These are a few of my favorite things....A Life Defined by Thankfulness

I decided in an effort to remember to be thankful to GOD for everything, that I will post things that are some of my favorites in life...small and big, what seem to some as insignificant or powerful...anything and everything...TOTALLY random because if you know me that it the way we roll around here.

I am striving to live a life that is defined by thankfulness. I want gratefulness to exude through every cell in my body. Praise comes from grateful hearts very easily...get the connection??? Do you want your life=your worship=your life to be a beautiful fragrance to our precious Father? (Your life IS your worship...it is not those songs they put up on the big screen on Sunday mornings - just sayin) Saying thank you is not enough. When you have a grateful heart, when your life has been touched my grace, you can't help but want to give your very essence as a living sacrifice to the Saviour you love with all of your heart.

Ok...to summarize

Lesson Learned: In EVERYTHING give THANKS...because it is GOD's will for my life...PERIOD

How beautiful that is...there is nothing left to "interpretation". I love that sometimes GOD is just as blunt as I am.

Also, if you know me well, I like all types of things...my tastes vary as the day is long. That provides a preface to my first "fav" post. Anyway...here is today's favorite:

http://youtu.be/v9NYZQ5bh0c

Photograph: Enrico Caruso

Caruso: By Lucio Dalla, dedicated to the Italian Tenor, Enrico Caruso

Qui dove il mare luccica
e grida forte il vento
su una vecchia terrazza vicina al golfo di Surriento
un uomo abbraccia una ragazza
dopo che aveva pianto
poi si schiarisce la voce e ricomincia il canto:

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

Vide le luci in mezzo al mare
pensò alle notti là in America
ma erano solo le lampare
e la bianca scia d'un'elica
sentì il dolore nella musica
si alzò dal pianoforte
ma quando vide la luna uscire da una nuvola
gli sembrò più dolce anche la morte.
Guardò negli occhi la ragazza
quegli occhi verdi come il mare
poi all'improvviso uscì una lacrima
e lui credette d'affogare.

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

La potenza della lirica
dove ogni dramma è un falso
che con un po' di trucco e con la mimica
puoi diventare un altro
Ma due occhi che ti guardano
così vicini e veri
ti fanno scordare le parole
confondono i pensieri.

Così diventò tutto piccolo
anche le notti là in America
ti volti e vedi la tua vita
come la scia d'un'elica.

Ah si, è la vita che finisce
ma lui non ci pensò poi tanto
anzi si sentiva già felice
e ricominciò il suo canto:

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...
Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

Now...in English:
Here where the sea sparkles,
and a strong wind blows,
on an old terrace overlooking the gulf of Sorrento,
a man holds a little girl in his arms
after he's been crying.
He clears his throat and sings the song again.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, that thaws the blood in the veins.

He looked at the lights, out at sea,
and thought about the nights in America.
But they were only the lamps of fishing boats
and the white of wake.
He felt the pain of the music.
He got up from the piano,
but when he saw the moon come out from behind the clouds
death seemed sweeter to him.
He looked into the little girl's eyes -
those eyes as green as the sea,
then suddenly a tear fell
and he thought he was drowning.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, and it thaws the blood in the veins.

The power of opera!
where every drama is a sham;
where, with a little bit of make-up and mimicry,
you can become someone else.
But two eyes that look at you,
so close and so real,
make you forget the script,
confounding your thoughts.
And so everything became insignificant,
including the nights in America.
You look back and see your life
like the wake [of the boats].
Ah yes! Life is ending,
but he wasn't worried about it any more.
Instead he felt happy
and began to sing the song again.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, that thaws the blood in the veins.

When I get closer...

When you get close to the one you love, you are filled with happiness and joy, your heart beats faster, you hang on every word soaking in every moment with them...

When you get close to GOD, all these things happen and more. GOD has been taking me through journeys in visions off and on for the past week. I continually have this "stirring" inside of me and I'm asking GOD what to do with it. I am exhausted when I wake up because it seems that I've been up all night with GOD.  The fervor and enthusiasm doesn't go away when I wake up and get moving, so I know it's HIM.  I think now through a lot of prayer and seeking HIS face HE's going to show me whatever it is that HE is trying to convey to me and how to proceed.

What I don't understand is the complacency of believers today. Why would they not want to experience their LORD is this intimacy? Why don't they think that falling before the Holy of Holies in worship and prayer is a privilege and not a right. It is only by grace. GOD's chosen ones knew how to FEAR the LORD in reverence and honor. I see us taking it for granted. I'm choosing not to. I'm not going to grow cold. I'm not going to fall for the lukewarm worship. I'm not going to be too busy to go about the Master's business. I'm pressing in. I want to be stirred and shaken. I want more...more LORD.

Singing in the Car

Prayer is the vehicle that we use to communicate with our Father, however, I think many times we confine it to the "standard" definition. Since Jesus Christ Himself taught us how we should pray, don't you think there might be greater dimensions that you are to experience when speaking to the Holy One? Both prayer and praise release things, bind things, move GOD's hand...so (spontaneously) I started singing out my prayers to GOD this morning...singing of His wonderful mercy and grace, His power and abilities, thanking Him for the wonderful things He has done for us and what He will do. I called out to Him with requests counting on Him to do as He promises to do as the awesome Father GOD He is.

Prayer has many different flavors, "feels"...It can be quiet, it can be a shout, it may be silent or in weeping cries...or in some cases...a song. GOD's Chosen People many a time reflected on His goodness to them or wailed out in cries for mercy and deliverance. I can't wait to hear David singing to GOD as described in the Psalms. Like I said, prayer is a vehicle. There are many different types...just remember my dear brother or sister in Christ, the car doesn't start unless you get in it and turn it on. It doesn't run well unless you keep up with things and maintain it. The same principle applies to our prayer life. I want to know GOD so well while I'm on this earth that we won't have that "awkward" moment when I fall at His feet, never fully engaging in my relationship with him and only being an acquaintance all this time. In all things with prayer and supplication...GOD is the supreme LOVE of your life. Think about that for a moment. Relate it to human relationships. GOD as the lover of your very soul deserves your PASSION, your ATTENTION, your COMMUNICATION, your LOVE, your GRATEFULNESS, your SERVICE, your AIR YOU BREATHE. Relinquish control and in reckless abandon give your heart and everything you have and are to the Master. Experience HIM like you never have before.

2012 - An expectancy and an urgency as we spread the GOOD NEWS

Isaiah 55

Invitation to the Thirsty

¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
² Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
³ Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
¹² You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”

The Cross in Our Bodies - Divine CREATOR

I received this in email format from a friend and wanted to pass it along for a larger audience - GOD, THE Designer, THE Creator - His essence is displayed in everything HE does, including "knitting you together in the womb"...

This is a pretty neat story and an interesting thing that few of us know. It's brief, so please read.  (FROM A DOCTOR)   A couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY!   I want to share what I learned.... He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is.... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire..  Etc. Etc. Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder.   At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.)  And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking... 'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???' Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer. And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!! It was because he started talking about laminin.  I knew about laminin... 'Laminins are a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue' You see.... Laminins are what hold us together... LITERALLY.   They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what they LOOK LIKE. But now I do.  And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already)....  Here is what the structure of laminin looks like...   AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it.... If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

 

Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!  Amazing.  The glue that holds us together.... ALL of us..... Is in the shape of the cross.  Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.

          'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or Authorities;  All things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him All things HOLD TOGETHER.' Colossians 1:15-17

Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool.. Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words.

And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint,

we are held together...

One cell to another.... By the cross.

I've been fixing a lot of computers lately so...

...When a friend of mine sent this to me I had to share with you. Funny how perspective changes everything. Thanks to Tim for brightening my spirits without even knowing what kind of week I had. Please enjoy - author unknown but very insightful.

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, Ford issued a press release stating:

If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.

2.. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3... Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

I love the next one!!!

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

PS - I'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!

Please share this with your friends who love
- but sometimes hate - their computers!