THE EAGLE

A series of negative events had cast Ken into a downward spiral of emotions.  He was using what I call "mind-numbing" games to occupy most of his time at home.  Normally he would be doing something outside in the fresh air, but now he was vegetating in front of the computer daily.


"Dear God,"  I prayed, "Give him a reason to be outside and excited about life again!"  Then I went out to the kitchen and began doing the dishes.  I glanced out the window to the backyard.  It was a beautiful day outside.  Ken should be sitting in the sunshine, reading the newspaper or just watching the birds fly around, getting their spring nests ready for new life.


Suddenly, from the right appeared an absolutely huge dark bird with a wingspan of several feet---and a white head, curved yellow beak--
He landed as if in slow-motion on a branch of our mulberry tree, flapped its huge mighty wings and then settled to look around the yard. It was a Bald-headed Eagle!!!  I knew they lived in the area, but I had only ever seen one when it was very high in the sky.  This was a very rare close-up glimpse of this kingly bird.  I yelled for Ken to come look at the eagle.  I could hear him hustling to get to the kitchen and as he charged into the room, I suddenly realized that God had answered my prayer.  Only an eagle could have had such an immediate effect like this!  


"Thank you, God, you did REAL good!!!" I told Him.  


Ken spent practically every waking hour throughout  the next week watching the eagle and his mate build a nest in our pine tree down by the stream.  In an effort to see better, Ken even stealthily made it down to the tree, but as the male eagle approached the tree with a beak full of twigs and straw,  he looked down, saw Ken, and quickly swerved away from the tree.  


For about a week, Ken did not see the two birds but I kept encouraging him to continue watching daily.  I watched too.  


Then, one day, we saw the pair of eagles slowly flying towards us.  They were extremely low to the ground.   We could see the detail on their feathers!  The female swerved away and the male suddenly flew in a tight circle almost straight above us.  Then HE LOOKED DOWN AT US!  He actually lowered his head and studied us for a few seconds.  Then he lifted his head and continued his slow flight onward to what I would like to think was his new home somewhere further east of us.


It was really quite eery to think that he was really looking at us.  I would like to believe that he was God's creature, doing God's work here on earth.  Did you know that even the creatures on earth "know" God?  Remember how much joy they have brought you in your life?  God knows what we need and brings joy to us when we need it.


God is AWESOME!!!  and He answers our prayers!

GOD KNOWS- PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE

Though my husband and I were unable to sustain our market, I know that God intended it to be in our lives for even the short time that it was.  He has purposed everything for our betterment.  As a Christian, I firmly believe that.  We just do not see His purposes sometimes, or, at least, not right away.  We suffer emotionally as we attempt to justify why "we failed" in our earthly endeavors.  Key words:  earthly endeavors.


As I think back in time to when I first felt that God was behind this decision to open a market, I had a very brief but clear view that the market would not survive.  But I pushed those thoughts aside and pushed forward.  There are lessons to be learned from pushing forward on the thought that having a market would be a wonderful place to show others how Christ could work through me---and the money it would generate would be used to help others as well as take care of my family.  I was wrong.


Not long after opening the market, I realized that this was to be my husband's project, not mine.  I could not physically do any work there and knew nothing about finances or running an office that would help my husband in any way.  He resisted any ideas I suggested.  Then I wondered if, perhaps, God had prepared all of this for my husband's sake, and so I did not participate in the running of the store in any way.  All decisions were my husband's decisions.  My feelings of burden were immediately lifted from me and I thanked God for that.


I have learned much by watching the start, growth, and ending of the market. But the most important thing I learned was that God should be first in my life.  He is the only one any of us can absolutely TRUST to take care of ALL of our needs.  Things of this earth are just that--things of this earth.  "You can't take it with you."  Such an appropriate phrase for everyone to remember.  


Another big lesson I have learned through this experience is understanding that the purpose of the Church here on earth is to do God's bidding by lovingly serving others in the church--by giving food and shelter and comfort to those who are in need. 


All along our life journey, God knows our opportunities, our suffering from wrong choices, and our joy from right choices.  He is there with us through EVERYTHING--the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He gives us a way out of bad choices and ugly situations and wants us to learn the lesson He has been teaching since He first made Man:  God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us!  He expects us to TRUST Him in all things.  I do.


God FIRST above ALL!  

WHAT'S IMPORTANT?

The TV [Did I just CAPITALIZE  that?????  Yes!  My computer "told" me it was supposed to be capitalized!], the internet, sports, and money (to name a few) have become "gods" to so many people.  Nearly every living room has a TV in it. Ads on it invade our memories and prompt us to want things we do not need. 

Computers are not just at work.  They are at home.  Sometimes they are even in the bedrooms!  and sometimes in the pocketbooks and pants pockets in the form of Ipods.  We sleep with phones beside our beds.  Does anyone remember when the phone was downstairs in the dining room and when it rang, you had to run to get it and you stood to talk on it?  

I'm not saying the "old days" were better because they were not, in many ways.  But we must remember to communicate important ideas with these new fangled inventions:  Christ is the Savior of us all and faith in Him is the ONLY way to be eternally with God in Heaven.  Being eternally separated from God  is what Hell is all about.    Which do you REALLY want ?????

[This blog was started with the idea of using a new medium to communicate the Love of God and the Gospel message.]

SOCIAL NETWORKS

Today's world is filled with a wide variety of ways to "keep in touch" with other people--family, friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, strangers.  As a Christian, I find that it can be daunting to keep up with all of this technology and "friendship" that is offered.  I have to ask myself if this is the KIND of relationship I want from these people.  It is NOT face-to-face always.  The most satisfying has been SKYPE, and the Google chat line.  These offer me a free look and/or chat with family who are thousands of miles away.  I thank God for those opportunities.


But my experience with Facebook, for example, has not been as pleasant.  I have "looked into" other peoples' thoughts and it has been very upsetting to see just how far Satan has gone in this world.  Of course, I knew he was strong before this, but when you see it in people you know, it gets very scary.  I fear for their souls and pray for them.  


Social networking can be important if we are sending messages that are uplifting and important.  I think that when others are made fun of, it is not a good use of the medium.  And if someone writes something and permits comments, they should not be alarmed to see that not everyone agrees with their thoughts.  If they don't really want comments, they should ask if anyone likes their thoughts, then their egos will "get stroked," so to speak.  


Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told the disciples to go out into the world and spread the Gospel message---that there is eternal life for those who belief in Him and what He did for us as our Savior.  It took me over 40 years to truly understand what the Cross was all about, and now I look back and realize why I was so unhappy all of those years.  My joy is so wonderful and I want everyone else to have it too!  I wonder how, in this day and age, people can NOT have Christ in their lives and claim to be "happy.


Social networking may give us insight into others' thoughts, but it will not give joy.  For me, that can only happen within my relationship with Jesus.  It's the vertical relationship, not the horizontal ones, that gives truth and joy to our lives daily.

The Carjacking

God was present at a carjacking! My husband, Ken, was inspired to jump out of his van and help a lady who was being yanked from her car, but still had her seatbelt on. The carjacker was prevented from hurting the lady, thanks to my husband and another local person. But, still desperate to run away, the carjacker saw Ken's van, shoved Ken so hard that he fell down on the roadway. Ken and the other man chased the carjacker to the van and tried in vain to prevent him from stealing it by reaching in the front windows. The carjacker stomped on the gas and the police caught up with him about 10 miles down a busy super highway. The van was trashed, but no one was seriously injured throughout this whole incident.

What happened to the lady? She just drove away. She was probably scared out of her wits and wanted to just put distance between her and that wild man. What happened to the two Good Samaritans? Ken's knee was badly bruised and swollen and they both were badly shaken by this very unusual experience.

In such potentially life threatening situations, it makes one wonder what prompts people to help total strangers. And what prevents them from intentionally physically hurting the perpetrator of such situations.

The "Good Samaritan" story in the Bible is a classic example of how we, today, can seek to help those in trouble [Luke 10:30-37]. We also remember that we Christians have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to help us discern what is the right thing to do in any given situation. It is a prompting to "do the right thing." We know it's the Holy Spirit because it does NOT beckon us to do violence to anyone, but, rather, to HELP OTHERS. That was my husband's first thought. He was not going to let the wild man hurt the lady, but he did nothing to intentionally hurt the man. He discerned that the man was "out of control."

It is my hope that others will hear of what happened and how my husband reacted, and they will remember to use the indwelling Holy Spirit's guiding presence to help others in THEIR lives when the opportunity is given to them.

Changes in Celebrations

The Sabbath began as a day of rest: (Genesis 2:2,3): "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing: so on the seventh day He rested from all of His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done."

When God named the descendants of Abraham His children, He instructed them to rest on the 7th day(Exodus 20:8, The Ten Commandments), which would later be recognized as our modern Saturday (from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).

Then God changed the plan and when Christ, His Son, rose from the dead, it was a Sunday. Christians, in later history, celebrated His Resurrection each Sunday as the "new" Sabbath.

Modern day Jews still celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, while Christians celebrate on Sunday. Changes were made and accepted worldwide, just as the Gregorian Calendar (and others before that) was based upon the year of Christ's birth. That too is accepted worldwide, though the Jews use both their calendar and the Gregorian calendar.

When Christ rode into Jerusalem, the Jews were celebrating Passover. There were many Jews there who would not otherwise have been there due to this celebration. They were unwittingly spectators of his crucifixtion and then were witnesses who heard about His Resurrection.

Jews today still celebrate Passover, but Christians celebrate that time as Easter week, and Sunday as a celebration of His Resurrection, Easter Day.

Changes were made from the Old Testament ways of celebrating, to New Testament ways of celebrating the New Promises from God, as given by Christ Jesus.

Christ ascended into Heaven 40 days after Passover. The Apostles were told to wait in Jerusalem until the power of the Holy Spirit came to them. They waited 10 days, which must have seemed an eternity to them, and they didn't really know what to expect. The day the Holy Spirit came to them, thousands of people above the normal number of citizens, were in Jerusalem to celebrate yet another Jewish festival. Pentecost was a harvest festival that was celebrated 50 days after Passover. With the new power given to them, the apostles went into the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim the miracle they were experiencing. People noted that they were just fishermen, Galileans, yet they could speak all the different languages of all the thousands of people gathered to hear what they were saying. It was a day of miracles and 3000 converts to Christianity were made that day.

Jews still celebrate Pentecost as a harvest festival. Christians still call it Pentecost, but they celebrate the Harvesting of sinners into God's Kingdom.

Changes in celebrations, brought about by God's hand on many lives!

Has His hand changed YOUR celebrations of life yet???

It's a Journey!

In my rush to "need" our market to be successful, I forgot, for a little while, that my Father in Heaven is in charge of my life. He has a plan for me. He has shown me small bits of it through my life, so I do know the direction I am supposed to go--writing stories. He's given me so much fodder for stories, but still I procrastinate in doing what I know He wants me to do.

Maybe I am like those first Jews--I am still wandering around the mountain and not quite ready to Trust Him. He has "Lucy's Life Journey" written and is making His plan for me come true. And it is all about my relationship with HIM. I know from past experience that when others hear my stories, they are in awe of God's hand in my life's journey. He empowers me to do things I never imagined I could do.

GOD IS AWESOME!!!