WHO NEEDS GOD?

I chose the subject of my post today from David Hocking's book "The Nature of God in Plain Language."

This book has lots of good stuff in it, but I was drawn to a paragraph with the heading Some People Don't Think They Need God!  That paragraph begins like this:

"In a materialistic culture as we have here in America, our 'security blanket' is often found in the things we possess. This gives us a feeling of self-worth and importance, and we relate more to the physical and material than the spiritual and unseen. In times of material prosperity, it is natural to feel that we do not need God. We are getting along just fine without Him--or so we think!"

God knew we would have a problem with this. I think that is one of the reasons in the book of Deuteronomy (8:11-14) Moses told the people of Israel the following. "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwelt in them and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord you God . . . ."

It is usually not in times of prosperity that people turn to God, it is in times of great need. Do you think it is possible that God is using the problems we are having now in America (financially and otherwise) to try to wake us up to look to Him for our well-being and not to our jobs, bank accounts and all of our things to make us feel secure? Just something for us to think about.  - Charlotte

I hope you will visit our Spiritual Sundays blog for links to more spiritual/inspirational posts. We also hope you will want to share a post from your own blog of this nature with us.

RINGS & THINGS for Show & Tell

I just love this silver ring holder that I got for Christmas. It is so handy to keep the rings I wear the most so that I can just pick them off the tree. 

Go visit Kelli at There's No Place Like Home for more Show & Tell posts. 

ROSE WEDNESDAY

I love Tinkerbell and I love roses so I couldn't resist posting this for Rose Wednesday. I found the graphic at Girly Graphics & Comments. Go visit them for lots of cute stuff graphics.

ROSES IN CALABASAS

Today is Rose Wednesday at Rose Haven. Go visit Jan for more rosy posts.

Pepperdine University in Malibu has a Bible Lectureship in the spring every year. We have attended it more times than I can count. We used to stay on the campus in the dorms during the lectureship. The last several times we went we stayed in Calabasas at the Country Inn & Suites. I took these pictures the last time we were there, a couple of years ago. They have lots of beautiful roses in Calabasas, California.

No roses in this picture but I think it is cute and it's taken in the same area.

No roses in the picture below either. It's just me enjoying that beautiful spring day in southern California.

ON THEIR WAY TO THE SUPER BOWL

I'm not much of a football fan, but I am excited about our Arizona Cardinals going to the Super Bowl this year. Of course I'll be cheering for them.

BTW I created the graphic here so if you're a Cardinals fan and would like to use it, feel free to do so. 

My Blue Monday post is on my doll blog this week. You can click HERE to see it.

SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

The subject of my Spiritual Sundays post today is something I found in the book I'm currently reading. The name of the book is The American Prophecies by Michael D. Evans. The subtitle of the book is Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Nation's Future. This is a very interesting book and I recommend it.

Chapter 16 starts out with the following quote:

While the troops of Mahomet II surrounded Constantinople in 1493 and it had to be decided if the Balkans would be under Christian or Mohammedan dominion for centuries, a local church council in the besieged city discussed the following problems: What color had the eyes of the Virgin Mary? What gender do the angels have? If a fly falls in sanctified water, is the fly sanctified or the water defiled?   - Richard Wurmbrand

When I read that quote I thought of how our country and many of our churches are pretty much ignoring Bible prophecy and discussing things that are about as important as these things they were discussing back in 1493.  

Here is another quote that immediately followed the above quote. This one was by Billy Graham. "If God does not judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." I don't know about you, but I don't think God needs to apologize to anyone for anything. Let's pray that America wakes up before it is too late.

Click HERE to go to the Spiritual Sundays blog for links to other spiritual/inspirational posts.

ROSE WEDNESDAY

I just found out that Rose Wednesday is going on over at Jan & Tom's Rose Haven. Click on the rose to go there. 

I'm liking Wednesdays better every day. I just posted an Outdoors Wednesday post on my other blog. Here's the link to that post. Outdoor Wednesday

Since I have pink roses in my header picture I guess that qualifies to be included in this post. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that little rose plant that I bought at Trader Joe's last summer. As I've stated before, it is long gone now. I let it get too dried out and you just can't do that to those tender little roses. I'm glad I took pictures that I am still using today. 

Here is one of our rose bushes at the last place we lived (California). We had thirty rose bushes in our yard there. 

I've shown this pillow that I made before but thought the pink roses on it would be good to include in this post as well. Pink roses are my favorites of course. 

BLOG LOVE AWARD

Judith at Judith On Sunday just blessed me with this award. I never get tired of getting blogging awards. This one is extra special to me because the typewriter looks a lot like the ones I learned to type on. It brings back old memories. I'm so thankful we moved on to electric ones and now to computers. This award is special also because Judith is someone I have met in blog land just recently. Thank you so much Judith. I am so honored that you thought of me.

I must pass this award on to bloggers whose blogs that I love to read. I love to read all of your blogs so this is not an easy decision. Most of the time I pass awards on to all my blogging friends but this time I think I will chose a couple. 

• micey at Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus  Michelle (her friends call her micey) truly is a girl who loves Jesus and it shows in every post she writes. I look forward to her contribution each week to our Spiritual Sundays blog.
• Joyfull at Joyfull Living, another dear friend who shares with us regularly on Spiritual Sundays.
• Cheryl at Cherdecor. Cheryl also shares on Spiritual Sundays and has been a regular blogging friend for quite a while. 
• Last but certainly not least is Clif at Musings of a Minister. Clif is special to me for many many reasons. He encourages me in so many ways. He is the only man who shares with us each week on Spiritual Sundays. It would be nice of more guys would join us each Sunday. 
• All of these people are people involved in Spiritual Sundays. There are lots of others who share each week and if you are one of those or if you are someone who visits there each week to read what others have shared, I hope you will take this award as well. I love each one of you.

Here are the rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog 2) Add the link of the blogger who shared the award with you 3) Pass this award to bloggers whose blogs you love 4) Add your link to the list of participants below 5) Leave a message on the blog of the blogger who passed this award. 

(I'll have to confess I don't understand number 4 here, but I just copied it from the one who gave me the award.)

Blessings,

Charlotte

SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

Go in my name and because you believe others will know that I live.' Dance! Sing! Shout! Jump a pew! But don’t ever bore people and claim to be following Jesus."

 -- John Acuff, Country Lawyer 

I love this quote. I grew up in a religious tradition that didn't even believe in clapping hands in a worship service. We do that in the church we go to now but that's about as far as it goes as far as rejoicing in a service. Jump a pew??? NEVER! And I'm not really advocating that. I think that is carrying it a little far. The boring part is what I want to emphasize. The worship services at our church are definitely not boring. Should Christians be boing? I don't think so. Was Jesus boring? What do you think? Christians should be the happiest people in the world, and yet when people are around us do they get the impression that we are happy? Or do they get the feeling that we are just bored with life?  How can Christians be bored when they realize that they are children of the King?  I'm going to try to do better because really - I AM HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!! And I want everyone I come in contact with to know it.

I hope you will go to our Spiritual Sundays blog for links to spiritual/inspirational posts. I hope you will want to participate as well.

TWO NEW AWARDS

I had preciously received his award from Hootin' Anni back in September but I was so pleased to also receive it from Sandi at Rose Chintz Inspirations. Click HERE to go to her beautiful blog. Thank you so much Sandi. I am truly honored.

To accept this award, I must mention who I received the award from and link back to her. Then I am to write the following into my post:

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award."

Since I passed this award on already, this time I would like to give it to any of my blogging friends that would like to accept it. I think every one of you are more than worthy of the award.

Another Award - Thank you Mary.

I visited Isabella's Closet blog and came away with this award. She was freely giving it away to anyone who visited her blog. It made me smile. Can you actually look at it without smiling? Anyway, as I said she was giving it away and wanted the recipients to give it away to bloggers who make them smile. Tell you what, if you are visiting here and you're smiling, go ahead and grab the award and let's keep it going around blogland. 

'ROUND AND 'ROUND IN CIRCLES

My daughter suggested to me yesterday that I didn't need so many blogs. I know she is right. Just look at me now, I'm in a quandary. Which blog should I post on? I started the Charlotte's Weblog blog because I wanted a blog with three columns. I couldn't figure out how to do that with Blogger so I started the WordPress blog. Guess what, I finally figured out how to make my Blogger blog into a three column blog. I still like the WordPress blog better, but since I just redid this one, I decided I wanted to post my Spiritual Sundays here this time. 

"So what in the world does that have with skates?" you ask. This came to my mind while I was trying to decide what to post today for Spiritual Sundays. 

First a little background on skates. I found this picture online that looks somewhat like the skates my parents bought for me when I was about 15 years old. (the white ones) I think mine were prettier, but where can you find a picture of skates from almost 60 years ago? The year was 1953 or maybe 52. We went out to a roller skating rink called Lost Bridge almost every night and went 'round and 'round to the sounds of Hank Williams, and other country singers. 

Sometimes I feel like my spiritual life is just going 'round and 'round and not really getting anywhere although the going around is pleasant enough. I'm hoping and praying that God will give me new insight in this new year that will bring me closer to him. I'm praying not only that he will do this for me but that he will also do it for you.  I am also praying that the Spiritual Sundays blog will be even more helpful to others in this new year. 

I hope you will go visit the Spiritual Sundays blog and share your spiritual hopes and dreams with us. You can click right HERE to go there.

PINK SATURDAY

I haven't posted anything on this blog for Pink Saturday in a long time. I just finished posting my Pink Saturday for this week on my other blog. You can click HERE to go see the post on Charlotte's Weblog. Since I love pink so much and just got finished decorating this blog in pink, I decided to put a little preview right here. So, here it is.