Spiritual Sundays Blog

My post today is just another reminder. Ginger and I appreciate all the positive feedback we have gotten about the new Spiritual Sundays blog. We're excited about getting Mr. Linky up this weekend so you can all start sharing on it. If you haven't seen the blog yet, here is the link so you can check it out. Spiritual Sundays

Tomorrow for Show & Tell I'm planning to feature some more of my dolls. I'll be doing it from my new Dolls Dolls Dolls blog instead of this one. 

Have a great day!

Dolls Dolls Dolls

I want to invite you to come over to my newest blog. I created it to experiment with stuff so I wouldn't mess up this blog if something went wrong. After I created it I decided I wanted to keep it. Maybe I'll create another one for experimentation. I've only done one post on this new blog, but since I made over 30 dolls I will be adding to it for quite a while. You can click here to go there. Before you go there, I want to recommend something else to you. I thought last Sunday's message at church was so good that I wanted to post a link in case someone would like to view it. Here is that link.

Another reminder: Spiritual Sundays sharing begins this weekend. 

Too Much Good Stuff?

AM/PM Mini Mart convenience stores have an interesting theme. "You Can Never Have Too Much Good Stuff." I like their ads on TV - especially the one of the two guys floating on a swimming pool when a pretty girl comes up and introduces herself. I love the way one of the guys says, "Well, hello, Alex." 

I just got to thinking about all the "good stuff" we have in America. Not just in America, I'm thinking about all the "good stuff" that I have. I have so much more good stuff than I ever imagined I would ever have. God has been so good to me. The biggest problem I see with all our good stuff is that we focus too much on it and neglect the spiritual side. As I am getting "older" and getting closer to the "off ramp" (an expression I borrowed from a good friend in California), I am realizing more and more how short life is and though I am enjoying many good things, I realize how temporal these things are. I know when you are young you think, "I'll never be old" - it seems so far out there in the future. But the next thing you know, you're there. I think I need to change the tone. I think I am getting close to getting morbid here. I don't want to do that. 

What I do want to do is remind you of our new Spiritual Sundays blog. In just a few days Mr. Linky will be up so that we can start sharing inspiration/spiritual "good stuff". 

Pink Miniature Roses

We stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home from church yesterday and the first thing I saw was flowers flowers flowers. When I saw the baby pink roses I couldn't resist. Our pink azalea (in the larger pot) is blooming again. It was a much larger plant, but most of it died. We were glad to see it blooming again - what is left of it. 

All this week I'll be promoting the new Spiritual Sundays blog. I hope many of you are planning to participate.  To find out more about it, look at my Friday post, or go to the Spiritual Sundays picture on my sidebar and click on it to take you to the new blog. 

Hope you had  a great weekend, and are getting off to a good start on the new week.

The Shack

Have you read "The Shack"? It seems everyone is talking about it. I have read it and found it very interesting. Today I received an email from Life Today Ministries with an article by Randy Robison about the book. I thought the article was so interesting that I decided to use it for my post today.  - Charlotte

Investigating The Shack

by Randy Robison

"O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago." (Isaiah 25:1)

As William Paul Young's short fiction novel tops 2 million in sales, there has been much debate about "The Shack" and whether or not it is theologically sound. So why is LIFE Outreach offering it on television? And what should we take away from this best-selling story, if anything?

To put it into proper perspective, you first have to understand why and for whom it was written. When Paul (as he is called by those who know him) came on LIFE Today, he shared his disturbing life story. As the son of missionaries, he was sent to boarding school in Papau New Guinea, where he was physically and sexually abused. The pain and confusion of his circumstances left him deeply scarred.

As an adult, he became successful in business and remained "a religious man," but his past would come back to haunt him. Eventually, he fell into an affair with his wife's best friend. The fallout from that nearly destroyed him and his family. In fact, it would have if his wife had not been committed to loving him unconditionally. He found there were other friends who loved him enough to walk him through his buried pain and help him understand the true nature of God and the relationship He wants with each of us.

The place where Paul faced his past, with all of its emotional turbulence, was his personal "shack." In a miraculous and personal way, God met him there and delivered him from his past and resent sin and pain. 

"I came out," Paul says, "at the end of 2004 and by the grace of God I'm the freest man I know. I have no addictions left.... I have no skeletons in my closet. I have no secrets."

He adds, somewhat jokingly, "Now, I have no reputation!"

But the truth is that it took an unusual and deeply personal experience with God to completely transform his life. Even more, it saved his life.

As my dad noted when he interviewed Paul, "Many people get 'stuck' because of some tragedy in their life that they don't understand and then separate themselves from the adequacy and sufficiency of God's grace. Far too many people carry their Bible in a leather cover and never allow the Word to be written on their hearts and demonstrated in their testimony. We often carry the Word and do not allow the Word to carry us."

Ultimately, this is what Paul's testimony is about: the overwhelming power of God to personally enter into our lives and carry us through any and every circumstance. This incredible transformation was put into a fictional story in order to convey factual truths. But despite the enormous popularity of The Shack, it was not designed for the New York Times best-seller list.

"I didn't write it to publish...I've never published anything in my whole life," Paul confesses. "I wrote the book for my children. It was a way to communicate the bigness of who this God is that I'm so desperately in love with and wanting them to enter [into it] more fully. You don't need all of the baggage [that I had] in order to come to maturity."

He goes on to explain, "The truth is [that] from glory to glory He changes you, not from cruddy to glory. And not from glory to 'glory-er.' We don't have this comparison thing inside the kingdom. For God it is all glory. And He who has begun a good work in you will perfect it. He is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. This is something that He has come inside to accomplish and there is no shame at any point of the process. From the beginning when the stuff comes to the surface to when it is skimmed off, there is no shame. That is the beauty of the incarnation. That is the beauty of His love--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--that climbs into our stuff with the intention of healing you, knowing everything there is to know about you and He is not ashamed of you at all."

You don't need to read "The Shack" in order to come into this relationship and knowledge; it's all in the Bible. But Paul's story has a way of relating God's eternal truth in a way that many people understand right now. You can live a supernatural life with God's indwelling Spirit. You do not have to be bound by the accusations of the enemy.

We all know John 3:16 by heart, but how many of us know the following verse? "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

We can all live free from condemnation, which is not the work of God. If you feel beaten down or bound by your past, you can enter into a metaphorical "shack" by coming face-to-face with the living God. Then, like Paul Young, you will understand that the nature of God is One who came to set you free and lift you up.

This Week

Lay yourself out before God completely and unashamedly. Bring Him everything--all your hurt, pain, confusion, anger and sorrow. Ask Him to reveal Himself more fully and allow Him to begin the work of healing in your life.

Prayer

"Show me Your glory, Lord, and move me from the places where I seem to be stuck. Help me to see You for who You really are, without misconceptions placed on You by my past experiences. Change me according to Your will so that I can be the person You created me to be."

Join James Robison as he talks to Paul Young about the impact of "The Shack." Watch LIFE Today this Monday, July 28, or catch the webcast at www.lifetoday.org

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Again, I want to "advertise" our new blog Spiritual Sundays.  Please be thinking about participating in this new venture. This coming weekend will be the first time Mr. Linky will be up on the blog site. Read more about it in my post yesterday, or click on the picture on my sidebar to take you there.

New Spiritual Sundays Blog

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had been creating a new blog just for spiritual/inspirational posts. This is a joint venture for Ginger at Enchanting Cottage, and me. We are very excited about this, and many of you have already responded in a positive way. 

 

So many times I have gone to one of your blogs and read something that was so inspiring to me. Many of the posts have brought tears to my eyes when you related how God has worked in your lives. These kinds of things would be ideal for this new blog. I am thinking right now of Ruthie and the posts she has done about growing up in China with missionary parents. 

You may want to share a poem that has spiritual meaning for you. You may want to word a prayer to share. You may have a scripture that is very special to you that you would like to elaborate on. The ideas are endless. After you have posted to your blog, you can go over to Spiritual Sundays and add your name to Mr. Linky's list. 

We will be putting Mr. Linky up on the new blog next Saturday, August 2. It should be up by 12 noon Mountain Time.  Click here now to go to Spiritual Sundays for a little preview. Or, you can click on the picture in the sidebar.

Have you seen the commercial about the two little kids that are going to Disneyland the next morning, and they are too excited to sleep the night before? I think that is so cute. I laugh every time I see it. I think I feel a little bit like them right now. I'M SO EXCITED!

Blogger Award

I just visited Beachkat's blog and discovered that she had given me this award. I love the award. Thank you so much Kat for giving it to me. Like Kat, I have such a hard time deciding who to pass it on to that this time I think I'll just give it to all my regular blogging buddies. You know who you are. I appreciate those of you who visit my blog regularly and leave lovely comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you for "sharing the love."

Be sure to come back tomorrow for a preview of the new Spiritual Sundays blog.

Precious Dolls

Since I shared my favorite doll that I made last Friday, I thought I'd share this book I have about dolls. I have several books about dolls.  This is one of my favorites. The dolls in this book are antique dolls. Many of the dolls I made are replicas of antique dolls including the one I shared last week. If you missed my post about my favorite doll last week and if you would like to see it, you can go here to see the post.

This is a Bru doll similar to my doll that I shared last week.

There are lots of other pretty dolls in the book, but I just chose these as a sample to share with you today. 

Early Riser

When my Hubby brought the newspaper in this morning, he remarked about how pretty the sunrise was. I asked him if it was pretty enough to take a picture of. He told me I was the photographer. I'd have to decide. So, I looked out, came back in, grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots. It was good enough for me. I don't usually get up this early. 

I didn't post anything yesterday. I was on the computer most of the day though working on a new blog. Ginger suggested to me a few days ago that she thought it would be nice to do something like Kelli's Show & Tell and other memes for Sundays and have people post inspirational things they would like to share. So I'm making a blog called Spiritual Sundays. It's not quite up and going yet, but is almost there. I have a little more fine tuning to do, mostly with Mr. Linky. Ginger and I will be co-hosting the Spiritual Sundays. We hope you will be looking forward to it and in participating. We actually got the idea because so many of you are posting inspirational things now that we thought needed to be shared more widely.

Please pray for this endeavor. 

Bathroom Stuff

Today's post seems a little frivolous after yesterday's. But sometimes I feel a little frivolous. Guess this is just one of those days. Also, I really didn't have anything important I wanted to post today. So this is it.

This is my new vanity chair we bought at Linens & Things this morning. I've had a little "wirey" one that I've been using for years. A couple of days ago when I sat down on it, it collapsed and I found myself on the floor with my arm banging against the shower door. I've been wanting to get a new one for awhile. I think Hubby is still not sure if I broke the old one on purpose. This one is a lot more sturdy. And, Linens & Things accepted my 20% off coupon from Bed Bath & Beyond which helped. 

While I was in the bathroom taking the picture of the chair, I decided to show you how my little ivy plant over the tub is taking over the place. I'm curious how much more area it will cover. It started out just a little 4 inch plant. There is a large mirror behind the tub that reflects the cabinets across from it. It looks like it's on the other side of the tub, but it isn't. 

Here's a closer up look at the ivy.

Irena Sendler

I read about this dear lady yesterday and decided I would relay her story on to you.

In 2007 Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize. The runner-up was a lady named Irena Sendler, who died on May 10, 2008 at the age of 98. Here is her story.

Sendler was a social worker in Warsaw, Poland when the Germans occupied it in 1939 and herded Jewish citizens into the infamous Warsaw Ghetto (they were later transported to concentration camps). She went in and out of the Ghetto several times a day under the guise of providing humanitarian aid, persuading Jewish parents to entrust their children to her. After smuggling the children out, she found Polish families to “adopt” them until the end of the war, or entrusted them to the protection of Catholic convents. She and her underground movement provided new names and identities to the Jewish children and only she knew their whereabouts. She was ingenious in finding ways to smuggle the children out of the Ghetto, using city sewers, underground tunnels and other routes, hiding them in boxes and suitcases. She even trained a dog to bark in the back of the car so it would stifle the cries of a scared child when they passed through a German checkpoint. Ever wary of German spies and surveillance, she wrote the names of the children, their aliases, and their adopting family on cigarette papers, and buried the papers in jars in her garden. Eventually the German Gestapo caught her, severely tortured her, and sentenced her to death. Her humanitarian organization saved her by bribing the guards transporting her to her execution. The guards left her in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs, telling superiors they had shot her. She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those who had been executed, so for the remainder of the war she lived in hiding, daring not even to attend her mother’s funeral. She continued her work for the Jewish children, able to walk only with crutches. After the war, she dug up the jars and attempted to find the children and return them to their parents; most of the parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp. She was, however, able to return almost all of the children to extended family members.

Sendler’s story circulated after the war. In 1965 she was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations (Oskar Schindler was also recognized thus). In 2003 she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest civilian decoration. In 1999 a high school teacher in Kansas encouraged four of his students to investigate her life; they created a play, "Life in a Jar," that has had over 240 performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. There are plans for a movie.

Do you suppose anyone will remember Al Gore's controversial claim about global warming in 60 years? I know, he doesn't think there should be a controversy, but there certainly is. We just don't hear about all the scientists who don't believe it. It is the politically correct thing to believe this hoax. I remember in the 70's scientists were warning us about global cooling and the coming of another ice age. But what this lady did will be remembered along with Schindler (Remember Schindler's List?)

Father and Son Bonding Marathon

The link to this video was sent to us by a dear friend in California. I watched it this morning and thought it was so good I wanted to share it with my blogging friends. You will need to scroll down to my music and turn it off before viewing the video. 

Out In the Desert

It's kinda cloudy in our desert this morning. Hopefully a monsoon will be coming our way soon. They are predicting it. 

I was just looking through some old photo albums and ran across the following pictures which I took when we first moved here almost 19 years ago. The daughter and my mother were here visiting, and we took them on a journey out to the desert to explore a little. I thought what we found was pretty interesting so decided I'd share it with you today. If you are familiar with this area, I think the pictures were taken somewhere south and east of Phoenix. We haven't been back there and I'm not sure of the locations.

The daughter and the hubby.

My mother

The main reason I took the picture of Mother by the old truck was for my Dad who didn't make the trip here with her. Being a retired trucker and enjoying antique stuff, I knew he would enjoy it.

I hope you you are having a great weekend.

MY FAVORITE DOLL

I haven't written about my dolls in awhile so decided today for Show & Tell I would share my favorite one with you. This is the largest one I made. I named all my dolls when I made them, and for a long time I remembered all their names. Now I can only remember a few of them. Should have written them down, but who knew I would forget an important thing like that. Anyway, since this is my favorite, you would think I would have remembered her name, but I don't. After all, it's been over 20 years since I made them. 

One unique thing about this doll is her body. I made it out of white kid leather and stuffed it with sifted sawdust. If I was a little more ambitious I would go upstairs, undress her and take a picture of her lovely body. But, alas, I am not that ambitious. She also has what is known as paperweight eyes. They're the most expensive kind, so only a few of my dolls have them.

This is a Christmas outfit I made for her one year. 

At the very bottom of my blog is a scrapbook of most of the dolls I made. Thank you for letting me share them with you.

Pink Flamingos

Do pink flamingos like these ever show up in your neighborhood? I have seen them at different times. A few days ago we passed by this house in our neighborhood and there they were. We were on our way to breakfast (that was the week we went out for breakfast almost every morning). So I told Hubby I wanted to stop back by there and take a picture. Yep, I've learned to carry my camera in my purse at all times. You never know when you might run into a bunch (flock?) of flamingos. The sign in the yard said Happy 60th Anniversary. We just had our 50th. I wonder if the flamingos will show up for the 60th. You never know.

Here's a closer view.

Have a great day!