paravanes:meditations

Best wishes for good success in 2012. This post is from one of my favorite resources, Postitive Christianity . As Christians, we should seek the highest level of positivity! A JOYFUL YEAR OF POSITIVE EXPECTATION "Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." Matthew 21:22 In my seminars on prayer, I share with people to change the word "prayer" to "expectation." Some people's prayers are so negative, that they can do nothing but expect the worst. They pray mainly focused on what they do not want instead of the positive that they wish to expect. Expecting the worst blocks God's good. Each person has free-will, and because of that, God does not force good upon you. Many times we lock ourselves in a self-imposed prison of concepts of doubt, worry, and limitation. What are you expecting? The worst? The best? I pray it is THE BEST. Placing your faith in God’s good is the key to the good life. To...

“Can I say I have been warned of God, and moved with fear, to fly to this Ark? Have I discovered my shelter-less state by nature, the waves and billows of wrath rising and rolling against me? Have I seen my own inability to provide an Ark for myself, and the excellency and fitness of the Ark of God’s providing? Have I been made willing to abandon all false arks, and [made] inquisitive [of] how to get into the true Ark? Have I been made willing to use all appointed means for this end, to read, hear, meditate, pray, repent, believe, essay [try] to climb up the sides of the Ark, and press to get in at the door thereof? Have I been willing to venture my all in the Ark, like Noah, notwithstanding the discouragements, scoffs, and hatred of the world for so doing? Have I willingly acquiesced, sheltered, and lodged my soul in God’s Ark, and been made to say, “This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell? Come what floods will, Christ shall be my Ark, His righteousness alone my refuge and ...

This post's title is a line from one of my favorite hymns, In Christ Alone, by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Why would God choose to become an infant, a "helpless person", totally dependent upon others in His human experience? God with us . Human experiences of weakness, pain, vulnerability, and sadness are not foreign to God. It was God's choice to know what we feel by personally experiencing life as we experience it. Some may say God would never "lower Himself" to live life as we live it, and to directly and personally experience so much of what we know. God's sovereign and  willing choice to know much of human  life, ---without sin--, to know what we know, feel, and experience is an ultimate expression of love, caring concern, and direct involvement. God is love . This is what we celebrate and remember during Advent: a God who loves enough to come close, a God who chooses to experience human frailties without the blinding limitations...

Good food is a gift from a good God . Now that the growing season and the farmer’s market season have ended in the Great Lakes region of North America, I have had to resort to reading food magazines, cookbooks, and roving on food sites to see fresh food growing. Two of my favorites are yougrowgirl.com and  noteatingoutinny.com . In Michigan, the mornings are getting colder and snowier. I am burying myself in the summer issues of Saveur and Bon Appetit , trying to recover the sense of warmth that comes from preparing, eating, and sharing summer food. In the August 2011 issue of Bon Appetit, I found an easy, yummy-sounding recipe for pickled baby squash. At this time of the year, there are no local summer squash or zucchini to pickle. I’m willing to wait until spring to buy something grown locally; something that helps support a farmer who is probably employing someone who (like the rest of us) wants and needs their job. Lacking the fresh baby squash, I am thinking about rev...

This blog's post title, "Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth" is a line from one of my favorite Christmas/Advent hymns: "O Holy Night." He appeared, and the soul felt its worth . How often do I make mistakes and misjudgements because I do not know or feel my own worth? It is not arrogant or lacking in humility to know my worth because it is God Alone Who Determines my worth, and God values me so highly as to make Himself like humans, choosing to be one of us, and living among us to reveal Himself to us. That is an ultimate expression of love. I mis-step when I allow the world to determine my worth. I mis-judge when I trust other people more than I trust God to tell me who I am and what I am worth. My worth can never be diminished, because my worth comes from God alone. When this truth lives deeply within my heart and mind, I never sell myself short. I never accept second best for myself. I never give up goals and dreams because those goals an...