The Christmas Story
Not just the story of one day
but revelation of God’s ways.
To save men from eternal death,
God Himself came to the earth.
Born a baby long ago,
His love and grace now to bestow
on men that they may reign with Him,
no longer slaves to death and sin.
Darlene Estlow 2014
As we approach Christmas, the best thing we can do is have God prepare our hearts! Thanks, Deborah Ann for pointing us in that direction.
Tune my heart Lord,
adjust the loose strings
tighten them so I can be
thankful for all things.
Tune my heart Lord,
pull up all the slack
till I believe in You
for everything I lack.
Tune my heart Lord,
let the tight strings out
so I can be relieved
of any fear or doubt.
Tune my heart Lord,
tweak as You must
until my faith is strung
with the strings of trust.
Tune my heart Lord,
make me Your instrument
so I can be for You . . .
a singing testament!
~~~~~~
“I will sing a new song unto thee,
O God: upon a psaltery and an
instrument of ten strings will
I sing praises unto thee.”
King James Version
Public Domain
King James Version
Public Domain
Copyright 2016
Deborah Ann Belka
Good advice!
~
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Thanksgiving Day is over. Is thanksgiving over?
I ask myself, am I continuing to be thankful? Scripture tells me to be thankful at all times! One of my favorite verses is 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
What? In all circumstances? When I tear my meniscus and have pain no matter what I do? When I get strep throat and then a cold? When my finances don’t seem to be what they should?
But then I am reminded that God’s will is that I be thankful. And for that, He gives me peace and joy. Oh, things don’t automatically become better (though they may), but I know that He is listening to me and I can trust Him. He is in charge. After all, He is not my personal servant boy, waiting on hand to give me whatever I ask, or my Aladdan with a magic lamp. He is the Creator of the Universe who showed His love and care about 2000 years ago when He came to earth to die for me! Through that, He has opened heaven’s door to me. This life is so short (though in suffering it doesn’t seem so!) and ahead of me lies heaven since I have embraced Jesus as God eternal and my Savior.
So I ask myself, am I continuing to be thankful? I must admit, too often I am not. But when I come back to God’s will for me and express thanks for the marvelous gift of coming as man to earth (an event we are soon to celebrate), plus the gifts He has given me, He gives joy and peace. This life with all its sorrows and pain will soon come to an end and then the decision I have made about Jesus will bring joy and peace forever.
The results of our election for the President have left some feeling hopeless. They fail to realize that government isn’t the answer. Hope came to earth 2000 years ago when God Himself came to earth and with His life, death, and resurrection showed us there is more to life than what we see here. This life is not all there is. I am so glad.
For those who have lost hope, regardless of the situation:
HOPE
In the middle of bitter days,
God gave me a seed of hope.
I buried it deep in the soil
of my heart, far from the
probing eyes of the Spirit of God.
I feared the Light that He Is
would cause it to live and thrive
and bring pain. But God plowed
my heart with His Word and watered
the soil with His love. My heart
surrendered to the growing
seed and yielded a garden
of joy and trust in the living God.
Darlene ©2005
May God fill you with His hope in Jesus!
This is part of the receipt from my visit to a fast food restaurant. I don’t think they intended it to say this! It was good for a giggle!
Are we getting smarter? We are tempted to think so because that’s what we have always been told. But is it true? Click here for a site with its references that may make you think more about that! Interesting!
What would you give to make a dream come true if you woke to find yourself living a nightmare?
What would you feel if you could never again walk on a beach? Or go out alone in the snow…feel the stillness of a wood or cross a field?
And then, you found a way…
In 2009, my son was a successful young man with a bright future… until he was stabbed through the brain in an unprovoked attack and left for dead in an alley.
He was found almost immediately by passers-by who saved his life. By the time we arrived at the hospital, Nick was being prepared for emergency brain surgery. We were allowed to see him, for a few minutes, to say goodbye. He was not expected to survive…
Over the past couple of years, many in the blogging community have come to know my son and know…
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A helpful blog!
Learning your way around WordPress can take a while, especially if you are not of the tech-savvy branch of bloggers. After several years here, I am still learning all the time, mostly by trial and error, both the technical stuff and the things that should be commonsense but are so obvious they get overlooked. Below are a handful of ideas that can save you time and space, make your site easier to use… and save your blog from disaster.
Note: I’m a stick-in-the-mud where the blog is concerned and still prefer the old Classic Editor, so any directions below will be working from that. To access the Classic dashboard, hover over My Sites top left and select Site Admin from the drop-down. Clicking ‘my sites’ takes you to the new dashboard. I am not sure this works for everyone, but you can also access it via the ‘Meta’ menu on…
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Some people read the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America says there should separation between government and religion, that we need to be protected from public displays of religion. But does it say that?
“Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
According to the Constitution, we are free to practice our faith, not just in private, but in public as well. It is good to know in this day when some want to rid the public scene from anything religious.
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