What happens at Midnight?

 Behold the Bridegroom cometh!

Does the Holy Spirit oil your lamp? or are you in the dark on the road to a store, when you should be entering into the marriage feast?

God has redemption and God has renewal for His people and the last day of the year is always a remembrance of that reality all over the world.

Watch-meeting services all over the world create a praying place for people to gather and await the possible second coming of the Lord.  The Lord is merciful, but we are either wise or foolish virgins, in His eyes.   Have we confessed our sins to the Lord?  Have we given him the glory and expected Him to appear, ultimately?  But also in our circumstances?  Is He coming on the clouds to cleanse our souls and our minds from our own devices?   Are we awaiting His Word to move to the next thing in our lives or are we living as a pragmatic Atheist.   Jesus is coming by and by we think.  I have time to sneak this one more thing past him, perhaps.  That is the foolishness that Jesus has come to cleanse and renew.   Get the Holy Spirit.  Get the confidence that He can and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   We are His people and the workmanship of His created in Christ Jesus and it is our job to be the light and salt of preservation to our culture and live in the light of the eternal God of the universe being in charge of the outworkings of providence.    We believe this, but we need to live like we believe this! 

Today is Tuesday, December 10, 2024. It is a rainy day!

 

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

2 Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3 I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

4 I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

5 Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee;

in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. 

Yesterday is Yesterday!

Today is Saturday December 7th, 2024 and it is freezing cold!        

     I said to myself, as I left work today, "when was the last time it was this cold in NC.  I don't remember, because that is not something that I document or record.  I should, though"

         I was freezing cold when I left work at 9 pm tonight.  It is only 36degrees, but it feels much colder.   Tomorrow is supposed to go up to 63, and when that happens you totally forget the chill in your bones that happened the day before.  I was cashiering, near the doors and it was chilly enough for me to keep my coat on half of the shift that I worked.   Some of the young people had on coats and hats and some had on shorts and short sleeves, as usual, some have sense and some have none.

I am afraid that, the cold hit me hardest when I walked out the door.  Bundling up is not my strongsuit.  I had my Davidson jacket on, but the hundred yard dash to Qdoba didn't feel doable once my lungs got a whiff of the 36 degree chill.

I will wait in the vestibule, was my consensus with myself, after trekking half the way.  It is funny how the bathroom cues hit you and every other bodily function kicks in when an unusual temperature is the tale of the day.   I won't travel all the way to the bathroom,  I won't travel all the way to Qdoba, I will wait in the vestibule, it is warmer and I am tired.

Tired wasn't factored into the equation earlier.  Tired was an afterthought.  I am up at 4 am and asleep at 8pm, like clock work.  I had drunk an extra cup of coffee for insurance of alertness, still, I am sure that my brain was only on half function.  Mistakes were aloof and even I was aware that my mind was on cruise control.   Tonight is another moment of night goggles on my brain.  I will see how it goes...

Numbers 25 sermon

Pastor Michael Tan's sermon on Numbers 25 

Discovered a new Audio Bible stream today!

Proverbs 28 I am grateful for a new and different voice reading my audio bible for me. https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=nkjv_n&b=20&c=28

I will Bless the Lord at All Times!

Pleats and Bows! Welcome Here

 Welcome back flounces and pleats!

What a feminine touch to the toughened up women’s draw at the US Open in my little home town of Flushing, NY.  It was a beautiful and festive return to the hard courts of NY City.  With the strength of the women in the draw the beauty of flounces and bows remind me of the difference and the captivating value of Women’s Tennis. 

I fell in love with the beauty of the tennis dress in my teen years and we have played with the style of the skirt and panty from flounces on the panty and tee shirt style dress to just a simple frock.  I like the dresses any way they come.  They are always beautiful and call attention to the delicate nature of women’s attire in every sport.  Tennis is alot of thinking and alot of looking at a little green ball, so to add to the decor of the court with flounces and bows is a welcome eye catching invitation to the enjoyment of the sport.   

Thank you Tennis Ladies for decorating our world with your power and your skill and your individuality in style.   I love it!

Give the Keys to Eliakim said God in Isaiah. "God sets up"

Eliakim's faithfulness seen and rewarded by God. this is the reference from my studies this morning.

Hate Evil! Pastor Loran's timely exhortation!

Joys in the Journey

Scott Pauley

the suffering and the silence of God

great sermon

Say Hay Willie! we miss you already

Christmas Day 2023

 

2023 “Goodbye to the Pi in the Sky year” We started the year, so much anticipating good things. God didn’t leave us hanging, of course. He had planned many new acquaintances and many new discoveries as we walk with him into the lands of Glad Adoration. I do realize that Glad Adoration was just a figment of my imagination for so many years. It is hard to write about an amazing discovery with so many facets. The adoration of God’s inhabiting the praises of his people is something that makes you want to stop and just observe in silence. His praise is always glorious! He is far more glorious than his praise, but to see him allowing his train to spill outside of his sanctuary into the most uncanny places. Perhaps that is the folly of the uninvitedness of his presence in so many places today. The fact that he isn’t accepted or wanted in the same way that so many kinds of people were uninvited in days of yore. Signs that say for any other kind of person but God. We don’t want him here. Yet, to be working on a Sabbath and sense that he ignores the imperatives of exclusivity people place on some establishments and stages a sit in, right in front of his own enemies. The Elitists, The Exclusivists, The amazing educated “Ish”, simply step over his amazing provisions for them, as though he were a leper, when he is the one who gave them such lavish. What does God do? He lends them more breath, more stuff, more opportunity to praise him? It is an enigma to me! Three years of sacrificing some Sabbaths to the “ish” has blessed my soul in a couple of ways that I have seen in the land of Glad Adoration. 1. Seeing the Train of God’s Glory seep into the ish 2. Seeing my growth in worship and praise in a wordless season. 3. Seeing the truth of “if You turn your foot from the Sabbath…” 4. Seeing the mercy of God in the Land of the Living 5. Seeing God resisting the pride in me 6. Seeing God exalting the humility in me