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Morning Devotional...


"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and foraketh them shall have mercy."   Proverbs 28: 13

Repentance

A person can cover his sin in many ways. One thing that seems to be common to all people is to make up excuses as to why we are committing them. Excuses for sin come in a myriad of different formats. Some of them are that we blame our circumstances. We can suggest that we just can't help ourselves; that for one reason or another it is impossible for us to stop sinning. We can suggest that everybody does these things, and because everyone is doing it, why is it so bad if we join in. And there are many more excuses that we create for ourselves. All these excuses are aimed at covering sin, but God does not want us to cover our sin; he wants us to face up to what is happening and confess it.

It is very humbling to confess that we have done something wrong and that we are entirely responsible for our wrong doing. There seems to be something within everybody that would seek to justify their poor behaviour. This is where the excuses are brought into play. However, we need to bring ourselves low and crouch at the foot of the cross, so to speak, and confess that we have sinned and that we are solely responsible for that sin. Every form of self-justification needs to be stript away and the bare facts about our behaviour should be faced up to.

It is a wonderful thing that when we do humble ourselves in this way, we find that the God who we so feared, is a God of love and mercy. While we are making excuses for ourselves we are frightened that if we admit to our errors the Almighty God will bring great judgement upon our lives, but in actual fact that does not happen. As we admit to our faults and failings and accept that we are responsible for them, what actually happenings is that God shows us the great judgement that the Lord Jesus Christ endured on our behalf. God does not smite us, but He shows us the Saviour. He does not merely turn a blind eye to our sin as some people would foolishly suggest, but rather he shows us the enormity of it and that it has brought a dreadful judgement, but then he also shows us that the judgement of our sin has been born by the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are troubled by conviction of sin and if you are being reminded by God the Holy Spirit that you have fallen short of the life that God requires of you, remember that the God who is convicting you is the same God who is trying to bring you into the glory of a christian life. Even while you are under conviction of sin, trust entirely in a loving God. Be honest about your shortcomings and then cling onto the cross of Calvary. You cannot justify yourself, but the work that was accomplished on the cross can bring you justification.

                                                                      ~Anthony Patrick~

Hi everyone.  It is unusual for me to be the first poster following the devotional posting.  I did get up early as woke up and knew I had a lot of things I wanted to work on today.  I have a couple of errands to run this morning and then have a lot of webpage work to keep me busy the rest of the day.  This evening the Atlanta Falcons have a football playoff game that I want to watch. 

Sonja, thanks for sharing this excellent devotional with us this morning.  It is so true that we always try to find a convenient excuse for our sins and now in our society there is the prevalent idea that "no one" is responsible for anything.  We can't hide from God and God has provided the solution through his Son if we will only accept what is so freely offered. 

It is quite chilly here this morning and you can feel the chill on the floor.  Think it is time to get the little heater out and heat up my office.

January 15   

Personal Life: Hearing From God

Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt
around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then
Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out
to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their
sins. 
--Matthew 3:4-5

Let me give you some reasons why I believe God could honor John
the Baptist in that day in which he lived.

First, John had the ability to live and meditate in solitude. He
knew the meaning of quietness. He was in the desert until the
time of his showing forth unto Israel as a prophet. He came out of
his lonely solitude to break the silence like a drumbeat or as the
trumpet sounds. The crowds came--all gathered to hear this man who
had been with God and who had come from God.

In our day we just cannot get quiet enough and serene enough to
wait on God. Somebody has to be talking. Somebody has to be making
a noise. But John had gone into the silence and had matured in a
kind of special school with God and the stars and the wind and the
sand....

I do not believe it is stretching a point at all to say that we
will most often hear from God in those times when we are silent. 
Christ the Eternal Son, 130.

"Oh, Lord, help me to carve out of my busy schedule some time with
'God and the stars and the wind and the sand.' Amen."

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BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

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Main : Religions & Spirituality : Christianity
100 Points
  by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown









A man dies and goes to heaven. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates. St. Peter says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven.You tell me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."

"Okay," the man says, "I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."

"That's wonderful," says St. Peter, "that's worth three points!"
"Three points?" he says. "Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service."

"Terrific!" says St. Peter, "that's certainly worth a point." "One point? Golly. How about this: I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."

"Fantastic, that's good for two more points," he says. "TWO POINTS!!" the man cries, "At this rate the only way I get into heaven is by the grace of God!"

"That's right!, Now you have got it!" said St. Peter. 




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Wow, Chris! That is soooo good and sooo true. I will have to pass that one along. Thank you for sharing it 

January 15 - The End of the Law



"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Romans 10:4).

Nothing is further from the truth than to believe that one's good deeds will somehow outweigh his bad deeds and thereby merit God's good favor, eventually earning him a place in God's holy heaven. The fact of the matter is that mankind is hopelessly lost, "without Christ . . . having no hope, and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6).

In Romans 10:3 the apostle Paul describes those who go about to establish their own righteousness as being willingly ignorant of God's righteousness. God's righteousness is only found in Christ. He is the only One who has a right standing before God.

God, the righteous judge, has already declared Jew and Gentile to be guilty, already condemned and sentenced to die. He has no right standing before the lawcourt of God.

This is why it is so futile to reason that law keeping or our own good works will be sufficient to gain heaven. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness" (see our text). No matter what we do, it is never enough. The person who trusts in doing will never be done. It is impossible to work one's way to heaven. It's "Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:9).

Therefore, the "end" or termination point is Christ. He is the One who fulfilled all the law for us, who finished forever, by His death, the work of salvation. When we believe on Christ alone, the sentence of death is passed and we receive the righteousness of Christ and eternal life. NPS

Thanks Soni for the devotional written by Anthony (Rainbow). we haven't seen him her for awile. Has anyone heard from Anthony?

Today I am taking Savannah for her first visit to the beauty shop, she is having a manicure. he is 8 now. Next I will have to think of something special to do with Forest. It is hard to remember what 4 almost 5 year old boys like to do. We've been to the zoo but I guess we could go again. Maybe go to a movie. I am trying to have special "grandma days" with them individually.

Well be back later.

Hi Suzanne!, and Larry, and Chris

Good morning!  Sonja, it is good to read one of Anthony's devotionals again.  I think about him and wonder how he and his mother are doing.  Nobody except Anthony knows why he isn't posting any more, I guess.

Larry, please stay warm and don't overdo it today.  We sure need and enjoy you around here.

Marilyn, ask Forrest what he would like to do.  My grandsons always enjoyed doing crafty stuff, then later, painting, or working with tools in the garage.  I'm sure you will find something to please him.

We got a very nice thank you card yesterday with notes from all five of the first grade teachers in Hugoton.  They all enjoyed the scuba presentation as much as the kids, they said.

Beth has decided to have the surgery.  Dr. Cone said part of the danger will be because of the prone (facedown) position she will have to be in for so long.  He will remove the back half of four vertebrae in her neck, to give the spinal cord more room.  There is a very large, very aggressive neurofibroma that has invaded the canal and is exerting pressure on her spinal cord.  That is the level where respiration is controlled and they are very concerned about that.  I asked if it is possible to remove the neurofibroma; and he said it depends on how vital the nerve is that it is attached to--in that area, one mistake, one tiny nick, could be disasterous.  Also, the nature of neurofibromas is that if you remove them, they come back and bite you.  (They grow back, bigger and faster than ever.)

Of course, when I find out when her surgery will be, I will let you all know.  Please keep praying!

It is snowing here again today; and the temperature is about 3 degrees. Brrrrrr.  Our water was frozen off in my studio.

I don't know what today holds.  I was so restless yesterday that I couldn't concentrate on doing much.  I did clean out my cookbook shelves.  Anyone want some cookbooks?  I may try to work on Mark's Memory Album today; it isn't very long now until graduation!!

Talk to you all later, and thanks so much for your kind comments and for your prayers.

A BIG hello to all as I have not been here to read and catch up and post for 4 days.

Beth and Janet, it's a time for really "trusting Him all-the-way" and the prayers of all who know you will become a part of your strength and encouragement as you face this surgery.  What a blessing to know God is there...even when we don't understand why all these "bad and hurting" things come into our lives.  Your testimony as you face this is tremendous to all of us who come in contact with you.
May our LORD be especially close to your family.   

I, too, have experienced a loss this week as a 30-year old young man died waiting for a heart transplant.  About 4 years ago he had a virus in his heart which just about destroyed all but 10 - 20 percent of his heart.  At that time he was not a Christian..but after he was witnessed to during his hospital stay he accepted Jesus as his Lord.  This is the best news about the whole experience.  Please pray for the rest of his family as none of them (that I know of) are saved.  His memorial service is today.

Now off to read some of the other CP sites and catch up on my daily Bible reading.

As we all read Janet's and Beth's accounts of what the near future is for our Beth, and as we all draw close to the Saviour for guidance at this time, I've been singing the following hymn here in my home.  So I thought that we could all sing it together as we pray for Beth.








During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory.

In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the reputation of "knowing the whole Bible by heart."

He actually sat in the chimney corner, employing his mind in composing a sermon or two for Sabbath delivery, and his hands in cutting, shaping and polishing bones for shoe horns and other little useful implements. At intervals he attempted poetry.

On one occasion, paying him a visit, he repeated two or three pieces which he had composed, and having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within.

"How will this do?" asked he, as he repeated the following lines, with a complacent smile touched with some light lines of fear lest he subject himself to criticism. I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them, and sent them for insertion in the Observer, if you should think them worthy of preservation.

Music: William B. Bradbury, Golden Chain (New York: 1861)
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Janet and Beth ~ Janet once posted this and I have it printed out on a card that sits below my monitor....The one who made me understands all my problems and He can make them right!!  My prayers are for both of you.  God Bless you both.

Well, yesterday was another day working on this PC.  I like to do JigZone puzzles but they wouldn't load the last two days.  I even downloaded Java again but when I went to that website...everything stopped.  I couldn't even delete the website...even by right clicking the taskbar and chosing CLOSE. Also I downloaded SpyBot again and I had over 150 warning windows come up in a couple hours and I had to choose to Accept or Deny a change that my pc wanted to do.  I called my ISP again.  They said I definetly had a spyware problem.  They said to uninstall SpyBot, Java and Firefox and re-install them.  I re-installed Firefox.  When I went to re-install SpyBot I decided to try XoftBot instead...free scan.  XoftBot found 14 files but I had to pay before removing them.  So I paid...figured if that worked it was cheaper than paying a tech to fix my pc.  As soon as I removed those files, I tried JigZone...now I didn't download Java again....and Jigzone worked!!!  Anyway, my pc is better working right now that it has been for a loooooong time.

Also Stray Cat is back.  Ivalou shut him in her garage and when she went out to go somewhere yesterday, he came out of hiding to check her out.  So he is back. 

In a town near me, a huge fire is going on right now.  A magnesium fire and the fumes are toxid.  Over 8,000 people have had to evacuate their homes.  Water won't work on the fire so they have decided to let it burn itself out...maybe 2-3 days.  Thank God, there is little wind.  You can check it out
here...

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Marilyn, I don't know about Forrest, but my 5 yo nephew likes to throw rocks into lakes/ponds/rivers, etc.  The good thing about little boys is that it is usually cheaper (financially) to entertain them.  The bad thing is that it makes up for the savings in energy expended to keep up with them!!

Janet and Beth -- The surgery sounds scary (not that others don't, but that one, yeesh).  We will definitely be praying, now and throughout.

You know, Etta, you are going to end up with another cat, don't you?  Of course, this one sounds like it could be a good outside cat.  Might keep mice and other critters away.

have a good day, stay warm/dry/cool <pick one> and look for Jesus.

I just spoke with a lady in Lincoln, Neb. who also has a daughter with neurofibromatosis.  She told me her daughter had the same surgery Beth is facing, and the tumor was malignant.  It makes me wonder if the doctor in Lubbock was right about that.  Anyway, they removed most of her daughter's tumor, and the bones.........and she is doing well now.  That is very encouraging.  Her daughter was already gasping for air before they diagnosed her problem; so maybe Beth will have an even better outcome.

I do know that God loves her, (the rest of us, too) and will be the Great Physician as he always has been for Beth.

Thanks for the prayers, praise and music.  Love you guys...........

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks. 

Unless he thinks you are a computer techie! 

Chris, Margit, and Janet, that was funny! 

I'm quite happy at the moment. Yesterday I went for a job at a facility for those with Alzeimers and dementia, and they called me today to come in tomorrow.
I've been looking for a few weeks and was applying at places  I didn't even WANT to work. McDonald's, the pizza place, etc. I kept being told you can't find work in this town ANYWHERE usually unless you know someone and most jobs aren't listed. I was getting soooo frustrated, but a friend told me it was possible that God wanted me in the right place.
THIS is a job I want and will love. Also, it's right around the corner from where I live, as in close enough to walk should I be in the mood or something would happen to the car. I mentioned before that I wanted to get my degree in nursing, and often places like this will contract with you and pay for your schooling, I'll have to ask about that.
Yay!
Gina

Gina, that is great news on your new job.  I have very high regard for the caregivers working with Alzheimer's folks in the special care units.  My mother had some of the most loving and caring people care for her.  It is sometimes very tough work but you know you are special to be chosen for such a job.  I hope you new employer will have a program to help you realize your goal of being a nurse.

Janet, it is encouraging to hear of other success stories involving such a complex operation.  It sure is cold there in the midwest.  I have been following the temperature around Kansas City and in northern Iowa closely as we have family living both places.

Marilyn, it sounds like you had a lot of fun with your granddaughter and sure just spending special time with your grandson will mean a lot to him.

Chris, I liked your little story about the points in heaven. 

Kathy, sorry to hear of the young man losing his life awaiting a heart transplant.  In the research I have done it shows there are only around 2,000 transplants done a year and there are many people on the lists. 

Etta Sue, glad to hear that your computer is running well.  My desktop had really slowed down so I checked yesterday and had quite a bit of spyware and adware on it and it hadn't been very long since I ran the programs to remove it.  I also needed and did a defrag on it and it is running much better today.

Dear Gina,

am so glad to read your report on the new job, congratulations.
In 1993 I had moved from Southern California to Eugene, Oregon and ran into similar experiences.

Although I had worked in Social Services in California and applied in a very broad range of jobs, I could not find employment for over a year and a half.  I too was told, among other things, that you have to have an inside track to get a good job and to be an Oregonian would help.
God had a plan a little different from mine, He led me into private eldercare, something I did not want to consider much.  I stayed in that job for seven years until the gentleman I took care of in the day time, died.  God had me there for one reason, to minister to His lost sheep and bring him back into the fold.  That is exactly what He did, the last year on that job was spent with much spiritual reading and soul searching, when "my gentleman" had died God gave me the peace that he was home.
As I was contemplating my circumstances in those years, looking around me in a very large church congregation, I became aware that God was leading many into the "service
industries", as if He wanted to teach His body to become able to humbly serve, not just Him but all that He died for.
Enjoy your new job, it's rewarding and God is the greatest Rewarder in it all, He will use you mightily if you are willing to humbly serve.

Am far removed from Eugene now but the experience will stay with me for ever.

God bless.

In His love, Margit

I just dropped in for a minute to tell you that my sister, Genevieve, died in her sleep last night.  She was 80 years old.  Her husband passed away just a month ago.  Her son who lives next door was planning to take her to get her hair fixed this morning.  He called to see if she was ready.  She didn't answer the phone and he thought maybe she was in the shower and in a little while he went over there.  She was still on her bed and looked like she was asleep.  He looked more closely and saw that she was dead.  This comes as as great shock to us because she wasn't sick.  She was a devoted and faithful Christian since she was a little girl.  We loved her very much and will miss her.

Papa John

Papa John, I'm so sorry about your dear sister.  (((hugs))).  I know you are comforted knowing that Geneveive is now with her husband, and with the Lord who loves her so much.  That doesn't erase the empty place she leaves in your life, but heaven becomes even dearer the more of our loved ones who are there.  Please know we love you and will be thinking about you in the coming difficult days.

Papa, I'm sorry to hear that, but trust that you take comfort in knowing she's with our Lord. Also, how great that she lived her life and didn't have to go through illness and discomfort in the end! I do understand the shock of it must be great, and thank you for sharing the situation with us so we can pray on behalf of you and your family.
Gina

Hi again folks.
I wanted to let you know I have 5 gmail invites left to give away.
I get nothing out of it if you take them, it's a newer email service and so far you either buy it or get an invite. I got mine by invite.

I like it because it's got a lot of room, and emails are listed together when they come from the same sender when you're talking back and forth.
Especially nice is the way the photos work. You can choose to have them shown right there in the email when they're sent to you so you don't have to download them or use a program of your own to open them. They also open fast for me, where before I'd be waiting and waiting for a picture to show up.
If you're interested in using gmail, simply send me an email and I'll send out the invite. First five to respond get them, so please don't be offended if you ask and I don't send one, it simply means I ran out!
Gina

Papa John ~ I am sorry to hear about your sister. Someday we will see her and have a merry old time.

PAPA JOHN, I am so sorry to learn of the sudden loss of your sister, Genevieve.  As someone already noted: it is a blessing for her that she went in her sleep and without having to suffer from a dibilitating illness.  I know this is a shock to you and your family, especially since your brother in law's passing so recently.  May God comfort all who grieve and give you His perfect peace.

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Papa John and Cornelia you and your family will be in my prayers.