I’m on the road today, traveling to be with friends whose son died unexpectedly this week. I left Doright Manor yesterday and should arrive at my destination in Oklahoma early this afternoon.
There was no time for stopping except for necessary stuff (gas, potty breaks, food) yesterday, but at one of those necessary stops I was delayed leaving by a mother hen and her chicks.
One little chick was under my car, while others were scurrying across the parking lot, but mama gathered all of her babies together and headed for safety. Because that’s what mamas do.
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.[c]
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.[d] 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. 9 Look on our shield,[e] O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
12 Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
11-12 God did powerful things through Paul, things quite out of the ordinary. The word got around and people started taking pieces of clothing—handkerchiefs and scarves and the like—that had touched Paul’s skin and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it—they were healed and whole.
13-16 Some itinerant Jewish exorcists who happened to be in town at the time tried their hand at what they assumed to be Paul’s “game.” They pronounced the name of the Master Jesus over victims of evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus preached by Paul!” The seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were trying to do this on a man when the evil spirit talked back: “I know Jesus and I’ve heard of Paul, but who are you?” Then the possessed man went berserk—jumped the exorcists, beat them up, and tore off their clothes. Naked and bloody, they got away as best they could.
17-20 It was soon news all over Ephesus among both Jews and Greeks. The realisation spread that God was in and behind this. Curiosity about Paul developed into reverence for the Master Jesus. Many of those who thus believed came out of the closet and made a clean break with their secret sorceries. All kinds of witches and warlocks came out of the woodwork with their books of spells and incantations and made a huge bonfire of them. Someone estimated their worth at fifty thousand silver coins. In such ways it became evident that the Word of the Master was now sovereign and prevailed in Ephesus.
A few days ago you may recall I wrote a blog about ‘God and Spiritualism’ purely because a post had appeared on my Facebook news feed.
This time it was a video posted on my Facebook news feed of the Psychic Medium and Angel guide Emma Ryder Doing readings to people online
When I looked The Evils of Tarot Cards on the internet I discovered there are quite a lot, certainly more than I expected.
Though it’s not for me to judge fellow Christians in what they do, but tarots cards for me as a Christian is not something i’m prepared to waste my pass to heaven on.
“Here’s what I most want you to know: this really is as bad as you think.
No matter what anyone else says, this sucks. What has happened cannot be made right. What is lost cannot be restored. There is no beauty here inside this central fact.
Acknowledgement is everything.
You’re in pain. It can’t be made better.
The reality of grief is far different from what others see from the outside. There is pain in this world that you can’t be cheered out of.
You don’t need solutions. You don’t need to move on from your grief. You need someone to see your grief. To acknowledge it. You need someone to hold your hands while you stand there in blinking horror, staring in the hole that was your life.
Something cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.” – Megan Divine
Why do children never have a pencil when they need one? Every week at brass learners, I seem to spend my time supplying the children, and sometimes the adults, with tissues and pencils. I usually buy the pencils in bulk, the yellow ones in packets at the local supermarket. I was surprised to learn that pencils used to be made in China, because the best graphite came from there. Pencil manufacturers painted their pencils yellow, as it is the colour associated with Chinese royalty, to prove they used the best graphite. Now, the yellow pencil seems very common, not Royal at all. Pencils became popular, as, with a few rubs of the pink eraser your mistakes are wiped out. If you make mistakes in your life, then in a matter of moments, when you turn to God and ask for forgiveness, then your mistakes are erased in His eyes. Have you made mistakes? Have you messed up? Take time today to turn to God and confess your mistakes, and ask for forgiveness.
Though your sins be as scarlet, They shall be as white as snow
Christian Devotions, Health and General issues of the day 