Heaven in a Wild Flower

To see a World in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour -William Blake

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) ...

no one thought they'd see you!!!

Upon entering heaven …

I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door,Not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp –the thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice.Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell,was sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well.

I nudged the angel, “What’s the deal? I would love to hear Your take.How’d all these sinners get up here? God must’ve made a mistake.

And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber? Give me a clue.” “Hush, child,”said he. “They’re all in shock.

No one thought they’d see you.”

Author Unknown strikes again

The Great Mosaic of God

The Great Mosaic of God

If you feel that you don't fit in,

that no place seems to be "your place";

It is because earth is too small for the

grand, eternal design of God to be displayed

in all its splendor.

Someday, in a new heaven and earth,

the pieces that have been flung to the four winds,

to rough terrain, and dry, hidden corners,

to the bottom of the sea and to the top of

rarely-climbed mountains,

Will be gathered up into a great mosaic

of God's own making.

A mosaic made, in praise of Christ, and

as a present to the Victor

for having ransomed every sort of man

and woman from the tribes and nations

of the old earth.

In that day, you will fit perfectly,

for you have been chosen

and designed for that.

It will be a great work of art.

It will be a great day.

You will fit.

Perfectly.

God can see it in His mind,

even now.

He is smiling

~Rose-Marie Slosek

We're Going to Feast!!!

I have a question about a quote that appears in at least 2 of Brennan Mannings books that I have read. He writes about imagining these words coming from our loving Lord Jesus:

"Do not be afraid I am with you. I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself."

Every time I come across this it makes me stop and wonder.

What I hear in that line is "my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in...weakness. My whole living sacrifice to Him is based in this truth. Cannot thank Him enough! I have not found a verse in God's word where it says we can disappoint Him. We can grieve Him most certainly, but there is a difference, I think the best example of grieving the Father, as opposed to disappointing Him is portrayed in the parable of the prodigal son. I am pretty sure when we stand before God, each and every one of us will have reason to believe that He is disappointed, the prodigal son most certainly did, but look at the Father's response to him. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! ( Luke 15 : 11 - 32)

If we hear of revival somewhere, let us not go and try to find the faults that may exist in their doctrines or positions. "Well, Lord, they didn't follow us so we told them not to do it." Jesus said, "You should not have done that. If they are out there doing it in My name, they can't very well be against us. Don't stop them." God deliver us from narrow sectarianism, from an attitude of the Pharisee, but to the same heart of Jesus. Let us rejoice that the Lord receives sinners and eats with them.

So while some people down here are saying, "When are they going to clean up their act?" The angels are up having a whoopee time rejoicing that the lost has been found. Joy in heaven ... We're gonna feast!!!

Any thoughts?

The judging thing ... Its all about grace

Just some more thoughts or maybe reflections on this.

It is hard for some people to get their head around Christianity and the God of the Bible. Its hard for a lot of them to understand the sin thing, or how one man dying on the cross means all are forgiven, or of a man physically rising from the dead and disappearing into thin air! And there are things like "Christian terms": blood, righteousness ect. How a God of love condemns most to hell. It can sound kinda strange right? The Bible says that its only by Gods revelation that we can see this. I wonder at times whether Christians really realize that He uses US as that revelation at times. Non Christians DO look at Christians and how they treat one another and others in the world.

It seems at times that Christianity does much to gain converts then does a lot to ostracize and kick people out. You got to wonder about the person who goes to church for help. Lets say they are in a marriage that is an abusive unloving sham and the Pastor delivers a message about adultery and only through adultery they can divorce. The poor woman now must feel even God is against her! What a dilemma..

Ever notice how one Christian gets delivered from a certain thing then in short order pronounces judgment on others who are deemed to be captive of the same thing? Methinks that mankind loves to judge and in their hands the gospels are used for all sorts of mind games, abuse, manipulation and control. Then there comes the predestination issue were some say God chooses therefore the pressure is off them. Sheeeeeesh!

The Bible teaches us that God reveals Himself to all that search Him and He wants nobody to perish. God loves us with a head over heels and beyond love and we are all precious in His sight. I think at times that we forget how precious it is that we know Jesus, the treasure in the field the lost coin, ect. Its all about grace and what He has done for us and we really have no right to treat others as they "deserve." Its this surrender of self that we gain something of eternal value. Joy, peace, no fear of death and more He died to give us. We need to demonstrate our faith in Him in this surrender of self, demonstrate that we can "risk" for others as He will meet our needs. When we live our faith, that we can show this gift of grace to others as its been extended to us on a more complete and higher level that the world around us will notice for sure. The world I think is starving for this kind of grace. I think that there are going to be multitudes in heaven (who I thought were going elsewhere) as only God knows the heart. Its not up to us its about Him. Our "job" is to allow ourselves to be more and more open to Him, drawing ever closer, and allowing the outpouring of that to the world around us.

Just some thoughts on a Wednesday morning .......

And the stars made music ...

Something rather interesting I came across ...

Something like 20 years ago, Astrophysicist Dr. Fiorella Terenzi aimed the famous SETI radio telescopes of Socorro, New Mexico at a galaxy naked to the human eye (she knew it was there based upon the radio waves it emitted), and she used a synthesizer to transform the radiation of galaxy UGC 6697 into discernible frequencies that human ears could hear. Essentially, she discovered that the frequencies heavenly bodies emitted could be related to human ears in the form of gigantic and almost overwhelming music. Although this “space music" is much different than anything that humans would create, Dr. Terenzi analyzed it and realized that although it sounds somewhat random to our ears, it actually represents a complicated system of tonality that is produced by the spiraling nature of this galaxy. The symphonic nature of this galaxy evokes the idea of a million piece orchestra, an orchestra in which no two instruments are alike.

Wow! I find this stuff amazing,astounding even! I believe that the stars do sing. Scripture says the rocks will cry out if we don’t praise Him. There have been many times that I have wished we could just shut up for one day so that the rocks praise Him, but I don’t think it would sound like what I imagine. I can’t wait for arts and craft time in heaven with the Creator God. And believe you me, this isn’t sarcasm. Think about how much we are wowed by “special effects” and then think about what it would be like not just to manipulate, but to actually CREATE. Pure, unadulterated ORIGINALITY! Wow ...

A glimpse of Heaven ...

One awesome and interesting quote I would like to share with you all ...

"One morning this past spring I noticed a young couple with an infant at an airport departure gate. The baby was staring intently at other people. and as soon as he recognized a human face, no matter whose it was, no matter if it was young and old, pretty or ugly, bored or happy or worried looking he would respond with absolute delight.

It was beautiful to see. Our drab departure gate had become a gate of heaven. And as I watched that baby play with any adult who would allow it, I felt awe struck as Jacob, because I realized that this is how God looks at us, staring into our faces in order to be delighted, to see the creatures he made and called good, along with the rest of creation. And as Psalm 139 puts it, darkness is nothing to God, who can see through whatever evil we've done in our lives to the creature made in the divine image.

I suspect only God, and well loved infants, can see this way."

~Kathleen Norris

There will be tail-wagging in heaven!

It is certainly very interesting to see how the Bible actually differs so much across languages, the Bible is a living document which needs to be seen to be relevant to everyone who reads or hears it. Here is an example I came across which may give you a chuckle ...

Happy translation

Sir - Some linguists were translating the Bible into a local African language (Letters, March 28). They had difficulty in finding a pure word for joy. The tribal words used had connotations which were not acceptable.

As they were debating what would be a suitable word a dog came into the room belonging to one of the missionaries, wagging his tail vigorously.

"What word would you use for the joy that dog has having found his master?", the missionaries asked. They were offered a word and the final text was translated: "There will be tail-wagging in heaven over one sinner that repents!"