Tag Archives: Daily life

In October-November People often too busy with death and the dead

At the end of October, begin November around cemeteries we can find lots of people on the streets and flower sellers who try to sell their chrysanthemums. Lots of people have their thoughts in this Autumn period by those who are not walking any more on this earth.

From Laura Cyrena‘s blogpost Graveyard Walk

You may not misunderstand us. We feel empathy, and we do understand their feelings, their point of view, their situation. We also know that each of us more than once shall be confronted with death in their life. Birth and death are two main factors in each being his or her life. Once born, nobody can escape death. It is part of life.

All of us shall have to walk a different path and shall have to find ways to make the best out of our own life. We also should know that we too may have an influence in the life of others. Each of us has to walk many miles to reach our goal. We shall have to crawl, walk, climb mountains and cycle many kilometres. Going from one place to another, growing up, we also shall meet a lot of people and become confronted with a lot of circumstances.

We often compare our life to that of others. We have a lot of expectations and sometimes by looking at others do not mind having some jealousy coming up in our minds, wanting things others have.

We put conditions on what we want … we reject things that doesn’t fit our expectations … we get distracted doing other things. {Are You Ready to Receive?}

The world offers us a lot of attractions and often we become blinded by its luring pictures. Most of the time we desire a lot from others and would like to receive even more from the one we call our god. When not receiving enough from one god many make themselves an other or even more gods. All over the world we find lots of people ‘taking care’ of many gods, whilst they forget that there exist A Singular Supernatural Spirit Being Who does not have to be cared for, because nothing can be given to Him what does not belong to Him. He is the Establisher and Master of life. He gives us all the possibilities to walk here on this planet.

When we realize all we have is from Him, when we realize we can’t do it own our on, then He will lift us up. James 4.10 {Are You Ready to Receive?}

Coming to realize Who That God is, does not seem to be so easy for mankind. Lots of people have difficulties to come to recognize that invisible God as the Most High Elohim and God of gods above any other god and above any being. Not many want to see or even look for Him, but that is what He hopes people would do, go looking for Him who is the Only One True God.

Seek Him. He delights when we look for Him and look for what ways He desires for us. We are to look for where He is already at work, and God will bless. Hebrews 11.6 {Are You Ready to Receive?}

Walking on this earth may not always so easy. Often we got a lot of mud on our shoes and clothes, getting wet and tired.

… we should realize that in our journey in life, our shoes get muddied. Life gets messy. Not only our life, but the life of others too. The mud gives insight to what we have gone through and where we have traveled. {Why the name, “Muddy Shoes”?}

Many people on their walk of life love to cling close to each other, and just hang out in one place. A lot of them are just happy where they are and what they do, as long as they do not have to bother about others. Many do not think about the task Jesus has given to his followers, to go out in the world and to tell the peoples about the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. Many forget that they are to be going into the world, sharing the love, the hope, the grace of the Gospel.

Every year we see a lot of people who think of their beloved who are gone. But at that time when the days shorten they prefer to hold on to fantasies as people becoming stars in heaven, or going to have 77 virgins in heaven. Several parents let their children look to stars to find the proof of death, making their heads

forever fastened gazing up, while final breaths of skyward worlds eclipse with life our fleshly tomb and and fragile pulse. {To stars}

Others have even placed some ashes from the deceased in a teddy bear of their children.Some love to go on the eveningwalks many organizations provide around Halloween.

To have just a taste of the life they once had. Blood in their veins. Breath in their mouth. Tears in their eyes. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

they

are told they might have the stench of the grave upon them. We are told their skin might slough off on our own. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

Lots of people look forward to the Halloween marches and fires, giving them a kick and fanciful ideas they being stronger than those who died. Some of them might think the rotted clothes of the dead might fall from their bones, and they hope to see things to make them scream and at the same time frightening the ghosts as well. It is said by many

115116d1339798513-vintage-halloween-photos-5277724533494196_ewnwqjb0_c

On Samhain many lay in wait for the dead.

We are told the fresh decay of our parents and uncles and aunts and grand folk will be the worse. They have had their year in the ground and are beyond any excuse to linger. They are the most reluctant. They have the clearest memories of what it is like to live. They, more than all the others, want it back. They might wish, if they can, to suck life right out of us and feel warm once again.

It is best we disguise ourselves from them.

It is best if we hide our faces with masks and wear clothes not our own. {Waiting For The Dead On Halloween}

Lots of people consider it more important to  honour the dead, because they are afraid they otherwise would do things to them, instead of honouring God Who according to many does not exist. Instead of thinking what really happens to somebody who dies or people having to face the end of their life, and after that life is finished, they not able to take anything into their grave to use it later. For them, as for animals and plants, there shall be just decay, they becoming dust.

All their life they may have thought they had lots of enemies. Now those enemies can not do anything to them. For those who depart us in death there shall be no tears any more. Whilst the living shall shed perhaps a lot of tears.

26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26 BRG)

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4 BRG)

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5 BRG)

29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. (Psalm 22:29 BRG)

19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 BRG)

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10 BRG)

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. (Psalm 146:4 BRG)

18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. (Isaiah 38:18 BRG)

Instead of spending so much time going to clean stones in a graveyard talking at another place than home, to those who died, should we not better use several moments of the year to remember those people, and perhaps even talk to them, though with the knowledge they can not hear us and cannot do something for us. But above there is SomeOne Who can hear and see us. Would we not better talk to Him?

Instead of having friendship with the world, should we not seek for friendship with Him? Instead of being from the world we better would be from God, with the knowledge that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) We should not love the world and what it has to offer with all its gadgets and other attractive things, it being ready as a spider waiting for its prey to sting it to death.  We should know that for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh or physical gratification, and the lust of the eyes or greed, and the pride of life and extravagant lifestyles, are not of the Father, but are of the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

 

Bad choices, poor planning, and simply not paying attention. … we wing it, we keep,doing the same thing (thus getting the same outcome and wonder why), we don’t pay attention to what our people are going through and ignore the signs. {52 Hiker Mistakes by Backpacker … and by Worship Leaders}

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Preceding

Measure of loneliness whilst time drags

Facing daily events and exclaiming “Good grief!”

Family happiness and little things we do

The belief of one going to heaven

What traditions/rituals/routines do you have for welcoming Autumn?

Pagan Holidays

Halloween is Satanist Christmas

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Find also to read

  1. What is life?
  2. A Mundane Existence
  3. Dealing with worries in our lives
  4. Concerning Man
  5. Dying or not
  6. October month of witches and spirits
  7. Halloween custom of the nations
  8. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
  9. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God
  10. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 5 People, souls and saints in the news
  11. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 6 Bonfire night
  12. All Saints’ Day
  13. Thought for November 1: To the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
  14. All Souls’ Day
  15. Thought for today November 4th Going to graveyards and people going to dust
  16. A truth to face often to do with time
  17. An Escape Mechanism
  18. Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!
  19. Death
  20. Biblical Ambiguity on Death?
  21. How are the dead?
  22. Realities concerning Human Life and Death
  23. Where do we go when we die?
  24. Grave, tomb, sepulchre – graf, begraafplaats, rustplaats, sepulcrum
  25. Separation from God in death, the antithesis of life
  26. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #1 Intro
  27. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
  28. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #3 Historical background
  29. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #5 Mortality of man and mortality of the spirit
  30. Today’s thought “Death by being taken captive” (May 15)
  31. Today’s thought “nonsense surrounding the many gods” (July 28)
  32. Is there life beyond the grave?
  33. Decomposition, decay – vergaan, afsterven, ontbinding
  34. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
  35. Being of good courage running the race

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Where the Tye River meets the James. Unique in its right angle intersection as opposed to a Y-type of most merges. But something happened. It now lays horizontal on the floor of the forest. Photo from Killing a Legacy.

Related

Glenwood Cemetery on Central Avenue Pike in Powell, a very old cemetery located next to a somewhat newer church. – Photo from Life in Every Limb article by Leslie Sholly {Glenwood Cemetery: A Post for All Souls Day}

  1. Life in a few Lines.
  2. Killing a Legacy
  3. You Snooze, You Lose
  4. Dreams of Vampires
  5. Yesterday … All My Trouble Seemed So Far Away (Our Story Through Music)
  6. Another favorite subject
  7. Where is the great Beyond?
  8. To stars
  9. Not Done Yet
  10. Farewell
  11. Death Death so we want are always greatly interested him.
  12. Dead.
  13. The Choral of DeathIn Death
  14. An afternoon at Père Lachaise cemetery.
  15. Why I stopped making up for the dead-Banke Meshida
  16. What would be the #meaning of a #limited #life which ends with #dead?
  17. Dead Before 40
  18. Graveyard Walk
  19. SciFriday: Day of the Dead
  20. Inktober 2019 Day 31: Ouija
  21. Hallow’s Evehappy halloween!
  22. Honoring the Dead on Halloween
  23. Waiting For The Dead On Halloween
  24. Factoid About Halloween
  25. [tonight we walk]
  26. Fences
  27. Twittering Tales – Lonely Girl.
  28. Decent Substitutes
  29. All Saints’ Day/Sunday C: Nov. 1 or 3
  30. Ghosts Await On The Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos
  31. November 2nd Day of the Dead
  32. Celebrating the deadChrysanthemums and All Souls’ Day
  33. Prayer for All Souls Day
  34. Remembering our loved ones – on “Mindszentek” (All Saints’ Day)
  35. All Saint’s Day – Visiting a Cemetery in Milan
  36. Glenwood Cemetery: A Post for All Souls Day
  37. Short Story: A Grave Time for A Cemetery
  38. 50 Word Story #25
  39. 170 – A glimpse of the quiet Varazdin and Zagreb streets
  40. Honoring family
  41. Parents honour son’s life with Halloween skeleton but cemetery keeps taking it down – National
  42. The All Saints Day
  43. Happy All Saints’ Day
  44. Cemetery Days
  45. Walking around a cemetery alone
  46. The Cemetery – Part 3
  47. A Few Words on Cemetery Problems
  48. The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome
  49. Halloween Celebration in the Local Cemetery
  50. The Embrace Of Thanatos
  51. Alex Williamson cemetery, revisited.
  52. Cherry Hill Cemetery
  53. A Trip to the West Point Cemetery
  54. Mexico City: Free for a Coffee desperate to see a cemetery since roaming through a city of the dead is one of my beloved pastimes.
  55. Cimetière de la Cité, Carcassonne, France
  56. Buenos Aires – October 2019 – La Chacarita Cemetery

9 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Reflection Texts, Religious affairs, Spiritual affairs, World affairs

As always God has a Plan

We should know in life the things that come around us can tackle us. Life at certain moments can look just plain hard! Life at certain moments may even look unfair.

Whatever we dream of, it does not always want to turn out like our aspirations and often we do seem to miss the goal.

https://i0.wp.com/loreejohns.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/fullsizeoutput_5b6f.jpeg

 

There are those who know God and dare to argue with Him, because they do not understand His Ways, nor why such horrible things can happen in this world and such bad things happen to them who love God.

How many of us would not like like Gideon a proof from God, Him shoulder tapping us.

You would think an angel would be evidence enough. It’s not like seeing angels were common occurrences. {How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

Whatever happens in our life, whatever directions we do have to go, we always should remember that we are just little elements in the creation of God. We also should remember that when we are wiling to give ourselves in His Hands, Jehovah God shall be willing to help us. He already showed many times to be there for His people. At all times, even when they were not so honest to God or when they had forgotten Him, He always was prepared to come close to them when they were calling Him, or even when they were not thinking of Him, to remind them of Him or to send them a prophet or messenger.

People had asked God several times for certain things, like food but also kings and judges, and He gave it them.

Gideon-judge.jpg

Gideon from Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Gideon seemed a shaky kind of guy for a judge. I always assumed these God-chosen Judges would be natural leaders of the super-hero type. Like Samson, a not so ordinary guy with a hot temper, and Hulk-type strength. Or Deborah the wonder woman whose wisdom was legendary, and to whom men submitted. {How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

Deborah-judge.png

Deborah as portrayed in Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553)

For us human beings we would like to have an easy comfortable life without any problems. Be sure, that shall be possible … but we shall have to work for it …

God never promised me comfort and ease on this earth. He never promised an immunity to change. {How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

We should remember it was mankind itself which reposted against God. Man did not think God was honest to them and kept something precious behind. In their rebellion they ate from the forbidden fruit to get to know “Knowledge of good and evil” and as such came to know that evil. And that is what we have to feel more than once in our life. The bad things surround us. But we must not always think when there is something we do not like, like having to move places or to go on, that it means that would be bad. It can be a next step in our life which can bring us so much more goodness. Therefore we, when in doubt sometimes do good to switch our prayer like interior designer Loree Johns the wife of preacher Randy does

Ok, Ok, I get it. You are opening the floodgates to a new opportunity, new souls to love and nurture. So help me to find peace about this, because like Gideon, I needed proof you really want to uproot and upend me. {How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

Asking Jehovah God for guidance and comfort He shall show the way and make sure the proofs of His nearness and His Plan shall become clearer. Coming to trust in Him and hoping to fit in His Way your anxiety shall ease.

The sick feeling abated. And I could feel excitement for a new chapter warring with my pain of leaving those I love. I could do this. So, I met with my other designer and staff, and we figured a way for me to work in OKC half of the time. I’m thankful for such a great team who will keep the business thriving when I am three hours away. {How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

°°°


God in his infinite wisdom only reveals what we need to know in the here and now.

It seems like God’s plans are rarely our plans, at least not in my world.

As always God has a Plan.

It’s time for that wall to come down once for all, and for me to be real with you. I will share my joys along with my pain and sorrows. I will give you insight into what helps me kept it all together on the rocky road of a broken world. I will open my heart and soul to you so we can complete this hard journey on earth together.
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What I have found on my journey so far:

-God is the only place I can find true Peace.

-He says “BE STILL AND KNOW I AM GOD,” for people like me who have a hard time sitting.

–Joy is a choice.

-His amazing Grace releases me from my mess and allows me to walk forever free.

–He loves me fierce and reckless.

{How to Be All In When Asked to do Hard Things}

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Preceding

Life

What would you do if…?

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Additional reading

  1. What is life?
  2. Monotomy of life
  3. Your life the sum total of all your choices
  4. When you don’t know what to do and hate yourself
  5. Struggles of life
  6. Good and bad things in this world
  7. Trouble is coming
  8. Profitable disasters
  9. Self inflicted misery #2 Weakness of human race
  10. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3
  11. Out of the seed of Eve
  12. Suffering produces perseverance
  13. From pain to purpose
  14. From Despair to Victory
  15. Your purpose explains what you are doing with your life
  16. Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
  17. It is a free will choice
  18. Choose you this day whom ye will serve
  19. The business of this life
  20. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses
  21. Thirst for happiness and meaning
  22. Major challenges and great things happening in our life
  23. Looking to the East and the West for Truth
  24. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
  25. Examining the world around us and of our own life, building up a legacyChange
  26. Leaving behind the lives we have touched.
  27. Inculturation today calling for a different attitude
  28. To create a great journey
  29. Power in the life of certain
  30. Created to live in relation with God
  31. We may not be ignorant to get wisdom
  32. Being religious has benefits even in this life
  33. Healthy life can be found in sacred books
  34. We should use the Bible every day
  35. Fragments from the Book of Job #1: chapters 1-12
  36. Fragments from the Book of Job #2: chapters 12-20
  37. Fragments from the Book of Job #3: chapters 21-26
  38. Fragments from the Book of Job #7 Epilogue
  39. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #3 Rejoicing in the insistence
  40. Dealing with Disappointment
  41. Feeling Lost? Read This…
  42. Determine the drive
  43. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
  44. From Winterdarkness into light of Spring
  45. Life and attitude of a Christian
  46. Two states of existence before God
  47. Humility and the Fear of the Lord
  48. A Living Faith #8 Change
  49. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
  50. Be happy that the thorn bush has roses
  51. Life in gratitude opens glory of God
  52. Not he who prays most or fasts most is the greatest saint

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Related

  1. The roles of Deborah, Gideon, and Jephthah
  2. Life: In Progress
  3. Mid-Year Realizations
  4. Goals without Plans are just wishes
  5. Living within a Battlefield
  6. Spiritual life or Spiritual Death and the Zombie Apocalypse!
  7. People leave
  8. Living Intentionally
  9. Ego vs Spirit
  10. 1061 Goodness
  11. 1062 Badness
  12. Pace
  13. When Childhood Isn’t Fun or Easy
  14. The Key to Successful Living
  15. Week 4: How You See Your Job
  16. Change for God
  17. Thought For The Day The Twelve Steps are foundation stones for the recovery process. Foundation stones are designed for building on.
  18. No Fear…
  19. Marching orders.
  20. God’s Way Works

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Positive thoughts, Quotations or Citations, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters

Preventing conflicts and war

Continuation of: Scattering of peoples who delight in wars

With Rabbi David Krishef we continue to look at how we should avoid conflicts and war. In our daily life we encounter many times where we are questioned or when we are questioning others and want to find out how others want to relate to others.

The rabbi notices

In business, competitors sometime refer customers to each other when they know the other company can fulfill a particular need better than they can. Competition is good when we play fairly by the rules and when it challenges each of us to become better. {Psalm 30 – “You have lifted me up” (30:1)}

Though in this world not everybody wants to play with the fair rules or with the same rules as us. Some also consider the other as a competitor or sometimes even as an adversary. Some people prefer to exclude others because they feel threatened by them. As such some might find that their faith comes in danger by what others are telling. This can be clearly seen in the present day where several Christians take aversion against non-trinitarian Christians, Jews and Muslims, because those are against the worship of Jeshua or Jesus Christ and deny his god-ship, whilst those trinitarian Christians do know God says Jesus His is only begotten son, but do not accept it that way. For them Jesus is their god and all who deny his godship they consider a jeopardy bringing their faith at risk. Several of those trinitarian Christians also see lots of their members loosing faith and going to the Muslim faith. For them that smells to peril certainly because the world today is also confronted with fundamental Islamist fighters. Many people do not see the nuances in the many religious groups and think all of the other religion must be of the same sort as those fundamentalists, a danger for society.

Many of them consider themselves at the moment still part of the stronger nation and fear that those who leave Christendom shall weaken them.

The rabbi remarks

No one dares to attack the strong nation, because the weaker nation would face virtually certain defeat. We hope the strongest nation uses its leadership and power for kind and loving purposes. Otherwise, when the powerful begin exercising power for their own enrichment, those around them join together to take down the tyrant.{Psalm 29 – “May Adonai grant strength to God’s people; may Adonai bless God’s people with peace.” (29:11)}

At the moment we can see that in the capitalist countries, politicians take every effort to gain popularity and to enlarge their power, no matter what for in-ethical matters they do have to do. Most of them striving to power in the Western countries are on the look out for their own enrichment and some of them do want to help the weapon lobbies also to full their pockets richly.

The wealth many are aiming for, at the moment, is not a healthy wealth.

Wealth and influence can be of tremendous benefit, but at the end of our life we ought to rather be remembered for our kindness and for the good things that we’ve done and not just for the possessions we leave behind. {Psalm 33 – “Horses are a false hope for deliverance.” (33:17)}

Lovers of God should be very careful not to be taken by the treadmill, not letting themselves being carried away by those who want to blacken other religious groups than their own. Those who really love God should examine if they are following God’s Word and should examine their own way of life and way of worship. In case they call themselves Christian they should check if they worship the same God as the God of Jesus, the God of Israel.

Further they should examine if they take on the right attitude and do what Jesus also would do.

We all should see to have strength and peace in balance. Even when they are

two concepts … rooted in the classic military theory of preventing war (or winning war) through projecting power. {Psalm 29}

we should be willing to mount a horse prepared by the Most High Elohim. Allah, the God of peace wants His ‘nationals’ or His ‘children’ to be lovers of peace and lovers of each other, respecting all creatures of God.

In old Westerns, the hero swoops in and rescues the damsel in distress, throws her across a horse, and rides off into the sunset. {Psalm 33}

reminds us Rabbi David Krishef, who looks at the psalmist who speaks of a symbolic horse as the possession of a warrior, representing wealth, power and mobility. {Psalm 33}

Our wealth should be in being a possession of God, being under Allah’s wings. Even when we notice that evil doers may have it better than us, we should know it might be so  … at the moment.

Reward and punishment do not always work out perfectly. Sometimes, good people do not prosper and evil people do not suffer. {Psalm 28 “Pay them according to their deeds.” (28:4)}

writes the rabbi, reminding his readers that

However, most of the time, in the long run, goodness is recognized. {Psalm 28}

Ichthys and Psalm23

Ichthys and Psalm23 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lovers of God should stimulate others to do good by themselves being good examples. In the knowledge that people are attracted to good people, we should not mind to join those who want to do good, from whatever religion they might be. Joining good doers they may become stronger and those seeing others motivated to be kind to the evil doers and to help them, shall become more interested to learn about their reasons why they want to help those who are also bad to them.

Helping each other shall enable the people in the surroundings to have better and deeper friendships.

Good people will tend to be happier and more satisfied with their lives. Truly good people do not do good things because of recognition or reward. Goodness is not a tool to be used as a means to get something. Good deeds are an end unto themselves. {Psalm 28}

And it is the deep-rooted goodness that shall be the stronger sword, and form the better combatant of peace, when no weapons of man are taken, but the ‘sword of God‘ and the ‘sword of love‘, using the strength of God His set-apart Word. By not taking hold of it, showing patience and trust in Allah, leaving all the judging up to Him and His only begotten son, the mediator between God and man, we should not worry and hope for a better future, in the knowledge that the Saviour, the Messiah and King shall come to rule in the Land of Hope where there shall be no war any more.

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Preceding articles

Scattering of peoples who delight in wars

When Tragedy Strikes…

A Prayer for 9-11

Detachment by Family problems

Youngster all over the world with the same dream

A Positive Disposition

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Additional reading

  1. Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man
  2. Good and bad things in this world
  3. Power in the life of certain
  4. Patience is the ability to count down before blasting off
  5. The Field is the World #1 Church Union
  6. Germinating small seeds, pebble-stones, small and mega churches and faith
  7. To whom do we want to be enslaved
  8. Displeasure of יהוה , Jehovah the God of gods, and His wrath against all the gentiles their divisions
  9. Bible, sword of the Spirit to come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man
  10. A Jewish Woman and a Test of Faith
  11. Compromise and accomodation
  12. Developing new energy
  13. Ability
  14. Ability (part 5) Thought about the abilities to be under God’s Spirit
  15. Growth in character
  16. Your struggles develop your strengths
  17. Count your blessings
  18. The giving and protecting God
  19. This was my reward
  20. Belief of the things that God has promised
  21. Be happy that the thorn bush has roses
  22. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
  23. Kindness
  24. Spread love everywhere you go

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Further related

  1. Geestelijke vorming tot heiligheid #2
  2. Geduld is het vermogen om af te tellen voor explosieven te laten ontsteken

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5 Comments

Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Dealing with Disappointment

A writer who has three teenage sons and one teenage daughter, all of them were born about seventeen months apart has a family life like any other in which good and bad things may happen. Having been immersed in diapers, runny noses, and sticky fingers full on in those years this writer looks at what disappointment may be.

Grief

Grief (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She has loved with as much vulnerability as she could, but have wonders if she trained them well. When facing the day again many thoughts may come up in our head and questions may whirl around our head.

Do they know where to turn when the battle around them rages on. When their hearts are hurt, when there is fear or remorse? Do they know how to forgive and how to extend grace?

As parents we try to prepare our children. We try to make them strong enough so that they , at their turn, shall be able to look at the world, go into it and accomplish many things. Hopefully not having to suffer to much and hopefully not to end up to be disappointed.

For sure they too shall have to face ‘Disappointments’, but what would they be?

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To remember

  • It looks different for everyone…it is deeply personal.
  • Maybe … describes an unmet need, a missed opportunity,…a loss > cut deeply, become hard to move through + settle deep in the spirit, festering… leaving holes in beating hearts. => rob the heart fibers of joy.
  • Disappointments left untended => create bitter roots reaching deep…souring the soul and poisoning the body.

She felt that kind of life-threatening disappointment. The kind that will suck the very breath from your lungs.

  • the climb too hard + the terrain too exhausting = journey seems impossible.

What is your mountain? A failing marriage…children running from home or faith…a body broken with sickness…a heart crushed with grief? Betrayal from a friend?

  • Our life will be messy + take place among the brokenness in the world.
  • Brokenness around us…brokenness living within us =  living among the weeds. 
  • when we feel empty > dull, lonely heartache

The writer has learned not to let her fleeting feelings rule + reign her thoughts about a current circumstance.

  • God has given an entire range of emotional experience to explore = freedom bring great joy + excruciating heartache.

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Please concerning the last part of the text we want to say that we best pray to God. We also may be thankful to Jesus and give him praise, but we may only give the highest praise and worship to the heavenly Father of Jesus.

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Preceding articles

Preceding

Our existence..

Facing our existence every day

Facing daily events and exclaiming “Good grief!”

Reminding myself!!

Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!

Ruth having reason to grief

A look at the Poet’s corner’s grief basket

Some Thoughts On Bitterness From Various Authors

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A letter to love

Love one of the most difficult things to understand and to grasp.

Today we bring a poem by a dreamer with some creativity in writing his poem which he placed on his blog Magic nature poem in 2014. There he seems to go in conversation with his heart what makes him feel, makes him heal, though which also plays some tricks on him. {A letter to my heart}

In this life where we are like in a rollercoaster which goes up and down he finds that our lives are changeable.

When life is dark we decide how others see us.
We can show them that we feel mad or we don’t.
We can choose it.
It is the same when life is wonderful.
We can decide whether we show it to others or not. {Life and a rollercoaster}

People represent their lives in a world that blogger wants to show to us. A pity that he does not bring tags to his articles, so that people can find related articles to what he writes on a certain day. But his blog is worth a look at. He shows how we are surrounded by energetic creatures.

Humans, animals, plants, earth, universe within planets, suns, stars, moons, everything.
We are all parts of something  very big.
Everyone is a part of a very big energy.
We all seem to be seperate
But that is not true.
We are all connected by our energies.
A network consisting of our individual energies.
We fulfill the universe. {Energy #4}

With everything we see around us in our heart there has to be a fire. A fire of well feeling and a fire of love. Without love we are nothing.
It is

… taking and giving
You hurt and make us happy
You are everything and nothing
What are you?

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magicnaturepoem

Dear love

What would a life be without you?

You are taking and giving
You hurt and make us happy
You are everything and nothing
What are you?

You are invisible
Makes people believe to be invincable

You are this feeling
Shows us, you make us healing

Somehow you are playing with us
You know we have to deal with you
Because what would a life be without you?
For me and for you
No choice
We need you

Having people in our hearts
Because of you
It makes us believing
It gives us strength
We are never lonely because of you
You take our hands and speaks out loud of our hearts
We have to listen to you
Sometimes you hurt, sometimes you make a dream come true

Love, you are special, you make us special and makes the ones special we love.

In love my thoughtful me talking…

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Life

Sammy Jenny  is a young lady who loves writing, poetry and music. About her blog Sprinkle of thoughts site she says it is  is about pouring out her thoughts about life issues. It’s to inspire and motivate people out there who might be going through certain circumstances and trying to see/live life positively.

For her

Life is but a journey, with its ups and downs bue we are called to be fighters and walking with Faith knowing things will fall in place evntually.

She believes in this life

we go through some situations that can actually make us grow mad;

and says:

I mean you just find yourself screaming and saying all sorts of horrible things out of anger. But have you just sat for a moment and wondered how the other person felt? You might be hurt, disappointed, disgusted and you name it. Yes, we all do make mistakes and they could be so childish,wrong, heartbreaking etc but those words you say, how helpful will they be at the moment? Will the situation change? You’ll tell me ‘if I don’t say these things he won’t understand how bad his actions are‘. {Don’t let it get to you}

No matter what happens in this life perhaps we have to remember that

no one has the right to say you are nobody for we were wonderfully made with a purpose and even if you feel like nothing’s working out for you, you’ll get there eventually.

Just never give up and trust in God. Everything will fall in place and never lose sight of your dream for while they see you as crazy, you will come out glorious and stronger than before. Just never forget that.

So, no matter what you may be going through, let no one try to break u down, let no words of hurt,curse,hate,anger get to u. And when those words do come at you, respond with silence for it kills to see someone you’re trying to break be as silent as a tomb. And if you’re to say anything, just say thank you. Even if they aren’t your blessing with their words, be theirs with your words. But no matter what,don’t let it get to u. {Don’t let it get to you}

Sammy J Speaks

Life should not just be a mistake but a lesson

It should not just be sorrow but joy

It should not just be laborious but fruitful

It should not just be of failures but full of success

It should not just be of misery but wealth

It should not just be full of danger but full of safe paths too

All in all, life should be a mixture of everything

Both good and bad

It isn’t a bed of roses but one with thorns on them

And u need to be strong to get through them

Learn from your mistakes and you shall never make them again

Learn to laugh at your troubles and u shall never lack what to laugh at

Live it the way you want to but be ready to account for it in the end

Be yourself and let people love you for who you…

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs

What would you do if…?

Lots of people encounter many struggles in life. Some get to learn how to cope with them, others get pulled down so much that they do not see any reason any more to live.

All have good and bad moments in life and whether we’re going through the worst of times or the best of times, history and our own experiences show us that life does go on and that we are just a very tiny atom in it

In this world there are people who, like Ray who grew up in London, moved away and travelled the world, ending up back where he started, are not able to raise their arm but found ways using other parts of their body to communicate or to move things, though at times it may feel for them like they might as well be trying to move the earth.

It is not the Most High Creator Who brings all that badness over us. But it is Him Who give us the opportunity to work around it and to become stronger, if we allow Him working in our midst.

We should not fear man nor fear worldly situations or diseases, but should fear God and come to trust and honour Him, putting our ‘tiny’ hand in His Big Hand, to be carried through life.

There are no rules to how life plays out. We have no control over it. The only thing we have control over is how we face those challenges. We are not so much a product of the challenges placed before us as we are a product of how each of us has faced those challenges. {To Live And Ride With ALS}

Please do find what Bill of Unshakable hope has to say and look how he manages to cope with the terminal disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS or call it “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”.

He does not believe God causes trials and he doesn’t believe we will ever fully understand, at least not in this life.

But, whatever other reasons God has for allowing trials, I discovered two big things that He accomplishes through our trials; He helps us reset our priorities and forms our character. (Obviously He had a lot of work to do on me).

For sure he is not the only one to whom God has a lot of work to do. For the creator of this and some other lifestyle magazines had also to go through two near death experiences before he decided to work more for God. It does not mean, that took all the pain and frustrations away from him, but he gets encouraged by feeling the Hand of God at work in him … and that keeps him going….

One night, about a year before Bill was diagnosed with ALS, he and his wife Mary were up late watching “Nightline” on which Ted Koppel was doing three nights of interviews with retired college professor Morrie Schwartz who also had ALS and was sharing his life-lessons with Ted Koppel just as he had done previously with one of his former students named Mitch Albom who compiled these life-lessons and wrote a best-selling book titled “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

Bill has one vivid memory from watching those interviews

having to rely on his wife + caregivers for virtually all of his needs = helpless he was

Bill turned to Mary and told her

I would rather just go to heaven than live trapped in my own body like him.

a year after making that statement = diagnosed with same “trapped-in-your-own-body” disease

=> hastily-made statement began to haunt + taunt me

=> change view + began trying to do best to live one day at a time <= grace of God in me, urging me to keep going

Hastily-made statements carelessly uttered by healthy people = spoken out of pride = cannot comprehend grace of God <= self-reliant, self-righteous + just plain selfish

Trials cause us to reexamine hastily-made statements we’ve made before the trial, when we so carelessly said what we’d do if this thing or that thing happened to us.

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Preceding articles

The Greatest Fear

Fear in your own heart or outside of it

Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression

Phantom Of Dreams

How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace

Watch out

Walking in the Light of Life

See the conquest and believe that we can gain the victory

When the world rages, let it rage, but let us not fear it

Those steady drips, those small steps!

My tales will be beautiful

For those Christians who say they are the Victim

Christians remaining hidden not sharing the gospel

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

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Additional reading

  1. Struggles of life
  2. Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional
  3. Good and bad things in this world
  4. Your struggles develop your strengths
  5. A way to prepare for the Kingdom
  6. Not holding back and getting out of darkness
  7. Science, scepticism, doubts and beliefs
  8. If there is bitterness in the heart
  9. Emotional pain and emotional deadness
  10. Evil in this world not bringing us down
  11. Dying or not
  12. Life Goes On
  13. Trouble is coming
  14. End of the Bottom Line
  15. A small trouble is like a pebble
  16. She who sows thistles will reap prickles
  17. Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
  18. Do the appropriate for a friend
  19. A Breath for tomorrow
  20. Shelter in the morning
  21. Luck
  22. Rejoice even though bound to grieve
  23. From pain to purpose
  24. Faith because of the questions
  25. Hope by faith and free gift
  26. 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action
  27. May reading the Bible provoke us into action to set our feet on the narrow way
  28. You God hold the future
  29. Gaining Christ, trusting Jehovah
  30. God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
  31. Trust God to shelter, safety and security
  32. Songs in the night Worship God only

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Further reading

  1. ALS Awareness Month
  2. Pesticide Use Linked To Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s & ALS
  3. Why Me?
  4. To Live And Ride With ALS (Part ll)
  5. The Sacred In The Mundane
  6. The Bread Of Affliction
  7. I’m Sorry
  8. Cape and Tights – My Grandmother’s Struggle with ALS
  9. 2016/05/09/ Repost
  10. Mother With ALS Paints Again
  11. Kirkus Review of My Perfect Imperfections
  12. The Reason I Run, Chris Spriggs – a review
  13. The Walk
  14. Army vet starts ‘#22kill push up challenge’ to help other veterans
  15. One man’s poison is another man’s….
  16. The Story So Far…
  17. Can you see it?
  18. The Woman Behind The Blog
  19. The Privilege of Growing Old
  20. How Famous Researchers Work: Stephen Hawking
  21. Advocates for Rare Diseases

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Unshakable Hope

One night, about a year before I was diagnosed with ALS, Mary and I were up late watching “Nightline.” Ted Koppel was doing three nights of interviews with a retired college professor named Morrie Schwartz. Morrie had ALS and was sharing his life-lessons with Ted Koppel just as he had done previously with one of his former students named Mitch Albom. Mitch later compiled these life-lessons and wrote a best-selling book titled “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

I hate to admit this, but even after seeing the three nights of interviews and reading the book, I cannot remember most of the life-lessons that Morrie taught. But, I do have one vivid memory from watching those interviews; it occurred while listening to Morrie describe his daily routine – having to rely on his wife and caregivers for virtually all of his needs. After hearing how helpless he was…

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Educational affairs, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Welfare matters

Get the lenses out to getting closer again

With Spring we get reminded to do things all anew. It is a new start for new life, in nature and perhaps also in our souls.

border|22x20px South Africa, Aerial view of Ch...

border|22x20px South Africa, Aerial view of Chapman’s Peak Drive. For exact location see geocode. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We like watching beautiful sites and beautiful pictures. For those who are bounded on their wheelchair or are very limited in going places (like having limited financial means) the internet may provide them a view or window on the world. We are thankful for those photographers who want to share with us their views on this beautiful world. We do not know if they are aware that with their craft they can share the beauties of the Divine Creator His wonderworks. But at least He can use them to bring people to see that what He provides for the human beings, who can enjoy it or forget to look at it and miss a lot in their life.

For those wanting to catch the inedible beauty the world is offering it is not so easy to put it on a two dimensional piece of paper. When they want to get up close to their subject they shall need to make sure that the key elements are in focus.

Small blue green flowers WordPress site The Earth laughs in flowers writes in  Garden-photography get a little closer:

Using a dedicated macro lens you will find that only a millimetre or two from front to back will be pin sharp. If you are struggling to keep key elements in focus try shooting from a different angle and keep the background out of focus.

English: Extension tubes for SLR camera lenses...

Extension tubes for SLR camera lenses. An extension tube attaches to the body of a single-lens reflex camera; the lens attaches to the tube. Extension tubes come in various lengths and contain no glass (as the pen indicates). These use bayonet-type lens mounts. Русский: Макро-кольца для зеркальных фотоаппаратов с байонетным креплением. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In life as in photography one has to focus on the right things and look for the essentials. In life we do have to look for important matters but also have to take care to see that we do not unbalance the natural matters. Natural subjects with eye-catching textures may pull your attention for putting it on the imaginary memory. Only when we see the total picture in life we can come to concentrate on the finer details, the same with photography.

When we do not have a garden of our own we may be lucky when we can manage to see gardens caught on the little frames, squeezed a few specimens into pots to adorn front ‘patio’s’ .

View from the northern CBD towards Table Mount...

View from the northern CBD towards Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Lion’s Head is visible between the Shell and LG buildings. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jude, the author of Travel Words, brings a a collection of her travel notes and diaries over the years, having lived in many different places both in the UK and abroad, including brief spells working as an Au Pair in Switzerland and in a Hotel in Norway followed by 12 years living in South Africa. Her childhood vision was to emigrate to Australia, but although she came close to it on several occasions she, like perhaps many of us who wanted to emigrate to warmer places. She now has her eldest son who now lives there which she is able to visit on several occasions and considering it her spiritual birthplace. Not many can be so lucky to have that opportunity.

If we are right, she also presents Small blue green macro and 60 mm a World in miniature.

You may have ea look at her sites and awe at the beauties she know to capture.

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Preceding

The natural beauties of life

Birds, Birds Everywhere

8 Reasons We’re Looking Forward to Springtime Photography

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Read also: Elohim Mar Yah showing His wonders

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Filed under Announcement, Lifestyle, Pictures of the World, Social affairs, Spiritual affairs, World affairs

Winter and Spring wonders of nature showing the Master’s Hand

In the early 1860s, Gregor Mendel developed the concept of the gene to help explain results obtained while crossbreeding strains of garden peas. He identified physical characteristics (phenotypes), such as plant height and seed color, that could be passed on, unchanged, from one generation to the next. The hereditary factor that predicted the phenotype was termed a “gene.” Mendel hypothesized that genes were inherited in pairs, one from the male and one from the female parent. Plants that bred true (homozygotes) had inherited identical genes from their parents, whereas plants that did not breed true (hybrids, or heterozygotes) inherited alternative copies of the genes (alleles) from one parent that were similar, but not identical, to those from the other parent. {Encyclopedia, topic Genes} When you know that we have about 140,000 genes which instruct the body’s cells to put amino acids in the right sequence in order to build proteins, you might wonder how this all was provided in the first instance.

Mørketid or Polar night at the South Pole, Antarctica.

One type of light therapy lamp for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder

After the “Majestic darkness”, the “Mörketid,” or the time when the sun does not rise at all in northern Norway the Northern Europeans may see light coming up the horizon. For two months, only a gray-red twilight glow was visible for a few hours at noontime. Having 21.2 percent of Norwegians living beyond the polar circle suffering from Winter depression they now may come back to life. Some looked for their therapeutic ‘sunlights’. The fresh light shall have the melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain, to increase again. They do know that an increasing number of tourists, however, are enticed to the polar circle by the flickering aurora, the glistening of the snow in the moonlight, and the cozy light of scattered villages. Also for them it are wonders of nature.

In Winter the social activities could have helped to keep people enjoying life. According to a Harvard University study, elderly people who participate in social activities, such as going to church, restaurants, sports events, and movies, live an average of two and a half years longer than less social people. It has long been assumed that it was the physical part of such activities that helped people, said Harvard’s Thomas Glass, who led the study. However, he added that this study provides

“perhaps the strongest circumstantial evidence we’ve had to date that having a meaningful purpose at the end of life lengthens life.”

Glass noted that doing more, regardless of the activity, extended life in almost every case.

With warmer weather awaited and the days becoming longer we should look forward to more outdoor activities which shall give us more fresh and hopefully better air. Though we do have to think seriously about preserving that fresh air and doing much more against the pollution.

TV watching may come in second to relax, after listening to music (according to a study of 2000), people should find more leisure in going to do outdoors leisure activities and socialising more. In this system of things throughout Europe more and more people are feeling pressed for time, reported in 1999 the German newspaper Gießener Allgemeine. The same is true whether people are working outside the home, doing housework, or enjoying leisure time.

“People sleep less, eat faster, and feel more rushed on the job than 40 years ago,”

says sociologist Manfred Garhammer, of Bamberg University.Part of that sleeping less is brought on by watching more television which is recently pushed more in the background by the youngsters who are spending lots of times on social media. Though they seem to accumulate lots of friends on them, they seem to be more lonely and prone depression than some years ago. We also hear of many more borderline personality disorders and eating disorders and broken families which do not help to have some good relations or making people happy.

The second decade of this century daily life continued to accelerate in all the European nations. You would think labour saving household devices and a reduction in hours at work would have brought about any “leisure society” or “time prosperity.” Instead, on average, time for meals has been reduced by 20 minutes and for a night’s rest by 40 minutes and people take less time to look at the beauties around them. The magic of nature, plants growing, animals going around, all seems to pass their eyes unnoticed.

In case they would give it more attention they not only would enjoy life much more but they also would come to see that all that vibrant exuberant activity is marvellously orchestrated and that there is a Master Brain behind it.

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Preceding:

Time to Unwind

Earth’s Unwinding

Autumn is in the land

Spring playing hide and seek

Spring-migration is on at the Holler

Beauty for beauty

Shy beauties

Time to bloom

3 daffodils

Echo

How to make sustainable, green habits second nature

We all have to have dreams

Savouring pictorial entertainement

Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities

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Find also to read:

  1. Democratic downfall
  2. USA Climate Change Action Plan
  3. 20 Best Gratitude Quotes
  4. Bad company ruins good morals
  5. Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
  6. Man in picture, seen from the other planets
  7. Inequality, Injustice, Sustainability and the Free World Charter
  8. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #1

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Further readings

  1. Gratitude; by Lights media
  2. Living Life to the Fullest
  3. Animal Spirits: The Raven/Crow and The Hummingbird
  4. The “Pursuit” of Happiness
  5. Our State of Health and Happiness
  6. Leisure-time – boredom-issues concerning college-students

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