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)

MEMORIAL DAY 2023

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

            Unity without required uniformity

LAND OF THE FREE!!

            So in need of God's Presence

ONE NATION UNDER GOD!!!

            My umbrella of protection---no where else I had rather be

CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

Christmas in July!

That's what it looks like at our house.

Just stick a flag in the Christmas poinsettia on the table, have food all over the counter along with a hodgepodge of seasonal napkins, custard stirring on the stovetop and voilà! One difference was the sound of the ice cream freezer whirring because that's where the custard went. 

Freedom was celebrated---Freedom as an American. 

Freedom as a Christian (John 8:36)

Happy 4th, Friends! Oops---day late......&.......you know the rest. 

"So me"--these days!

GLORIOUS FREEDOM!

Freedom is celebrated! In local parades as well as DC. 

In cookouts, al fresco dining and fireworks. **

It's the American way---for a country founded on freedom.

Expressions are emailed, tweeted and recorded. Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music that Made a Nation, (Meacham & McGraw) recalled hymns and declarations from the past reminding me of our country's independence founded, "under God" and for the people. Even Abigail Adams is quoted as she urged her husband John & other members of the Continental Congress not to forget our nation's women, "I desire you would remember the ladies." (Songs, p.27) 

McGraw reminded all that, independence in America is not easy---it's a never-ending struggle to pursue the promises of liberty and freedom that our Founding Fathers envisioned. Again, "one nation, under God" comes to my mind......

......as I picked up my Bible for reassurances of the "freedom" that truly counts. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free..that's glorious freedom! (Gal. 5:1)

**Remembering a 4th of July (2004) with long-time friend Ann Martin at Blackberry Farm w/our our own fireworks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

Happy 240th birthday, USA!

Friend, Gayle, created this "masterpiece"---an America's birthday cake for her family's Pickwick 4th of July weekend celebration! I can't begin to imagine how she did that!

FREEDOM: A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION....for both our country and one's own soul.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)

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.

SABBATH SNAPSHOT : gra-TEA-tude

Grateful to have my own copy of this book, Ruthless Trust the Ragamuffin's Path to God by Brennan Manning---thanks to Wynellen, whose book I first borrowed.

Though I read it sometime ago, I needed to  re-read some parts.

Plus, I couldn't highlight or underline in her copy. My decision, not her requirement.....she probably wouldn't have minded.....that's just the way she is. Gra-TEA-tude abounds for friendship with someone so accepting and giving.

In this sequel to The Ragamuffin Gospel, which I have not read, Manning deals with grace and gratitude with an honest, authentic approach. Tho the story in Chapter 1 about the parents and their child with Down's syndrome is beautifully etched in my mind, this time around, I've been taking small bites and spending lots of time in Chapter 2. "To walk in gratitude is a way of living that is inclusive, attentive, contagious, and theocentric." (p. 30) In this chapter, he talks about how being grateful for our lives actually releases us to inner freedom.

Two good quotes from the book are actually from Henri Nouwen:

" Stop wandering around....trust that God will bring you what you need." "For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity.....trust that God is enough for you." The root choice is to trust at all times......" (p. 23)

"To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives- the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections- that requires hard spiritual work. Still we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God."(p. 31)

One of the most arduous spiritual tasks is that of giving up control and allowing the Spirit of God to lead our lives." (p. 115)

For someone who grew up in a works oriented church and still has a tendency toward self-condemnation, grace is a hard concept for me to grasp. I need reminders and am grateful for the ones this book gives.

"Live free or die is the ragamuffin's motto." (xv)

When the Lord makes us free, we are free indeed (John 8:36)----what a sense of gra-TEA-tude for that truth.