Glad Elmer is alright. Judi

I named you for an award. The award is located here

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Good Morning the weather is fine so come out on the deck and lets have tea.  I am struggling to keep an image of a really good day this morning.  I know any day that God made is a good day.  We are having our garage sale and it is going fine.  My daughter just could not picture all this craft stuff selling but older ladies are coming and it is selling well.  Now it is not things I would do but I am not into crafts except for oil painting.  But ladies who sew are coming and there are a lot of patterns, ladies that make rugs are coming and they are finding lots of stuff to make rugs.  We have a lot of quilt patterns and squares.  Lots of doll making things.  So  she is selling out on that kind of stuff.  So I am very grateful for that.

But this morning when we start setting up the garage sale I found my kitty, Peaches, dead. Someone had stuffed her under our gate.  There is no way she could of crawled under that gate it is flat to the ground and I had to dig a lot to get her out.  She will be missed.  I took her in two years ago she belonged to a neighbor, they went to Mexico and left their cats out in the snow.  She moved in and the neighbor has know she is here but never came and got her. I loved her a lot. I think I made her life better. The neighbor found her in a drug house. Then he brought her home and did not take her to the vet so she had 3 batches of  kittens. Then just left her out without shelter in the winter.  I took her in, took her to the vet. Fed her the best food she went from this skin and bones cat to a fat girl. I feel a little paranoid, because in the last few weeks my daughters tires have been slashed. Peaches has been killed, and someone puked on my car. But I just have to pray for the people who did this. I will have to grieve Peaches too. I forgive them for me not for them. It only harms me to carry resentment and anger.  I will work on forgiving them.

Forgiveness: A Spiritual Journey

Jesus continually preached on the subject of forgiveness, using parables like the Prodigal Son, and direct statements reflecting His need for us to grasp what He was trying to teach us. I often contemplate His kneeling alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, weeping His bloody tears. And wonder if those tears weren’t for our refusal to listen.

Forgiveness is the most difficult concept for most of us to grasp, let alone put into practice. Oh, certainly if someone hurts us in a minor way, we are usually very quick to forgive. What I am referring to here are the deeper injuries, including the ones we inflict upon ourselves. Those self- inflicted hurts are the deepest and most profound, and the ones least likely to be addressed. What we don’t realize is, that until we forgive ourselves, and let go of overdone guilt, we can’t progress spiritually.

When we do our spiritual housecleaning, this means we look at the things we’ve done that we are not proud of, try and be honest about why, and learn from it. Once we’ve closely looked at our spiritual errors, made amends where possible and understood why we behaved that way, we then turn to Him, and make our peace. To continue to carry around your errors, is to shut yourself off from God’s grace. Most importantly, you will not be able to forgive others, until you’ve freed yourself.

When I envision Christ’s suffering and death, I see and feel His forgiveness for those that damaged Him and ultimately slew Him. He forgave them from His cross. That had to be an enormously difficult thing to do. Yet He did it freely. We, who suffer much less than this, can do no less. We have all seen and heard victims of crimes, forgive and in fact embrace the perpetrators. I believe this is the embodiment of the living Christ, still showing us the way. If a person who has had a child or family member slain, and yet they freely forgive, then how can we at least not try to do the same?

Yes it’s a very hard thing to do… forgive, when someone has hurt us deeply or betrayed us on a very profound level. On a very basic human level, we want people to hear us, share our outrage and sense of hurt. And of course that too is necessary in recovery, during the initial stages of shock and pain. After that, for too many of us it becomes a sort of emotional bankroll, we can call on to excuse all types of behavior.

Pain, whether physical emotional or spiritual, carry lessons that need to be learned. Those are important to our personal and spiritual growth. The failure to take the message inherent in the pain, is to show a lack of spiritual maturity. I have heard the anger so many people express, when a minister, priest, rabbi or imam, tells the mourning crowd, “This is His will, His plan. When you look at these words in light of the lessons that must be taken from such pain, the meaning becomes clearer. His plan may well be that individually there is something that must be dealt with in each life. Most of the time, that involves forgiveness.

Forgiving someone for hurting you doesn’t mean keeping yourself in harms way. Forgiving abusive spouses or parents, doesn’t mean, you go back into the situation to get hurt again and again. It simply entails letting go of hate, anger and guilt, and moving on. Praying for one’s enemies brings untold grace, and eases troubled spirits. It also brings you back within His loving grace and light, no longer blocked by selfish ego. Ask yourself this: which is more important, holding on to anger and grief, or freeing yourself to reach the One Who loves you? Loves you enough to sit back and patiently wait for you to turn back to His loving heart.

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<TD vAlign=center>By Candida Eittreim
Published

Now I never have hurt an animal but I have done some terrible things to other people and the Lord’s prayer says to forgive as we would be forgiven and I do want to be forgiven. I also want to forgive myself.

Spiritual Prosperity
No one can live up to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Many have tried to, but it exposes our spiritual depravity.

A proper view of the Sermon on the Mount always points to God’s grace, and then tells us how we are to live as God’s redeemed people. When we examine the nature of the kingdom of God we realize our depravity, and our need for the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This sermon of Jesus forces us to turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, and then demonstrates how we are to live as believers. When we study it we realize that we cannot possibly live up to its demands without God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.

Here is a description of the person who has received the special favor of God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This person lives above the chances, changes and circumstances of life. What are the spiritual characteristics of someone who is blessed by God?

The person described as “blessed” (makarios) is identified with pure character. It is “a sense of God’s approval founded in righteousness.” He is the spiritually prosperous person because he has experienced God’s favor.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” (v. 3). The word “poor” is used for a person in abject poverty who begs for everything he eats. However, Jesus is not advocating living in poverty. I see the ravages of poverty every day where I live and there is nothing good about it. Jesus is stressing our spiritual poverty in relationship with God. It is to be bankrupt spiritually. We cannot do anything to affect a right relationship with God because we are sinners. We are spiritual beggars. It is to be in utter spiritual destitution and helpless before God (Rom. 5:6; Isa. 1:6; 6:5). The only thing we can do is plead for God’s mercy and cast ourselves upon His saving grace in Christ. To be “poor in spirit” is to confess that I am a sinner, and that I cannot save myself.

“Blessed are those who mourn” (v. 4). The idea is to mourn as one is mourning for the dead. It is to mourn over our depraved spiritual condition. It is spiritual grief manifested which is too deep to conceal. It is a deep sense of conviction of sin. The comfort that comes is the effect of the saving gospel. God comforts us when we confess our spiritual poverty before Him and believe on Christ Jesus as our Savior. The Holy Spirit comforts those who mourn over their sin.

“Blessed are the gentle” (v. 5). The King James Version uses the word “meek.” Jesus is describing the person who quietly submits himself to God. He accepts the true view of himself under God’s control. Here is the God-controlled person who yields every passion of his life to the Holy Spirit. There is an absence of pride in a life in submission to the will of God.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (v. 6). Jesus is stressing the actual righteousness of the believer who yields his daily life to Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is the imparted righteousness of Christ living in us that characterizes our lives (vv. 10, 20; 6:1, 33). We depend, not upon our own efforts to achieve righteousness, but upon God to produce it in us. This is a righteousness freely given to us and received by God’s grace. It is not  self-righteousness. The spiritually prosperous person hungers and thirsts for it. The person who has a strong intense desire for a right relationship with God will also want to live that way.

This righteousness is a gift of God to the person who confesses his spiritual poverty. It is not something we can produce in our own self. God in grace fulfills the longing in our hearts for this right standing before God. God fulfills His promise in full measure.

Do we have a passion to produce God’s kind of righteousness in our lives? The only way a believer can have a right relationship before God is through Christ’s atoning work on the cross. How then shall we live? The gift comes to those who seek it wholeheartedly, but not of themselves; it is a gift of God. Only those who “hunger and thirst” after righteousness will be “filled.”

Christ brings about a radical change in our lives. We are new creatures in Him (2 Cor. 5:17). He creates a hungering and thirsting, like a beggar, to be like Christ.  Just as it is impossible for a sinner to be justified by good works of self-righteousness, it is just as impossible for a justified sinner to live without producing good works as a result of a right relationship with Christ.

“Blessed are the merciful” (v. 7). This is the character of the believer who has received God’s mercy. We do not deserve it, but Christ had mercy on us and saved us. We give back what we receive. God has been merciful to us; therefore we treat others with that same kind of mercy. It is compassion in action. We see the hurt caused by sin in others and we want to do something about it.

“Blessed are the pure in heart” (v. 8). “Those who have experienced the purifying influence of the Holy Spirit become pure in heart.” Only the pure in heart will “see God.” One day we will experience our full redemption and “when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). The next verse tells us, “And every one who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (v. 3). Do you have that single eyed devotion with absolutely unmixed motives focused on Christ?

“Blessed are the peacemakers” (v. 9). Once you have experienced peace with God you want to tell everyone about it. You tell other beggars where they can find the Bread of Life and feast on Him.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” (vv. 10-12). This is the acid test of our new relationship with God. The emphasis is on the persecution that comes to all believers because they are like Christ. If you have a right relationship with God through His free grace you will be persecuted. The world system hates Christ and His values, and it will hate you, too. Persecution demonstrates that we are in the company of the committed.

What I am grateful for today:  I am grateful I am trying to live God’s way.  I am grateful that I got a speeding ticket instead of getting in a wreck.  I am grateful when things happen like the cat being killed I turn quickly to God and look for the lesson in it.  I am grateful I got my Federal taxes back and paid some more bills. So it is, all is well, I love you all, Judi

These are not my photos. But now the weather is warming up I can photograph some bees again. I love to do that.

A friend of mine TyneeGrannyB and yet another Xanga friend, untetheredsoul gave me this award.

The aims of this award:

<LI>As a dedication for those who love blogging activity and love to encourage friendships through blogging.

<LI>To seek the reasons why we all love blogging!

<LI>Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.

<LI>Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.

<LI>Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.

<LI>Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.

<LI>Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

The main reason I like blogging is the friendships I have made all  over the world.  I also have made friends with all ages which I might not have access to these people if I did not blog.  I have  been blogging since 1998.  Here on Xanga for six years.  I also can look back on my blog and see what was happening a year ago, five years ago.  I can see where I have been and where I might be going.  I can see if I have met my goals.  So that is what I love about blogging.

I would like to name these people  for the Kindred Spirit  Award and have them do this tag. Judi

I did not mean to put this whole thing on here. I just was going to give you the award. Sorry I copy and pasted it and got the whole blog I guess. Judi