Just the facts

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If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain;

Would the grim, eternal roughness
Seem, I wonder, just the same?
Should we help where now we hinder?
Should we pity where now we blame?

RUDYARD KIPLING



“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?� 1 JOHN 3:17 NIV

If we really understood the facts of what’s going on in the lives of many, would we still treat them the same? Probably not. How about the person who is rude to us and doesn’t seem to take the time to even say hello. Maybe I need to remember that possibly their day has not gone very well, and they might have very urgent business going on involving their loved ones, and maybe that little “hello� I expected to come my way, just didn’t get said. How about people that cut us off in traffic? Oh some of them probably are probably being fueled on self-centeredness and are thinking only of them selves. But how about the ones who are trying to get to some emergency situation? We don’t know for sure, we need the facts. Remember that old TV show Dragnet? And Sergeant Friday, who said, “Just the facts Madam, just the facts.� I am sure that if I had just the facts that many times I would change my attitude. My prayer is also that others could have compassion on me because possibly they don’t know all of the fact surrounding my life. I am so grateful for the love of God that has been given to me freely by faith. This love and the process of growing in love is teaching me that I don’t have all the facts, and need to have compassion until I understand more. And then I still need compassion even after I understand, and possibly my rights have been violated, because that is what has exactly been done for me. I was wrong and was forgiven anyway. Today may I continue to grow one step at a time, one day at a time. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself………………toad

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, then all the world would be wise. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.�
ANN MORROW LINDBERGH



“We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.� Alcoholics Anonymous……page 60

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This is from a book by Max Lucado titled Facing Your Giants. It is an excerpt from a book by Earnest Gordon titled To End All Wars. Share this with me......toad

"One evening after work detail, a Japanese guard announced that a shovel was missing. The officer kept the Allies in formation insisting tht someone had stolen it. Screaming in broken English, he demanded that the guilty man step forward. He shouldered his rifle, ready to kill one prisoner at a time until a confession was made.

"A Scottish soldier broke ranks, stood stiffly at attention, and said, 'I did it.' The officer unleashed his anger and beat the man to death. When the guard was finally exhausted, the prisoners picked up the man's body and their tools and returned to camp. Only then were the shovels recounted. The Japanese soldier had made a mistake. No shove was missing after all."

Max Lucado goes on to say........"Who does that? What kind of person would take the blame for something he didn't do?........Christ lived the life we could not live and took the punishment we could not take to offer the hope we cannot resist. His sacrifice begs us to ask this question: if he so loved us, can we not love each other? Having been forgiven, can we not forgive?"

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“Don't sail out farther than you can row back.�
DANISH PROVERB

Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.
Let the favor of the LORD our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the works of our hands;
Yes, confirm for us the work of our hands.
PSALM 90:16-17 NASB

Two of my favorite Psalms are the 90th and the 91st. The 90th is the oldest of all the Psalms and is a prayer of Moses. It ends by repeating a thought, “confirm for us the works of our hands.� Moses is asking God to continue to let the favor be upon them and to confirm, some how, that what they are doing is right. God will confirm what we are doing, or the work of our hands, if we open the spiritual ears and eyes of our hearts and look and listen for confirmation. At times in my life I find this confirmation to be the work of the Holy Spirit. I find it to be an awakening spiritually, when I go against my self-centered will and conform to God’s will. There is an instantaneous awareness of knowing that what has happened is good. It’s like as if the Spirit whispers in my ear “atta boy.� I can relate to the opposite also. There are times when I say something, look at something, think something, or do something that I know is not in God’s will, and immediately I find that check in my spiritual heart. A knowing that this is not well with God. When I worked for the county maintaining the rural roads, I remember how we used to joke around about building up “atta boys.� We would strive for confirmation of our good work, this is part of being a good worker and taking pride in a job well done. When we would have some flaw in our work, or possibly not do a job as well as it should have been done, we would say to each other something like, “That’ll cost you about ten atta boys.� The point was to build up an abundance of atta boys to keep the scale tipped to the positive side. I am so thankful that in this Day of Grace, I don’t have to build up atta boys, if I take each day as it comes and try to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, then God will confirm the work of my hands. God will do for me what I could not do for myself……………….toad

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.� ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, page 59

[best]

Toad

How are you doing today?

Has anyone told you that they love you troday? If not, may I be the first.

and guess what... there ain't a thing you can do about it.

Love you my brother.

[toad]

Originally Posted by best

Toad

How are you doing today?

Has anyone told you that they love you troday? If not, may I be the first.

and guess what... there ain't a thing you can do about it.

Love you my brother.

Well, there you are Best...........You have been on my mind the last couple of days. I pray all is well with you and your family. I love you too my friend and there is nothing you can do about that also. I love you like God loves me.......

God's love.........you can't be good enough to earn it, and you can't be bad enough to loose it.

[toad]

“The cage within me where I stuff my painful feelings, can become the cage around me.” Author unknown

“Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
JAMES 5:13-16 NASB

Stuffin’ stuff. For years I stuffed a lot of stuff in this old mind of mine. Only in the last sixteen years have I learned the importance of being honest with myself and others, and how to bring to the surface some of the issues that I have stuffed over the years. There is a man at the VA hospital that I have talked to since 1991. We have become friends and I can confide in him on all the issues that I have stuffed, even going back to when I was a small boy. He is a Christian and understands the spiritual principle of confessing and turning over to God the things that brother us the most. I have found that issues that I stuffed years ago, when uncovered tend to have an odor about them that is not pleasant. But after being exposed to the air and sunlight of friends who care, in time the odor is not so bad. Oh, the issues that I stuffed and tried to forget are not made right by being exposed, but the uncovering makes me conscious of what happened and the next time I find myself in a similar situation, I learn to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Stuffin’ stuff is like opening a gym locker after your gym clothes have been sitting there all sweaty and stinky. After the locker airs out a little it’s not so bad. The apostle James knew of the importance of airing our lives to each other. James even goes so far as to say that by airing our lives to each other we become healed. I believe that hidden sin in our lives can make us physically sick and spiritually sick of ourselves. May I be honest today about myself, and God will do for me what I could not do for myself……….............toad




They took away what should have been my eyes, (but I remembered Milton’s Paradise).

They took away what should have been my ears, (Beethoven came and wiped away my tears).

They took away what should have been my tongue, (But I had walked with God when I was young).

He would not let them take away my soul.

Possessing that, I still possess the whole.

HELEN KELLER

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“Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I; But when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.”
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” JOHN 1:16-18 NASB

No one has seen God at any time. This statement can be taken many different ways. I took it for many years in a negative sense thinking that God cannot be seen. But today I know that God can be seen, just not at “any time.” The prophet Isaiah being inspired by the Holy Spirit said, “I am God and there is none like me. I make know the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come” (Isaiah 46:9-10 NIV). God is beyond time, and we live here on earth within the realms of time, so to see God at any time, totally, is beyond our limits. Moses spoke to God the Bible says, “face to face.” But when Moses asked God to show him all His glory, the answer was no. God told Moses that no man could see all of God and live. So God showed Moses just part of His glory as He passed by. Just part of God’s glory lit Moses up so much that he had to hide his face from the rest of the people. The total and full essence of God Almighty must be more powerful that our human flesh and minds can handle. But if you look, you can see some of God as He works in and though the lives of those who have come to know and accept the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the finished work of the Cross. When the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by. Watch as Christians bow down in prayer, you will see God passing by. You cannot separated God and His Word, and this morning as I feast on Scripture, I see God as I am being spoken to. I am too limited to experience totally all of God, but each day I get what I need from God if I seek, look, and listen. In these times I find that God is doing for me what I could not do for myself………........toad

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
PSALM 139:7-10 NIV

“God dwells in eternity but time dwells in God. He has already lived all our tomorrows as He has lived all our yesterdays. An illustration offered by C. S. Lewis may help us here. He suggests that we think of a sheet of paper infinitely extended. That would be eternity. Then on that paper draw a short line to represent time. As the line begins and ends on that infinite expanse, so time began in God and will end in Him.”
A. W. Tozer……..The Knowledge Of The Holy, page 39-40

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Thanks toad! He was, is and forever will be our wonderful, majestic & Holy God.