Meet me in the Morning

  Meet me in the morning where the Angels often sing.

And the Saints all love to join them in His eternal spring.

Meet me on the hillside where the Lord dwells just above.

Such joy and peace we'll have there basking in His endless love.

When I'm Gone just be happy.

For all I got to see.

Of this beautiful world.

A wonderful God.

Made for you and me.

Fluttering leaves in a rainstorm.

All the animals and bugs.

With senses filled and more.

My God.

 Invented friendly hugs.

When I'm no more.

Don't stand alone

Downcast and do not fear.

I will see you on that morning when.

His Glory shines so clear.

What my Brother Taught me Today

My baby brother is in his early 50's and through a series of unfortunate occurrences is almost totally blind. He doesn't receive any government assistance and lives in a state hard hit by the recession. He has finally, after maxing every resource he had to try and stay independent, moved in with  my sister whose own job suffered cut backs and is just getting on her feet a little.

What I want to share with you, Dear Christian, is not all the sad details of life as a blind person who could see until middle age, but the joy my brother brings me in his appreciation of life and God.  He listens to a bit of music sometimes and today he texted me these wonderful lyrics. I posted the youtube video too to give credit where it is due, but it is the words I want you to consider. And how this struck a chord with a humble heart that only wishes to be pleasing to God.

Oh how I want that kind of faith!

I've got trials an tribulations /trouble all around 

my desires an expectations have me lost more than I'm found 

and lord knows I often falter in the smallness of my pride

 but when l knee down at His alter I am lifted up inside/

 till I stand before  that mount and till I sit beside the throne 

till the waters of those fountains carry me home/

 till I rise up from this mortal place of blood and bones

 

let the rock that was rolled away be my corner stone 

help me face every tomorrow /give me strength to bare the load 

give me signs that I can follow and set my feet upon the road 

and may He who walked on water give me courage where I tread 

and when I kneel down at his alter let my hungry soul be fed/

 

let this faith be my foundation/ this hope my liberation 

till I fly away on that glorious day

-Clay Cross

Saved or Gay?

A member at a political forum posted the following article and comment for discussion:

 Evangelical leader Russell Moore denounces ex-gay therapy - Religion News Service
This guy gets it.
Those who sell the snake oil of "I can make a gay person straight" really need to stop.
Those who obfuscate to ignore the damage they do?  You're putting your ideology above the actual good of people and ignoring the harm that is done.

I cannot comment on the right or wrong of gayness. It is being debated by people smarter than me  philosophically, and they don't agree one way or the other. What I do know is a church should be about getting people saved.
Furthermore you don't have to change anything about yourself before receiving Christ as your savior. His father created you as he created him.
People rightly remember John 3:16 but often forget the very next verse just as important, paraphrasing, "For Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved."

So if you are a banker or a drug dealer or a homosexual or a thief, or a house wife, you don't need to jump through ANY hoops, or change ANY thing, but just believe Christ died for your sins, reflect on and be sorry for your sins, and ask God's forgiveness in Jesus name. You are set free.
You may then want to change, begin to change or stay the same. That is between you and God. He knows the inner workings of your heart. It's easy; it's painless; it's joyous. The only thought for your past might be, "Why didn't I do this sooner?" It is unbound love.
Never let a clergyman tell you you have to do anything else. Because that is not the way. The way is in the Bible clearly spelled out. Jesus is the only way to salvation. If you could be saved by helping a homeless family or changing your hair color, or become celibate, Christ need not have died. These may be beneficial things to your earthly life, and we are all tasked with doing good when we are aware what it is, but nothing will help you have eternal life except Jesus the savior.
After you are saved, I suggest you start reading John. 

Thank you, and have an exciting, happy day; be blessed and bless someone.

Take That iPod to Church, Lady!

We all love our tech gadgets. And most of you may be aware you can take your Bible on your tablet or other similar device anywhere with or without wifi.

One cool thing about an electronic Bible is after you play around with it awhile you'll find it sooo easy to find passages and follow scripture during sermons and Sunday School.

And for our sisters who are not as tech savvy, here is a link to a Bible I have used for many years. They now have a mobile version.

 E-Sword mobile

List of goodies includes:

Bibles in several languages (you have to download the ones you want after the initial download of King James version English).
also they offer free: commentaries, daily prayers, references and more! There are some studies and versions you must pay a nominal fee for but most of the stuff is free including maps of the Holy land!
For your home  computer there is still the PC version:

E-Sword for PC

If you are running Mac at home here is a blog explaining how to get this app:

   E Sword for Mac

(I do not understand much about Mac so you're on your own there, sorry!)

Happy, Bible thumping!
Best regards,
Sal ty

POPE FRANCIS VOICES OUTRAGE, ''DISBELIEF OVER IRAQ VIOLENCE'

Post by Father Rocky.

To Die For...

Read the Book of Matthew...


While satisfying the political junkie side of me, I came across a question put forward by a fellow Christian and staunch second amendment activist.
The hypothetical query is this:

If you know your neighbor is anti second amendment and has been politically or personally  active in trying to regulate or otherwise remove your right to bear arms, and an episode occurs whereby this person is in danger from an armed intruder, are you morally obligated to defend this person or could you just put it off as a learning experience for the neighbor and let the chips fall as they may...?

At first glance this looks to be an easy decision for most Christians. It is not as simple as it seems.

Number one, if I'm already in  "Sunday School mode", of course I'm going to point that "eye for an eye" is under the old law and as free children in Christ, we are to all treat our "neighbor" as our own bodily self.

Where the difficulty arises is when we realize in the day-to-day world of popular opinion, political fervor and just 'forgetting to go pick up Jesus today' as we are apt to do in the rush to get the morning started, these thoughts and conversations don't necessarily turn Biblical.

And what if the question posed was about a specifically morally destructive person, without whom our most devout Auntie might say the world is a better place?
Think Fred Phelps, think abortion doctors...

Consider this:

You drive through a dangerous part of town after work every night and a person, who single-handedly drove a referendum that removed your right to keep a handgun in your vehicle for protection, moves next door to you.

Every day after that referendum passed you have feared driving to work because of the specter of returning through those streets; lamp lights broken from gang activity; one red light after another catching you as you sit with your doors locked waiting and scanning the trash filled alley as best you can clutching your cell; one finger on speed dial for 911.

You get home one night and, by the light of your low-beams, see the yard next to yours littered with posts calling for a complete end to all gun ownership within the county limits.

Seething with righteousness, you attend all the civic meetings on the subject, to find your concerns falling on deaf ears because the county board is stacked with gun control advocates.

One night you are certain that you've been targeted for a  burglary. You hear clanging noises in the garage and a muffled curse. Thankfully you know right where you placed your little derringer and if you can't wing 'em, surely you can scare whoever it is from returning on  this night!

Bang-pop! You hit the garbage cans and hear a squeal. Your neighbor's lights come on.

He's called the police. You have to help fill out a report. You have to ride down town in a cop car to do it. Humiliated you get to bed late, get up in time to take care of your work clothes hurriedly the next day, but are still late for work, and dog tired. You get a demerit the very week you were going to ask for a raise.

As you drive home through those scary dark streets, you think how your neighbor is going to use this incident to further his own anti-gun cause. Although you believe you'd  succeeded in preventing a burglary, the cops had reprimanded you for shooting into the darkness where there could have been an innocent animal or person...you can't think of a good way to change people's minds about the right to bear arms; you're tired; it's been a long day...

With all this on your mind you pull into your driveway and turn the key off. Not even bothering with the garage door, you just sit and breath.

Two figures shuffle across the space between your garage and the neighbor's. Next thing you hear a weak but urgent,

"Help!"

rising out of your neighbor's open window.

You push 911; you have it on speed dial.

"Help me, oh help..."

You could creep inside your house now; you know exactly where the gun is; and pop off a  few rounds to scare the perps away, but if you don't, number one, the cops have a better chance of catching them therefore eliminating a threat to yourself, and two, the man in danger has been trying to eliminate your ability to defend yourself.

...as you wait for the police to arrive you have a decision to make...


I'll let you make it on your own...(dang that's hard!)...




Meanwhile always keep Jesus in your heart. Pray for me and my little blog to do something good. 

here's the Bible (+ commentary, maps, devotionals and much more from a guy who's ministry is the digital Word)  to download for free/I've used it for years and now they even have a mobile version.
 And BibleGateway's Bible online to read or listen to.

Women are pathfinders

Proverbs 3:15-18

 

 Abortion, of course, is a medical procedure.

Yes all but the new readers have heard this rant before, but it is my stance on the matter and may as well be re-stated here.

Women and doctors had a problem with states playing God & Doctor, when a doctor wanted to prescribe an abortion for a dead fetus (which can cause gangrene), and things of the nature that would do bodily harm to the woman.

Yes there have always been women who wanted an abortion because they weren't married or didn't want to have any (or any more) children. But we developed contraceptives that work a huge percentage of the time. So that took care of most of the worry if you wanted to go around freezy-breezy as far as sex goes. It did not stop communicable disease but did prevent unwanted pregnancy to a great degree.

Some states (Texas is one) did not allow forced abortion under any circumstances threatening the doctor's license and jail time for him--a big incentive to him not to perform one even if in his considerable training and judgement, the procedure was imminently necessary. You might get a court order but that would be a long process and by that time the woman may have delivered a glob of infection and if she lived be sterile the rest of her days.

So when attention was drawn to it, everybody eventually saw that that was wrong.

But then came along a case of a woman wanting to abort without a doctor's recommendation. Still the horror stories of doctors not being allowed to do their job persisted and swayed the public to hope for a decision that was fair.

Why the court at the time chose this case to hear and why the ruling on only her right to privacy instead of the right of doctor patient privilege I have not a clue. A better case -one where there was a need for an abortion instead of a want would have been more proper to clarify THE PROBLEM.

But since we all respected the court back then as the ultimate and final conveyer of understanding of the constitution, we mostly bowed to their decision as a society and tried to wrap our head around it. Men came around to that oft repeated phrase, "It's her body..."

Well yes it's her body but she cannot prescribe drugs or other invasive treatments for it so why can she be allowed to write her own scrip for an invasive gynecological procedure?

Then yes abortion "clinics" were waiting with bated breath like the illegal bootlegger the night before prohibition. And they sprang up all over the country seemingly at once. Suddenly there was not one but two or more in every region. You didn't have to drive but 30 miles in either direction to have an abortion done.

One would have thought these investors knew how that ruling was going to go...

...So now that these companies are well healed of course they are going to remain political and pay for ads that tell you this is your right as an American citizen.


Hog wash and poppycock; nothing could be further from the truth.

Lemme tell ya something, ladies, life is uncontrollable because that way it remains beautiful.

If you can control every aspect of human birth (and we will soon have that capability) you only promote the mundane.


Other than that philosophical interlude I have this to say. Women are created to be pathfinders. We make do, make up, shake up and clear the air. 

But we should never make the rules alone.

We interpret a way to live and help to nourish the good that is in the world. It's our calling. If life throws lemons at us we are the ones who make the (literal and metaphorical) lemonade, not the men. We have honed a skill over eons of struggle. We are family. What would a man be without us? Don't give up the bread basket of life.

Let some other woman bring it to term, love it and make it into part of her family.

We fought too hard to get to our center to throw it all away and become just another guy. We are special. We are cherished. We are honored. We are truly amazing and we can do something amazing.