Oh No, I missed Church and I've gone to preaching bout sinning.......

This is the Lord's Day.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it. There are always blessings. Let's keep looking for them even if we "don't see or feel them today".  I am so happy for our graduates this week, praying for their continued wisdom, safety and growth, praying for new parents, new families, praying for those with all sorts of physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. Praying for the ones who need encouragement of any kind, especially praying for those who have lost "joy" and who are burdened in any way.  Praying for those who spent too much time in the past that they are missing their present and future. These poor souls are stuck in the what if's and if onlies.  There seems to be an obsession of sorts and it is as if the negatives are the persons clothing.  It defines them. Everyone thinks about the past but I'm talking about being "shackled" to our past to the point it is immobilizing....  God doesn't want that but I think the Devil does.

The Devil uses this time of our not fully accepting forgiveness to block full trust and joy in   Our Lord.  The Devil wants our misery memories, through them He controls us and keeps us mired in misery and unworthiness of an ever loving Heavenly Father.  Examples from the past can teach us and others and move us closer to the Loving Person God created. But God set us free by his Son Jesus but we often miss that this is FULL forgiveness.  I do think sharing a learning example or two or more a funny time is important.  But when our thoughts and focus become stuck in bad memories, we become mired like the quicksand in the swamps, it is as if they eat us alive and they do "rob us" of our present.  Oh sure, they can be like a movie we watch over and over and over.  Love those old happy photos and stories.... It's comfortable. We don't have to even be in the minute we are in but I am talking miserable, mired memories.........

Once wrote a short story entitled Misery. I began  "Misery is my best friend".  It was a story all about a person who could only see misery, no matter all the marvelous things happening!.....  So happy I burnt that fictional story, although it had a great ending, it was burnable... Staying in the past memories, we know what occurred and we basically become some sort of of zombie that is never fully there. Why do we do this?  Why do we like to blame all of what we are today by yesterday or decades before.  Staying stuck in the bad past becomes a pattern of reaction. We fail to see the good we do and are and happens all the time.   We fail to experience God's wealth to us.... HIS LOVE Without realizing it we are basically telling ourselves (or letting the Devil tell us, that we are not worthy of God's love and forgiveness. When folks are "totally stuck in the past", they generally get stuck in the "bad times"  I see them stuck on not accepting full forgiveness. They are living over and over and over their decisions, their words, their deeds to the extent that though they prayed for forgiveness they really have not accepted God's forgiveness, they play their past over and over and over again like a non ending record. They are stuck.  Until the very thing they need the most,   Acceptance and Forgiveness is impossible because they denied themselves of that.   If my entire focus is backwards and recalling over and over a bad situation, no matter how big or little the "issue" is, I am blocking myself from JOY yes, but I can be sure of what will happen sure of my future! More misery.
 
Sisters and Brothers, I am no preacher but need to say God Loves US all equally, NOT because of what we are, say or do..... We are all BELOVED equally BY GOD.  But I would love to say  "Let down your burdens, fully lay it at the Feet of our Savior and don't look back, Don't pick it up again. Be filled with God's joy and love".... If you must visualize think of the biblical woman who turned to salt when she "looked back".   One of the most vivid Bible School lessons ever was when Lot's wife turned to a pillar of Salt.  Not saying I'm a pillar of Salt or will be one but I believe we turn ourselves into pillars by our backward vision and clinging to the bad parts of our past. 

So give yourself a favor today, when you ask God for forgiveness,  don't make God a Human.  He knows already what you did and He is waiting with Loving Arms to Forgive you.....When we fail to accept forgiveness we are the plate that can never be mended..the scab that won't be healed because of "picking at it over and over", the pillar of salt.. How can we do that if we don't fully give over 100% the very thing we have asked for of God. Set your Eyes on God and don't allow the "Devil" to keep you "stuck in the bad past",  in the quicksand. Don't miss your present and future blessings of God..... Oh He continues to shower them down but we just are not "knowing it".  God can mend the broken plate of my life until the cracks no longer show.  I cannot..

And please know God has already "fixed" everything to perfection.  Sharing so much with many I do not even know is an uncomfortable thing for me.  Why do I do this? I'm hoping by sharing parts of my life,  my simple life, that Others will be drawn to know more fully the Bright Light of Hope, Forgiveness, Freedom,  Joy and Salvation = God, my All in All. 

Praising God for His presence whether or not we acknowledge it fully at all times.  praising Him I am surrounded in Love, I have a roof and doors and clean food sources and the ability to cook and prepare them.  Oh I have my physical complications but I am blessed to have access to medical care.  I think the words in the Lord's Prayer that are most often not absorbed are "Thy will be done".     But it is only when I fully realize His Will and that it is mysterious and marvelous and all knowing, that I can release the quicksand of memories that need to be "over and out"...

Only God knows how our "sufferings" are actually our healings and growth and helping others as well as our own beings....  It would have been just all wrong for me to have a "perfect" life.   I would have missed so much along the way.  I am who I am and I am God's child, influenced and mentored by my life experiences, and my very sense of who I am.  I know medically I'm so frail, but Joy upon Joy I am God's Child. I'm His.  I am frail and in my earthly struggles I know I often fail to show His Full Love and JOY and for that I apologize again and again.   But the best, the very best thing that I know is that I am mindful that anything I "did good" in my life was not of "me" but of God through me.I'm very human, I will stumble, I will fall and fail again.  On earth, I will be an imperfect reflection of God at all times, but I'm Happy Blessed to know that He is there, loving me not because of what I did but because of  HIS Love never fails.  Also Prayers matter.  I am thankful for the many I have received during my lifetime and those that I have given and those coming/going out in the future. It is during prayer that the deepest connection of God is there for me....If any of you need specific prayers, I love to pray for you.   I hold many of you and your family and friends in my heart and soul and prayers.  This is a long hello to the day, but my fingers wanted to type out Some Love and Hope to you .   GOD IS LOVE!   LITLA