Son-bathing

My daughter and I laid out in the sun today.  It’s just what the doctored ordered, according to an article I read somewhere: 20 minutes of sun exposure a day for optimal health.

As we laid there baking away, my daughter told me that in Spanish, sun bathing literally means, “drinking in the sun.”

Hmmm, I thought. That’s just what we need for optimal spiritual health:  Drink in the Son for at least 20 minutes a day.

“Come to Me, all [you] who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  ~~ Matthew 11:28

click pic for source

Let’s Pray:

Father, thank you for sending Jesus, your one and only son, down here to earth to live, love, and die for us all.  

He’s the radiance of Your glory.  (Hebrews 1:3)

I want to radiate Your glory, too!  I want to look like someone who’s had lots of Son exposure!

 I want to “drink in” Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22) 

Show me how to accomplish this on a daily basis.  In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Ask yourself:  How much Son-exposure do I get each day?  Could/should I get more?

Better question:  How much time do I spend Facebooking, watching TV, web-surfing?  Hmmmm. Convicting!

 Would trading a few of those minutes for a few minutes reading the Bible and praying lead to more “optimal spiritual health”?  

I’m not a doctor, so I’m not ordering it, just suggesting it as a loving blogger.  We’re all in this together.

Do you know the Son?  His name is Jesus and He’d love to know you!  Click on the pic for a quick introduction:

"Sun Bathers" see below for source...

“Sun bathers” gratefully borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nehmzow/4209753101/

Bike Across America: New Mexico

New Mexico! “Land of Enchantment”.  After a tiring 85 mile ride we finally crossed the border from Texas to  New Mexico!

Click pic for source

(Not really, just pretend.  My husband and I are on a virtual bicycle tour of the southern states.  We ride around our corner of the midwest and log our progress on a google map as if we really were riding through Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and now New Mexico.  We’re hoping to dip our front tires into the Pacific by October.)

When I think of New Mexico I think of the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! Photo by Imran Mansuri, click pic to see more of his lovely photographs

For nine days, colorful balloons of all shapes and sizes fill the blue skies above Albuquerque, NM.

I’ve never been up in a balloon myself but someone said it is SO peaceful up there in the air; no noise, just beauty all around and PEACE. All  problems seem to melt away up in the sky.

Balloon Fiesta! an Imran Mansuri photo. Click pic to see more.

That’s how I want to be, faith-wise.  A Hot Air Balloon!  I want to be just filled with faith.

I want faith that floats!

Stop! Drop! and Pray!

Let’s Pray:

Oh, Father in heaven, thank you for loving me.  You are the “author and perfector of faith”, the Bible says.  (Hebrews 12:2)

Please fill me with faith.

I want Hot Air Balloon faith that lifts me up into your arms where all is peaceful.

And, speaking of “lifting up”…

Psalm 25 encourages me to lift up my soul to you, O Lord.  So, I will lighten my load, by lifting up my soul to you right now.

I know fears  weigh my faith down, Father, so I’m going to toss them out of the basket to You so I can fly higher with You.

I’m afraid of this:____________  and this:_______(fill in the blank. Just spill out your heart to the Lord.  Tell him what scares you, what keeps your faith on the ground instead of “up in the clouds” with him.)

And I’m worried about this:_______ and this:________

You told the disciples, Jesus,  “My peace I leave you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:27) I want to be filled with Your peace, Jesus.

Thank you, Father, for lightening my load and filling me with your peace.  In Jesus’ name, Amen!

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” ~~ John 14:27

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” ~~ 1 Peter 5:6-7

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”  ~~ Psalm 56:3

Do you know the Lord? Click on pic below for quick intro.  God’s like the Balloon Fiesta, only instead of balloons, He accepts people of all colors, shapes, and sizes

Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon created by Benoît Lambert. See link below to read more about it.

**Darth Vader Balloon story

**Special thanks to Imran Mansuri for allowing me to use his lovely balloon pictures!

**Praying Cat from HERE

What Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

“Isn’t there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?!!”

“Sure, Charlie Brown.  I can tell you what Christmas is all about…”

Linus got that story from the Bible.  Here it is if you want to read it for yourself:  Luke 2

Do you have room in your heart for the Babe born in Bethlemhem?  Click on the pic below to start clearing space for him:

**manger scene from morethings.com

Stop! Drop! and Pray!

See that tree in the road?  Sometimes life hits us with detours like that.  What do you do?  Panic?  Bite your nails?  Whine? Down heavy doses of chocolate?No! I’ll tellya whatcha do — You STOP! DROP! and PRAY!!!  Right where you are, before you mark off another To Do on your list — Pray!  Try it for a week.  Whenever you’re feeling anxious — STOP! DROP! and PRAY!!!!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Philippians 4:6-7

THE DETOUR PRAYER:  Father, You are and you are a rewarder of them that earnestly seek you.  (Hebrews 11:6)  I’m earnestly seeking you now!  Help!!  I don’t know what to do.  But I do know to turn to You.  Thank you for loving me and you promised to give me wisdom when I asked for it. (James 1:5)  Here’s what’s bothering me:__________________________. 

“ Thank you that I can pour my heart out to You, all my complaints and woes. (1 Peter 5:7)  I DO believe You can guide me and show me what to do, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t.  Please help me, Father,  with my unbelief.  (Mark 9:24) Thankyou for loving me.  In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Do you know Jesus?  click here to be introduced: Do You Ever Feel Like Something’s Missing in Your Life?

Great Lines From Movies: Star Wars

My husband and I grew up on Star Wars and “shared the love” with our children who will probably pass it on to theirs.  sigh.  The force is strong in our family.   One of my favorite scenes is the light saber duel between Darth Vader and his old mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi.  Watch.

“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.” 

Sounds familiar –  Thousands of years ago, in a country far, far, away, someone more powerful than a Jedi, Jesus Christ, knowing he was going to be “struck down” soon,  told his disciples, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7

He assures them later that they’d have more power then, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” Acts 1:8  And then he disappeared with more drama and excitement than Obi Wan:   “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”  Acts 1:9

Unlike Star Wars, the Power that works in us, the Holy Spirit,  is not a force, but a person.  A He, not an It.  He’s the spirit of God and Christ that lives in us when we become Christians ~~ “…the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints…the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.“  Colossians 1:26-27

“Trust your feelings, Luke.”

Like Luke Skywalker, we too have perils to navigate through, but a Christian pilot quickly learns NOT to trust feelings much, because they can be misleading.  Instead, if want to be “jedis”, we follow God, and what He says in the Bible :  “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (or light saber ), and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12

Do you have Christ in you?  Or have you been trusting your feelings for too long, and fallen into “the trash disposal unit on the detention level” - (fan lingo).   Click here for a brief introduction to  “new hope”

Thirsty?

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”  Isaiah 55:1

“Thirsty?”, I asked on of the teen boys hiking with my husband and I in Red Rock Canyon in Colorado Springs the other day.  We’d been climbing boulders and rock formations for hours.  Colorado Springs was melting in an unusual heat wave that afternoon with temps soaring to 101.

He should have been VERY thirsy, but, “Nope.”, was his reply.

Nope?!  hmmmm…. I remembered what I’d read that when a body is in the habit of not drinking water very often, it loses it’s ability to feel thirst.  And by the time the poor-drinking-habited person feels thirsty?  tsk, tsk, tsk — they’re way dehydrated.

How’s your drinking habits?  Spiritually, that is.  Do you drink often from the well of the Word?  Or are you dehydrated?  Drinking often develops your desire to drink. The more you read the Bible the more you’ll want to.

Pray and ask God to develop your thirst….

“..like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” 1 Peter 2:2

“…Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.  When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’   The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’  ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?’ 

Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ “  John 4: 6-10, :13-16

Do you know Jesus? Click here to be introduced: Jesus

Ambush Makeovers

Need a Makeover? Ambush makeovers on the Today Show have become my favorite 15 minutes on TV.  A regular looking woman with drab hair is “ambushed” off the street and magically transformed into ooh-lah-lah!! 

That’s what God is all about–transformation.  Out with the old, in with the new. 

I was ambushed in college.  On the inside I was more than drab, I was downright ugly.  But, I’ve been transformed by something more lasting than lipstick, more permanent than water-proof mascara, more beautiful than Prada heels.

“He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:2

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, {he is} a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  2 Corinthians 5:17

Wanna be ambushed? Click here to begin your transformation: makeover