Celebrate Life

The water ripples

as grass trimmings spice my soup

Soul and body fed

By Martha L Shaw – © 1-21-2015

Martha’s Wednesday Words of Worship

Copyright 4-23-2013 Martha L Shaw

At the cross we celebrate not death but LIFE!  

Live it to His glory!

Martha’s Sunday Thoughts – 2nd Sunday of Easter

It is now the Sunday after Easter.  What a difference a week has made:

• The eggs are gone
• The candy dish is running low
• The cookies are down to crumbs
• The ham has slid to the rear of the refrigerator
• The gloves and bonnets?  Back on the closet shelf
• The familiar hymns forgotten once more

It was a blessing to see you last week.  Wow, the joy.  Wow, the happy noise of a church bursting at the seams.  Oh, the traffic coming and going between the services.  OH, the hugs from faces not seen in a long time.  As I sit once more in my favorite pew, I realize I didn’t mind worshiping in another to make space for you in my “regular” pew.  One more thing . .  .

Jesus misses you today.  I do, too.   Blessings!

Loving Heart – A Quote For Sunday

Okay, this is a quote for all times and all places, but how fitting that I should find it on Sunday morning between church services! 

Break bread with me?

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.  – Charles Dickens –

The Painted Tree

I was just thinking of a television special I saw last year about a Christmas tree farm.  It sort of disappointed me and I’d wished I hadn’t watched it.  Love pine trees, love the way the branches smell, love the look and color and scent in the lumber from a pine tree.  Mmmmmm!  Why my disappointment?  They paint their trees so they will look like a “Christmas tree is supposed to look.”  Didn’t God get it right when He created them? 

I also thought of when I learned to paint and draw.  It always disappointed me, in those early days, when I looked at my finished field of grass in a painting and saw how “wrong” my grass looked.  I used green paint.  Grass is green, isn’t it? 

The true definition of something, the true meaning of a thing, isn’t necessarily our quick assumption or easy answer.  So, what brought this to mind?  A friend of mine just excitedly announced that her place of worship, her “church” just bought a real church building.  My friend is very active in her church.  It’s been meeting in a variety of available and affordable buildings.  When you think of church, do you think of a cute country church painted white with a picket fence, double doors swung open to welcome the local faithful?  Do you see a bell and steeple and stained glass windows with small brass engraved signs saying “in memory of . . . ” hung next to the windows? 

Perhaps your mind sees a big cathedral of stone that’s been there for hundreds of years?  Perhaps you can hear in your thoughts the echo of hundreds of years of shoes clonking across the stone floors.  Can you see the old well-worn and polished wooden pews?  Hear the sound of the of the magnificent pipe organ?

Those are churches . . . but they’re not “the church” for that is you and me.  My friend has every right to be excited about her church and its new building which was built specifically to be a church.  I’m excited for Mary and her fellow worshippers, but do you know what I’m more excited about?  I’m more excited that she’s been every bit as eager and joy filled about the “church” she’s belonged to all along whether services took place in somebody’s livingroom, the ball field, or an empty store at the mall.  Church can be anywhere there’s a believer or two and the presence of our loving Lord.

Holy Spirit Rain Down

This song IS AMAZING!  Become quiet and close your eyes and just listen!  The Holy Spirit will fill you and lift you up! 

Hillsong – Holy Spirit Rain Down

You Never Let Go!

Do you need some Matt Redman for your Monday?  Described by some as “for the broken-hearted” this song is actually amazing and uplifting!  When you break your heart wide open let Jesus fill it with His Holy Spirit, it’s just the best gift you could ever receive and “even though you walk in the valley of the shadow of death” life is STILL amazing and you are blessed!  

Click this link to hear Matt Redman’s “You Never Let Go” and sing a song to the Lord! 

Let your soul dance!  Great video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36V7ByKaGvg

 

Let Every Thing That Has Breath! (via Saint In Training)

I cannot even put to words how blessed I am today. Come Holy Spirit – fill the hearts of your faithful! Thank you, Lord! That being said, this post from a friend in Him expresses some of the amazing love I’m feeling and so I share it with my readers who might not have seen this post. Enjoy!

I woke up this morning with a song on my lips, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, let everything that has breath – Praise the Lord!" Isn't it good to praise the Lord? Isn't it right to do so every day? "Oh rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 I'm heading out to worship service looking to praise the Lord, prayi … Read More

via Saint In Training