“Conflagration” (The extreme form of fire)
I can see a great huge fire burning everything completely and utterly. We as Christians are both part of and ignitors of this fire. The fire is around us and more importantly within us. We are burning with and for God. As we burn sparks are being released from us much like the sparks that come out of a natural wood fire. These sparks rise up from us and are moved away from us by God’s breath. A gentle breeze for some, or maybe a roaring wind for others.
These sparks are sent out and allowed to settle wherever they will. Some will settle where there is nothing, nothing combustible, nothing to burn. But some of these sparks will come down into a place that is ready. A person or perhaps a group of people ready to burn, ready to catch fire for God and with God, and if the spark is strong enough the new fire will spread, turning into a new fire, burning with the power of the Lord. Spreading and becoming a new conflagration. Sending new sparks up and out to new places and new people. Repeating this cycle over and over until everything that is able to burn will be burning until the whole earth is alive in the fire of the Lord. And nothing else can survive but the fire and that which burns in it.
A Grand Morning
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Crazy Thoughts 2
Is it ok to use an AM radio after noon?
What do people in China call their good dishes?
What do you call a male ladybug?
What hair colour do they put on the drivers license of a bald man?
When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?
Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Have you ever imagined a world without hypothetical situations?
How does the guy that drives the snowplow get to work?
If a firefighter fights fires and a crime fighter fights crime what does a freedom fighter fight?
If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?
If a cow laughs, does milk come out her nose?
If you are driving at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on, what happens?
Why is it that when you transport something by car it’s called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship it’s called cargo?
Why don’t sheep shrink in the rain?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport terminal?
What do people in China call their good dishes?
What do you call a male ladybug?
What hair colour do they put on the drivers license of a bald man?
When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?
Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Have you ever imagined a world without hypothetical situations?
How does the guy that drives the snowplow get to work?
If a firefighter fights fires and a crime fighter fights crime what does a freedom fighter fight?
If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?
If a cow laughs, does milk come out her nose?
If you are driving at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on, what happens?
Why is it that when you transport something by car it’s called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship it’s called cargo?
Why don’t sheep shrink in the rain?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport terminal?
Simple Things
Simple Things
1.Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2.Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older,
their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3.Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4.When you say, “I love you,” mean it.
5.When you say, “I’m sorry,” look the person in the eye.
6.Believe in love at first sight.
7.Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
8.Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
9.In disagreements, fight fairly. Please no name calling.
10.Don’t judge people by their relatives.
11.Talk slowly but think quickly.
12.When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask,
“Why do you want to know?”
13.Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risks.
14.Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
15.When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
16.Remember the three R’s Respect for self;
Respect for others;
Responsibility for all your actions.
17.Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
18.When you realize that you made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
19.Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
20.Spend some time alone.
1.Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2.Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older,
their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3.Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4.When you say, “I love you,” mean it.
5.When you say, “I’m sorry,” look the person in the eye.
6.Believe in love at first sight.
7.Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
8.Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
9.In disagreements, fight fairly. Please no name calling.
10.Don’t judge people by their relatives.
11.Talk slowly but think quickly.
12.When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask,
“Why do you want to know?”
13.Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risks.
14.Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
15.When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
16.Remember the three R’s Respect for self;
Respect for others;
Responsibility for all your actions.
17.Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
18.When you realize that you made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
19.Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
20.Spend some time alone.
MY WALLS
MY WALLS
Walls are always part of our lives
You might say that our lives are made of walls.
Walls that are meant to keep things out and in
both physical and otherwise.
We have walls for protection and security.
Walls that we use to keep things contained,
our thoughts, our emotions, and perhaps maybe even ourselves.
Walls may separate us from everything else, or maybe from everyone else.
Possibly, they might even be keeping us together,
preventing us from just falling apart, totally.
Each wall contains everything that has, is, or will be part of our life.
Everything making up our past, our present, and our future.
My wall is something like that.
Representing everything that has gone on,
throughout my whole life and beyond.
I picture my wall as being huge, built with thousands
or perhaps millions of stones and bricks and logs of all sizes and shapes,
anything that might help it be a wall.
Each memory, thought, or event in life being represented by all those bits and pieces in the wall.
Everything good, bad or indifferent has and is going into it.
Small things make small pieces that might fill a small hole here and there.
Something else that may have been a milestone in life might produce something akin to one of the huge stones in the great pyramid.
Perhaps there was something that happened so big, so significant
that it can only be represented in the wall with a number of pieces interconnected making up a whole section of wall.
The possibilities, like the number of pieces, are infinite.
I can access my wall any time from anywhere I might be.
In doing so I can see so much of what has made me what I am now,
and what it might possibly be leading to in the future.
But who knows exactly what I will be in the future, certainly not me, that kind of knowledge is totally in the hands of my God.
He is the only one that can know for sure what I’m really all about, I don’t think that I really have the mental prowess or abilities to even contemplate the meaning of life let alone try to understand what’s going on in it, mine or anyone else’s.
That would be like an ant thinking about the future life cycle of some other insectoid in a star cluster in some distant galaxy.
And that’s just fine with me because when I think about the future (my future at least) it can really give me the heebie-jeebies. And I don’t like those things, they can really scare the heck out of you when you’re not looking.
Walls are always part of our lives
You might say that our lives are made of walls.
Walls that are meant to keep things out and in
both physical and otherwise.
We have walls for protection and security.
Walls that we use to keep things contained,
our thoughts, our emotions, and perhaps maybe even ourselves.
Walls may separate us from everything else, or maybe from everyone else.
Possibly, they might even be keeping us together,
preventing us from just falling apart, totally.
Each wall contains everything that has, is, or will be part of our life.
Everything making up our past, our present, and our future.
My wall is something like that.
Representing everything that has gone on,
throughout my whole life and beyond.
I picture my wall as being huge, built with thousands
or perhaps millions of stones and bricks and logs of all sizes and shapes,
anything that might help it be a wall.
Each memory, thought, or event in life being represented by all those bits and pieces in the wall.
Everything good, bad or indifferent has and is going into it.
Small things make small pieces that might fill a small hole here and there.
Something else that may have been a milestone in life might produce something akin to one of the huge stones in the great pyramid.
Perhaps there was something that happened so big, so significant
that it can only be represented in the wall with a number of pieces interconnected making up a whole section of wall.
The possibilities, like the number of pieces, are infinite.
I can access my wall any time from anywhere I might be.
In doing so I can see so much of what has made me what I am now,
and what it might possibly be leading to in the future.
But who knows exactly what I will be in the future, certainly not me, that kind of knowledge is totally in the hands of my God.
He is the only one that can know for sure what I’m really all about, I don’t think that I really have the mental prowess or abilities to even contemplate the meaning of life let alone try to understand what’s going on in it, mine or anyone else’s.
That would be like an ant thinking about the future life cycle of some other insectoid in a star cluster in some distant galaxy.
And that’s just fine with me because when I think about the future (my future at least) it can really give me the heebie-jeebies. And I don’t like those things, they can really scare the heck out of you when you’re not looking.
The best and the worst
It was the "best of times and the worst of times" for me. The worship was absolutely the finest I've experienced in a while as a spectator not a musician. The worst was simply because I was not participating as a percussionist tonight.
The night started in a normal manner with normal singing and normal music but I didn't really "feel" anything for the first while. I enjoyed it but it was just "adequate". But the further we went it got better it got. I began to feel shivers in my arms at different times and knew that the spirit was really beginning to make itself present.
Eventually the spirit fully manifested itself to me through the music and the voices, my earlier shivers in the arms moved into my upper torso and then into my legs and feet. I was feeling it throughout my entire body and loving every bit of it.
Then Lawrence opened up and began to sing praise for the first time and the hairs on my head and over my whole body stood up. Then Sharon sang out with authority and was then joined by Deb and Carol. With the four of them it felt like the hairs were trying to lift my skin right off my body. I haven't felt anything like that for years. It was unbelievable and at the same time unnerving.
When Pastor R started to free form on the piano at this time I felt like the world was starting to vibrate. I couldn't remain standing anymore and had to sit down or I was going to fall down. I elected to sit down. While watching the people at the front they began to flicker and flash. Flickering in and out of my vision and flashing as white light with a few coloured pulses in a slower manner. As the music grew everything flickered and flashed and pulsed faster and faster until everything was almost blurred to invisibility. In front of the stage where the pulpit stands there was a lone figure dancing.
The movement was flowing so smoothly that everything was centred on that movement alone, no music, no people--- nothing.
The figures movement slowed more and more and gradually faded to nothing. By the time the figure faded completely and everything had stopped, everyone on stage had finished and was leaving the stage to sit down. The spirit was still being felt by everyone including myself, I just couldn't see it anymore.
The night started in a normal manner with normal singing and normal music but I didn't really "feel" anything for the first while. I enjoyed it but it was just "adequate". But the further we went it got better it got. I began to feel shivers in my arms at different times and knew that the spirit was really beginning to make itself present.
Eventually the spirit fully manifested itself to me through the music and the voices, my earlier shivers in the arms moved into my upper torso and then into my legs and feet. I was feeling it throughout my entire body and loving every bit of it.
Then Lawrence opened up and began to sing praise for the first time and the hairs on my head and over my whole body stood up. Then Sharon sang out with authority and was then joined by Deb and Carol. With the four of them it felt like the hairs were trying to lift my skin right off my body. I haven't felt anything like that for years. It was unbelievable and at the same time unnerving.
When Pastor R started to free form on the piano at this time I felt like the world was starting to vibrate. I couldn't remain standing anymore and had to sit down or I was going to fall down. I elected to sit down. While watching the people at the front they began to flicker and flash. Flickering in and out of my vision and flashing as white light with a few coloured pulses in a slower manner. As the music grew everything flickered and flashed and pulsed faster and faster until everything was almost blurred to invisibility. In front of the stage where the pulpit stands there was a lone figure dancing.
The movement was flowing so smoothly that everything was centred on that movement alone, no music, no people--- nothing.
The figures movement slowed more and more and gradually faded to nothing. By the time the figure faded completely and everything had stopped, everyone on stage had finished and was leaving the stage to sit down. The spirit was still being felt by everyone including myself, I just couldn't see it anymore.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
If Only.
I feel that the human life is built on the "if only" principle. If only I, if only we said, did, went, heard, thought, etc. etc. etc. Satisfaction of/with life seems to be almost beyond most of us. An unattainable goal, unrealistic to all but the saints and favored ones somewhere in the world.
But it's never me or us or anyone around us or near us.
Very nearly an "us" and "them" syndrome in most aspects of our lives.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence".
There are too many that are like this in life. All looking for the bestest, fastest, easiest ways to live their lives. People are always looking for "it".
Isn't there a solution that might be simple and straight forward? A way to live life without the constant "if only's" overpowering almost every aspect of life.
I believe that there is, yet it's both the hardest thing and the simplest thing to do.
The simplest thing to do is "be with God" in all things, in all ways, for all time.
And the hardest thing to do is "be with God" in all things, in all ways, for all time.
If only I, us, they, we, them could achieve such a thing in all our living.
The universe would be a much better place for us, wouldn't it.
But it's never me or us or anyone around us or near us.
Very nearly an "us" and "them" syndrome in most aspects of our lives.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence".
There are too many that are like this in life. All looking for the bestest, fastest, easiest ways to live their lives. People are always looking for "it".
Isn't there a solution that might be simple and straight forward? A way to live life without the constant "if only's" overpowering almost every aspect of life.
I believe that there is, yet it's both the hardest thing and the simplest thing to do.
The simplest thing to do is "be with God" in all things, in all ways, for all time.
And the hardest thing to do is "be with God" in all things, in all ways, for all time.
If only I, us, they, we, them could achieve such a thing in all our living.
The universe would be a much better place for us, wouldn't it.
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