After Forever

 

After forever, the joy will come

though darkest night can seem so long.

We wish to pain that we were numb.

After forever, the joy will come.

Suffering ends . ’Tis the rule of thumb.

At long last, return of heart’s song.

After forever, the joy will come

though darkest night can seem so long.

 

12/15/17

 

Psalm 30:5  For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. 

 

Hebrews 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 

 

1Peter 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 

 

 

That’s The God I Love

I thought of this post recently and did not realize that it had been 8 years since I shared it. My how time flies! Anyhow, I still feel the same now as I did back then concerning the incarnation. Jesus is truly wonderful!

Write At Home

 

What if God were to come to earth as a law enforcement officer?  I’m sure I would have the utmost of respect for him, being taught at a young age to have respect for those in authority. I’ve no doubt He would do a wonderful job at keeping law and order, but I wonder what kind of relationship I would have with Him. Somehow, it seems like it would be stiff and cool, and I think I would have a hard time feeling like it wasn’t “official business” every time we met.

 

What if God decided to come to earth as a superhero? Considering the fact that He is all knowing and all powerful, I’d expect Him to be a superhero that is unequaled.  He would be there to rescue me from the most dire circumstances and always in the nick of time. I’m afraid I…

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Precious?

To some it’s totally foreign

Or maybe a little bit odd

That the death of one of his saints

Is precious to our God.

 

In the death of an unrighteousness man

God does not find joy or delight

But the passing of one of His children

Is so precious in His sight.

 

How could something sorrowful

That causes our heart to pain

In the eyes of our heavenly Father

Be a blessing, a thing of great gain?

 

Perhaps because His ways are higher

And His thoughts are not our own

He sees the bigger picture

Which to us, oftentimes, is unknown.

 

This cursed earth was not meant to be

Our final resting place

We must depart from here

To see Him face to face.

 

For the child of God, death’s a doorway

To leave this old, sinful world

Trials and tests will be over

satan’s darts at us, no longer hurled.

 

And we cannot choose the time

Or the manner in which we will go

To that place where there’s no more pain

And the clear, crystal river does flow.

 

To be absent in the body

Is to be present with the Lord

In that place where sin never enters

And forever, He will be adored.

 

And though we do miss our loved ones

And experience grief and tears

We also know, they’re in the presence

Of the God who really cares.

 

Rejoicing on streets paved with gold

As before God, they shout, dance and sing

In His eyes, the grave is no victor

And death is not a sting!

 

12-7-16

 

Psalm 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

 

Ezekiel 33:11  Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Isaiah 55:8,9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

Ecclesiastes 8:8  There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

 

Rev 21:1-4  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

 

2Corinthians 5:6  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

 

1Corinthians 15:54,55  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

 

 

 

 

 

Hope For The Middle Aged

My husband and I were having a discussion yesterday about middle age. It’s certainly been a period in our lives where we have seen a lot of changes, sometimes on a daily basis. I’m writing this post for a little comic relief and to give hope to our friends out there who are in the same boat as we are. I’m certainly glad for my physical body that some of these changes are only temporary. For reasons listed here and others, I sure am looking forward to seeing Jesus!

 

A strange thing has happened in our lives

They call it middle age

Which I think is overrated

Definitely not all the rage.

 

We don’t know what changes there will be

Upon awaking each morning

But there are signs our years are advancing

Our bodies are giving us warning.

 

One day, I found quite surprising

And much to my chagrin,

While gazing in the mirror

A granny hair under my chin!

 

And as my spouse was starting his day

His body moving about

I heard him utter a groan

As one of his knees gave out.

 

When we were kids, we played outdoor games

I remember when “tag” was in

But now it’s turned into this ugly little thing

We find hanging from our skin.

 

There are other changes I could mention.

The list goes on and on.

But it’s really not the type of change

That I wish to dwell upon.

 

The change that I am longing for,

For which my spirit does sigh;

Will take place in a moment,

In the twinkling of an eye.

 

When the Lord returns to earth

And splits the Eastern sky

Caught up to meet him in the air

To heaven, I will fly.

 

This body, now slowly fading

Puts on immortality

Gone, the limitations of this flesh,

In his likeness, I will be.

 

Truly this is the change

That I’m longing to see take place

And forever I will be satisifed

When at last, I behold His face!

9/2/16

1Corinthians 15:51-55

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

 

Psalm 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How To Scare The Liver Out Of Your Pastor’s Wife

It was Tuesday night, and it was just the dog and I at home.  My family and I were originally planning on going to a revival meeting in San Jose, but I chose to stay home with our sick dog who had just been released from the hospital at 5:30 that evening. After taking care of some chores around the house, I was sitting on the couch taking care of some business on the computer and also texting back and forth with my younger sister. (multi-tasking – LOL) It was around 9:30 p.m. when suddenly, I heard our side gate open. It’s very easy to recognize the sound of our side gate, because the wood scrapes against the concrete pavement when you push it open. My heart gave a start, and I wondered who in the world would be coming through our gate and into our backyard.

Immediately, I looked over at the latch on the sliding glass door that leads out to the backyard and saw to my horror that it was in the unlocked position. I quickly got up, went to the door, slammed down the latch and pulled the drawstring to close the curtain that hangs over the door.  The dog was also barking about this time too, for which I was glad. “Maybe whoever is out there will hear her and get scared away.”, I thought to myself. I also remembered that our latch doesn’t always work properly, and sometimes it doesn’t lock on the first attempt. Swiftly, I pushed with all my might against the door handle in case it was still unlocked. That way, if someone tried to open it, they would feel the resistance and hopefully assume that that meant the door was locked.  As I stood there listening with my heart pounding, 2 Timothy 1:7 popped into my mind.  Mi corazon was still rapidly palpitating, but I silently thanked Jesus for reminding me of the verse. I tried not to make a sound and just listen, but what I heard puzzled me.

 It sounded like somebody was doing something with the water spigit which is right next to the door. It seemed kind of odd to me that somebody would be messing around with the water. It was definitely way too late for someone from Diablo Water District to be in the backyard, and why would they be back there anyway? The activity in the backyard probably only lasted a minute at the most. Then I heard the scraping sound of the gate again, and all was silent.(except for my heart, which sounded like lots of cannon booms in succession)I stood there probably about 3 minutes still braced against the door handle and wondering if I should let go. I finally let go and decided to text my sister. “Hey, could you pray for me? I just heard the side gate open and someone was in our backyard. I’m pretty sure they’re gone now, but that sure scared the liver out of me.” Questions came to my mind. Should I call the police? Should I call one of our neighbors? I was a little unarmed by the incident, but oddly enough, I wasn’t really worried. A couple of minutes later, I get a call from my daughter. “Mom, are you okay?” she asked.  “Yeah, why?” I replied. Now that was a stupid answer. Obviously she would not be calling now unless my sister had gotten ahold of her. She is very close to my sister.(her aunt) I explained to my daughter what happened, and my husband was talking in the background too and said that he was going to call our neighbor Bill to have him come check the backyard. I hung up with Jen, telling her I would call back in a few minutes. Bill came to the door with his flashlight, and we purused the yard together. As I looked around, I noticed the black hose was neatly coiled and reattached to the water spigit. I knew it was not there earlier, because I went to use it the day before and noticed it wasn’t there. At that time, I thought maybe my husband had taken the hose off to use it somewhere else. Anyhow, as I saw the hose there, I had a hunch. Someone from our church had borrowed our shop vac a couple of days ago, and maybe my husband had loaned them our hose too. I called my husband back, explained my hunch and asked him if anyone had borrowed our hose. He said, “No, not that I know of. Wait a minute, let me ask Paul.” I heard them talking in the background and Paul explaining that yes, someone from the church had been using the hose. My husband came back on the phone and said, “Let me call Bro. So and so to confirm and see if he did return the hose.” A few minutes later, the hubby calls me back. Bro. So and so’s kind, conscientious son decided to come over and return our hose, thinking that all of us had gone to San Jose. After all, my husband had announced the revival in church and opened it up to whoever wanted to go.

The neat thing about this whole scenario is that even though my heart accelerated during the incident, God brought the Scripture in 2 Timothy to my mind and also a message I had just heard at Pacific Coast Camp preached by Bro. Frazier entitled The Spirit Of Fear. Y’all that went to camp remember that one? If it wasn’t for those 2 things, I think I would have been way more unnerved and almost panicky. Thank God for His Word and for putting a little excitement and laughter into my evening! 😆

What Is It?

What is this blurry mess sitting in the pot on top of my stove? Would anyone like to take a guess? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not edible. So you won’t be forever wondering, I’ll let you know what it is in my next post. Bye bye for now!