“Pages”

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“Pages”

A turning

Our world is full of books, with a lot of pages. Many of us love to read, page by page. Some read fast and some read slow.  Some read slow when they should read fast and some read fast when they should read slow. Some read fiction and some read true stories. Some read fiction that seems it could be true. Than some read truth that sounds like fiction. Fiction should be all fiction and truth should be all truth. Some read fiction and believe it as truth and some read truth and believe it is fiction. If I read fiction, it had better be pure fiction, so I don’t mix it up with truth. Continue reading ““Pages””

“Calling in the Slaves”

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“Calling in the Slaves”

 

After all these years I still have a vivid picture within myself, of 1963 slavery. I was driving through the middle of a prominent state. Most of that area is flat land as far as you could see. I looked to my right and could see a group of people, horses and wagons all in single file. They were young, middle aged, white haired old folks, women and children. They were bringing in the cotton after a hard day’s work. This may sound like a story back in the eighteen hundreds, but it wasn’t. We were visiting some relatives there. As we drove down through the old town area there were many black people sitting out front of the company store. They worked all day for the farm owner and shopped in the farm owner’s store in the evening. I know they were not called slaves in that day, but it sure had the characteristics of it. I wondered what it would be like to be a slave. I would soon find out. Continue reading ““Calling in the Slaves””

“Inside Out”

rhodocrosite

Rodochrosite

“Inside Out”

Reaching our full potential

            I was standing by a concrete wall, thinking about getting older and that one day I would be leaving this earth. As I glanced toward the ground, I saw a small blueish white flower it was about five inches tall and all alone. As I looked at it I said, “I will miss that.” Then God spoke in my spirit and said, “That little flower will be ten times taller and ten times more beautiful in heaven”. As I thought about that, I could just see fields and fields of head high flowers exactly like that little flower. Continue reading ““Inside Out””

Revelation-Finding our way

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“Revelation”
Finding our way

A revelation is a word, a phrase or a vision. All come unexpected. They are not from the mind, they come from the spirit. The makeup of man is; the outer man which is the body, the inner man, which is the soul, the mind, will, and emotions and then there is the spirit. The organ that makes us aware of God is the spirit. Only in the spirit can we hear and really know Him. Our bodies and soul are rejuvenated through baptism in repentance and water. Only baptism of the spirit can rejuvenate our spirit to know the person God. Spirit bears witness to spirit. Our communication with God is through the spirit. We worship God in spirit and truth. The word truth means, reality or real. Continue reading “Revelation-Finding our way”

Willfull Blindness

 

mule with blinders

“Willful Blindness”

My wife has been good for me, in that I miss a lot of things that she sees. She cut an article out of the paper a number of years ago, the title was “Enjoying the trip”, and you know, I didn’t want to stop and read it but she insisted, so I read it grudgingly. It talked about a man like me, going on a trip that saw the beginning, the end and little between. A hurry up and get there blinded me to all the things in between. Did you see that, she would say? See what? I would say. When young in school, I wanted to hurry up and get home to play or build something. At work, I wanted to hurry home to do something else. When I got there, I wanted to do a different thing. I took my wife to work one day and she pointed out all the many things she had seen and where she had seen them, many plants, ferns, rocks, where she had seen a deer, bear, birds, and a fox and so on. All the things I love, but I had only seen a fraction of those things. A few years ago while deer hunting, one came out in the field, I aimed and shot too quickly and missed. I was in a hurry and didn’t take time to aim properly. A microscope is an instrument that lets us focus on objects that we could not normally see. The Holy Spirit is our microscope, in that he helps us focus on things we would never see. In my fast paced lifestyle, bouncing from one thing to another, I was missing the in-betweens. The willfully blind are not good listeners either by the way. And I might add, not a good conversationalist. Continue reading “Willfull Blindness”

The Difference Makes The Differance

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“The difference makes the difference”

In the settlement of the old west, there were men that went first. They were different than others, they didn’t mind being alone and isolated. They had a way about them that caused them to stand out. They wanted to see what was ahead first. They looked and dressed different than the others. One such man was the scout for the wagon train. They seldom had the shelter and luxuries that the other members enjoyed. They wore leather clothes for protection from the elements. They were in constant danger from wild beasts, snakes and unfriendly humans. They were always out ahead looking for the best paths to take and constantly on the lookout for danger, taking stock of all aspects in the movement of the wagon train. He was called the scout for a reason. His job was to guide the train to reach its destination on time and safely. He warned of pending danger also. Guiding them through the correct paths was difficult enough, but to warn of danger was even more so. Because he looked and acted so different from the rest of the wagon train, he was looked at as strange. He didn’t seem all there to them and therefore not trusted. They fussed about the trails to take and even more so, pending danger. When the train folks and the wagon master over turned the scout’s directives, trouble was on the horizon. It was just a matter of time. The scout was amazed that the people would not see what he saw. The scout suffered many hardships on the trail, out front and alone. His job was to watch and to listen, only to not be believed. He was, as it seemed, the only one that saw the danger in taking the wrong trail. Continue reading “The Difference Makes The Differance”

Out Of Darkness Comes Great Light

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“Out of darkness comes great light”

In the natural world we see a bolt of lightning than we hear thunder in that order. In the supernatural it is just the opposite we hear thunder than see light. Thunder is associated with darkness as in a bad storm, lightning illuminates our surrounding as to see. We would all prefer not to see bad storms, but storms have there benefits as well as their destruction. One of the benefits is lightning produces ozone, without that no life could live on the earth, so ozone protects life. The destructive side of a storm can tear down what we have built. In the beginning there were no storms, not even rain and man was to live forever. In man’s rebellion against God his life was shortened,  storms and wars came. Storms and wars are similar in ways. God speaks in both. From the time of the rebellion in the garden of Eden God has been calling his creation to return sometime in a soft small voice and sometimes in a loud strong storm. One is peaceful  and the other is fearful. Either way he is speaking. We should take comfort in the fact that God is speaking to us personally, and if he’s speak to us personally it is because he loves us beyond who and where we are. There is a peaceful small voice speaking to us and our nation today and there are many strong thunderous storms speaking also. If the peaceful small voice is not sufficient the stronger voice will increase, if this sounds frightening, we should listen to the small soft voice and respond. The scriptures say God speaks out of his secret place of thunder, when extreme measures are needed to speak to us. Ìt can come in the form of storms and wars. Neither are pleasant but both bring light after the thunder. His voice can be either soft or loud but they are both his. How many times have you spoken soft words of instruction to your children about not playing in the street before you had to resort to the storm of spanking. We love our children and God loves us and neither want them to be hurt. Broken bones from cars in the street are nothing compared  to “Hell” where God is not and there is no more loving corrections.  Jesus named James and John a long time ago “Boanerges meaning Sons of thunder and light”.they both were experienced with a small voice and a thunderous voice. Both bring light and change. Continue reading “Out Of Darkness Comes Great Light”

What Do You See? What Do You Hear

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What do you see? What do you hear?
Looking out the front window I see the fern hanging on the porch. I hear our dog Daisy, barking outside but I can’t see her. I see the sky through my window brightening up but I can’t see the sun. I hear the creek running outside, but I can’t see it from here. I see my chest rising and falling but I can’t see the air. Continue reading “What Do You See? What Do You Hear”

White Noise and A Still Small Voice

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“WHITE NOISE AND A STILL SMALL VOICE”
AS I SIT HERE ON MY COUCH, I HEAR THE HEAT PUMP FAN RUNNING, AND THEN NOTICE THE CEILING FANS, THE ICE MAKER, AND THEN A BUCKEYE NUT FALLING ON THE TIN ROOF. I CAN EVEN HEAR THE RINGING IN MY EARS. NOW AND THEN I HEAR A LARGE TRUCK WITH JAKE BRAKES ON THE INTERSTATE, A MILE AWAY, IF THE WIND IS BLOWING FROM THE EAST. Continue reading “White Noise and A Still Small Voice”

Seeing The Unseen

Seeing

Seeing The Unseen
An Awakening

The most excited people I know are those who have seen what they couldn’t see. We can read about God and his ways and hear about Him from different preachers. We can have great knowledge of Him and not really see and know Him the way He really is. I hear those many voices saying, He is this way or He is that way. So, how do we really know who and how He really is? Continue reading “Seeing The Unseen”