Chicken soup for the Soul and Dilly Bars

Went to DQ for lunch with my wife.  We had a Dilly Bar.  it  has been years and the amazing thing was Dairy Queen has made them bigger than i remembered.  They we thicker and large around.  MMM good. 
then the other thing  was Chicken and Noodle Soup.   We hear that Chicken and Noodles are good for you .  Especially when you sick. 


I have had cold and not been feeling my best so i ordered soup.  Guess what ?  it was especially good..   Hot yummy and tasted good.  big chunks of Chicken and creamy noodles...


I really enjoyed it .... and well i think I'm feeling a little better. 


Could be all in my head ..... of course it is a head cold so ....... well you can guess what i'm thinking.


Now ....... it is good when we have faith in things.......faith helps us in many ways.  Some of those things we have faith in are much deeper than others.


Hope to strength our faith  some how.  Need to work on it.
Wonder if i can find a can of Soup in the pantry...??  might just heat it up for supper too. 

Looking Backward?....Looking Forward???.... Stop.! .no. ! Today is Present. Where you are...

WE cant live in our past.   and We cant live in  the future.  


As I have grown older... it find it very tempting to live in the past.  Remembering yesterday could become a very good hobby.  While i don't want to forget it... for it has many lessons in it , I must not live there.


I love history.  It was my favorite subject in school.   At one point thought about making it my course of study.  But i sensed it  was not where i wanted to live.  I think the draw was the fact it had a story line.  i enjoy a story.  The Old Testament has so many wonderful stories.  i learned them ..... but there is more to the book than the old Testament.  While there are lessons.... there is more.....The new Testament..... is always New.  Because of the new life it offers.  The "New Jesus" that can come daily and bring a new life.   


Recently, I discovered a Idaho History posting on Face book.  I truly enjoy the pictures of the old days of Idaho, my home state. 


I also have scrap books started, by my mother and I love to get them out and see my brothers and parents in the days from my first years...  I have tried to go back and label those old pictures.  Where they were taken and who they are.  It has been a fun little project.  I enjoy looking at them from time to time.  


I have tried to show them to my kids and grand kids... but I note, they really are not as much interested in them as i am.  I realize that they are my memories.......not theirs..... (Smiles).....


Some people try to get glimpse of the future.  They would love to have the future in scrap books.  Somehow they think if they just knew what the future held, it would change what they would do. How they would live.   If they could see the future , it would give them a roadmap for their life. 


Some folks worry a great deal about the future. They lose sleep worrying.  It is as if they worry enough they some how can change what is going to happen. 


Jesus wisely told us to live one day at a time.  He warned that there is enough evil in it to worry about.  Me thinks, that one cant change the past.  Nor can they change the future.  Time is in the now.  What we are doing NOW is the time we have.  This is Our Moment.... This is our time.  Present Tense.  This moment is Life.  Today.  As the minutes tick on the clock... This is the moment of LIFE. 


What are we doing with it?  Are we fearing it?  Are we enjoying it? 


One thing is for sure .  We are LIVING "IT" .  What ever "IT" is. 


Take a  deep breath.  Suck it up..... Breath.... this is the moment we have.


Thank God for it and   LIVE IT for what it is .......... Be at peace in it. 
Amen. 

for every thing there is a NAP

What do you do when you can not sleep?  

It does not happen often to me.  But every occasionally, I just can not go to sleep, and when I do, then I find it so much fun trying to get awake the next day.  It’s not like I must get up.  Retirement has its perks.  Last night was such a night.  And then to add to this quandary. I woke up early this morning … I think all in all I got maybe 4 hours sleep.  So today I think I will have a nap coming on.  Naps are good.  I enjoy them …. But then an amazing thing happens… my inner clock gets confused.  And first thing I know, I’m not sure if its night or day. 

Confusion is not a good thing when your any age.   But in old age, confusion is not ever good.  One must stop what they are doing and get…unconfused.   You might ask how one does that?

I have found it is not as hard as one might think.

You simply look at the clock on the wall and see the time.  Then act appropriately. 

Shift gears……and when its time to go to bed … you go… and you stay there until its time to get up. 

Clocks have a purpose.  Time was given to us for a reason.  We need to manage it better, me thinks.  Even in our old age. 

So who am I speaking to today…??

Hummm   yes I am hearing me….

Now when will I take that nap?

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant, a time to reap

A time to kill, a time to heal

A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down

A time to dance, a time to mourn

A time to cast away stones

A time to gather stones together

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate

A time of war, a time of peace

A time you may embrace

A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn

There is a season - turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rend, a time to sew

A time to love, a time to hate

A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

Beats a Santa Claus Gift

We missed Church this morning.  I have a cold and Deanna overslept.  listened to a TV preacher, who will remain nameless ..... i was not impressed with the sermon much.  Rather shallow in content i thought, but maybe i was just not in the mood for "Milk Toast". 


So we went out for dinner and had some Taco Bell Rolled Chicken.  on the way, we saw a man trying to sell some newspapers in the intersection.  Was obvious he was not having much luck  I felt moved to give him my morning church donation, I planned to give at Church. Must have been a God thing because my wife did something she never does.... she chipped in too.  All in all, i would suspect the guy got a pretty good wage for his day. 


I  am often reminded of Jesus command, to give when asked.  Especially to the least of these.  We need to do this more.  When people need our help or have a need,  we should give it .... no questions asked ..... me thinks.   It is the beginning of the Advent. 


True gifts, should not have strings attached, or given with something expected in return.   A gift is just that, a gift.


Jesus has given us such a gift....... We don't deserve it and have done nothing for it ...... we call that Grace.  "Unmerited"  It beats a "Santa Claus gift" that says we have to be good to get it ....With Jesus' gift,  its given because the Giver is good.  Thank God, we are never good enough ... but He is our only goodness.  Praise God from whom all Blessings flow

Thanksgiving


It would seem to me that the Thanksgiving Holiday is almost forgotten for a lot of people.


 "Turkey Day" so many people call it,  where we eat till we can't anymore.  There is the big parade to usher in the "Happy Holiday" shopping season and "Black Friday" and of course the afternoon and an afternoon and evening of Foot Ball.


Might we take a long pause           ..........................................................................


and let us  consider  What and Where we are ...... ???


Thanksgiving. 
to give thanks................


Not only "What" we are thankful for but


 "Who" we are thankful to.....


Just one day.??.. or how about more days??


......


Think about it

When Peace like a River…..

I don’t Know if I am afraid to die or not, but I don’t think so.

 I remember a man who came to a wedding one time, while I was pastoring.

He told me he wanted to come and talk with me. He shared with me that he had cancer, and knew he was dying. 

 He told me that he wanted to do it right.  He wanted to know how to do that. 

He then wanted to talk about Salvation. 

I led him in the “Sinners prayer”.  He accepted Jesus.  He attended church every Sunday the rest of his life. 

One day, I got a call from Him, and he asked that I come see Him. 

When I did, he told me, that he felt that he was pretty sure that he had just a few days left.

 ‘David, do I need to do anything else before I die.” 

We talked for a time and I tried to assure him, that we had done, all I knew to do, and now we just had to trust Jesus. 

He smiled and thanked me and sent me home. 

He passed that night.

 I hope that when my time comes, I can continue in my faith and in the meantime, hope that I continue to be at peace, as I do at present, and that God’s Grace holds me. 

Amen

 

 

Hymn:  It is Well with my Soul

 

1 When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

"It is well, it is well with my soul."

Refrain (may be sung after final stanza only):
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

 

2 Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control:
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul. Refrain

 

3 My sin oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! Refrain

4 O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
even so, it is well with my soul. Refrain

Psalter Hymnal, (Gray)

 

 

From Web page:  

staugustine.com/living/religion/2014-10-16/story-behind-song-it

 

Posted October 16, 2014 11:50 pm - Updated January 27, 2017 11:52 am
By  Ph.D.  Lindsay Terry

 

Story behind the song: It is well with my soul

Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago with a lovely family — a wife, Anna, and five children. However, they were not strangers to tears and tragedy. Their young son died with pneumonia in 1871, and in that same year, much of their business was lost in the great Chicago fire. Yet, God in His mercy and kindness allowed the business to flourish once more.

 

On Nov. 21, 1873, the French ocean liner, Ville du Havre was crossing the Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe with 313 passengers on board. Among the passengers were Mrs. Spafford and their four daughters. Although Mr. Spafford had planned to go with his family, he found it necessary to stay in Chicago to help solve an unexpected business problem. He told his wife he would join her and their children in Europe a few days later. His plan was to take another ship.

About four days into the crossing of the Atlantic, the Ville du Harve collided with a powerful, iron-hulled Scottish ship, the Loch Earn. Suddenly, all of those on board were in grave danger. Anna hurriedly brought her four children to the deck. She knelt there with Annie, Margaret Lee, Bessie and Tanetta and prayed that God would spare them if that could be His will, or to make them willing to endure whatever awaited them. Within approximately 12 minutes, the Ville du Harve slipped beneath the dark waters of the Atlantic, carrying with it 226 of the passengers including the four Spafford children.

A sailor, rowing a small boat over the spot where the ship went down, spotted a woman floating on a piece of the wreckage. It was Anna, still alive. He pulled her into the boat and they were picked up by another large vessel which, nine days later, landed them in Cardiff, Wales. From there she wired her husband a message which began, “Saved alone, what shall I do?” Mr. Spafford later framed the telegram and placed it in his office.

 

Another of the ship’s survivors, Pastor Weiss, later recalled Anna saying, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.”

Mr. Spafford booked passage on the next available ship and left to join his grieving wife. With the ship about four days out, the captain called Spafford to his cabin and told him they were over the place where his children went down.

According to Bertha Spafford Vester, a daughter born after the tragedy, Spafford wrote “It Is Well With My Soul” while on this journey.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Chorus:

It is well with my soul,

It is well, it is well with my soul

Anna gave birth to three more children, one of which died at age four with dreaded pneumonia. In August 1881, the Spaffords moved to Jerusalem. Mr. Spafford died and is buried in that city.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, shall keep your hearts, your minds through Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:7.

 

 

Life is not about us as all

It is important to understand that there is nothing we can DO to earn salvation.  We simply can't BE good enough for salvation.  Salvation is a gift of God through Jesus' death on the  Cross.

"There is nothing we can do to make God love us more than He already does." 
The simple truth is “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Some one recently said, “I feel like such a failure.” 
The truth is, our goodness is like filthy rags. 

True Worship is the act of Surrender.  When we surrender our lives to Jesus, He is the one who truly brings us to be successful in living life. 

When we love Him and each other, we fulfill all the rules and all the law; We are called to lose our lives in love and service.

Life is not about us at all.  It's about the surrender of the self.  Its about others.
This simple truth brings us to the purest of balance and peace. 

The world calls us to power, prestige, possessions, position.
But Jesus calls us to surrender our lives to rest in Him.  
To the world this is foolishness. 
But in Him we find the way, the truth, and the life.   

Read Matthew, Chapters 5, 6, 7.

When we live out His call we find ourselves living in The New
Kingdom. 

The Kingdom of God today......"Today you will be with me in
paradise. "

How do we live in a broken and dying world? Or the rambles of a broken angry man…..

How do we live in a broken and dying world? Or the rambles of a broken angry man…..

 
I am not here to judge others…. I barely know how to keep myself out of judgment.  After over forty years of telling others how to live… I am finding that that what I wanted to fix most ended up broken even more…..and I often find myself broken as well.    In my brokenness, I often feel alone and lost.  I have at times become angry, bitter and feeling a lot lost….

Keep in mind I said feeling….. Yet the feeling can become a reality if I let it…… Feeling often becomes rather selfish.  It is ME centered… It is a driving force and wedge……”Its not about me” or “my feelings”.  It has got to be more….

It is so very important that we see that we live in a broken and dying world and that WE are so much a part of it.  Our world is not perfect and we too are not perfect.    There is so much that needs fixing and so often we set out to fix it.  We seek to fix ourselves and we seek to fix others.

Our intent is for the good and yet…….. we are misunderstood and we misunderstand others.  In this process of fixing, we somehow get lost and we recognize how much our world is a mess.  We do feel we must somehow get it fixed….WE must fix it so we become driven to fix.  And in our fixing, it just seems to become more broken.  We become more broken and………..separated. 

We live in a throw away world. We see that it is broken.  So often, we begin throwing away that which is broken.  We must be set apart from brokenness.   We see one another as broken and so we throw one another.  Because “THEY” are broken, we become breaking and we become broken.  We walk away from one another and our world becomes even more broken.  

In our fixing, our intent is for good, but we break even more that which we intended to fix.  We misunderstand the intent, and become broken and so we break.  It is indeed a broken, dying, throw away world where we seek to fix it, where we throw away, and walk away from one another. 

We often protest our brokenness.  We pass our anger and blame.  We say it is THEIR fault… and often miss our own shame.   We walk away from each other broken, lost and alone, so often in pain.  It sounds so poetic this injustice and stain.   So now we are now divided.  We become confused and so lost.  Can we not see the cost?

So how do we broken get it fixed?    How does this world ever find a hope for repair. Where do we turn in this broken world?   We must seek safe ground.  

C
an we seek a new away?  Can we find a way?  Can we find our way?  Can we find THE WAY?

Jesus’ call is clear.   “Come unto me, all ye who are weary, and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  

The church must become a place for the broken , weary, and heavy laden….. We need to understand that “while we were yet sinners,   Christ died for us”, and what this means is
while we were yet enemies of Jesus, He laid down His life for us. 

This means more than what think we understand.   I recently read the apostles creed….I found something strangely missing in the creed.  We go directly from Birth to death and Jesus life and teachings seem to be left out….. 

What happened to the WAY of Jesus?  The living of Jesus…He had a WAY of Living .….If we follow Jesus, How we live is important.  So how do we live?

 
The Apostle's Creed..

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, (something is missing here ) suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
 I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.
Amen.

 

Salvation is not just for when we get to heaven…. It is for today, .His WAY is for living, today.  …. Can we fully understand when Jesus died, He Died to His self?  And When we to live out His dying to self, we find life.  He laid down his life.  He surrendered His Holiness… His perfection… He gave it up and took on our sin.  He became our sin….

We too need to lay down our lives….our ways… surrender to one another …take up one another’s sin…..

While we were yet lost, the good Shepherd came to seek His lost sheep.  He died for us, even while we stood totally against Him.  While we were/ are broken He did not throw us away.  He chose to love us as we are and in doing so, He became the thrown away…..( Broken)…. Too. 

We are not alone…in our brokenness.  He was/ is broken too…

We are called to BE broken….To lay down our lives too. 

He surrendered himself for the cross…. We need to do the same….

The true way friends is that We must pickup our Cross and follow Him….. In the true church of Jesus… We emulate Jesus….. We become like Him….We lay down our way and pick up a cross.  Listen to His words… “I did not come to judge the world but to save it….” 

“I did not come to judge”……To much we judge and seek to fix others...

We can not fix one another…… We are all thumbs… we break one another… How can the broken fix anything?  We must lay down our lives…… 

We must stop the throwing away of one another…… We must stop the breaking.. Oh that we can come together rather than throw away...... 

Yes we live in a broken and dying world… But let us hold on to one another….  Let us create a place where it is safe to be broken.  A place where the hurting , and the lost can become found.  Where the broken can heal and be healed.  It is ok to be broken.  In fact being broken is the very way to being whole….It is in losing our life we find it… 

Confusing?  Yes but never the less true…. 

His way is The Way.  Saving us is not just in the sweet by and by….it can be the blessed way for today…..

So we seek the way of Jesus as our guide and example.  Many do not know this way… this way of reconciliation. It is a way of surrender… seeking forgiveness and to be forgiving.  He calls to us in the Lords prayer….”Forgives us our debts and we forgive out debtors”.  . As we forgive others so we are forgiven. 

So He IS the Way, the Truth, and the life.  He IS the Healing and Salvation.  His way IS The way out of brokenness to wholeness.  His way of acceptance and forgiveness.  His way to coming together anew and again. 

Can we see we are all broken?… Can we see we are all lost and thrown away?  We can only find safety (salvation) when we see our own need , yes, but also the need of others. We all need fixing….When we see this,  It is then we may find compassion and a healing touch for ourselves and for others…

Let us be at peace…..He is our peace.   Resting in the arms of the good Shepherd and Doctor for and of our souls.  We do live in a broken and dying world…. But He is the way of reconciliation and resurrection.   His way is the way to life…. We need to make His way our way…..

  

Amen…. Be at peace.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.