a poem

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad
And the priest said a demon's to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who died for a dream
And You'll have the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

(don't know who did it)

-Tiffany

God in Me

{My thoughts after reading Romans 8}

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” ~ Romans 8:9

Woah. That verse is really though-provoking. And scary. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ…” Now I know that not everyone is scared of that verse, but some of us say, “Wow, God, do you really mean that?” I mean, really! It says that if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he is “not of His”. Literally, not a Christian. What a profound meaning!

The beginning of the verse starts out with, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit…” Obviously, God is saying here that if you are not “in the Spirit”, then you are “in the flesh”. Simple as that. Black and white. No grey section, no kinda-sorta-following-God-and-doing-what-I-want-to-do-at-the-same- time. None of that. You’re either following God, or you’re following your own way.

You have two choices; one to say:

“I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8)

Or to say:

“[I will] …leave the paths of uprightness, …walk in the ways of darkness; …rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked…” (Proverbs 2:13-14, paraphrased)

This is where the going gets tough. Right here. I’m asking the same question you are, in all probability, “How do I follow the LORD and be ‘in the Spirit’? How can I be sure that I’m not going to be ‘in the flesh’?” It’s a hard question, and I don’t have the answer. But back to the Bible, I read:

• “He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.” (Proverbs 21:21)
• “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” (Romans 14:19)
• “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.” (Ephesians 5:1-4)
• And I’ll let you read Ephesians 5:5-33 for yourself. :) 

It isn’t a hard decision. It’s just a hard principle to live out day in and day out. I’m praying for you, sisters! Strive for the goal; Christ has conquered!

Have a blessed Sunday! :)

Originally posted at Meditations of His Love Daily.

Love All God's Creation....

Background Credit

I love that quote. I don't know why, but it's...beautiful. In its own way.

Today's Selected Story:
I heard the above quote for the first time when I was listening to a radio dramatized story by Leo Tolstoy, God Sees the Truth, But Waits. It's a beautiful story, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it to. So--click the link, read the story, and then come back to tell me what you think. :)

Do you have a favourite quote and / or story that was written many years ago? Comment below; I'd be interested to know! :)

Have a blessed Sunday and following week!

Children Must Be Fed

(A True Story)

“God always does above all we can ask or think,” said Miss Clara. “He delights in giving us good things.”

“I am going to tell you a true story of how God sent us food. My father was a minister, and often people failed to pay promptly, so sometimes we saw hard times. Once when I was a little girl, Father had to go to the conference, and he didn’t have even one cent to leave Mother to buy food with while he was gone. He told Mother he would not go without leaving us money. She told him he must go; that God would take care of us.”

“We had some potatoes, a few cans of fruit, a little dried corn and salt and sugar in the house, but the flour bin was empty. Mother did not believe in going in debt, and we bought only what we could pay for.”

“We still had one loaf of bread when Father left. When that was gone there was no flour to make any more. Mother smiled and told us that God knew we needed flour, and told us not to worry. She had us all kneel with her while she asked our heavenly Father to send us a sack of flour. Then she arose and made the rising for the bread just as if the flour bin were full. Then she said, ‘Now children, I’ve done all I can; God will do the rest.’”

“We all went to bed strong in faith that God would answer our prayers, I almost expected to wake up in the morning and find a sack of flour in the kitchen. When my brother came downstairs the first thing he asked was, ‘Has God sent the flour yet?’”

“Mother lifted the lid from the bread bowl and let us see how light and foamy the rising was. All it needed was the flour. We ate our scant breakfast of potatoes and salt. Then Mother knelt by the empty flour bin and praised God because He had said His children would never need to beg for bread.”

“Mother and I washed the dishes and Mother started to sing the old song, ‘Oh, For a Faith That Will Not Shrink.’ My little brother who was looking out of the window said, ‘Somebody is tying a horse and buggy to our fence.’ A woman came up the path empty-handed.”

“Mother invited her in, and she acted rather embarrassed. She was not a Christian, and had never been to church. Her daughter had been to church and had been converted, and she knew Father and Mother had been praying that she might be saved, too.”

“She talked about the weather, and kept twisting her scarf. Finally she said, ‘I want to tell you a strange thing that happened to me this morning. As I was getting breakfast I heard a voice say, “Take Brother Hayden some flour.” I knew no one was in the kitchen but me, and I was scared. Then I heard it again, “Go take Brother Hayden some flour.” I suppose I’m a fool, but do you need flour?’”

“By this time Mother was crying and saying, ‘Praise the Lord!’ She told the woman of her prayers for flour, showing her the empty flour bin and the crock of yeast rising. The woman began to cry, and going to her buggy, gave my brother a sack of flour, handed me a part of a smoked ham, while the younger brother and sister carried in a carton of milk and a bucket of butter.”

“ ‘I just thought if the Almighty was telling me to take you the flour, like as not you needed the butter, too; so I brought some things along,’ she said.”

“Mother kissed her and said, ‘You look like an angel to us.’ Then we had a real thanksgiving prayer meeting. And then the dear woman gave her heart to Jesus right at our house.”

“Before Father came home from the conference, people came from all parts of his parish came and paid Mother both in food and money a great deal more than they owed.”

-Grace Wanger

{Where I found the story}

Have a blessed Thursday! :)

P.S. Come back next Sunday, and read a wonderful story by Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist and short-story writer. I’m sure you'll be there. :)

Before You

This post came from The Pursuit. (you can read others from the website here) It was originally posted on March 6, 2012. Used by permission--thanks, Ariel!

Before You, I was lost.

Before You, I had nothing.

Before You, I was lonely.

I was searching for something.

I was searching for something to make me whole.

Something to mend this broken heart of mine.

But I discovered that it wasn’t something I was looking for.

It was Someone and He would make me just fine.

But He made me more than just fine.

He turned me into something great.

He made me one of His children.

Now eternity with Him is my new fate.

Before you, I was lost.

Before you, I had nothing.

Before you, I was lonely.

But with You, I am more than just something.

I am someone.

I am Yours.

Love, Haylie

God Still Loves Me.

The following is so true. But praise the Lord, He still loves us!

Source: Uploaded by user via marilyn on Pinterest

The Truth of Who You are in Christ

You are really special!  *hugs*,

life isn't always

Last night as the 1st official day of January I did some writing (surprise, surprise). Well that's only 'cause I had to, as I've entered another one of those writing things.

So anyway after writing a really depressing scene I went on the JanNoWriMo site to look and see if any of the members on there might want to friend me (now that sounds really bad, but having other writers as friends makes a world of a difference).

So I found this girl called Autumn then I looked on her writing blog just to get more of an idea of who she was. Then I got a shock. She's been dead for five years. Suicide. But to my horror my eyes kept reading. Here is just one of her pieces.

One of the things that really hurt me is that none of the posts have comments, like it was her pouring out her heart screaming for help. And oh how I wanted to help, but I came 5 years too late. I couldn't stop thinking about it, I couldn't get to sleep knowing that there are other people out there like that. People who think that suicide is relief. People who don't believe in happiness. And that is so so so sad so terrible. And I am only just realizing how blessed I am--I haven't lost someone that I really love; two great grandmothers don't really count as I barely knew them.

And as you can see in the poem she was very talented, but she never got to use her gift beyond her 16 years. She never knew the peace and hope that Daddy/God brings. That fact that she wasn't saved tears me to pieces and it is my dearest hope that she met God somehow and that she is finally in true real love but I know that cannot be.

What this taught me is that the beautiful looking world outside the window is really shaded--really, really shaded, deep with shadows and only tiny glimmers of light. We who know there is love desperately need to show the people, the hearts, the lives that are dying that are being destoried. It is not okay that a child should have to stay every night in a house where the keepers despise her.

"Lord, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm not scared 'cause you're holding my breath. I only fear that I don't have enough time left to tell the world that there is no time left..."
--Group 1 Crew, Forgive Me

To all the Ivvy's out there, may you find the God of Love, the One and Only, Who cares greatly about you.

-Tiffany-

first posted on Unfathomed Depths.