Archive for August, 2017
August 24, 2017 at 12:27 pm · Filed under Daily Encouragements, Food for thought, God's beauty, God's love, Inspiration ·Tagged faith, grace, hope, joy, Peace, rituals, the gift of the Son, unconditional love
I’m not big on ritual; especially rituals designed by man. Jesus came to absolve us of those things, allowing us to please God by loving Him and not by the things we do. We are saved by grace, not by works.
Some of today’s religious leaders come up with things they try to persuade their followers to do, insisting those things are essential to living a “Christian” life and obtaining eternal life. I don’t think so!
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. Hebrews 13:9
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August 23, 2017 at 7:10 am · Filed under Daily Encouragements, Food for thought, God's beauty, God's love, Inspiration, Uncategorized ·Tagged Communication, joy, let's talk, love, Peace, political correctness
As a nation, it seems we’ve become too sensitive and our fear of saying the wrong thing is wreaking silence upon our world. We don’t have to be in complete and perfect agreement to be at peace with one another. We can discuss our feelings, our differences, and our agreements, and do so in love, and if need be, we can agree to disagree. But, let’s keep the lines of communication open.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:18
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August 22, 2017 at 9:35 am · Filed under Daily Encouragements, Food for thought, God's beauty, God's love, Inspiration ·Tagged faith, God changes us, God's love, joy, love, loving others, Peace, the holy spirit
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August 20, 2017 at 8:17 am · Filed under Crazy stuff, funny stuff, Mostly true, Stories, the good old days, Uncategorized ·Tagged cat lovers, cats, kittens, nashville cat
The only cat I ever owned was an orange and white striped little ball of terror I named, Nashville after the 1966 hit song, Nashville Cats, by The Lovin’ Spoonful. The cat was cool in a terrifying kind of way.
Problem was, you see, I was not necessarily meant to own a cat. I played pretty rough with the little critter, and loved to scare the daylights out of him every chance I got. The roughhousing made him mean, and constantly scaring him caused him to be sneaky.
As the ornery little critter started growing up, he figured he owed some payback to humans, and I had to warn anybody who came to visit. Still, even when they knew it might happen, he still scared them pretty good. He’d hide behind the couch, or a curtain, and come flying out, pounce on a hand or foot, hiss, growl, then vanish. I got used to it, but visitors… not so much.
I finally had to give Nashville away when my first son Billy was born. It was immediately apparent the cat thought the new human in the cage (crib) was fair game, and the first time we found it crouched below the crib twitching its tail, it was goodbye, Nashville Cat. We gave him to some “friends” of ours. Funny… they never spoke to us after that.
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August 19, 2017 at 9:01 am · Filed under Daily Encouragements, Food for thought, God's love, Inspiration, Uncategorized ·Tagged charlie brown, cloud of dust, faith, God's love, hope, joy, peanuts, pig pen, washes us clean
Pig Pen, from the Peanuts comic strip, was a happy-go-lucky youngster who was always covered in dirt and followed by a cloud of dust. But it seemed to me Pig Pen was totally at peace, but he just didn’t care how dirty he got while he went about doing the things kids do. His mom probably didn’t scold him for getting dirty; she just dusted him off and sent him on his way knowing he’d come back needing to be cleaned up again.
That’s how God is with us. He knows as we go about our day we’ll get covered in worldly dust. But, when our hope is in Him, He’s always there to wash it away.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1John 3:3
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August 6, 2017 at 10:23 am · Filed under Food for thought, God's beauty, God's love, Inspiration, My novels ·Tagged crossing the river, faith, God's love, hope, Jesus Christ, love, salvation, the 1river between
I walk beside the river most days, and on many of those days I stop at the place where I’ve watched some folks walk across it to the other side—the side where God waits patiently for us to come and join Him. Over the past few years, I’ve begun to notice things—things that had somehow slipped past me before—and one of those things is that the river is never the same. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s different for each of us, and the reason is we fill it with our own thoughts and deeds, hopes and dreams, fears and confusion. The river can be peaceful and serene, it can be raging and angry, or it can be something in between or on either side of those things. In a nutshell, it is what we allow it to be, because in the end, it’s all about choices, and we’re the ones making them. And the biggest choice we will ever make is whether or not we cross that river.
I’ve got a lot more to say about “The River Between”, and you’ll find some of it in the first book in the series, “JULI”. I’ve also written the second in the series, but haven’t decided on a title
JULI is available through AMAZON for the super low price of $2.99 for the Kindle version! And, it’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited! It’s also available in paperback for only $6.90.
Click here to check it out —> JULI
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August 2, 2017 at 10:15 am · Filed under Daily Encouragements, Food for thought, God's beauty, God's love, Inspiration ·Tagged bob segar, faith, God's love, grace, never give up, sanctification, turn the page, turn toward the Son
One of my favorite songs from the early seventies is, “Turn The Page”, by Bob Seger. He begins the song with, “On a long and lonesome highway….”. Then finishes the first stanza with, “And you don’t feel much like ridin’, you just wish the trip were through.”
There was a time I envisioned myself zooming down an empty highway in the dark of night, alone, and wishing the trip would end. It seemed the faster and farther I went, the darker it got, the lonelier I felt, and the more futile and hopeless life seemed. But something in the back of my mind kept saying, “You can get off this road. Take the next exit and go east, toward the risen Son.”
It is that simple…
To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Acts 26:18
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Marbles In My Pocket ~ The Official Blog of Charles L. Mashburn ~ Poems, Short Stories, and random thoughts from the author of "Be Still... and know that I am God" 