In All Things

I hear it . . .

Thunder’s roll

I see the skies of black and gray.

The same hand that painted these

Holds the brush that brings about

The rainbow

In the wake of storms . . .

The hand that gave me eyes to see,

Ears to hear,

A heart to love.

I give you thanks.

-By Martha L Shaw – © 7-31-2013

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Choose To Live!

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.– Oscar  Wilde –

Wilde has it right!  Jesus desires us to live LARGE and in Him and with Him this is simple.  Rejoice and surrender and  leave the direction to Him.  

It’s vacation season as I write this.  When I was small it was so much fun, but as an adult all the fuss and bother of planning rather spoiled things.  Life is that way in all things if we fly solo, but we weren’t meant to!

The sky’s the limit!  Choose Jesus!

Just as our child-selves enjoyed the life our parents planned and lead us through, so too can we as children of the Beloved Jesus, our personal Lord and Savior, have joy and TRULY live IN HIM.  Why choose to merely exist when in Him we live???  

Believe and Receive!

Yes, as this quotation shows, life – eternal life – really can be THAT simple!  Why do we make it more difficult?

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13 NIV

Creation

Dust!

Whisked away.

Thoughts of you  . . .

Thoughts of me  . . .

Smiling!

By Martha L Shaw –©  7-30-2013

Lighten Up! – A Quote For Tuesday

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.Matthew 5:14,16 NIV

Wow, what a day yesterday was!  So much going on in my life!  How about you?  Ever feel like “all at once” and wonder “how am I going to . . . ” fill in the blanks.  Some good, some “I can’t fix this” and some “Lord, what’s up with this?”

Know what?  He’s in it!  It sure is too heavy to carry . . . alone!  Hey, I wasn’t meant to do that!!!  Jesus wants me to lighten up!  Hey, in more ways than one!  I only need to carry my part and the heavier part is HIS – so I’m working hard on handing things over.  Guess what?  The more He and I work closely together, the lighter I feel!  Know what else?  His radiance reflects on me and through me onto those in darkness!

Isn’t that our purpose?  To reflect Him in all we do?  The good stuff is easy to smile about.  The things in life that are held together with DUCT TAPE?  NO problem!  We will be just fine – Jesus has it covered!  In all things, let your light shine, people!

Lead on, Lord!  I’m ready!

Speedy Strawberry-Mango “Jam”

Ah, quick “jam” and “preserves” in small quantities and without spending money on fussy equipment? Natural and not loaded with chemicals? Not cups and cups of granulated sugar? Here’s a new recipe for my collection!!!!

Mary's Blog

Okay, I had a plan for the pound of strawberries I bought yesterday.  They were relatively inexpensive ($2) and I looked for the container with the best ones visible…not an easy job, FYI.  Since I also purchased a pint of blueberries, I knew the strawberries were not going to be used on cereal.

Today, I really wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Well, we have lots of peanut butter in the house, but we’re sadly lacking in the other department.  It popped into my head to use the strawberries to make a kinda “jam-like” mixture.  Originally, they were going to be used in smoothies…so…close.

Once I started buzzing the strawberries, I realized they are just a bit too juicy to be considered … well … jam.  So, I tossed them with about a tablespoon of honey, and then cut up a humungous mango.  Ran that thru the buzzer (hand…

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Restoration

 

On a day when light is filtered

Through clouds and sudden showers,

I gaze at the neglected garden

And wonder if Eden looked this way

After the fall?

Pondering this,

Thoughts of forgiveness

Appeared in the midst of

Sin’s glare . .  .

A lily among the tangled growth.

Beauty restored.

By Martha L Shaw –© 7-29-2013  Words and image

God Will Make Good His Promises

Something to hold onto.

Still They Speak

“God’s goodness inclines him to make his promises, and his faithfulness engages him to keep them. If the word has once gone out of his mouth, heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than one iota of it will fail (Luke 21:33). God in faithfulness will make good his promises. He never has and never will fail the man who puts his trust in him (Psalm 9:10).” — Thomas Lye, as quoted in “Voices from the Past” edited by Richard Rushing (Banner of Truth) p. 183

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Have You Been Smitten?

In the book, The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee we are told that “the soul has to be smitten a fatal blow by the death of Christ as to its self-governing strength.”  Wow.   Smitten is a word I only associate with the definition “very much in love, “ though it has other meanings such as struck or afflicted.  Those don’t sound so great, do they?  At first, having read the quote above, I thought of death.  Christ’s own and my “death to self” so that I might live.  Still, the writer’s use of smitten in this way seemed like a deliberate choice and given its association with love as well as its less known meaning affliction, this cannot be mere coincidence!  It got me thinking of life, love, and death to self in a broader way. 

The soul, a veritable pathway through which the spirit, our own and by indwelling in us, the Holy Spirit, must travel to empower, to guard, to guide us.  .  . Yet the soul not unlike the sole of a shoe can be tough to get through for our free will builds brick walls there.  Hamm . . . interesting.

Going through tough times now?  Storm season?  Stumbling blocks on the path with Jesus?  We are quick to assign blame for these to Satan.  Spiritual warfare does happen, yet so does learning things the hard way through our own stubbornness!  This is not to say the Lord beats us up.  Oh, no.  But if we decide to get in His way by our own choosing . . . using our own free will, we are putting up a fight against the grace and blessings being bestowed upon us.  We may pray and wonder where the answer is?  When will it come?  Yet we may very well, ourselves, be the reason it fails to quite reach us!

Smitten. .  . If we desire to fully give  ourselves to Christ and pray for Him to have His way with us, if we are truly smitten with Him as He is with us, smitten . . . the great love, must also be smitten – the strike which knocks down that wall we have unwittingly built to keep Him out!  That’s no casual love tap for His love for us is HUGE and in fact so much so that we cannot even comprehend its enormity!

I’ve waited my whole life to be loved that much!  Never thought it would happen!  Well, what do you know?  That love so longed for was mine all along!!  Hallelujah!

By Martha L Shaw – © 7-27-2013

I Shall Wait

Beautiful!