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)

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!

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)

FIREWORKS

7/4/09
Wasn’t planning on “blogging” until Monday-----but God……………..was planning on writing about fruit of the spirit---but God…………..so now I’m here typing about “ugly stuff”---my tendency to have a “come apart” just because not one, but two of my pencils quit on me in the middle of my prayer/quiet time----I’m also polishing off a 15 stick pack of Extra gum, “Classic Bubble” flavor. Why? I haven’t a clue----okay, maybe I do a little bit. I have just had a glorious week of reconnecting with family and old friends and connecting with a very special “new” friend and yet somewhere along the way I haven’t felt connected to Him as I returned home. Oh I know I’m connected---because He never lets go. But……….Home is reality----there’s no escaping, which can be my path of choice sometimes. Thank goodness I had lunch with a dear friend yesterday and dinner with more dear friends last night or I might have really chosen to ESCAPE by hiding out.
I have been “fretting” and “stewing” in my mind for weeks now mostly over stuff I cannot control and it’s taking its toll. Circumstances can do that when they become your focus.
But God………….used My Utmost for His Highest entry today to remind me that I need to “Fret not.” (Psalm 37) My marginalia showed PTP (Practice Thy Presence) Today I added Praise, Thank, Praise! I have so many notes, asterisks** and BOLD underlines on this one entry that I decided to let you read it for yourself---make your own notes—-& maybe have your own heart convicted.

ONE OF GOD”S GREAT DON’TS

"Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil doing." Psalm 37:8 (R.V.)

• Fretting means getting out at elbows mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say "Fret not," but a very different thing to have such a disposition that you find yourself able not to fret. It sounds so easy to talk about "resting in the Lord" and "waiting patiently for Him" until the nest is upset - until we live, as so many are doing, in tumult and anguish, is it possible then to rest in the Lord? If this "don't" does not work there, it will work nowhere. This "don't" must work in days of perplexity as well as in days of peace, or it never will work. And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work in anyone else's case. Resting in the Lord does not depend on external circumstances at all, but on your relationship to God Himself. (emphasis mine)

• Fussing always ends in sin. We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are; it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are. Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way. Our Lord never worried and He was never anxious, because He was not "out" to realize His own ideas; He was "out" to realize God's ideas. Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God.

• Have you been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for God? Put all "supposing" on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.

Wynellen had also reminded me weeks ago of the June 1 entry in Streams in the Desert, which focused on worry/fretting. “What possible use does your worrying serve?” (I know the correct answer here---sometimes I just don’t live like I know it.) “…yet you worry as if you were the captain of the vessel.” (This vessel called life.) “….implore you to not (emphasis mine) give in to despair. Hopelessness constricts and withers the heart, rendering it unable to sense God’s blessings and grace.” “………….causes you to exaggerate the burdens of life and makes your burdens seem too heavy for you to bear. “ (Madame Guyon)

Happy 4th If you hear “fireworks coming from my way, it could be because I’ve been fretting instead of abiding, and repressing feelings instead of giving them to the Lord. All of that is “calculating without God” and could easily cause an explosion. But God………….He loves me and so (today) I choose not to fret and not to give in to despair. I have to do this one day at a time because I know I’m just one “fret” away from calculating without Him.
May my fireworks (today) be a declaration of the freedom and grace I have in Him.