Sunday, April 27, 2014
Realization
Until one discovers one's depth of depravity one cannot fully appreciate the enormity of God's grace and love.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Fall 2011
Conduit
Passing through
May I be a conduit of love,
To my family, may they see Thee.
to my world, may they know Thee.
to those outside, may they experience Thee.
May my epitaph be - Conduit.
- 18 Sep 2011
Stairs
Up and down, stairs transport.
Sometimes a railing to support.
Expectations, trepidation.
Upward to heaven, down to hell.
These are the paths men have trod.
Choices made for us, by us.
Free or not, stairs transport.
- 16 Oct 2011
Passing through
May I be a conduit of love,
To my family, may they see Thee.
to my world, may they know Thee.
to those outside, may they experience Thee.
May my epitaph be - Conduit.
- 18 Sep 2011
Stairs
Up and down, stairs transport.
Sometimes a railing to support.
Expectations, trepidation.
Upward to heaven, down to hell.
These are the paths men have trod.
Choices made for us, by us.
Free or not, stairs transport.
- 16 Oct 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Love for others
Internalizing, understanding, feeling at one with St. Paul's assertion in Romans 9:2-3: "My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them."
My personal one is for those whom God has placed in my path - people in families adopting children, to whom they can not share the good news of God's love for them for they do not know Him either. Yet this has extended to the people who where charged to care for my children before they came to our family.
Lifeboat
Pulled from the wreckage of life,
Bound now for eternal bliss,
With heart breaking for others,
I seek to throw a line of life.
More than my place in the boat,
I would that others go.
I love them so.
- 18 Sep 2011
My personal one is for those whom God has placed in my path - people in families adopting children, to whom they can not share the good news of God's love for them for they do not know Him either. Yet this has extended to the people who where charged to care for my children before they came to our family.
Lifeboat
Pulled from the wreckage of life,
Bound now for eternal bliss,
With heart breaking for others,
I seek to throw a line of life.
More than my place in the boat,
I would that others go.
I love them so.
- 18 Sep 2011
Friday, August 6, 2010
Peeling Peaches
Peeling peaches gives one time to think because it doesn't take too much RAM to peel them once you get into the rhythm of it.
This week doing that between Facebook, Gmail, the kids, I thought of the movie I've never seen but heard about - The Bucket List. The list of things you want to do before you die.
I have no such list - other than wanting to go back to China and perhaps.......
I do have a list but it is about others. It is a list of names of people whom I wish to introduce to the joys and blessings I've had these last 3 years, to the person who made this possible, the person who has worked out things for us.
The list mainly contains families who have crossed my path in the last year, who have adopted children from China or Taiwan, who do not know the person referred to above, nor can they introduce their children to this person. It is a list that has grown over time and each and every person represented on that list have become special to me.
A friend offered this in response, which I found very helpful - "Reaching folks about the One who has done so much for you, is like peeling a peach - you don't want to bruise it or rip the skin off. It must be handled gently and peeled slowly. When you do, you find a sweet gem underneath."
Thanks Barbara.
I've met, found, discovered many sweet gems this past year.
Soon back to peeling peaches and more pondering.
This week doing that between Facebook, Gmail, the kids, I thought of the movie I've never seen but heard about - The Bucket List. The list of things you want to do before you die.
I have no such list - other than wanting to go back to China and perhaps.......
I do have a list but it is about others. It is a list of names of people whom I wish to introduce to the joys and blessings I've had these last 3 years, to the person who made this possible, the person who has worked out things for us.
The list mainly contains families who have crossed my path in the last year, who have adopted children from China or Taiwan, who do not know the person referred to above, nor can they introduce their children to this person. It is a list that has grown over time and each and every person represented on that list have become special to me.
A friend offered this in response, which I found very helpful - "Reaching folks about the One who has done so much for you, is like peeling a peach - you don't want to bruise it or rip the skin off. It must be handled gently and peeled slowly. When you do, you find a sweet gem underneath."
Thanks Barbara.
I've met, found, discovered many sweet gems this past year.
Soon back to peeling peaches and more pondering.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Good Friday?
Today many folks have the day off, shortened work days as they prepare for an Easter mass or some other form of celebration preceding Easter.
Good Friday, per say is a croc. This 'holiday' was set up by the Catholic church. The time line just does not follow.
One can not die on Friday, be buried and rise from the dead 36 hours later and be called being in the grave 3 days.
Let's take Thursday for instance. If Jesus died on a Thursday, Friday started at 6 pm Thursday according to Jewish custom. Friday evening at 6 pm would be the end of the first day. Saturday evening would be the second day, Sunday morning would be the 3rd day.
But if he was in fact in the grave on Wednesday evening - ie Thursday morning - Sunday morning would have been the morning of the 3rd day which started at 6 pm Saturday.
The time shift of thinking of the day starting at 6 pm - the evening of the day preceding in Western thought, the morning being several hours later during the Western next day can easily confuse.
Good Friday, per say is a croc. This 'holiday' was set up by the Catholic church. The time line just does not follow.
One can not die on Friday, be buried and rise from the dead 36 hours later and be called being in the grave 3 days.
Let's take Thursday for instance. If Jesus died on a Thursday, Friday started at 6 pm Thursday according to Jewish custom. Friday evening at 6 pm would be the end of the first day. Saturday evening would be the second day, Sunday morning would be the 3rd day.
But if he was in fact in the grave on Wednesday evening - ie Thursday morning - Sunday morning would have been the morning of the 3rd day which started at 6 pm Saturday.
The time shift of thinking of the day starting at 6 pm - the evening of the day preceding in Western thought, the morning being several hours later during the Western next day can easily confuse.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Reaching Out
Reaching out across the strands of time
We seek the silvery threads of family
A memory here, a memory there,
Whispers on the wind, we grasp at these,
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time,
Here and there we catch a silvery thread,
A glimpse here, a glimpse there of some family member.
What were their dreams, their aspirations?
How has the world changed since "their time"?
What we would have of theirs?
O' to have a glimpse of their faces, to hear just once more the sound of
their voices.
Lonely are we, lost without family.
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time.
--------
- Tim Stowell, 31 Oct 2006
We seek the silvery threads of family
A memory here, a memory there,
Whispers on the wind, we grasp at these,
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time,
Here and there we catch a silvery thread,
A glimpse here, a glimpse there of some family member.
What were their dreams, their aspirations?
How has the world changed since "their time"?
What we would have of theirs?
O' to have a glimpse of their faces, to hear just once more the sound of
their voices.
Lonely are we, lost without family.
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time.
--------
- Tim Stowell, 31 Oct 2006
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Faith
Faith - believing in something you cannot see, trust.
Faith seems almost like an emotion in that it is like fine silk, passing through our lives, just as silk slides through our fingers.
Sometimes faith is strong, sometimes it is weak. Sometimes faith is in people which for the most part will at some point fail on you. Sometimes faith is in material goods, that are lost, stolen, destroyed, lose value. Sometimes faith is in this or that god either contrived or known.
Faith is personal. It changes over time due to our experience with it or from knowledge received because of it. It may change as we change in our perception of the world around us, events or just how we feel a certain day.
Sometimes though one's faith in a particular instance may be in some primary entity in one's life, like God, with a capital G, referring to the god of the Israelites of ancient Palestine and later the nation of Israel.
As the story of the Bible unfolded through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, followers of Jesus began to accept the God of the Israelites as their own God to worship. These followers were comprised not only of Jews but also from non-Jews in various parts of the Mediterranean world of that time. This group expanded over time landing more so in Europe than in other places.
It seems that around the time of the Reformation, that an element of Christianity lost for many centuries to the masses, that of personal faith started reappearing. Instead it seems to have been gobbled up by organized religion in the emergence of the Catholic Church, that becoming the official religion in many countries.
Martin Luther with his writings started questioning the official church on several points among them faith.
Which brings us via fast forward to today.
Personal faith - that which one can claim as their stake to which the rest of their life is tied. We all have faith of one kind or another, something we believe in to help us in times of need, something to cling to, trust, relate to.
Faith seems almost like an emotion in that it is like fine silk, passing through our lives, just as silk slides through our fingers.
Sometimes faith is strong, sometimes it is weak. Sometimes faith is in people which for the most part will at some point fail on you. Sometimes faith is in material goods, that are lost, stolen, destroyed, lose value. Sometimes faith is in this or that god either contrived or known.
Faith is personal. It changes over time due to our experience with it or from knowledge received because of it. It may change as we change in our perception of the world around us, events or just how we feel a certain day.
Sometimes though one's faith in a particular instance may be in some primary entity in one's life, like God, with a capital G, referring to the god of the Israelites of ancient Palestine and later the nation of Israel.
As the story of the Bible unfolded through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, followers of Jesus began to accept the God of the Israelites as their own God to worship. These followers were comprised not only of Jews but also from non-Jews in various parts of the Mediterranean world of that time. This group expanded over time landing more so in Europe than in other places.
It seems that around the time of the Reformation, that an element of Christianity lost for many centuries to the masses, that of personal faith started reappearing. Instead it seems to have been gobbled up by organized religion in the emergence of the Catholic Church, that becoming the official religion in many countries.
Martin Luther with his writings started questioning the official church on several points among them faith.
Which brings us via fast forward to today.
Personal faith - that which one can claim as their stake to which the rest of their life is tied. We all have faith of one kind or another, something we believe in to help us in times of need, something to cling to, trust, relate to.
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