SINCERELY WRONG

"For false christs and false prophets will
rise and show great signs and wonders 
to deceive, if possible, even the elect."
(Matthew 24:24)

Growing up I desperately wanted to be accepted, to be one of the crowd.  I hated feeling 'different,' and as though I was always on the outside looking in.  I hated being made fun of and being picked last for teams.  I hated not having the kind of family everybody else seemed to have.

Later, in my teens, I dreamed of falling in love and getting married to someone I would grow old with.  I dreamed of having a solid, close-knit family that enjoyed each other's company and did things together.  And I did fall in love and get married and have a family, but my husband and I did not grow old together, and the many mistakes I made as a single mom pretty much killed any chance for the strong, bonded family I had yearned for.

After my husband passed away, I went through a time of searching for roots, for something that would make me feel grounded, that would give me a sense of purpose.  Long story short, I discovered New Age and the occult and felt as though I had finally come home. Astrology, metaphysics, the concept of karma and reincarnation,  opened up a whole new world that seemed to provide all the answers that had heretofore eluded me.  I had finally found my roots, and what I sincerely believed to be truth.  My days of searching were over.

I embraced these new ideologies with a passion and eventually became a numerologist.  As such, I started doing readings for folks and was even published, which brought me the acceptance I had so craved in my early years.  Now, all of a sudden, I was seen as an expert.  People were actually seeking me out to tell them what the future had in store.

How I got from there to here is not really what this post is about.  If you are interested in that part, you can check out the My Testimony link on my sidebar or click here.  This post is about how my vulnerability led to my believing a lie, and how that led to my misleading other people and getting them to buy into that lie too.  I was not consciously deceiving anyone, I was just sincerely wrong, and if I can reach even one person through this post who is living under the same kind of deception I was back then and help you see the light, then baring my soul like this will have been worthwhile.

If I were to see you headed towards some imminent danger, such as a gaping hole in the sidewalk ahead of you, it would be unconscionable of me not to warn you of what lay ahead, and I would not hesitate to do so--even yanking you aside if necessary.  So why the hesitation when the danger is spiritual, and therefore invisible?  I guess, in my case, it's fear of rejection, of being judged, all the things I struggled with at the beginning of my life, but I know that I can't let those things stop me any longer.  There's too much at stake.

Don't be deceived, as I was, into thinking that there are many paths to God, or that we get to Heaven by being 'good.'  Although we were created to have fellowship with God, Adam and Eve's sin caused us to be born into a fallen world.   The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and "The wages of sin is death."  Because of sin there is a great gulf that separates us from God, and there is no way we can cross it through our own efforts.  There is only one path that can lead us to eternal life, and that is Jesus, "the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through [Him]" (John 14:6).

The good news is that "God so loved the world (you and me included) that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  In fact, God loves you so much that even if you were the only person on this Earth, He would still have sent Jesus to die for your sins so you could be set free.

This gift of salvation that is being handed to you can only be received by grace, through faith.  It cannot be earned by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9).  And as much as it is not God's will for anyone to perish, He will not impose His will on you or force you to accept it.  The choice is yours.

Jesus stands at the door of your heart, knocking and waiting for you to answer (Revelation 3:20).  I pray that you would open the door before it is too late, and accept His invitation to enter your life, forgive your sins, and make you a new creation.

DO YOU KNOW?

At first I thought these were unusual cloud formations I hadn't noticed before, but then I realized they were not clouds at all. They are long streaks of smoke(?) trailing behind planes that spend hours flying back and forth across the skies in my neck of the woods.

Back in the day when I was young, there were planes called skywriters that used to do that too, but they would write stuff in the sky--not just create thin white lines that start looking like clouds as they start to disperse. 

  

Do any of you know what the purpose of these planes might be today? It must be pretty boring doing nothing but draw line after line all day every day. But then who am I to say?

A CLOUDY FEBRUARY SUNDAY MORN

Thank goodness for digital cameras.  I think I'd be broke and in debt by now if I were still having to buy film.  ☺ 

 

 

 

A REMINDER TO ME (AND TO YOU TOO IF YOU NEED IT)

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made... Your eyes saw my
substance, being yet unformed,  And in
your book they all were written, The days
fashioned for me, When as yet there were
none of them." - (Psalm139:14a, 16)

This blog will be celebrating its four-year anniversary in March, and as the date approaches, I find myself wondering why I keep it alive.  This question has led to a steady stream of thoughts, mostly negative, which I know are not from the Lord.

There were several reasons I started blogging.  Some personal, but it was also my hope that in some way I could brighten at least one person's day, or perhaps offer encouragement to another.  Lately, though, there's this little voice in my head that keeps saying, "What's so special about you that makes you feel you have something to offer?  What do you have to say that hasn't already been said by someone else, and said better?"  At the same time, there's a warning light flashing off and on: BEWARE OF FALLING INTO THE TRAP OF COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS.

To confirm above warning, I came upon this very timely devotional during my quiet time this morning.  It happens to be a January devotion, which I would not have seen on this particular February day, except that it's in a book, Streams in the Desert, I just purchased a few days ago and decided to start reading from the beginning.  No such thing as coincidence!

Anyway, this particular devotional tells the story of a king who goes into his garden one morning and finds everything withered and dying.  He starts asking the plants what the problem is. The oak says it doesn't want to live any more because it's not tall and beautiful like the pine tree, the pine tree is upset because it can't bear grapes like the grapevine, the grapevine bemoans the fact that that it doesn't produce fruit as large as the peaches on the peach tree, the geranium is disheartened because it's not tall and fragrant like the lilac, and so on it goes throughout the garden until the king gets to the little violet and and comments on how happy he is to see at least one flower bright and perky.  To which the violet responds, "I know I'm small, yet I thought if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or even a lilac, you would have planted one.  Since I knew you wanted a violet, I'm determined to be the best little violet I can be."

What a great reminder that God loves me just as I am, and that I'm a Divine original (which you are too) created for a special purpose that no one else can fulfill.  Summed up so beautifully in the little poem at the end of the devotional:

                                                    Others may do a greater work,
                                                         But you have your part to do;
                                                    And no one in all God's family
                                                         Can do it as well as you.

THUNDER SNOWSTORM

Thundersnow, the weatherman called it. Heavy snow falling fast and furious, weighing down the trees. I had never seen or heard anything like this before. Apparently there was lightening too, but since I wasn't looking out my window, I missed it.

CAPTURING THE GOLDS

Pictures of some of the golds that eluded me on my last sunset photo shoot.  This time around I was traveling on a country road with no traffic, so I could easily pull over and capture them before they eluded me yet again.

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2011

Dear Blog Friends -- May the New Year be a time of peace, joy, good health, and prosperity in every area of your life.  Praying that the Lord would shower you with His blessings and open your eyes to his abundant love and grace. 

I also have a New Years card for you, but couldn't figure out how to embed it in this post, so you'll need to click on this link to see it.

A DECEMBER SKY IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS

This was the view on my way home from my daughter's house  yesterday evening, and I couldn't resist the urge to pull over and take some pictures.  Sadly though, by the time I found a safe spot to do that, most of the golds and oranges were gone. 

Even though the sky was still breathtakingly gorgeous, it left me wishing I had someone to chauffer me around so all I would have to do is point and click.  (SMILE)

Emjoy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS - 2010

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THANKSGIVING, 2010

"For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies,
... Lord of all, to Thee we raise This our hymn of 
grateful praise." - Folliott S. Pierpoint

We are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in my part of the world, and as I sit by the window thinking of the many things I'm grateful for, I have to include the unexpected events that led to my being transplanted to this awesomely beautiful little neck of the woods.  No matter the season, I never fail to be mesmerized by the view.

About a week ago I had gone on a picture-taking walk around the neighborhood, expecting to be disappointed by what I would see, given the strong winds that came early this year, blowing many of the colorful leaves away before trees had much of a chance to display their splendor.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.  So much so, I couldn't stop pointing and clicking until my camera signaled it's memory was full (over 80 pictures later).

If you'd like to see some of my favorites along the route, click here.  But in this post I'm sharing the ones that made me stop and wonder at how differently the trees had reacted to the same gusts.  Whereas several stood completely bare, Some were only partially so, and yet others seemed not to have been affected at all.  Hmm.  Somewhere in here there seems to be a lesson to be learned.  

It makes me think of the way our perceptions color the way we react to the things we are presented with in life, how what causes one person to get all bent out of shape, may have no effect on another at all.  But then again, it also reminds me of the parable of the wise man who built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24-27).