I like clouds

I like clouds
And this is why,
I like to see them floating up in the sky,
Big white clouds
In a sky of blue,
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

I like clouds,
I'll tell you why,
I like all their different shapes in the sky
A dog! A ball! Or an angel's wing!
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

I like clouds
I wonder what
It would be like to touch a cloud.
Are they soft? Are they cold?
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

I like dark clouds.
They bring rain
That pings upon my windowpane,
Good things grow from the rain, it's true,
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

I like clouds
The best reason why
Is that Jesus is coming in the sky*
For our heavenly rendezvous,
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

I say, "Jesus,
Is today the day
You come and take your saints away?
And take us to our heavenly home,
To bend our knees at Your Father's throne?"

And when Jesus descends at the Second Coming
Everyone will see Him in the clouds.**

I like clouds
And this is why,
I like to see them floating up in the sky,
Big white clouds
In a sky of blue,
I like clouds; how 'bout you?

Clouds. I like clouds.
Clouds.
That's all!

=====================================================================
*1 Thessalonians 4:17 -"Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
**Revelation 1:7 - "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen."

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Have you turned in your RSVP yet?

Jesus taught truths using parables, so I think I can base a blog post on a dream I had.  This dream was very vivid.  I don’t usually remember my dreams, so I thought this dream must have some sort of meaning. 

The dream started out with Mike (my husband) and I going to a friend’s house.  When we got there, our friends were sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper, cooking food, etc.  I urged them to hurry up and get ready or they would be late to the wedding supper, or miss it altogether.  But the wife said, “Go on, we’ll see you there.”

So Mike and I went to the reception hall.  There were round tables with water goblets and china place settings.  There were tall place card holders in the center of the tables with square place cards in them. These place cards had a letter and a number (like L30).  But for some strange reason, we couldn't find the table where we were supposed to sit. 

We went to the maître d’ and asked him to help us find our seats.  He took us to a large, wooden oval shaped table.  It had black edging all the way around it.  There were no place settings and people were crowded around the table.  Pat Neshek of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team was seated at the oval table and he was showing off his baseball card collection, although what this had to do with the rest of the dream, I don’t know.  I turned to Mike and said, “See, I told you that we should have sent our reservation in earlier!”

I was puzzled as to what the dream meant.  I was pondering the dream during worship in church that Sunday and it came to me that the dream represented the wedding supper of the Lamb and His bride, the church. 

My friends in the first part of the dream thought they had plenty of time to get to the wedding supper, i.e., repent of their sins and receive Christ as their Savior.  But only God knows when your last day on Earth will be.  It could be tomorrow, or in the very next minute. Also, the Rapture is imminent – no other prophecies have to come true before the Rapture can occur.

Mike and I went to the reception hall, so it appears we had received Christ.  But we were not seated at the round tables with the rest of the guests.  Perhaps we were carnal Christians and had not grown enough in our faith?  The reason why we were at the oval table was not made clear to me.  We were not cast out of the reception hall; we were just seated in a different location.  Those who reject Christ will be tossed out into the darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 8:12)

When you are invited to a wedding, there is usually a card enclosed with the invitation for you to mail back to the bride (the RSVP card) to let her know how many people in your family will be attending the wedding.  The bride will then total up the number of guests who have indicated on the RSVP cards that they will be attending the wedding.  She will then advise the caterer of the total number of attendees so that the caterer can prepare enough food. 

RSVP is an acronym for the French phrase “Répondez s'il vous plaît,” which translates in English to “respond if it pleases you.”  You have a choice whether or not to attend a wedding. You also have a choice whether or not to repent of your sins and accept Christ as your Savior.  In order to attend the wedding supper of Christ (Rev. 19:9),  you have to turn in your RSVP card, which means repenting of your sins and receiving Christ as your Savior. You can respond to Jesus' invitation to trust Him for your salvation and to believe in Him if you please, or not.  It's up to you. Jesus has extended the invitation to all who would repent of their sins and receive Him as their Savior (1 Tim. 2:3-4).  I know that I have accepted Jesus' invitation and have put my trust in Him for salvation.  

So if you’re reading this and have not accepted Jesus’ invitation to the wedding feast, why haven’t you?  Time is short.  I would love to be able to hang out with you at the wedding feast.  If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and wish for Him to come into your heart and clean it up and make you a new person on the inside, all you have to do is repent for your sins (or confess that you have sinned). This is called "being born again" or "saved." Here is a simple prayer that you can pray: "Lord, I know I am a sinner, and I need Your forgiveness for my sins. I believe that You died for me on the Cross. Please come into my heart and make me new. I want you to be my Lord and Savior. I give my life totally and completely to You. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me new."

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane

Sweet or stinky?

We finished studying the book of Numbers in church on Sundays recently and our pastor talked about the sacrifices that the priests made on the altar. In the Old Testament, the priests burned the sacrifices on the altar, which were atonement for sins, as a sweet aroma to the Lord, and the sweet aroma pleased the Lord. Have you ever stepped outside and smelled the sweet smell of meat cooking on the BBQ grill? The Lord must love barbecue - hopefully, there will be barbecue when we get to heaven!

In the New Testament, Jesus' death was the atonement for our sin. Ephesians 5:2 says, "And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." He only had to be sacrificed once for all of mankind's sins, unlike the Old Testament where sacrifices had to be made on a regular basis.Are you thankful for Jesus' sacrifice for your sins?

At the Second Coming, the Jews themselves will be the sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. Ezekiel 20:41 says: "I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles."

We should be a sweet aroma to others as well, if we are truly in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:15 and 16 says: "For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" To fellow believers, we are the aroma of life through Jesus. To unbelievers, our sweet aroma reminds them that they are headed for hell unless they repent of their sins. To be a sweet aroma to others, we should walk in love, as referenced in the Ephesians verse above. We should be kind to one another helping and supporting each other, and respecting others. We should sacrifice ourselves for others.

The opposite of sweet is stinky. When we don't walk in love, we are angry, bitter and unloving. We don't care about others; we only care about ourselves. As believers, we don't want to be a stinky aroma to others. So take a look at yourself - are you a sweet or stinky aroma to others?

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Diane

An attitude of gratitude

It's November again, and that means Thanksgiving will be coming soon.  The first American Thanksgiving was held by the Pilgrims in 1621 to give thanks for a great harvest.  The Pilgrims also invited their Native American friends, who helped them plant corn to survive. President George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide Thanksgiving in 1789.  In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that all the states celebrate Thanksgiving on the same date.  Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday in November until 1941, when President Theodore Roosevelt changed the date to the fourth Thursday in November. People still gather together and eat lots of good food on Thanksgiving. 

If you’re on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve seen the posts that people have been putting on their walls every day since November 1 saying what they’re thankful for on that day.  There is even a Facebook page called Thanksgiving.  I would suggest, however, that we should be thankful not only one month out of the year, but every day.


The Apostle Paul is our inspiration for everyday thankfulness.  In Ephesians 5:20, Paul says: "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." You will notice Paul didn't give to give thanks sometimes or when you feel like it, or just for some things, but to give thanks always for all things. 

In Colossians 3:17, Paul says:  "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." So we are to give thanks to God in whatever we do.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul says: "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  Not only are we to give thanks, it is the will of God in Christ Jesus to do so.

Even in prayer, we should be thankful.  In Phillippians 4:6-7, Paul says: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  I once heard someone say,“What if God only gave us tomorrow what we were thankful for today?”  That’s a sobering thought, to be sure.

Not only should we be thankful for what God has given us and for the things that happen in our lives, we should also thank others.  The words “thank you” should be a part of our daily vocabulary. Anyone who does anything for us should be thanked – the cashier at the coffee shop, the mail carrier, the worker in the drive thru at McDonald's, etc. Thanking someone for a service they provide just might make someone's day.  It's a good example to set for your children as well. 

So remember when you're sitting down to your Thanksgiving feast to be thankful not just that day, but every day.  I hope you'll be spending Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I hope it's a great one!

Diane

P.S.:  For more information about the history of Thankgiving, both the American and Canadian versions, go to this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

Hold your tongue

The tongue is an important part of the mouth.  It helps us swallow food, it helps us to speak and sometimes, it tells us of diseases that we didn’t know we had.  The tongue helps us in the physical act of drinking fluids.  The tongue tells the brain about the flavor and the temperature of food and drinks through the nervous system. 

We also use our tongues as a means of expression. Miley Cyrus uses her tongue to twerk, which, in my opinion, is not at all attractive.  Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss used to pose for photos with his long tongue sticking out of his mouth.  We stick our tongue out at others to  express our disdain, and this is known as giving someone “the raspberry.” 

My husband and I are attending a weekly study on a book titled “How to Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses.”  Last week’s chapter was about what we say and how it affects ourselves and others.  I thought I would do a study on the tongue and how we should speak.  Let’s look at some of the verses in the Bible that talk about the tongue. 

Luke 6:45 reads:  "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."  Matthew 15:19 says:  "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." The tongue appears to have a mind of its own, doesn’t it? Bus as these Scriptures state, the heart is the brain of the tongue when it comes to speaking instead of the actual brain itself.  So what’s in your heart?  Is it full of love for Jesus and for others?  Or is it full of hate, prejudice, and anger?  Is your heart full of sorrow or full of joy?  Proverbs 15:4 states: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit."

Psalm 64:3 states, "Who [the wicked - vs. 2] sharpen their tongue like a sword, And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words."  You can wound a person with your tongue, if not more, than with a knife or a sword.  Physical wounds will heal eventually, but the psychological wounds left by a piercing tongue can last for decades. The phrases “You’re ugly,” “You’re fat,”  “You’re stupid,” and other ugly names people call us can simmer in our hearts for a long time and we actually believe that we are what other people say we are because if they say it, it must be true.  I know it is because I have gone through this myself.  I was teased mercilessly as a child.  The only way I broke the hold those negative phrases had on me was when I asked Jesus to come into my life and He made me a new creation. It took a while, but eventually, all those negative thoughts went away as I grew in my faith and learned to trust in Christ. 

In his epistle, James has a lot to say about the tongue.  In James 3:5-10, he says:  "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.  But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."   If we truly love God, we should love the people He created, in His own image no less.  If we love people. we will not curse them or say bad things about them.  To love God but curse men is a real contradiction. 

Sometimes we speak without thinking, otherwise known as not engaging your brain (or your heart, as mentioned above) before engaging your tongue.  This can get you into a lot of trouble, and possibly cause you to sin as well.  Leviticus 5:4 states:  "Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters."

I hope this study has helped you as it has helped me.  To summarize, keep your heart pure and clean and full of love for God and others so that you will not curse or say bad things to or about others.  Think before you speak so you do not sin.   Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane 

The face of Jesus

When I was a young girl, I had a mad crush on guys like David Cassidy, Davy Jones, and the Bay City Rollers.  When my daughter was that age, the Backstreet Boys were all the rage.  Now the little girls squeal over Justin Bieber.  Stay with me now – I'm going somewhere with this. 

Have you ever stopped to think about the depictions of Jesus with pale skin (a/k/a Caucasian) with blue eyes and either blond or light brown wavy hair?  (See the picture above.) They make Him look like a dreamy pop star.  The artists obviously didn’t read Isaiah 53:2(b):  “He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.”   

In other words, Jesus was a plain Joe, like most of the rest of us.  He didn’t look like a pop star.  Since the human part of Jesus was Jewish, He had an olive complexion, brown eyes and brown or black hair. Interestingly, Popular Mechanics magazine published an article a few years ago titled "The Real Face of Jesus," describing how forensic anthropologists had taken what was known about Jesus and the time and area where He lived and reconstructed what they thought He might have looked like.  They came up with this:

Personally, I think this was what the apostle Peter might have looked like, maybe because this depiction looks like James Farentino, who played Peter in the Jesus of Nazareth TV mini-series. 

Since there was no photography back in Jesus’ time and the Jews were not supposed to have graven images (see Exodus 20:4, KJV), how did the artists know what Jesus looked like in order to depict Him?  Did the European artists use themselves as models to paint Him?  An interesting theory is found in the book The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical and Archeological Evidence by Mark Antonacci, which is about the Shroud of Turin. Antonacci reports that starting in the 6th century, the Shroud was folded in such a way that only the part of the cloth depicting the face was shown and artists copied the face on the Shroud (then known as the Mandylion) to paint portraits of Jesus. 

Let's look at Isaiah 52:3(b) again.  “He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Per dictionary.com, the definition of "comeliness" means pleasing in appearance; attractive; fair.  Jesus' holiness attracted people and not His looks.  We are not to have a crush on Jesus like we do on a pop star.  God doesn't want us to love Jesus because He was cute.  He wants us to love Jesus because He made the ultimate sacrifice for us by dying on the cross for our sins.  We are to love Jesus because He is our Savior and Redeemer and the Son of God. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane

Bibliography:

Mark Antonacci, The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical and Archeological Evidence (2000), M. Evans and Company, Chapter Seven, "The History of the Shroud of Turin,"  p. 132-133.  Note: Even if you don't agree that the Shroud of Turin is Jesus' burial cloth (the author makes a great argument that it is), the history of how the Shroud got from place to place and ended up in Turin is interesting in and of itself. 

"The Real Face of Jesus" by Mike Fillon, Popular Mechanics, December 7, 2002, http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/forensics/1282186

Jesus Christ, Superman

WARNING:  If you have not yet seen Man of Steel, stop right now, bookmark this post and come back after you've seen the movie. There are spoilers below. 

Our Saturday morning local paper had an article about the allegory between Jesus and Superman.  It was intriguing. I would post a link to this story, but it was picked up from another newspaper, so it wasn't on the newspaper website.  I did find some other articles, and I'll post the links at the end of this blog post. 

Our family went to see Man of Steel over the weekend. I decided to see if I saw the allegories that the article mentioned.  I found even more allegories than those mentioned in the article.

The Kryptonian surname "El" means God in Hebrew.  Clark's Kryptonian name, Kal-El, means "voice of God" or "vessel of God" in Hebrew.  As Moses' mother sends Moses down the Nile in a basket made of reeds to save him, Jor-El (God the Father) sends Kal-El (God the Son) to Earth in a spaceship so that he will live. Jor-El even says about Kal-El, "He will be as a god to them."  Interestingly, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, were Jewish. 

Like Jesus, Clark had two fathers, a heavenly father and an earthly father. While roaming in Alaska, Clark ends up in the Fortress of Solitude, which is not referred to as such, but those familiar with the Superman story will recognize it.  Jor-El appears to his son as a ghost (Holy Spirit) and tells his son of his destiny. Lois Lane follows Clark into the Fortress and a Kryptonian robot attacks Lois.  Clark heals her with his laser vision, and Jesus healed the sick in the Gospels. 

Zod shows up with his minions and wants to conquer Earth.  Clark is unsure as to what to do. He goes into a church to talk to a priest.  During this scene, Clark is standing next to a stained glass window depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd. That was an allegory that couldn't be missed!

Superman gave himself up to Zod to save mankind.  Jesus died on the cross to save the world from sin. Superman was 33 years old and Jesus was 33 when He was crucified. And the epic battle between Zod and Superman reminded me of the battle of good and evil. And of course, good always wins. 

Did you see the movie and see any Superman-Jesus references I missed?  Please post them below.  As promised, here are the links to the articles:

From Breibart.com:  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2013/06/15/Man-of-steelfilled-with-christ-references
From Fox News:  http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/06/14/man-steel-filled-with-jesus-christianity-references/
From Metro (warning: some language here):  http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/11/man-of-steel-the-top-20-reasons-why-superman-is-jesus-3837465/
From First Post:  http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-man-of-steel-an-attempt-to-create-a-modern-jesus-christ-873371.html

Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane