Sunday, September 20, 2009

Within that awful volume lies...



Famous quote from Sir Walter Scott's,
Monastery, Volume 1, Chapter XII

"Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
Happiest they of human race,
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, and force the way;
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read, to doubt, or read to scorn."
======================================================

I need to study and get serious about this...


Friday, September 18, 2009

Got Unborn Promises?

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

"Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth"
(Isaiah 54:1, NLT)

TODAY'S WORD from Joel and Victoria

Sometimes, when we don't see our dreams and desires coming to pass, we can feel empty and barren like a woman who is unable to have children. But look at what this verse is saying: if you've got unborn promises, don't just sit around in defeat. Don't just give up and say, "Too bad for me." No, God says when you're barren, the first thing you need to do is sing a song of praise. You might think, "Well, Joel, I'm kind of depressed today. I'll sing after I have my 'baby.'" No, this passage wasn't written to people who were holding their baby and had seen their dreams come to pass. It was written to empty-armed people; people who didn't have what they were believing for. Do you know why? When you're giving God praise, do you know what you are doing? You are activating your faith and putting yourself into position to give birth to that promise. You are setting yourself up for God to move on your behalf.

Why don't you get into position today by singing a song of praise? All throughout the day, thank Him for what He is doing in your life and watch those dreams and desires come to pass.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

"Father in heaven, I surrender all my questions, all my doubts, all my fears to You today. I know that You have a plan to fulfill every dream and desire in my heart. I choose to sing praises to You this day and thank You for Your goodness and faithfulness in my life. In Jesus' Name. Amen."

Source: http://JoelOsteen.com

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Overdue Bills? Try This...

Overdue by Jan Week
Years ago I was living from paycheck to paycheck, and my teacher’s salary never seemed to cover my debts. I put off paying my bills as long as I possibly could. Worrying about all of those bills seemed less daunting than actually facing them.Then my sister sent me some inspirational tapes. I listened to them, and dug out my dog-eared copy of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking.

The tapes and the book talked about appreciating life, and about the blessings we take for granted.They made me realize just how blessed I really was. In fact, it was my gratitude that was really overdue. So instead of dreading my bills, I began to bless them!As I wrote out the check for the utility bill I said, “Bless all of you who work to keep me warm and illuminated.”

The telephone bill? “Thank you for making it easy for me to stay in touch with all the people I love.”Within a few months, I noticed that even though my paycheck didn’t increase, my debts seemed more manageable. Actually, they decreased.I really was able to pay my bills; I just needed a little encouragement to think positively.

The above article originally appeared in Guideposts magazine. Visit the recently updated guidepostsmag.com today.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Pain, Sunshine, Rain, Calm

 I am back from vacations and inspired to restart my posts:

Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,
There will always be sunshine, after the rain
Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall
But God is always ready, to answer your call.

He knows every heartache, sees every tear
A word from His lips, can calm every fear

 Your sorrows may linger, throughout the night
But suddenly vanish, by dawn's early light
The Savior is waiting, somewhere above
To give you His grace, and embrace you
... in His everlasting LOVE.

~ Author: Unknown ~


Monday, June 01, 2009

Try This for a Week...

The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry.  Live simply, expect little, give much.  Fill your life with love.  Scatter sunshine.  Forget self, think of others.  Do as you would be done by.  Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Share Your Plans with God and...

Today I will dedicate myself to God and ponder on the miracle of Easter...and this wonderful promise.

Source:Positive Thinking for Every Day of the Year
Norman Vincent Peale




Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Capture God's Joy Today

Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
(I Peter 1:8, NIV).

TODAY'S WORD from Joel and Victoria

Do you need more joy in your life? This verse tells us that when we choose to believe in God, we are filled with His joy. And not just any kind of joy, inexpressible and glorious joy! Have you ever seen someone filled with inexpressible joy over something? Their face is beaming, their heart is pounding. They can hardly contain themselves. They are so excited they can't think of anything else. They have so much confidence over what they know that nothing can take away their joy. As believers, that's how we should be. We should be confident in the goodness of God and filled with His inexpressible and glorious joy!

I encourage you today to be bold and believe God. Get to know Him better by knowing His Word. Hold His promises close to your heart so that you can be filled with His confidence and joy all the days of your life.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your joy unspeakable and full of glory. I choose to believe You and trust in Your goodness. I invite you to search my heart and remove anything that would keep me from all You have in store. In Jesus's Name. Amen

Source: http://JoelOsteen.com

Friday, March 13, 2009

Stability in an Unstable World

Just a short detour from our healing survey of Emily Gardiner Neal.

This is a letter from Annette Capps, who I believe is the daughter of Charles Capps. In order to balance as much of the negativity currently in the news cycle as possible, I thought this letter is a way to a positive, resourceful path amidst the apparent chaos.

Thanks Annette!

The WORD is Stable!

Unstable markets, unstable world economy…Let’s focus on something that is stable…the Word of God and not fixate on the fear that surrounds us.

My Dad tells the story of how during a dry year when he was farming, he prayed for rain for his cotton crop. One particular field had no means of irrigation. As he was driving and praying for rain, he noticed that one spot in the field looked greener than the rest. God spoke to him and said, “Would it be OK if I just caused the moisture to come up under your crop rather than rain from above?” Of course my Dad replied, “Whatever you want to do is fine with me!”

That year the cotton made 1 bale per acre on that field where other farmers only made ∏ bale or less.

Sometimes we become so fixated on the problem or what we believe the solution is that we are not open to alternatives. God is not limited to our ideas of how to fix things. The real issue for Charles Capps was not rain; it was a good cotton crop.

Our real issue today is not the stock market or the credit crisis. The real issue is how we can prosper and succeed in spite of world crisis. God’s Word has not changed. God’s laws have not changed. The same laws of giving and receiving, sowing and reaping, seedtime and harvest still work in October 2008 as well as October 2007.

The spiritual principles that enabled you to pay your house payment, buy your gas and feed your family still apply no matter what the economy. God’s Word drives your economy! Choose kingdom principles to dominate your finances!

I encourage you to continue in faith, not being moved by what you see, hear or feel but what you believe…God’s Word. You are the seed of Abraham through Jesus Christ and His blessing rests on you.

The immoveable, unchangeable Word will work for you as you speak it and stand fast in faith.

God Bless You Richly,

Annette Capps

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Spiritual healing not for the sick alone...

The title of this post is taken directly from Emily's , "God Can Heal You Now", How to Stay Well chapter that deals with healings when we are not at the end of our ropes and seeking the "ministry of desperation".  Emily sites several examples of wellness resulting in people's lives when they are involved in a healing ministry.  Here are two examples:

"A Presbyterian attorney who became interested in the healing ministry two years ago, voices the experience of unnumerable people when he says: "I had all my life been subject to severe colds, throat infections, and sinus trouble during winter months.  I am convinced that it is more than coincidence that during the past two years  I have not been indisposed, even for a day"

"The experience of a mother with three youngsters is also typical. "For years I have been nervous and tired," she says, "and also terribly apprehensive about the children's health.  But not any more.  Through the healing ministry I have an entirely different concept of God.  I know now that He wants them to be well, and that if they do get sick, He will heal them.  The result has been that they have turned into the healthiest youngsters on our block, practically never have even colds..."


Emily concludes this section by making these remarks:

"There are very few of us who will not find ourselves recipients of the fringe benefits of the Christian faith -- health and joy -- if we follow the simple prescription consisting of two ingredients: daily devotions, and, if possible, weekly attendance at a healing service. For the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the extension of the Incarnation, is as indispensable as your private devotions."


Source: God Can Heal You Now, pp212-213

Friday, January 02, 2009

Sunny's Positive Thinking Thoughts for 2009

Here is a positive thinking strategy from Sunny for 2009 - The Affirmations Coach.


January 02, 2009
10 Affirmations List For Today - Jan 2, 2009

1 - I'm Grateful For This New Day
2 - I Know Good Things Are Going To Happen Today
3 - I'm Looking For New Opportunities
4 - I'm Also Creating Time & Space That's Reserved Just For Me
5 - I DO Enjoy Being Busy
6 - I Also Enjoy Being Centered & Focused
7 - I'm Pacing Myself & Enjoying Every Moment
8 - I'm Writing Down My 10 Affirmations Today
9 - I'm Reading Them Out Loud To Myself
10 - I'm Living These Affirmations Today, And I'm Making My Life Be

GREAT


Additional Comment -- From Sunny :)

Read This Affirmations List Silently To Yourself

If You Have Time, Write Them Out In Your Own Handwriting

Make ANY Changes To Any Or To All Of These Affirmations, As YOU See

Fit.

Read Them Out Loud And Infuse Them With Some Feeling Of Sincerity

Make Them Yours

Other Options Include Writing Down Only 1 Or 2 Of Them, And Then

Posting Them On Your Computer, Or Carrying Them In Your Pocket, Or

Using Any Other Method To Help You Think, Say & Feel The Affirmations

That Are Special For YOU, Throughout The Entire Day.

Why Not Read Them Aloud Again Before You Go To Sleep?
Aloha! Sunny :)
Sunny Hills, CPCC, Maui, Hawai'i
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach
The Affirmations Coach (TM)

Please Tell Your Friends About Sunny Thoughts
Sign Up Here For FREE Positive Affirmations and Positive Thinking

The Meaning of ALOHA:
A = Ahonui = Patience
L = Lokahi = Unity
O = 'Olu'olu = Agreeableness
H = Ha'aha'a = Humility
A = Akahai = Kindness
~Paul Pearsall, Phd., The Pleasure Prescription

Check him out and get motivated for 2009:

http://www.sunnythoughts.com/

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Experience the Favor of God in Healing

An Opportunity for God's Favor

Today's Scripture

It was not because of his sins or his parents sins, Jesus answered. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him (John 9:3 NLT).

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

In the Bible, we read of a man who was born blind. Some people were asking Jesus, Why was he born this way? Whose fault was it, his or his parents? They were trying to find someone to blame, some reason, some excuse for his condition. And interestingly, we tend to do the same type of thing today. But I love the way Jesus answered them; He said, It s not anybody s fault. The reason this man was born this way was so that the goodness of God could be displayed in his life. Then He touched the man and healed him.

When you have a setback, when life deals you a tough blow, when the economy is unstable, don t get bitter. Don t settle there. Recognize you are a prime candidate for God to show His favor and goodness through. When the storms of life come, your attitude should be, God, I m ready! I know You have something great in store! I refuse to live defeated and depressed. I know this difficulty is simply another opportunity for You to show Your goodness through me.

A Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, thank You for choosing to show Your glory and goodness through me. I choose to stand in faith, knowing that You are working all things out for my good. I bless You and thank You for Your faithfulness! In Jesus Name. Amen.

Source:Joel Osteen Ministries

Saturday, October 04, 2008

A Merry Heart and Medicine

Proverbs 17:22. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

(Good News) Being cheerful keeps you healthy.

(Smith-Goodspeed) A happy heart is a healing medicine…

(Basic English) A glad heart makes a healthy body…

(Moffatt) A glad heart helps and heals…

(Jerusalem) A glad heart is excellent medicine, a spirit depressed wastes

the bones away.

(Knox) A cheerful heart makes a quick recovery; it is crushed spirits that

waste a man’s frame.

(Fenton) The best medicine is a cheerful heart…

(Rotherham) A joyful heart worketh an excellent cure…

(Living Bible) …a broken spirit makes one sick.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

God's Mysteries in Healings

Emily began to make some general conclusions in the early months of her journey into the world of spiritual healing:

"Scores of such verifiable healings, reported by reputable doctors, induced me to believe that these healings were not mere happenstance. At the end of a few months, I noted that this strange healing force worked in curiously different ways. Some healings occurred though absent prayer, with the patient miles away. Some were instant and complete; others were delayed and gradual. In most cases of spiritual healing, the defective organ supposedly causing the illness was resored to normal function, but in a few cases the individual attained complete health in spite of the fact that the condition of the organ remained ostensibly unchanged."


Emily tried to make sense out of the emerging evidence:

In an effort to shed some light on the healing phenomenon, I searched continuosly for some evidence of a general, underlying psychic factor - some common quality of personality, perhaps, that might make those healed peculiarly susceptible to the healing power, whatever it was an wherever it came from. I could find no such common denominator. Those healed came from every walk of life. They were of varying degrees of intelligence and different levels of education. There were of many diverse temperaments. Only after the healings was there a discernible common bond: a joyous faith in God, founded on the conviction shared by factory worker and professional alike, the God's mysteries cannot be intellectualized."


Source: Celebration of Healing, p.13-14

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Spiritual Healing and the "Risen Christ"

This description of spiritual healing was key to me as I read and studied Emily Gardiner Neal's encounter, as a skeptical reporter, of the faith healings she witnessed:

"There is nothing new about faith healing. It has been practiced in one form or another for thousands of years. Many were the sick treated, and probably helped, at the temples of Aesculapius, legendary Greek god of medicine. Many have been the sick treated and possibly cured by withchcraft. Many are the sick today, who by faith in an amulet, a well-phrased slogan, or their doctor, are physically improved.

But there is a vast difference between these kinds of "faith" healings, and today's revived ministry within the Church. Spiritual healing does not concern itself with the curing of the body alone with no reference to the spirit; nor yet is it the type of metaphysical healing which affirms the spiritual at the expense of the physical. Spiritual healing deals with the cure of the whole person -- body, mind and spirit. Its goal and purpose is the seeking of a closer relationship with God -- the soul's salvation. When the spirit is healed through faith in and through the power of the Risen Christ, healing of the mind and body follows as an expected corollary."


Source: God Can Heal You Now - Emily Gardiner Neal


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Reporter Finds God - A Great Hunger

I will be sharing quotes and thoughts in the next few days (possibly weeks) from "Celebration of Healing", a selection of writings of Emily Gardiner Neal who came to a healing ministry from a background in journalism.

Her first book, published in 1956 was A Reporter Finds God Through Spiritual Healing, and she continued writing and engaged in healing ministry through 1989 - when she quietly went to be with her Lord, Jesus Christ.

Today I will start somewhere in the middle with this soul grabbing quote:

After traveling all over the nation, talking to and with people of every educational level and in every stage of belief and disbelief, I have observed a great hunger. The hunger is not for intellectual answers to religious questions that the mind may be satisfied, but for a personal experience of the living God that the soul may be fulfilled.

May this be our desire today...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Mark Twain's Secret to Getting Things Done


Mark Twain said:


"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting
started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small
manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."

Monday, May 26, 2008

Toil and Blood and Treasure

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means..." John Adams

Pray for those that are in Military Service for our Country

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the
love and thanks of man and woman."

-- Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings , Foner ed., Library
of America (91)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Ben Franklin said...

Ben Franklin said.

We have gone back to ancient history for models of Government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist.

In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered.

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God Governs in the affairs of men.

And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is
it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? Sir, in the sacredwritings,
that "except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that buildit."


Amen

Monday, May 12, 2008

Thomas Paine

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
Thomas Paine, 1776