The Gift of Giving

So many of us Christian and Non-Christian have gifts that we don't use. We are so caught up in day to day life that we don't consider that using the gifts that God has given us may be the way to solve a lot of our problems i.e. financial,unhappiness. Working is good don't get me wrong but I think that while we are working we should be taking steps to accomplish our dreams. I say what I'm saying to myself the most. I sing, I write, I have ideas for inventions and businesses etc. At times I have had so many ideas I have gotten overwhelmed (I have learned writing them down helps). In Habakkuk 2:2 the bible says "And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it". Writing ideas down helps because it gets them out. I write my ideas down and then I go back to them when it is time). Right now if I sing its around the house, my business ideas and inventions are written down (from time to time I try something to get them out like writing companies). The bible says in Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. so it is up to us to use our gifts for the purpose God intended them. Lately I have had the inclination to write a book. I think I'll start today, this is definitely the season for it.

Sweet Confirmation

I visited a relative of mine today and she confirmed a word that God had given to me and another relative last week by scripture. It is so wonderful when God reassures us about what he had spoken or laid on our hearts by confirmation. The scripture was Psalms 37. God is Good.
What the Bible says about confirmation: Matthew 18:16 But if he will not hear [thee, then] take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

The Bucket List

I was talking with a relative of mine the other day about the movie The Bucket List. The Bucket List stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and is about two terminally ill patients that meet in a cancer ward who form a friendship. During their stay in the hospital one of the patients comes across a list created by the other patient. The list is a list of things that the patient wants to do before dying. The patients talk about the list and then collaborate to write a list together. Talking about the movie made me think of a similar list I created in high school. Some may think it morbid but dying is something we all will do and since tomorrow is not promised it would serve us best to live life accordingly. After seeing the movie I decided to come up with a new list. Here it goes:
1. Live the kind of life in which people know that I know God without my ever having to say I do or displaying it religiously i.e. with tee shirts etc. (don’t get me wrong if you choose to wear religious tee-shirts more power to you, what I am saying is if I don’t wear a tee-shirt I want people to still know I believe in Christ)
2. Orchestrate special moments and events that my children will tell their children’s children about with excitement still present. I use to do things with my children like make giant pancakes, make up my own bedtime stories etc. when talking about things that have happened those are the times that my children talk the most about. I want to get back to that.
3. Travel the world.
4. Make a positive difference in the lives of as many as I can.
5. Change my community for the better.
6. Go on a shopping spree to various hot spots i.e. New York, Italy, etc.
7. Go to a Broadway Show.
8. Sit down with my children and let them look at amusement parks and places they want to go and take them to all of them one summer.
9. Travel going to see various plays…Tyler Perry plays namely.
10. Loose weight and keep it off.
11. Hold my great grandchildren.
12. Find a church home and become involved.
13. Become prissy (not the damsel in distress type prissy but doing things like keeping my hair done and my nails manicured and toes pedicured.
14.Publish a book
15.Make a cd

The World Is God's Canvas

Cleanlines Is Next To Godliness

Although the saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" cannot be found in scripture I have found it to be true in my life. This morning I cleaned my bathroom from top to bottom; keeping a clean home is something I always did in the past. Lately I have not been keeping my home as clean as I should. My cousin and I had a conversation about cleaning once and I told her that how clean I keep my home is a reflection on what is going on in my life. When I am relatively happy and I am praying daily, I keep a clean home but when I am depressed, not going to church as I should, and not praying as I should I have the attitude like "I am the queen of the junk pile"; I don't have the energy or desire to clean during those times. When my house is clean at times I find myself just singing or starting to pray to the Lord spontaneously. I looked for a scripture about cleanliness and found this one in
2 Corinthians 7:1 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I will push myself to clean from now on. If I start out by cleaning (thoroughly cleaning) one room per day I will but I have often found that when you start you find yourself doing more than you thought you would or could.

Famous Quotes

It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. - Henry Ward Beecher
Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. - John Aikman Wallace
Prayer changes things. - Anonymous
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. - Soren Kierkegaard
God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who uttered them. - E. M. Bounds
Men of God are always men of prayer. - Henry T. Mahan
All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives. - Delma Jackson
He who ceases to pray ceases to prosper. - Sir William Gurney Benham
The whole meaning of prayer is that we may know God. - Oswald Chambers
The only way to pray is to pray, and the way to pray well is to pray much. - Anonymous
The less I pray, the harder it gets; the more I pray, the better it goes. - Martin Luther
If we are willing to spend hours on end to learn to play the piano, operate a computer, or fly an airplane, it is sheer nonsense for us to imagine that we can learn the high art of getting guidance through communion with the Lord without being willing to set aside time for it. - Paul Rees
When you cannot pray as you would, pray as you can. - Edward M. Goulburn
Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. - Thomas Fuller
Seven days without prayer makes one weak. - Allen E. Bartlett
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray. - Bible
Time spent in prayer is never wasted. - Francois de Fenelon
Prayer begins where human capacity ends. - Marian Anderson
Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt. - B. Graham Dienert
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. - Kahlil Gibran
Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. - Satchel Paige
When you enter your secret chamber, take plenty of time before you begin to speak. Let quietude wield its influence upon you. Let the fact that you are alone assert itself. Give your soul time to get released from the many outward things. Give God time to play the prelude to prayer for the benefit of your distracted soul. - O. Hallesby
There is no need to get to a place of prayer; pray wherever you are. - Oswald Chambers
Without the incense of heartfelt prayer, even the greatest of cathedrals is dead. - Anonymous
We must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. - C. S. Lewis
Prayer is a serious thing. We may be taken at our words. - Dwight L. Moody
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go. - William Shakespeare
Be not hot in prayer and cold in praise. - Anonymous
Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips. - O. Hallesby
God prefers bad verses recited with a pure heart to the finest verses chanted by the wicked. - Voltaire
The best prayers have often more groans than words. - John Bunyan
Our groanings, which cannot be uttered, rise to Him and tell Him better than words how dependent we are upon Him. - O. Hallesby
Many words do not a good prayer make; what counts is the heartfelt desire to commune with God, and the faith to back it up. - Anonymous
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. - Mahatma Gandhi
Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. - >C. S. Lewis
He who prays for his neighbors will be heard for himself. - Talmud
No one who has had a unique experience with prayer has a right to withhold it from others. - Soong Mei-ling
God receives little thanks, even for his greatest gifts. - Anonymous
We are going home to many who cannot read. So, Lord, make us to be Bibles so that those who cannot read the Book can read it in us. - Anonymous Chinese woman
firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered because we are not willing to forgive someone. >Dwight L. Moody
It is vain to expect our prayers to be heard if we do not strive as well as pray. - Aesop
Help yourself and heaven will help you. - Jean de la Fontaine
God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. - German proverb
There are four ways God answers prayer: No, not yet; No, I love you too much; Yes, I thought you'd never ask; Yes, and here's more. - >Anne Lewis
God's chief gift to those who seek him is Himself. - E. B. Pusey
Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself. - Mother Teresa
The man who prays grows, and the muscles of the soul swell from this whipcord to iron bands. F. B. Meyer
Prayer opens our eyes that we may see ourselves and others as God sees us. - Clara Palmer
It is impossible to lose your footing while on your knees. - Anonymous
Prayer is the spiritual gymnasium in which we exercise and practice godliness. - V. L. Crawford
Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. - Edwin Keith
How to make God laugh? Tell him your future plans. - <Woody Allen
I like your Christ, do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.>Mohandas Gandhi