migh-TEA BIG cuppa

Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6, NIV)

Why blog? 

Maybe because it will have lasting value for my grandchildren. Tweets, Instagram and even FB seem more ephemeral. Tweets evaporate almost instantly and Instagram and FB too follow into an almost black hole within a month. I want my "grands" and great grands to know of my faith---after I'm long gone. A faith that anchors my soul.

Why blog daily? 

Certainly not to add more cobwebs to the "blogosphere." But God seemed to "compel me" to daily blogging this year.

Is blogging hard work? 

Yes......Though it's not as hard as building a temple would have been for Zerubbabel in the above verse, it's beyond my own strength. If my blogging is not Spirit led, it is rubbish with no lasting value. Often, I wonder if the time to quit is drawing nigh, especially when I don't "feel" His power and and the writing seems "toilsome." (Ecclesiastes 2:26) 

How does one know if her blogging pleases God?

The other day I asked myself the same question. And tho the "drop and plop" method is not spiritual, recently I did just that---finding 1 Corinthians 10:13 and a Harriet Beecher Stowe quote that I hope explains my purpose.

I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did His dictation.

Stowe's writing coupled with God's word would be a "migh-TEA BIG cuppa to digest....but hopefully even my small blog is sincerely written in wholehearted service to the Lord in order to glorify Him.

Pho-TEA-graphs in the mind

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. (Psalm 107:29, NIV)

Word Pictures. Auditory to visual. Sometimes a single word or phrase evokes mental pictures. Certainly in God's word there are terms that remind us of life in all its forms. Warring. Race. Wrestling. Journey. Climb. Voyage. Storm.

Life:

• a fight or a race as Paul describes in (2 Timothy 4:7), 
• a wrestling match for Jacob, a man of never ending life struggles who wrestles with God, until God blesses Him after the "divine encounter," (Genesis 32:24-30)
• a journey as Abraham followed God's leading away from kin and kindred, (Genesis 12) 
• a climb "surefooted upon the heights" as Habakkuk 3:19 relates, 
• a voyage as Jonah in the whale's belly (Jonah 1:17)
• a storm--as the disciples experience in the stormy seas, (John 6:16-21) 

Of all the word pictures, storms and whirlwinds seem to resonate loudest with me, thus producing striking images. Storms of life agitate me---then grow. Just as the stirring waters in the ocean, can bring about ferocious storms when churned by the fierce winds.
That's when I have to call out to the One who is in the whirlwind, (Job 38:1) and recall the words of the psalmist in Psalm 89:11, "When the waves arise, Thou stillest them." His calm....deep within each human heart. An undisturbable calm available when one is in His Presence.

And no storm, however fierce or violent,
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, inThee. ---Harriet Beecher Stowe.

A cuppa served with pho-TEA-graphs of the mind to soothe a soul.