[DAILY]

     Jesus is not called the Savior because He saves; rather, He saves because He is the Savior. The work of salvation does not invent Him; it flows from what He already is.

     There are many kinds of salvation in the word of God, more than I can list here, and probably some that I can’t spell. There is that one most commonly preached, the salvation (which makes the holy angels shout with joy) of the sinner who has confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart that the Atoning Christ is Lord; but that is not the only work by the Author of salvation.
     I thought that I would call some of the following examples “smaller salvations”, in comparison to the redemption of sinners; but, “If thou consider the worth of the Giver, no gift will seem little...for that cannot be little which is given by the Most High God” (Kempis, The Imitation of Christ).
     There is a DAILY salvation. This is immortalized in the pattern the Lord gave to His disciples when they asked how they should pray. “Give us THIS DAY our DAILY bread...and deliver (save) us from evil.” He tells them also, on His last night, to “pray that you may not fall into temptation”. I take this to mean that not only should we ask the Father to guard us (“lead us not into temptation”), but that, when we are in daily communion with God, there will be no time, no occasion, for us to fall. Not only the plea itself, but the act of praying, is designed to keep us from losing our way. Daily salvation comes whenever we choose to obey God rather than the opinions, the emotions, or the wrong demands of Man, including ourselves.
     There is a REGENERATING salvation, once we have been “saved”, when we are continually freed from bad habits and given good works in replacement. We have been reborn into Christ, and we are called to “leave all and follow Him”, abandoning those selfish acts and thoughts from our past so that we may take up the armor of God and the new clothing of righteousness. Through our obedience, Christ has promised to make us perfect - not in our actions themselves, which “are as dirty rags”, but in our desire, our will, to obey. And our imperfect works, when they stem from a perfected heart of obedience, are counted perfect by God. “He takes the will in the imperfect deed, and makes the deed at last perfect” (George MacDonald, Knowing the Heart of God).
     There is a SEASONAL salvation. There is a time for everything; for sowing and reaping, for tears and gladness, and there are occasions when we need special preservation from (or through) specific needs, or certain people, or spiritual or physical violence, or a stage of life. The God who is with us always, Immanuel, is also with us during our seasonal trials, and He is faithful to save us in His perfect time.  There is “none that can more seasonably help me in my necessities, but only Thou, my God” (Kempis, The Imitation of Christ). He was with Elijah, not only when he used that prophet to triumph over the priests of Baal, but also when Elijah, in the wilderness, humbly asked for permission to die. He was with David in heights of fame, but also in hiding and disappointment. There are times when God works a special salvation for His children, beyond daily help or the high-priestly atonement for sin.
     There is a FUTURE salvation, which has not yet taken place, but which we may confidently anticipate because He has promised it. This is a salvation from mortality and all sin, when He comes to gather His godly ones, all at once, the dead and alive (but none are dead in His eyes, because He is God of the living!) and gives them new shapes to suit their new natures, and leads them, all together, into His presence, so that He may show them His Father plainly, without parables or veils. Every secret will be revealed as worthless in the light of the glorious mysteries that are in Christ’s possession.

- Joy

[Thank you Jesus for giving me this gift of time. Praise the Lord.]

Thank you Jesus for giving me this gift of time.  Praise the Lord.

Amen!

  I drink coffee all day, and it has high quality water in every cup.

Not me.............................

All I had to do was answer my "secret question", type in my genetic code, and scan my handprint. It let me choose a new password. I chose my old password, no one the wiser.

I do think this thread is far too intellectual for me, so I'll add:

You're...mocking me, aren't you.


 

I always thought the answer to feng shui was pigs. I remember hearing a farmer calling his pigs to eat that way.   

Hm. That is also a good answer. (It tastes better than toucan.)

The answer to Feng-Shui is Toucans.



Mum is getting anxious these days. We had our house re-floored in January, and all the furniture got put back together differently. We've survived the rearrangement for nearly 4 months now, and yesterday Feng-Shui found our house to rescue us from the emotional turmoil of our living room. (You can mystically arrange these kinds of visitations, with simple tools such as corners, wind chimes, straight or pointy fences, and goldfish. Real fish, not crackers.)
We discovered that our gas fireplace (which we do not use) is in its appropriate place - on the South wall, where Fire should be.  And we finally returned our mirror-engraved-with-a-lighthouse/shelf/coat hanger to its usual place on the North wall - which belongs to Water, which is eerie because of the ocean lighthouse on the mirror. Our living room is still off-balance, though, and that is why mum is anxious.

We found out that a fish tank placed on our china cabinet in the East would invite "good humor" to our house, as well as a sneaky little thing we like to call "Luck"; and our front porch is not extremely inviting to evil spirits, because our sidewalk is not quite straight, and we have spirit-evaporating wind chimes in a flower patch by the door.

We also found a refreshingly logical Christian website (with hidden references to C.S. Lewis's idea on the "Life-Force", in Mere Christianity) explaining, even though we'd already guessed, that Feng-Shui has no place in a Christian home. It denies a personal God in favor of being "at one" with the universe (and its various gods); and that it either has NO real power to invite or dispell good or evil emotion (being a Force of Nature rather than a reasoning entity) - or that it is some kind of god in itself, if it can both "wish" to enter your house, and then leave when it "wills".

Feng-Shui is about peace and harmony; those are good.
Feng-Shui is about orderliness; that's good.
Feng-Shui is about simplicity; good too.
Feng-Shui is about balance; well, that's pretty good.

Feng-Shui is a religion of balance: so is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Someone suffering from OCD can't help repeating a phrase a certain number of times, or tapping themselves equally on both sides of the body, or avoiding cracks in the sidewalk...this disease, even though it seems (to me) to be all about balance, is actually an imbalance.

Men build Houses and Roads and Parks with rigid attention to balance. Walls are a certain length and the roof peaks at a certain angle. Streets have neat lines in the middle, and opposing lanes of equal width. Parks have cement paths and pruned saplings and all the grass is exactly the same height.

God builds bumblebees that shouldn't be able to fly (but they do). God builds planets that are all lopsided, and "wobble" rather than spin. God builds men with bald heads and people who are not all of them ambidextrous. God builds pelicans with funny throats and birds that don't fly but still have their funny little wings. For crying out loud, God made toucans.


Yet somehow this wierd, wild universe is perfectly balanced. Every atom is naturally wired to explode, yet it doesn't. Even without the rigid confines of numerical "balancing" and secret hints to keep bad humors out and good humors in, God takes care of us somehow. And the truth sets us free.

Blame Pastor Roger, he ate them Roger will eat anything...................

Mine are fitted into my helmet, and I think they look sharp. 

ROFL! Gee! I can't wait to see how excited Willowbirch is about her prize! 

 

I'm excited.


Can't you tell?

[But, there is still a legal form that you must sign and return before you can eat the Happy Meal.]

Hello Willowbirch,

Sister, the Happy Meal was sent Registered Carrier Pigeon Express. However, McDonald's refused to send it hot because of their recent law suit from a customer being burned by hot coffee. So, it was packed in dry ice for Pigeon Shipping. 

They also got sued over using milk in the preparation of fries, so there is simply a picture of fries in the Happy Meal.

Yes, there was a mad cow scare of some sort, so the burger is non-allergenic soy burger.

There was also concern over law suits on the toys, so that has been discontinued. However, there are instructions inside on how to make a really cool airplane with the box. To get it, we had to sign an agreement that we would not sue if someone got a paper cut.

Did I mention that all of the packaging is now organic and edible? That's to prevent problems in case someone eats the wrappers.

There's only one more thing that I should probably tell you: All of the portions are very small because of recent law suits over making people obese. But, there is still a legal form that you must sign and return before you can eat the Happy Meal.


(Small Print:  Running and looking for a good place to hide.) 

I will not sign it, Sam I am.
I will not sign this legal sham.
I won't support this exploitation
of the avian population.
I cannot, will not stomach soy;
Its just not Happy without the Toy.

I found a neat book on Modesty for teen girls, although I imagine it could work for old gals too. Its very kind and loving and "cool", but also challenging, with some brief, interesting studies on old Hebrew words dealing with sin and modesty. The title is "Secret Keeper" by Dannah Gresh.

[I don't mention this because I'm a complainer, I mention it to show that everyone suffers in some way or another - but NO ONE suffers like Christ did for us on the cross !]

I don't mention this because I'm a complainer, I mention it to show that everyone suffers in some way or another - but NO ONE suffers like Christ did for us on the cross !


Theology / Debate / Re:WHAT ABOUT PASTORS WHO LET THIER CHILDREN... on: December 10, 2005, 11:04:47 AM

No, definitely NOT a complainer! 

Thank you, Sincereheart, for nominating this heroine.