SATURDAY SNIPPET #2

5/11/13 SIMPLICITY, as a spiritual discipline is....

......a path to finding our way home to the heart of God, where we belong. 

(Foster, R. Life With God, p. 167)

NO Wi-Fi!

5/10/12 NO Wi-Fi----at least no wi-fi without paying at this classy golf resort. My frugal self would not let me pay for this "necessity" especially when the manager explained that wi-fi was available at no charge at all of their other lodgings just NOT their resorts! I could have stayed frustrated or even gotten angry, but God.....had a life lesson for me. I, who am trying to learn to apply simplicity to my life, just needed to put the computer aside and enjoy the time at hand. Live in the moment. Embrace contentment   regardless of the "inconvenience. (Philippians 4:11)

Enjoy life & when it gives you lemons, make lemonade or in this case use them in your sweet tea!

And......enjoy it..........I did!

MONDAY MORSEL

5/6/13 Gospel truth. Is that just an idiom that flies around small towns in Kentucky? I certainly heard it a lot during my growing-up years. Kids said it to parents to give credence to their denials or excuses. Students would even say it to their teachers if trying to give validation to their statement.

Gospel truth. Figuratively, it's an unquestionably true statement.

There's also the truth of the good news of the gospel. (Romans 4:25)

Alistair Begg quote in 5/5/13 First Evan Bulletin said it very succinctly:
   Here's the gospel in a phrase: Christ died in my place. That's the gospel.

Simple enough.
That, readers, is the gospel truth of the gospel message. Undeniable.

A morsel for your Monday meditation.

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: MOSTLY WHITE

5/5/13 Mother loved white flowers---a look of peace and serenity to her. Her urns on the front steps had white geraniums and her viburnum down the side were filled with those large showy white snowballs from her mama's childhood home. Mother planted snowball bushes from "Mama" Davenport's original bushes for each of her three children. I have done the same for my three by simply burying a blooming snowball while still attached to the tree and allowing it to root. So...the heritage continues. Heirloom snowballs for inside and out.

Saturday Snippets.....

5/4/13..............posted on Sunday. I know. It goes against my somewhat compulsive nature to post "late" but the alliterative aspect of the title won out.

Simplistic snippets, those pieces of info, often just bits or scraps have been whirring in my head ever since I volunteered to create & teach a "Summer Refreshment" course at church.

simplici-TEA---a guided study to unjumble our lives and clear out our stuffed and cluttered minds, hearts, and souls....practical and spiritual approach to living out 2 Corinthians 11:3, with "the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 

It will be similar to joining a friend for a "cuppa" as we take our "simplici-TEA together, one "sip" at a time.

Time has come to put said snippets in some kind of order---to turn scraps into morsels, worthy of sharing with others. A daunting task. But  God.....reminded me that this is to be His work. So....I'm back to the THOTS department of organization--Trusting Him On This Subject!

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave me strength, because he trusted me and gave me this work of serving him. (1 Timothy 1:12, NCV) 

CUL8TR

5/3/13 Not being a texter & only rarely an internet "chatterer," I thought the cul8ter acronym stood for "call you later"---BUT it means "see you later." So simple. Yet I missed it. I didn't read it as it was. I misread it.

As I'm preparing to teach on simplicity, the duplicity found in internet/text speak seems contrary to what I'm learning. In the beginning, "text-type talk" was used to "deceive" parents who might be looking over the kids shoulder as they "chatted" on-line with their friends. Now, the abbreviations are universally used to expedite the message----the shorter, the better. Making it simple. 

Yet, the relational part is omitted. So, as I prepare to teach, I want to remember that though I want to keep it "simple," I don't want to leave out the relationship part.

Simplicity, in the spiritual realm, goes hand in hand with developing a deeper life/walk with Him, the One who created us for relationships. Therefore shortcuts, no matter how simple, can not be used. Otherwise, the meaning might be "misread."

Simple Trust

5/1/13 Sometimes it just takes a "hand" to provide all the trust that is needed. As Lucy left church Sunday with Pop-Pop, I was reminded of the Psalm 37:24 verse....

When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand. 

That truth is the basis for simple trust for all of us.

MEDITATION: A REMINDER TO BENEFIT AND BLESS OTHERS

4/29/13 Lots of food for thought from yesterday's sermon about my "vocation" in life, coupled with scripture, results in Monday Meditation. 

Vocation: I am called by God as His child, a wife, a mother and nowadays, a grandmother. Everything I do in life whether at work or play gives context to that purpose as I love God & love others.

Love God! Love others!

Truly loving God and loving others will result in both my work and play benefitting and blessing others.

BUT GOD....shows the flip side of that in the book of Ezekiel. A reminder that we can get off course, especially in times of prosperity and ease. (Conviction!!!! I'm all about ease.) Same convicting verse, or snippets thereof, in five different translations

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16: 49, NIV) 

....this... guilt....arrogance, abundant food and careless ease,... not help the poor and needy. (NASB) 

Behold, ....the iniquity, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness ...neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.(KJV) 

The sin...was this: She lived..... in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy...... ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives.  (The Message) 

Behold, this...guilt .... had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. (ESV)

Is this what happens when life gets too cushy (ie prosperous ease)----when there is more self-love than love of God? Does pride set in?

Does complacency begin to take "root" in our lives?

Does pleasure become our idol and our hands the personification of idleness? 

Do these traits benefit and bless others in any way? (Of course NOT!)

Simply put:

BENEFIT AND BLESS OTHERS AS YOU LOVE GOD & LOVE OTHERS!

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS 4/28...continued

4/28/13 ....because of an inability of this wannabe techie to import pix from a different account. Lucy (19 mos.) continued to "feed" a ball to neighbor's dog and then once again she fed herself----this time some watermelon.

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: APRIL 28

4/28/13 Birthday celebrations are always fun......especially when you can include family, whether in person or by phone. That's what hubby has done today. Plus Lucy came and Pop-Pop hadn't seen her "in person" since last July!

Preparing "Elmo" toast for breakfast.

Lucy feeding herself.......... 

.......and then feeding Elmo!