You’re on a need-to-know basis.
God is Eternal and snow is not.

Mr. Snowman’s not going to last no matter how much you tell him to stand up straight, avoid the sun, encourage him, or advise old Frosty to stay cool. You know he’s going to melt sometime. We are like Mr. Snowman in the fact that we won’t be around forever either. Hopefully this won’t happen in 2013, but it will happen someday. However, we do have the ability to determine how that change will take place, which in turn effects how we will live for today or in the upcoming new year.

Apostle Paul, as he neared his final days, said he had “fought the good fight” meaning he lived a disciplined life in spite of all he encountered,  “finished the race” enduring to the end following the course set by the Lord, and “kept the faith” by meeting life’s troubles in God’s truth. This was because Paul received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord which compelled him to live for God’s glory and His promised “Crown of Righteousness” when he would finally meet the Lord face to face.

Jesus offers the same life to all of us who receive Him as Savior and Lord, followed by a "Crown" and not just a frozen temporary existence ending as a stovepipe hat floating in a puddle. Isn’t it good to know what we need-to-know and need-to-do to have a truly Happy New Year?

You’re on a need-to-know basis.
God is Here

This was foretold many years before His birth as recorded in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 NIV, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, (meaning, “God is with us”).

On the very night of His birth an angel proclaimed to shepherds, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (for the complete story -Luke 2:10-20) ...“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

So, I too am spreading the word, and one other thing... He is still with us, and in us, when we receive Him in our hearts as the Messiah, the Lord. I just thought you needed-to-know that if you didn’t already. Please, go out tell this amazing story to others, because they need-to-know, in order for them to also have a Merry Christmas.

You’re on a need-to-know basis that you are His Choice because...
God is Gracious

God chose you from the beginning of time to be on His team. This is something you need-to-know when life seems lonely, you don’t get chosen by others for their team, or when you feel like you don’t have anything to offer that could be of value.

God has made us all special, and once we allow God to bring us into His training camp, we become the major leaguer He intended.

Although it might not be in sports, or anything else the world values, it will be what God wants us to become. Our signing bonus is salvation, and that isn’t dependent on our abilities, it all depends on us trusting His graciousness and receiving His Son (Team Captain) as our Lord and Savior. Then we are truly on His Team.

It’s a home run when what we know-our-need is to chose God as He has chosen us. Don’t wait. We can shout it together, “Let’s play ball!”

You’re on a need-to-know basis.
God is Ready when we are.

Whether it is a country’s flag or the flag of our soul, when it is up side down, we are displaying a signal of distress. Distress is not what God intends for a nation or for an individual, but it happens when that nation or individual is not living in a proper relationship with their Creator God, and sin is at the root.

God’s Word says that He is there to hear us and bring us back from our distress, and heal us. Let us all humble ourselves and confess our sin and the distress it causes, turn from it, and trust in Jesus to save us, and heal us from all unrighteousness (that improper relationship).

Many students will gather around their school’s flag pole September 26, 2012, for the annual “See You At the Pole” prayer event. It is a time for praying to God for one another, for friends, school, community, country, and the world.

It is great that our children know what-is-needed, and that is to go to God for healing for our distressed souls, the souls of others, and the whole world.

Do we know-the-need to go to God? He is ready when we are.

You’re on a need-to-know basis.
God is Glorious
- mankind is not unless we glorify God.

One needs-to-know that everything can have its own degree of glory, but there is no comparison to the glory of God. Everything is for God’s glory, because everything ultimately comes from God, the creator of it all.

If you plant a vineyard, you might step back a harvest time, and think what a glorious thing I have accomplished, yet it is God who made it all possible. From the materials you used, to your strength to complete the task, it all came from God who deserves the glory.

Our work can glorify God and benefit others as we plant our grapevines, and make our wine or jelly to be enjoyed by all, but if one drinks all the wine or eats all the jelly, it becomes a selfish act that doesn’t bring about anything but drunkenness or selfish gluttony and a life not well enjoyed. It is our choice as to how we live our lives, either for God or for self.

It is great to know what we need to enjoy life and God forever, is to glorifying Him in all things.

You’re on a need-to-know basis.
God is Merciful to those who yield to Him.

To yield must mean that there is some sort of conflict going on. With God, the conflict is the result of sin that separates one from God. Sin can be referred to as a wall of separation. Building one comes naturally to humankind, but this wall of sin can be expanded upon until it is not only high, but surrounds the builder until there doesn’t seem to be a way out. In reality, a large wall of sin is not any easier to breach than a small one. A wall is a wall, and sin is sin. Either one will entrap us.

What you need-to-know is that God has made a way through. Jesus destroyed sin on the cross when He took our wall (big or small) on Himself to make it possible for all to have a right relationship with our Heavenly Father. This right relationship is available to everyone who yields by confessing one’s sin, turning from it, and trusting that Jesus has destroyed that wall (sin) and is now our Lord and Savior.

Isn’t it good when we know our need to bust through is as close as our cry, “I yield! I yield!!!”

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

God is not cheap. He doesn’t go about things in a small way. Even what seems to be a little deal to us, is really gigantic. For example: Try making some mud. At first it sounds simple enough, but when you have to create your own dirt out of nothing, like God did, it becomes infinitely more complex.

Like dirt, sin has been around a long time. God made dirt out of nothing, and God has the power to make nothing out of sin - one person at a time, worldwide. That’s big, and we can work with God on this one. Our part is to confess we have sin, and trust in his Son Jesus, who paid the price (redeemed) us from our sin through His blood on the cross. God then removes it. It isn’t covered, hidden, or disguised. It’s GONE. That is something the scripture calls lavish, and we can’t do that on our own, or does God do it without our participation.

So, if we find yourself in a dry place like this "old timer" in the cartoon, covered with dirt (sin), and needing refreshment... Isn’t it good to know what we need-to-know to get rid of the sin in our lives? Come on and celebrate God’s grace! It is extravagant!!!

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

We need-to-know that we can please God. This can be accomplished by who we are rather than by what we do, but what we do is based on who we are.

When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, we do this realizing who we are. We are all sinners in some way or another, and there is no way we can make it right with God by ourselves. We need a Savior. So what we do is trust.

This starts a life long journey of changing who we are which affects what we do. Our life will now demonstrate a striking resemblance to Jesus’ earthly life who always did what pleased God because of who He was.

Once we know what we need-to-know, verses like Hebrews 13:16, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased,” make a lot of sense as who we are becomes the basis for what we do.

Now you have the basis to be and do to please God. Let’s do it!

National Day of Prayer
You’re on a need-to-know basis.

We need-to-know that every good and lasting blessing comes from God. When we try to find our blessing in the gods of money, power, fame, drugs, sex, etc., we are under the lordship of that to which we submit ourselves. The ultimate result of this is the destruction of the individual or a nation.

May we take time on the National Day of Prayer, May 3, to return to God from whom all blessings flow and acknowledge Him as Lord.

2012 NATIONAL PRAYER - Dr. David Jeremiah – NDP Honorary Chairman
Heavenly Father,
Every good gift and perfect gift comes from You. You are a faithful God and Your mercy endures forever. You have promised to bless the nation that trusts in You. Our currency proclaims “In God We Trust,” but in our culture we are far from You.
In the words of the prophet Daniel, “We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.”
We come before You once more, seeking Your forgiveness and mercy.
You, O God, are our only hope… Hear our prayer and, for Your honor’s sake, shine Your face upon this nation. Give our leaders the desire to seek Your wisdom and the courage to follow Your guidance… and watch over the men and women of our armed forces as they sacrifice for the cause of freedom.
We give You thanks for all You have done for us, and we earnestly pray that You will help us become, once again, a nation whose God is the Lord.
In the name of Your Son, and our Savior, we pray this prayer. Amen

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

When we contemplate the sun rising every morning or the seasons changing during the year, it is easy to say that God sure is on the job. He sure is trustworthy, or we can rely on Him. When it comes to personal matters are we just as confident?

When Abraham and Sarah were promised by God that they would have a child, even in there old age, were they confident that it would take place? Sarah even laughed as if God were telling a little joke. When their confidence wavered, and they tried to produce an heir by way of a proxy, it didn't negate the fact that God had made a promise, and when God makes a promise, it will come to pass. The Bible is full of God saying what will take place, and we are on a need-to-know basis that He is always reliable.

This same reliability comes into play with what His Son Jesus said about being crucified and rising from the dead. To some that is even harder to handle than having a baby when your bio-clock has popped the main spring. Like Sarah and Abraham, just because it seems almost impossible to some, it doesn't make it any less possible when it comes to God. If producing a child from two has-beens was reliable and happened, it would only seems right to believe all His promises, like when Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11: 25, 26 NASB.

Do you believe the sun will come up tomorrow?

We need-to-know to rely on the One we need-to-know.

God is Understanding

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

When we say we are understanding, we often mean that we are sympathetic to someone's plight, but we don't understand the situation completely without being that person. On the other hand, God being God, understands us completely. He made us.

When we make something, like a pie, we know the ingredients and the proportions and how long it is to bake and whether to serve it warm or with ice cream. How much more God understands us. In Psalms, the writer says God knows we are "but dirt," or as stated in "The Message," mud.  Now that is humbling, but it is not a excuse for how we live.

God also made us in His image, according to the Bible, and breathed life into that clump of mud. Isn't it nice to know that there is more to us than earth and water?

As a child we made mud pies for others or maybe to toss around. That was what we were able to do, but as an adult we can bless others so much more as God has given each one of us special abilities.

It should excite us to know that we have a purpose here beyond the mud puddle. The main purpose is to love God with all our hearts, mind, and strength. We are also to love our neighbors. Here is where our abilities come into play.

Now may our need-to-know become a desire-to-live for God and others. Let's make a pie and share it today and not to just toss the mud around.

God is Love

Please take some time today, Good Friday, and reflect on the love God has for us which was demonstrated by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, dying on the cross for the sins of the world. Oh, how He loves you and me.

God is Compassionate

 

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

A Thesaurus would sight compassionate as a concern for the victims -
sympathetic, empathetic, understanding, caring, solicitous, sensitive, warm, loving; merciful, lenient, tolerant, considerate, kind, humane, charitable, bighearted...., and we need-to-know that that is God.

God has compassion for those who are lost and is sympathetic to our situations. We are like dumb sheep for which God is empathetic, and understanding. God certainly shows caring in the way He continually invites us back up on the hill where we belong and is sensitive to our poor choices. I could go on and on putting into sentences all the words that describe God’s compassion, but I’d run out of room.

The Bible says that the Son of Man, Jesus, came to this big pasture called earth because of the great compassion He has for all us dumb sheep.

Rejoice! He did this so we wouldn’t have to wander forever. It’s great when the need-to-know becomes the know-to-need to be saved because we are lost. “Wool” you come to the Savior?

God is Purposeful

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

God designs with purpose. For example, plants provide food, beauty, and oxygen into the air for us to breath. It seems that everything has it’s purpose if we have the ability to understand it - even people.

We might think that our purpose is to hop about, like the lamb in this cartoon, and just seek out what ever pleasure is to our liking. Pleasure is good, and God even created it, but it is hardly our purpose.

Jesus said that the whole of God’s Word can be condensed down to a simple need-to-know thought. That is, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and He added to that: to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the purpose for which we exist and once we choose to follow it, we can have purpose with the greatest pleasure resulting in an abundant life which brings honor to God, the great purpose giver.

One may think it is impossible to live this way perfectly. You’re right! That is why God purposed His Son, Jesus who can cleanse us from those imperfections (sins) so that we can continue on with the purpose for our lives.

It’s great when us sheep know our purpose, but just watch out for the wolves! They have their purpose too.

God is Boundless

 

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

It’s a great challenge to picture God.

The moment we try to picture Him is the moment we can’t, and if we think we have done it, we are naturally going to come up way short. Let’s face it. We are just limited human beings, and it is impossible to have a total picture of our boundless God.

In the Bible, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. It would be a lot easier if we had a good picture of this object of our love? Well, in the same book Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9b) So, in order to get a good picture of God, the Father, we just need to read about Jesus. The tough part is trying to put that picture on a canvas for all to see, but when we ask Jesus into our lives, it can be done because we become the canvas.

Now we have all we need-to-know for a making a great picture!

Burdens

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like to comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is one of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

Dog Days

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like to comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is one of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

God is Faithful

You’re on a need-to-know basis.

God is faithful in all His ways.

You may know of this faithfulness, but then again maybe you haven’t given it much thought. You need-to-know this in order to take the pressure off yourself. No one really has the power to make everything in the world go the way one thinks it should. Jesus said, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25 niv) Some things are just beyond our control.

Yet, we do have the freedom and the power to choose a variety of ways to live good lives or to mess up that same life, and God is faithful to allow us to do it. Of course God wants us to make good choices. In His Word, God provides what we need-to-know in order to make those choices.

So let’s enjoy the cosmos, praise Him who is faithful, and search in His Word for what we need-to-know to choose wisely. Then we just need to do it!

Isn’t it nice to know that He provides all we need-to-know?

You're on a need-to-know basis.

There are a lot of things we'd like to know and there are somethings we need-to-know. Need-to-know information is for those persons who need the information to carry our their assigned task.

Your task is to have a personal relationship with your Heavenly Father. You can't do that while you're pulling a lot of sin along with you - it hampers the relationship. To empty that wagon, all you have to do is take it to God, tell Him what you've got, and that you'd like not to have this following you around anymore.

God has provided a way to unload that trailer and save you from its burden. When you trust His Son, Jesus, who paid the price for all that junk, He will remove all those nasty little critters. Then you can, by His Spirit, live a life on the open road with nothing slowing you down.

Have fun in your new ride. Isn't it nice to know what you need?

Basket Case

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like to comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is one of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

Courage

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like to comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is one of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like to comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is the third of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

Daniel Didn't Plan On This

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is the third of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

In the Pit

If you are going through a difficult time of it, possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard!

If you would like comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is the second of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer. Blessings!

Chuck Colson on Religious Freedom and Possible Necessity of Civil Disobe...

Where is the JOY in this ?

If you are going through a difficult time of it,

possibly this is God's timing that you'd view this postcard !

If you would like comment, I would like your input. Now that was a dangerous thing to say, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning this postcard. This card is one of several that I am doing for a client. The intent is to be able to send a brief uplifting note to someone who is going through very serious health challenges like cancer. Everyone has known someone close who has had this type of condition, or possibly you yourself are dealing with issues like this today or have in the past.
What I am looking for are comments pro or con as to whether this card would be received as a form of encouragement while incorporating a bit of humor. Thank you for your time in considering this and any comments that you'd like to offer.  Blessings!

The Calling of Saint Matthew

"The Calling of Saint Matthew" Caravaggio 1599-1600

    This painting was in an article entitled "A Dramatic Enlightenment." A good friend pointed me to this online at The Wall Street Journal's Arts & Entertainment section of January 14, 2012. It was written by Willard Spiegelman, Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University. I would like to share portions of what he wrote concerning this painting by Michelanelo Merisi da Caravaggio, painted around 1600, titled, "The Calling of Saint Matthew" as follows:

    "The Calling" dramatizes an interruption, an invitation or, more accurately, a command. Levi is "called" to a new life when he least expects it. ...Jesus catches Matthew off-guard, in the midst of four companions. He looks up as Jesus, his face illuminated but his body otherwise in shadow, extends his right arm in an action deliberately evoking God's to Adam on the Sistine Ceiling. In front of Jesus, slightly bending over and turning away from us, Peter repeats the gesture. The conversion has begun, although only Jesus seems to know it. ...Matthew sits to one side, huddling with his buddies. ...Like the other money counters, they are dressed in a cavalier modern style. Jesus and Peter, calling Levi to a new life, paradoxically wear traditional biblical garb. The surly, handsomest youth, bent over the table at the far left, looks uninterested in anything but his money. So does the older, bespectacled figure above him. ...Matthew seems to say, 'Who, me?' ...Jesus understands that he has accomplished his mission. Although a little hard to see, his bare feet turn away from the table and from his newest convert. He knows that it is time to go. Matthew's vocation has only just begun."

    Do you ever feel that you are being called to a life much different from what you are experiencing now? Does it seem that everyone around you, like Matthew's buddies, is oblivious to what you are hearing as an invitation? If your friends only knew that you are being called to something other than life of worldly pleasures like Matthew.

    Each one of us has within us a desire for fulfillment that can't be satisfied by what this world offers. Are you, as this author states, sitting there in your "cavalier modern style" while trying to ignore the one who beckons you to come? Jesus has done the work on our behalf to make it possible for anyone to follow Him. You're not likely to see Jesus standing at the end of your table with outstretched arm, but through His Spirit we are called. As the title of the article goes, your "Dramatic Enlightenment" may come through the words of a friend, something you read, or maybe God is using this painting to speak to you.

    God is very creative in reaching out to all of us. The important thing is to respond as Matthew did. Today is the day to accept the call of Him who beckons you to come. Today is the day of salvation.

Good Morning Sun

"Morning Sun"  33'x401/4" Acrylic on Canvas

                  Morning Sun

       Another day,

       and here I stand,
            old branches break and fall,
            while trillium push forth to bloom,
       Your Sun calls me,
       with mercies ever new.                     

                             - George L. Richardson

 Great is Your Faithfulness, O Lord!

Biblically Inspired: Ps 139:23, 24: Search me, God, and know my heart; 
test me and know my anxious thoughts. 
See if there is any offensive way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Lamentations 3:22-24: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, 
for his compassions never fail. 
They are new every morning; 
great is your faithfulness. 
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; 
therefore I will wait for him.”

A portion taken from BreakPoint Daily Commentary by Chuck Colson: MLK and Religious Freedom 1/06/2011

Martin Luther King and Religious Freedom
Mark the Day

    Monday, January 16, is Martin Luther King Day. Most schools recognize the day — as they should. But will they teach students about Dr. King’s Christian faith, which motivated and guided his campaign for civil rights?

    During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant to sign a pledge committing to do ten things. The first was to “meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.” Others included the expectation that all participants would “walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love;” and “pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.”

    To truly understand Martin Luther King, students must learn about his Christian faith. It was at the heart of what he did.

    This year, something else worth celebrating happens to fall on the same day as Martin Luther King Day, and it’s a perfect fit. Every year since 1993, the President proclaims January 16 to be Religious Freedom Day and asks the nation to celebrate its religious liberty. It is the anniversary of the passage in 1786 of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

    The men who drafted the Constitution leaned heavily on Jefferson’s statute in establishing the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. Today, it is more important than ever that we remind ourselves of that protection.

    Since Martin Luther King Day and Religious Freedom Day fall on the same day this year, it is a perfect time for schools to help students connect the dots between Martin Luther King’s fight for civil rights and the freedom of religious expression in America.  Dr. King’s call for justice was guided by his religious convictions and the liberty to act on those convictions.
   

Embracing Majesty

"Embracing Majesty" 18"x26" Acrylic on Canvas

 Embracing Majesty
A time to lift one’s soul,
A place where truth is found,
Not by chance does nature frame,
His majesty for me,
A juncture when new life begins,
Where peace and love remain.

               - George L. Richardson
Biblically Inspired: John 3:16; Romans 1:20; John 3:35, 36

Creation Inspired: "Inspiration Point" at Letchworth State Park
Aptly named "Inspiration Point," this overlook is breath taking anytime of year, but the calmness of late winter has a special attraction. It is as though God were giving nature the option to either stay frozen or move toward the new life of spring. He provides moments like these to us as well and with very much the same choice.

Comment on "The Lion and the Lamb"

Oh Yeah. I learned a new song - new to me anyway. I hope you all enjoy this too. I hope the question in the opening phrases has been answered for you. If not, ask God, and He will provide your answer. Blessings!

The Lion & The Lamb

Love Keeps Flowing

"Love Keeps Flowing" 2.5"x3.5" Acrylic on MiniCanvas

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

1Corinthians 13:4-8a NIV

     This miniature painting of a creek, yet to freeze over, reminds me of my desire to let the love of God flow through me no matter what the temperature. This temperature might be felt through rumors or flippant remarks. For me, this threatens some points in my stream to nearly freeze or at least cause a skim of ice to form on my being patient or in my ability to persevere. You may have your own points of freezing, and what is troubling is that sometimes we don't even recognize what is on our personal thermometers.

     I learned of an exercise recently to help identify those points. Using the passage above, wherever the word "love" or "it" is written, substitute your name. There is something about saying it out loud that rings forth the truth or not and to what degree.

      The perfect truth in the passage above can only be attributed to Jesus who always kept the love flowing during His earthly ministry, and it is still flowing through His Spirit who wants to reside in each one of us. If the Spirit resides in you maybe you might like to take a little meter reading and see what is going on. We can all improve in the area of love. I pray that your love will keep flowing no matter how cold the temperature gets. Love never fails.

The Struggle

"The Struggle"  11"x14"  Acrylic on Canvas

The Struggle

Take courage in your struggle,
From Him who walks the sea,
Staying true within the course,
To love and like Him be.
            - George L. Richardson

Biblical Inspiration: Mark 6:48, 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18, Romans 7:20-25
Creation Inspired: Having been in the army and not in the navy, I can only imagine that a storm at night, in the middle of an ocean, can bring on its own brand of excitement, i.e, terror. If only one could walk on water or calm the sea like Jesus did. As a follower, we are becoming more like Jesus day by day, but I believe we will never have the divine ability to control much of our natural surroundings, but we can struggle with our character to be more like Him. This is work, as Paul points out in Romans 7:20, but as we exercise our freedom in Christ, we can find that we will be more like Him.  Jesus was a perfect model in His obedience to the Father's will, and He did it in love. This too is possible for us in Christ. So as you stay the course, keep on rowing and take heart with more words from Paul, "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:25 niv.