Dimes from Heaven

Do you ever feel that God is not near whether everything is going sour in life and even when times are good?

A friend once asked for God to send her ladybugs when He thought of her.  Ladybugs flew in from all directions.  One time, they covered her whole house and kept sneaking in too.  Friends and strangers gave her ladybug ceramics or pillows.

Often, I felt that way too. “Where are you?” I lamented. One day, I asked God if He thought of me much.  Then I asked Him to send me dimes when He has been thinking of me.  

This is silly I thought.  Then the dimes started coming to me. I looked down and one was there in the grass.  Another flopped out of the dryer when I opened it.  One showed up in a public shower.  

There were never enough to make me rich, but enough to know He was thinking of me even when I did not realize it. 

A glance at my title on Google told me that a lot of people get dimes from heaven.  I never knew that.  I had heard of pennies from heaven, but not dimes.  I learned that their loved ones in heaven send them money and objects.

I asked God.  I did not ask my daughter, parents, or other loved ones up above.  I asked God. And He answered.

Have you experienced anything like that.  Do your departed loved ones, or God, send you remembrances?  Please comment and let everyone know.

Dime images from Wikimedia

 30 Days of Thanksgiving

I am thankful for:

1. God who created the universe and loves each of us individually.
2. Jesus who died that we might have eternal life with God the father.
3. My church where believers gather as a family to worship and serve.
4. Our pastor and his wife who serve us so well.
5. My children, who I love dearly and would die for, if the need arose.
6. The beauty and splendor all around us when we take time to look.
7. I have a roof over my head.
8. There is food in the cupboard and refrigerator.
9. My son who lives with me and fixes my computer.
10. My friends who put up with all my nonsense.
11. God woke me up this morning.
12. I can see, hear, and walk.
13. That so many people care.
14. God is love.
15. Friends who set me in the right direction.
16. The birds that serenade from the trees.
17. Dogs that think we are god.
18. Sunshine and breezes.
19. The stars that make us realize how vast God is.
20. All the times God saved me when I did something foolish.
21. He will never leave or forsake us.
22. We can always talk to Him.
23. He is the divine healer, the great physician who sends no bills.
24. He never changes and is the same today, yesterday, and forever.
25. Grass, trees, and all green things growing.
26. The work God has for us.
27. Prayer changes things.
28. The joy of being alive.
29. God’s promises for those who love Him.
30. For unknown joy and beauty that wait for us when we join Him.

What are you thankful for?

Secret of Giving Up the Past

 Many of us want to put the past behind us.  It is harder than it looks. It keeps you from enjoying new experiences and broadening your horizons.  It threatens to never let you go.

A lot has happened to all of us and it is not all pretty.  I know I have a hard time doing that. I accidentally unlocked one of the secrets for giving up the past.

I hugged the dress to me.  “I’m letting you go, Gwen,” I whispered as I put it in the thrift shop.  Gwen loved God and she would approve of letting it go to benefit missionaries.  The dress never fit right on the top, and was a bit too long for me, but I loved it because she gave it to me.

I only knew Gwen for a few years but quickly grew to love her.  We met in church.  She had a lot of health problems and toward the end, frequently went into the hospital.  She told me that the next time she went in, she probably would not come out.  It happened that way.

One afternoon, I sensed her presence near me for only an instant.  “Gwen, is that you?” I asked, and knew she was gone.  A phone call a short time later confirmed that.

So many things in the past are hard to give up.  We lose loves and friendships, children, parents, and dear friends.  Terrible things muddy up our yesterdays: mistakes, misjudgments, acts we wish we could take back, and things we said that wound worse than a shotgun blast. 

One thing at a time.

It is easy to say to give up the past.  Preachers write whole sermons about it, musicians compose songs about it, and people expect you to just get over it. Doing it is much more difficult than just deciding to do it.

When I let the dress go on to a new life, I realized something.  We need to make an effort to give each past thing up one at a time as we think about it and are ready.  It is too hard to just say goodbye to it en mass. 

Memories

Gwen will always live in me as a beautiful memory.  I will always remember her.  I keep a treasured memento of her.  It is a small ceramic nativity scene that she gave another friend that I helped take care of for a time a few years ago. Her family gave it to me. 

When I see the tiny crèche, I remember them both, each part of the past but a promise of the future when I see them again some day when my time on earth is done. Jesus promises to prepare a place for us.   “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2 KJV

God is Still in Control

Many people are upset about the recent election results.  Others are elated. 

Mobs danced in jubilation in Times Square in New York after the results were announced.  I don’t think they know what they were celebrating.

To many, the results were devastating.  It was not just losing an election, “Oh well, the other guy won, let’s carry on.”  They consider it a loss of our country, the death of America, as we know it.  

It seems that a great evil has fallen upon us. This is a society where God is booed and moral decay runs rampant over it all.  A majority thinks it no longer needs God and can just do whatever pleases them with whomever they please.

Dire warnings fill the Internet.  The mandatory microchip will be implanted in each person and they cannot buy, sell, or do anything else without it. It is the Mark of the Beast, as predicted in Revelation in the Bible.

Other reports say the world is ending in December of 2012, this year.  An ancient calendar ended and people say the world will end on that date.  It could be a man made disaster such as nuclear war or something smashing our world from space.  The Bible states that no man knows the day or the hour.

 

The only certain thing is that God still sits on the throne and He is still in control.  Christians need not worry because this earth and its evils is not their home.  No matter what happens, they put their trust and faith in God.  All who believe, trust in Him, and accept His son will someday live with Him for eternity. 

No matter what else happens, just keep trusting.  The Bible says that, " But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved," Matthew 24:13

Photos:

Stars Copyright J. Schlicker  2003

Mountain  Public Domain

God always provides

Manna from heaven

When the Israelis wandered through the desert in Exodus, God fed them manna from heaven.  Manna was a food that tasted sweet.  The people ground it up and used it as flour to make bread, cakes, and other dishes.  God instructed them to gather up only enough to get them through each day.  If they gathered more than needed, it turned wormy.  God wanted them to depend on Him.

When they complained loudly and often that they tired of manna, God provided flocks of doves or pigeons so they would have meat.

Water Into Wine

Jesus went to a wedding in Cana as a guest. The wine ran out.  That was a terrible faux pas for the bridegroom.  When Jesus found out about it he ordered the servants to fill up some large jars with water.  He then dipped a cup into the water and had a servant take it to the master of the feast.  The master congratulated the bridegroom for saving the best wine until the last part of the wedding festivities.

Feeding the 5,000

Matthew chapter 24 tells the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 men and their wives and children.  They were gathered around to hear Jesus speak.  He decided to feed them instead of sending them off to a village to buy food.

He took a little boy’s lunch that consisted of five loaves of bread and two fish.  He broke them and the disciples distributed the new loaves and fishes.  The 5,000 men and their families ate their fill and there were 12 baskets full left over.  Jesus saw the need and provided.

What about you and me?

Maybe you think that was all a long time ago and not relevant now but nothing has changed. All these miracles that took place show that He will provide for you. 

He has for me.  Several times, at the moment of my greatest need, people gave me food because their freezers died.  Once, a crate of cans of pudding fell out of a truck right in front of our house.  My astonished kids dragged it into the house and feasted.  

When we put our faith and trust in God, He sees our need and provides.  He will do the same for you.

  

Photos:

The Gathering of the Manna

Probably formed part of a larger altarpiece. The master was named after this painting

Source/Photographer from ISBN 978-90-6918-225-4, p. 215.  Public Domain for painting and photograph

Bowyer Bible

Life of Jesus

Bowyer Bible-Marriage at Cana by Jan Luyken

 Public Domain under the Free Art License

Photos:

The Gathering of the Manna
Probably formed part of a larger altarpiece. The master was named after this painting
Source/Photographer from ISBN 978-90-6918-225-4, p. 215.  Public Domain for painting and photograph


Bowyer Bible
Life of Jesus
Bowyer Bible-Marriage at Cana by Jan Luyken
 Public Domain under the  Free Art License

Will You Invite Jesus?

Will  You Invite Jesus?

In John chapter two, we read about the story of water changed into wine, the first public miracle Jesus performed.

In those days, weddings lasted for days, perhaps weeks. They served wine at the wedding feasts.  It was the custom to serve the best wine first, then the cheaper wine later.  On the third day of this particular wedding, they ran out of wine. 

His mother Mary told Jesus about this embarrassing situation.  He told her it was not his time to start doing miracles.  But he told the servants to fill six large jars with water.  He dipped into one of the barrels, filled a cup, and told someone to take it to the master of ceremonies. The master tasted it and took the bridegroom aside.

He told him it was the best wine he ever tasted and impressed because he saved the best for last.   The bridegroom got the credit for the miracle that Jesus did. It saved him from social scorn and showed him to be a man of substance.

Jesus was there because they invited him.  He created a miracle because he was there.  He can perform miracles in your life, if you invite him.  He is waiting but will not enter without an invitation.  Won’t you invite him today?

 Photo: A 14th century Fresco from the Visoki Dečani monastery.

http://www.wegm.com/coins/frescoes/decani.htm In public domain

The Mark of the Beast

 A couple of thousand years ago, a man named John experienced a vision.  A vision is like a dream but the person is awake and looking at it like they would a movie or TV program. He saw the vision as a prisoner on an island called Patmos.  His crime was standing up for God.

In his vision, he saw things that did not and could not exist during that time.  He saw our society as it is today and in the future.  He wrote everything down the way God instructed him and that scroll became the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

It is happening soon.

One thing he saw was the Mark of the Beast.  He saw a society that no longer used money.  All people needed a chip that recorded information about each person.  You needed the chip in order to buy or sell.

Rev 16 “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:” And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.    

Also the Bible says “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.” Revelation 14:9,10 KJV      

Who is the beast?

I believe the Beast is Satan, the enemy of the world.  He is a liar who wants to steal us away from God and claim us as his own.   He comes in many forms and will fool many as an angel of light.

We seem to be rapidly moving toward the Mark of the Beast.  Trusting God will help us through that time.  Put your trust in Him today.  Read the Bible, get to know the word so Satan cannot fool or confuse you.

First photo 

Jacopo Vignali, San Giovanni Evangelista a Patmos.jpg

Vignali is an  Italian painter who died on 03 August 1664 

  

Second photo 

 John's Vison from Wikimedia Paintings  According to Wikipedia the religious artist Antonio Allegri da Correggio lived from  August 1489 – March 5, 1534.