Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi – written in 2015

A light house does not blow fog horns but it only shines.  

When I read the above I thought of our walk as Christians.  Does our life reflect the light  of Jesus.  St Mark 4:21: and he said unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick?  A candle beams its flickering light so we may find our way in the dark as does the Lighthouse.  As Christians we should let our light shine & walk in the light of Christ.  We need not blow fog horns but just shine & let the Holy Spirit beam through us.  Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord……i grew up in a very legalistic religion & if we did have a little light, it was totally blown out with dos & don’ts & lots of fear. 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God….10: herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us & sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4 is filled with scriptures of love.  The pendulum swings both ways but should be in balance.  I guess my desire is not to be a fog horn but a flickering light for our Lord.

Just a thought by coppi

Howard Rutledge came to appreciate his time as a POW in Vietnam. He wrote, “After twenty-eight days of torture, I could remember I had children but not how many. I prayed for strength. During long periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for steak. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.

I read the above this morning and wondered why sometimes it takes hardship to realize life without God is empty.  In Hebrews chapter 11, I read about the faith of so many of the apostles, prophets and people of faith and how they stood strong when they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And why would they endure such suffering,  I presume like Howard Rutledge, they had found that life without God would be empty so in faith they believed that God would do what he promised….and, he did with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

Just a thought by coppi

God loves you simply because he loves you. You don’t have to work for his affection. You don’t have to set yourself straight before God can pour out his love over you. The father in the prodigal son story ran out to meet his son before anything had ever been set right. He didn’t know his son was there to apologize. He didn’t care. He simply wanted to love his child. Your heavenly Father feels the same way about you. He longs to love you right where you are, as you are. He longs to fill you with love to overflowing. H9e longs for us to experience this love and oneness just as Jesus did when he walked the earth.

As you enter into guided prayer, open up your heart and allow God’s grace to settle in. Allow him to free you from works-based religion and guide you to a lifestyle of relationship. God is not an angry taskmaster who shows affection only when you succeed. He is a loving Father who will always love you no matter what. Take time to receive the depth of his love for you today. Allow his love to heal you, transform you, free you, and lead you to the abundant life he has always longed to give.

I like this quote….will send again.

Just a thought by coppi

It takes courage to swim upstream. Against the current.  Do it!

enough said…….

Quote: Ed Grinnan

“Is it any wonder, Lord, that when I force myself ahead of you, my way becomes so difficult”….

Enough said.

Hebrews 4:7. God announced through David, today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts…

Have you ever heard God’s voice?  Do you want to?  I certainly did & tried every facet I could think of to hear His voice.  I would read the different ways ministers & people heard him speak to them…..being the person I am, I would do exactly what they said they did.  Nothing.  One example I shall share with you….Ruth Carter Stapleton (Our past President’s sister), had purchased a piece of land & built a beautiful lodge thereon near Dallas, Tx, where I lived.  It was to be a place where people gathered to work out deep seeded areas of pain in their life. Oh yes, I definitely signed up but I did not want to stay in places near the lodge.  I was  going to rent a room in a motel…be by myself & really seek God & try to hear His voice.  I did.  I sat in that room nightly all alone while everyone else was mingling with others.  I prayed. I mediated, & sat still, which is very hard for me to do.  Nothing.  The gathering was nice but I left without the reason I was going for….to hear God’s voice.  Years later and many tough goings & being terribly weary, I found myself with my head on my desk praying about something I did not want to do….I heard “you won’t have to”…I jotted the date down & reason I was praying. Sure enough it never happened.  Then I sat & thought about my journey in life – yes, I was guided by a very quite & still voice starting at the age 7 when I heard standing in a room in our old farm house…”go kneel & pray by your bed & I will filled you with my Holy Spirit”….I obeyed & it happened.  I guess sometimes the Mighty Lord does move in the miraculous but for me, it’s in the unexpected times, I feel this urging in my being…..I am here guiding you…..don’t harden your heart….listen sometimes I speak very low……..listen.  

Ecclesiastic 11:5…As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things.

The wind blows where it wishes, & you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.  John 3:8

Just a thought by coppi

When all is not, God is—“I AM WHO I AM.” When all is lost, God remains— “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.” The LORD, alone, is God.

Kethoser (Aniu) Kevichusa September 3,2020

“Unhappy is he who depends on success to be happy. For such a person, the end of a successful career is the end of the line. His destiny is to die of bitterness or to search for more success in other careers and to go on living from success to success until he falls dead.” — Alex Dias Ribeiro

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C. S. Lewis 

“The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances…….” Henri Nouwen 

One definition of control:   To order, limit, or rule something, or someone’s actions or behavior: If you can.  I have been in control situations, and I am sure I have  control in my behavior.  When we are not in control, one thing is for certain. God is always in control. The Bible teaches us through various scriptures how there is nothing beyond the control and will of God here on earth. He controls leadership even when they aren’t submitted to Him.  

I am a Christian, but I am also a human being.  I had a friend years ago, who wanted to know more about my walk with Christ, and asked if I would open my home for Bible teaching. I did.  I had many excellent Bible teachers come through my home and share wonderful teachings of God’s word. This went on for three years.  Many of my golfing and bridge players would come. My friend wanted to keep it small – just among us. It never happened, because that to me was wrong.  I guess I became under her control as what I should be as follower of Christ. I felt smothered and I wanted to be free to enjoy life. She wanted me to be shackled under rules and regulations- I grew up under that and did not want to go under it. Anyway, I wanted to be free to sing my own song, speak my own language, and dance my own dance. She did not like my decision and told me so. I loved my friend, and being a sensitive person, and a people pleasers, my life was in a mixed-up way. I finally turned everything over to Jesus, and let him handle it.  Truthfully, it wasn’t an easy break; I would have handled it differently.  God’s ways are not my ways for sure.  Today, I look back at that time in my life.  I went through a lot, but I am beginning to understand the love of Jesus, and learning to dance my own dance.  

Max Lucado:  ” God gives us more by going deeper than we ask.  He wants not only your whole heart – He wants your heart whole.  Why?  Hurt people hurt people.  Think about it why do you fly off the handle?  Why do you avoid conflict?  Why do you seek to please everyone?  Might your tendencies have something with an unhealed hurt in your heart.  God wants to help you for your sake.”

The other night driving home from a restaurant, a man in a van kept cutting us off.  We tried to ignore him but to no avail.  The next thing I knew he was besides us, rolled down his window & threw a cup full of gooey stuff at us.  We ignored him as it is dangerous to react to someone’s anger.  I looked in the rear view mirror & he had pulled over & beckoned us to stop & say something.  Ignore him, I said.  We did. As we did nothing – just driving home.  I wondered if this person had some unhealed past hurt he never dealt with….”I have always said when one stuffs feelings, they eventually will come out….”  Much better to have a confidant that you trust & talk it out or write a letter to Jesus & tell him about your hurt feelings……I promise you, you will feel better.

Just a thought by coppi

Ephesians 3:20 in the New International Version says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Isaiah 55:8 in the New Living Translation says: “`My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD.

My husband and I were watching the movie “I Can Only Imagine”tonight.  It was a true story of the life of Bart Millard.  He was with a Christian rock band MercyMe and was the lead singer.  The lyrics for  which Bart Millard wrote in just ten minutes.  Needless to say, but I cried many times during the movie.  Why?  Bart grew up in a very dysfunctional home. His father was very abusive to his mother and him.  His mother finally left for good after a very abusive night of fighting. Bart was left with a very angry man, who constantly abused him physically and verbally. I never was abused physically or verbally by my mother, but a mother trying to raise ten children by herself with very little income, I guess the dysfunction was from that situation and outside of the family unit.  We were fine when we reached the time of high school, but not so in our early schooling.  We went to country schools and were in the community of Germans. At that time, not being German (even though my father was German) and poor, we were mistreated by the other kids.  When you are young and vulnerable, it does make a hole in your soul.  I am a HSP (highly sensitive person) and being so was hurt by words or indifference.  To help me through all this stuff, I signed up for a course in “A Way Out”.  Through this teaching of ‘why the pain’ and being honest with a group of others who were there gave me understanding of ‘why the pain’. Anyway, then I had understanding so I was able to meander through the other difficulties I faced in life.  I have said this before in my “Just a thought by coppi”- and will reiterate again “If I didn’t have my faith and hope in Jesus, I do not think I would have climbed through the difficult times.  Watching this movie brought the vivid memories back and the tears flowed.  Tears:  Jesus gave us tears to wash away “uglies” in our life and He blocked them by putting forgiveness in our souls – I can only imagine  how He did that, but He did. 

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭34‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Do not worry about tomorrow, God is already there”.

Worry and fear, the demons of the mind.  Why?  The Bible explicates “Do not worry” – ““Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 NIV

‭‭There are many scriptures in the Bible about not to worry but to trust in God   I love to read the life of Charles Spurgeon, a man of prayer and faith.  He believed what was written in the Bible and his life reflected his belief, trust, in the scriptures.  “Thus Spurgeon emphasized what the state of our hearts must be when we pray. ‘You must draw near to God … either in a lowly sense of His majesty, or in a delightful consciousness of His goodness, or in a ravishing sense of your own relationship to Him, or else your prayer is as worthless as chaff…”. Prayer, in Spurgeon’s experience, was the intertwining of his life with that of his heavenly Father in humility and in the certainty of his relationship with Him through the Son. Prayer was not only ‘power’ and ‘sweet converse’ with God, but it was also the means whereby daily needs are brought to the Throne of Grace.”  What I gleaned from my readings of Charles Spurgeon’s life is that he did not worry, but if a problem occurred for him, he immediately went to God in prayer. 

I certainly cannot compare myself to Charles Spurgeon, but I do know through my life if i didn’t trust Jesus to get me through what I was going through, I would not have made it through the valley of worry.  The words above “do not worry about tomorrow, God is already there” were given to me many years ago by a man moving me from Oklahoma back to Dallas,Tx to face all the hurts I left there when a marriage of 32 years failed in despair.  It was not easy, but in my weakness I leaned heavily on His strength.  Yes, I still worry, but I journalize my fears and pray for Jesus’s help.  It helps me to keep going.