Quotation Saturday ~ Patience

 Luke 21:19 “In your patience possess ye your souls.”

I needed these quotes today! I hope you enjoy them, too.

PATIENCE

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.” 
― Orson F. Whitney

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is "timing"
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.” 
― Fulton J. Sheen

“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” 
― Molière

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” 
― Paulo Coelho

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” 
― Aristotle

Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.” 
― Roy T. Bennett

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing, in the end, can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” 
― Margaret Atwood

STRENGTH

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.” 
― Christian D. Larson

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone
to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties
arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are
right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end
requires courage." 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

PERSPECTIVE

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.” 
― Alphonse Karr

“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters,” 
― Amit Ray

“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” 
― Albert Camus

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.” 
― Og Mandino

The Walls of Nutrition

Prov. 25:28 “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”

The Walls of Nutrition

At the beginning of my diagnosis, the walls of nutrition came crashing down around me, to put it bluntly, I had no nutritional values. I regarded food as sustenance to keep me going through the day. I had my likes of pasta anything, my drinks of choice were three cups of coffee, one Pepsi a day, and lots and lots of water, almost a gallon a day. Water was my primary sustenance.

I loved chicken in boneless or bone-in form, usually baked and not fried. I didn’t care for red meat, rarely ate pork or turkey, was not a big chocolate fan or bacon fan, but I ate those unhealthy products on occasion. So why was I gaining weight and not losing it if I ate so little? Again, very bluntly, because the food and drinks that went into my body were toxic junk, right down to the almost gallon of well-water I drank each day.

Out here in Nebraska, I didn’t think toxic run-off of the farms went into the well-water but I’ve learned that is basically what happens. All those crop dusters in this area spray and spray and when it rains… it has to go somewhere, right?

When I went to Texas fourteen years ago, I weighed a tiny 115. I was always a small waisted woman, but Texas and Nebraska brought into my life unhealthy eating on a magnified level. I never ate healthy back home but I ate more unhealthy foods in these two states. Everyone around me said as you age you gain, so I just assumed, they were right. They ARE WRONG! 
Aging has nothing to do with weight gain. Unhealthy eating has everything to do with weight gain. 

I considered taking a Health Coach course but on my journey of writing a book titled Beating Cancer on a Budget, shelling out thousands of dollars for a course is kind of going against what I’m writing about. Everything I’ve learned these past five months has been FREE and from pretty good trusted sources, Chris Beat Cancer and The Truth About Cancer. Both sites have an overload of nutritional facts that you need if you’re fighting ANY illness, not just the one I’m battling.

You know what else I’ve learned, every 'body' is different and every nutritional diet is different, and every illness is unique to the individual carrying the illness and their diet needs to be as unique and individual too. What works for some might not work for others, take for example beans and legumes, some people have allergies or intolerance of the little beans so your diet needs to be catered to what works for you. Not everything that works for you is going to work for me.

I have a disease that is tackled with poisons like chemo and the slice and dice method but truly what works and has been documented for well over thirty years, some natural treatments as long as ninety years (but we won’t hear about it) is nutritional balance! The different protocols available to us alternative fighters is amazing, to say the least.


The Budwig Protocol - 
The Gerson Therapy - 
The NORI Protocol -  
Paleo Autoimmune Diet - 

You might be fighting heart disease with medication, my mother is fighting type 2 diabetes with medication, my uncles and aunts (now deceased) fought with the chemo, slice and dice method. What I’m getting at is we all have our own choice in the matter. My choice might be different than yours but health is what I’m trying to achieve, I believe you’re looking to sustain life in your unhealthy lifestyle. I’m just not choosing the unhealthy route anymore.

Brick by brick I’m building my nutritional wall back up. I’m not using the rubble of my broken down wall like so many choose to do via drugs and meds. Instead, I’m using new bricks in the form of healthy food, new cement in the form of knowledge, new tools in the form of supplementation. 

I have a carpenter friend who does beautiful work in his line of business. If I asked him if he ever uses the old wood, the old bricks, the old stuff to rebuild something, I’m sure he’d say 96-99% of the time he uses NEW materials and yes some of the time even new tools are needed! 

Now think of your body. Is it wise to use the old methods of treatment when there is so much new material offered in treating illnesses? We are born to die, there is no way around that, some die from heart disease, some depression, some diabetes, and yes some from cancer. We’re all on the same path, with no stamped date of expiration on our butts. Why focus on ways to just keep it going, using the old materials over and over why not try ways for it to be an enjoyable journey in peace and health?

I don’t want to die curled up in the fetal position, begging to be set free from this world. In this alternative choice of mine, I am going to go when God is good and ready. My solid wall of a foundation of faith will stand tall and firm in the end and with the use of all new materials, the balance of life will come to a halt and I’ll fly away in joy, not sorrow, in freedom, not bondage, in peace, not pain.

Let’s face it… our choice of living all boils down to the nutritional walls we build.

Here’s to your health, my friends, to your HEALTH! 

Pss. 122:7 “Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.”

Time In A Bubble

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Time in A Bubble

“Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.”  ~Thomas Hardy

Here I sit in an isolated bubble of my own making. I like to think outside the bubble but seriously I feel safer in here and protected by the walls of Christ I’ve built around me that nothing can seemingly penetrate.

Four very important words in your life are love, honesty, truth, and respect. Yes, I know there are many more important words but these four keep me in my bubble. You know why? Because not many people can handle the truth or honesty and I do believe that it earns me respect and love. 

Often I’m labeled ‘weird’ for my intuitive insights but I’ve never allowed it to cloud my judgment when sizing up a person, place or thing. Instead, I let my mind and all of its beautiful intuitive qualities lead me into a greener pasture where no one dares to go.

“Be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people.” I couldn't make out the name of the author who wrote this quote but I’m certain different people have said it many different times during many different eras. This could be my mantra that I dangle in my little bubble. I want people to see a goodness in me and I want that to be one of the reasons they share their goodness with others. 

I was so unlike myself yesterday, waking in a grumpy mood and staying there all the way through the horror movie, The Shining! I rarely watch movies with foul language and nudity, not because I’m better than anybody but it is my preference not to put myself through such a demeaning show of the controlling display that Hollywood/media has gripped the world with for years. But I love a good creepy movie.

But I’m telling you, I woke in such a mood yesterday, I don’t know how my family could stand being around me! First, living out on a farm we’re inundated by flies! We’ve gone through about five or six boxes of fly strips (that has ten strips in it) this season alone. They are getting so aggressive with the weather changing I could swear they were beating holes into my door to gain entry. We’re not talking a fly here or there, we’re talking waking up to at least fifty scattered around on the ceiling and throughout the day, hundreds making their way in the slightest opening of the doors. I won’t put the fly strips in the kitchen and living area but they work back in the laundry area. I’m talking thousands of flies, enough to drive any human insane! My outside wall looks like an animated moving wall!

Then there are the instances that have taken place over the weekend that are also driving me mad. I won’t mention names, I’m not a political person, I just live in my little bubble that I feel is going to burst come November 9th, if you get my meaning. Until then EVERYONE (but maybe one or two) is on a venting WAR PATH! This is so ridiculous I want to seal my bubble with crazy glue so nothing can pop it! Let me tell you, the anger SEEPS. 

Have you ever heard that you can’t unsee what you’ve seen? Well, that is what all the raging is doing to me, seeping into my bubble and I need to shrink into a tiny dishwashing bubble so no one can see the light I emit. They can’t have it! They will dirty the bubble and make me appear as scum. They are not going to make me despise and hate no matter how much they try! There’s really no place for fun anymore in the virtual world, people have all strangely morphed and not in a good way where I want to be around. 

Here's an interesting read from Max Lucado and what he says about Jeremiah. I never saw Jeremiah this way but thank you, Mr. Lucado, for shedding Light to this darkened world and helping me to see things from a wise and different perspective. Thank you.

Romans 8:28 “In everything God works for the good of those who love him” 

I believe I will wake November 9th  and either way this whole clown (literal and figurative) fiasco will be over and my God will still be the Sovereign King of my heart and soul! My bubble won’t burst and I’ll live happily ever after. I will have a clear conscience and feel GOOD about my verbal, mental and physical choices I’ve made this entire election year as well as my entire life!

Prov. 2:9-12 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

Belief vs. Knowledge

Ex. 31:3 “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,”

“I no longer want to be a Christian. Oh, I want to follow Christ and stick to my beliefs but to be a person who calls herself a Christian I feel like I have to put on an armored coat while all other Christians walk around pretending to be a Christian and wearing the face mask the rest of the week. They are the Sunday only Christians I spoke of in another post.”

Please note I do have on the full armor of the Lord and that the term ‘Christian’ I found only three times in the bible:

Acts.11:26 “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

Acts.26:28 “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

1Pet.4:16 “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”

Also, note that I make the statement above to see a reaction, not as a statement of me giving up on everything I believe in. And you just know there will be more posts, so hang in there before judging me. I’ll say this also, if any man (or woman) suffer as a Christian, let him glorify God on this behalf. 

Belief vs. Knowledge - I can see this topic is not one that I’m equipped to just spew out an answer of the differences in a few hundred words, so links will be added so you can read your heart out. 

Belief vs. Knowledge an interesting read.

Knowledge definition: 1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

Belief: 1. an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.
2. trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

My belief comes from knowledge not via books, or an encyclopedia or the internet, not from scientists or ministers, it comes from what I’ve experienced and know to be true to ME. That is what makes my strong belief different and that is that it comes from hands-on, visual, and sometimes spiritual experiences that have happened to me in my life. After an experience, I would check a book to see if I’m crazy or not and more times than not my experience is not much unlike many of the people that I’ve read about in the bible and others who have been on the same journey.

Let me just say, before everyone goes off thinking I’m losing my faith, satan himself has tried to shake my faith and I’m still here writing about what has been MY experience, in a nutshell, I AM NOT LOSING MY FAITH.

My post is not here to sway you to think MY way, my post is here to have you and you alone think, to search, to read, to feel for yourself what is the truth that lies within YOU.

Yesterday’s post about agnostics vs. atheist struck a nerve in veins I never thought reachable. The journey I’m on has me meeting many different people, ones I don’t understand and subjects I need to do a little research on so I don’t come off as someone who don’t know what they’re talking about. 

My post yesterday brought about a slew of links, worthy of a share.

Are all religions the same? 

Hypocrisy in the Church: 

What IS the Church? 

Church bullies? 

What NOT to say to someone who has been hurt by the church: 

As with all of my writing, I aim to gain knowledge, to grow as a person and to share with you my experience along the way. I’m not writing so you can tell me I’m right or wrong, just as your opinion to me is not right or wrong, it is growth, internal or external growth is what we are all here for on this planet. Growth is the very reason we were planted.

My suffering is a part of that growth. I don’t announce to the world that I’m struggling or suffering to gain pity, I offer it to you so you can see my growth through my suffering. You get a visual of what my suffering entails then the further writing of blog posts show you how I as a human being have grown through the pain. 

I am human. I am a sinner. I am the very hypocrite you fear (not for my lies but for times I may judge wrongly) yet the one you long to speak to and embrace. I am a living testament to MY belief through the knowledge that I gained via experience. In truth… I AM ME!

2 Thes. 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

Poetry Sunday ~ In The Day

Pss. 37:30 “The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.”

In the Day

Praise the Father, Praise the Son,

Praise the Great and Holy one.

In the day when no love shines

The haughty man will rise

Holding there within his hand

The truth behind his lies.

In the day when people think

That wisdom comes from shores

It sails along the currents feed

Right into open doors.

In the day when man is fooled

By fancy ways of talking

Finding face with a false god

A feeble form of walking.

In the day when man can serve

Two masters in his pride

Humanity will surely fall

And nowhere can man hide.

In the day when man can love

Relinquish earthly hate

Walk along the path with Christ

And enter Heavens gate.

Praise the Father, Praise the Son,

Praise the Great and Holy One.

Pss. 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.”

 

 

Wisdom

“The Gospel is meant to change the sinner. Not for the sinner to change the gospel to suit their sin.” ~ author unknown

Wisdom

Job 28:12-13 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.

People seek out wisdom as if it is out there in a book with words attached to it, or from a minister who delivers a message, philosophers, and scientists. But Job clearly states that wisdom CANNOT be found here among men in the archives of the library.

I am not set to judge how you find wisdom or how you put what you’ve found into action but I see many people wandering around like balls in a pinball machine. They jump from one belief to the next, then one minute praise God and the second minute curse their hearts out. Accepting the lost path as a way of life. They’re seeking but not finding wisdom.

I know it is no way of life to be disrespectful, rude, ignorant and selfish but I see too often people who are claiming to be Christian dividing their time between what they believe and what they practice. They believe themselves to be Christians but their actions say something totally different. I wonder why they even walk the path if they are not going to adhere to way to light and life.

The fear of the Lord is threaded throughout Job and it does not mean to be scared of His wrath it means to have RESPECT, reverence for God and to be in awe of His power over your life. I hear so often people saying they gave it up to God but again in the next sentence saying something opposite of what it means to give it up to God.

You don’t give it up to God then continue in your sinful ways. You struggle day after day to bite your tongue, you battle with your flesh filled thoughts striving to lace your conscience in the spiritual nature God had intended for mankind.

Is it an easy fun-filled task? Not at all, it’s hard work! You don’t pull a veil over your eyes and become blind to everything. Why do you think the bible states, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Yeah, this is one of those non-literal meanings.  God was not referring to just a camel or just the rich man. If you have wisdom, you know the difference.

What is wisdom and why is it so important to God? Because the closer you are to wisdom, the closer you are to God. It sounds simple but it is one of the most difficult journeys in your life you’ll ever embark on!

You see with different eyes. You are no longer filled with hate, anger, disgust, or antagonism. You see with loving eyes and embrace all the beauty that is freely offered. Without wisdom, you’ll turn from the true being that God intended for you to be.

When you have wisdom you also have a tendency to reflect the Light of the Lord back into the world. You have the wisdom to know the difference in mean-spiritedness and being spirit-filled.

Being wise is not a goal solely for the Christian believer; the spiritual aspect of life has been around long before Jesus was born. Since we could determine right from wrong, man has been trying to find a way to know God spiritually. Through wisdom we find Him.

When I die, it is not my physical body or my material life that will meet the Maker face to face, it is my spirit and all it is filled with that will join me together with my Heavenly Father. Our physical bodies are tainted and spoiled by the darkness in the world. The spirit is shaped, molded, refined and formed by God. Those who have wisdom, let them hear.

If a man (or woman) call themselves Christians, that means they’ve sought out Christ. They know there is something about Him that holds weight in the world and seeks to find the Holy One. Without a spiritual journey, the path becomes askew; they believe one thing, say another and act however they want. They are lost sheep always seeking but never grasping the truth of the matter.

However, the spiritual journey leads you to a path of wisdom. No, you won’t know God better than He knows Himself. You will not be on a journey of being better or equal to God, but you will be able to discern good from evil in an unveiled light. You’ll discover innately the essence you never knew you were born with. You will then seek to see the good in all and it empowers you to be a better person all around, not just in ways that suit you.

Yes my friends, the spiritual journey brings you closer to the plan that God Himself intended all along. Wisdom is not gained by a belief in Christ. Wisdom is knowing instinctively the difference.

So What Now...

Pss. 30:3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

So What Now…

As I sit here thinking of the losses from cancer, I myself wonder what’s next for me.

My uncle (by marriage) is fighting the fight diligently and I know it won’t be long before I get the unawaited call that drops me to my knees yet again.  I lost my grandmother to lung cancer over forty years ago and now my aunt just recently succumbed, I watched (from afar) my dad do battle with throat cancer and my nephew testicular cancer, and I also remember my mother’s aunt dying from cancer, so where does that leave me in the line of targets for cancers next victim?

I’m sure there are more members of the family that I’m forgetting because it is quite obvious cancer has targeted my gene pool. Am I to sit here in line and wait for cancer to tap me on the shoulder with a smile and say, ‘You’re next, sweetie.’

I’m not a health nut by any means. I know right from wrong and I know what is good for my body and what is not good for my body. I don’t go out of my way to overindulge in food carelessly and that has helped ME with any health and weight issues in my lifetime. I don’t consume poison (alcohol) and although I try to keep my brain in working order, I believe I fail miserably.

Does this mean that cancer will pass me by? I’m not blind to the fact that it has no preference in where or when it strikes. All of us are most certainly guaranteed some health crisis in our lifetime that will either make us or break us in its procession of consuming the living.

I’m not riddled with paranoia instead I’m riddled with life. I wake every day and ask, what can I do for you, Lord? And He doesn’t say go out and share what other people have to say about me, share what YOU say about me and experience in YOUR life. And basically that is what I do. When I share a scripture from the Bible, I’m not pointing at you and telling you that you need to read and believe this because * I * do. I’m sharing it with you as an explanation for something I’m going through and allowing God and scripture to guide ME down the path.

I’m not a very knowledgeable person but I am a very wise person. I’ll take wisdom over knowledge any day. Knowledge is book-smart wisdom is heart-smart. Not all knowledgeable people are heart smart. I mean they know things because they’ve read about it somewhere, shared it so that you know they’ve read it somewhere but sincerely do not have the wisdom to share it through experience, only what was read.

I’ve come to the conclusion that cancer has infected humanity, not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well. It has made its way into unsuspecting hosts and breeds like fleas; where there is one flea (cell) you can bet there are more right behind it multiplying.

I live and learn from experience not from something that was spoon-fed me via words on a page. Humanity is being eaten away and unsuspecting hosts are breeding the lies, deceit and corruption. I say unsuspecting because they believe they’re doing the right thing, but then again, they’re only going by the knowledge that was fed them, not by anything they witnessed or experienced first hand.

The biggest snowstorm of the century was a misleading adventure that hosts wanted to feed you. Every year the Farmer’s Almanac has been proven false, every day the weathermen appear to be liars in disguise, religious scholars are pretending to be scientist and vice versa, liars are lying, cheaters are cheating and killers are killing. People are willing to believe wholeheartedly the things they read.

My heart aches for misled humans. I won’t believe I’m next in line for cancer to strike because I’ve read it somewhere. I’ll believe it when the experience is upon me. My heart bleeds for those that have suffered with cancer, lived to tell about it and those that we have lost to this illness. A cure for cancer will one day be found, maybe in my lifetime and maybe not. One thing is for certain, humanity holds the key. 

Quotation Saturday

John 15:19 “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Advent is a time to wait, listen and ponder the awesome wonder of God. Pause and spend some time this season reflecting on God’s gift of love. Jesus IS the reason for the season.

“Advent: the time to listen for footsteps – you can’t hear footsteps when you’re running yourself.”

~ Bill McKibben

“The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all.”

~ Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac

“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; So that, at the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.”

~ The Book of Common Prayer, published in 1662

“Christmas has lost its meaning for us because we have lost the spirit of expectancy. We cannot prepare for an observance. We must prepare for an experience.”

~ Handel Brown

PRIDE

“For the believer, humility is honesty about one's greatest flaws to a degree in which he is fearless about truly appearing less righteous than another.”
~ Criss Jami

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Chasing a person doesn’t give you value or build values in you. You earn your value by chasing morality and practicing dignity.”
~ Shannon L. Alder

“Wealth is a gift from God, and pride is bequeathed to us from the devil.”
~ Douglas Wilson

WISDOM

Pss. 49:3 “My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.”

~ King James Version of the Holy Bible

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
~ Isaac Asimov

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”
~ Paulo Coelho

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
~ Confucius

JUDGMENT

1 Chr. 16:14 “He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.”

Job 19:29 “Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.”

Pss. 37:28 “For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.”

Pr. 19:28 “An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.”

Balance

James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Where does balance come from in the Christian life? One doesn’t seek it, nor buy it, and one can’t find it through all the knowledge you put into your system. Balance is achieved. Notice the wheel, how well balanced it is? When there is no balance, the wheel will not roll!

Balance is achieved by having a goal and reaching it, like climbing to the highest mountaintop and looking out at all the glory, you have achieved a goal. Balance is holding onto that goal once it is achieved.

The lack of balance in a Christian’s life will certainly cause a bit of trouble; sleepless nights, worry, stress. When you achieve a balance of all that God has shown you there is only one outcome and that is of pleasurable peace.

Pastor Tim talked about the intellectual Christian. That to ME, is the type of Christian who builds his strength and faith on KNOWLEDGE of the bible. Sometimes he/she can spew scripture down to the book and chapter, sometimes he can find a scripture (via google?) that deals with suffering, pain, need, faith etc. He is the reader/believer I spoke of in my Lent series.

When only the head is involved with Christianity, you lose sight of the balance. I know of many spiritual based faiths that speak of balance also and in the Christian faith it is not much different for the spiritual Christian who has learned to balance his/her faith with the head (knowledge), will (action), heart (a deep passion).

With everything in life, if you just gain knowledge of something, what exactly are you gaining? A big ego? “Yeah, I know this, that and the other thing.” Whoop-de-doodle, you’re knowledgeable.

If you put that knowledge into action with a deep passion, you are balancing the three. The will, the heart and the mind. We do not take up Christianity (just gain knowledge) we are taken UP by Christianity. With our hearts and minds and physical actions we are drawn to be LIKE Christ.

God’s Word is spiritual food. We grow by it, we're seasoned by it, we’re transformed by it. The Holy Spirit uses the word to revive you, restore your spirit and change your heart. You must process the filling of your spirit and OBEY what you are being called to do.

If I want to be used of God, it is important that I fill my mind, my heart, and my life with the Word of God. A practicing Christian has strength to fight the enemy, he is refreshed daily by the wisdom he holds and transformed so that the old person who sat and judged his fellow man, name calls, feeds the fire of satan’s lure, is gone, he is NO MORE, he is transformed.

I see a lot of folk who claim to be Christian sit in some safe corner of the globe reading and believing that no matter how often he/she sins, they’ll be forgiven and taken up to heaven when their time comes. People see them profess Christianity but their actions are far from Christlike giving people the idea that sin is good. “I can just call myself a Christian and God will save me.”

Christianity is a transformation, the balance of the heart, mind and soul. If the outer world doesn’t see the balance in you, and YES, they will see the transformation, they get the idea that Christianity is a false belief system. You have turned people AWAY from God instead of TO God.

You don’t hold the power of transformation in your own hand. All the reading and believing in the world will shape you but it will not transform you. I know you’re tired of me saying this but CHURCH aids in the transformation. Action is going to cause a reaction.

Let me see if I can simplify this. Let’s say you’re hungry. You go to the freezer and find meat. You think to yourself, that sure looks good. (Christianity looks good) You then place the meat in the oven or frying pan and begin to cook it. (This is where you read and believe.) You share this cooked meat with your friends and they all spit it out. It tasted horrible, drab, lifeless. You realize you didn’t marinate and season the meat. You took no action to make this meat a meal.

Marinating the meat is like bathing in the word. You season the meat, you cook the meat, you share the meat with people who presumably are not vegetarians. Sharing the word with unlike minds is like sharing meat with a vegetarian. Church is a place of like-minded people. You will know who and who is not a vegetarian. You have transformed the meat into a solid meal for ALL to partake of, not just the carnivorous meat eaters.

Transformation and balance of the transformed individual allows you to be of a pure mind, spiritually and physically. People with a seasoned just right balance, shake off the snares of the devil. Their strength is in the meal and the deliverance of the meal.

People have eyes to see and if you are not balanced, it shows. It doesn’t help God any if you're unbalanced. The men and women God used WERE sinners but by their transformation, they didn’t dwell in sin because it was a given that they’d be forgiven, they worked earnestly to live a pure life; they were all balanced (seasoned) in the proportion God dished out.

Quotation Saturday

FRIENDSHIP

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” ~ C.S. Lewis

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
~ Mark Twain

“Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
 ~ Albert Camus

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
~ Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

WISDOM

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
 ~ Aristotle

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
~ Mark Twain

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must of felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
" Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope.”
~ Alexandre Dumas

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
~ Aristotle, Metaphysics

PEACE

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments With Truth

“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
~ Fred Rogers

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

INSPIRATION

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
~ William W. Purkey

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
~Mahatma Gandhi

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
~ Albert Einstein

Ten Tips to Keep on Writing

Prov.1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
***

1. Free-write without stopping
This is where you pick a word, picture, idea, and start writing about the subject without stopping. You can write about your day, your mother or sister, your dog or pet, anything, just to write something. Give yourself thirty minutes and if the keys are tapping so much you can’t stop, then DON’T!

2.Don’t make plans ahead of time
Just write the first thing that comes into your mind. Don’t debate whether it is a good topic or whether you’ll have enough to say, just keep writing.

3. Always keep tapping the keys on the keyboard. (Or keep the pen moving on the paper)
Don’t glance up to see if you’re making mistakes. (Or stop writing when you catch a mistake on paper.) Turn the internal editor OFF. There will be plenty of time for editing when you’ve written a few thousand words.

4.Sometimes it is helpful to have classical (or what ever you prefer) music to help you along.
If it becomes a distraction, turn it off and find whatever puts YOU in the mood. Is it complete silence? Is it background noise that helps? Maybe its rock & roll? Lit candles?
The ambiance setting is up to you.

5.Make your workspace fun and enlightening.
Having yourself surrounded in tranquility can help those stressful days of no-writing and turn them into productive days of key tapping.

6. Write with confidence.
If you are a writer, then having the confidence of a writer means that you will accomplish something on any given day. We, as writer’s, can not say, “I’m not good enough.” That shows lack of confidence in your writing. When you sit down in front of the keyboard, repeat after me, “I AM a WRITER!” Then write your heart out!

7. Study the craft
Make sure you have studied long and hard the craft that you are about to embark on. Roads have been paved for you, sure you can make your own paths, but if you lack the confidence of ever becoming a writer, it is for certain that you will NEVER become a published writer.

8. Step out of the box
You need to find a place where you fit in comfortably. Maybe you like non-fiction, spiritual tales, horror tales or sci-fi. Whatever the case may be. Don’t be afraid of stepping out of that comfort zone and trying on new clothes. Sometimes you might find a comfortable fit in sweats and a tee, but never be afraid of trying on that little black dress.
But as much as I say this, I won’t write or read outside of what my faith calls for.

9. Show determination
If you are not determined to be a writer, how will you expect to ever become a published writer? Writing for family can be rewarding, but are they hearing what editor’s are reading? No, editors expect professionalism from you and it is your determination to strive for the best that will make the editor stand up and say, “Now THIS shows promise!” Give them your best!

10.NEVER GIVE UP!
I say this because there will come a time when you just feel like throwing your work in the trash, times when you wish you could curl up in a ball and wish this talent away. But I’m afraid to tell you, that if it is a true talent, it will haunt your days and nights like the ghost of Christmas past, present and future all rolled into one!

Thoughts for Thursday

Proverbs 16: 20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.
***

How do I write a writing post when so much is going on in my physical world that I feel like my head is in an ice bucket, frozen in silent animation?

The holiday’s are fast approaching and while I will be surrounded by family, I feel alone. Alone because my family is back in Maryland and could use the strength that I brought to the family and instead they are struggling on their own, alone also.

My hectic week will begin on Saturday and probably won’t give me a breath until the following Sunday when I’m sitting in Church thanking God for all of the blessings He has put in my life. Should I sit here and pout? Throw myself a pity party? Nah, that’s not who I am. I like to find the positive and run like the wind through the trees or harvested cornfields, and feel exhilarated for the things about to take place.

The clock is ticking, I’m wondering who this woman is, where is she finding the strength? Oh, yeah, GOD! You see, I should be in a frenzied, panicky mode, but I’m feeling ...what am I feeling, who knows? Weird? Strange? Yup, that’s Joni.

I am just going to take it One Day at a Time like all those anonymous groups say, and see what the Lord puts in front of me to handle. I know He only gives you what you can handle so I’m thinking, “He must think I’m a pretty strong chic to give me all of this!”

This came in the mail last week when I needed to hear/see/feel, “Joni, I’m here.”

***

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness joy.

O Divine Master grant that I
may not so much seek to
be consoled; as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

{LISTEN UP HERE}
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying, that we, are born to eternal life!!!

These words resound in my life as I face this week. May you carry them with you also.

Amen? AMEN!

Angel always...godspeed...

Quotation Saturday

Words of Wisdom:

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
~Isaac Asimov

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other comes from a strong won't.
~Henry Ward Beecher

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.
~Edgar Rice Burroughs

The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
~John W. Campbell

Short stories are designed to deliver their impact in as few pages as possible. A tremendous amount is left out, and a good short story writer learns to include only the most essential information.
~Orson Scott Card

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

From people who know:

Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it...
~Michael Crichton

As with all other aspects of the narrative art, you will improve with practice, but practice will never make you perfect. Why should it? What fun would that be?
~Stephen King

A Final thought:

A short story can be held in the mind all in one piece. It's less like a building than a fiendish device. Every bit of it must be cunningly made and crafted to fit together perfectly and without waste so it can perform its task with absolute precision. That purpose might be to move the reader to tears or wonder, to awaken the conscience, to console, to
gladden, or to enlighten. But each short story has one chief purpose, and every sentence, phrase, and word is crafted to achieve that end. The ideal short story is like a knife - strongly made, well balanced, and with an absolute minimum of moving parts.
~Michael Swanwick

Quotation Saturday

It is all very well, when the pen flows, but then there are the dark days when imagination deserts one, and it is an effort to put anything down on paper. That little you have achieved stares at you at the end of the day, and you know the next morning you will have to scrape it down and start again.
~Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, 2006

Let each man exercise the art he knows.
~Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Wasps, 422 B.C.

So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.
~Brenda Ueland

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
~Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926), The Happy Life, 1896

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.
~Henry James (1843 - 1916)

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
~Martha Washington(1732 - 1802)

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
~Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)

Quotation Saturday

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.
~Orson Scott Card

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.
~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.
~Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.
~Isaac Asimov

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.
~Peter De Vries

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.
~Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.
~Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967

For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain [and] the noise of battle. ~John Cheever

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
~Flannery O'Connor

Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost any subject he may.
~Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversation: Diogenes and Plato

Quotations for your Saturday

Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me. ~Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.
~Baltasar Gracian

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
~Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
~Henry Van Dyke

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.
~Sophia Loren (1934 - )

Time is just something that we assign. You know, past, present, it's just all arbitrary. Most Native Americans, they don't think of time as linear; in time, out of time, I never have enough time, circular time, the Stevens wheel. All moments are happening all the time.
~Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
~C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,The pen is mightier than the sword.
~Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873), Richelieu

Be generous, be delicate, and always pursue the prize.
~Henry James (1843 - 1916), from his essay about the rules of writing

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
~John Irving (1942 - )

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD)

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
~Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

And so faith is closing your eyes and following the breath of your soul down to the bottom of life, where existence and nonexistence have merged into irrelevance. All that matters is the little part you play in the vast drama.
~Real Live Preacher


Author's note: I am moving this weekend from Texas to Nebraska. I needed to post the quotes so you wouldn't feel I've forgotten you. I will be back as soon as possible enlightening you with all my knowledge. For now peruse all my links and things and dig into older posts. godspeed my friends...