A STRANGE DICHOTOMY

I love the run up to Christmas - all the craft and Christmas decorations. But I often think of what a strange festival it is -originally pagan, appropriated for Christianity, and now largely secular. I came across a strange picture of a Santa bowing at the manger. I enjoy all the glitz and fantasy but separate this from my Christian beliefs. I wish there were two separate days - one specifically for the Birth of Christ and one for Santa coming. A  friend of mine, whose husband is Dutch says this is a tradition where he comes from. His family gave presents earlier in December and then the 25th of December was a religious occasion.

I guess in the end Christmas is what each of us wishes to make of it and take from it.

Looking towards Point Perpendicular, Jervis Bay

Show me how to always speak the right words to bring peace to a situation or a relationship. I pray for peace to reign in all my relationships.

Stormie O'Martian

A NEW BEGINNING

 I began this blog a couple of years ago. I didn't post much. I am going to start writing it again. I am going to use it for thoughts and a lots of the positive bits and pieces I read along the way. I love quotes and sayings. I have decided I would like to keep some of these is a more organised way and I decided I may as well share them in case anyone else finds them useful.This is mainly a record for myself.

WARNING. This will contain Christian Material.

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St Luke's Anglican Church, Brownsville, NSW, Australia.

Dear Lord, I am grateful that You will do more in my life than I can even imagine.

Stormie O'Martian

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GOD'S PLAN AND MY PART IN IT

Yea!! I have just finished reading the book of Ezekiel. I am working my way through the Bible. It is taking me a long time but I am learning an awful lot about how all those Sunday School stories fit together. I am reading The Message version of the Bible which is very modern and up to date.

The last part of Ezekiel was hard going. It is very detailed descriptions God's new temple to come. The Lion Handbook To The Bible states that we need to read Ezekiel to be able to understand Revelation. So that will be interesting when I reach Revelation, the final book of the Bible.


My reading today tends to be about trusting God with His plan for us.

In Today's Faithful Daily Read Geoff Thompson writes:

Trust God that he has you in his master plan. What might the master narrator write about the seemingly incidental detail in your day today? Watch for the hand of God and the work of the Spirit as you go.
http://faithfuldailyread.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/bakers-delight/

Geoff  Thompson

I wrote a reply today to the Faithful Daily Read. As follows:

Trusting that God ‘has you in his master plan’ is exciting and takes the fear out of living. I can see ‘the hand of God in my life’. While some things may not seem fair at the time I remember Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Sometimes it is hard to see the hand of God when difficult things are happening but then something marvelous will happen that I hadn’t envisioned.

And I always try to remember ‘that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ (Romans 8:20 NIV)

Who knows what today will bring. Maybe I will ‘enter and enjoy the good of the land.’ Maybe God will call me home like Stephen. Or maybe it will just be another day filled with the similar ‘seemingly incidental detail’ of most days.
Whatever God has in mind it is good to know I have eternal life and that I am part of God’s master plan.

But I am also aware that we play our own  part in our lives. 

'Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously' (2 Corinthians. 9:6)

I don't believe in  karma in the sense we often use it. My husband left me for his secretary some years ago and I was devastated. People tell me that what goes around comes around, and that life will give him his  comeuppance (which by the way I do not want for him. I want him to be happy even though he hurt me very deeply and has affected my life considerably)

I don't think I did anything terribly bad to lead me where I am now, and I don't intend this to be a list of what is wrong with my life. I have done my best in life and if karma was real I wouldn't be where I am now. 

But I still believe it is important to sow good works. Eventually I will reap the harvest. I must be patient.

So in putting it all together I know that God has a plan for my life. I don't always understand it but I know that I must play my part along the way and do the best I can to love God and those around me, and help those who need it. In the end I will be a winner.