Random for St. Paddy's Day!

Never iron a four-leaf clover. You never want to press your luck!

What do you call a leprechaun with a sore throat? A. a streprechaun!

And St. Patrick himself:

• I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, resident in Ireland. I am greatly God's debtor, because he granted me so much grace.



• I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.



• Christ beside me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ within me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me.

St. Patrick's Day is far more about a great Gospel than green beer. Green beer's fine (if you like the stuff), but Living Water is da finest!

Tears and Words

Tears are words from the heart that are too deep for words! --Selected

One Benefit of TOGETHER for Worsip

Corporate worship is designed to wrench your hope away from the creation and place it firmly in the hands of your Creator Savior Lord!
--Paul Tripp

The "Someone Done Me Totally Wrong" Song Ain't a Hill to Die On!

Singing the "someone done me totally wrong" song might be your or my reality today. Life isn't fair and life does not come with a guarantee against betrayal, loss and pain! Sometimes I feel like the perpetrators of the totally wrong stuff get off scott-free and "ride off into the sunset" to do their damage to another unsuspecting target.
It is true; it often seems that way! But that's not my call! I'm just responsible for my end. God promises to take care of the other side of this equation.
What's a gal (or guy) to do when there is seemingly no possibility of repentance and restoration or even closure? Staying stuck in wanting to "take out a contract" on the perpetrator is not a hill to die on. Moving on and asking God to work His restoring grace in my heart is the only path of health and sanity for my own heart!
Choosing the way of revenge or just-can't-forget-and-forgive does absolutely NO harm to the perpetrator but it does irreparable damage to my own heart! So making the terribly difficult but necessary step of forgiveness is actually the path of God's grace and mercy to me even if that grace and mercy seem severely won!
Just askin' ................... think about it!

Walking into the Storm is Always Better with a Friend!

It's one of those blustery days for Pooh and Piglet! It is those special memories we make now - even when two friends walk together through a blustery day - that stay in our hearts! On blustery days, walking with a friend is always better!

What Counts!

Corporate worship is designed to remind you that Jesus met every requirement so that you wouldn't live afraid of never measuring up. --Paul David Tripp
Now, THAT's a reall reason to get me going on a cold Sunday morning! The pressure is off. I don't have to be or do some real or imagined list of thinigs to check off in order to show up for worship, to be accepted by God! That's done and finished! That was Jesus' final cry from His cross, It is finished!
There are so many people struggling out of their beds this morning to get ready to go to church. Many of them are making the effort in a desperate attempt to measure up to some imaginary "yard stick" and it is all "sound and fury, signifying nothing"! (T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland)
What a terrible burden! What a colossal waste of time and energy! What a stupid exercise in futility!
Actually Galatians 5:6 says it best, "In Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumsion counts for anything! What counts is faith expressing itself in love." I really heard this wonderful truth with my heart from a pretty unimpressive pastor named Dr. Jack Miller.That is, Jack wasn't impressive until he started sharing his heart about God's awesome work in his life freeing him from the burden of working, worrying, trying, scratching and scrabbling to gain God's favor. Jack was well-known for quoting and teaching, In Christ neither _________ nor __________ counts for anything! What counts is faith expressing itself in love. You fill in the blank for you! I'll fill it in for myself, thank you very much! And I will live this day in the confidence that because Jesus poured out His love - as His life's blood dripped down a rugged Roman cross beside a well-traveled path outside Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago - I don't have to keep working and trying so hard to make the grade with God! It is done! WHEW! What a relief that is!

Post Birth Abortion??? NOT!!!!

Timing is everything! Sometimes it's breath-taking about the timing thing! Our women's Bible study sponsored by A Restoration Church is studying various ethical issues in light of God's truth. The last two weeks we've dealt with abortion. We have also tackled stem cell research, autism, self-image, violence and more.
Yesterday was Dr. Seuss' 108th birthday.
What in the world do abortion and Dr. Seuss have in common?
In its February 28, 2012 issue the Journal of Medical Ethics published and featured an article entitled "After-Birth Abortion: Why Should the Baby Live?" In any other world after birth and abortion would never remotely have anything to do with each other! This article is all about the birth of children who have previously "unexpected" disabilities and what to do about them. The article - in a medical ethics journal no less - suggests post-birth abortion is the option for parents. How can after-birth murder be the same label as pre-birth murder (abortion)? Part of the answer in the article is that newborn babies as well as in-utero babies neither one are real humans.
I looked but I could find NOTHING in God's Word of truth that remotely suports such an egregious travesty! But apart from that - it would seem to me that reason alone would cry "foul" on this one!
AND what does THAT have to do with Dr. Seuss? Well, among many other wise, pithy sayings, he wrote “A person's a person, no matter how small.”!
That's NOT Scripture but it is the truth and we better wrap our minds around it before as a nation we lose our ethical and moral souls forever!
What a opportunity to be salt in such a rotten world and light that pushes back darkness!