OLYMPICS 24 OPENING CEREMONY!

Yesterday's Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, France, the "City of Lights" was awesome! It had me singing "My country tis of Thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing...." This sweet freedom's song touched my heart! So.....I had a cuppa "liber-TEA."

Increase our peace O Lord beyond the banks of the Seine and above the earth from the hot air balloon. (Philippians 4:7)

May the peace of Christ rule in our hearts! (Colossians 3:15)

Liber-TEA : a 5th cuppa

All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign—a child shall be born to a virgin! And she shall call him Emmanuel (meaning, “God is with us”). (Isaiah 7:14, TLB)

Liber-TEA must be a cuppa I relish because this year alone I've blogged 5 times about liberty in Christ. Free indeed. (John 8:36)

"Lost in Wonder, Love and Praise,"  Sunday's 26th annual Christmas Festival of Lessons and Carols* at First Evan, included many traditional carols. But....."Free Us, Emmanuel" a carol I had never heard...might have been one of my favorites. The rhythm. The melody. The lyrics.

Lyrics that spoke to my heart.

Free us from the heavy chains of our sins and our sadness and body of pain.
Free us, O Emmanuel, from the sorrow and suffering of where we dwell.

"Free Us, Emmanuel!" served me a reminder cuppa liber-TEA---showing God is with me.

*Praises for the beautiful program cover, an EMYO original.

Liber-TEA : a needful cuppa

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, ...... (Proverbs 13:12, ESV)

Hope in mankind is flighty at best. Expectations often disappoint. Too many unfulfilled expectations can also make the heart sick. My friend Carolyn W. says, "expectations are premeditated resentment." We just set ourselves up. 

All relationships tend to involve expectations. It's how one manages those expectations that dictates the quality of one's life. False hope and unrealistic expectations are the RX for disappointment.

Daughter Molly and I discussed many such weighty topics yesterday during the intermission at Hattieloo's "If Scrooge was a Brother" production. The various trials of friends, our own fears and anxieties---the woes of the world and the woes of our own little world. Not exactly theater conversation but heartfelt reflection all the same.

There tends to be expectations of perfection in life.  Even expectations of people----which one probably needs to let go of---or at least "manage" correctly. When one sets perfection as a goal---that is mismanagement and negative feelings are the result. Anger and sadness emerge from the one who has SET the expectations. On the other hand, the emotions of anxiety and shame can result in the one who is trying to meet those unrealistic expectations of the other person, be it boss or spouse or parent.

Years ago, son Josh, listened to NPR's "Prairie Home Companion." Lake Wobegon the fictional town of Garrison Keiller, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

To me, the name itself rings of WOES BE GONE!! That's the only way all those so -called perfect people could exist---in fiction! In reality, one needs freedom from dependence on man and transfer that dependence to God.

The way to sip from a cuppa liber-TEA is to align our desires and hopes with the Lord's will and let go of unrealistic expectations---because perfection only resides with Him....or possibly at Lake Wobegon.

Liber-TEA

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 

(1 Peter 2:16, ESV)

Yesterday's salute to Veterans in flag flying, concerts and "mattress" sales brought home to me the freedoms all enjoy because of sacrifice....freedom to worship, being chief among them. 

For me, the liberty I have found in the Lord, is so precious. How grateful I am to be able to declare it at home, to share it abroad and even proclaim it through this blog. 

Yet, some heartfelt suffering for others has recently had me wrapped in sadness. A bondage of sorts. Captive. I needed to be set free. Stuck in worry.

But God through His word came alongside as, "In my distress I prayed to the LORD, and the LORD answered me and set me free." (Psalm 118:5) Not changing the situation or eliminating the grievous circumstance but by setting me free of worry----and allowing me to share that answer with others.
He has made me "free indeed." (John 8:3) Free in essence. Free on the inside.

Freedom of religion in America. Freedom in Christ.
How blessed we are to be able to sip from such a cuppa liber-TEA!

"Med-TEA-tation"

Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love, 

(Psalm 107: 7, 15, 21, 31,  NIV)

Psalm 107 begins the PRAISE section of the 44 psalms in this section of the psalter. It is FULL of praise in spite of difficult circumstances.

The psalmist seeks to motivate Lord’s redeemed to praise Him by remembering / recalling / reviewing His mighty acts. I’ve been camped out here for several days with several different teas in my speckleware cuppas, as God has used Psalm 107 to prompt prayers.

Med-TEA-tation is the primary tea. Using this psalm for meditation and prayer, I transitioned to praying specifically for a few friends. I began to seen reasons to praise the LORD---to serve him a cuppa gra-TEA-tude on their behalf.

Captivi-TEA---The Lord delivers his own from captivity---God sets each one free by providing liber-TEA for those held in captivity, first from the Babylonians and later from their own afflictions and iniquities.

Liber-TEA continues to be needed in our own lives. Many cry out to Him for release from the distresses of fears, family concerns and even chronic physical illnesses. Others need for Him to break the chains of depression that they might be brought out from the mental darkness and deep gloom of emotional despair. 

Med-TEA-tation easily led to a cuppa gra-TEA-tude. A cuppa gra-TEA-tude for both God’s goodness and His enduring love as Psalm 107 proclaims.

"liber-TEA" is a cuppa relief

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6:14, NIV)

One can not wait until the one who offended him asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a heart issue. An unforgiving heart remains in bondage to the offense.

One needs to forgive for his own sake. May each one, struggling in this area, begin with remembering that the basis for one's own forgiveness was established 2000+ years ago.

Forgiving isn't about the other guy. Typically, they don't "get" the depth of the offense or realize the damage it has done to the relationship. Sometimes, said offender doesn't care whether you forgive him or not. 

Therefore, the offended one must forgive for his own sake. Carrying such anger can eat away at his insides, and steal his inner peace. 

Christians forgive because it's spiritually healthy and because "God says so." There are no exceptions. When the infraction has caused a chasm in a relationship, one must still forgive. Nothing imprisons quite like a grudge. When one has stolen the innocence of life and hope as you once knew it, remember to forgive the thief, not the theft.

Forgiveness has the benefit of personal freedom.

A cuppa liber-TEA is warm and soothing, washing relief over one's insides----yet, invigorating life at the same time. 

SATURDAY RE-BREW: "Liber-TEA"

Set me free from my prison that I might praise your name. (Psalm 142:7, NIV)

THe psalmist David moves from complain to confidence in this maskil. (a psalm of instruction, yet prayerful in nature) Though didactic psalms are not usually my favorites, verse 7 speaks volumes to my heart and offers comfort.

God can set me free from my "prison,"...... I have occupied several prison cells in my mind over the years. I have been a prisoner to the approval of others, a prisoner of worry and a prisoner of self-pity. Even depression, which I sense this psalm alludes to in verse 3. "When my spirit grows faint within me....." Have you ever been there? Been so imprisoned by those dark thoughts that your entire body seems weakened? David was there---in a dark cave and "brought very low." (Psalm 142:6)

That's why this psalm brings comfort---the thought of God setting me free from those anxious and self-critical thoughts. What relief.

But....the verse doesn't stop with, "God can set me free from my "prison." It goes on to give the motive. Relief is a motive that might first come to mind. But is relief a pure motive? Is there a motive that speaks to the greater good?

In all of one's life's choices, motive is key. Motive reveals our heart. ".....that I might praise His name." The conclusion of the verse states the pure motive of praise and glory to the Lord.

That's the pure cuppa "liber-TEA"---
a cuppa that  might provide warmth of comfort and relief...

BUT, it pours out in praise.