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Thursday, 26 June 2008

Currently Listening
Together
By Gaither Vocal Band
Sweet Sweet Spirit
see related

"There is nothing—no circumstance, no trouble, no testing—that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment, but as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is." -- Pastor and author Alan Redpath (1907–1988)

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Fair Warning ~ and an example of God's grace (and patience with his stupid children)

Guess who still has Xanga?!
So, I didn't think that this would be the reason I'd start posting on here again, but I didn't think it fair not to warn ya'll.
I got a really good wake-up call this weekend about why the Bible says to be "wise as serpents, and gentle as doves" Here's why.....
Sadly, I happen to know from first hand experience that there is a phone phishing scam going on right now involving the Stimulus incentive.
So that you can learn from my experience, I'd like to tell you what happened. First, please bear in mind that these people caught me when I was very very tired, frustrated, angry, and just not up to fighting. Or thinking.
Last Saturday evening I got a call on my cell phone from a 5 digit number. This should have tipped me off right away, but like I said.....
I answered the phone and the person on the other end told me they were from the US Government (shoulda been another red flag...the gov't ain't gonna call my cell phone) and that I had been selected to receive my $600 early. So, they needed my bank account # and bank routing #, name of the bank, and type of account. And, stupidly, I gave it to them.
By the time I got home that night, I had realized what a stupid thing I had just done. Fortunately, no not fortunately, by the grace of GOD, it was the weekend and so they wouldn't have been able to do anything until Monday. But then, neither could I.
I was sick about the whole thing all weekend. First thing Monday morning I went to my bank so that I could be there at 7 00 am when the drive through window opened, and I closed my account. Praise God, I got there before these creeps could do any damage to me.
Please, please, please learn from my mistake. If you don't recognize the number....DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!!!!!!!!!! If they really want to talk to you, they'll leave a message. (funny, at this very moment I'm receiving a call on my cell from an UNKOWN NUMBER...hmmm, should I answer it? KIDDING!!!)
Peace,
><> rae <><

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Saturday, 19 May 2007

Reverse Living

Yesterday, I spent seven hours in a professional development workshop where I learned a great deal about eliminating self-defeating behaviors. While in that workshop I was presented with a rather interesting idea, something that had never really occured to me before...probably because it had never been presented to me in quite this fashion.
Now, I do not doubt that the man who presented this idea did not intend for it to be a spiritual parallel, but for me it just hit home as one. He said this, "We come out of the womb attached, and we spend the rest of our lives longing to be reattached."
Is that not how we were created? Man was created attached to God, but because of sin the umbilical cord has been cut. Now, weather we know it or not, we spend all of our lives longing, seeking, to reattach ourselves to our life source.
Which leads me to the following thought...now this is not mine, I did borrow it, but I can' t give credit because the quote is anonymous. But, for your reading enjoment...Reverse Living.
Life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time, all your weekends,and what do you get at the end of it?…Death, a great reward. I think that the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then, you live twenty years in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You graduate and go to college, you do drugs, alcohol, and party, untilyou’re ready for high school. You graduate and go to high school, you graduateand go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play, you have no responsibilities. You go back to the womb and spend the last nine months floating, and playing underwater jump rope, and you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.
Ok, so maybe it doesn't actually have any relevence to the first thought, but I thought it was funny and decided to post it anyway.
Peace

Friday, 18 May 2007

The Cold Within

The Cold Within
Six humans trapped by happenstance
in black and bitter cold
Each possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story's told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
the first woman held hers back
For on the faces around the fire
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking 'cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain,
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death's stilled hands
Was proof of human sin,
They didn't die from the cold without,
They died from the cold within.
- James Patrick Kinney