Monthly Archives: October 2015

Christian Living

Made Up Minds

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Daniel 1:8 (AMP)

8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile (taint, dishonor) himself with the king’s finest food or with the wine which the king drank; so he asked the commander of the officials that he might [be excused so that he would] not defile himself.

This is the verse I’ve had on my mind today.

Daniel made up his mind.

A made up mind.

I’m persuaded that made up minds are less respected and less common than in years come and gone.  Does it seem that in some circles a made up mind labels a soul as uncompromising, non-pliable, straight-laced, intolerant, non-evolving; can you think of other descriptive words? To tell you the truth those don’t sound like such bad adjectives to me. Such qualities seem to me turned upward would fashion a trusty friend; one who had counted the cost and would storm the fires of adversity with you. 

Daniel was a trusty friend. Did you know that Daniel is one of two in Scripture wherein no disobedience against GOD is recorded? Not to say they were sinless men, we all know to give them that honor would violate the truth. (23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23) But to say they were men with made up minds surely applies. Minds made up to defile not themselves with the things of this world. Minds made up to do the right thing even if it hurts, especially if it hurts. Minds that say this __________ will not rule over me. In the throes of temptation a made up my mind is already enabled to win! 

A question was posed to me today. “What safeguards will you put in place to keep your heart undivided?” The correlation for me seems to be that a divided heart comes from a mind NOT made up. Seems to me a made up mind is a priceless gift; one I have to choose to unwrap every day, all day long. 

Luke 10:27 (AMP)

27 And he replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Colossians 3:1-2 (KJV)

3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

 Set your affection, make up you mind! That’ll preach! And it has! 

Until Next Time ~ ~ ~ Kathie 
Christian Living, You Tubes

Music to Our Ears

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And the words of the song we sang were holy, holy, holy, merciful, and mighty, and sitting there on the pew I started stringing words hoping to convey to you what was comforting my soul. 

He. You know the He who is holy, holy, holy, right?

Isaiah 6:3  (KJV)

3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Happy, happier, happiest. There are no such superlatives for holy. So the English translators gave us holy, holy, holy. Or so I’ve heard.

I thought I’d find us a dictionary definition of holy so I went to Webster’s Dictionary the 1828 edition.
I was confident that I would get a more accurate description there than in today’s dictionaries. I was right. In part Noah Webster defined the word holy this way:

free from sin and sinful affections

That says it.
Is anybody you’ve seen in the mirror or across the table free from sin and sinful affections?
No?
Me either.

None except GOD. Holy, holy, holy.

But that’s not all He is.
He’s merciful and mighty.

Merciful to forgive a sinner like me. Webster said:

disposed to pity offenders

Yep! The holy, holy, holy One is disposed to pity offenders.
A lot of folks I think don’t know that about Him.
We should tell them! 

And more than pity, His mercy is coupled with might.
Mighty enough to save us and transform us!
And what He starts He is going to finish.
You can count on that.

Philippians 1:6 (KJV)

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Holy, holy, holy, merciful, and mighty.
That’s who He is.
Shall we Rejoice and Rest in that today my Friends? 

 Until Next Time ~ ~ ~Kathie 

Christian Living, Prayer Requests

Follow Him

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Again today, and I hope you don’t mind, and I don’t know if it’s a trend but, again for today I’m sharing my praying theme. 

Someone close is troubled about a matter; it’s heavy on his soul and so right out of my pen came: I pray he will follow You to peace about this.

And I thought that is just right, ABBA, follow You to peace about this. That would mean accepting Your guidance, acting upon Your leadership and that for sure will bring him to peace; that will resolve the matter, at least in his own heart and he will have peace. Yes. that’s my prayer that he will follow You to peace.

For sure that is His will for us all: Peace.
He is the Prince of Peace. :)
Isaiah 9:6

And so from there came prayers for others to follow Him to freedom. Follow Him to repentance and forgiveness. Follow Him to the right place to be. 

Follow Him.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  [source]

And look what is ours for following Him:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. [source]

 And so for family and friends and whomever will say amen my prayer is that we will allow Him to tune our thoughts and our hearts to follow Him. Whatever the need, wherever the place. Follow Him.

26 If someone is serving me, let him follow me; wherever I am, my servant will be there too. My Father will honor anyone who serves me. [source]

Until Next Time ~ ~ ~Kathie 
Pictures, The Loft

Autumn in The LOFT

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Autumn in lower Alabama doesn’t look starkly different from summer. The temps do drop for a portion of the season. Mornings do get crisp and evenings do get a chill. In fact I have a pot of vegetable beef soup simmering right now for this semi cool morning. Lets see what is the temp at this writing? Oh well . . . 69. It was cooler this morning and I’m gonna enjoy my soup imageanyway :)

I do get a thrill seeing Autumn’s Artist at work and looking closely I found some Fall colors right here in our own yard. See.

This is our elm tree; well, a close up of our elm tree so you could see that color I found. image

 

 

And these are the marigolds in our front bed. It’s not their aroma that endears them to me.  :)image

And if you look closely here you will see our Umbrella tree’s leaves are turning yellow; she will eventually loose them all. image 

Pumpkins! One of Autumn’s fruits (vegetables). Traveling from lower Alabama to Georgia last year we found these. IMG_1329Beautiful aren’t they?  Well, that about covers Autumn’s colors for me.

And now that it is Autumn, I’m already having thoughts of Winter and Christmas; but that’s another post. Perhaps . . . 

For more Autumn Thoughts, please follow this link and visit The LOFT. The Loft: A weekly Hangout and Link Up for Christian bloggers
Graphic by Kerry Messer

You will find some dear friends with many good things to say and some REAL Fall Colors.

Enjoy.

Until Next Time ~ ~ ~ Kathie

 

A Quick Hello, Christian Living, Prayer Requests

Protection and Safety

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I see a theme in my praying today for family and friends. Protection and safety from the evil one and those who do his will. Yes, satan has a will too. And a plan for each soul. Many are in his ranks, some I believe by conscious choice; most, I think, by default. Either way it seems good and right to cover people with prayers for protection and safety as we move about our lives doing our best to do the will of GOD. 

1 Peter 5:8 (CJB)

8 Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

John 10:10 (CJB)

10 The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

Life in the fullest measure. Yes, that’s our GOD. He means to give us life eternal and life temporal to the fullest measure.

Blessings! Until Next Time ~ ~ ~ Kathie
Lord willing and the Church don’t rise :)