Fearing Life's Final Moments

I've been reading Max Lucado's little book entitled Imagine Your Life Without Fear. It is a tiny book, just 46 pages (small pages) but if you know Max, you know he has packed a lot into those few pages. I was discussing with hubby this morning what I was going to write about for Spiritual Sundays this week. I told him I was thinking about using something out of Max's book and adding some of my thoughts to it. He said "You're going to improve on Max's book?" I replied, "Yes, he needs a little help. LOL". That really is a laugh. I know. But anyway, here goes.

In this book Max lists several things that people are fearful about and gives a scripture for each one. The one fear that caught my eye this morning was the fear of death. So many of our friends and family have already passed through the valley of the shadow of death. We just found out that another member of our former church has died and the memorial service for her will be Monday. Monday is Halloween. Seems like a rather strange time for a funeral, but that's when it is. Ruth was a Christian, a faithful dedicated Christian and I know she had no fear of death. I'm not sure how old she was but she was about 90 or close to it.

The scripture Max used for this subject was John 14:1-3. "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am." Now here is my thought about it. Jesus has been there preparing a place for about 2,000 years now. Is there any way we can imagine how magnificent it already is? Can you imagine spending eternity in such a place? And since He hasn't come back to the earth as yet, I assume he's still preparing. Maybe not. Perhaps it is all prepared. I have the strong feeling that His return cannot be too far away in the future. There are many things that call for our attention and things we can worry about, but it seems to me that if we are wise we will be less concerned about our problems here on earth, and more concerned about being ready to meet Him when He comes. If you are reading this and you don't believe you are ready, I hope you will think very seriously about getting ready. And not just think about it. DO IT.

Reading what others have shared on Spiritual Sundays is a good place to find inspiration. Click HERE to go to that blog.

IN THE DESERT

It is beautiful in our desert this time of year. There was a time when I wondered why in the world would anyone want to live in the desert. Now I get it. We've lived in the desert for over 22 years now and we love it. Growing up in southern California I always loved the ocean and the beach. I also like the mountains and trees. I still do but I have come to appreciate the desert now.

Do you know how many times the desert is referred to in the Bible? Neither do I but I know it is many many times. The Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years immediately comes to my mind and Jesus spending 40 days in the desert being tempted by Satan also comes to mind.

I hadn't thought about the word desert as in "desertion" meaning being deserted. It is pronounced a little differently but spelled the same. Actually it is pronounced like dessert, a word I love. My favorite part of the meal is the dessert. Many people have been deserted by those they have loved and depended on. There are a lot of people in this world who may leave you and may desert you but how comforting it is to know that God never will.

There are many scriptures indicating that God will never leave us nor forsake us. I chose the following one in Hebrews as an example. With so many people out of work and the economy getting weaker, I think this is a good one to think about. We may not have as much money or things as we would like to have, but God says to be content with what we have. If we have the peace of God and the love of Christ in our lives, we are rich. How much better can it get than to be a child of the King of the universe? Wow!

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:4-6 (in Context) 

Be sure to check out our Spiritual Sundays blog. You will be blessed by reading the wonderful posts that are shared there by many different bloggers. Just click HERE to go there.

Treasure of Love

Probably not many will remember Clyde McPhatter's song called "The Treasure of Love". It was popular back in the 50s. OK. I'm telling my age here although it really isn't a secret, LOL. Anyway, back to the song, I hadn't thought about it in many years and then one day I heard it again and I remembered that it was one of my very favorite songs way back when.

The Treasure of Love is not a religious song but I think it can be adapted to spirituality. After all, where did "love" originate? Certainly God is love and He has put love in all our hearts.

Who could begin to count all the poems, songs, and books written about the love of God? One of God's first commandments was to love Him.

Deuteronomy 6:5
New International Version (NIV)

⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. 

I always think of the "Love your neighbor as yourself" as a New Testament command, but it goes back to the beginning. Did you know it was commanded way back in Leviticus? 

And who is my neighbor? The story of the Good Samaritan answers that question. (Luke chapter 10).

I Corinthians chapter 13 is one of my favorites. It describes love perfectly. 

LOVE IS PATIENT,

LOVE IS KIND,

IT DOES NOT ENVY;

LOVE DOES NOT BOAST,

IT IS NOT ARROGANT,

IT DOES NOT BEHAVE RUDELY;

IT DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN,

IT IS NOT PROVOKED,

IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS;

IT DOES NOT REJOICE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS BUT REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH;

IT BEARS ALL THINGS,

BELIEVES ALL THINGS,

HOPES ALL THINGS,

ENDURES ALL THINGS.

LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Knowing that most of you have probably never heard Clyde McPhatter's song and might be a little curious about it, I decided to include it in this post. The quality is not good. It's like listening to an old 78 rpm record. I love the words that say it's stronger than diamonds, worth more than gold. This is the treasure that never grows old. So true.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I hope you will go to the Spiritual Sundays blog and visit as many of the links there as you can. Trust me, there is a lot of great "stuff" shared there. You may want to share something on your blog as well. Linking info is available there. Click HERE to go to that blog.

PINK SATURDAY

It has been awhile since I've participated in Pink Saturday. I do love and appreciate Beverly for her faithfulness to that meme. She makes lots of people happy with all that pinkness that is shared. Click HERE to go to How Sweet the Sound for links to lots of pink posts.

I wanted to share this very very short video (8 seconds long) today. I love pink and I love pink flowers.

Beverly has reminded us that October is breast cancer awareness month. October is also my birthday month. To celebrate my birthday on the 5th we drove up to beautiful Sedona, AZ to spend the day. I wore my pink hat because I needed to keep the sun off my face. I've started a round of Carac cream to get rid of skin cancer cells. My face is getting redder every day. It doesn't really show up in this picture. A pink top seemed appropriate for the occasion so I wore that too. Here's a picture. I also wore a pink cross. For those of you who follow Spiritual Sundays this picture was taken outside the chapel in the header picture for that blog. Such a beautiful place. When we visited the chapel this time we bought a cross made from the red rock. I'm planning to share a picture of it on Spiritual Sundays.

Happy Pink Saturday to everyone who shares there. No no - Happy Pink Saturday to everyone, not just those who share. 

Now you can click "like" to like this post on Facebook. How about that. 

BULLY CACTUS

I never thought a cactus could be a "bully" but the thought came to my mind recently when one of our barrel cactuses bit the dust (or actually it was rocks). A dear friend, a cactus grower and cactus expert gave us several cacti when we first moved here 22 years ago. She and her husband planted them for us. They grew a lot, the ones that survived. Some didn't make it beyond a few years, but the saguaro and two barrel cactus plants plus a couple of others have been growing all these years.

See the one laying on the ground? The one like it was leaning into it and evidently it put too much pressure on the other one and it fell. I kind of expected the leaning one to fall but I thought maybe the other one would hold it up and keep it from falling. Instead of holding the other one up, it fell. It seems I'm always trying to draw spiritual applications for events like this. The following scripture came to my mind. I looked it up in Bible Gateway.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

So what is the message? Don't discourage each other. Don't be a bully and push someone down. Of course the cactus didn't do this maliciously. It was just doing what a cactus does. We have a choice. We don't have to drag or knock someone down. We have the choice to help them and build them up. One more reason I'm glad I'm not a cactus. lol

If you did not come here from Spiritual Sundays, I hope you will click HERE, go there and check out that blog. Many wonderful inspirational posts are shared there each week.