Embracing the Present

 I read this article in the book I bought on my birthday. I like every one of them, unfortunately I can only read but not be able to write as beautifully as they do, but my heart says the same things as all the people that love the LORD. Please enjoy this copy and enjoy your life.Rebecca                                                                Embracing the Present 

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.                             

                            C.S. Lewis

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.                           

                            Philippians 4:12     

 I know a couple who seemed to live for retirement. Both worked hard in their careers, lived frugally and saved. They planned to travel frequently; visiting exciting places they had only read and dreamed about.   One week prior to retirement, they bought a new motorized recreation vehicle. They attended retirement parties and packed. But they never set out on that first trip. Instead, the husband learned from a doctor that he had terminal caner. Within a few months his widow sat bewildered, confused, and angry. “Why did we wait so long to start living?” she asked. 

This couple put their lives “on hold” for the future. They never learned to embrace the present. Embracing the present means to live now, not waiting. Embracing the present means choosing to live without regrets. It means making conscientious choices to live the life you desire now, not later.

  On a recent trip, a friend and I browsed through a bookstore and noticed the books written to help us gain the life we want…later. At my friend’s encouragement, I bought a book about planning for retirement. We’d just had a troubling conversation about whether my wife and I would have enough in the bank to retire. He motivated me or perhaps scared me to think about my future in more detail. I read the book on the flight home. 

 The book advised saving to enjoy life later by avoiding purchases now. It got down to incidentals, like buying a caffe latte. The author told me that if I saved my three dollars now rather than buying my coffee, in twenty years I’d have a phenomenal sum of cash with which to buy my own Starbucks franchise. 

 But seriously, what if I want to sit on a bench, sipping my latte now, enjoying time in the park as I watch people walk by? What if coffee is my link to spending time with my wife or friends? It is important to save, but it also is important to live in the present.  Jesus said, “ I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” ( John 10:10 MSG) Is this “ more and better life” only reserved for heaven? Jesus’s teaching on life in his kingdom is both in the future and in the “ here and now.”  

Soul care means living in the present. Steven W. Smith

were you there?

                 Were you there?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

The original is Afrian-american spiritual music

this is played by the vocal band” the innocence mission”

i just downloaded their music

beautiful

Book–Embracing Soul Care

Journey of the SoulI still haven’t found what I’m looking for.U2Blessed are those whose strength is in you,Who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.Psalms 84:5 

In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was composed in
Germany to teach young adults essentials of the Christian faith. The first question of this well-known document expresses the root of our soul’s journey: 

What is your only comfort in life and death?That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. 

All of us are born with the souls of pilgrims; we search for something better. The answer to the catechism’s question describes what our hearts long to find. We are on a journey to belong.High above the floor of the Sistine Chapel in
Rome, artist Michelangelo painted a dramatic scene of God creating the world. God’s finger points to Adam. Adam’s finger stretches toward God. That gap—the distance between the Creator and Adam—is thought by some to represent humanity’s journey toward God. Everyone reaches for the divine, but not everyone recognizes the true source of our desires. Consciously or unconsciously, in some way we all try to close the gap.If we try to fill that gap with people and things, those can never occupy a place that only God can fill. No amount of  money, mo benchmark of success, no mortal can close this gap. That’s because our life journeys are spiritual, beyond the acquisitions of this world. Augustine of Hippo, an early church father, said, “ You have made me for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. “  These are journey words, expressing the true longing of our souls.Augustine’s fourth-century prayer still describes restless pilgrims today. We long to fill the gap between God’s sacred fingertip and our trembling hand. Our journey will converge with the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ. His way fills the gap. His truth becomes our truth. His life touches ours. Jesus becomes the “what” we’ve been looking for all along. 

By Steven Smith

I melt with you

 Moving forward using all my breath
Making love to you was never second best
I saw the world thrashing all around your face
Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace

I’ll stop the world and melt with you
You’ve seen the difference and it’s getting better all the time
There’s nothing you and I won’t do
I’ll stop the world and melt with you
(You should know better?)
Dream of better lives the kind which never hate
(You should see why)
dropped in the state of imaginary grace
(You should know better?)
I made a pilgrimage to save this humans race
(You should see why)
What I’m comprehending a race that long gone bye
(I’ll stop the world)
I’ll stop the world and melt with you
(I’ll stop the world)
You’ve seen the difference and it’s getting better all the time
(Let’s stop the world)
There’s nothing you and I won’t do
I’ll stop the world and melt with you

The future’s open wide
I’ll stop the world and melt with you
 I’ve seen some changes but it’s getting better all the time
 There’s nothing you and I won’t do
 I’ll stop the world and melt with you

The future’s open wide
 

I’ll stop the world and melt with you
(Let’s stop the world)
You’ve seen the difference and it’s getting better all the time
(Let’s stop the world)
There’s nothing you and I won’t do
(Let’s stop the world)