Click below for access to the passage. Although, I recommend that if you can you read this in your own Bible. That way you can underline, comment, and become familiar with your own Bible.
Hi Carl! Fancy meeting you here! LOL
Wanted to say that it's great to see another pic up here! And thanks for sharing your family photo with us all. Good looking group you have!
No comments today. I have already said enough. I am going to set back and listen a bit. Blessings all. May God fill your heart with the love of God so overwhelming that you can't contain it!
Read this morning -- and am awed by the power our God holds. But most of all grateful that HE saves us from our sinful hearts and all that is described on these pages.
In His Love, LuDell
Wow. I don't think I've ever seen any movies come out of Hollywood that attempt to depict an appocalypse like Revelations describes. This stuff is incredible, awesome, terrible, humbling, and sad. Part of me imagines those who have shaken their fists and offended God outright getting what's coming to them, and the other part of me sees people who are maybe just a little ignorant or doubtful, embittered by the sin of others, etc. who are destined for the same terrible fate. How can we reach them, or at least give them a chance to avoid this end? There must be more I can do.
Lord, help me to make use of every day, every moment, every opportunity to connect with people, and show them that you care for them. Give me eyes to see the things that are eternal, and help me to lose focus on the stuff and the busyness that just doesn't matter. Please forgive me for being selfish with my time, my energy, my money, and the security I have because of my relationship with You. I teach my kids to share, but I don't do it very well myself.
Jacqui, I'm sorry you feel that way. You really don't have to qualify how you feel or worry that we would think you needy or something. It's just real and good to share. Nothing and no one can change if we don't talk about it on a real level. Thanks for opening your heart to that. I know that as your neighbor, I don't see you guys as often as I'd like, in fact I don't connect nearly enough with any of the people in my life. I feel guilty sometimes for taking on our house project, and I feel a bit selfish that I give it a lot more time than I do my relationships. At this point, I just want to really focus on it so that maybe sometime in 2009, we can re-shift our focus where I know it matters most. Here I go, making it about me. I guess I'm just trying to say that for maybe similar, or maybe different reasons, I feel a bit isolated too. In a way, it may take more effort on your part to be available to people where they need you to be, to meet them in their circumstances, and some of it is effort that those people need to take to meet you in your life. I think we just pray for each other, and by thinking about the needs of those we care about more, we might change things about our own lives to be with those people. I don't know. I'm not really trying to give you "the answer" either, just thinking out loud because to make a long story short; yes, I have experienced (and thought about) that too.
It seems like we all are being moved internally by all we have read and shared. I'm not sure that we need to understand it all, only that we be engaged in the process. I suspect that everyone has as much motivation to look, to care, to listen, to learn from their own internal workings as any that may come from external forces. As a child, I learned that it was not acceptable to make mistakes. There is a certain hangover from that still left today which sometimes makes me wonder, why DOES God love me so much? I certainly don't feel very lovable most of the time.
Then it just boggles my imagination when I think of all this stuff described in Revelations is (if I understand all that has been said) happening because God loves us so much, the battle, contest of power, is all about God rescuing us. Which brings up something I've always wondered. Did not God evict Lucifer and his group from Heaven, and confine them to this earth before he created mankind? That would make it seem that the contest was a result of our being created. If God suffers so much from our sin, I can't begin to imagine how much he must suffer for the innocent who suffer resulting from our sin. What seems so far out to me , is that we would suffer as much in this world I think without the evil angels, just as the consequence of the original sin. Hmmmm...
Jacqui, I just read your comments from yesterday and want you to know that I know exactly how that feel, I go in and out of the feeling quite a lot sometimes. I know that sometimes it comes from my own need for approval and acceptance from those around me on whom I depend for reassurance when I am feeling fearful for some reason. There are other times when I just don't want to be close to anyone for some reason, I'm still not sure where that comes from but I see the same thing in children who need to be close for awhile then push you away to get back to the business of being a child, know what I mean? It all just seems like the normal flux of life to me and affirms that we are pretty normal and healthy.
As for being superficial, I know there are times when I passionately desire to relate to another person at a deep and meaningful level, to be able to work something out in my own mind for just one example. But when that does not happen, I've come to think that the other person, myself, or both of us, are just not ready to go there yet with each other, for some reason. Sometimes I just have to go with it and ride it out to see what will change. I can tell you how much I appreciate your trust in the rest of us to be so open and honest. Each of us is still searching for things in our lives, coming to understand ourselves and God a little better. By being so open, we get to see how much we are alike rather than different. And we get to grow and learn together instead of alone. Carry on girl!
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Comments (7)
Carl Shelton said
at 4:59 am on Dec 19, 2008
Happy Friday!
Jacqui Wheelhouse said
at 8:38 am on Dec 19, 2008
Hi Carl! Fancy meeting you here! LOL
Wanted to say that it's great to see another pic up here! And thanks for sharing your family photo with us all. Good looking group you have!
No comments today. I have already said enough. I am going to set back and listen a bit. Blessings all. May God fill your heart with the love of God so overwhelming that you can't contain it!
LuDell Parrett said
at 11:14 am on Dec 19, 2008
Read this morning -- and am awed by the power our God holds. But most of all grateful that HE saves us from our sinful hearts and all that is described on these pages.
In His Love, LuDell
Nate Burton said
at 2:42 pm on Dec 19, 2008
Wow. I don't think I've ever seen any movies come out of Hollywood that attempt to depict an appocalypse like Revelations describes. This stuff is incredible, awesome, terrible, humbling, and sad. Part of me imagines those who have shaken their fists and offended God outright getting what's coming to them, and the other part of me sees people who are maybe just a little ignorant or doubtful, embittered by the sin of others, etc. who are destined for the same terrible fate. How can we reach them, or at least give them a chance to avoid this end? There must be more I can do.
Lord, help me to make use of every day, every moment, every opportunity to connect with people, and show them that you care for them. Give me eyes to see the things that are eternal, and help me to lose focus on the stuff and the busyness that just doesn't matter. Please forgive me for being selfish with my time, my energy, my money, and the security I have because of my relationship with You. I teach my kids to share, but I don't do it very well myself.
Nate Burton said
at 2:42 pm on Dec 19, 2008
Jacqui, I'm sorry you feel that way. You really don't have to qualify how you feel or worry that we would think you needy or something. It's just real and good to share. Nothing and no one can change if we don't talk about it on a real level. Thanks for opening your heart to that. I know that as your neighbor, I don't see you guys as often as I'd like, in fact I don't connect nearly enough with any of the people in my life. I feel guilty sometimes for taking on our house project, and I feel a bit selfish that I give it a lot more time than I do my relationships. At this point, I just want to really focus on it so that maybe sometime in 2009, we can re-shift our focus where I know it matters most. Here I go, making it about me. I guess I'm just trying to say that for maybe similar, or maybe different reasons, I feel a bit isolated too. In a way, it may take more effort on your part to be available to people where they need you to be, to meet them in their circumstances, and some of it is effort that those people need to take to meet you in your life. I think we just pray for each other, and by thinking about the needs of those we care about more, we might change things about our own lives to be with those people. I don't know. I'm not really trying to give you "the answer" either, just thinking out loud because to make a long story short; yes, I have experienced (and thought about) that too.
Gregg Swanson said
at 8:04 pm on Dec 19, 2008
It seems like we all are being moved internally by all we have read and shared. I'm not sure that we need to understand it all, only that we be engaged in the process. I suspect that everyone has as much motivation to look, to care, to listen, to learn from their own internal workings as any that may come from external forces. As a child, I learned that it was not acceptable to make mistakes. There is a certain hangover from that still left today which sometimes makes me wonder, why DOES God love me so much? I certainly don't feel very lovable most of the time.
Then it just boggles my imagination when I think of all this stuff described in Revelations is (if I understand all that has been said) happening because God loves us so much, the battle, contest of power, is all about God rescuing us. Which brings up something I've always wondered. Did not God evict Lucifer and his group from Heaven, and confine them to this earth before he created mankind? That would make it seem that the contest was a result of our being created. If God suffers so much from our sin, I can't begin to imagine how much he must suffer for the innocent who suffer resulting from our sin. What seems so far out to me , is that we would suffer as much in this world I think without the evil angels, just as the consequence of the original sin. Hmmmm...
Gregg Swanson said
at 1:44 am on Dec 20, 2008
Jacqui, I just read your comments from yesterday and want you to know that I know exactly how that feel, I go in and out of the feeling quite a lot sometimes. I know that sometimes it comes from my own need for approval and acceptance from those around me on whom I depend for reassurance when I am feeling fearful for some reason. There are other times when I just don't want to be close to anyone for some reason, I'm still not sure where that comes from but I see the same thing in children who need to be close for awhile then push you away to get back to the business of being a child, know what I mean? It all just seems like the normal flux of life to me and affirms that we are pretty normal and healthy.
As for being superficial, I know there are times when I passionately desire to relate to another person at a deep and meaningful level, to be able to work something out in my own mind for just one example. But when that does not happen, I've come to think that the other person, myself, or both of us, are just not ready to go there yet with each other, for some reason. Sometimes I just have to go with it and ride it out to see what will change. I can tell you how much I appreciate your trust in the rest of us to be so open and honest. Each of us is still searching for things in our lives, coming to understand ourselves and God a little better. By being so open, we get to see how much we are alike rather than different. And we get to grow and learn together instead of alone. Carry on girl!
You don't have permission to comment on this page.