Blessed Bounty

Joni's blessed bounty of 2012

Pss. 136: 25 “Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

He’s In Here

As many people think of Christ up there looking down on all you do, or over there watching you, or even beside you walking with you, that’s a good feeling because you know He’s on the journey of life with you.

Now think of Him right here, IN you instead of over, beside or under. It’s like this: Say you’re invited to dinner and the host has a bountiful display of food for you, over there. That’s what reading the bible is like, the bible is over there sitting, just waiting for you to partake from. 

Okay, now the host says the food is ready, go and fix yourself a plate. You walk toward your bible, pick it up and begin reading. As you fix your plate you put all of the good food on there and then she says, don’t forget the broccoli, but you hate broccoli but this looks so nice you oblige her and take a few stalks. 

You begin reading your bible, filling yourself with all of the good stuff, happy, cheerful, loving good stuff then it happens, you’re full but have yet to touch the broccoli. There are some dark, bitter tasting words in the bible that you just want to gloss over but you don’t want to leave the host hanging so you indulge.

Oh dear, you’ve touched on rape, incest, murder, and polygamy. You’re tasting the bitterness of the broccoli and just want to spit it out and pretend you never had it but you begin to chew and chew and read and read so you can understand that ALL of the bible is the Lord’s buffet, broccoli and all. Mingled with the good is the ugly and all those words are left for you to discern whether you continue in the meal.

Now, you’ve finished the entire meal, you’ve read the entire bible, sat it on the table and wiped your mouth of any leftover gravy that might be on your lips. You walk away full, filled with the meal you’ve just eaten, filled with the words you’ve just read. You can see it as a fictional tale because honestly, some of that stuff was over the top fairy tale stuff. A whale swallowing a man and for three days he was in the stomach. A man called to build a big ark to carry two of every animal away from the impending flood, a man lying with the lions. Give me a break, right? (Oh there’s more crazy stuff for you to read)

You thank the gracious host and are on your way home, only to realize instead of leaving the bible on the table, you’ve taken it with you and it’s sitting in the other seat as a companion on the ride home. Your mind starts going over the wonderful meal you had with the mashed potatoes and delicious brown gravy, the juicy steak, meaty turkey and ham all of which melted in your mouth for you to savor on the way home.

The vegetables were a bit over the top with the likes of spinach and okra, eggplant and corn, carrots and yams, then the broccoli, the bitter tasting broccoli which climbed back up into your throat allowing you, in the quiet confines of your car, to let out a loud releasing burp. Ah, now you feel better. 

As you approach home, you glance over at your bible, you realize that there was some truth in there that you might want to believe like loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek when someone hurts you and forgiveness, yeah you like that one, the ability to forgive.

You arrive home. Do you leave the bible in the car, take the book with you, or place it in the trunk because it really wasn’t something you’re into? Your mind lingers to the host, the creator of such a grand meal that the remnants are still lingering in you. The piercing eyes, the heart of gold, the sweet laughter of a child on the merry-go-round, the host is lingering.

Imagine this: God being the host. He’s created such a grand meal in  the way of planet earth, giving you everything to partake of, the good, the bad and the ugly bitter tasting remnants. Man and woman were happy at one time with all of this bounty, so much so we had a day of celebration called Thanksgiving for all that we have.

Today, man has left the host in the trunk of the car pretending they didn’t partake of any of the hogwash they read over dinner. Some people got out of the car remembering the bible and took it with them carrying it close to their heart and went in the house to place it on the table, so it would always be close to them. 

What I’m saying is this, some people put Him back there to take Him for a ride, some put Him over there so they can glance at him once in awhile, while some see Him up there looking over them as they journey through life and me, I see Him IN HERE, my heart, my soul, my veins to always carry Him and His words with me and savor every last drop. How about you? 

Continued Change

Pss. 55:19 “God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”

Change…I can smell it in the air.

Ah, the year of change has commenced. I can smell the aroma as it drifts in my window, I can see it pass me by in my words, I can feel it erupting in the core of my being, change the ever fearful stir. 

Some people face change like a thick wall of mud, they can feel the impending surge coming but they’d rather walk through the wet clingy mud and drag their feet along until it hardens on their feet leaving them growing stagnant stuck in nothingness. In other words, they stay the same never embracing change and turn into a rock-solid mudpack.

The moist stench that this unchanging community leaves behind is nothing to be reckoned with. They will spout the darkened soil, cling to the cracks in the road and try to move into a positive sand-filled vicinity but would much rather just linger with their shoes stuck in the mire.

Rom. 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

This change I sense is not one of my own making. I didn’t set a date and say, this is it, this is the year of change. No, it bubbled down inside of me around September and built itself into a surge that was released by the end of the year. I felt the geyser of emotions inside and knew I had to take a form of action. I’m not one to allow my soul to stagnate because I fear change, I embrace the force that calls me into an active pursuit of positive energy, meaning change is inevitable; cradle and nurture it until something beautiful forms. 

If we cling to the negative energy that is released in the world, and it is there, we cling to a darkness that envelops our soul and never allows streams of change into our being. If we allow the negative influx to win, we are allowing our ego to take the reins and put its own spin of confusion on the table. Our babbling becomes just that, babble that no one wants to hear. Everyone sees the walls of gibberish and passes by quickly so as not to be affected by the negative overtone.

Now, take the reins of change and put them through a whirlwind of a positive nature, then people stand up and take notice, they listen to what you have to say, are delighted by your presence instead of being filled with emotional turbulence. No longer driven by the ego, the world around you takes on a different form. It begins to be satisfied with the change that surged within you and surfaced on the path of honor. You find contentment with the light of each new day because within you is sheltered the glorious light of God. 

Can the world run on light alone? No, there needs to be darkness so we can see the tiny glimmer of hope in the stellar nation that emits light. Can the world run on change? Yes, as long as it is not a forced change and allowed to flow from within, the world could be a beautiful effervescent place. Will it ever be content? No, because people want what they want when THEY want it and there is NO change in that position, stagnant. The earth becomes a gurgling cesspool of mudslides and the people of the earth become mummified. 

Change, it can only happen from within. That is our greatest challenge.

1 Cor. 15:51-52 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”