Baptism

A good feelin' song....reminds me of my baptism at Springwater Lake. A very special day....for me.

Washing each other's feet

From the devotional based on the teachings of Ray Stedman.

John 13:14

What does Jesus mean when He says that we ought to wash one another's feet? Some Christians have taken this very literally and have thought that our Lord was here instituting another sacrament.

Jesus is not giving us another sacrament to follow here. But what He means is that just as we need the cleansing and forgiveness of our Lord to maintain the sense of unity and refreshment of spirit in our Christian life, so we need to extend to one another free forgiveness for guilt and for the injury that we may do to one another. We are to be, in the words of Paul, "kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

He knows that it is difficult sometimes to forgive, that the flesh within cries out for revenge. And often we love the feeling of carrying a grudge or of resisting the overtures of other people. But Jesus says that when we are doing that, we are doing what He would not do. We are demanding our rights. And we are forgetting that our Lord and Master humbled Himself, though He was rightfully the Lord of glory, the one with every right to claim the worship of people. Nevertheless, He laid it all aside. He washed the feet of His own disciples.

No Christian has any right to sit in self-righteous judgment upon another. We may bring others under the searching light of the Word of God. We may, out of concern and compassion for their welfare, expose to them what they are doing. But in no sense are we to do so with self-righteousness, with the suggestion that we would never do a thing like that. Our Lord insists that we wash one another's feet in love.

Dr. H. A. Ironside pointed out how wise it is to be concerned about the temperature of the water when we wash one another's feet. An angry person will be so distracted by what has happened that he or she will use boiling water, but people don't want their feet washed in boiling water. Some come with a holier-than-thou attitude and attempt to use freezing-cold water to wash another's feet. No one will allow it under those conditions. Others attempt to wash people's feet with no water at all. They tear into another, attempting to scrape away the dirt, and the skin along with it. What they say may be true, but it is offered up with no love at all. But our Lord insists that we wash one another's feet in love.

Help me, Lord, to so love my brothers and sisters in Christ that I am willing to wash their feet and am willing to allow them to wash mine. May I do so in tenderness and warmth, knowing how gentle You are with me.

Holding Out For A Hero - Bonnie Tyler

I don't think Bonnie Tyler's hero and mine are quite the same.....but this is a great (and hilarious) video about what that means. A prelude if you will to the following story. First some laughter and then some tears.





Not one to comment on societal affairs, usually, as I believe this sin-cursed world is past the point of my understanding and I leave a lot of things in far more capable Hands. This bit of news today though, I couldn't help but comment on. What hope in this world system is there when the good guys (supposed), are really the bad guys. Deception at its finest. May God save us all from those who swear to protect and serve and do just the opposite. (Understand that I am not naive to the corruption of any organization including the men in blue....but discouraged and disgusted at times with blatant immorality.

In the news today.......

Two Toronto police officers and three corrections officers are among 20 people charged in a large-scale marijuana drug trafficking operation in the Greater Toronto Area.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said officers made the arrests after executing 63 search warrants throughout the region early Thursday morning.
Blair said evidence from earlier marijuana grow-op busts in York region allegedly linked the Toronto officers to a larger criminal network.
"The primary purpose (of the organization) was the production and distribution of marijuana, the distribution of other drugs and the laundering of the proceeds of their criminal enterprise," Blair said at a press conference late Thursday afternoon.
The chief said officers conducted months of surveillance during an "exhaustive and lengthy investigation."
The majority of the alleged criminal activity occurred in York.
Thursday's pre-dawn raids, which were carried out at homes and businesses, netted 17 pounds of marijuana and $60,000 in cash, said Supt. Jim Ramer.
Ecstasy and steroids were also allegedly being distributed. Ramer said officers seized a large amount of drug-making equipment.
Police aren't yet releasing the value of the drugs and the total figure of the drug operation.
The two officers charged have been identified as Const. Kevin Bourne, a nine-year veteran, and Const. Patrick Lee, an eight-year veteran. They have both been suspended with pay.
The officers face numerous charges, including production of a controlled substance, trafficking a controlled substance, obstruction of justice and breach of trust.
Blair said this is the first time his officers have been linked to a grow-op.
Seventeen other adults, including three corrections officers, and one youth, have been charged in the investigation. They are scheduled to appear in a Newmarket court on Friday.
The jail guards were employed at the Toronto West Detention Centre in Rexdale, and the investigation probed whether drugs were making their way to inmates, CTV News has learned.
Police expect to release more details and the names of the other accused on Friday.

Where did I put that????

Sounds like a good book, a change of pace, and definitely something I can laugh about and relate to. Yes, Virginia, I am that old.





Confessions of a fiftysomething


The hilarious comedian Rita Rudner turns her unique gaze on women and aging in her new book, I Still Have It... I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It. In this excerpt, she confesses to catalogue addiction.


There is something so traumatic about a woman turning fifty that for a while I was unable to form the actual word. It was more comfortable getting a laugh and telling people I was filthy than having to say the word fffiffffty. In fact, I still stutter a bit, even in print. Half a century is a long time to be on the planet, and though I'm grateful to be not only alive but healthy, being healthy gives you the freedom to obsess over the things that don't really matter, like wrinkles, veins, and how tricky it is these days just to be able to turn on--excuse me, I mean power up--a television.



I feel that life is broken down into these stages: you're born and you don't know how anything works; gradually you find out how everything works; technology evolves and slowly there are a few things you can't work; at the end, you don't know how anything works.



With the passing of every decade, our mortality becomes a little clearer and our eyesight a little fuzzier. One day the writing on the menu becomes so blurry you just can't bluff anymore. Now, I have to mention that in this optical respect, I'm lucky. I can see close up and my husband can see far away, so we're covered. He tells me who's in the movie and I tell him what's in his sandwich. Together we're human bifocals.



The comforting factor about age is that nobody is immune. The blond-haired bombshells of today are the blue-haired ladies of tomorrow. When I turned fifty, it also gave me cause to reflect on all the things that have gone right in my life. Marrying the right man, choosing the right career, and making sure my closet had lots of hanging space were all good decisions.



Fifty also caused me to reflect on friends who have left me too early due to genetics, disease, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope I'm lucky enough to live until I'm totally incontinent--I mean incompetent. In the meantime, I'm determined to enjoy and celebrate everything about being in my filthies.



Catalogue Addiction



While I do occasionally order items on the Internet, it's hard to teach an old shopper new tricks. I'm convinced that the catalogue will eventually disappear, but not until the last baby boomers have kicked off their smelly Nikes and been buried in mulch.



There is currently no treatment center in Malibu for catalogue addiction, so I was forced to assemble a group of women with similar problems to meet in my living room. They all had room to sit once I moved some catalogues.



I blame Victoria's Secret. My friend ordered a blouse for me as a birthday present, and the company's first final clearance catalogue made its way into my clutches three houses ago. It doesn't matter how often I move; the catalogue knows where I'm living. If I'm ever kidnapped, I'm certain it would find me before the police.



Find out more about I Still Have It . . . I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It by Rita Rudner.Choose an online bookseller and buy the book.



Excerpted from I Still Have It . . . I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It by Rita Rudner Copyright (c) 2008 by Rita Rudner.

Good to be reminded.

From Lifetime Guarantee by Preston Gillham @ http://www.lifetime.org/

Calculating Grace

Did you know that for every one verse that says Christ is in us, there are 10 that tell us we are in Christ? “So, what’s so amazing about that,” you ask? Well, being in Christ is what gives us our new identity.

You know, we like to measure things, don’t we? And measuring our Christian life by performance seems only natural. Maybe that’s why God’s Word makes so many references to who we are in Christ, regardless of our performance.

We are literally new creations in Christ. Our Father is now the God of the universe; our elder brother is Jesus Himself. We are sanctified, justified, redeemed, loved, accepted, and triumphant.

Our performance does matter to God, but once we understand our identity as believers, it’s a whole lot easier to perform like who we really are.

Canada Day at the beach

Uncharacteristically of me, I spent the day at the Port Stanley beach on Canada Day with my kids, and my grandkids. You know the first picture says it all......I dislike direct sun beating down on myself. It is invasive and unpleasant. However, I enjoyed the day staying cool under the beach umbrella, a very common sight on the beach anymore and I enjoyed seeing that despite the video games, mp3 players and hi-def television (I don't really know what that means) :), kids are still kids. They love to traipse to the edge of the water and carry bucket full on bucket full of water up to the sand castle area.....they love to dig holes and bury themselves and they still get healthily worn out with fresh air and lots of activity. It was a good day. Not everything was memorable. Sand is messy. Wet sand is really messy. But it was a good day. My kids tolerated my desire to do this for the grandkids and after four phone calls from a four year old and an almost four year old.....what could Grandma do? We went to the beach!

An aside. There are lots of opportunities to question God's creation at the beach. If you have been there lately and are of the older persuasion, you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong - I love the beach on a cool, breezy, autumn day and it was on a beach I came to know the Lord and where I was proposed to......good memories - both......but the beach in the heat of the day is not my scene....interestingly enough, I remained almost chilled under the shade of my beach umbrella and despite the thoughts of what a day at the beach could look like and the thousands of people that showed up after our early morning arrival.....it was well worth the time with the family. Something I will treasure. There will not be many more times that this will occur, with everyone doing their own thing and what have you....I guess that is why it was so precious to me. Just sharing a piece of my life. Thanks for stopping by!

The Cure for Religiosity

"People can be inoculated against religion by small injections of it."

W. E. Sangster

Happy Canada Day!

Taken from Vancouver English Centre (http://www.vec.ca/english/2/canada-facts.cfm).

Canada Facts and Trivia

Canada is an amazing country, with a great diversity of characteristics. Here are a few interesting facts about Canada

Facts about Canada

Canada is the second largest country in the world, with 9,971,000 square kilometres of land.
The baseball glove was invented in Canada in 1883.

With only three people per square kilometer, Canada has the fourth lowest population density in the world.

Vancouver Canada is tied with Zurich Switzerland for the highest quality of life of any city in the world.

The world's smallest jail is believed to be in Rodney, Ontario, Canada. It is only 24.3 square meters (about 270 square feet).

Canada has the ninth biggest economy of the world

According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Canada has the highest quality of life in the world.

Contrary to popular opinion, Canada does not own the North Pole. In fact, the North Pole is not owned by any country. It is believed, however, that Santa Claus is from Canada.

Canada is the world's eighth biggest trader.

Of all of the world's producers of natural gas, copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum, and gold, Canada is in the top five.

Canada is the home of many great inventions, including: basketball, the electric light bulb, the electric range, the electron microscope, standard time, the television, the telephone, and the zipper.

Canada is the fifth largest energy producer.

Canada has the world's highest tertiary education enrolment.

"All life is holy. If we are truly oriented toward God, then our slightest activities - shaving, reading the newspaper, putting out the cat - are a form of prayer. "

Wendy Beckett

My All in All (despite my clodishness)

"Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God."

Amy Carmichael


"Many are willing that Christ should be something, but few will consent that Christ should be everything."

Alexander Stuart

Something no one can take

Stirring within....from today's devotional based on Ray Stedman's teaching.

The letters of Samuel Rutherford are a wonderful treasury of the devotional
life of the heart that is enthralled and captured by Christ. He was a great,
sturdy man. I remember reading about how when he lay dying in prison in St.
Andrews, Scotland, the king sent a messenger to summon him to appear in court in
London to answer to the charges of high heresy. When the messenger came in
before the old man and announced that the king had ordered him to appear in
court, he said to him in his Scottish fashion, "Gane and tell yere master, I
have a summons from a higher court, and ere this message reaches him, I'll be
where few kings or great folk ever come." It was a stirring rebuke to a man of
earth who thought he could summon a man of faith.

Abraham owned a burial cave in the end. That was all. It is a reminder to
us, and to all men and women of faith in all times, that all we can ever really
own down here is a burial ground in which we may lay to rest all the hopes and
expectations of this life. All we hope for and all the fine things we hope to
have someday, all the experiences we would like to live over again, all these
expectations are buried in the grave.

We are made to be creatures of eternity. The book of Ecclesiastes says that
God "also set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We are not
made to be creatures of time. We are not made to be satisfied with this brief
period of life and then to pass into the endless, silent realms of death. God
has set eternity in our hearts. But the great tragedy is that we can so easily
lose sight of the goal. We begin to be wrapped up in the problems of time, and
we lose the broad view of eternity.

Lord, teach me to live with the same kind of independence as Abraham, who
fixed his eyes on those things that no person could take from him.

Prayer

From This Day's Thought.

Learning to pray is learning to trust the wisdom, the power, and the love of our Heavenly Father, always so far beyond our dreams. He knows our need and knows ways to meet it that have never entered our heads. Things we feel sure we need for happiness may often lead to our ruin. Things we think will ruin us- if we believe what the Father tells us and surrender ourselves into His strong arms, bring us deliverance and joy.

Elisabeth Elliot

Proud Mom - My Girls - High School Graduates with Honours

Stuff happening around the area!

Two Events.....Check them out!

A gathering in Him {text directly taken from the meeting of one blog - it is ok, we are all One in Unity :) }.

Who: Children of the most High and those 'Wanna Be's'

What: A gathering of One in Him

Where: Basement of the Belmont Library (Belmont ON)

When: SATURDAY NIGHT June 21st 7 pm - 'til the Spirit sends us home.

Why: To celebrate His Life in Us; encourage, spur one another in His Community and add others to it

Norm and Amy are led to a gathering in Him here in Belmont. All are invited. No cost. Come to be a part of the priesthood of believers and bring someone who Jesus has put on your heart to do so.


Change your world:

Next week in West Lorne. I will be manning a book table on Wednesday night and am looking forward to a new experience of spiritual proportions. The jury is out.....my heart is open.

My Ishmael

Again from the devotional based on the teachings of Ray Stedman.


But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned" (Genesis 21:12).

If Isaac represents the gladsome fullness of the fruit of the Spirit, then Ishmael represents some pet manifestation of our self-life in which we find comfort and delight and that we do not want to surrender. Some place value on what they have long suspected is not what God would have but that they were reluctant to give up. Perhaps it is some long-standing habit that we have been defending. There can be habits or values in our lives that are really some form of self-indulgence. God may allow them for a while, but the time comes when He says, "Now, these have to go." .....

Dr. Barnhouse once wrote, "Early in my ministry, I had the idea that I must strike out against all error wherever I saw it... if error was in some fundamental leader with whom I was in 95% agreement, I swung hard at the 5%." This made Dr. Barnhouse a highly controversial figure, often unmercifully sharp and dogmatic. This zeal for truth became an Ishmael in his life. Then he tells how there came a time when the Spirit of God taught him to love, and he faced the choice—Ishmael had to go. He had to learn to be more understanding and more tolerant of some of the variant views of others.

He wrote, "Some time ago, I published a New Year's resolution expressing regret that I had had differences with men who are truly born again. The results of that resolution were astounding. In the years that followed its publication, my ministry has been transformed." The closing years of his life show much of his mellowing and of the sweetness of the fruit of the Spirit in one who before had been so harsh, critical, and demanding.

I don't know what form Ishmael may be taking in your life, but I know there are times when God says to us, simply, this must go. There can be no manifestation of the life of the Spirit any longer until this is dealt with. Abraham obeyed. Early in the morning, he got up and took bread and a skin of water and, though it cost him heartbreak to do it, sent Hagar and Ishmael out, so that he might have the fullness of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Lord, I ask that I would sincerely long to be a completely yielded vessel of Your joy and strength and peace. May I have the grace to cast out Ishmael and find the fullness and joy of Isaac.

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Want of the One Thing -

Again from a devotional based on Ray C. Stedman (1917-1992) teaching.


So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father (Genesis 19:36).

Before this incident, these two girls were physically virgins, but they were already debauched in their minds. They had long since grown accustomed to obscenity and unrestrained luridness, so, up in the cave on the mountainside, they seized the thinnest tissue of excuses, and the story ends in a foul orgy of drunkenness and incest. Lot had nothing but heartbreak and grief to show for his years in Sodom. The Lord said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it" (Matthew 16:25a). So Lot, trying to get the best out of both worlds, lost all and has become for all time the picture of the Christian who is saved, "but only as one escaping through the flames" (1 Corinthians 3:15b). He has nothing but wasted years to look back on and eternity ahead. When you attempt to gain the best of both worlds, you destroy others beside yourself. What was the greatest pang in Lot's heart when he awoke there in the cave in the mountains and learned all that had happened? Do you think it was grief over his lost wealth, his vanished honor, his troubled mind? Don't you think that the greatest, deepest wound of all in that man's heart was the recognition of what he had done to his loved ones in Sodom his little girls, his wife?

Your children are watching you who are parents, and they see your outward respectability, your desire to be right and to do good. But in some of you, they also see that the deepest thing in your life is to get gain or to enjoy pleasure. They see that you will quickly sacrifice a prayer meeting for a night out, that you are always willing to take a bigger salary, regardless of what it may do to the family in terms of new conditions or new circles of friends. They see that the things for which you sacrifice and are willing to skimp and save are not missions or the church or the work of God, but a new car, a new television set, nicer furniture, a longer vacation, or a pretentious home. They are watching, and they see all this.

Bit by bit these children lose interest in the Bible and church. They resolve to get ahead in the world and win the respect of Sodom no matter what moral restraint they have to throw overboard to do it. This is why we see the tragedy of Christian homes where children are turning from God. And the deep sorrow these parents will carry to their grave, the deepest sorrow of their heart, will be that, though they still have their own faith, because of their compromise, they have lost their children. This tragic story of Lot is taking place here and now, in the modern Sodom and Gomorrah in which we live.

Father, thank You for this stern but loving warning from the life of Lot. Help me to make those choices that will result in those I love seeing and wanting all that You are and all that You provide for those who follow You.

Give Us Pure Hearts - Chris Tomlin

The Arrogance Arises....

I again have seen a division in a man-made church body. Christian behavior wrapped up in self. Preserving long past rivalries and unrighteousness...... Let me hear some more self-serving stories of how wonderful lives they have had living for God......I choose to live from Him.

What a bunch of hypocrites.

How dare they profess their christianity and then be so hurtful towards others, believers and unbelievers alike. "What a wonderful testimony!"

There is an arrogance in the first families of the "Organized Religious Entertainment Centres", and they need to get real....they need to reach deep inside and find the real Christ within....putting on love, mercy, kindness and all those things that He has brought into our Life because it is Him in our life and nothing else, it is not them in all their years of service, and all their tithing and involvement, that makes them people "of God".

I am kinda p.o.'d if you haven't noticed. It doesn't happen a lot. My saving grace in all of this is that I know that I have a flesh part within me as well that does all kinds of things that are not of Him. BUT, when people live out of the soul - and they are leaders of our young people and they are passing on the junk and the prejudices of themselves to the next generation....it just makes me physically ill.....I cry for these people and the innocents that they are influencing.

God, please..... close the ears of those who hear the inconsistencies of these pharisees....I forgive immediately....but God knows how the wounding of the actions of people who have such a strong claim that they are of Him, because they do, do, do, do all of this ...... it is as straw....burned up as Nothing.....Nothing..... because I cannot see Christ.....and I desire, I long to see Christ in His people.

We have the mind of Christ.......why are there so many mindless people in the church?

I thought I was able to put this in its place and not let it send me reeling. I guess not. The enemy would have me seethe......I surrender this to Jesus. He knows....He knows. May my arrogance for thinking that this could not be me.......be erased....may He show me we all fall short.....we all fall short, indeed.

The Circumcised Life

From a devotional based on the teaching of Ray Stedman.

Genesis 17:10

"Now let us remember that what was physical and literal to Abraham is intended to have spiritual significance to us. In the New Testament, we no longer read of circumcision of the flesh but of the heart. The heart is the symbol of the soul—the mind, emotions, and will, the whole personality. All believers in Christ are to bear on their hearts the sign of Christ's lordship. The total personality is to be at their disposal.

This is the meaning of heart circumcision: Believers' hearts are totally Christ's to use as He wills—all their emotions, mind, intellect, and will are dedicated and available, ready at the command of Jesus Christ to be used for His purposes. Paul says to the Philippians, "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3 KJV). We are to have no reliance upon ourselves but rely totally upon Him. Every thought, every imagination, is brought into captivity to Christ. That is the circumcised life. "Walk therefore before me, and be wholehearted, blameless." That will be a life of fruitfulness and blessing, a life that is well pleasing to God, for it all springs from the realization that the God who lives within is El Shaddai, the God who is sufficient.

Father, it is quite possible for me to give the impression that I am totally Yours, yet to be quite false to that ideal. Help me to discover the glory of the circumcised life."