Have we forgotten the warning from Paul in 2 Cor.11:13-15-


"For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I write this because it is important that we do not flirt with anything that promises us "more", God's word is so full and so rich, He has taught us everything we need to know about having a full, wonderful, rich relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ His Son, who gave Himself sacrificially for us, He alone made the way for us to God, it is only through faith in the finished work of Christ that we have access to our Holy God.  Learn from Him, He has given you everything you need to know right in His Divinely inspired Word.  He is faithful, He is not holding anything back from you that you would have to go and learn from someone else, outside of His Holy Word.  Learn scripture in context, study whole books of the Bible, so that you know why something was said, in what context it was taught.  That is how false teachers lead the ignorant astray, they take scripture out of context, twist it and use it for their own wicked purpose.

Please use caution, whenever you decide to open yourself up to someone else's books and ideas, please use caution, be as the Berean's, and see if what this person is saying is true, let scripture be the light in which everything must pass through. 

Websites that are sounding the alarm-
http://www.cicministry.org/articles.php
http://www.crosstalkblog.com/   (find numerous articles under the religion tab)
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/index.htmlhttp://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/richardfoster.htm

Learn New Age language, find out what a person means when they are saying things like,
find your true self,
practice the presence of God,
practice solitude,
be IN the moment, at-one-ment,
be still,
centering prayer,
the silence,
breath prayers,
the inner Christ,
God is in all

There are more, find out their language so that when they are using it, you will know what they really mean.  Many words common to Christianity are being redefined by this new spirituality.  We have to know, so we can teach our children, and pass on truth that is found only in God's word. 

Pray for discernment in all things.

In Chist's love I share these things with you,
standing for His truth, and His Word,
Mrs. C