I forgot about the stars..

you know..

sometimes...of my cross roads to Life...I forget about the stars..

      and remember..

             as I look up..that we are all part of a much bigger picture.

One that is so much more than words... 

                                  when we trust in His time for us...not ours.

 a place that life..

                                               

        can either end to Begin..

^{Pauls farewell to the Ephesians}

^{Acts 20}

³⁶When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. ³⁷They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. ³⁸What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

    or begin to end...

   ^{Matthew 26}

^{Judas betrays Jesus}

⁵⁰Jesus replied, "Friend, do what you came for."

    Judas...'friend'.
           of the 7 Judas in the bible...

                          this Judas , He called friend.

                               ... the One who could save Him...

                                               is the One who never closed the eyes of His heart.. to His Father.

       

           Judas was as necessary then..as he is Today..for us to choose

to walk in the Spirit...

           

        or the world.

so that you have the opportunity to say.."Friend.."

³⁴Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

  but...are the eyes of your heart...are upon a very... very... awesome... star creating...

                                        God?

                                                                    -Today-

'me and my Arrow,

taking the High road,

wherever we go, everyone knows

its me and my Arrow.'..

                            (Me and MY Arrow - Harry Nilsson- 1971)

Before I can place my foot on the snow covered asphalt,

           my furry 'prayer partner' has jumped through the open door of my car,

                           and on ahead... to one of our many favorite places to exhale.

    

    After relieving herself on one of the snowbanks , she dives onto a cross country skiers tracks, and spins around to face me

as if to say...

                                       ' You coming or what???'

                                            I am ________ .

   

                 - what ever you put in the 'blank' ...makes all 'the difference'.-

                             Funny.. I don't think 'Tootsie' has a 'blank'...

                                       

                                    she just... 'is'. 

... and that makes me look at her and think ''dog' spelled backwards....'

    She spins around in the deeper snow beside the path...

                                                            quickly plunges her whole head in it, then back out ..

   

     looking at me, with a  face full flakes... 

                          mouth open..and a smile from the tip of her tongue back to her waggin butt...

       

                                                            she tells me with her entire being

                                                                      I am !

        I finally have my snow shoes on..

waiting was probably an 'eternity' for her...and

                                            - I am.. on the trail.

       

    I had come into Today, with my bags packed..

 with 'people' disappointments...

                                                    disappointment in myself..

   

                                           and holding on tight to them.

Get the picture?

                         maybe you are there right now.

       

   ok, think... just a moment...

             as you look down upon my snowshoes...in the midst of a brief but beautiful snow flurry..

                                              and looking up to see my little pal..and Life

                                                          -  I am - 

                                              

        ..now..

               I remember...

we are the ones who put ourself in Spiritual bondage..by the energy 'we' .. not God..pour into a circumstance...

   

    it can get so very dramatic...struggling with the 'core' issue..

       .. about not letting go..

and even trying to get others to see the necessity..

             of pouring still more energy.. into the circumstance...as if to give it life.

                                              as we struggle .. and resist learning to walk in the Spirit...not in the flesh.

                   

^{John 6}

⁶³The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit^[e] and they are life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe."

   

                           'God...but this burden..I just want You to ....'

 - I stand before my canine friend.. who has now resorted to jumping up

and playfully nipping at my coat...my gloved hands..

    to let go...and ' lets go'!!.

    I looked down... and scooped up a handful of good packing snow.

                        you see, when I do this..my dog thinks I pull a ball out of nowhere..

                 every time I scoop up some fallen snow..

                                                and she LOVES  playing ball.     

               I give it a good toss, and she is just gone...leaping bounds of gone

              God says to my heart..'Paul.. it is really just that easy'

    -Tootsie blasts through the snow to the small crater created by the 'ball' , and dives into it with her head..

        only to come out..spin around and look back at me...

                                    just all 'lets get crazy' happy ...

        cause the ball I just threw ...has vanished...

                                                          the ball I tossed is gone. ! !!

her tail wags like it is on a spring... as if to say....

      

         YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!

                      DO IT AGAIN !!!

            I see her joy...and it makes me think of His...when I choose Him as Creator of All

Star God...Ocean God....Judas God

                                                    my God.

    as I reach down to scoop another ball from its secret place...to throw

            she is now positively ballistic with Joy..

                  remembering Him, as He spoke to my heart..

                                                      'it really is that easy'

 ^{God simplifies things for Moses}

^{Exodus 3}

¹⁴ God said to Moses, "I am who I am . ^[a] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

             join Moses.. someday...

                                                Today

                                                       I Am... send me.

the bus stop

Bus stop, wet day, she's there I say

Please share my umbrella

Bus stop, bus go, she stays love grows

Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it

Wind and rain and shine

That umbrella we employed it

By August she was mine

                                     (‘Bus Stop’ - The Hollies -1966)

                          

  The ‘airwaves’ Today are just jammed with ‘the problem’..

                         And more than once I have been approached by friends that are sick of hearing about

                                                           ‘the problem’ 

                        ‘they’ want to know

                                                   What Is ‘The Solution’?!?!

The Bible is just jammed with many ways to say ‘it’…

                   but  IT

                    ‘comes down’ (selah)

                                                to only one thing.

                                                         ‘You’.

                       Nobody else…but you.                 

Faithfully Delivering the Message with your life..

                           While faithfully remaining ‘the messenger’.    

                                            

You know..as we congregate like children before the first day of school..

                   At the various bus stops…‘ pick up’ points around Gods Creation..

 ‘Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching's is blue
They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu
Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games…

(‘Games Without Frontiers’ from the 1980 album ‘Peter Gabriel’)

                             Saying  this or that…

                                              What I believe…

      what you believe…

                                    talking of the different things we did on our summer vacation..

I have heard so many songs
Listened to a thousand tongues
But there is one
That sounds above them all

(Matt Redman- The Fathers Song)                                       

One thing is for certain…

 

The Parable of the Talents

    ¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five talents^[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money”                                                       

                                    The Bus..is just beyond the corner…

                                                             Maybe just over the hill..

                                                          And it will arrive..

                                                                                            at the stop where you stand ..

                                          to pick you up..

                                                       for your first day of School.

                   

So…

         where am I led to go…where should I ride?

                          Where Jesus can be seen.

                                              Not where my idea of what I should do to be seen,

                                                                                                            as Jesus.

a thoughtful Reality

It is true,

  In the 168 hour week..

          Which many measure their lives with…

Our thoughts can become our ‘reality’..

                                         and our Reality

 can become just a passing thought.

                   On that …

                  

                             I’ve been thinking.

                    What is important…

                                      To me…

                                                and you…

                                                          Today?

Luke 12 vs 34                                          

                                    ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Playing Cards

He said, "Son, I've made a life
Out of readin' people's faces
Knowin' what the cards were
By the way they held their eyes

(‘The Gambler’ from the 1978 album ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rodgers)

____

        40 degrees…

                         ‘Remember…don’t go above 3000 rpm’

                these new pipes sound nice..deeper

                                    ‘until you come in for the 1000 mile service’

                The dealership technicians voice is losing my attention,

                                                    to my thoughts..

                                -I just want to get on this thing and get the accident behind me.!-

Well, three grand is about 85 mph on this 103 cube six speed.

               

       the temperature is dropping near freezing

                                 as I am freed on interstate 88.

Heading home on the new ride..

      to a 50^th birthday party for a good friend.. Who stood over me at the scene of the fateful ride on my ‘05

                     Making sure I was ok…

                                   saying ‘don’t you ever $%#@!@scare me like this again!’

                                     Now thats love!

                                                                Terry is the real ‘deal’.

He has ‘cards’ in his hand, and he doesn’t care who sees them.

                   People like him have heard plenty of ‘christianese’…

                                                                

                                                   You know, the’ cheesy way’ ( often confused with ‘The Way’)

        And watched it play out,

                              as cards held that never really existed…in other peoples lives.

   

        like some masquerading chump, that doesn’t have the King in his hand,

                                             but just looking for ‘some pieces of silver’ for himself.

Yet many of us,

       

                continue to think we have something….rather than that something has us,

        keeping our cards down,

                                                our poker face on

                                                                        so no one can see that we’re bluffing.

Jesus called us on it…

       

                        And He will, (oh yeah, He can)

                                                                call them on it through you.

    “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

                             Woe to you teachers...

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

                                        Woe to you teachers…

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

In a culture where every one is 19, and built like a brick house, on the magazine end caps of your local market..

      Where it is a free-for-all in media wars…

                                  Bunch of hide and seek…

                                                        an age of entitlement and greed..

                               __  Teachers!

                  

                                       ‘Know when to fold ‘em’! __

                       

                People are seeing poker faced bluffers everywhere they turn,

                                       

Jesus wants to play the ‘hand’ you were dealt… to reveal these cards to those you are with…

        not for ‘you’ to keep these cards hidden, making pretend you got something you don’t.

        You…are each a very important part…as who You are.

        So lay the cards your were dealt…face up…

                Let Jesus reveal in your hand,

                                                what the one you are with

                                                                        really needs to see.

 

 Unity and Diversity in the Body

 ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.