Mon, Sep 25th - 1:08PM

Waitresses At the Banquet of Life?

Are you aware of WHO YOU ARE?  A waitress at the banquet of life?  (No, but that's a good one I heard once in a movie).

According to God's Word, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that, "For our sake He made Christ to be the sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become the righteousness of God."  Righteous, perfected, and complete.  Does that sound like a description of you?  If you find this difficult to believe, I'm reminding you that whatever God says is true, and He says that you are a woman who is perfected and complete in Him.  When you start to believe that, you will no longer feel that there is anything wrong with you.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life".  Are you a 'whoever'?  Please notice that there are no special requirements.  The Word says, "whoever believes".

Like me, you may have spent enough years of your time in struggles and vain works of the flesh.  The Lord showed me one day that I had spent my life trying to get in a chair I was already sitting in!  Think of how frustrating it would be to struggle to get somewhere you already were, and how freeing to discover that you were there and could stop struggling.   This is where we come into the rest of God mentioned in Hebrews 4.  I had been trying to be righteous or acceptable to God through my works, and I was already made righteous and acceptable through Jesus.  Ephesians 1:6 tells us we are made acceptable in the beloved.  I love that!  This helps us to understand why the Gospel if referred to as 'good news'.  Isn't it good news that you're acceptability to God is not based on your performance, but on your believing in His performance?  Jesus was perfect for you and me.  He suffered and died in our place and paid the debt we owed.

Many women are having an identity crisis.  They simply do not know who they are in Christ.  They are identifying with their sins, failures, and comparisons with other women, and their own ability to fix themselves rather than identifying with Christ and His substitutionary work on the cross.  Believe what the Word says about you and start enjoying the life that Jesus provided.  We honor God when we believe His Word above what we think or feel.  I like to meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

Let this be a new day in which you begin to see yourself in a new way.  Look through the eyes of faith and see as a little child.  God is waiting with open arms.

Sun, Sep 17th - 6:10PM

Women in the Bible ~ A HUGE ENDEAVOR

I started a study of Women in the Bible out of pure curiosity; what I didn't know is what a huge endeavor it would be.  Those women and their lives speak powerfully to us today.  At first I thought I'd just start with Eve.  Sure, why not?  The first woman.  But that would be too predictable.  And I, my friends, am anything but!

Then the search for names, where to start?  My, my, my.  Some of the most profound females weren't even called by name!  We have, for instance:

An Adulteress (John 8:3-11); An Anointing Sinner (Luke 7:36-50); A Bent/Crippled Woman (Luke 13:10-17); Cain's wife (Gen. 4:1-18); A Demonized Slave Girl (Acts 16:16-24); Hebrew and Hellenistic Widows (Acts 6:1-7); Job's Wife (Job 1,2); Lot's Wife and Daughters (Gen. 19); The Concubine (Judges 19); Noah's Wife (Gen. 6-9); Hemorrhaging Woman (Matt. 9:20-22); Pilate's Wife (Matt. 27:19); Praying Disciples (Acts 1:14); Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10; Chron. 9); Samaritan Woman (John 4:6-42); Sinful Woman (Luke 7:36-50); Two Harlots (1 Kings 3:16-27); Women Witnesses to Resurrection (Luke 24);  whew!  and that's not all folks!

Let's consider: The Woman of Samaria, The Woman Who Blessed Jesus' Mother, The Wise Woman of the City, The Prominent Women, The Anointing Woman, Elect Lady, Jerusalem Disciples, Paul's Sister, Peter's Mother-In-Law, Philippian Slave Girl, Samson's Mother, Timothy's Mother, Tyrian Disciples, The Widowed Wife of a Prophet, Jairus's Wife and Daughter, The Notable Woman of Shunem, Persecuted Disciples, Pharaoh's Daughter, Philip's Daughters, The Poor Widow, Witch of En Dor . . . . and more

Onward in my journey in Discovering  My Purpose for God.  You're welcome to join me.

Blessings ~ "TalkerCat"

Tue, Sep 12th - 2:25PM

Reflections

I'll be 45-years-old on Thursday and ya know what? these really are the "good old days"! So before I endeavor the long journey through Women in the Bible ~  I'm only going reflect back as far as Life in Black and White.

You could hardly see for all the snow ~ rabbit ears spread as far as they'd go.  Pulling a chair up to the TV set, "Good night David, Good night Chet".  Depending on the channel you tuned, you got Robb and Laura or Ward and June.  I love Lucy; The Real McCoys; Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys.  Rawhide; Gunsmoke; Wagon Train.  Superman, Jimmie and Lois Lane.  Father Knows Best and Patty Duke. Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too.  Donna Reed on Thursday night ~ life was better in black and white. Everything always turned out right.  Simple people; simpler lives ..... good guys always won the fight.

Now nothing is the way it seems, in living color on the big screen TV.  Too many murders, too many fights ~ life was better in black and white.

In God they trusted; alone they slept.  A promise made was a promise kept.  They never cussed or broke their vows.  (They'd never make the networks now).  But if I could, I'd rather be in a TV town back in '53. It felt so good, it felf so right.  Life was better in black and white.  I'd trade all the channels on satellite, if I could just turn back the clock tonight, to when everyone knew wrong from right. 

 Life was better in black and white!

REMEMBER WHEN. . . . 

Moms used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board, with the same knife and no bleach ~ but we never got food poisoning...  She used to defrost hamburger on the counter, and we'd eat it raw too...  Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper; in a brown paper bag, but I can't remember ever getting E-coli...

We always preferred swimming in the lake instead of a pool (how boring).  No beach closures then.  The term 'cell phone' would have conjured up the image of a pay-phone in a jail cell.  And a 'pager'?  That's what we called the schools' PA system.  We all took gym, not PE . . . and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's instead of having these cross-training athletic shoes with cushion soles and built-in light reflectors.  I can't recall any injuries; but they must have happened because now we're told how much safer we are.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang "The National Anthem".  Detention was a negative thing.  We must have had horribly damaged psyches.  What an archaic health system we had then!  Remember the school nurse?  Ours wore a hat and everything. 

I thought I was supposed the accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.  And we must have been very bored without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, XBox or a 270-channel cable station.  We played 'king of the hill 'on piles of dirt left over on a construction site.  If we got hurt, mom pulled out a 48-cent bottle of  Mercurochrome.  Then we got our butt spanked.  Now it's a trip to the ER, followed by a 10-day dose of $49.00 antibiotics and a lawsuit against the contractor for leaving a 'vicious pile of dirt somewhere it was such a threat'.  We didn't act up at a neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked right then and there and then we got our butt spanked again after we got home.  I can remember a time when Junior May from down the street came over and was doing his tricks on the front stoop just before he fell off.  Little did his mom know that she could have owned our house.  Instead, she picked Junior up and spanked his butt right then and there for being such a goof-off.

And how did we ever survive without Prozac?

How, indeed.

Author Uknown

Fri, Sep 8th - 5:18PM

Women in the Bible

On my journey in discovering my purpose for God, I wanted to study women in the bible.  What was life like in biblical times?  In what ways did Jesus show unusual appreciation for women?  Were women given positions of leadership in the earliest churches?

I have to say that some of the answers to my questions surprised me.  So I started a quest to find out more of what roles women had and how they impact our lives today.  I will begin to mingle my new interest into my daily journal.  It is, afterall, along the journey of my purpose.

I hope that everyone who reads it is blessed and look forward to an educational, friendly debate with my Christian brothers and sisters!

Ciao!  (or is it Meow?)

"TalkerCat"

Fri, Sep 8th - 5:05PM

Pondering

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is a person, a beautiful thing"  Mother Teresa

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.  If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, then you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.  If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.  If you hold your head up with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can; but most do not.  If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.  You are blessed in ways you may never know.

Mon, Sep 4th - 6:05PM

Hurry Sickness

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on. ~ Philippians 3:12

Hurry up!" "We're Late!" "You're too slow!" How often do impatient words crop up in our speech, revealing our fast-paced life?  If we're not careful we become people living in the fast lane, demanding quick arrivals and instant results.  Stress experts call this "hurry sickness".

In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul's testimony of lifelong growth reminds us that Christian maturity can be encouraged but not hurried.  Just as God takes time to make an oak tree, He takes time to make a saint.  Christian growth is a life-long process.  An unripe apple is not fit to eat ~ it's not ready yet because God's not through making it. 

Are you feeling impatient over your spiritual growth?  Remember, God isn't finished with you ~ nor does He expect to be until He calls you home.  Make sure that your goal is to know Christ and to become more like Him.  Then, slowly but surely, under blue skies and stormy, He will bring you to maturity.  It's His sure cure for "hurry sickness".  There are no shortcuts in spiritual growth.

Mon, Sep 4th - 3:01PM

Written For Terri

This poem, dated July 29, 2004 was written by my mother.  In it  "She"  is I.

When she was young, He called her; 

He called her by her name. 

He put His Spirit inside her;

but she went on with her game.

She spent the years with bright lights,

Never mentioning His Name.

She heard the glasses tinkling;

and was on her way to fame,

All the while she never,

never spoke His Name.

He continued to call Her;

but she kept up with the game.

The Dark One pulled her down

into that evil pit,

she wanted to get out;

but now she couldn't quit.

Then sick and dying, she heard Him

gently call her name;

He said, "Come Child, let me hold you;

I'll get you through this pain"

Now she calls Him by His Name,

sings His Praises every day;

She tells her friends about Him

and of the price He paid.

When she was young, He called her;

He called her by her name,

His name forever on her lips

Her heart He'd come to claim